Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater FAQ/Walkthrough Table of Contents I - Introduction Legal Information Version History II - Walkthrough Prologue - Basic Strategies 001.0 - Virtuous Mission: Rescue Sokolov 001.1 - Dremuchij 001.2 - Dolinovodno and Rassvet 002.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Meet with ADAM 002.1 - Dremuchij 002.2 - Dolinovodno and Rassvet 002.3 - Boss: Ocelot Team 003.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Crevice 003.1 - The Lake and Bolshaya Base 003.2 - Boss: Ocelot 004.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Caves 004.1 - Chyornaya Peschera Caves 004.2 - Boss: The Pain 004.3 - The cave entrance 005.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Graniny Gorki Lab 005.1 - Ponizovje river, armory, and warehouse 005.2 - Graniny Gorki Lab 005.3 - Boss: The Fear 006.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Sacred Forest 006.1 - The Svyatogornyj woods 006.2 - Boss: The End 006.3 - Alternative Boss: Ocelot Team 007.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Ascend The Mountain 007.1 - Meet EVA at the ruins 007.2 - Reach the underground tunnel on the mountainside 007.3 - Boss: The Fury 008.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Groznyj Grad 008.1 - Groznyj Grad exterior 008.2 - Groznyj Grad Weapons Lab 009.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Escape From Groznyj Grad 009.1 - Escape from the prison 009.2 - Reach the sewers 009.3 - The Groznyj Grad sewers 009.4 - Boss: The Sorrow 009.5 - Meet EVA behind the waterfall 010.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Groznyj Grad II - Destroy The Shagohod 010.1 - Groznyj Grad exterior 010.2 - Plant the C3 near the four fuel tanks 010.3 - Boss: Colonel Volgin 011.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Motorcycle Escape 011.1 - Escape from Groznyj Grad 011.2 - The Groznyj Grad runway 011.3 - The bridge 011.4 - Boss: The Shagohod 011.5 - Boss: The Shagohod Part II 012.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Final Battle 012.1 - Resuming the chase 012.2 - The Zaozyorje woods 012.3 - Boss: The Boss Welcome to my Snake Eater FAQ. While reading this, take note that I'm actually playing the game in small sections and then writing the guide so that I don't miss anything that I feel is important. And, I'm playing on Hard, which means that some enemies won't appear in the easier difficulties and enemy locations will differ from Extreme. So if you're sitting around scratching your head wondering why something's different, that might be why. If I remember a guard not appearing, I'll try to mention it. As for enemy location on Extreme, spare me; if you're playing on Extreme, you shouldn't need to use a FAQ. I should also mention that I prefer using directions rather than saying "right", "left", or "forward". If you look at the map in the Survival Menu, you'll see that the area at the top is always north, and since the camera usually faces north, right is east, left is west, et cetera. When or if this doesn't apply, I'll use the other terms. And finally, any questions, comments, corrections, or contributions are welcome; all you need to do is email me at [email protected]. Don't be offended if I don't answer quickly; I try to make a point of checking my inbox once every one or two days, but it doesn't always happen. Just make sure to add "MGS3" or something Metal Gear related in the subject. Credit will be given to anything sent to me that I add or major corrections. For corrections, please email me only if it's something important, like calling a boss by the wrong name or something. I'm not going to resubmit this guide because of spelling errors, so don't bother unless it's the same word spelled wrong more than fifty times, which shouldn't happen, even if it is two in the morning. Legal information: This document is copyrighted Matthew Haensly (MRH) 2004/2005. This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstance except for personal or private use. It may not be placed on any web site, magazine or otherwise distributed publicly without advanced written permission. This guide may not be used for profit, and may only be used on the following websites: - http://www.gamefaqs.com - http://www.gamesxtreme.net - http://www.supercheats.com Use of this work on any other web site or as a part of any public display is a violation of copyright and is strictly prohibited. Version History: First Submission: December 12th-January 9th - Everything up to The Fear is completed. Second Submission: December 10th-February 24th - After taking a break to play through Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, I found some time to devote to the guide. Everything up to Groznyj Grad Part II is finished. Third Submission: February 25th-April 4th - Version 1.0 is complete. II - Walkthrough: Prologue - Basic Strategies: 1 - Always crawl, when you're prone your camo index is always higher than if you're standing, so unless you're positive that there aren't any enemies or you're being chased by something, play it safe and crouch. 2 - If you don't have the sonar, use the AP Sensor constantly, you'll be able to figure out when enemies are nearby so you can take them out. 3 - Binoculars are your best friend; it's always a good idea to scope out an area before plowing through. For that matter, Thermal Goggles work just as well. 4 - While you might want to try to overpower the enemies, it almost certainly results in your death. The best idea is to use one of your pistols (the MK22 or the M19). I suggest using the MK22 since you only need to hit the guard once for them to be knocked out (also known as the "fire and forget" strategy). Additionally, they won't call an alert when they're shot, and support teams won't call one either if they find sleeping guards, whereas they will for a corpse. 001.0 - Virtuous Mission: Rescue Sokolov Objectives: - Reach the ruins where Dr. Sokolov is being held. 001.1 - Dremuchij After Jack lands and has the conversation with Major Zero, he receives the codename Naked Snake along with a recap of the mission details. But before we can proceed, you first need to recover your backpack that fell off during the cutscene. You can run forward and crawl under the log to reach the next area, but if you head right (east) and up the hill, you can find Life Medicine in the back left corner at the top. After you get it, you can slide down the side to reach the grassy area with the large tree in the middle. Climb up the tree and walk along the branch until you're right above your backpack; drop down to retrieve it. After the introduction to the backpack system, run to the north and leave the area. Welcome to the swampland, although there are no enemies per say, there are a few obstacles you need to overcome to pass through, namely crocodiles and quicksand. After following the long, narrow pathway, hug the right cliff and walk around the quicksand; watch out for the crocodile, who will swat you with it's tail if you get to close to it's backside. In the grassy area right after the first croc are some grenades, along with another crocodile. Look around in First Person to avoid the croc and find the grenades; equip them once you find them and make your way in front of a croc, I prefer the ones to the small northern island but the ones in the grass will work fine too. When the crocodile's mouth opens, toss a grenade inside of it to instantly kill it; note that you can kill them without it actually going in it's mouth, but I've had it happen where it took more than one grenade to kill one. Once you pick up all of the food, wade through the quicksand to the small island to the north, and then to the western bank to find an MK22 suppressor. Will you need it? Probably not, but I'm trying to be as thorough as I can. After that, wade to the narrow passageway to the north to leave the swamps. After the cutscene, run to the left side of the area and hide in the hollow log. Equip your MK22 and wait for the guard walking down this way to come into view. Once he passes the grass and becomes visible, take him down with a headshot. Although he's probably out of site, move his body to a corner of the area just to be safe. Afterwards, run to the southeast corner of this area and up the pathway to find the sniper rife. Now proceed north, where four more guards are patrolling; when you come to a fork continue north, but make sure the guard on the east path won't see you. Hide in the tall grass right at the entrance to the north area, a Leaf/Woodland combination will render you almost invisible, and take the guard out with either CQC or a tranquilizer dart. If you go with CQC, wait for him to walk past you and sneak up behind him, since there's another guard to the northeast. Speaking of which, crawl northeast to the large stump and look in First Person to find the guard hanging around the exit; use a tranquilizer dart to knock him out. Now crawl to the place where that guard was, to the north is the exit that leads to Dolinovodno, but if you want some extra MK22 bullets or Thermal Goggles, look east and knock out the guard walking around the large tree; crawl east to the field of grass and find the other guard all the way to the south, it should be relatively easy and there's a slim chance that he'll see you. Once he's knocked out, head to the hollow log, where you'll find Thermal Goggles. South of the log is a hollow tree stump with MK22 bullets. Now continue north. 001.2 - Dolinovodno and Rassvet If you take the game's suggestion and shoot the hornet's nest, make sure to be quick about getting across the bridge and getting to the pathway described later in this paragraph. If you don't, however, you'll have to manually take out each guard. Crouch down in the grass right in front of you and use the vantage point to knock out the guard with your MK22. Now slide down the steep part of the hill and pick up the body and hide it in the grass to the east. Now hide in the tall grass directly right of the bridge; you can shoot both guards walking on the bridge from here. Run across the bridge, being careful not to fall off, and then peer around the corner of the large mound of earth to your left; there's a guard facing away from you that's just begging to be taken down by CQC. When he's been disposed of, run south down the narrow path to the west and press your back against the side to cross the ledge to the small cave under the bridge - there's an XM16E1 machine gun as well as MK22 bullets. If you shot the hornet's nest, then the guards will begin to return, so wait until everyone's far enough away before running to the northwest exit. If you took everyone down yourself, then simply head to the exit. After the cutscene and Codec conversation, hide in the tall grass directly to the right past the wall. Crawl to the northernmost part of this patch and wait for the one guard to pass you and walk east. Hug the outer fence and follow him, staying a few feet behind to avoid being seen. Hide behind objects to remain hidden when the guard finally turns around and begins heading back. Continue around the outer portion of the ruins, if you crawl you'll have just a high enough of a camo index to remain unseen. When you reach the corner of the fence, crawl to the northern edge of the tall grass and wait for the guard directly in front of you to walk inside the ruins, and then continue along the fence to reach another patch of tall grass. Knock out the guard on this side of the building with a tranq dart and then climb up the ladder. On the roof, crawl to the southeast edge of it and, after making sure no one's in the immediate area, hop down and head to the northern door to trigger a cutscene. Note that if you're in Alert mode, you won't be able to initiate the cutscene; you have to go hide somewhere until the commotion dies down into at least a Caution. Yadda, yadda, yadda, cutscene with Sokolov, leading him out, beat up Ocelot. What? I'm not your storyteller. When the scene finishes, run back south to the bridge to finish the Virtuous Mission. There's an M37 shotgun in the southwest corner of the ruins and some of the bodies yield items, but I don't see why you'd want or need them. Summary of Virtuous Mission end cutscenes: - The Boss defects, kicks your ass, and throws you over the bridge. - Intro to Cure - Volgin destroys the research facility; the Soviet government gets pissed, America denies involvement, and sends Snake to kill The Boss to prove their innocence. Which leads us into... 002.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Meet with ADAM: Objectives: - Meet with the spy, ADAM. 002.1 - Dremuchij: After landing in Dremuchij East, take out your pistol and hunt the wildlife, there are some snakes and frogs that taste pretty good and give you a decent amount of stamina. Also, the plants that stick out can be used for medical supplies if you cut them off with your knife. You don't have to worry about alerting the guards with your heinously loud weapon, since there aren't any. Once you're satisfied with your food supply, run north to enter the new area. Here, The Boss finds you and breaks your weapon like Jet Li did in Lethal Weapon 4. She then shoots the drone you used to fly in, causing enemies to flock to the area. To avoid the guards, run southwest to the new area, it should look familiar. Continue south, picking up items and shooting the frogs as you go. When you reach the Virtuous Mission's insertion point, kill the goat walking around to get some above-average food. Now return to the crash zone and hide in the grass, Woodland or Black camouflages work great here. Scope out the area with your binoculars and crawl north, and if you find a guard by himself, knock him out with CQC. Like before in the Virtuous Mission, slowly make your way to the northern exit that leads to the bridge. 002.2 - Dolinovodno and Rassvet: If you didn't shoot the hornet's nest during the Virtuous Mission, then you'll use a similar strategy here. Crouch down in the grass and wait for the guard to begin walking away from you on the bridge. Slide down the side and stalk up to him and take him down with CQC. Continue across the bridge and look around the mound of earth just like before. There's another guard walking down the pathway that lead to the machine gun. Follow behind him and take him out with CQC. Continue down the path and to the inlet under the bridge, there are some smoke grenades, life medicine, and the Raindrop Uniform. Now head to Rassvet. There's no one here in Rassvet, and the way to trigger the cutscene is by heading into the room where Sokolov was and then exiting it, but there are a lot of items that we should get first. Run to the west side of the ruins and head up the metal stairs to find the AK-47. Now run around to the back of the building, you have to go east and past where the ladder to the roof was. In the very corner of the fence is the Zombie Face Paint. Now enter the ruins and get the box on top of the crates in the top left room and the Mine Detector in the corner of the room right before the room where Sokolov was. When you have all of that, head into the Sokolov room and open up the locker in the bottom left corner of the room to find the Thermal Goggles. Now leave the room to trigger the cutscene. Instead of ADAM, you meet EVA, who gives you a pistol, tranquilizer gun, and a scientist uniform and tells you to get some sleep before heading to the base. After giving you the option to save, you're treated with a cutscene showing the Ocelot team surrounding the ruins. EVA escapes through the hatch in the floor while you hang around to fend them off. 002.3 - Boss: Ocelot Team: There are a different amount of soldiers depending on the difficulty you're playing on, but I'll go with what's on the Hard difficulty and say nine. Four of them are coming to the room you're in to clear it; if you want a minimum alert game then you should follow EVA down the hatch, otherwise crouch behind the bed and shoot as many guys as you can with your MK22 or M19. If you choose the latter, remember to take off the suppressor since you'll go into high alert once they see you. Although you might be able to take out a few soldiers, I suggest dropping through the hatch immediately since it's safer. Either way, drop down the hatch and crawl to the east corner and look through the grate to find the Ocelot. Take him out and continue south, where another Ocelot is walking around. After disposing of him, crawl to the southwest portion under the ruins and look out through the hole to the south; an Ocelot is walking east and west just outside of the ruin walls, wait for him to appear and knock him out with your MK22. Once those three Ocelots are gone, crawl north to the small hole in the wall and head outside to where you found the Zombie face paint. Stay against the wall and use R3 to look onto the roof of the ruins and wait for the Ocelot sniper to appear. When he crouches on one corner of the roof, head to the opposite side and move out from against the wall; from here you should have an easy shot at him. If you chose to escape through the hatch without killing the four Ocelots that raid the room, then you'll have to get rid of them now. Head up the ladder on the northwest corner of the ruins and get to the bottom where it's broken off. Lie prone on the roof and use R3 to see the room below; when the Ocelots return, get on one knee and take them out. Don't expect to get all of them in one run; you'll probably have to wait for them to return to the remaining stragglers. Once those four are taken care of, there should only be one more Ocelot left; he in the very west corner in a patch of grass, if you run up the metal stairs to the rise where the AK was, you can look through the crack in the wall to find and shoot him. When the last of the Ocelot team is done for, loot their bodies and head to the northeast section to watch the cutscene where EVA opens the passage north for you. Head through the gate to reach the lake. 003.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Crevice: Objectives: - Head past the Crevice to reach the base where Sokolov is being held. 003.1 - The Lake and Bolshaya Base: If you didn't take the opportunity to hunt at the beginning, the lake is filled with crocodiles and fish that provide a good source of stamina. There are also a lot of ammunition, as well as a new camo and the Crocodile Cap. Hop in the water and swim to the eastern corner to find the Ga-Ko camo, and then under a log on the complete opposite side to the west. Swim under the log and wade to the shore, checking the cure menu to see if leeches attacked you is a good idea, since they will rapidly drain your stamina. Now run north to a large climbable tree that has a rope on it, you can use the rope to reach a tree in the middle of the lake that has a similar suspended rope under you. Drop down and catch the rope beneath you (Just rapidly press Triangle) and then make your way to the other end where the Croc Cap is. Once you've gotten the camo, cap, food (if necessary), and the ammo, swim northeast to the shore to continue on to the Bolshaya Past South; make sure you watch out for the trap laid across the exit, crawl under the wire or do a diving roll to avoid it. This is probably going to be the most difficult area to tackle yet; there are numerous guards and dogs, as well as electric fences and claymore mines. However, the bright side is that two new camouflages, the Splitter and Choco Chip, are also here. Run north until you reach the electric fence, equipping the Thermal Goggles reveals that there's a small hole in the right corner of it that you can crawl through. Do so and make your way west, continue crawling to avoid the guards and pick up the five or six claymore mines. After reaching the western corner, shoot the two dogs and two guards before climbing up the tree (Watch out for the wire trap right next to it.). Walk all the way to the end and drop down, and then crawl to the eastern end of the area to reach another swamp filled with quicksand. Make sure no one's around and begin to wade through to the eastern bank and climb up the rock wall. Again, check the area to see if there are any guards that will see you, and lean against the wall and get to the ledge where the Splitter camo is; from here you can eliminate the two guards that are hanging around the opening to the fence. Hop down and crawl to the opening where the two guards were and continue west on the other side; inside of a hollow tree trunk near the rock wall is the Choco Chip uniform, but be sure to get rid of the soldier and group of dogs patrolling the area. Continue to the northwest corner to reach the Bolshaya base. The two important items here are the Snow face paint and the Water uniform; unfortunately, they're both in the middle of the base. When you enter the area, knock out the guard walking around the west side of the base outside of the fence. Crawl east along the south wall until you see the soldier standing in front of the door; shoot him and then wait for the guard walking south of the building to appear, and then knock him out too. Now run up to the building and climb up the ladder, in the very northwest corner is the Water uniform. There shouldn't be anyone around to see you, so jump off and run to the trench to the west. Crawl under the board south of the building to find the Snow face paint, and then run back to where you started out in the southwest corner. From here, crawl east until you reach the opening with the large mounted gun in front of it; if no one's around, then head through it and crawl under the helicopter. After checking that the coast is clear, continue north until you find yourself in the large patch of tall grass. Check north of you for guards, and then head to the small munitions building and raid it for M19 and AK bullets, WP grenades, and some TNT. Now crawl east along the north wall until you get to the west side of the small building enclosed in the fence. The guard is facing south, so you can either use your gun or CQC to get past him and obtain the Life Medicine inside. After that, look southwest for the guard standing near the mounted gun; you have to get rid of him if you don't want to be spotted. When he's out, leave the base via the north pathway. 003.2 - Boss: Ocelot: Come on, you had to have known that you weren't going to finish the game without having to fight Ocelot. Good old Ocelot challenges you to a duel, which means that you're expected to use only a pistol like he does; if you use grenades or the AK the soldiers behind you will open fire in retaliation. However, you can shoot the hornet nests above Ocelot without that effect, but don't be surprised if he uses the same dirty tactics against you. If you're low on ammunition, immediately run to the right and pick up more. Hide behind the tree until Ocelot finishes firing off a few shots and then run to the large boulder on the other side of the area. Here in the far left corner, you mainly have to watch out for attacks coming from the right side of the tree on Ocelot's side. Before doing anything important, face the south and kill the poisonous snake slithering around before it decides to attack you. Now crouch behind the large boulder and watch Ocelot in third person until he passes the tree and can be visible in first person, and then wait for him to peer out from behind his hiding place, either in between the two large boulders or to the right of the far right one, and shoot him. If Ocelot is left of the tree, try to remain prone so that his ricocheting bullets will miss you, but if you can see him between the cracks of the two rocks feel free to take shots at him. Also, when he runs out of bullets for the first time, there will be a cutscene where he runs out into plain view and begins reloading; press X to skip the scene and instead use this time to get a free shot in. As long as you stay hidden behind the rocks and take advantage of every opportunity given to you, this should be a breeze. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: If you want to drain Ocelot's stamina to gain the Animal uniform, simply use the MK22 instead of the M19. The Animal uniform will appear in the first area of the caves on a rock. 004.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Caves: Objectives: - Escape from the caves. 004.1 - Chyornaya Peschera Caves There aren't any enemies here, so don't worry about being ambushed. The drawback to this is that the area is a little confusing, especially if you're trying to write about it. Another positive is that there are a lot of crabs hanging around. If you take a left from where you begin, follow the narrow path until you reach a small body of water. Swimming north leads to a path that ends with AK bullets and a battery, while take the underwater passage to the east yields a Russian ration. Right of the insertion point leads to a large area with three branches: the right path has M19 ammo and grenades, the left passage leads to another room that leads to more stuff, and the middle passage is a small crawlspace that leads to the next area. Head right first to pick up the items and then left to the waterfall area. In the small inlet under the waterfall is a torch that can light up your surroundings, and on the left side of this room is a narrow passage that heads north to a crawlspace. Crawl through to the next area and continue straight through to the east side, where another crawlspace leads to a room with a large hole at the end. On the south side of this hole are Night Vision Goggles. When you've done all that, head back to the area with the three branches and crawl through the hole in the middle to reach the top of the falls. Head through the passage to the north to get to the next area. In the actual Peschera Caves, take a right immediately after entering and head to the end of the passage and crawl through the gap; the room on the other side has the M37 shotgun in it, which will come in handy in the upcoming fight. Continue crawling north to exit, the Snow uniform is at the end of the crawlspace. Follow the passage east and eventually you'll come out to where the main path is. A few yards south is an area with AK and M19 ammo, but that's all. If you have the shotgun and the Snow uniform, continue north on this path to reach the entrance of the caves and our first member of the Cobra Unit. 004.2 - Boss: The Pain The battlefield is a circular pond with one large rock in the middle, along with two smaller rocks on the north and east sides of the large rock. Snake starts out on the eastern rock with some AK ammo sitting next to him. The Pain is on the large rock in the middle, and, with one exception, will stay there the entire battle. I've decided to change the layout of this and simply list The Pain's attacks first, since there are so many of them: - The Pain throws a jar of incense at you that attracts bees and cause them to pick away at you; this attack is avoided by jumping into the water. - A massive swarm of bees surround Snake and covers him up to his neck and preventing him from moving. This doesn't actually cause damage, but sometimes The Pain attacks while you're stuck. Jump into the water before they latch onto you to avoid the attack. - The Pain will say "Grenade!", and cover one or more grenades with hornets and have them fly over to you; when the swarm reaches your location, they dissipate and drop the grenade. A good way to prevent serious injury is by diving off the rock you're on and swimming to the other one, since the bees only travel to the location you were at rather than follow you around. Another way to approach this attack is by blasting away the swarm with a shotgun blast. If you manage to blast away the bees before they leave the rock that The Pain is standing on, the grenade can destroy The Pain's bee armor. - When The Pain yells out "Tommy Gun", a cloud of bees form the shape of a Tommy Gun, which becomes real when the swarm flies away. He then fires upon you for about thirty seconds. If you dive into the water and hide behind whatever rock you're on, you'll be safe from the barrage of bullets. If The Pain has his bee armor on, then you can't attack him; it he doesn't, then peek over the top of the rocks (holding R2 and L2 together while in First Person), and fire at him with your AK or M19. - The Pain covers himself in hornets and teleports to the rock you're currently on. If you see The Pain disappear from his rock, jump into the water. - The Pain will cover himself in hornets and create a duplicate of himself with more hornets. Just shoot one of them with the shotgun to figure out which one is real. - After depleting half of The Pain's life or stamina, he'll occasionally fire "bullet bees" at you. These bees will track you and create a serious injury similar to a gunshot wound. The real gimmick in this fight is dealing with The Pain's hornet armor that blocks almost all of your attacks with the exception of two: grenades and shotgun blasts. The shotgun is a bit easier to handle, but it takes about three shots to destroy his armor, afterwards you can fire at him with your AK. The Golden Rule to remember during this battle is that his attacks can be avoided by jumping in the water and swimming somewhere else. You can also fire the AK, MK22, and M19 while in the water, which comes in handy if you want to counter-attack while The Pain's firing his Tommy Gun. If you run out of ammo, there are AK bullets on the east rock, grenades in between The Pain's rock and the east rock underwater, and shotgun and MK22 ammo on the north rock. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: Like the fight with Ocelot; the only difference is that instead of using the AK after getting rid of the hornet armor you use the MK22. When you completely drain his stamina, swim to the northern most side of the area and walk up the side of the wall to reach a platform directly in front of the large island. Do a roll onto the large island to gain the Hornet Camo, which allows you to tame hornets. 004.3 - The cave entrance After the battle, exit the area to the north and run down the winding path; there aren't any guards around so don't worry about being seen. Eventually you'll find yourself in a large area with an inlet on the left; inside that inlet is AK, MK22, and M19 ammo, along with a Mine Detector if you didn't pick it up earlier. Just make sure to watch out for the two Claymore mines that are planted there. Continue north and work your way along the ledges until you reach the entrance. 005.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Graniny Gorki Lab Objectives: - Reach the Graniny Gorki Lab where Sokolov is being held. 005.1 - Ponizovje River, armory, and warehouse After exiting the cave, equip the Water camouflage and the Crocodile Cap. Lie prone to enter the swimming mode and swim north up the river; you can use the branches for cover when you begin to run low on oxygen or if you don't have the Croc Cap. Near the end of the river is a bunch of Chaff Grenades, immediately afterwards is a branch in the river. To the right is the warehouse that leads to the lab, and the left leads to an armory that has the SVD sniper rifle. Naturally, head left to the armory first. In Ponizovje West, there are either two or three guards on the docks: one walking up the long dock all the way on the opposite side from you, one in the northeast corner near the door to the armory, and one more (only on Hard or Extreme) in the northwest corner where the long dock meets the concrete platform. With the Croc Cap still on, swim west to the end of the long dock and wait for the guard to walk to the end. He'll see you if you have a gun out, so wait for him to turn around and begin walking back before shooting him with the MK22. Now climb onto the dock and crouch down, quickly take out the remaining two guards with either headshots or by blowing up the black barrels that are scattered around the area. Once all three guys are out of the picture, head to the armory in the back corner of the area, there's a lot of ammo as well as the SVD. Also, in the very northwest corner of the area, behind some crates, is an MK22 suppressor. Now head back to the river and continue north. There's a short cutscene where the game introduces the player to The End; afterwards he's wheeled away by a guard. If you have the SVD, you can quickly fire off a few rounds to take out the guard wheeling him as well as The End himself before he escapes. If you kill him, you won't have to fight him later on; the area will be filled with members of the Ocelot Unit. However, since the fight with The End is the best boss battle in the game, and it's a pain in the ass to fight the Ocelots, I suggest you let him go. Also, you can't get The End's Moss camo if you kill him here. That's also not mentioning that the other guards will call for backup. If you don't plan on killing The End, wait for the guard to wheel him through the door before doing anything. There are now three guards patrolling the area: One at the end of the dock, another that's by the wall that was broken by Volgin during the cutscene, and the last is near a few flammable barrels behind some crates to the northwest. Immiediately after The End leaves, shoot the guard on the dock with your MK22. Make sure to hit him in the chest so that the effect won't kick in instantly, and then wait for him to pass out. If you timed it correctly, the guard should pass out just as the guard near the wall begins to walk up the steps leading to the warehouse. Shoot the black barrels near the stairs to kill him, and then quickly do the same to the barrels in the northwest corner to kill the third and final guard; the tops should be visible just left of where the first guard was. If done correctly, all three guys should be out of commission before they get the chance to call HQ for backup. Check out the boats for some ammo before proceeding to the warehouse. The first thing to do in the warehouse is to change your camouflage; a Splitter/Splitter combination will work well here. Run up the steps, but crouch down and crawl through the door to avoid detection. There are some medical supplies (Antidote and Serum) to the south, but it's best to forget them for now. Head north and stop by the railing near the stairway, if you stay prone you can use R3 to look around; there are two guards on the bottom level and one that you probably can't see on the highest level. The two guards on the first level do clockwise rounds around the stack of crates on their side; so wait for the one closest to you (on the side where the stairs are) to begin walking to the east side opposite of you and the stairs, and then shoot him with your MK22. Now quickly face north and peer around the corner to find the second guard, who should be walking down the left side of his stack of crates; take him out now or soon, because his fallen comrade is in plain site. You can wait for him to see the other guard, because he pauses for a second when he sees him, but you still have to fire off a shot pretty quickly, otherwise he'll wake him up or call a caution, depending on whether or not you killed him or used tranquilizers. When both guards on the bottom floor are incapacitated, head down the stairs and run to the very southwest corner, there's a small inlet that has the Desert face paint and the thermal goggles, if you didn't get them at Rassvet. Now turn around and look north, equip your SVD and find the third and final guard on the top floor, wait for him to come into view and then take him out. When all three guards have been dealt with, run north up the set of stairs. If you run to the south end of the second floor and drop over the railing onto the crates, you can get another MK22 suppressor. On the third floor is a food storage, which you can consider destroying after taking the Ramen and Calorie Mates. Continue up to the top floor and exit the warehouse through the door on the left. 005.2 - Graniny Gorki Lab Graniny Gorki South is a small, round area that's filled with traps, both manmade and natural ones, instead of soldiers. Use the Thermal Goggles to see where all of the manmade ones, like tripwires or pits, are located. There's also a large patch of quicksand in the southwest corner. There are a few items scattered around the area; a Book just east of the quicksand, Ramen Noodles north of the quicksand, and Life Medicine on the east side of the area. Also, if you plan on capturing a Tsuchinoko (the legendary snake that having will award you the Infinite Face Paint), you have to find it here. Lay down mousetraps in random places until you catch one, and then keep it alive throughout the game - that means don't eat it. And finally, if you were planning to fight The Fear with non-lethal tactics, it wouldn't be a bad idea to get a head start. Equip the Thermal Goggles and search the area for Poison Dart Frogs; although they're fairly small, they're usually easy to find and are easily recognizable by their red and blue color. Make sure to have at least seven of them; or better yet, dispose of every item in your inventory that's not Ramen Noodles or a Calorie Mate, and then collect as many frogs as you can. Once all of that's taken care of, proceed to the outer wall. Use a Woodland/Leaf combination for a 95% camo index and crawl east to a small patch of grass right next to the electric fence; pick up the MK22 suppressor but watch out for the poisonous cobra hanging around. Now crawl all of the way to the west side of the area; make sure that the guards and dogs don't see you when you enter the patch of earth that doesn't conform well with the Leaf camo. Once on the west side of the area, wait for the guard to start walking east, and then crawl through the small hole in the corner of the fence, use Thermal Goggles if you can't find it. Crawl to the patch of tall grass on the western corner and pick up the M19 suppressor, you should notice that the screen changes as if you were about to enter a new area. There's a small hole in the wall right in the corner that you can crawl through, so head through to reach the inner courtyard. Like the other side of the wall, the southwest corner of the Inner Walls is a patch of tall grass that's perfect to hide in. Look north and tranquilize the guard near you; now look northeast past the two trucks, shoot the second guard walking near the western wall of the main building. When both of them are out, crawl under the southern truck and collect the extra ammo, from here you can shoot the one or two guards (depending on the difficulty) that patrol the front of the lab. Once everyone's been dealt with, run to the northeast corner and enter the ammo storage, there's ammo for the XM16, AK, M37, and SVD, as well as TNT to destroy it. When that's complete, switch your camouflage to No Paint/Scientist and enter the building via the main door in the front. One thing that you're bound to notice is that you can't equip any guns while in the scientist uniform, which means that if you need to shoot something, a Kerotan for example, you'll have to switch uniforms, hopefully while protected by some sort of cover. However, the positive side is that while you're incognito the guards will pass you for a scientist, meaning that you're free to check any room without fear of being shot at. The downside to this is that other scientists will figure out that you're a fake, so if a scientist becomes suspicious of you, face your back to him until he gives up and walks away. When you enter the building, head north and take the first right and head southeast down the hall until you reach a set of lockers. Head north towards the stairs, but do not enter the first door on the left there's a scientist inside that will call an alert if he finds out that you're an imposter; and since there are only medical supplies in that room, you shouldn't need to risk it. The next room, however, is a different story. Head through the door to enter a small garden and crawl in the vent in the northwest corner and crawl west and then north, the Oyama face paint is located at the end. Don't take the turn that leads west, since it takes you back outside. Return to the hallway and continue north and head downstairs to reach the jails. Run south and enter the room in the corner on the left, there's some shotgun, MK22, and SVD ammo lying around the office. Be careful not to accidentally run into the guard or else he'll get suspicious of you. If this happens, face him and press Triangle to push up your glasses. After staring at you for a few moments, he should turn away (Please note the "should", since there are occasions that they will sound an alert anyway. If this happens, you're pretty screwed. Sorry...) Down the hall are the jail cells, the last one contains a mousetrap and a Kerotan, while the middle one has Life Medicine under the bed. Again, crawling under the bed will attract the guards' attentions, so try to be quick and subtle about it. There's not much else to do here, so head back up to the main floor. Run up the stairs left of the set that leads to the jail and head west and later, north. Take the left at the fork and head down the hall that leads south. At the end is a food storage, so collect the two packages of Ramen and the Calorie Mate. You can destroy it if you want, but remember that it will send everyone into Caution. The next door on the right leads to a balcony above the garden with a Book. Now head back up the hall and continue north; the first door on the right has an MK22 suppressor in the south corner near the desk, while the next one is a bathroom. In the bathroom, go up to the last stall, which is locked, and use a punch combo to knock it over. Make sure to move out of the way before it falls down, and then take the Fly camo. Leave the bathroom and continue west, the last two lockers at the end have AK and XM16 ammo in it. The door leads to a balcony outside, so remember that when it's time to leave. Once you've been everywhere, head back to the entrance of the lab and run north, the door on the right leads to the room that was visible from the second floor. Head east to reach the staircase that leads to the basement. There are only two soldiers in B1 West on Hard and only one on Normal, but the real problem is the group of scientists that walk around. Head down the hall (make sure not to run into the guard) until you reach the door on the left, inside is Cigar Gas-Spray, a Bond-esque weapon that emits knockout gas from what looks like an ordinary cigarette. Reenter the hallway and enter the break room on the left, the second guard and a scientist are walking around aimlessly. Since the scientist only walks back and forth on the north side, you can wait for him to face one direction and head up the other. In the northeast is a set of lockers, one of which contains another KGB gadget, a handkerchief that is soaked in tranquilizer. Now enter the room on the left, which is a long room filled with cubicles on either side, as well as three scientists. Slowly make your way to the end of the cubicles; if a scientist notices you, quickly turn into an empty cubicle and face the wall until he leaves you alone. Once you reach the end, head through the door on the left and run up to the doorway to trigger the cutscene. (Note that if you're in Alert the door won't open.) During the cutscene, we get to meet the stereotypical Soviet communist, meaning a drunk Russian. The man is Granin, a weapons designer who is angry at Sokolov for cutting in on his action. He gives you a key that opens the locked door back at the Ponizovje warehouse and tells you to destroy the Shagohod for him. Now it's the simple task of retracing your steps and leaving the lab. The best way to exit is through the balcony on the second floor where the AK and XM16 ammo was. Head through the door and jump over the railing into the patch of grass below, pick up the items lying around and head south. Switch to the Woodland/Leaf combination and hide in the tall grass. Shoot the guard in front of you walking south along the wall and then turn right and shoot the one to the right of the trucks. Crawl to the southwest corner (where you entered in the beginning) and through the hole. If you remain prone and crawl the whole time, none of the other guards will see you. Back in the outer wall, peer around the corner and wait until the guard is walking away from you, and then crawl through the hole in the fence. Head east in a similar fashion as before and collect the MK22 suppressor, which has respawned, before continuing south to Graniny Gorki South where The Fear is waiting for you. 005.3 - Boss: The Fear To anyone who's played Metal Gear Solid 2, this battle might remind you of the one with Vamp; except, thankfully, The Fear can't dodge bullets. Instead, he's using a stealth camouflage. When the battle begins, enter the Cure menu and use serum to counteract the venom-coated crossbow bolt that you were hit with by The Fear during the cutscene. Don't forget to also remove the bolt. Now equip your Thermal Goggles and a weapon, the AK or the M19 are the two that work the best for me, and fire at The Fear, who's sitting on the tree directly in front of you. Follow his movements in First Person, but don't bother chasing after him. Simply stand where you are and take potshots every time he lands on a branch, especially when he pauses to shoot at you with his crossbow. If you do this right, The Fear won't be able to get a single shot off throughout the entire battle. If you aren't able to kill The Fear before his stamina is drained, he'll hide somewhere and kill a few animals for food. Don't look for The Fear, but instead run over and pick up whatever he shot; when he comes down to eat you can knock a few more points off of his life as well as prevent him from eating. If he manages to regain his stamina, revert to the previous strategy until you defeat him or he goes to eat again. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: If you've been following this guide, you should have killed a few poison dart frogs in this area when you were here the first time. If you haven't, don't bother fighting The Fear; spend your time hunting poison dart frogs, they're fairly easy to catch if you have the Thermal Goggles equipped. Make sure that you have at least seven or eight of them to be on the safe side. Once you think you have enough, equip them from your backpack and litter the area with pre-packaged poison dart frogs. When you run out, equip you MK22 and use the method described in the lethal strategy. When The Fear's stamina gauge drops and he goes to eat, he won't bother doing any of the hunting himself since the ground is already littered with food. Unfortunately for him, every time he eats a frog, he'll get sick; not only does he not regain his stamina, he actually loses some. Whenever he eats food that makes him sick, he'll slowly climb up a tree and try to find something else; since he can't use his camouflage he's an easy target, and the combined forces of the poison dart frogs and the MK22 should prove to be greater than he can handle. When you beat The Fear non-lethally, you get the Spider Camo, which automatically gives you an 80% camouflage index in any area at the price of draining stamina. Is it worth it? Nine times out of ten I'd have to say no. As an afterthought, this strategy is actually easier than the lethal approach, so even after you get The Fear's camo, this is a good way to quickly end the battle. 006.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Sacred Forest Objective: - Use the key Granin gave you to proceed past the warehouse, and meet EVA at the ruins atop the Krasnogorje Mountain, just past Sokrovenno Forest. 006.1 - The Svyatogornyj woods When you enter the warehouse, you'll notice that the guard that was previously patrolling the highest level has moved down the stairs where the food storage is. If you destroyed that storage when you passed through the first time, the hungry guard will see the Ramen and go and eat it; this distraction means that it's easy to sneak up behind him and knock him out. If you didn't destroy the food storage, run over to the southeast corner of the highest level and knock against the very corner of the wall; when the guard hears it, he heads up the stairs to investigate. Hide on the north side of the stairs, lie prone so that he doesn't see you and then follow behind him and knock him out. Now look over the railing to the south, both guards have returned and have taken up the same routes they did the first time; to save time, just take each of them down with your pistol. Proceed down the stairs; don't forget the food (if it's not gone) and the MK22 silencer on your way down, and take the door in the southeast corner near the entrance to the docks. From the warehouse, you enter Svyatogornyj South, which doesn't have any enemies in it. However, there are a lot of medical plants and animals available, so if you need them, hack away. When you're done, head to the west portion of the woods. There are three different paths to take here, but they all lead to the same general area and none of them are more heavily guarded then others, just watch out for pit traps that are littered throughout all three branches. Also, it's difficult to see enemies because of the raised camera angle and camouflage combination. The best way to avoid an accident is by equipping the AP sensor and crawling from place to place; when the sensor begins beeping, switch to your Thermal Goggles and scope them out. All three branches in the beginning lead to the same area, which is a fairly small circle with a grassy hill in the middle. Two guards are also patrolling, one around the northwest border and the other doing a round that covers the southeast half of the border and the hill, so watch out and don't get stepped on. Once you're past that, continue through the dirt path, you might want to quickly switch camos to something better suited in case the guard just after the path is looking in your direction. After the path turns east, wait for the guard to come into view and take him down with your MK22. There are two or three more guards hanging around this are, so use the same stealth tactics as before to get past them. Continue east and run down a narrow dirt path that leads to a small base with a food supply and a new machine gun to play with - the M36. As soon as you enter Svyatogornyj East, lie down and change your camouflage to Woodland/Tiger Stripe for an 80% camo index (or better yet, use the Animal camo you got from Ocelot for an extra 5%); two guards are walking towards you from the north, let them pass and shoot the two of them with tranquilizers (make sure to take out the one who has the radio first). Now head north up the same path that the two guards came from. Continue along this path until you're above a small shack; look east to make sure that no one will see you and then jump down. The shack has some packaged food in it that's worth picking up. East of you is a house that's patrolled by two or three guards: two outside and one inside. One of the outside guards walks along the west deck, so make sure he won't see you. Crawl under the house and find the trapdoor, it's hard to miss since light will shine through the border. Open it and climb inside, directly south of you is the M36 machine gun. From here, the best course of action would be to retrace your steps through the trapdoor and make your way back to the southwest corner. There may be another guard patrolling the large area in front of the house, so use the Thermal Goggles and the AP Sensor often. Once you're back in Svyatogornyj West, save you game. Losing the upcoming battle will set you back to the laboratory. The entrance to Sokrovenno South is only a few feet away, but even still, both guards in the immediate area have both been revived. Use the same strategies you used to take them out the first time and then head to Sokrovenno, where you fight The End. 006.2 - Boss: The End The battle with The End is known among Metal Gear Solid fans as one of the best boss fights ever, and for good reason. There are three sections that make up the Sokrovenno forest: South, North, and West, and The End has over twenty-five different sniping points to choose from between the three areas. The End is an expert sniper, and WILL NOT miss if he finds you. Thankfully, his Mosin Nagant only fires tranquilizer darts and there are plenty of animals, specifically rabbits and Markhors, to hunt. However, if The End completely drains your stamina, he'll take you back to the prison in Graniny Gorki. To prevent this, as soon as your shot, enter the Cure menu and remove the dart. While you'll still have lost the initial chunk of stamina, leaving the dart in slowly drains your stamina. Also, The End is the exception in the "defeat non-lethally and get a camo" rule. Beating The End with your MK22 wins you his tranquilizer rifle, whereas if you want his Moss Camo (And you do want his Moss Camo, it's one of the most useful camos in the game.) you have to sneak up behind The End and hold him up and force him to give the camo to you. And while a tranquilizer rifle doesn't seem to be the greatest weapon ever, it comes in handy later in the game if you plan on beating The Boss non-lethally. Since there are so many different places The End can hide and he doesn't go in any specific order, the only way I can go through this battle is by giving basic strategies. Actually now that I think about it, when you begin the battle, The End is ALWAYS in one of the three sniping points in the north part of Sokrovenno South. If you already have the SVD, crawl north until you reach a clearing that overlooks the paths below. Equip your Thermal Goggles and you'll easily find him. After this, though, you're on your own to find him. First off, use a Woodland/Leaf combination to have a camo index of at least 70%. Try to avoid the muddy areas and always hide in grass. However, if you hold The End up and get his Moss camo, switch to that since it works well in dark mossy areas. And considering that over three quarters of the Sokrovenno Forest is dark mossy areas, using it wouldn't be a bad call. Second, always crawl unless you're sneaking up behind The End, because he will hear you crawling. But other than that one situation, always crawl. It'll go a bit slower, but having a higher camo index is better than being shot at. Third, use you're Thermal Goggles as often as possible. A good way to find The End is by crawling to an open space and then searching for him with your goggles. Obviously, plants and animals will show up as well, so be sure to look at everything close up with your SVD. I say to use the scope of the rifle instead of the binoculars because you can keep the Thermal Goggles equipped while looking through the scope. Fourth, look for signs of The End; for example, he sometimes leaves footprints in muddy areas that you can follow straight to where he's hiding. Also, his sniper rifle's scope will have a glare on it, and you can sometimes hear him breathing. Also, occasionally The End will fall asleep at his sniping point, and his snores can be used to track him down before he wakes up. Also, if The End does manage to find you before you find him, you can look at your map in the Survival Menu. Each circle represents a possible sniping point, and a red circle is where The End is currently firing at you from. Note that this only appears AFTER The End fires a shot, but it can be useful to find a quick hiding place before he gives up and runs to another sniping location. Another good thing to mention would be that if you didn't pick up the SVD before going into the warehouse like this guide does, then the rifle will be in the small ammo storage west of the first clearing in Sokrovenno South. If you did pick it up, then the storage will have SVD and MK22 ammo. Another good way to figure out where The End is by going to where The End previously was and trying to find the nearest exit to one of the other sections. More often than not The End will leave whatever area you're in after he leaves his position. Also, keep in mind that The End's stamina drains as he runs from place to place; if his gauge gets too low he'll call upon the forest to help him regain his stamina, and his life meter regenerates at the same time. To my knowledge, this only happens once per game, but it can still be annoying. And the Golden Rule to remember if you're having a battle of the snipers is to be patient. Yes, I know that statement seems to contradict the one above it, but it's important not to get frustrated if you can't find The End. Just continue crawling and looking around with you Thermal Goggles. If you're completely unable to find him, use your map and search out each sniping point in the area, and then head to another section if he isn't in the one you're currently in. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: Now, you can use this strategy to kill The End, but this is the best strategy to drain his stamina so this is what I'm calling it. As mentioned above, The End is always hiding in one of the three northern sniping points, so crawl north to the small clearing overlooking the north part of Sokrovenno South. Use the Thermal Goggles to locate The End, and then crawl back south and to the northwest corner where the ammo storage is. Depending on where The End was, head to either Sokrovenno West or North and find the entrance that leads to where The End is hiding. When you reenter Sokrovenno South, use stalking otherwise your footsteps will be heard. Slowly sneak up behind him and take three shots when you get a clear shot. (Note that once you've snuck up behind him, this is a perfect opportunity to hold him up and get the Moss camo. Simply get close to him and point your gun at his back; Snake will yell "Freeze" and The End will say something like "How did you..." as he lies down. Point your gun at his head and he will say "I don't think so", so move the gun away and then back to his head; after refusing to give up the camo twice, he'll finally cooperate on the third try. When you get the camo, immediately equip it.) After you shoot The End with your MK22, he'll get up and run away; there's also a good chance that he'll throw a stun grenade to give him a head start. To avoid being blinded, look away from The End and chase after him when the stun grenade goes off. Although The End runs a lot faster than you, (pretty good for an old man) you can usually get a basic idea of where he is. Just be sure not run after him and then get shot because he set up in a place that can overlook the path he took. If he gets too far away and you know he hasn't left the area (or if your already in the new area), drop down and crawl to where you think he is. But I know what you're thinking. "How am I going to drain his stamina gauge if he can regenerate it when it gets too low?" Well, I'm pretty sure he only does that once, so in a worst-case-scenario you'll just have to start over, there are MK22 bullets in the ammo storage in Sokrovenno South. However, starting over can be avoided. The End only regenerates his health if he's left idle for a few minutes. If you follow him well enough, there's a good chance that you'll catch up to him before he gets the opportunity to regain his stamina. And lastly, when you defeat The End non-lethally, his Mosin Nagant is laying in a small clearing west of where you are. It's only a few yards away; so don't go searching too far away. You can also use the Thermal Goggles to help you. 006.3 - Alternative Boss: Ocelot Team ***Thanks to Jason Marsoobian for his contributions to this section*** If you killed The End when you were at the docks, then the Sokrovenno Forest will have twenty or so members of the Ocelot Unit littered throughout each of the three sections, the counter on the left shows how many are left in that area. In many cases, this fight is actually more difficult than the fight with The End; for one, the Ocelots don't use tranquilizers. Another is that with so many of them, you can't use a loud weapon if you don't want to attract attention. Third, while some of the Ocelots are hiding in sniping points, there are some that are just walking around. In some cases, you have to watch out or an Ocelot will accidentally step on you (Yes, that has actually happened to me...). However, you don't actually have to kill all of the Ocelots. In fact, you don't have to kill any of them. All you have to do is reach the Northeast corner of Sokrovenno Northeast and enter the tunnel. The best way I managed to get there is by crawling along the west side of Sokrovenno South until you reach the ammunition storage. Take the second path from the left to enter Sokrovenno Northeast; you might have to get rid of the Ocelot guarding that section, while it's possible to avoid him, it's a close call. Now repeat this strategy for Sokrovenno Northeast; the west side is relatively unguarded, and the few that are hanging around (two in a clearing specifically) can be dealt a tranquilizer without too much trouble. When you reach the northern-most area, head east along the north wall where the snipers are perched; you should have a high enough camo index with Woodland/Leaf to avoid being seen, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to knock out the snipers anyway. Just remember to get headshots, even with the MK22, since you're definitely too close to them for comfort. Lastly, when you reach the dirt clearing, the entrance to the tunnel is directly north of you. There's an Ocelot immediately to your south, but if you stalk (remember, you still make noise while crawling) you can avoid dealing with him. After you enter the tunnel, all of the Ocelots you left in Sokrovenno will disappear. Regarding strategies for fighting the Ocelots, use a hybrid of the strategies mentioned above to fight The End and the one you used to defeat the Ocelots last time in Rassvet. Using Thermal Goggles and the AP sensor is a great way to locate them, and you'll probably end up using the MK22. It's recommended to use tranquilizers on at least the Ocelots at sniping positions since you really can't get close to them without being in the open; instead of having to get close enough for a one-shot kill, you can fire one tranquilizer and then forget about him since he'll eventually go down no matter what. Also, since there are about seven or eight Ocelots to one area, each group is more spread out than before, so don't be afraid about knocking them out or slitting their throats with CQC. Just be sure that the soldier is alone, otherwise you're going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle. Unlike Rassvet where you could simply hide under the building while the alert went on, there's really nowhere to hide in the forest during an alert. The best course of action if you go into an alert is to simply kill everyone that attacks you rather than try to hide. (NOTE: Just like in Rassvet, you don't get anything special for defeating the Ocelots non-lethally, so don't expect to get the Moss camo or the Mosin Nagant.) Once you've beaten The End or the Ocelots, stock up on food and then head to the northeast corner of Sokrovenno North. Enter the tunnel and be prepared for a long climb up the mountain. 007.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Ascend The Mountain: Objectives: - Meet with EVA in the ruins. - Head through the tunnel on the mountainside that leads to Groznyj Grad. 007.1 - Meet with EVA in the ruins: Run to the end of the tunnel and climb up the ladder. It's going to take awhile, and there's no way to speed up the process, so just listen to the song and relax for a few minutes. Once you reach the top, kill the rat wandering around since the climb probably drained your stamina, and then proceed outside. Switch your camouflage to Desert/Choco Chip and head west from the tunnel and slide down the short slope. Continue until the area spreads out, and then lie down. Watch out for poisonous snakes and scorpions. This area is very hilly, which means that both you and the enemy have good places to hide. Start off by finding the guard on the ledge against the mountainside with the rocket launcher and taking him out. There are now four or five guards left. The first one is almost directly in front of you, so crawl to the edge of the hill and take the guard out when he's walking away from you. A great weapon to use here is the Handkerchief that was in the locker in Graniny Gorki. Simply grab the guard from behind like a normal CQC hold with the Handkerchief equipped, and it'll put the guard to sleep. There's another guard west of where you are now if you're playing on Hard, you can just see him if you stand up. Shoot him with the one of your pistols and continue north on the west side of the mountain. About three of four hills from the other guard on the west is another guard, so use the Handkerchief strategy to knock him out. There are two more guards in this area, one northeast of you and another that, although isn't visible because of the large rock, is directly north of you. Shoot the northeast guard with the MK22 and then crawl through the large rock and collect the SVD and MK22 ammo. The last guard is right over the next hill, so use the Handkerchief again to knock him out. Proceed north through the arch to proceed. As soon as you enter this area, run to the small inlet just at the base of the incline. Wait for the guard at the top to walk down, and then knock him out with the Handkerchief. Right of where the guard stopped is a large inlet with some items, so pick them up, but watch for the scorpion. Run up the incline that the guard came from, but stop before you pass the rock at the end. There's a guard standing in front of a small cave on the Hard difficulty. When he isn't looking in your direction, crawl to the hole near the edge of the cliff that leads to the small cave. Kill the snake before it attacks you and collect the items, and exit the cave through the entrance that's directly behind the guard and use the Handkerchief to knock him out. Drag his body into the cave to make sure that no one finds it. (Note that if you aren't playing on Hard, you can skip that paragraph and just continue up the mountain.) If you destroyed the helicopter back at the Bolshaya base, then it will be replaced by one of those hovercraft things. Both are fairly easy to get by if you keep your camo index high enough, though, so it's nothing to worry about. Crawl under the hovercraft; resist the temptation to shoot it down unless you want to trigger an alert. Keep going and crawl into the hole just after the hovercraft, it's difficult to see since it isn't visible. Crawl to the end of the tunnel and hide there and wait for the guard to come by and then start heading back. Exit the hole and follow after him, use the Handkerchief to knock him out silently. Continue onwards and take the higher path to get a clear view of the three guards patrolling around the three small buildings. You can get a clear shot at two of them, but the last one is behind the building in the far left corner where the exit is. Knock out the two guards with tranquilizers (avoid a sniper rifle to stay silent) and then drop down. Check the building nearest you to find the RPG-7, and then make your way in between the two buildings farther up. The second guard should have been knocked out near there, so knock against the left building's wall to attract the guard's attention. Run around the other side of the building and head through the exit; don't bother about knocking out the third guard since his attention is probably focused on the other guard. In the very top left corner of this area is the entrance to the ruins where EVA is, but like with Sokolov during the Virtuous Mission, you can only go there when you aren't in an alert. And since there aren't many (if any) good places to hide if an alert is sounded, you'll end up having to kill everyone to get rid of the attack. And don't forget about the helicopter circling around (which appears even if you destroyed the one at the base), it fires missiles at you instead of the machine gun. Crawl northeast to the small hut and wait until the guard begins to walk over the platform. As he walks around the hut, go around the other side and sneak up behind him; slit his throat (Having him wake up while you're near the top of the mountain wouldn't be good, but you can still knock him out if you can be quick enough.) and then stash his body in the hut, there's also shotgun ammo and grenades inside. There are about four or five guards left: three at the top of the mountain and the rest are patrolling the trenches. You can kill the three guards at the top of the mountain by firing your sniper rifle when the helicopter passes over. The chopper will suppress the sound of the rifle, so be patient and fire whenever you get the chance. Two of the guards can be seen if you stand near the entrance to this area, and the third is visible around the area of the small hut (he's to the right of the other hut north of you). When or if the three guards are out, crawl along the right side of the trench to avoid being spotted and wait by the second hut for the guard to walk by (NOTE: I don't think this guard is around in Normal, but don't hold me to that.), and then shoot him with your pistol. Now hop down into the trench and follow it northwest and eventually east. If you killed the three guards you can just run through, but if you didn't you have to be careful. The guard in the middle (The one that you could only see if you were near the first hut.) will occasionally enter the trenches and walk down to where the trench begins to curve around. Wait for him to turn around and then attack him from behind, and then crawl through the trench to avoid being seen by the other two guards. Follow this trench to the northeast and head through the door. EVA gives you a key that opens up a door in the area you were at before heading back to Groznyj Grad. When the cutscene ends, you can use your sniper rifle or binoculars to check out the fortress. Avoid shooting anyone unless you want to sound an alert; I'm not even sure if the guards don't appear later on, so why risk it? Reenter the ruins and collect the Ramen Noodles, along with AK, SVD, and Mosin Nagant (if you have it) ammo. Watch out for the scorpion on your way back to the mountaintop. Things have changed a little since the last time you were here; some of the guards' routes have changed and guys with flamethrowers are also patrolling the area. However, things aren't nearly as bad as they seem; the door you need to go through is directly south of where you are now, so you can simply slide down the mountain and avoid most of the enemies. There's only one guard you have to deal with, and he does in fact have a flamethrower. Drop down and crawl south along the path, stop just before the trench curves around. After a few seconds the guard will appear and climb up the steps and circle the anti-aircraft gun before jumping back down and heading back. When he's near the gun, shoot him with a tranquilizer. Make sure not to hit his napalm tanks unless you want to attract attention (Burning, screaming, etc...). When the guard is knocked out, climb up to the gun and slide down the side of the mountain, stay along the edge to avoid any guards. Now hop down to the small ridge in the corner; wait for the guard to walk away and then slide down to the next level, and as luck would have it, the door is right next to you. Change your camouflage to Splitter/Splitter and head down the stairs, pick up the ammo at the bottom and open area. Collect the medical supplies to the right on the balcony and then head left. Climb down the ladder and get ready to fight the last member of the Cobras. 007.3 - Boss: The Fury Although this may seem like a regular run-around-and-shoot-the-bad-guy type of battle, there's really more to it. The Fury slowly walks up and down looking for you, and he'll be alerted to your presence if he hears footsteps, so make sure that you're always stalking. Since The Fury's flamethrower will melt any bullets that you fire at him, your only option is to attack him from behind. Also, when you deplete The Fury of most of his life he becomes more aggressive and moves around faster. And remember, don't stand too close to the edge on the southern side of the area if you don't want to be knocked down and die. Also, if you catch on fire, immediately roll to put it out. One method is the more obvious one: equip Night Vision or Thermal Goggles and find The Fury; when you locate him, take out your SVD and fire three shots at him. When he gets up, he'll engage his rocket engines and fly towards you, so make sure not be in that area. Head to the other side and repeat. As an bonus, there are also those explosive barrels lying around, if you shoot them when The Fury's nearby, he'll take a huge loss. Another strategy is to use what is probably the last weapon you'd think of attacking The Fury with: your knife. Although it sounds suicidal to attack a guy with a flamethrower with a knife, it really does a substantial amount of damage and you end up ripping his flame suit, leaving him more vulnerable. This can be a little more annoying because you have to catch him when he's in the middle of an area and then stalk up behind him. There's a good chance that you'll take damage, however, and it's difficult to use this strategy when he's near the end of his life. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: Both of the above strategies can be applied here and will work very well against The Fury, so it's really a matter of which you're more comfortable using. You can sneak up behind The Fury and punch him (instead of the knife) to take away a fair amount of stamina, or you can be safe (although it will take longer) and use the MK22 and stay far away from him, which works just as well. When you drain The Fury's stamina, you'll find the Flame Camo directly to your left after the cutscene ends. As the name implies, the Flame Camo protects you against fire, preventing you from getting a serious injury (one that requires medical attention). After the battle, head through the tunnel and pick up the medical supplies. You might want to hang around there and let yourself heal before heading up the ladder to Groznyj Grad. 008.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Groznyj Grad Objectives: - Infiltrate Groznyj Grad. - Find Major Raikov and steal his uniform. - Disguise yourself and head to the West Wing where Sokolov is being held. 008.1 - Groznyj Grad exterior Run up the ladder and drop down and crawl under one of the large crates. Find the guard near the car to the west and knock him out with your MK22. Now crawl under the armored car and wait for the guard on the opposite side to turn around. Crawl in between the large tank hangers and proceed north. If you're playing on Normal, just hug the east side to avoid being spotted by the other guard. If it's Hard, you'll have to either shoot the guard patrolling on your side or wait hide in between the tank hangers and wait for him to pass by. Either way, reach the armored car to the north and head through the door behind it. Immediately head right and hide behind the large storage building. Go around to the east side of it, there's a guard walking up and down the small ally on Hard, but otherwise you're safe. Knock out the guard if he's there, and then crawl to the end. There are four guards in this one area (one west of the storage building, two walking east and west, and one on the east side behind some crates) so knock out as many as you can see, and with any luck the others will be flushed out and go to check on their comrades. Knock them out as well before they wake up the others. Resist the temptation to explore and head north. Behind a few crates and armored cars is the entrance to the Weapons Lab. 008.2 - Groznyj Grad Weapons Lab Inside, equip the Scientist uniform. The rules are the same is in Graniny Gorki: soldiers won't suspect anything if you don't do anything strange or get in their way, but scientists will recognize that you aren't one of them and will sound the alarm. Major Raikov walks all over the East Wing, but you have to hide his body in his locker, which is upstairs. Find Raikov and follow him around (except when he enters the library, there's a scientist in there), eventually he heads upstairs. Take off the Scientist uniform and knock him out with your MK22. Quickly pick up his body and carry it to the southern end of the floor to trigger the cinematic. Now put on Raikov's uniform and the Mask. (Which just happens to look like Raide- er... Raikov.) Disguised as Raikov, you have free reign of the entire fortress of Groznyj Grad. The one catch is that when a soldier sees you, he stops and salutes. Press triangle to do the same, which keeps the soldiers from getting suspicious. Since you're free to go anyway, here's a list of places you should visit before going to rescue Sokolov. Weapons Lab East: Check out all of the rooms downstairs, there are medical supplies and ammo, as well as a new weapon - the Scorpion. Groznyj Grad Northeast: In the very northeast corner of this area, there's a food storage being protected by a lone guard. Head inside and collect the food, and then destroy it. You'll have to take off the Uniform to plant the TNT, but you should be safe if you're inside the food storage. After planting the TNT, equip your disguise and leave; find a safe place to hide and detonate the bomb (again, you have to change camouflages to do this). You'll gain a caution, but you're safe disguised as Raikov. Groznyj Grad Southeast: This is where the prison is; you'll become more acquainted with it later on. On the east side of the prison is a small alley with Cardboard Box C in it; whatever you do, don't take it, the box comes in handy later on, and it won't be there if you've found it already. Also, inside of the prison itself is the camera. It's in the office in the corner. Groznyj Grad Northwest: There's a munitions storage in the very northwest corner of this area that has some TNT and ammo inside of it. It's really not important to destroy it, but you can if you want. Once you've explored Groznyj Grad, head back to the locker room in the weapons lab where Raikov's body is stashed. In the Southwest corner is a door that leads to the other wings. Go down the hall that passes by the main weapons lab where the Shagohod is, and head through the door. Run up to the guards and trigger the scene. 009.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Escape From Groznyj Grad Objectives: - Escape from the Groznyj Grad prison and get to the sewers. - Meet with EVA and get your equipment back. Unfortunately for Snake, things don't go exactly as planned. While speaking with Sokolov, Volgin crashes the party and isn't fooled by Snake's disguise (Apparently, Snake's crotch is different from Raikov's. What's with bisexuals being in Metal Gear Solid games?). Volgin beats Snake into a bloody mess and brings him to the torture room in the prison. Long story short, Sokolov is dead, and Snake loses his right eye by a stray gunshot. You're now stuck in a prison cell, and unlike the other Metal Gear Solid games, no one's coming to rescue you. 009.1 - Escape from the prison The first and most important thing to do is to pick up the fork lying on the ground and enter the Cure menu. Remove the Fake Death Pill that The Boss shot you with, along with the transmitter that Ocelot rammed into your back. If you don't remove the transmitter, an Ocelot team will be tracking you. Also, be sure to eat the rat to regain stamina. There are three ways to escape from the prison, and I'll list them in order of effectiveness. Note that all three will work fine, but there are benefits, like extra items or not going into alert, with some of the strategies. Worst - The least effective strategy is to use the Fake Death Pill that The Boss fired into Snake with the revolver. If you've played the original Metal Gear Solid, this works a lot like the way Solid Snake escaped from the prison in Outer Heaven. Take the Fake Death Pill and wait for the guard to see you. When he finds your body, he panics and rushes into the cell. Quickly revive yourself and beat the guard up before he can run back out. There's almost no chance to prevent an alert here, so I suggest you run your ass off to the sewers. Next To Worst - The only way you can use this strategy is if you pressed R1 during the torture scene. If you did, you'll have seen a hooded man holding up a sign with a radio frequency on it. Enter that frequency to unlock the door, do this when the guard is in the small corner office to avoid detection. Crawl past the office and down the hall before the guard reenters the hall and exit the prison through the door before the bathroom. Best - The best way to escape from the prison will not only avoid an alert, but also gives you the Fake Cigarettes to use. And since you have to get to the opposite side of the fortress, having a weapon isn't a bad idea. If you hang around in the cell for a while, you'll notice that the guard throws food at you every time he passes by. The food is usually bad: bats, spiders, et cetera, and some of it is rotten, so I don't suggest eating it. Instead, throw the food back out through the small hole in the door. The guard runs over and eats whatever you throw at him. Eventually, after feeding him enough, you get to watch an extra scene where Snake talks to the guard, who happens to be the grandfather of Johnny from the other Metal Gear games. After figuring out that you're not such a bad guy, Johnny takes pity on you and gives you the cigarettes that he stole from your gear. Little does he know that they're actually the Fake Cigarettes that sprays out the sleeping gas. You'll also notice the same radio frequency that the hooded figure was holding in the torture room is also on the back of the photo that Johnny shows you. After the scene ends, use the strategy described in Nest To Worst. Note that it's a good idea to collect some food before breaking out of the cell. If you destroyed the food storage before being captured, you can distract the guards by throwing food at them. 009.2 - Reach the sewers All right, you're out of the prison, but you've still got a long way to go. Lean against the wall and check out the area - there are two guards walking around north of you and one walking around the West side. On Hard, there's also a guard in the small area southeast of you, which can create a problem. Wait for the guard to the west to begin his walk west after going around the crate counterclockwise. Now lean against the prison wall and walk to the corner of the building, make sure that the guard (if he's there) to begin walking east and follow behind him. Knock him out with the Cigarettes. Now lean against the southeast corner and look down the ally with the guard walking up and down. He only goes halfway, but you should still have plenty of time to sneak up behind him. Knock him out with the Cigarettes as well. Pick up the Cardboard Box C and continue up the ally. Make your way along the border of the area until you reach the door. In Groznyj Grad Northeast, immediately drop down and crawl under the armored car to your left. Snake's camouflage index is poor, so guards will get suspicious pretty quickly if you're out in the open for too long. In fact, there's a good chance that a guard has seen you in the time it took to crawl under the car, so wait for him to check it out and return to his position. More often that not it's the guard who walks around the crates near the entrance to the weapons lab, so wait for him to resume his patrol and stop behind one of the crates. Since he can't see you because of the large crate obstructing his view, crawl to the opposite side of that crate and sneak up behind him. After knocking him out with the Cigarettes, crawl under the armored car directly southwest of you. There are about three guards here, so wait for everyone to be looking away and sneak down the ally directly south of you. You can also try throwing food to get the guards away. If it's something poisonous like a Dart Frog, it will instantly kill them; if it's rotten, they'll spend a few minutes vomiting (that's not an exaggeration of time, either). Head down the ally and around the corner to the door leading to Groznyj Grad Southeast, but continue west and head through the door at the end. This area (Northwest) may be one of the most difficult areas to pass through without alerting anyone. It was for me, anyway. There are about five or six guards, two or three dogs, and a searchlight. And you still don't have a silenced weapon. If you want my advice, just run through this area, it can get really annoying to continuously restart the game if you keep sounding off alerts. However, if you're going for a no-alert game, or just want to be badass, here's the best way I've found to get through this. (And remember, be patient.) First off, run over to the row of tanks and crawl under one of the ones closer to the south. Wait for the guard who's standing in between the third and fourth tank to turn around, walk north between the two rows of tanks, and then begin to walk by the third and fourth tanks on the west side. Sneak up behind him at this point and knock him out with the Cigarettes. Now run north and crawl under the armored car just after the last row or tanks. The guards that are left walk up and down the long strip and usually aren't in synch with each other. However, if you wait long enough, eventually both guards will be at the north end of the strip. This is your chance, so run over to the red staircase and equip the Cardboard Box C. Wait for the guards to come back to the south end and begin to head back north. Make sure that the dogs are either asleep or at the other side of the strip, and slowly make your way north along the wall, stopping when guards or dogs look around or begin heading in a different direction. Keep doing this until you reach the gated area with the large red pipes. Crawl under the pipes to the very northeast corner and climb down the ladder. Hopefully you didn't find this as difficult as I did. (NOTE: This section (Groznyj Grad Northwest) is only written for Hard. I forgot to make a mental note about guard placements and such while playing through on Normal, so try to adjust this strategy accordingly. It should still play the same, but I think one of the dogs is missing, as well as a guard or two.) 009.3 - The Groznyj Grad sewers Thankfully, there aren't any guards in the sewers. There are dogs, but they won't sound an alert like the ones beforehand. After the radio conversation, collect the Single Action Army bullets and the LF Med before heading down the stairs. Run north until you reach a gate, on the left of you is a small hole that you can crawl through. You'll hear some dogs growling at you, but they're behind another gate. Continue north and crawl through a similar small hole on your right. Run north some more until you reach a set of steps on your right; there's another hole that leads south, if you crawl through the next hole you can collect the Life Medicine on the ledge. By now, you've probably realized that the dogs somehow get through the gating and will try to attack you. If you're in First Person because you're in a crawlspace, you can use the Cigarettes to knock them out, and the Single Action Army will well if you're in the open. Once you're back at the spot with the steps, dive into the water and swim to the inlet on the left. Don't forget to check out the bottom of the sewers; there are medical supplies and some Ramen Noodles lying around. Climb up the ladder and continue north, and then head up the stairs on the right and through the crawlspace. After crawling through the space on the right, run north towards the light while the dramatic music builds up. Eventually you'll trigger a cinematic. (NOTE: BEFORE THE CUTSCENE, TAKE OUT THE TRANSMITTER IN YOUR BACK. If you don't, an Ocelot team will be in the next area, and it's a real pain in the ass to deal with.) 009.4 - Boss: The Sorrow Is this even a real battle? After diving into the river below a la The Fugitive, you end wading through a swallow section while the jungle burns around you. The Sorrow appears, some dialogue, and eventually gets to the point and tells you, "Now you will know the sorrow of those whose lives you have ended." Basically, it means that you have to wade upriver and avoid all of the dead people you killed from the Virtuous Mission to the present. The only weapons you have to fight them is anything you've picked up so far, which may include the M36. I'm usually stuck with just the SAA, so I'm basing this on only having that with me. You really shouldn't need any other weapons, though, since the dead soldiers move fairly slow and are easy enough to avoid. This battle may obviously vary in difficulty depending on how many people you killed: If you followed this guide and used the MK22 most of the time, then this will be a walk in the park. If, however, you decided to slit everyone's throat like I did the first time I played through (racked up over four hundred kills, the river was fucking loaded with zombies...), then you're going to be in for more of a rough time. And since Snake wades through the water slowly, it's difficult to maneuver around them. Try to conserve your ammo since isn't any extra lying around, and don't accidentally hit The Sorrow while he's floating around. Don't bother shooting The Sorrow either; if you look at his life gauge you'll see that he's already dead. The only attack that The Sorrow actually uses is this stream of energy that emits from his hands. It curves around in whatever direction you're heading, but it's easy to avoid if you just walk to the opposite side of the river. Anyway, after going through everyone you killed, you finally reach the end. The Sorrow's floating over a dead body and he's saying stuff like, "Go back to your own world." You can't walk past him, and if you touch either the body or The Sorrow, you die. However, if you called anyone with your radio during this section, you'll have noticed that they acted like you're already dead. Sure enough, touching the body or The Sorrow and "dying" is just an illusion, so go into your items and use the revival pill. (NOTE: If you die before reaching the end of the river, you can use the revival pill {instead of selecting Continue} and proceed with the game.) If you make it all the way to the end of the river, you'll get The Sorrow's Spirit Camouflage. Also, if you're wondering why the bosses still appear even if you drained their stamina, then you haven't been watching the cinematics. They explode, remember? So stop emailing me about it. 009.5 - Meet EVA behind the waterfall This is pretty simple unless you decided to be an idiot and not remove the transmitter that Ocelot jammed in your back during the torture scene (which I reminded you TWICE to take out). I only kept the transmitter in one time to see what would happen, and I'm pretty sure it's impossible to get by them without sounding an alert. Best of luck if you want to try. Hell, if you can sneak through on Hard, send me an email and I'll add it here. Assuming you're alone, kill the goat and then run onto the bank on the right and head north. There's some fruit and a few snakes around here, so get as much food as you can hold before crossing over the river by walking on top of the log. Continue north along the river until you reach the waterfall. Head along the path on the right to get behind the waterfall and meet EVA. (NOTE: After getting all of your equipment, head back outside for a few extras. First of all, if you captured a Tsuchinoko earlier, a new one appears on a patch of grass just before the waterfall on the east side of the river. Your need to capture it alive if you're getting the Infinity Face Paint this way, so use the MK22 to knock it out. Also, the Kabuki Face Paint is at the bottom of the small lake in front of the waterfall. To my knowledge {translation: "unless I'm an idiot and just missed it"}, it only appears after the scene with EVA. After getting your equipment, run through the tunnel behind the waterfall and collect the items and food along the way. At the end is a door on your left, the ladder inside of it leads to the southern end of Groznyj Grad Northwest. 010.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Groznyj Grad II - Destroy The Shagohod Objectives: - Plant C3 explosives on the Shagohod's liquid fuel tanks. 010.1 - Groznyj Grad exterior There's been an increase in security since the last time you were here, so try to avoid any unneeded exploring. You should be fine ammo-wise, so there really isn't a reason to go anywhere else, anyway. Equip Splitter/Splitter and head southeast, there are a bunch of guards hanging around the row of tanks, so head to the small fences set up and crawl east to the door leading to Groznyj Grad Northeast. Try and be as quick as you can while doing thing, since there are guards that make their way down to the end of the area. However, if you don't sit around, you'll miss them without a problem. In Groznyj Grad Northeast, run southeast along the wall until you reach the end of the small hanger. There are four guards in the open area, one is leading the other three through drills that consist of running back and forth. Simply wait for them to come down by Snake and then begin running back, and slip across the area to the hanger on the other side. From here it's pretty straight forward, the guards are positioned in the same place they were when you first entered Groznyj Grad, so repeating your steps to enter the Lab shouldn't be too difficult. 010.2 - Plant the C3 near the four fuel tanks Regarding what EVA said before about the scientists being off, your Scientist Uniform will still work in this area, but not in the main wing where the Shagohod is. While incognito, run up the stairs to the locker room where you stored Raikov's body, there are two new camouflages in the lockers, the Maintenance and Sneaking. The Sneaking suit is in the same locker that you stashed Raikov in, and it reduces stamina drain and damage while equipped. The Maintenance uniform allows you to enter the main weapons wing without being noticed by the guards, and it's located in the second locker from the top in the far right row of lockers. Get them both and head through the door in the southwest corner to enter the Main Wing. Like the scientists, all of the maintenance workers know each other, and will pick you out as an imposter if they get a close enough look at you. Also, you can't plant C3 charges in Alert mode, so stay sharp. First, stalk up the stairs and sneak up behind the maintenance worker. Use the Cigarette Spray to knock him out, and then head down to the main level. The first fuel tank is almost directly north of you, just up an incline. However, there's also a guard and maintenance worker there, so you'll have to get rid of them first. The guard is to the right of a large crate and he's walking towards you, so run up to him and knock him out with the Cigarettes. Remember, if you block their path, they'll stop and give you a funny look, but won't attack unless you do something out of the ordinary. The maintenance worker is northwest of the crate, working next to the fuel tank. Luckily, he's facing away from you, so sneak up behind him and knock him out as well. Plant the C3 next to the fuel tank (you don't need to change uniforms for it, thankfully) and continue north. There's another guard directly in front of you, so take him down. The next tank is on the right, behind some crates, and there's occasionally a maintenance guy there. He too is working on the tank, so you can sneak up behind him without a problem. The next two tanks are on the other side of hanger, so run west to the north corner of the hanger. Don't forget to pick up the LF Med under the first truck, but don't be seen by the guard patrolling in the northwest area or he'll get suspicious. Speaking of that guard, knock him out before planting the third C3. The fuel tank is in the very corner near some crates, make sure to go around and plant the C3 while you're behind the cover of the crates, otherwise the maintenance worker to the south might see you. The final fuel tank is right next directly next to the top of the stairs. The maintenance shouldn't be able to pick you out from that distance, so don't worry about being seen on your way over and up the stairs. It's literally right there, so simply plant the final C3 to trigger the cinematic. 010.3 - Boss: Colonel Volgin Volgin is definitely an interesting boss to fight; his attacks are both fairly unique and damaging, and he has an electrical barrier that protects him from any front attack. Try to get used to his patterns if you want this battle to run smoother. Like with The Pain, I think it'd be best to just list his attacks: - Volgin fires a stream of electricity at you that curves around the room in whatever direction you run. However, this attack is only used when you have a weapon equipped. If he strikes you with something in your hands, not only does it do more damage than if you were bare hand, but it also empties the ammo from that weapon. When you deplete half of his life, two streams will emit, each in opposite directions. It's more difficult to counterattack, so just lie down to avoid it. - After collecting energy, Volgin will rapidly fire bullets at you. He only follows you 90 degrees, though, so get behind him and attack! - If you get too close to him or don't instigate a lightning attack, Volgin will run at you and try to perform a hand-to-hand combo. If he does, Snake will throw up and lose a good deal of stamina on top of taking severe damage. Just run away and get behind him to attack. - Volgin also fires a quick blast of electricity that will send Snake across the room and make him vomit. Simply run somewhere (Is anyone else noticing a pattern here?) to avoid this. - After draining half of his life gauge, Volgin will occasionally collect hundreds of bullets and surround himself. After hovering there, he will send them in out in every direction. Lie down to avoid them. The one tip to remember while fighting Volgin is to keep any weapon out of your hands unless you're attacking him; a great strategy to use is to equip something to trigger his lightning stream. Then quickly get rid of the weapon and run around him, reequip yourself, and then attack. The damage you receive if you don't have anything in your hands is far less then if you do. I've found that there are two different ways to go about fighting the Colonel. One way is to equip a weapon and get him to use his lighting stream attack (as described above). Run behind him and fire a few shots into his back; don't bother using a machine gun since Volgin becomes invulnerable for a few seconds after being hit. However, you can get more than one hit before he turns around; so don't pass up the opportunity. Repeat this until the mid-battle cinematic plays and he becomes more aggressive. As for the last half of the fight, keep in mind that Volgin's protective barrier can only sustain so much abuse. If you take one of your machine guns and fire at him (The M36 is recommended, it has a nice, long clip) you can break through it and get a few extra hits. Keep this attack reserved for the latter half of the fight, since his use of the double lightning stream makes it more difficult to get around him and attack. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: This strategy is actually somewhat easier than the above one. I'm not exactly sure why, but I developed it while fighting the Colonel on Extreme trying to get his camouflage (and the Foxhound rating in the long run) and found that I didn't receive a single hit the entire time. It starts out similar to the lethal strategy; lure Volgin into using his lightning stream and then run behind him. Simple enough, right? Well, instead of putting a few bullets in his back, use a CQC throw to knock him down. You'll notice that it really doesn't do a great deal of damage, so be cheap and kick him while he's down. You can get a grand total of two kicks to Volgin while he's on the ground; after that he protects himself with an electric barrier. When Volgin becomes more aggressive, forget weapons completely and stay unarmed. It's nearly impossible to get close enough while he's performing most of his attacks, with the exception of two: the machine gun and hand-to- hand combo. If you don't have a weapon equipped, more often than not he'll charge at you and try to beat you up, which means there are plenty of opportunities to take him down. The machine gun is a little more difficult to avoid, but it works the same way. Repeat until he finally goes down, and don't forget to run over and pick up his camo before the cinematic triggers. Draining Volgin's stamina gains you the Cold War camouflage, which confuses enemies into thinking you're one of them. Keep in mind that this only works if you're facing the soldiers, and they won't do anything but stare at you (nothing like where the military uniform and Raikov mask). To summarize both strategies, the Golden Rule to follow while fighting Volgin is to always stay on the defensive. Taking risks will usually end up with Snake on his back, so wait for the Colonel to leave himself vulnerable. Remember, he takes a second or two to recover from his attacks, and that's the best time to counter. There are also a few tricks you can use to confuse Volgin and get a few cheap shots. - Glow Cap Mushroom - If you toss a mushroom somewhere in the area, it will attract Volgin's electricity. It only lasts about two attacks, but it can be useful if you have a few to spare. - Raikov Mask - It's really more hilarious than it is useful. In the very beginning of the battle, equip the Mask as Volgin starts walking towards you. When he sees "Raikov", he drops down to his knees and asks, "Ivan, is it really you?" He's completely open to any attack you have at this point, so take advantage of it. Afterwards, Volgin wises up and won't respond to the Mask. 011.0 - Operation Snake Eater: Motorcycle Escape Objectives: - Escape from Groznyj Grad with EVA. - Destroy the Shagohod. I hope you aren't expecting a detailed section here, because I don't plan on writing down where every enemy is. And besides, you have unlimited ammo; just shoot everything that moves. The AK and the Scorpion are two of the better machine guns to use; the Scorpion has a laser sight but a short clip, and the AK is more accurate than some of the other machine guns. I wouldn't recommend using the M36 for that reason. Don't forget to use the tactical reload, either. You can also use the MK22 (don't forget to take off the silencer), since it will instantly knock out an enemy in one shot no matter where you hit him. Also, you can go into First Person View and shoot everyone, but there's always the option to allow the auto-aim to kick in and watch the escape through the cinematic camera. True, it's a little harder to do and I wouldn't recommend using the MK22 in that situation, but it's pretty awesome to watch from that angle. Oh, and make sure to use the Sneaking Suit, since it decreases the amount of damage you receive. 011.1 - Escape from Groznyj Grad The main thing to watch out for here is the various guards that hang around on the rooftops with rocket launchers. EVA will warn you, but it's usually as the rocket is shot off, so always keep an eye out for them. Also remember to kill all of the guards in the connecting wing when EVA stops in Groznyj Grad Northwest. And watch out at the very end of the fortress. Just as you're entering the runway, a guard with a rocket launcher will attack you from the second floor of a guard tower. 011.2 - The Groznyj Grad runway It gets a little easier on the runway; no longer do you have to worry about being attacked from random directions, but just the motorcycles that chase after you. Each motorcycle has a driver and a passenger; the best course of action is to kill the driver and flip the bike, since the driver pulls out a pistol and take shots at you if his partner is killed. After the cinematic with Ocelot, the Shagohod speeds up and tries to run into you; shoot a rocket at the treads to slow it down. Also, when the Shagohod fires rockets at you, make sure to shoot them down with your AK. 011.3 - The Bridge Depending on what difficulty you're playing on, there can be anywhere from one to four C3 charges that you have to destroy. None of them are really hard to miss, though, since each one has a blinking red light on it. EVA also gives you tips for finding the charges ("A little higher" or, "More to the left"). On Normal and up, you have to destroy one of the charges to expose another, except there's a railing swinging back and forth that interrupts your shot. However, as long as you don't sit around and check out the view, you should have plenty of time to destroy all of the others and wait for an opportunity to present itself on the last charge. Lastly for this section, don't forget to wait until the Shagohod is actually on the bridge before destroying the last charge. Just keep your sights on the last one until EVA shouts, "IT'S HERE!" to prevent from collapsing the bridge prematurely. 011.4 - Boss: The Shagohod But destroying the Shagohod by dropping it in a river would be too much of an anti-climax, says Kojima. Instead, the back half of the Shagohod tears off, and the front speeds up the bridge and lands in a conveniently flat, circular area. EVA drives you around in her bike, and you're supposed to do all of the fighting. Unfortunately, it turns out that the fight here is a joke; the Shagohod will rarely attack, and when it does, it doesn't do a lot of damage when it hits you, which is maybe half of the time (and that's being generous). The only way to inflict damage on the Shagohod is by firing a rocket at one of the smoking areas in its back. In case you can't remember from three minutes ago, the way to stop immobilize the Shagohod is by shooting rockets at each of the treads. Blue electricity will emit from each tread when it's disabled, and EVA will drive around in to the back. I prefer attacking the smoking area in the middle of the Shagohod rather than the smoking region on the side, but either way works. Just remember to use the sights on the RPG-7 to avoid missing. Now repeat... 011.5 - Boss: The Shagohod Part II Too easy? You're damn right it was. Sadly, this isn't much more of a challenge. Volgin revives the Shagohod by directly submitting his own electric charge (or something like that). Whatever actually happens, your target now is Volgin himself, who stands on top of the Shagohod. The fight begins with Volgin chasing EVA around in circles, so run off to the Southeast corner to avoid being run over. Equip your SVD and wait for Volgin to appear in your sights; you might have to let Volgin pass you to get your aim in the general area, but you have plenty of time so don't worry. When the opportunity arises, shoot Volgin in the back (since all frontal attacks are still blocked by his force field). Volgin sustains anywhere from a third to a half of his life gauge depending on where you hit him, and then decides to come attack you instead of EVA. If you examine the front of the Shagohod, you'll notice that there's a large metal railing supporting the middle of the Shagohod on the underside. Besides that, however, it's is completely open down there. Get as close as you can to the Shagohod and run under it; Volgin will yell, "I'll crush you into dust!" and charge forward. Lucky for you, you're already on the other side. Quickly turn around and equip the SVD; you only have a few seconds to get a shot off, so don't waste any time. If that shot didn't defeat him, run back up to the Shagohod and coax Volgin into charging at you again. He might spin around if you get too close to him too early, but even if he knocks you down it won't deal out a huge amount of damage. When you get behind him again, hit him with the SVD again. Repeat... In all seriousness, if this battle takes longer than five minutes, consider yourself a disgrace. 012.0 - Operation Snake Eater: The Final Battle Objectives: - Reach the lake where EVA has hidden a WIG. - Defeat The Boss. 012.1 - Resuming the chase Use the exact same methods as before; both foot soldiers and motorcycles will be attacking you this time, but separately. No one has an RPG-7 on them, so there's absolutely nothing you can't handle by now. When the motorcycles stop and the hover things take up the chase, use the Scorpion's laser sighting to take them down (this is the one time I'll say not to use the MK22 unless you're going for a no-kill; be prepared for some frustration if you are). When the hover things quit and the motorcycles attack you from the right, use the AK and shoot just in front of them to destroy all of them. A few more bikes attack you from behind afterwards, and then EVA takes a jump over a river. For effect, let a few bikes follow behind you and watch them not make the jump. 012.2 - The Zaozyorje woods After EVA crashes the bike and gets impaled by a tree, go into the Cure menu and heal her wounds. After Snake and EVA are both healthy, collect the food and ammo lying around, and go hunt for the rest (there's are a few Reticulated Pythons crawling around, use the Thermal Goggles to find them). MAKE SURE NOT TO HEAD SOUTH UNTIL YOU'RE READY. You'll trigger the next part of the game where you're hunted by groups of soldiers. Collect as much food as you can and refill EVA's stamina (you need to be next to her in order for the option to feed her to appear) and head south when you're ready. This section gets a little tricky; EVA moves very slowly and there are groups of enemies constantly following behind you. Change into the Woodland/Leaf package and immediately run west. Tell EVA to follow you (Triangle) and hide in the patch of moss and grass on the north side of the trail. Remember, when you lie prone, so does EVA, so make sure that she's hidden as well. Eventually, a group of five or six soldiers will come looking for you; use the MK22 to knock them all out. Don't try using the M19, the soldiers will panic and go into the higher Caution. When all of the soldiers are knock out, quickly get up and run west to the area where the trail curves south. Hide in the next patch of moss/grass and wait for the next group to come looking for you. Knock them all out and head south; don't forget to pick up the False Mangos lying in the mud (you might have to feed EVA again right about now). South of you is a log bridge; make sure that no one is coming following you and run across. When EVA is safely on the other side, equip your Claymore's and plant as many as you can on the log bridge - about three or four should be plenty. Now lead EVA to the Southeast corner of the area; you shouldn't have any problems getting there since all of the enemies are tied up back at the log bridge, so no need to be stealthy here. When both you and EVA are at the edge, you proceed to the next area of the woods. This part is a little easier to handle since enemies aren't actively searching for you. However, there are about eight or nine of them, so be careful. The area is divided into two major sections, with the guards split evenly between them. You start out in the bottom right corner of the first area; there's a guard walking away from you to your left as well as three others down a short slope in front of you. Quickly shoot the guard on your left with a tranquilizer to knock him out. Now crawl forward and find a place where you can see all of the remaining guards and still be hidden, there are a few good places depending on where the guards are in their routes. Shoot the three of them with your MK22 and knock them out; headshots are important here. When everyone in this area is knocked out, pick up their bodies and drag them over to where you started out. You might also consider killing them, since having any of them wake up won't be good. Continue forward and take the path on the left (don't forget to bring EVA with you). Eventually you'll come to a small ledge covered in grass. Crouch down and equip your Thermal Goggles. There are about five guys hanging around waiting to ambush you, so take them all out. Stealth is vital here, you can't let any of them see you and investigate your hiding place; they'll actually walk completely around and come up behind you, often without you realizing it. The first guard is almost directly in front of you, around the center of the area. Shoot him with the MK22 to knock him out; his comrade hiding behind a tree to your left will go over and check on him. Quickly knock him out as well. Two more guys are on your right, at the far end. Use your SVD's scope along with the Goggles to find them, but continue to use the MK22 and its suppressor to ensure your safety. In the higher difficulties, there's also a guard hiding directly under you. You'll probably end up standing up to some degree to see him, but by now there shouldn't be anyone else to see you. Knock him out, and do a quick search with the Goggles to make sure that you're alone. With the area clear, hop down and head to the exit in the left corner. EVA will probably be complaining about being hungry, but don't bother feeding her. When the two of you are at the ledge, you'll head to the lake where The Boss is waiting for you... 012.3 - Boss: The Boss You knew it would happen, a final, glorious battle with your mentor. While it may seem at first like this is going to be very offensive battle (since The Boss immediately runs up and attacks you), the best idea is to hide and pull surprise ambushes. Equip a Snow/Snow combination to have an 80-90% camo index while prone. The one thing to remember while fighting The Boss is that you can't escape her when she tries to attack you with CQC. You know when she's coming, since she yells out, "Let's see what your made of" or "Here I come!" It's impossible to avoid her now, so let her come to you and be ready to counter her CQC with your own. When she grabs you and goes to throw you down, tap the Circle button as fast as you can to break free from her. You can either shoot her now (be quick about it) or do your own CQC throw. Also keep in mind that on the higher difficulties, The Boss will dismantle any weapon that you're holding in your hands when she throws you down; so like Volgin, unequip your weapon when she goes to attack. If you're going to beat The Boss with lethal tactics, this is going to be a fairly simple battle. You'll need your SVD and the Thermal Goggles; the idea is to stay as far away from The Boss as possible. Remember, she only initiates a CQC attack when you're near her, so make sure to watch where she runs and to head to the opposite end of the area. Her machine gun (a "Patriot") is so powerful that, like with The Fury, it will prevent any bullets from getting through if she's firing at you. However, if you crouch down in the flowers, you should have a high enough camo index to hide from her. The downside is that it's easy to lose The Boss the same way; she doesn't lie down or anything, but her white sneaking suit in the field of flowers makes it difficult at times to see. That's where your Goggles come in. Crouch on your knees and equip the Goggles and your SVD and try to pick The Boss out; she's usually hiding behind trees, but will often look around and leave herself open. When you find her and have a clear shot, shoot her with the SVD. After you attack, The Boss will know where you are, so run and find a new hiding spot. Now repeat. Providing that you beat her within ten minutes, you've just won the game. NON-LETHAL APPROACH: So you want to be cool and defeat The Boss non-lethally, is that right? Want that special camo? Fine. Use the same strategy as described above, except use the Mosin Nagant that you got by defeating The End non-lethally. However, when The Boss is reaching the end of her life, you have to be close enough to her that you can quickly run over and pick up the camo that appears when she goes down. Like Volgin, you don't automatically get the camo, so get there before the ending cinematic begins. Congratulations, you've just complet- Wait, what's that? You don't have the Mosin Nagant? If you don't have The End's tranquilizer sniper rifle, then you're going to have to resort to your awesome CQC abilities and fight The Boss hand-to- hand. This isn't as terrible as it sounds, but it still is a little more difficult. You have to tap fairly fast to break away from The Boss' CQC throw, but even the fastest tapping won't always save you. If you do manage to break free from The Boss' grasp, quick counter with your own CQC throw-down; it does a decent amount of initial damage, plus you can kick her a few times before she gets back up. Remember to run away before she gets up to avoid being shot at by her Patriot. If you don't break away and The Boss slams you down, quickly get back up and attack her. She'll be backing away and shoot endlessly from her Patriot at you, but the invulnerability time is long enough that you can get close enough to attack her before it wears off. Just be warned that this isn't the safest method to use, and there's a chance that The Boss with either: A - manage to shoot you, or B - attack you with CQC again. However, the bright side to this is that it's easy to instigate a CQC battle with The Boss, so you can attack her whenever you want to instead of having to wait around and letting her initiate it. Simply run up to wherever The Boss is and she'll go ahead and meet you to fight. When you defeat The Boss non-lethally, you get the Snake camo, which supposedly gives you a high camouflage rating in any situation. I don't think it's that great, but it looks kind of cool. For defeating The Boss, you're rewarded with a nice 15-minute ending. I'm willing to bet that you won't expect what happens. There's also one more part that you actually have to play through, but it's really just for fun, so don't put too much thought into it. Congratulations, you've completed Metal Gear Solid 3.
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