General Basics

Game Difficulty: Metal Gear Solid 5 features a dynamic difficulty with intelligent AI - enemy movements and patrols are never entirely fixated to preset paths. To make this a little more concrete and comprehensible, it also means the game will adapt depending on your (consequent) actions. If you continuously opt for high-power Rambo-style action strategies, you may face guards and enemies with better protective armor, to name just one example. If you're very good at headshots and utilize the option often, guards could end up wearing protective headgear more often.

Dynami[Subsistence] Walkthrough: Directly related to the dynamic difficulty of the game, a full step-by-step walkthrough simply isn't feasible. Instead, this guide provides a more dynamic approach to the game, where bullet points, general strategies and directions, and key item highlights are favored. For the first few missions, more prescriptive instructions are given to help you get on your way, but as you advance through the game, it simply isn't necessary (nor possible) any longer to guide you step-by-step through small enemy outposts, as you'll have captured them in the time it took to read those very paragraphs prescribing how to do it. In short; prescriptive details in the early stages of the walkthrough, and much more descriptive and informative approaches going forward.

Do[Subsistence]'t Stress It!: There are two very important points to be made that might just help you relax more while playing MGS5. First of all, there is no ultimate reward or trophy for completely beating the gaming in full Stealth. Yes, mission ratings are affected by Alert or Combat statuses, but it's entirely possible to even beat missions with such negatives, simply by speeding through and making no casualties, to name just the most important beneficial factors here. In short, don't stress out if you do something wrong. Instead try and make the best out of the mission when something goes wrong anyway. Trust your intuitions.

The second point is: you often cannot complete all mission objectives during your first try. Indeed, some mission targets only appear after completing a mission (only mandatory mission objectives appear initially). Furthermore, some objectives require special upgrades that are obtained later in the game, such as an upgraded Fulton device (a parachute device for extracting not only people, but for example also heavier objects such as vehicles). This guide will however provide notes when an initially hidden optional mission objective can be done right away. Nonetheless, many optional objectives are truly hard without the proper gear and equipment. It is sometimes better to wait and progress a little to avoid wasting precious time.

Mission Preparation: When you depart for a mission (apart from the first two) you can select your loadout. You can hold two Primary Weapons (one on the hip such as Shotguns, Grenade Launchers and Assault Rifles; plus one on the back such as Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launchers and Machine Guns). You can only hold one Secondary Weapon (Gun) plus a Prosthetic Arm. Support Weapons have eight slots, as do Items. The access controls on the D-pad for weapons are Up for Primary, Down for Secondary, Right for Support, and Left for Items. Holding the direction allows you to select a slot, tapping will perform a quick swap.

- I[Subsistence]'s wise to always have a Tranq. Gun as Secondary Weapon. As Primary Weapon, an Assault Rifle with suppressor is usually a good idea, as is having a Sniper Rifle (a little further on in the game). Switching your Assault Rifle for a Shotgun can be wise if you expect tricky combat situations. As a side note, it's good to know you cannot use your Primary Weapon while holding a body (of an enemy, a prisoner, and so on), but only your Secondary Weapon.

- Later in the game you can also deploy vehicles. Furthermore, your relation with buddies such as D-horse becomes more important, and equipment can be bought for them, gaining them protective advantages.

Missio[Subsistence] Ratings: Although this guide will delve deeper into the exact mechanics of mission ratings, for starters it's very useful to know that the most important factor by far is speed, meaning a fast completion time of the mission. This outranks almost all other factors. Another important factor is how many optional mission objectives you complete; but these aren't always possible during a first playthrough (which is fine). Besides these factors, it definitely helps if you're stealthy too, triggering no enemy alerts. Lastly, an important factor is non-lethality. Stun enemies or put them to sleep with tranquilizer darts instead of brutally wasting them. Besides, aren't you supposed to build your own army in MGS5? Indeed you are, and what good are dead bodies to you in that regard? In any case, don't pay too much attention to mission scores and just try and do your best. You, or the perfectionists among you (and I know you're out there), will come back to master all missions eventually anyway. Won't you?

Exploratio[Subsistence]: During but especially outside of missions you're free to explore large portions of the map. Your iDroid marks outposts and other points of interest with numbers. Be sure to explore these areas as you pass them. Usually some loose materials can be found, sometimes even more valuable items. Any enemies you defeat can be extracted with a Fulton device, so it's a good way to build your army too. In fact, as long as you explore outposts you normally come across while travelling between mission objectives, your item supplies should sufficiently be restocked at all times. This is vital for upgrading your equipment and the Mother Base. There's usually an outpost or something else between mission objectives, simply due to there being various placements alongside main roads. Speaking of enemies, keep your eyes open for vehicles or sole wanderers, usually near main roads; they can often be taken out with great ease approaching them from behind.

- Whenever you're riding your horse or vehicle on the vast map in MGS5, keep your eyes open for anything colorfol that shoots by, and let your intuitions do their work. Think you saw a colorful plant? Go inspect it.

Fast Travel: Like with previous games, again you can board vehicles by using a cardboard box and placing yourself on a so-called delivery point. For this to work you also need an invoice, a special item that you should look for when infiltrating enemy bases. The more you've collected, the easier it becomes to travel around; in fact, truck delivery is the fastest way of transport. The second fastest is calling a chopper, which takes a few minutes, but will still outbeat riding to far off places yourself.

Reco[Subsistence]: It's almost always essential to try and find a high vantage point overlooking an enemy base allowing you to scan the vicinity and mark enemies (see also Marking People).

Sid[Subsistence] Ops: In contrast with at least some optional (initially hidden) main mission objectives, Side Ops are small mini missions (often extraction related ones) that are unlocked as you progress, and can almost always be done fairly easily. In short, try to tackle as many of them as they become available. Why wait when you don't have to? Better yet, keep track of where Side Ops are located on your iDroid Map and complete them when you're already nearby, or alternatively, when you're roughly headed in their direction for your next main mission objective. This can save you precious (real life) time.

Mother Base: Again, this is a subject that will be covered in much greater detail of this guide. For now it is important to know that the Mother Base Management Game is actually a vital part of the game as a whole. You will need specialised equipment for later missions, so (virtually) attend the Mother Base via your iDroid regularly after you've completed Mission 2.

Health System: The healthy system in MGS5 is different from earlier games in the series. Instead of a health bar, the developers have opted for 'Call of Duty' approach, where the screen is covered with blood around the edges and becomes distorted in general as you take damage. To heal, find some cover so enemies can not longer hit you, and stay still to regain strength. You can always heal back to 100% health.

Swapping Weapons & Items: In the lower right of the screen, your currently equipped weapon is shown. You can switch weapons by using/tapping the directional pad (D-pad). Up is for primary weapons, down for secondary weapons, left is for items and right is for support weapons such as grenades, throwable magazines, etc.

Marking People: MGS5 feature[Subsistence] an entirely new system of marking people, mostly enemies but also friendlies, animals and heavy weaponry or vehicles, allowing you to keep track of all important persons and objects in your surroundings. In order to mark someone or something, simply look at them through your binoculars (you must be properly zoomed in if the enemy or object in question is very far away, since you wouldn't factually 'see' them otherwise).

- Once marked, a red triangle appears over enemies' heads (green for friendlies), or a white square above objects, along with the distance in meters that they are away from you (yes, the Metric System owns, deal with it). You'll also be pleased to hear that marked enemies/objects/etc stay marked even when you restart the game from a checkpoint. Marked enemies can be spotted even through walls, potentially even observing which direction they're facing greatly allowing you to plan your next Stealth moves. Whenever a guard spots Snakes' suspicious movements, he'll go investigate. During this time, the red triangle will blink until they are done with their investigation, lost their suspicion and went back to their regular patrol or guardpost.

Collecting Resources: MGS5 value[Subsistence] the economic sphere so much, that everything natural has become a 'resource' - pretty much as in real life, then. Even people, animals and plants (for example Golden Crescent, to turn into tranquilizer rounds) have economical value and you can 'extract' them whenever you want, using a Fulton device in the case of larger animals and people. With an upgrade later in the game you can even extract vehicles and large containers with raw materials. In the field you'll also often find processed materials (metal, fuel, biological material), which are also found by your troops when they're sent on virtual Combat Deployment missions, so you should always have recruits do two missions - the maximum allowed - at all times.. Sometimes you'll also find Casette Tapes in the field, which are usually music tapes. It's a smart idea to play storyline tapes when you're making a long journey or fiddling with iDroid's endless menu options, because you're never going to get through the heap otherwise.

- The currency in MGS5 is GMP (Gross Military Product). You get more of it by completing missions, finding Rough Diamonds, or sending recruits on Combat Employment missions. GMP is used in Mother Base operations, and you need it for expansions, equipment upgrades, field deliveries and so on.

Time in MGS5: On[Subsistence] minute in-game takes three seconds in real life. You do the math; that's 36 minutes real life time for 12 hours (or a full switch to day/night). Daytime starts at 06:00 and ends at 18:00 when the night kicks in. You can manipulate time and speed it up with the Phantom Cigar - what's in that thing!?

'Cheating' i[Subsistence] Allowed: If you can't seem to get past that annoying sentry, or really want to burn a place down after being killed for the n-th time, you can use the Chicken Hat or call for air fire support respectively. The Chicken Hat is available after restarting from a checkpoint three times. It gives you invisibility for up to three times, meaning you can walk into an enemy's line of vision three times during a mission and you won't be seen. This automatically reduces your mission's rank to a maximum of A, but hey, you'll max it to S later, right? The same applies for fire support. You can change the weather, bomb an area, use sleeping gas or smoke, but again, the max score will be an A.

Field Object[Subsistence] and Miscellaneous: There are various objects and interesting field cues that are worth going over briefly. For example, many objects can be destroyed such as Radio Transmitters (inside buildings, various devices with blue lights - shoot them with a regular weapon to interfere radio signals), Communication Equipment (sattelite dishes, destroy with explosives to again interfere with radio contact), Anti-Air Radars (unlocks new landing zones for your chopper), Power Generators (either turn off or destroy to cut electricity to lights and security camera's - destroying it will trigger an alert), or Lights (most of them can be shot, but not with tranq. darts).

- Be on the lookout for red explosive barrels. You'll want to stay away from these in heavy combat situations, but you can use them to your advantage if all hell has broken loose already.

- Rough Diamonds come in two versions, 10000 GMP and 100000 GMP. They can be found on various locations and can be spotted by their glimmer. If you're lucky, guards tell you where they can be found during interrogation.

- Be on the lookout for cracks in rocky places; you can climb these, often allow you to reach a place faster, or at least giving you a nice vantage point.

- Items you can find are Casette Tapes (collectibles), Blueprints (for specific development projects), Posters (collectibles), Invoices (for fast travel), Intel Files (mission objectives), Medicinal Plants, Weapons and Ammunition, Processed Materials, Raw Materials (in huge containers) and the aforementioned Rough Diamonds.

Fulton Extraction: As mentioned at various other points, the Fulton extraction device is your primary means of building an army, but also for extracting large wild animals and even vehicles and heavy weaponry (after an essential Fulton extraction device upgrade). Small animals can be captured with cages.