I did a similar thing, but what I did was I planted C4 throughout a compound. I put C4 on the radio base station, the power station, a big truck that usually had three troops around it, and an area where guards tended to congregate that also had some explosive barrels around it. What I did was, once I had all of my explosives planted, I switched off the power manually and then jumped out a window and ran up into a nearby hill to hide. Once I saw the power come back on (Indicating at least one guard was at the switch), I triggered all of my C4 one after another and blew everything to bits. Immediately afterwards, I jumped on my waiting helo extract and was out of there. (It turned out that during the time I was setting all of this up, the guys jumped in the truck and took off...so they all died quite a ways away from the base I was at.)

I definitely didn't have to go through all that in order to complete the mission, but damn it was fun.

Once you find the tape for Take on Me, I dare you to not want to put it on and wipe out an entire base as lethally as possible.

Not sure just how much music in the game is a spoiler for some people, so I blacked that out just in case.

This game could use a decent tutorial. Very minor nitpick, yes, but it would be nice nonetheless.

Played through a mission, took my time and made sure not to get caught. Brought the target to the helicopter and the game crashed. .5–1.0 hours of gameplay vanished because there's no checkpointing system in missions at all it seems. This isn't the first I've heard of this game being unstable. This fucking sucks. It is not fun to have to do stealth stuff over again, especially since I'm terrible at this game and actually for once performed well.

My one major issue with the game is..why bother Fulton at all? 95% of the things you can upgrade are things which would make further upgrading much harder/next to impossible. I mean maybe, maybe some higher-level fulton level is "can 100% extract even a mostly dead guy successfully" but even then. If my Fultoning guys from the field is the only way to upgrade my base..the system is broken.

Like look at it this way. Want that cool sniper rifle? Ok please use the tranq pistol, stealth and melee to get the guys you need to unlock the upgrade. Once you do..you can use the sniper rifle instead of the tranq pistol to upgrade the...oh no wait sorry, lethal, if you wanna upgrade that rifle further you gotta use the tranq pistol, stealth and melee..ok but you did..so NOW you can us the sniper rifle to level up your base to upgrade your..what? Oh no sorry you can't use the sniper rifle you worked to upgrade in order to earn more upgrades..back to the tranq pistol.

And wouldn't know you know it, that same non-loop applies to 95% of the base research items in the game.

I desperately desperately hope there is some sort of "Yo here is an option to auto-recruit guys' Maybe if I get to send my troops on missions one of those is 'recruit more guys" So, if I wanna play this game lethally..cause like again, they give you so many options, toys and rewards for doing so..I actually can?

You're spot on, that's exactly a kind of mission you can send your soldiers on.

@Mike: I did that Prone swipe on puppy D.D. on accident. I felt terrible.

I hit the Comms mission base area twice in a row because the mission ended and a side-op was there. I had blown up everything (and fultoned all possible emplacements) so the second run was amusingly easy. I tend to crawl to a high point near a base, tag everyone, then just start Tranquilizing dudes left and right and it seems to work out.

I'll drop a bunch of guys at once (body shots most of the time, just hit them fast, which incidentally makes those 3/4-man outposts hilariously easy) or pick 'em off, then carry them out (kick them awake for a quick interrogation and kick them into stun) and fulton. If I run low on suppressor / darts, I just call in resupply and bam, back in action. I've been getting way more GMP than the cost of fultons and resupply.

The container/vehicle upgrade for the Fulton seems like it'll take me a year to get though. Upgrades really jump up in requirements.

You get volunteers for just doing missions, but I really don't understand why Fultoning people bothers you so much. Just do it in Free Roam if you need some upgrades and the you can kill people in the missions and Side Ops if you wish. It's not a big deal.

I think the AI is pretty great from what I've seen so far. I came across a guard station at a crossroads and I was some ways above it to the side on a cliff.

It was night and it was nice to see they actually didn't immediately lock on to me even though I was firing, there were 4 guys and only when I got to the last one did he actually know from where the shots were coming.

Being pressured into a Fulton craze is largely an early game issue. Non lethal Fulton madness quickly outpaces your base headcount and you can switch to headhunting mode where only those with good enough stats or skills get to live if you prefer going in hot.

Also speaking of Fultons, an early stumbling block for people is 90% success rates. Pretty early your support team level will trim most occurrences back to 100%, so soldier on even if it means losing folks to the stratosphere. If you hold up a lot, conscious enemies reduced the chance so give the dude a boot and you might boost a 90% to 100%. Also really minor looking overcast or clouds can knock you down to 90% but that's a little hard to influence on your own but you can give Big Boss' vape rig a shot.

I'm really impressed with how the game handles story and side ops mix ups. I was just playing a side op, when I happened upon the ground the Quiet (I love how they say she is the most quiet sniper ever, even being able to suppress her heartbeat etc. and than she constantly hums during the whole fight. Quiet, all right. fight takes place and it simply triggered the whole episode, including cutscenes.

Once I got that, I set it as my helicopter music as soon as I could. It's getting kind of annoying now but I don't know if I can live without it. And the moment when I'm flying back to base with this music on and see the puppy is a joy to behold.

Sometimes when I'm in or waiting for the helicopter I like to imagine the pilot sighing as he again presses play on "Kids In America". He has no choice in the matter, Big Boss wants Kim Wilde to be played at all times and if he doesn't hear it when he's rounding the corner to hit the extraction point...the consequences will be severe. That I can have my chopper play music at all times is probably my favorite thing.

@bladededge: I play lethally and non lethally and still have plenty of recruits and my base is doing fine. It isn't that extreme.

I have no clue how common this is, but a truck just accidentally hit and killed a Soviet soldier as it was driving out of an outpost. The soldier flew a few feet into the air and landed next to a group of dudes who all became very distracted. The driver got out and stood around the body for a few minutes, too. It was surprisingly convenient and it gave me a lot of time to rescue Miller.

So has anyone tested what happens if you play the 'Afghanistan Lullaby' through iDroid speakers? If not, I'll try to do it tomorrow.

@Mike: that's awesome haha. I just got to the point in the story where the troop counts get beefed up and they start wearing helmets and everything so these kind of tactics seem to me to be really necessary. If you're sneaking into compound there are just so many guards and often they are doubled up.

hahah well I haven't seen that yet.

I'm going to copy/paste what I said in another thread, seeing as how it seems a bunch of people don't have any idea about this.

There's something I just happened upon that no one told me to do that led to some CRUCIAL story stuff. I'm pretty sure you can miss this entirely.

1) When Miller constructs the Medical platform, do the side op where you extract the old Mother Base member.

2) After doing those things, explore the medical platform. You will have no incentive to do this as Mother Base is empty and lifeless, but go ahead and do it. Look for a door with blue lights that you can go into. There's another door inside with a button. Press the button.

@lucien_lachance: Thanks. Turns out there is some stuff on Motherbase worth seeing.

Why the fuck are the Mother Base platforms so far apart though? It's insane. I know things will expand but it's just crazy how far apart they are. I wouldn't mind checking it out just for morale and occasionally something like this if it wasn't so huge for no reason.

Another MB tip: once you get Quiet, check out where she is being kept. Funniest moment of the game for me so far.

I'm enjoying the gameplay a lot but I'm back at a point where I keep getting caught in annoying and stupid ways. I ended up playing Ground Zeroes for 27 hours and got really good at the stealth, understanding exactly how enemies respond to things, but The Phantom Pain changes up some enemy behaviour and the distance they can see you at which means relearning some of that stuff. I'm sure it will become second nature soon but it's a little frustrating right now. I also just don't have the context for some gameplay stuff yet, like shooting enemy radio equipment obviously makes it explode and attracts guards which I didn't even think about and got myself caught. I also feels kind of cheap just tranqing 10 guys in a row but then I try to do something cool and get caught.

@theblue: yup, my birthday is August 26th, so I didn't want to wait around an entire year to see what was obviously going to be awesome and set that option for September 1st. So glad I did! Now I just need the next restaurant I go to on my birthday to sing that exact same song.

shoot from a distance or use C4. They will go alert but they won't know where you are and you still get stealth ratings for this. Also you could kill all those guys!

Anyone else fucking hate Miller? He hates everybody and constantly questions Big Boss's authority. The point where he hits the kid with his cane is, for me, when he crosses what TVTropes calls the "Moral Event Horizon."

Also, Paz is the most cloying, anime-esque character and I hate her and I hate her voice and she sucks and frankly? I'm not a fan.

@456nto Oh, I've experienced that pleasure.

Is there a certain mission I need to complete in order to be able to build the medical platform? I'd like to get that as soon as possible. I've googled it and have just come up with a ton of clickbait.

@sunbrozak: That clip is still incredibly hilarious to me. Dude just fucking flies!

@redyoshi: I'm pretty sure Miller does it for you at a certain point.

@lucien_lachance: Thanks. I've got missions 6-10 unlocked, maybe it'll pop up after one of those.

@atomicoldman:

We are kindred spirits. I was in the base where that tape is just exploring stealthily, found it and pretty much immediately went loud and deadly. It is now my music of choice for that sort of thing. The best is to set it to your helicopter music and call in air support. The blaring speakers mixed with the BRRRT of the machine guns is wonderful.

I don't know guys. Intro felt really underwhelming. I thought this game supposed to be subtle? At first it was alright but then it dragged on and on and on. My main two gripes so far are that Big Boss seems not phased by any the shit that is happening. I hope I would get used to to. Another gripe is that it is a bit rough looking visually. I mean I understand that this game is cross gen and open world and 60 fps. But Witcher 3 spoiled me on pc. First impression not so good . Tell me guys that it gets better . The thing that I really like is the musical score from the little bit that I heard. Also Japanese or English audio? Which do you guys prefer.

I am on the fence on getting this, so I need some help deciding:

1. I watched all of Metal Gear Scanlon and enjoyed them (particularly how the stealth SHOULD have worked even though Drew didn't seem to fully embrace that until 4).
2. Red Dead Redemption is one of my all time favorite games and just from looking at a few videos of this it seems to have a similar feel in terms of the open world. Is that true at all? Is there any sense in exploring the world outside of going from A to B for quests? (ie. Skyrim caves).
3. I got Ground Zeroes for free on PS+ but have not played it. Would it be worth it to play that first? How similar and/or different are the two?

@redyoshi:

Miller gives it to you after the mission where you have to capture/kill three Russian commanders that are going to meet with each other. I forget what its called but it unlocks right after the Honey Bee mission.

That's funny...the last thread I was posting in last night was with people talking about how much they loved the intro & prologue, myself included.

Also, English audio because I don't speak Japanese and the characters aren't Japanese either.

@bishopren Please marks specifics like that in spoiler blocks, dude. That was kind of borderline. In this topic, always err on the side of caution when it comes to spoilers. I fixed it for you.

Hey does anyone know why my crew is randomly dying? I'm just seeing some of them move to KIA and this was earlier on in the game so just wondering if it's a random event (which would be kinda shitty especially when you get better dudes later) or is there something i can do to prevent the deaths? I've been just eyeballing people's health in the all staff list and putting people with lower health in the sick bay but I'm getting a feeling that's their maximum health and I'm not actually healing them by doing that so... any tips on preventing "random" crew deaths? (I also boot out anyone with troublemaker skills)

@bishopren: That did the trick. Just unlocked it, thank you.

If Kojima's intention was to make the player think that they are going crazy, he succeeded.

Building the medical platform opens up a whole new can of crazy.

AND WHO IS PUTTING THESE POSTERS UP.

anyone else having trouble logging into the game's servers? im stuck in offline mode, and therefore cant download my GZ saves and stuff.

How does the mission ranking system work in mgs5?

Having most of the equipment in ground zeroes locked away being a crappy ranking system that was 90% based on time sort of killed that game for me, i am kind of ocd about unlocking everything in games but i cannot stand arbitrary time limits in videogames,i am a slow player that likes taking my time, and in a game that is all about about stealth and renaming undetected being forced to rush sort of ruins the game for me.

Is the ranking in mgs5 tied to unlocks of any kind?

I'm really enjoying this game thus far. Ground Zeroes was the first MGS that I thought was actually fun to play, so having that expanded with more open environments and the Peace Walker base building stuff is great. Also I just S-ranked a mission with no kill/no detection and I feel pretty good about that.

Not sure anyone has asked this yet, but is there a way to change Quiet's costume? I find her character design really frustrating. I know very little about the game, but it sure does bother me. I was debating picking it up today, and this might be the what pushes me over the edge.

@nicksgreen: I believe there are alternative outfits available for her to unlock. Don't what they are though.

@nicksgreen Other "buddies: have different armors and battle dresses so I guess there is something for her:

Yes, though not immediately. And most of her alt. costumes don't solve the problem.

(there is a Sniper Wolf costume, though)

@danteveli: @fdl: @sunbrozak: Thank you!

Never usually experiment in games and tend to stick to the first thing I do that works, but I'm finding it's not the case with this one. Case in point (only spoilers for the mission that Brad did in the QL) :

For anyone who's playing MGSV on the PC, how easy is it for you to access your save file? At some point I'd like to transfer from PS4 over onto the PC so I can get my custom music and play with whatever mods start popping up, but I intend on getting the platinum for this game first and I don't necessarily want to do it all over again afterwards. Thus I was hoping to download someone else's PC save file, but I don't know if that's possible. I think it was for Ground Zeroes but I may be misremembering.

@markini6: LOL at how perfectly that C4 situation worked out for you.

Haha, right?! Don't think it could have worked any better!