Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes/The Phantom Pain

[Luminis]

Yeah, I took my inspiration from Quiet and changed my emblem to "Naked Girl". In pink. With an octopus.

What a great game.

Yeah, little things like the customizable emblems or re-colouring Mother Base really make the game stand out, imho.

This is my current emblem:

I really, really want to get the Wolf logo, but somehow, I'm apparently not shooting enough people with my sniper rifle

Walkman MGS V edition 128GB for over $ 1000 or 32GB for $ 200+

and Sony Xperia J1 smartphone or Z4 Tablet MGS V edition

Seriously, I do wonder who'd buy that. Not that I dislike video game merchandise or anything, but damn, those prices are something else entirely

I love this game but I can understand the claims of it 'not being MGS enough!'.

Well, yeah, I do understand where those pclaims are coming from. My personal opinion, however, is that MGS devolved into an interactive movie franchise. In fact, I'm kinda sad that Kojima didn't do that sort of 180° turn earlier.

I may be alone in this, but MGS4 was a huge disappointment for me. Sure, it got emotional at the end but really, the writing and story never made up for the linearity and the cut scene to gameplay ratio. Thus, I'm pretty thankful that Kojima decided to go with a gameplay driven game for once. That's coming from someone who loves Dark Souls' minimalistic approach to story telling, though...

There's a real thrill to be had in perfectly executing an infiltration/exfiltration undetected - especially in some of the multi-stage missions like Episode 10.

Maybe I should try that in the future

Here's how I went about it:

Spoiler

Used a sandstorm as cover to run up to the base, punch the crap out of the Transportation Specialist to fulton him out later on. Once the weather cleared up, I proceeded to shoot everyone in the face with my sniper rifle, clearing the palace Repeated the procedure at the outpost they held Malak at. Ocelot was like "You really wanna go in there? The place is heavily guarded." Not for long, my man, not for long. Makes it easy to extract all the prisoners, too.

Two things I learned from doing that: First, DDog is an awesome buddy for a sniper. Can't get a better spotter than him. Second, getting a few dozen headshots throughout a mission makes getting S-Ranks pretty easy 👍

 

[Ridox2JZGTE]

Yeah, little things like the customizable emblems or re-colouring Mother Base really make the game stand out, imho.

This is my current emblem:

I really, really want to get the Wolf logo, but somehow, I'm apparently not shooting enough people with my sniper rifle


Seriously, I do wonder who'd buy that. Not that I dislike video game merchandise or anything, but damn, those prices are something else entirely

Only in Japan They are collector items for sure, only for avid fan with lots of cash

Another tip : Strangle every Mother Base staff you meet early in the game, they will provide hints to diamonds location at Mother Base, each gives 10000 GMP. This will also increase staff morale. Take a shower to clean up the blood.

Going on off mission free roam also seems to respawn all materials, plants and diamonds, not sure how many days it takes though.

 

[Luminis]

The Mother Base staff members are pretty damn strange. Shooting them with rubber bullets also increases their morale - should not knock them out with the first shot, though.

"Thanks for that, Boss!"

 

[fatkrakr]

There's a real thrill to be had in perfectly executing an infiltration/exfiltration undetected - especially in some of the multi-stage missions like Episode 10.

I try to be sneaky, it just always ends with mass carnage and bodies laying everywhere. I always seem to get myself to the middle of the action before getting caught though, so that kinda limits my response options.

 

[Jawehawk]

Spoiler

The boss fight with Quiet is so ridiculesly awesome. Great environment to fight in, and lots of ways to take her down. I loved using decoys to distract her. Also, she shot out my smoke grenade mid-air! SHE SHOT OUT MY SMOKE GRENADE MID-AIR! How cool is that?

Loved it.

 

[sesselpupser]

Yesterday I found a new favourite - the bean bag S1000 shotgun with a suppressor on it. So good. You know those times you have several enemies tightly grouped together but a fair distance from anyone else? Yeah, it deals with those groups beautifully. It also has a surprisingly high rate of fire when empty, too, so it's great for Mother Base target practice but maybe not as good as a Riot SMG with a dual mag.

Also, that automatic non-lethal handgun... That also deals with groups beautifully, just tag them anywhere one after another, as long as you're quick they'll all fall asleep before they can do anything about the first guy who nodded off. I love that there's so much versatility in the non-lethal gear now, I just wish there was an underbarrel beanbag S1000 shorty or a smoke or stun grenade launcher to give you that option when using an assault rifle.

 

[fatkrakr]

Is there a way to kill a knocked out guy without waking or shooting him? Some times I knock someone out with one plan in mind then things change and now I no longer want this guy around but shooting are letting him back up is a risky move sometimes. I guess the real question is, can you silently kill a knocked out person?

 

[JR98]

I should really stop visiting this thread until I get this game.

 

[Luminis]

Is there a way to kill a knocked out guy without waking or shooting him?

Just fulton those suckers. Easiest way to get rid of someone who's in your way.

That said, I never experienced someone waking up from being stunned before I managed to get out of the hot zone. Hiding a dead body isn't any easier than hiding a knocked out dude - especially since you can't fulton dead people.

 

[fatkrakr]

Just fulton those suckers. Easiest way to get rid of someone who's in your way.

That said, I never experienced someone waking up from being stunned before I managed to get out of the hot zone. Hiding a dead body isn't any easier than hiding a knocked out dude - especially since you can't fulton dead people.

Well like I said I am trying to work on my stealth , so there is times I have seen multiple time changes while still creeping around the same village. I have had several wake up on me lol. The fulton, for me, inside a village or base almost always ends in at least putting the place on alert. I have never had such trouble sneaking around before in a game, but at the same time enjoy myself so much. To me I think the AI are very well done and show some great intelligence. 💡 Maybe to well done for me.


Edit: I guess I should clarify my goal, it is to extract a whole village without alerting anyone else in the village or majority anyway. LOL

 

[sesselpupser]

@fatkrakr your options are:

- Knock them out (using STN weapons or CQC). They'll wake up eventually but I think it lasts longer than a tranquilliser dart. If an enemy spots a KO'd friend they'll wake them up and I think they might get suspicious.

- Put them to sleep with a ZZZ weapon (i.e. Tranquilliser dart gun). I think this doesn't last as long as a KO but if they're found, the enemy will be like "wake up you lazy git" and that'll be that, no suspicion - as long as they don't hear or see the attack or their friend falling asleep.

- Kill them. They (obviously) won't get back up but if someone finds their corpse, the enemy will go on alert which will make infiltration harder. To kill an enemy you've knocked out silently without a gun, stand over them and press the CQC button to kick them, wait for them to get up (stand behind them) then grab them, then press the 'kill' button. Besides throwing them off of something quite high up I don't know of any other method.

- Hold them up. This will display "---" above the enemy's marker. In this state you can interrogate them but be careful, if they're not lying face down (which is something you can tell them to do) and they see you not paying attention to them they'll pull a gun on you. If they're found the enemy will go on alert and if you trigger a proper alert (i.e. People start shooting at you) they'll get up and back in the fight. Otherwise they will remain in place forever so this is the best method of incapacitating an enemy if you're good at stealth (and by far the worst if you're not!).

- Fulton them. Needless to say they'll never be a threat again and can help the development of Mother Base if their stats or skills are better than other staff you have.


What I usually do is scan enemies in advance, tag ones I want to take alive and then try to use ones I don't want as bait to manipulate the situation - last night I even knocked a guy out, dragged him away, put C4 on him, woke him up and hid. He ran back to his post while I moved in near someone I wanted to keep so that they were between me and the C4 mule, I triggered the C4 so the target was alerted and looking the other way then while he was surprised I ran in, threw him on the ground and Fultoned him.

I mean, yeah, I could've done the exact same thing with an empty magazine, but that's just how mean my version of Big Boss can be. Also it's boring and too easy to just always use magazines to lure guards into traps.

Early on it's good to Fulton a lot of things, though, whether you need them or not. Just trust me on that...

 

[fatkrakr]

I love the C4 thing and will be using that one LOL. I didn't know about the hold up thing and will also be using that as well thanks. Was hoping there was a way to just knife them while still laying there.

 

[Ellis]

I Fulton then ask questions later.

I like to Tranq guards which can be used to bait more guards, drag them away and ask about where other guards are or about intel (seriously useful) and then fulton them off.

A tip for a stealthy escape by the way which I found out, if your fulton is at the level where you can lift crates out, stand on top of it, fulton it and ride it to the heavens. Easy as beans

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I try to be sneaky, it just always ends with mass carnage and bodies laying everywhere. I always seem to get myself to the middle of the action before getting caught though, so that kinda limits my response options.

D-Dog and Quiet are good for that - Quiet can do a recee and pick out enemies, while D-Dog can identify them from afar (but they do miss some, so don't rely on them totally). If you don't have them yet, find a high point and use the scope. And remember to use the right stick to control the game camera - it's easy to get complacent and miss a guard. If your intel team has a high enough level, they can spot enemies for you. They won't tag them, but they will show you their field of movement, and you can get a rough idea of how many there are and where you can expect to find them.

Play the tactics - if you see a pair of guards, shoot one in the body with a tranquiliser dart. You'll have to wait until he drops, but it won't draw immediate attention the way a headshot does and it gives you time to get a second shot off. For groups of three or more, the sleep grenade is your friend. If they're indoors, lob a smoke grenade in through an open window and clear the room with the night vision goggles. If you don't have the gear you need, call in a supply drop. And get into the habit of moving bodies. If you leave them where they fall, they will be found and an alert will go out.

 

[fatkrakr]

I think I need to start moving forward with the game some more and then maybe when I have some better equipment try again. I played for 3 1/2 hour last night and only did one side op, but completely cleared out 2 villages and 3 outpost while riding over there.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

An I the only one who finds Quiet is a little overpowered? I built up a rapport with her pretty quickly to get the Guilty Butterfly, but when I asked her to provide cover fire for me in Episode 17, she ended up single-handedly taking out two outposts and major location and damn near took out a second one before she had to be airlifted out.

I think I need to start moving forward with the game some more and then maybe when I have some better equipment try again.

I just finished Episode 20, and I'm still using the same primary and secondary weapons that I started the game with, albeit upgraded versions. But I tend to aim for perfect stealth on every mission. I'll run-and-gun in Side Ops, but for story missions, I like the stealth approach.

 

[Ibonibo]

I do a bit of a mix, on missions and side ops.

First is recon, marker on the to be fultoned. Then taking my silenced ZZZ sniper out, and dispatching guards that stand alone.

Then I go in with the ZZZ gun and take out the rest.

Then I raid the place clean.

On bigger bases I sometimes eliminate the non essential staff to not get bothered again. Albeit with Quiet I don't need to do that as I command her to ZZZ the reawakened guards.

I also still use the original weapon layout for assault rifle and pistol.

On fultoning yourself out... how? I always fall off when the containers pick up speed

Also what is your tactics for taking on full armored guards?

 

[Grandea GTR]

Has anyone noticed how as you play the game, Snake's shrapnel horn expands or recedes?

 

[mr_geez]

The depth and gameplay ideas in this game are amazing! I discovered two things that can only be found in MGS franchise.

Ok, as you all know you can upgrade your iDroid through R&D. One of the stages is speaker function. When you get that and go to tapes section it is divided into 3 lists. Briefing/story tapes, music tapes 1 (OST) & 2 (80's classics) and "special tapes" (can't remember exact title). It bugged me for quite a while why are there so short and have special section dedicated only for themselves.

I figured it out. First tape from that list I found is "Afghan Lullaby". Go to Afghanistan, start playing it on your iDroid near enemy and see what happens. After that try to experiment with others. Hilarity ensues.

Second cool secret gameplay mechanic is when you don't want to use explosives to destroy enemy power station/radio transmitting equipment/ satellite dish. You know what works great in those situations?

Spoiler

Water

pistol.

Has anyone noticed how as you play the game, Snake's shrapnel horn expands or recedes?

Spoiler

How big your horn is calculated by invisible "demon rating". There are 3 or 4 stages of becoming a demon. Last one makes you covered in blood and leaving blood marks on the ground that guards can see and investigate. It relates to how many people/animals you killed, did you develop a nuke, etc.

 

[Ridox2JZGTE]

The Int Scope Analyzer is very useful, upgrade it as soon as possible. It allows you to see soldier's skill set just by tagging them, so you can look for highly skilled soldiers to recruit.

 

[fatkrakr]

Yeah I don't have access to a lot of those non lethal weapons you guys are mentioning. I need to stop all my "free lancing" and move on with the missions and side ops.

 

[Luminis]

On fultoning yourself out... how? I always fall off when the containers pick up speed

Stand on top of the container. Once the balloon's up, you'll get the button prompt to hold onto the balloon's rope.

Also what is your tactics for taking on full armored guards?

I preferably get them to scatter, then take them out with CQC. Firing a silenced gun at one of them worked. You could get them to investigate something by making sounds or with a decoy or whatever.

Otherwise, explosives. RPGs, mines, C4, you name it.

 

[sesselpupser]

On fultoning yourself out... how? I always fall off when the containers pick up speed

You have to hold E when standing on the container next to the balloon to grab it. You get one of those progress spinner things and then you just ride it out of the area, it's pretty handy for exfiltrating a mission area.

An I the only one who finds Quiet is a little overpowered?

She is, but all the buddies are except for D-Horse and even he is extraordinarily useful for some tasks. Also, I don't think she's quite as OP as taking your own tranquiliser rifle with you because she is a little more limited; she will only go for instant KOs, only aims for the exact centre of the head and has a limited number of nests she can use so there are sometimes shots she just can't make, when a human player would just aim a few pixels across to, say, avoid hitting a guard tower post or the soldier's helmet. She is great backup for the occasions when you don't want to take a sniper rifle of your own, though... But given the alternatives, unless you knew you'd be fighting a helicopter I'm not sure why you wouldn't take a rifle. Light machine guns are pretty bad, in my opinion - better to take an assault rifle with a large magazine or an underbarrel weapon.

D-Dog, on the other hand, is just all kinds of OP. He doesn't set off alerts, you can set him up to

Spoiler

kill, stun, mortally wound or, later on,

Spoiler

Fulton (which I haven't tried yet)

instead of the default distract (and later on he'll do it as well as distract, except it's not an incapacitive distraction) and will spot enemies, prisoners, vehicles, weapon emplacements, materials, plants, animals and possibly also blueprints(?) from an astonishingly long range. He's a much more useful buddy if you've got a balanced loadout.

Then again, Quiet can distract an entire base for a long time which is undeniably useful function. I also haven't tried the grenade thing yet but I can't see that being all that useful. I did have fun attacking outposts as a lethal/non-lethal sniper duo with Quiet once, though. I need to develop her Brennan ASAP, I got the blueprints last night.

 

[Ellis]

Is anybody finding D-Walker any use at all? I never use it and quite frankly, the one time I did it seemed a bit of a farce to use

 

[sesselpupser]

Is anybody finding D-Walker any use at all? I never use it and quite frankly, the one time I did it seemed a bit of a farce to use

I've used it twice, once for fighting a certain animal and once for fighting something else entirely. I HATE the controls, but I guess after I've developed basically everything else I'll develop some of its gear, maybe it'll be of some use then. Right now I see no reason to use it over D-Horse but I guess if you were the kind of person who wants to be almost as mobile as you are on D-Horse (but with even worse controls) except with a ton more firepower it's not so bad.

Speaking of firepower, how come the one time I deployed with a tank it had no ammo for either gun?

Once again, I'm desperate to get home and play more. It's rare for a game to grab me like this for so long, the last game that did was Borderlands 2, actually. All the other Metal Gears were exceptionally 'grabby' too - I played the MGS and MGS2 demo more than I've played a lot of games - but ultimately the games were too short and there's only so many times you can do the exact same thing before you get bored. MGS V doesn't have that problem.

 

[Luminis]

Is anybody finding D-Walker any use at all? I never use it and quite frankly, the one time I did it seemed a bit of a farce to use

I'll be honest, I'll have a hard time using anything but DDog. His ability to locate enemies and prisoners is invaluable. Plus, even if D-Walker was useful, it looks silly, so I don't use it. That's why I'm usually rocking regular fatigues instead of the sneaking suit, too.

Also, finally got my Wolf codename and the associated emblem parts:

/edit:
I also spent a good amount of time running to and from my chopper during my last mission in order to rescue

Spoiler

as many child soliders as possible.

Good thing my support team supplied me with my rubber bulled converted UN ARC

 

[sesselpupser]

@Luminis that's a great emblem, nice colour! Mine looks awful now but that's kind of intentional; I changed the background colours to a dark yellow (think baby poo colour) and dark purple and added a Dobermann codename image, partially in tribute to my own D-Dog (get it) who died five years ago but also because I just like it anyway. I'll post a photo later.

Has anyone actually used a Brennan yet? I keep meaning to but it's almost the only gun I'd actually want to use that can't be suppressed (yet) so I just haven't had the opportunity. I'm hoping for practically no bullet drop and a one-shot kill to the torso, but we'll see I guess. I suppose it's too much to hope that the semi-auto might be usable on the move at medium range without a scope...

 

[catamount39]

Where do I edit my emblem?

 

[Solid Lifters]

There's a real thrill to be had in perfectly executing an infiltration/exfiltration undetected - especially in some of the multi-stage missions like Episode 10.

That was one of the easiest Episodes to get an S in, for me. Did that one in about 4-5 minutes, at most.
Went back to do it again, to finally get...

THE TRANSPORTATION SPECIALIST

It's about damn time. I've been doing a lot of roaming. Taking down radar, satellite dishes, extracting high raking soldiers, etc.

But, now it's time to get some cargo containers, tanks, jeeps, cargo trucks, etc. Where's a good spot or Episode to get the good stuff? I figured I'd do Episode 10 again, after doing it several times including landing right next to that armored car and getting the choppa blowed up. Episode 8 with the numerous tanks is just horrible. Not really sure how I could get those tanks and not be spotted.

What do you guys do?

My levels are mostly all 30, with all sections at 3/4 and with 700 soldiers. The max amount you can have, I think. Need to complete Backup, Back Down to get more Episodes.

 

[Luminis]

my own D-Dog (get it) who died five years ago but also because I just like it anyway.

Sorry to hear that A nice way to pay a little homage, though! And thanks

Has anyone actually used a Brennan yet? I keep meaning to but it's almost the only gun I'd actually want to use that can't be suppressed (yet) so I just haven't had the opportunity.

So you can't just add a suppressor by way of the legendary gunsmith? I love my M2000-D, but I'm really looking forward to a semi auto. The rate of fire isn't much of an issue, but de-scoping to reload the bolt action is annyoing when taking on multiple enemies at a time.

Where do I edit my emblem?

Open your iDroid, go to the Mother Base tab, select Customization and then Emblem.

What do you guys do?

Well, there are some side ops that'll yield good results as far as vehicles go. The ones dealing with the Armored Vehicle Units and Tank Units, specifically. Containers are a little harder to pinpoint, though. The largest Afghan outposts have some, I think.