Solving the "Eagle of East, Wolf of West" courtyard fountain puzzle (Resident Evil)

During the game, after exploring the underground you will find yourself in an isolated fountain area of the courtyard. It seemingly looks like a dead-end with no obvious place to navigate to. The only door in this location is a large set of double doors that have been sealed shut, thereby making them impossible to open.

If you examine the fountain itself you will find that there are two round hollows on either side of it, one on its east side and one on its west side. The east one contains an image of an eagle, and the west one contains an image of a wolf.

How to solve

There are two specific book items you need to acquire in order to solve this puzzle with the fountain and proceed beyond this area. These are the two “Doom Books”, namely Doom Book 1 and Doom Book 2. If you examine these books you will find that their front covers have the words “Eagle of East, Wolf of West” written on them. If you examine them further and rotate them to view the pages, you will find that there is a large medal located in a secret compartment within each book. These medals are the Eagle Medal and the Wolf Medal.

These medals can be inserted into the fountain’s round hollows. Using both the name of the books as a guide and the images located on each round hollow of the fountain itself, you can safely deduce that the Eagle Medal needs to be placed on the east side of the fountain, and the Wolf Medal needs to go on the west side. Upon successfully placing both medals, the fountain will open up and reveal a secret elevator leading to the underground laboratory.