Metal Gear Solid V Customization Guide

Mother Base Customization

Mother Base customization is unlocked after completing the Phantom Limbs mission. Mother Base customization allows you to change the color of your Mother Base. Mother Base’s appearance also changes later as you unlock and build new Mother Base platforms.

Emblem Customization

Emblem customization is unlocked after completing the Phantom Limbs mission. Emblem customization allows you to create your own insignia that can be seen on Venom Snake’s right shoulder, the Diamond Dogs helicopter, and any unprocessed resource containers on your Mother Base. New emblem pieces may be unlocked by completing missions, objectives, building trust with your buddies, and through deployment missions.

Avatar Customization

Avatar customization is unlocked after completing the Phantom Limbs mission. It allows you make changes to the avatar that you created during the Prologue mission.

Helicopter Customization

Helicopter customization and R&D is unlocked after completing the A Hero’s Way mission. You can research new helicopter parts from the R&D screen. Helicopter customization allows you to choose the weapons, support items, armor, model, and paint style of your helicopter. Upgrading your helicopter with new components increases the cost of calling it in.

Vehicle Customization

Once you’ve found the Transport Specialist in Episode 15, captured vehicles can be painted with the same colors and patterns as the helicopter.

Uniform Customization

As you play through the game and unlock new camouflage styles and patterns, different outfits and helmets will become available. Typical uniforms offer a naked, standard, and hooded version. If you’ve imported Ground Zeroes data you can also research a golden bionic arm. Combat staff uniforms have the option to wear balaclavas.

Buddy Customization

Buddy outfits and armor can be unlocked with the R&D team and may be equipped from the sortie screen before a mission. Diamond Horse may wear a Battle Dress, Diamond Dog may wear a Sneaking Suit, Quiet can be painted with blood, silver, or gold paint. Similar to the helicopter, D-Walker must be customized from the ACC in the customization menu after unlocking its upgrades from the R&D tree. D-Walker can be painted with any of the same colors or camouflage patterns as the vehicles and helicopter, and may also be equipped with one of three load outs created by the player. The player can then choose which loadout they’d like to use from the Loadout screen.

Weapon Customization

Weapon customization is unlocked after completing the three Extract the Legendary Gunsmith side ops that are unlocked after completing Episode 13. Weapon customization allows you to create and modify weapons from the weapons and parts that you’ve unlocked in your R&D tree. After choosing a weapon model to use as the base, you may modify it with parts from other weapons. This may allow you to use certain weapons in new ways before you’ve researched a standard item that would have that use, such as a suppressed tranquilizer rifle. A customized weapon may also be cheaper than a standard item of similar quality. You can also change paint and camouflage patterns. There are three slots available for each weapon type, and customized weapons may be chosen from the Loadout screen. They are highlighted with yellow lettering so they can be found easily.