The Dead Space remake really leans into scarcity and desperation. As we’ve said before, you’re going to spend most of the game low on health, running out of ammo, and just hoping to make it to the next save point before it all goes wrong.

Sure, you can knock down the difficulty to get more damage per shot, or you could game the system with a cheat or a exploit. The Dead Space remake has only been out for a few days, but players have already figured out how to do exactly that. This exploit was explained by u/Mrthrowawaymcgee on Reddit.

What follows is a Dead Space infinite ammo exploit guide that will walk you through everything you need to know about using the Pulse Rifle to get free ammo at a Bench — free ammo that you can sell to buy as much ammo and health, or as many upgrade nodes as you want.

What you need before you can exploit the exploit

First off, you can’t use this exploit from the beginning of the game. You’ll need to play a bit until you have:

• Pulse Rifle. You’ll find the Pulse Rifle when you reach the Flight Deck Tram Station in Hangar-Cargo-Tram Control during Chapter 1 “New Arrivals.” We’ll explain why this exploit only works with the Pulse Rifle below.
• A minimum of four nodes and preferably seven nodes (and a max of 13) to put into the Pulse Rifle at a Bench. These can be ones you haven’t installed yet, or you can steal them from other gear. You’ll start turning a super small profit with just four nodes, but it will speed up the process a lot with each additional node you have to work with.
• If you have already upgraded the Pulse Rifle a bit, you’ll also need at least 5,000 credits to reset the Pulse Rifle’s upgrades.

How to reset upgrades in the Dead Space remake

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Whenever you find a Bench, you can upgrade your weapons or your suit by installing any nodes you’ve found into that gear’s upgrade tree. If, for whatever reason, you want to reset your progress through the upgrade tree, you can hit square/X to spend 5,000 credits and uninstall all the node upgrades for that weapon (you get the nodes back). You’ll need to spend 5,000 credits on each weapon if you’re looking to reset multiples to reclaim even more nodes.

Best place to use the exploit

The free ammo exploit will be easiest (and most time-efficient) someplace where you have a Shop and a Bench in close proximity.

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

There’s a good spot early on in Chapter 1 “New Arrivals.” After you replace the tram car and install the data board, you’ll open up the Flight Deck Tram Station in Hangar-Cargo-Tram Control. There’s a Shop as you walk into the tram station and a Bench through the To Medical door at the far end.

There’s also a good one right near the start of Chapter 7 “Into the Void” in the RIG Room.

Upgrading a gun’s capacity refills the clip

The way this exploit works is that upgrading any weapon’s capacity with a node at a Bench refills the clip. Think of it like how leveling up a RPG character (in some games) refills their health. (This is also generally a good way to get a few extra bullets in a pinch.)

This only becomes an exploit if you can somehow sell that free ammo, which is why…

Only the Pulse Rifle works

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

The Pulse Rifle’s alternate fire — hitting R1 instead of R2 to shoot — plants a Proximity Mine that costs you 25 bullets. If the mine doesn’t explode, however, you can pick it up by hitting R1 again to reclaim the ammo into your inventory. If you don’t reload the Pulse Rifle, it stays in your inventory in an easily sellable package.

Steps of the exploit

Now that you understand why and how this exploit works, let’s talk about the actual steps you’ll need to follow. To get started, go stand next to a Bench, and:

1. Plant as many Proximity Mines as you have ammo for (without reloading) and convert them back to ammo with R1. It’s fine to leave that ammo on the floor.
2. Head to the Bench and Reset All nodes on your Pulse Rifle (if you have upgraded it at all). Upgrade the first node — it just so happens to be a capacity increase — to refill your clip.
3. Turn that clip of free ammo into Proximity Mines and then back into collectible ammo (that you can also leave on the floor).
4. Go to the Bench and upgrade to the next capacity slot, refilling your clip again.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you run out of capacity upgrades (or nodes).
6. If you have the cash on hand, Reset All nodes again and repeat the process.
7. When you’re out of money to reset, pick up all your free ammo and take it back to a Shop. Sell it all.
8. Lather, rinse, and repeat to your heart’s content.

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Going from zero bullets, running through the Pulse Rifle’s five default capacity upgrades (requiring seven nodes), and then selling the free ammo will net you 8,750 credits. Subtract the 5,000 credits you spent to reset the nodes, and you’ll walk away with 2,750 credits in profit.

Once you build up a bit of a bankroll, you’ll have enough to reset your nodes multiple times. That makes the process of returning to a Shop to sell your free bullets a lot more efficient since you’ll have a lot more bullets. Each time you can Reset All nodes, you’ll get an extra 2,750 per trip.

How to get more out of the exploit

Once you pick up a bit of cash, buy the Kinetic Autoloader Pulse Rifle Upgrade from the Shop for 10,000 credits. This unlocks two more capacity nodes — and they’re next to each other. These increase your capacity by a total of 20 shots.

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

There’s also an easy-to-miss Pulse Rifle upgrade in Chapter 4 “Obliteration Imminent.” After you’ve defeated the Brute in the Main Atrium of the Bridge, head to the elevator closest to where the Brute busted through the door. Take it down to Floor 3. You’re looking for the Electrical Systems Storage room a little to the east (east on your map — we recognize there’s no “east” in space).

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Head to the far side of the room where you’ll see a body smashed through a window. Pull out the body, and then use Kinesis to move the crates by the door. Shoot the fuse to the left of the door to unlock the room. Inside, there are a few lockers that require Security Level 3, a few credits, and the P.C.S.I. Custom Magazine Pulse Rifle Upgrade.

Image: Visceral Games/Electronic Arts via Polygon

That upgrade unlocks two more capacity nodes and unlocks the Special 2 (SP2) node that “greatly increases ammunition capacity” — which increases your capacity by 20 instead of just 10.

A quick note on that, though: SP2 doesn’t refill your clip when you unlock it — it only adds 20 bullets to your clip — so make sure you unlock it as early as you can to get the most out of the expanded capacity.

With both upgrades, 13 nodes will get you up to a capacity of 160. Running through the process above gets you 950 free bullets worth 23,750 credits (or 18,750 profit) per Reset All — a process that takes about five minutes.