MGSV: The Phantom Pain Tips & Tricks

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Before you jump into the world of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and start fighting for survival in Story Missions and multiplayer FOB matches, we prepared a comprehensive list of things you should know in advance. Whether you’re a veteran or new to the Metal Gear Solid franchise, these tips will give you general and advanced answers about best weapons, FOBs, Mother Base, collectibles, interpreters, buddies, combat, how to earn GMP and much more.
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If you know any additional tips that we’ve missed, please share them with us in the comment section below.

General Tips:

  • You can’t save the game wherever you want — there are automatic checkpoints that do that for you
  • If the best method for previous Metal Gear Solid games was silent avoidance, now it’s silent attack.
  • If you fail a mission several times, the game will offer you the option of using Chicken Hat
  • Controls are pretty much identical to Ground Zero
  • Some environments are destructible. You can blow up watchtowers and kill enemies
  • Use the environment – heavy sandstorms can mask your movement. Use cliffs and peaks to scan a location with your binoculars
  • Use the binoculars to mark enemies and objects
  • Fulton everything from the start – people, equipment, resources, animals
  • During the first mission, we recommend you send all enemy soldiers you knock out to Mother Base. This will increase your R&D level and you need it to be high to gain access to upgraded versions of starting weapons. You’ll have enough money at the start to send all captured soldiers to the base.
  • Standard guards can be gathered easily with the Fulton Recovery device, but for finding commanders (who have the best attributes), you will need an interpreter. Interpreter can also help you interrogate guards for valuable info about rare resources.
  • Don’t relax once you’re in the chopper – keep an eye out for enemies until the door closes
  • A great deal of the plot is told through Cassette Tapes, that replaced the CODEC system. You can do other things while listening to them.
  • There are different uniforms. The following uniforms have been confirmed: Camo (9 versions), Sneaking Suit, Battle Dress, Solid Snake and the Ground Zeroes suit. You can change the suit in the helicopter or have it air dropped in a box.
  • You can shoot and fulton enemies from a cardboard box .
  • You can just free roam through open areas without actually being on any mission.
  • When you’re on a ladder, press X to slide down quickly
  • You get Key Items for performing certain actions, and in return, they unlock various abilities, items and improvements.

Advanced Tips

  • One of the first things you should upgrade are your binoculars. When upgraded, they show you the skills a scanned soldier has. This way, you can pick and choose the best soldiers to Fulton back to Mother Base.
  • Use the phantom cigar to speed up time
  • Use supply drops to stun enemies – navigate and land them on enemies 
  • Ride fultoning objects to escape
  • You can use other Diamond Dogs members on main and side missions instead of Snake – send a botanist if you want more plants, etc.
  • MGSV: The Phantom Pain Blueprints for the best weapons are scattered throughout the map, you’ll need an interpreter to unveil their locations.
  • Foes will rarely pursue you far from the location they’re stationed at
  • Each mission takes place within specific areas on the huge maps, and if you leave a mission’s area, you’ll automatically abort that mission. (Detailed screenshot guides for all missions and their steps)
  • You can get Transportation specialist who can develop a Fulton for vehicles in mission 10.
  • Mission 22 unlocks the FOB system and the security team
  • MGSV: The Phantom Pain PC players can listen to their own music if they put audio files in the game directory, in the CustomSoundtrack folder. From iDroid’s cassette tapes menu you can choose your favorite music.
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  • During the Mission 11 drop 2 supply drops on top of Quiet. That will make it a really easy to take her alive
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  • Whenever you have to scout some location for mines and detonating them, use airstrike on the marked mission area to destroy them all at once.
  • Whenever a person smokes the phantom cigar in front of the platform it automatically raises morale without having to go around and personally salute your soldiers (thanks col_sanders_recipe)
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  • You can fast travel to aerial base if you choose return to ACC from the pause menu.
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  • Use yellow-orange triangular sign to fast travel to location with a delivery place attached to the triangle. Equip your box and wait.
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  • Use Water Pistol on communications devices with the blue lights
  • Legendary Gunsmith is a specialist soldier who unlocks weapon customization
  • You can get exclusive recruits and several uniforms if you transfer Ground Zeroes Save Data To MGSV: Phantom Pain
  • You can become Demon Snake if you perform tasks that are morally questionable
  • The Wormhole upgrade for the Fulton Device lets you extract people and things using a portal instead of a balloon

Combat Tips:

  • Enemy soldiers adapt to your tactics. If you kill a lot of enemies during a mission, you will see soldiers carrying heavier armor and even tanks making appearance. The stealth approach has its own consequences. Just keep that in mind as you play (and also that is why missions might be different for different players).
  • There are dispatch missions that send your teams out to destroy the enemy’s supply of helmets or shields. When you complete these missions, there will be less (or none at all) armored enemies in the next few main missions.
  • You can perform a sneak attack from the cardboard box. Slide, grab people and pull them inside the box.
  • There is no difficulty selection in The Phantom Pain. You’ll unlock a harder mode once you beat the game.
  • You can’t equip a knife and use it as your weapon of choice
  • Tranquilizer darts don’t work on heavily armored enemies, but you can throw them off cliffs.
  • The Stealth Camo pp item can make you invisible in short bursts
  • The prosthetic arm can be guided like a projectile to kill enemies, after you’ve upgraded it. You can use it to make a knocking sound. The electric stun of the Prosthetic arm works on everyone.
  • Hand of Jehuty is an upgrade for Prosthetic arm that can be used to grab enemy from a distance.
  • E-stun Decoy item is a mine that stuns enemies
  • Sonar bio-detector can spot living beings outside of your field of view
  • Active Decoy is a balloon with a voice message that lures enemies.
  • Take showers between missions to wash away the blood and grime. Soldiers will react negatively to you if you’re stinky.
  • Guards will still be on high alert if you decide to revisit an area you’ve just escaped from.
  • Boss fights usually require a new set of skills that you’ve not necessarily practiced before. You’re often forced to fight or run around in avoidance, instead of using stealth tactics.
  • Use Noctocyanin item to heightens your senses. This will mark nearby enemies without the need to see them.
  • Between locations, you’ll easily hear enemies coming, since they’re usually driving some sort of vehicle.
  • Open areas force you to learn additional skills, that will help you scout an area before you enter it.

Buddies

  • D-Dog automatically marks living beings in a certain radius – plants, animals and people. D-dog can also distract enemies
  • D-Walker can walk and roll silently on small wheels – you can sneak up to enemies on his back. D-Walker can also pick up enemies and can be outfitted for combat or stealth.
  • Quiet can become invisible and super fast. She can shoot a grenade you throw towards enemies. You can send her to sniper spots, to find and mark enemies and use sniper abilities. You can tell her to shoot people and provide cover. She can shoot off helmets, so you can perform a headshot on an armored enemy.
  • How to use Quiet? When you open the map on your iDroid, use the up button on the D-Pad to find the options “Quiet (Scout)” and “Quiet (Attack)”. When you select the option, you have to choose the specific sniper spot where you want her. She’ll then go there and do her thing.
  • If you use "Do It" command on D-Horse, enemy vehicles can slip on droppings, which knocks the enemies out.
  • You can hang off the horse’s side so enemies can’t see you.

Mother Base

  • You can use Mother Base to develop weapons and items, get Intel, supply drops and first aid on the field.
  • You can travel across Mother Base on foot, by car, chopper or using the postal service – go to the designated pick-up spot, and hide in a cardboard box.
  • Personnel is acquired by fultoning enemies from the field and hiring volunteers. They are automatically assigned (auto-assign option) to units that would use them best, but you can reassign them by hand.
  • If you are missing a few levels in a department and want to quickly upgrade it for just one research project you are longing for, move all the staff from other departments into it. After you are done, you can auto-assign the staff back to their old posts.
  • When you reach the staff limit, you’ll have to expand the base.
  • You can customize the color of your platforms, and make a custom emblem for your diamond dogs crew
  • Building a platform for the first time takes around 30 minutes. Upgrading (building additional platforms) takes longer with every step up.
  • Expand Command platform to make more room for staff
  • R&D platform is used to develop weapons and items
  • Combat unit platform is where your fireteams are located. You can send them on dispatch missions – if they succeed, they’ll bring home rewards.
  • Support platform is where the support team is. They’re the ones delivering supply drops, vehicle drops, airstrikes, cover fire and diversions
  • Expand Intel platform if you need more help spotting enemies when in the field.
  • Medical Platform is used to treat staff from injuries after dispatch missions
  • When you approach staff members, they will salute you. This raises their morale.
  • You can find resources lying on the ground – raw diamonds are scattered around the base
  • Side missions are entirely optional, but the rewards are in the form of resources or new recruits for Mother Base. Those resources can be various metals, minerals or herbs.
  • Some advanced weapons take 18 minutes or longer to build.

FOB

  • According to Konami, the only thing you’ll need the PS+ subscription for PS4 and Xbox Live Gold for Xbox One/Xbox 360 are the PVP multiplayer battles. All other online features will not require it.
  • FOBs (Forward Operating Base) are outposts, like mini-mother bases. They’re optional, and you can make more money if you create them, but they are open to attacks by other players who want to steal your equipment and staff.
  • The first FOB is free, but others are built by using MB Coins to buy plots of land (sea).  
  • MB coins can be bought with real money, but they can also be earned through daily logins (in miniscule amounts)
  • You can build up to 4 FOBs.
  • You can invite other players to your FOB while you’re not being invaded, to explore and hang out.
  • You can build up security to protect your FOBs, and you can fend off attacks yourself – if you’re online during an attack, you’ll get a notification and you’ll be able to respond.
  • While building up your defenses, you’ll have the chance to see how previous attacks unfolded, so you can tailor your defense to that.
  • If you decide to defend your FOB manually, you’ll be transported to the FOB so you can start tracking down the intruder.
  • When you or your soldiers spot him, he’ll be marked
  • Guards can fulton the intruder, that leads to your victory.
  • The defender has 25 minutes to capture/kill the infiltrator
  • If you manage to defend your FOB, you’ll learn the identity of your attacker, allowing you to launch a counterattack.
  • Your friends can help defend your FOB, if you are offline, but they can’t co-op with you.
  • When you invade, you can disable security devices like cameras and sensor by shooting them
  • Infiltrating undetected is your best bet
  • Rewards scale according to how heavily fortified the base is.
  • You get punished for failing, including a ransom fee. Ransom is paid using GMP, and the sum is equal to deployment costs

How To Earn GMP

  • Go on Side OPs. These are short, non-essential missions which will reward you with GMP, among other things.
  • Send staff on Dispatch Missions. They do the work, you take the prize. You’ll need a Combat Unit Platform at Mother Base, though.
  • Look for rough diamonds. There’s hundreds of them scattered across the maps. Most of them are worth a paltry 10,000 GMP, but there are some that go for a 100,000 GMP. They’ll even appear on Mother Base platforms at times.
  • Sell what you don’t need. Every piece of equipment you Fulton out of the field can be sold. Raw materials can be sold. Medicinal plants can be sold. Sell the stuff you’re not using if you’re short on cash.
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