How to Unlock Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pains Secret Mission 46

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is the culmination of several years of hard work from Hideo Kojima and the team at Kojima Productions. The Metal Gear series is known for harrowing stories, exceptional characters, and mind-boggling reveals, and The Phantom Pain is no stranger to the things that make these games so good. That’s why it’s no surprise that the game’s “real ending” is locked behind a secret level, Mission 46. This guide will teach you everything you need to know to unlock Mission 46, and experience the “true ending” within the game.

The first thing you have to do is complete all of the story missions, excluding Mission 45, and Missions 47-50. Once you’ve completed all the story missions it’s time to make sure you have all the core Side Ops that effect that story. These Side Ops should be marked by a yellow indicator, and will feature characters like Huey, Strangelove, and the missing children. Once all the sideops are completed, you’re going to need to make sure you have Mother Base up to snuff. Once you’ve updated Snake’s base of operations to a certain point, Mission 46 will unlock and you can hop right in and experience the big revealing finale.

This may seem like a lot to do to just unlock one mission, but Mission 46 is one of the most pivotal and important missions in the entire game. It’s something that Kojima and Metal Gear fans aren’t going to want to miss.

Looking for more Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain content? You can find out how to recruit Quiet and D-Dog, or if you’re looking to collect all 27 of the blueprints, we also have a guide for that.