Metal Gear Online Guide

This is a guide made by MGO veterans for MGO newbies. This guide can be updated by anyone who has any tips or advice for New and Old Metal Gear Online players alike.

For those who want to contribute please follow the current format and please try to use minimal vulgarities. Please update reliable tips and advice for Metal Gear Online (2008) ONLY! Any unreliable tips or advice found in this guide will be deleted.  And also please add in your name after the advice/tip you contributed such as:

#37 Submit MGO Tips! - xyz123.  xyz123 is your giant bomb user name.

In this guide, there will be some general tips you can take with you the next time you decided to play some Metal Gear Online. This guide will try to make you a better espionage tactical agent in the world of Metal Gear. Who knows? You might be better than Solid Snake himself!

Feel free to comment on any advice/tips found in this guide! Let it be known which advice/tips you like best!

You'd be surprised at how many people choose to aim from open ground at their target, when there is a perfectly good crate sitting next to them, that would hide 3/4's of their body if they were to crouch behind it.

This is common sense to most, however remember that 90% of all the kills you get will probably be from headshots on MGO, fire short bursts repeatedly at the head for a sure kill.

If you're tyring to get a headshot while moving or if the opponent is moving, try aiming to either the right or left side of the opponent's head. Knowing how to track movement is an important skill if a person is looking for a quicker kill.

Unless your team are on the attack, or you play stealth, I highly recommend defending your half of the map, not only do they run into your crosshairs, you will always have your comrades support as they spawn nearer to you.

If the enemy jumps behind some cover to reload, or you need to reload, lob a grenade at your enemy and side roll to safety, it will provide enough support for a safe reload and may even damage the enemy.

Another way to use grenades is to bounce them off walls or objects. Sometimes, an opposing member from the other team is hiding in a way that makes it difficult to take them out such as behind a corner. Toss the grenade in a way that will bounce it around to corner to land in the vicinity of that opposing member. In more complex obstacles, more creative solutions are needed such as making the grenade bounce off from sand bags or other objects.

When your grenade lands a hit, lob another one! Normally two grenades, especially WP's, will kill the enemy, if not lob a third or pump them full of lead while they recover.

This works especially well when defending, after using your grenades or lots of ammo run back to your spawn, hit start and voila! Your ammo and grenades are replenished! Surprising how many people don't do this, works better when Drebin Points are off.

The cardboard box is one of your best friends, not only does it recover stamina if you escape from a CQC assassination attempt, but it provides a whole bunch of opportunities! Hide in the box until someone runs past then unleash hell into the back of their head! If you're on fire equip the cardboard box to quickly extinguish the flames. Use the box while on stairs and you'll climb them faster too! When the box is on and you are running you can not be CQC'd, which means if Snake runs into you, quickly equip the box and run! Also, if a stun grenade is thrown, equip the box and all effects of the grenade are rendered useless!

When firefighting with an opponent, a quick way to duck is to equip the box. Although be careful when using the box. A person could easily be knocked down from a roll. Also, you can't shoot or reload unless the box is unequipped.

Just a note, there is a box skill out there. By leveling that box skill to level three, a person could use the box to ram into people while running. The effect is similar to using the barrel while rolling around.

Don't doubt stealth! - MGO uses the MGS4 engine, there are lots of stealth based attacks on MGO too! Don't doubt your cover for stealth, if you are pressed against a wall and someone is running toward you, don't run out like a madman and get shot, wait, most times they will run right past. This works better in shaded areas, even laying down behind something, people will still proceed past without noticing you, leaving them open for attack!

Don't run into the bullets, the game is built on tactics, so use them. Find a spot and defend it. Follow a small squad of men and utilize SOP to maximise your chances of survival. Camp! I know that word is shortly followed or preceded by several outbursts of "n00b", but again, it's a tactical game, not a fast paced FPS, shame on them for being reckless!

It all comes down to you and your brain, if you find you're getting killed a lot, calm down and think, learn from your mistakes, you'll find yourself playing a lot better if you analyze why your getting killed and then find a solution to counter it!

If you can't go through, go around. If you can't go over, go under. Create a strategy that will undermine the ability of the other team.

If you are in desperate need of help, ask for it!!! Set your codec commands, especially the ones for help, to an easily remembered sequence.

Also, when CQC'd, using the codec will alert your teammates to the presence of an opponent in the vicinity of where you are or where you were.

This works especially well on Rescue, where all fallen enemies remain in-play, get to a good vantage point on the objective and play dead! Then rack up the kills.

Plan on going for the objective? Pack some chaff's then! Just before you pick up the objective, throw a chaff, this will prevent the enemies from seeing where you and the objective are on the radar!

If you're being choked, or just knocked-out or asleep, rotate the analogue stick in a circular motion, this not only keeps your controller in shape but will make you recover much faster. Also, if you've been knocked to the floor by a CQC throw or roll, don't try and stand up! Sausage roll around ( L1 + X + <-- or --> ) and shoot at their head, a nicely place shot can save you with almost no damage done to you at all!

Without the CQC+ skill, a player who execute a grab will simply throw down the other player. WIth the CQC+ skill, when performing a grab move, a player will grab and lock the other player so that the other player could be chocked if desired. There are two ways to grab another player: one is by standing and the other way is by crouching and executing the grab motion.

A word about the crouch grab. The advantage is that those who are standing up can't grab a hold of you, whereas you could still grab them and put them in a choke hold. The only disadvantage of it is that the range when executing the grab is not as far as while standing up. So, a person has to be up close to perform a grab and choke hold. Another disadvantage is that a roll could knock down a person who is crouching.

To evade CQC, running isn't good unless you're faster. There are several techniques to avoid being grabbed. A person just has to stay out of reach. One is to hop back. Another is to flip to the side. One move that I see frequently used is rolling. Rolling into the prone position is another good technique to avoid being grabbed. This is especially useful when facing off against multiple opponents who are trying to perform choke holds.  The best way not to get grabbed is to be in the prone position that is if the game you're playing is purely CQC with not weapons nor no knives. Most likely, that's not the case.

Kicking is a very useful skill. It is the best way to knock out someone when they are on the ground or in the prone position. For example, say that a person is crouching and you roll into that person. That person should be knocked onto his back. Quickly run up and kick that person. If the person tries to get up, he'll be knocked down again and repeat the process.

If a person is prone as in lying on their belly, kick in the direction of where the opponent is facing. That way, when that person tries to get up, they will still receive your kick. Otherwise, the kick will miss and the opponent will get up. One way is to pay attention to how characters get up.  When a player in prone position gets up, he'll push himself up from the ground, retract the legs and dash forward or roll forward. It's much faster to get up from the ground in the prone position than it is while lying on the back. (That's the observation that I've made thus far.)

If the enemy is at distance or standing still, switch to 1st person view and nail them! Your shots will be a lot more accurate, one shot to the head will make them stumble, opening them up for a finishing shot!

While in 1st Person, get behind cover, now use the D-pad left/right, you will peep out the side, great for quickly popping in and out of cover during a fire fight! While peeping, whenever you are hit critically (making you flinch) you will automatically return to cover which could save your a** from time to time!

Freeplay is the way! Automatching isn't all it's cracked up to be, it will often match you against higher levels, on Freeplay you can find servers with a average level the same as yours, however try and find games with level restrcitions if you are intimidated by high levels as they can still join your game at any moment!

If you find a good player that's using his Codec effectively and using teamwork, JOIN HIM! The game is designed to be played with teamwork after all, activate SOP and help his as much as possible, a good player can save you from death many times. Add these players to your friends list, this means you can play similar games with them again!

Being relaxed during a game will relieve tension and stop you from making mistakes, that doesn't mean you can't get involved, just don't get too tense!

Go on to Solo Training and find some good routes around the maps, knowing a stealthy route that leads behind the enemy can earn you some sneaky kills!

Ok, before you spawn, while on the weapon selection screen, press Select. This makes the weapon selection screen disappear, letting you look around using the right analogue stick, when you spot someone, press Select to bring back the weapon selection screen and then Start to choose your selection, nail the guy while you're still invincible!

Have the Mk.22 as your secondary weapon, hide in a box or somewhere, wait for someone to pass you then put a dart in the back of their head! After they fall down, pop a bullet into their skull and score points for both a stun and a headshot kill!

Anyone can tell you this, to get the best tactical gameplay, find a mature clan that play properly and well, they will add an element to the game that playing by yourself cannot achieve!

Right, you're a Assault player that wishes to try some stealth/knife play without losing your stats? Well, change your weapon cycle so the knife is included. Now, when you see a chance for some CQC action, quickly cycle to your knife, CQC throw them to the floor and use the knife to stun them, then finish them off. Not only do you get a knife kill, but a stun point aswell! This works especially well on corners as mentioned below. Extra tip- If you don't want to mess with your skills to add Blades+ and CQC+, then don't! The beauty with this strategy is, that a CQC throw doesn't require CQC+, and you can stun the enemy using your knife easily without the need of Blades+. Combine knife skills with your other preffered play type to become an ultimate killer!

Now the update has reduced the knifes range, you may want to enter 1st person view to stun the enemy also now, it takes some time to perfect.

The best way to knife downed players is either to enable auto-aim or to manually aim. Also, the stun ability of the knife has farther range than the fatal one-hit knife kill. When using the knife near team members, always use stun. Just to note, once the stun ability is used, it has to be recharged, so be mindful of using it out in the battlefield.

A person could knife without having the Blades+ skill equipped. A perfectly good way to knife someone without CQC+ and Blades+ skill is to grab them in the crouching position. This will throw down the person to the ground. Since you were crouching, all you have to do is (and this is a very important thing) have the knife equipped, stunned the opponent then knife him. If auto-aim is turned off, make sure that when knifing downed opponents, use first person mode, aim down and do your dirty work.

A tip on knifing. When knifing, if you miss, you'll leave yourself wide open for an attack whether it be being shot or being knifed. Now, in a knives-only game, the bloody mess usually starts when a person attempts to knife a member for the opposing team be it successful or not. Everyone usually descends like a flock of vultures for a kill then. There are some ways to evade being knife and then knifing.

When approaching another player, right when you enter into the knifing range, a knife or two might get thrown out. Right before the knife is used, some people jump back or tightly circle back and then came in for the kill. Like what was written above, when a person knife, they become vulnerable. Others might simply flip to the side to evade being knife. Now, a person who is standing cannot knife a person that is crouching unless auto-aim is on or a person is manually aiming.

From what I gathered, some people prefer to knife with auto-aim on. This allows for a sure-kill. The beauty about this is that it will allow a run-and-stab attack which is extremely deadly. If you thought running and gunning was bad ass, you ain't seen running and stabbing.

For those that are wondering about throat slitting, a level three Blades + is required (CQC + has to be equpped also).

This works great for stealth play, if you hug the wall at a corner and wait, when an enemy approaches, go into OTS and line up for their head, then strafe out and gun them down! For stealth lovers, hug the wall near the corner with your Stun Knife equipped, wait until they come round the corner and CQC throw them to the floor, quickly stun them with the knife then enter 1st person view and finish them with a stab to the body. Good work!

Playing Team Sneaking, Sneaking or Stealth Death Match?! Well, look for shadows! If Snake or the attacking team are using stealth or octocamo in the light, then they might as well not use it at all! They will still leave shadows, so look for them! So if you are Snake or on the attacking team of team sneaking, then stay in the shadows! You will become practically invisible. If you are defending or not Snake, then stay in the light to avoid being sneaked up on.

Another way to spot an invisible opponent is to look for dust trails on the ground. Also, look for floating knives and/or other weapons. It can't be magic can it? Don't worry, there's no Psycho Mantis or any the Sorrow in the game so there won't be magically floating weapons going to and fro. Well, maybe not yet that is. Then again, you might see dead people running around.

Just to note though, if an invisible opponent plays dead, anything that they have equipped such as the knife and/or other weapons will disappear making it that much harder to locate them.

Out of all the Rescue or Team Sneaking matches you've played, how many start with one person activating SOP. How many times have you been killed by that pesky sniper? How many times have you walked straight into the enemy? Exactly, all of these are common practices on these modes. So, why not hide at a corner, wait until an enemy runs round then grab him and SOP scan them? Then all those pesky snipers become easy targets, you see the enemy before they get near and anyone hiding becomes completely uncovered. Scanning is a great strategy for these modes. Use it!

A tactic that is much used in Resuce and TSNE missions among the invisible team is to tranqualize an enemy opponent and wait for the opposing members to try and wake up their member. When they do, that provides an easy target for the invisible team. If you become so good at baiting, you migt want to consider yourself as a master baiter.

Stick together. I kid not. Teamwork and being in close vicinity of each other is crucial. Don't wonder off by yourself because most likely, you'll end up tranquilized or worse. This is especially crucial when heading into a long dark alleyway or passage.

When playing Team Sneaking, when you are attacking, after stunning an enemy, stand up, pick them up and drop them, then take their weapon and kill them with it! It's great when you scan an enemy, stun them and steal their weapon, then hunt the rest of them down!

When defending on TSNE or hunting Snake, use ENVG! The Stealth camo doesn't mask infra-red rays so you can see the enemy clear as day! Also, even though OctoCamo masks Infra-red, you can still see Snake's footprints! So if you follow a set of footprints to an area of nothing, Snake could well be lying in that very spot!

When you are attacking, don't you hate it when someone spots a floating Mk.22? Of course you do! Well next time, when crawling, if an enemy gets near, play dead and if your in the shadows they will walk right over you, because your weapon disappears! Leaving them open to be held up or shot in the back!

OK, you can see a guy at the top of the ladder waiting patiently for you to reach the top, instead of concluding that your assassination attempt has failed, equip any grenades you have, you can throw them from the ladder, sometimes knocking the enemy over or providing enough cover for you to quickly climb up and take cover!

So you overhear someone climbing a ladder, you look at your map and there is no friendly arrow indicating it's your team-mate, so you check and sure enough, it's an enemy. Now instead of waiting like a plum and them realizing that you've sussed them out and climb down, lay down at any open edge, equip your pistol and crawl to the edge so you hang your body off the edge, go into 1st person view and nail a bullet straight into their head while they unsuccessfully flee down the ladder!

OK, so you're climbing a ladder and notice a magazine placed right at the top. The sniper beyond this has become troublesome and needs to be taken out, well you can either toss a grenade up, blowing up the magazine or if you don't want to be heard try moving left or right so you dismount the ladder and hang from the building edge. Now you can shimmy out of the magazines range and proceed upward!

So, you've been CQC'd one time too many or you dozy team-mate has repeatedly rolled into you dropping your psyche bar? No worries! Just sit in your cardboard box out of harms way to refill your psyche. This also works with the drum barrell too! However for an even better psyche boost, whip out the lad's mag and read it instead of planting (equip mag >> hold L1 >> hold R1 >> Press Triangle >> Press Circle to flip pages) to see your psyche fill incredibly quickly!

Firstly, remember Shotguns do not headshot unless you have slug ammo equipped. They should only be used for 1 vs 1 situations unless you are a skilled player. Aim for the chest for a maximum chance of the enemy falling down or flinching, if an enemy fliches while reloading they will have to reload again so consider this while firing from cover! Also, if your weapon settings are set to Toggle then after firing the shotgun, instead of waiting for your character to pump the shotgun, just unequip and reequip the shotgun, voila! It's loaded again!

You'd be surprised how many people run straight past you if you are laying / playing dead in the water of T.T. This also means they can hide from you too, the best way to tell if someone is hiding in the water is they form a watery outline where the water is running past and over them. Keep your eyes open!

At one end of the map where the water way slopes down into a barred gate, a player could use that as a point to kill members of the opposing team. Lay down on slope on the back so that you're facing the rest of the tube. When opposing team members run by, shoot them down. If you decide to play dead, make sure you pay attention to your breathe gauge which is on the psyche gauge. The blue bar if you will when you're underwater.

Minding your surrounding is a very important skill. An enemy could be lurking anywhere. Mind the corners and bends. Be careful of long clear passages. Some might be perched on high or tucked away behind something. Look not just behind but also in front, beside, above and even under you. You never know where the enemy might be lurking.

After playing through all the maps, a player will get an idea of where other players might use as a place to snare other palyers, but you never know what's going to come down.

It's not something that anyone would want to do, but in a few cases, it's probably best to leave a downed teammate. When I say downed, I mean a teammate who has either been knocked out or tranquilized. Losing one teammate is bad enough but to possibly lose two or even more would put the whole team at risk in games where there is no respawn.

It's a tough call but at times, it's the best call.

Don't feel so comfortable with a pistol or other types of weapons? Then, familiarize yourself with them. One way of familiarizing yourself with a particular weapon is to level up the appropriate skill for it. For instance, say that you're terrible with using pistols, equip the Pistol+ skill and level it. Not only will a person get acquainted with the weapon but also level up the skill that is tied to that weapon.

Also, by using other weapons, a person learns of the advantages and disadvantages of a particular weapon. This knowledge will lend itself useful on the battlefield. In addition, this might also improve a person's dexterity when using other weapons such as improving headshots.