I had an idea about setting up for the eve fight, spent a couple hours testing. In Akropolis tower I grabbed the Tactical Vest so that a belt pouch would be in Aya's trunk. I grabbed it in MIST before heading to dryfield.

Grabbing vest: ~5-6 second time loss, can probably cut it down to 4-5 with optimized line

Grabbing belt pouch: I wanna say this is ~6-7 second time loss. However, I noticed you cant access the trunk within MIST until pierce stops moving, so it may be less of a time loss to grab the pouch once you get to dryfield instead. I held the pouch and used both pouches in the puppet stinger menu.

So heading into dryfield with about a (worst scenario) 11-13s loss, you can have a total of 7 attachment slots going into the fight with eve, using the extra slot for another pepper spray, 5 total used on Eve.

I tested this with 2 different loadouts, both using the EdT (berserk). The normal strat with grenade pistol, and another loadout with the normal magnum ammo in place of the grenade pistol.

I did about 45 runs of the eve fight, I only recorded 8 kill times for each loadout, started logging times after I figured out the optimal time to use the GP or normal mag ammo, and either messed up an item use or eve punched my clock all the others. These times are mostly optimal runs of the fight, some taking a hit + metabolism use, usually with minimal movement after the stun-locking before she goes down. I did not keep track of which runs were the quick jump from the start, or the 1-2 charges then jump, mix of both for each loadout. Each of these times was where either the GP or the Normal MAG finished her off (NOT the maeda rounds).

The times recorded are from the heartbeat when the fight is starting, ending at the kill shot (in minutes : seconds)

Grenade Pistol times: 1:05 | 1:06 | 1:12 | 1:33 | 1:13 | 1:02 | 1:00 | 1:20. Average: 1:11 kill time

Normal Mag Ammo Times: 0:56 | 1:27 | 1:12 | 0:59 | 0:58 | 1:04 | 1:02 | 0:55. Average: 1:04 kill time

With the last pepper spray, you get 2 shots with grenade pistol, or 5 shots with the normal mag ammo (6 if you're feeling risky). I found the grenade pistol would typically blow her bottom piece off at the 1st or 2nd shot, or just outright end the fight within those 2 shots, of course this is heavily dependent on the crits from the maeda rounds. With the mag, it's 5 extra chances to crit, which can do more than the grenades, but it's a game of chance there, and also highly dependent on the maeda crits. I was able to get the lowest kill time of 55s using the mag, but I found using the mag typically led to you having to run around more after the stun-lock.

It's hard to say if this would be a new strat to consider, because you won't know what rng damage you'll get until the very end of the run, but it led to more consistent kills on the bridge (for the most part) instead of running around the arena after the pepper sprays. I would say this could be a viable time save a good portion of the time (?), depending on average kill time with the typical 4 pepper spray strat. If you were to finish eve with only the maeda rounds, then the extra belt pouch would be a straight time loss to your run, but those seem to be few and far between.

Not 100% sure on this, but it seems like it could be used to shave off some time on a run. What do you guys think? Let me know if you have any questions.

So, yes and no I think.

This is basically trading fast and risky for slow and safe. Yes, you are way more likely to get an amazing eve, but at this point we know that it is possible to kill eve with 4 pepper sprays if you get a good damage roll. See here and here.

This is a very, very rough estimate but I think you can get away with killing eve with 4 pepper sprays about 1 every 4 times, which isn't that bad, but it is unfortunate that you roll the dice at the very end of the game. Yes you can get very nice PBs with the extra pouch, but in the long run, as your time gets better, you will have to let go of the extra pouch and start hoping for a good fight, kinda like starting to yolo Carlos on RE3 and letting go of always knowing the hospital password by risking a 30s time loss to save 6s to check what it is.

Also on where to get the pouch, you also have to wait for Pierce to stop moving to talk to him and proceed with the game, so this waiting time will happen no matter what. In Dryfield you have to take a side detour to check the trunk, so I think it's about the same where you get it.

Last thing to consider: If you want an extra pouch, there's one that maybe takes the same amount of time later in the game (~13s): Press the 1st, 2nd and 4th light at the garage where you get the jeep after the GOLEMs.

Interesting Strat But For The Time Save... Totally Not Worth It IMO... If You're Going To Pick Up The Tactical Vest Then You Might As Well Pick Up The Nades In Akro Too... This In Turn Means You'll Have More Nades In Your Inventory When You Buy Them From Mr Douglas Later (This Is Considered As Safety Marathon Strats)... Also As A Side Note... If You Do This And Go To Ayas Trunk... Wait Till You 1st Get To Dryfield And Go The Trunk Then To Pick Up The Belt + Nades... Thats Way Much Faster Then Waiting For Pierce To Stop Moving.

I agree with Sena's comparison to RE3. It may offer more consistent fights but once you are going for WR you have to yolo more and the time save may not counteract the loss from grabbing extra items.

In regards to grabbing items from the trunk, if I grab the Akro nades I wait until Dryfield Night time and open the trunk during the fight with Kyle against the scavengers. You can access the trunk during the fight and you should be standing near the trunk as you Pyro the two scavengers that jump over the car each time.

After the last scavenger dies you have a second or two before the battle ends to access the trunk and pull out any items you need/need to toss away.

You guys are probably right, a lot of the eve splits on the board have been pretty good already. Thanks for taking the time. Guess I'll keep playing the rng game. I managed to get a 1:16, about 5 minutes behind sena. Lots of optimization to figure out still. Have yet to get a decent burner outside of practice.

By the way, if you guys need some help, I'd be happy to help be a verifier when I can