Metal Gear Solid V: TPP Guide - Beginner Tips for Survival

Use the binoculars

In Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, your binoculars are invaluable. Before you begin each mission, it should practically be a given that you look for a good vantage point and scout out the enemy outposts before infiltrating. With your binoculars, you’ll be able to mark your enemy sentries and heavy weapons. It’s a really useful tool for keeping track of where the soldiers are, and also identifying your targets.

When your R&D team levels up enough, be sure to upgrade the binoculars to give it a scope that allows you to assess an enemy soldier’s stats. This will let you know in which areas he’s most skilled, and you’ll at least have some idea of what this guy can contribute to Mother Base when you extract him from the field.

Keep an eye out for resources

You’ll soon find that expanding Mother Base is no easy task to scoff at. It takes time, money, and a lot of other resources that can only be found in the field. When you’re exploring Afghanistan during the early hours of the game, be on the lookout for plants and shiny objects on the ground.

While infiltrating enemy bases, also make sure to explore every nook and cranny of the area to grab fuel, metals, and other organic materials. These are a little harder to come by, but they’re absolutely essential if you wish to expand Mother Base and build more platforms to accommodate your growing army.

Do the side ops

As soon as you’re given free rein of the game, check your Side Ops list and do the interpreter mission. This mission requires you to extract an English-speaking Russian soldier from the field and recruit him into Diamond Dogs. It doesn’t sound too important, but this will actually help you out a lot as you’ll now be able to understand what your Russian foes are saying.

Metal Gear Solid V also lets you interrogate your enemies and extract info from them – handy if you’re looking to snag some extra rewards during a mission. There are a couple other interpreter missions other than the Russian one that will become available later on as well. Make these your priority as soon as they pop up, and you’ll have a much easier time dealing with your foreign enemies on the field.

Abuse the Fulton Recovery System

Metal Gear Solid V‘s Fulton Recovery System is the easiest way for you to quickly recruit soldiers into Diamond Dogs and steal enemy resources. To do this, simply tranquilize or knock your enemies out before attaching them to a giant balloon and watch them get zipped off into the sky. Extracting a large number of soldiers means that you’ll be able to level up your R&D and support units much quicker, and this will open up more development options for Big Boss.

As your R&D level increases, you’ll soon be able to use the Fulton Recovery System on smaller weapons as well. This will help to fortify Mother Base’s defenses and security, making it much less susceptible to attacks.

Should you so choose, you can also use the Fulton system on the animals and random wildlife you see around the area. As Mother Base expands, you’ll be able to construct an animal conservation platform reserved exclusively for all your kidnapped animals. That’s the entire point of the game, really.

Interrogate everyone

Before knocking out your enemies and sending them back to Mother Base, be sure to get all the info you can out of them. To do this, simply sneak up on a soldier from behind and aim your gun at him. He’ll freeze, put down his weapon, and you’ll be able to grab him in a chokehold. Most times, these soldiers will reveal the locations of valuable resources, blueprints, or even hidden prisoners that you can try to extract.

Of course, there will also be times where the soldiers won’t give you any useful information at all. But more likely than not, they’ll usually provide some sort of hint to aid you in completing your objectives. After you’ve gotten all the information you need, simply choke them out, and then parachute them back to Mother Base.

Recruit D-Dog

This one’s pretty easy to miss. When you start the Main Op ‘Over The Fence’, be sure to keep a keen eye out for the little puppy on the ground as soon as Big Boss gets off the chopper. He’s really small, but once you approach him, you’ll have the option to use the Fulton Recovery System on the dog and send him back to Mother Base.

D-Dog can’t do much as a puppy, but you’ll be able to take him into missions as a buddy when he grows bigger.