Is there actually any point on the map where cover is COVER? The tanks snipe you no matter where you're standing.

I never really left the spot they start you in, although I eventually retreated behind those cells as they seem to stop tank shells pretty effectively. Just keep calling in supply drops and hiding behind those while you reload.

I hated this mission so much. It felt like punishment for not researching the strongest rocket launchers and battle dress. I only had the basic battle dress and a shitty GROM rocket launcher researched because I almost never go lethal in the game, so this mission was infuriating. Some people report being able to Fulton the tanks but at any point I tried this I was instakilled by other tank/sniper fire. I wound up hiding behind the building and calling in bombardments on every vehicle.

S ranking this was awful. I could get to a certain point in the fight and the tank that spawns on the right and goes up the hill would kill me in one shot like 95% of the time. I basically had to make sure the entire hill was clear, and then run up and hide on that hill, hope nothing else spotted me, and crawl as close to the tank as I could before lighting it up with my CGM 25, than diving back behind the hill. Luckily, the fully upgraded CGM 25 is the most OP launcher in the game and can one-shot that tank like nobodies business.

The worst part was that I could one-shot EVERY VEHICLE that spawned, no problem, so I'd have these long dreadful lulls in the action each time I died where I just sat there waiting for crap to spawn and hoping I wouldn't get one-shot. Quiet NEVER actually drew fire like the game claimed she was. Finished the fight with full health.

Quiet is so amazing in the rest of the game and then almost useless for this fight. And of course the fact that I activated the mission reduces the replayability of other missions is just wonderful. I mean the concept of the mission is awesome but the execution is just terrible. I guess on the bright side Russian actual strategies are well represented.

"Boss, go rescue Quiet. Oh by the way there's an entire fucking mechanized division like 500 feet away and Quiet is Raiden from Revengeance; toodles!"

Oh and smoke doesn't work for no reason, at least not reliably.

It shouldn't be that much of a surprise though, the boss fights in this game aren't very good for the most part.

I don't really give a fuck that Quiet had to talk eventually, obviously that was going to happen, but you don't need to reduce the enjoyability of my gameplay experience after the fact. I mean sure I could use the Butterfly emblem forever but how the hell would I know that through the game?

@quid_pro_bono: You can Fulton, usually only works for the early waves though.

@ichthy: Nope, can't back out and can't change your loadout armor/characterwise.

What fresh hell, can you not even back out of this mission? KOJIMAAAA...

The mission task requiring you to fulton 7 tanks and 7 APCs was a real bitch.

I must have repeated this mission over ten times. The chicken hat prompt was very much not appreciated. Half of the re-tries were me getting one-hit killed near the end until I smartened up and supply dropped the combat suit (of course I had to re-do this every time).

At a certain point I just got fed up and hid behind the building like a coward, only poking my head out to tag tanks so I could call in bombardments for the first and only time in the game. I just wanted it to be over with.

I fultoned almost every tank and apc just by running up to them, only problem i had was with the infantry and gunship since i didn't have homing missiles.

Here's a tip for anyone who keeps getting killed: fuck the Battle Gear, go with the Parasite Suit with the Armor power up. You should have access to it by this point in the game, and it's the only thing that can take a tank shell to the face and keep you going.

On top of that, contrary to what the game says, only the Camouflage powerup reduces your rank to an A; you can happily dope on armor parasites to your hearts content and still get a S rank. Do the airport mission with D-Walker to farm the Skulls (you get more than enough after just one fight, and his minigun makes quick work of them), and you'll be good to go.

@mirado: This sounds actually fun, I'll be trying this when I come back for S ranks.

@quid_pro_bono: It's very, very cathartic. You see that tank crest the ridge, he lines you up, you see the shell streaking towards you, it slams you in the face, knocking you off of your feet, you get back up and blow the fucker apart with a multi-missle barrage. At a certain point I just ran at them, tanking their fire before strapping a balloon to their asses.

"Sorry Reds, it belongs to Diamond Dogs now!"

As someone who spent about 2/3 hours beating it today for my Srank I have to say this those two tanks had better lock on skills than any sniper including Quiet on extreme.

For those having troubles some tips for srank.

Take your best rocket launcher and always kill off the tanks. You can "destroy" them to the point the are immobilized and eventually explode but because we want the time bonus for srank you need to finish them so the next wave starts.

Run behind the building behind the bunkers onto the hill. Make sure you're in a good spot to shoot rockets. Most of the first wave and easy tanks are no problems so don't need to move or get fancy but when he shows up you're gonna move from one side of the building to the other shooting one rocket at a time. This will guarantee you never hit by the canon. You can get a second off at times but you know the risk if he also gets his shot off.

On the left side of the building there's a water tower that you can use to shoot rockets though the beams in a certain angle where the tank can't hit you because of the building and water tanks blocking his shots. On the right side there's a door frame where at a certain angle you can shoot a rocket through the frame that comes out through the front of the building and hits the tank.

Also never use the building as cover not only are there enough holes to get hit by but because of the splash damage on the tank you can get killed by a hit on an adjacent room from way too far.

After my first clear in which I got an A rank and came up with that strategy it only took two more tries for srank and only reason I died on first try is because I went for a second rocket on ultra sniper tank with homing slugs and got killed by splash.

This, along with the earlier Skulls ambush mission (the one where they jump out of the truck) was probably my least favorite missions.

I guess someone thought tanks that 1-shot you from nowhere even while you're wearing the highest level battle armor is fun?

The sequence suffers from poor checkpointing as well. I kept dying to the very last wave over and over again, and had to redo it from when the chopper comes. Which was fun because even 90+ hours in I still haven't found a missile guidance specialist, so I don't have homing missiles to deal with choppers.

I tried to play "peek-a-boo" with the tanks by shooting 1 shot from one side of the house, and then 1 from the other, and calling in supply drops in-between, but they still got me. It got less frustrating once I just tagged the vehicles and hid behind the house, and called in air strikes.

Also the "reward" you got for beating the mission? Quiet is gone for the rest of my save game. Eff. That.

@quid_pro_bono said:

Contrary to @junkboy0, I got an A on my first try by using the building - ground floor, just behind where you start there's a lot of rubble leading to a small hole in the wall. That leads to a small room with a gap in the roof just big enough to call a supply drop into.

Though, I will note that I always run with maxed Battle Armor (I love how tanky it looks, it's so different to any of the normal stuff Snake wears).

I was using a maxed version of the first rocket launcher you get. The only real trick I can think of is to go left, behind(but away from) the wall while reloading your rockets - the tanks just hit the other side of the wall and do nothing - and to call in supply drops before you run out of rockets so you're not sitting there waiting.

All in all, I love this mission, if only because it ends with one of the best sequences in the whole game.

I had no issues with it. I called in my rocket launcher when the fight started and just hid in the palace.

Again, fuck the Battle Dress for this fight: tanks still pop you like a blister. Parasite Armor is the cure-all; it allows you to screw up while waiting for those agonizing supply drops. Also, the missile guidance guy is a prisoner in Mission 19; he's in the camp south of the meeting point.

Thanks! I'll go pick up this guy up later.
I also haven't had a single opportunity to get parasites since I got the suit, so your tip about D-Walker and the airport mission (I assume it's the early one with Code Talker?) and get some of those as well. I... haven't really used the parasite suit OR D-Walker so far so that'll be interesting.

Dunno if I'll retry this mission for the S-rank even with better equipment though. We'll see...

Glad i'm not the only one who struggled with that. I've been doing a non-lethal playthrough so I've barely leveled up beyond the basic rocket launchers and stuff. It sure was fun starting it with a tranq setup each time and no way to back out. Armor hadn't been a problem for me until then either. It's good to hear the 360 no-scope headshot tanks were not just my imagination, too. I didn't realise the chicken hat was in the game until then either.

I loved how Quiets story ended but it was super shitty how they actually removed her from the game. My plan was to finish it and then S-rank old stuff. I think their was maybe supposed to be more mission after it so you have to carry on without her and feel it. That isn't how you do open world games Hideo! Not that it matters, I just PC her the fuck back in. Would be raging if I was on console.

@xymox: Yeah, the one with code talker. Take D-Walker and hook up his minigun; as long as you avoid the rust clouds that the Skulls create (keep moving after they jump), you can chew through their armor in just a few seconds. Just make sure to capture the downed skulls before killing the last one; they stay on the field until they are all toast, then they hop away.

You may want to research the gun upgrades for extra ammo, but if you don't feel like it, you can always go into your menu to request your buddy change equipment; that'll get you a reloaded gun and an undamaged D-Walker, which you shouldn't have to do more than once unless your aim is quite poor.

I can totally get why you wouldn't ever touch this mission again, but it's real cathartic to fuck those tanks up as a crazy, multi-homing rocket shooting metal man.

@xymox: You can stealth your way out of that one, you have literally no stealth option for Mission 45; you technically have a non lethal option but there's nothing particularly stealthy about it.

Good to hear I wasn't the only one struggling with this one. Loved the story pay off but MAN, took me at least an hour or two to finish this one out. Ended up getting frustrated, just marking the tanks and running behind the big building before calling in airstrikes. I didn't use that function at any other point in the whole game!!

Not sure if I could ever play that one again, think my all S-Rank trophy dream is dead.

Maaaan, just finished this and 46 back to back, and I feel like all the compulsion to keep playing just got sucked right out of me. 85 hours, not bad, time to take a break.

My one tip for this mission is "put on the goddamn heaviest armor you got!" I died like 5 times because of a shell 1 hit killing me in my sneaking suit. It became much easier in the battle armor. Also the Grom-11 Quiet gives you sucks ass, call in a better lancher.

I was in the same situation as you, I also learned there is a second chicken hat.

Specifically the last fucking tank would snipe me every time. Even if I hid for awhile in the building. The check point was about 10 mins back every time so I had to kill about 6 vehicles every time. Forced to play over and over until my research finished.

I had the sneaking suit and the first shitty rocket launcher for this mission. I must have died 20+ times to those fucking tanks that snipe you with one shot.

I refused to use the Chicken hat.

The worst part of this, is that after dying repeatedly I dropped in the swarm launcher (I forget what it's called CGM maybe?), and realised that even though it has an 8x scope on it, the lock-on range is limited to 200m or less, so I had to run down onto the sand across the road in the open to hit anything. Even the helicopter that shows up hangs out at around 230m from the furthest piece of cover.

@ohnooh: I eyeballed the trajectory for the chopper and shot it with the non lock on rockets since they're so much stronger. You can two shot it before it even gets in range to engage and look for you.

Also is it weird I'm feeling better about my struggles in this mission reading everyone's replies. :D

@junkboy0:

It's the hardest regular mission in the game by far. You shouldn't feel bad!

I hated this mission so much! It's a shame too because I think it's one of the most interesting missions from a story perspective.

The lead-in to the mission was really cool, but boy after the first checkpoint it can go to hell. That and Metallic Archaea I found to be pretty unfun, since both put such a huge emphasis on going loud, and that's not my style in these games at all. It's even worse for Mission 45 in that you take with you the equipment you had on the side op, which for me was the sneaking suit, tranq sniper rifle, tranq gun, and G44. None of those are effective at all. Since you don't really find out what you're getting into until after the game sets a check point, I had to start all over and wait a real long time dropping in each individual item I needed to complete the mission. As far as I know you can't back out to the ACC either, since the only option is to exit the game.

@ohnooh: If you run behind the ruins the chopper comes in closer.

This is the single worst designed mission in any video game ever.

This is not hyperbole.

I accidentally spoiled this mission for me before reading this thread and I think I'm right there (mission 46 and side op 150 just became available), so after reading all of your posts, I really don't want to get stuck in this mission or have to retry it ten times...

I'll try to get some parasites from the Code Talker mission (I've not used the parasite suit yet so I'm not really sure how it works).

As for weapons... Which rocket launcher should I use? Should I deploy with the Killer Bee or should I develop the CGM 25 (the "multi-lock homing missile")?

Got instant killed sniped so many times. I couldn't help but think to myself "did these morons play test this garbage" Really baffling stuff. Annoyed me even more that I accidentally picked the chicken hat, and had to restart the mission, and lost my checkpoints.

@xymox: whoa that's crazy! I assumed it was because of my low level in that, but knowing it always one-shots you? That's definitely bad too

Playing that mission AFTER 46 (somehow) soured my feelings of what I thought was a great end to an unbelievable game. It felt like I went to a restaurant where the appetizer was delicious, the main course was top notch, the dessert was to die for, and then when the waiter offers you an after dinner mint, he just slaps you in the face with his dick. How do you feel about the overall dining experience after all that?

*edit: And the valet has slashed your tires.

@bbalpert: Not only does the mission suck the game gets objectively worse after it. And all so some random chick could sing for 2 minutes.

First time I ever used the chicken hat. It made the cut scenes afterwards pretty hilarious.

It's not that hard. Bring some kind of launcher, supply drop like crazy, and don't be afraid to missile barrage the ones in the back that keep one hit killing you. It's a situation that demands you may have to play differently than you usually do. So do it.

I kept dying yeah but i kept trying and did it. Took me under an hour

Oh, and I refused to use the chicken hat throughout the whole game

The biggest problem with that mission is it doesn't let you prep for it. If you don't know what's coming, you'll go in there with literally no anti-vehicle weaponry other than C4, which I always carry around, and you can't quit to the ACC once you're at that point. Sure, they give you an RPG, but's it's the worst version of that particular one.

Yeah, this was the last mission I did. I did it after "The Truth" or whatever that mission is called (The "last" one, you should know which if you're done with the game), and this mission alone left such a sour taste that I'm probably never going to play that game again. I hated literally EVERYTHING about that mission. There wasn't even a legit way to back out! Christ sake, I've rammed my head against this wall for 2 hours, I just want to stop and do some other stuff and come back when I'm better prepared... I mean, maybe you can't back out because they don't want you to be prepared, but come on...

Ended up using the airstrike of whatever it's called for the first time in the game myself. I had no battledress at all, only the basic RPG and no offensive lethal weapons besides that. The thing about metal gear is that you're always able to go non-lethal, that has always been a part of the game. And where the fight required you to go lethal (Usually against mechs, choppers, tanks and so on) it gives you a good (most of the time the best) way to deal with the situation. At least that's how I remembered it.

This mission though, forced me to use equipment and tactics I had never used before (Nor developed, for that sake). Sigh.

I dunno, I'm left with an overall bitter taste in the mouth from this whole game. I kinda wanted another metal gear game, and this... well, this just doesn't feel like it. This mission is just a small reason, but a reason nevertheless.

I just finished this mission using the tips given in this thread (CGM 25 and parasite suit) and had no problem at all, but can clearly see how it can be an extreme pain in the ass if you don't know what equipment to bring in advance.

god forbid

EDIT: Weird, I could have sworn I made a post in this thread earlier today.

Anyways, found this mission pretty easy once I stopped trying to fulton everything. Just shoot missiles and dodge the really slow cannon shots.

But do I really not have Quiet any more ever? That really fucking sucks in that awesome Kojima way but seriously fuuuck that but also wow.

Worst mission in the game. Kept getting 1 shotted by a random tank that I wasn't even fighting with. Terrible checkpoints as well. I'd do a great job taking out like 4 tanks/APCs, get randomly killed and have to keep repeating it.

@starvinggamer: The forum post eater came for you. Also you're not allowed to dislike anything about this game whatsoever, clearly it was a master stroke by Kojima to eliminate your companion options. It does settle the D-Dog vs Quiet debate pretty soundly though.

@mirado: Wait seriously? I rock the Parasite Armor everywhere else but never used it in story because of that warning. Awesome news

Hide behind the building, use air strikes liberally, fire off the occasional shot to keep them away from Quiet. The missions tough to be sure but it gives you some powerful tools, even if it sorta feels like cheating.