4. Metal Gear Solid 2 (Vita) Story: Big Shell Incident (Plant)Update notes

This is the main portion of the story, which takes place two years after the Tanker Incident. This is where the majority dog tag runs will be taking place; you'll also have to get a bunch of tags on the Tanker, but that won't involve nearly as much effort. After selecting Very Easy difficulty, the first cutscenes will begin.

Opening Cutscenes

The Colonel fills Raiden in on the mission, describing the situation at an offshore cleaning facility known as Big Shell. In the meantime, "Snake" enters the Big Shell through a hole in the fencing underwater. After talking with the Colonel a bit more, "Snake"'s codename changes to Raiden.

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Strut A (Deep Sea Deck)

Directly in front of you should be a rack, underneath it will be an M9, which will help with tranquilizing enemies. Up the stairs in the middle locker is a ration, which I recommend taking. You shouldn't need to use these a whole lot on Very Easy, but it definitely doesn't hurt to have as many as you can find. To the right of the door is 30 rounds for the M9; climb onto these boxes with cn_T and collect these, then head for the door. After a short talk with the Colonel, head inside to the next room.

Looks like someone beat you to the elevator. The Colonel will teach you about nerds, or nodes. These are found in each area of the Big Shell, and logging into them will activate the radar to appear on the top right of your screen. However, since this is on Very Easy, you won't need to use these, since the maps will be already available for you. Press cn_T near this first node (because the story requires you to). Enter whatever you feel like on this screen, it will show up very briefly near the end of the story. To save, the Colonel has enlisted Rose, Raiden's girlfriend, to help out. Eventually, Rose will ask you about whether or not you remember what happened on April 30th, but you can't recall right now.

The enemies will start to wake up, so hide in the little U-shaped area made of boxes in the center of the room until the elevator comes down. Alternatively, you could just knock them out with the M9. If you're fast enough, the other guard will still be knocked out when you get to the elevator.

Strut A (Roof)

The colonel will inform you that the terrorists that have the President hostage are calling themselves the Sons of Liberty and are led by Solid Snake. But that can't be the real Solid Snake, he died during the Tanker Incident two years prior. The SEALs have landed on Struts B&C, and the Colonel will tell you how the Big Shell is structured. It might look complicated, but it's really simple.

Once the call with the Colonel is over, you should see some bandages on some boxes nearby. These stop bleeding if you're bleeding out, which happens when your health is low and colored orange. Bandages won't be useful for this run on Very Easy (and hopefully you won't have to use them on other difficulties), so it's up to you whether you want to pick them up. To the southwest will be more M9 ammo. To get inside Strut A, there is a small opening in the fence to the northwest of this area. You'll have to crawl through it by holding down cn_X. You should be picking up even more M9 rounds while doing so.

Strut A (Pump Room)

Once inside, you'll see that there will be only one guard in here, who's protecting the node, which you don't need. To continue onward, there will be a door to the northwest, which leads to the AB Connecting Bridge. You'll want to go there, but if you want a crack at a trophy (if you didn't get it at the Tanker), knock this guy out or kill him, then drag him into one of the lockers on either side of the room.

AB Connecting Bridge

The Colonel will teach you how hanging works, so pay attention if you didn't learn this from playing the Tanker. You'll also get to listen in to the situation will SEAL Team 10 and the president. To get past this bridge, you could try hanging like the Colonel said, but it's always very easy to just tranquilize these two enemies.

Strut B (Transformer Room)

Upon reaching Strut B, the rest of Alpha Team is swiftly eliminated by a strange man, armed with only a knife. He is later introduced as Vamp, and soon a survivor of Alpha Team starts firing at him. Unfortunately, this doesn't do much and you and the soldier are left alive in Strut B. The soldier introduces himself as Lieutenant Iroquois Pliskin, and after a bit more conversation with him about the both of you and Vamp, you'll continue on with your mission, now with a sense of uncertainty.

Rose will soon ask you if you want to save the mission data, and use the opportunity to ask you again about the importance of April 30th. Head north out of Strut B to Strut C.

BC Connecting Bridge

The last of the SEAL troops will be firing at a woman on the bridge to the Shell 1 Core. All the bullets will fly around her, "Fortune". Vamp will take the president and a black suitcase back into the Shell 1 Core. With a last attempt, the SEALs launch a grenade at Fortune; it doesn't blow up, but it leads to one of the best voice lines of the game, "A dud!?" Using her pretty big weapon, Fortune will wipe out the SEALs, destroying the bridge along with them. The Colonel informs you that your infiltration was a complete success, but Dead Cell has control of a Harrier 2. To make things worse, there's still C4 scattered across the Big Shell; the bomb disposal expert that came with the SEALs is in Strut C.

The only thing of importance on this bridge is the supply of chaff grenades on the way north. Chaff grenades work like EMPs, or stun grenades for electronic devices. These might be useful later, so pick them up and head into Strut C.

Strut C (Dining Hall)

Go north into Strut C until you hear a noise inside one of the rooms. You'll meet the bomb disposal expert, Peter Stillman, here; Pliskin will meet you here. Stillman will tell you about Fatman, the third member of Dead Cell. With the task of bomb disposal passed down to Raiden and Pliskin, Raiden will get nervous due to his lack of bomb disposal training. Stillman will show you how it's done, so pay close attention. Pliskin will take care of Shell 2, so you're going to work on Shell 1. Stillman will give you the security card with Lv1 clearance. Stillman will doubt Pliskin's status as a SEAL, which hopefully to you has been very obvious.

  • Bomb Squad

    Learn how to defuse C4 bombs from Peter Stillman

    Bomb Squad
    Offline Mode - These trophies require play in game modes that do not require a connection to any live services, such as Play Station Network.Single Player - These trophies can be obtained by a single player.Main Storyline - These trophies are gained automatically by progressing through the main game mode.

After these cutscenes, head to the east to reach the CD Connecting Bridge. You'll be making a full circle around Shell 1 to dispose of all six bombs on each Strut, but it's a bit more convenient to just leave the bomb on Strut C for last. If you want a visual for where each of the bombs are, here's a video for how to find them.

CD Connecting Bridge

There shouldn't be anything here, so just head straight to Strut D. There's going to be a camera at the end of the walkway by the door, so either shoot it out with the USP or just walk under it.

Strut D (Sediment Pool)

As soon as you walk in, there should be a lone soldier in the center of the area. Either tranquilize or kill him from where you are and make your way to the side of the railing that you can hang onto. Do so, and you'll be dangling above the waters below. You're going to want to wait til the guard on the lower level begins to walk towards the right of the room, and then let go with cn_X, but immediately start spamming cn_T so you can catch yourself on the rail below. You may be able to hear some beeping now. Once back on solid ground (press cn_T again to flip onto the floor again) there should be a black square lid on the ground. Get near it and press cn_T to open it up, where you'll find the first bomb. To use the coolant, all you have to do is point it at a bomb when it's equipped and hold cn_LSu until there's a clicking noise. Then make your way to the DE Connecting Bridge by going back to the upper section of Strut D, and going to the right.

DE Connecting Bridge

If you go into first person view by holding cn_R1, you should see two enemies by the rails up above the bridge. They'll probably see you if you try to cross, so tranquilize them from afar and make your way to Strut E.

Strut E (Parcel Room)

There will be only one enemy in here, walking through all the machinery. He shouldnt be hard to find on your radar. In the lower right will be a path up to the heliport on Strut E, which is where you're going to want to go. Before you do, pick up the cardboard box to the northeast. You'll need to collect a bunch of these for a trophy.

Strut E (Heliport)

You'll overhear Olga Gurlukovich and someone else talk about some things, and Raiden will try to hold her up. Then, Olga does a flip over the railing out of existence.

You should be able to see a harrier on the heliport. The bomb will be under it, so crawl down and defuse it. Next, look around the left side of the helipad for another cardboard box. Head back the way you came into Strut E. Once back in the Parcel Room, go even further south in this room to find the door to the EF Connecting Bridge.

EF Connecting Bridge

Once in the open, you'll get a call from someone who gives you a tip about claymore mines being on the ground nearby. He'll call himself Deepthroat (which is in reference to MGS1, which in turn was referencing Metal Gear 2) but then change his name to Mr. X to avoid confusion.

Before trying to find those claymores, there will be a guard right above you, similar to how those guards watched over the DE Connecting Bridge. If you don't know what I'm talking about, he should appear on the radar. Get rid of this soldier first, or he'll spot you. Finding the claymores is very important, because you'll be coming back to this bridge a few more times. To collect the claymores without blowing them up on you, you'll have to crawl over them, and you can use the mine detector to find out where they are exactly. I've got no idea where the mine detector is, but I do know that they're all on the left part of this bridge, so crawl across the center, then between the two cylinders on the left, and then on the very left part of the bridge. You won't need to worry about the walkway that leads left until later. Once everything seems pretty safe, move into Strut F.

Strut F (Warehouse)

This strut's bomb will be between some crates, and it's inaccessible unless you fall onto the crates from the second floor of the strut by swinging over the railing. You will start on the second floor, so that's about half the work done for you. There should only be one guard per floor of this strut, but if they bother you, take them out whenever. When you've defused this floor's bomb, stay on the bottom floor and run to the south. Head into the room on the left and you'll be able to find yet another cardboard box. The FA Connecting Bridge will be on the south side of the second floor of this strut, so head up to this bridge when you're ready.

FA Connecting Bridge

All you should have to worry about here is one guard and one CYPHER. Both can be taken down with lethal rounds. It should be a straight path to Strut A.

Strut A (Pump Room)

Immediately to the south of where you came from will be a door to another room. The bomb will be in the center of this easy little crawling maze, which you enter from by the small staircase thing on the righthand side. Get out of the pipes and head to the left side of the room to find another small staircase. Walk across it and crawl underneath the pipe to the right, then hop over a barrier with cn_T to get another cardboard box. Now that we've gone full circle for Shell 1, explaining things can be a bit easier. Head on back to the AB Connecting Bridge.

AB Connecting Bridge

Rose will call to talk to you about your first date. There won't be an enemy on the west side of the bridge anymore; that guy's just gone. The soldier on the east side will still be patrolling that side, so just take the west side and go into Strut B.

Strut B (Transformer Room)

There's now two soldiers in here, one in the hall and one in the room with the electrical equipment. Take care of the one in the hall, and then go for the other one. Near that second guard should be a suppressor for your lethal pistol, so pick that up and equip it when you feel like it. The bomb in this strut is going to be to the north in the electrical room. There's an open panel to some buttons and whatnot, which you need to close with cn_T. The bomb should be right behind it. The bomb disposal gang will talk about each other about the situation, and you'll get a bit of backstory from Stillman. Once you're all done talking, make your way back to Strut C.

BC Connecting Bridge

This time around, you're going to have only one new problem when traversing this bridge. a CYPHER will be patrolling the left side of the bridge, which you can either eliminate with the SOCOM or just a chaff grenade.

Strut C (Dining Hall)

So the bomb is in the ladies' room above the mirror, but there's also some supplies, including pentazemin (which you'll need later) in the stalls of both bathrooms, so it's best to open all of them and get what you need. Once you talk to Pliskin and Stillman a bit longer, grab the Sensor B, which is in the pantry that Stillman was hiding out in earlier. Pliskin will freeze the last C4 in Shell 2, but that causes the big set of C4 that Stillman's looking at to start counting down. As he said earlier, if that bomb and the one at the bottom of Strut A explode, the Big Shell will collapse. You've got 400 seconds to get to the bottom of Strut A, which might not sound like a lot when Raiden says "400 seconds?!" but that's more than six minutes for you to just move two struts away, which is more than enough time.

Strut C (Dining Hall) ==> Strut A (Roof)

This will be a short trip. On the BC Connecting Bridge will be that CYPHER if you didn't take care of it earlier with SOCOM rounds. In Strut B, if you for some reason left those two guards awake, they'll be awake (naturally) when you return to walk through here. And the AB Connecting Bridge's now lone guard will have moved to patrol the west side of the bridge instead of the east side. Once you've made it to Strut A, go back up the stairs on either side to get to the roof of the strut to reach the elevator.

Strut A (Deep Sea Deck)

To find this proximity C4, backtrack to where you started this infiltration, to the very south of the area. The C4 will be attached to the underside of the submarine-thing that's hanging from the ceiling. Make sure not to get too close when you spray the coolant on this bomb; remember that you can crouch if you need to. Time to get back to rescuing the President.

Just your luck, Fortune decided to follow you down here. She'll start talking to you before someone else calls the elevator back up. Time for your first "boss fight" of the Big Shell Incident.

I say "boss fight" in quotes because all you have to do is avoid the railgun shots until the elevator comes back down. You can just hide behind all the crates and things until they're destroyed. If everything's destroyed before the elevator is down for some reason, you can just do some cartwheels to dodge the shots.

The fight ends when the Colonel calls you about Fatman calling you out, and to meet him on the Strut E Heliport. The President is going to have to wait. Vamp was the one who came down the elevator, and after a cutscene involving the two of them, Raiden will take the opportunity to get back to the roof. Fatman's next bomb will give you 500 seconds to defuse, which is again way too much time to be threatening.

Strut A (Roof) ==> Strut E (Heliport)

When you go back down the stairs to the main part of Strut A, watch out for two claymores, which will be on the way to the staircases on either side. You're naturally going to want to go to the FA Connecting Bridge instead of going the long way around. The one guy on the FA Connecting Bridge shouldn't be a problem, so you can just walk to the other side.

When you make your way to the heliport, you'll find that the harrier that was once parked here is gone, and a bomb lies in its place. You can walk right up to this one, so spray it with the coolant and get ready to meet Fatman.

He'll go on about how he likes bombs, but when you talk about the ransom, he has no idea what you mean. Like many villains, Fatman will tell you how the fight with him will work: he plants bombs, and you have to defuse them on top of defeating the man as well.

It's best to just take out the bombs first, so if he plants another you only have to worry about the new ones. On Very Easy, this fight can be done really fast if you know a basic control function that I didn't know until I already did most of the game on Extreme. If you hold down cn_L1, your rounds will lock onto targets, making Fatman a piece of cake. Once the bombs are disabled, hold cn_L1 and fire a few rounds until he falls over. To make him take damage, go into first person view with cn_R1 and aim for his head. Repeat this until he's down and you'll get your first trophy from the Big Shell Incident.

His last words will be yet another bomb, which he starts a countdown for when his life slips away. This is supposed to be a crazy search for this last bomb, but it's actually just right underneath him, so drag him with cn_S when you have your weapons unequipped, and spray this last C4 package. When you let go of him, a dog tag will fall out of him. It's up to you whether you want to pick it up now or later, since you'll be going through this again on Very Easy anyway. I personally think it's best to just let it be and get it later.

The Colonel will remind you of your orders to rescue the President, as well as reassure you that there's nothing suspicious going on. Pliskin will call you next, informing you that the enemy must have control of that harrier that was parked on the heliport earlier. Just when you think you've heard enough talk, Mr. X will show up out of nowhere to let you know how to find the President's location, which is by finding a man named Ames on floor B1 of the Shell 1 Core. To figure out which of the hostages is Ames, you'll need a directional microphone to listen to his pacemaker. Mr. X also gives you the uniform of one of the terrorists and you learn that you'll need to somehow use a real soldier's eyes to bypass the retinal scan in order to reach the hostages. Not only that, but a Metal Gear is also being held within Big Shell, Well, according to a cyborg ninja.

Strut E (Heliport) ==> Shell 1 Core (1F Floor)

Getting to the Shell 1 Core is very simple, just head to the EF Connecting Bridge and you'll be going across the bridge to your left. This bridge will have panels that will fall off, though, so make sure not to stay in one place too long. Once you're in here, Rose will call to tell you that she found out where Solid Snake's body is being held, and that he's definitely dead. For some reason his right arm was missing, but it must have just been because of the circumstances of the tanker being destroyed.

Since enemies will recognize you if you don't have a weapon to go along with your uniform, you'll need to get the gun located in the southern room of this floor. It won't be in a locker, it'll just be sitting there for you to take. Once you have it, equip both the gun and the B.D.U. to get past the security camera at the elevator when you call for it with cn_T. You're going to want to go to the B2 floor to pick up the directional microphone.

Shell 1 Core (B2 Computer Room)

In the room are only a few enemies; since they think you're just another soldier, you could easily just walk right in and take the directional microphone (be careful not to bump into them or the B.D.U. will become unequipped), or you could tranquilize/kill them. Either way, the microphone is inside the central room of this floor; when you get it, you'll be ready to go to the B1 floor and find Ames. BUT, before you do, check to see if you've gotten four cardboard boxes. You should have boxes 1, 2, 3, and 5. The last one you need is, of course, the fourth. It's in the computer room, to the east of where the directional microphone was at.

Shell 1 Core (B1 Floor)

The retinal scan into the hostage room is on this floor, and opening it is actually pretty simple. On your radar you should see a room with three guards; one will move around to a place where you can hold him up easily with cn_LSc, so do this and grab him with cn_S. Hold the button and move towards the scan. After some time he'll try to break free, so before he does that, let go of cn_S and press it again to continue holding him. Lead him to the scanner and he'll open the door.

Shell 1 Core (B1 Hall)

Ames will always be in the same spot, so go all the way to the right wall of the room, and then follow the southern wall to the left until you reach a metal structure. Right next to you should be Ames, so use the directional mic and ask if he's Ames.

Ames will say he was sent in by the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo, like you were, which shouldn't make any sense. It also looks like Revolver Ocelot is watching your little chat, but as soon as you switch to nanocommucations, he can't hear you and will seem slightly annoyed. It looks like the President was moved to the first floor of the Shell 2 Core. Ames will explain the black case, which is always carried around near the President in case of a nuclear threat. Raiden asks why they'd hide a Metal Gear in an offshore plant, but it looks like Raiden's well under-informed of what's actually going on in this mission. Ames will interrupt the conversation when he see's Snake, who approaches Revolver Ocelot. Raiden will pull out the microphone to listen to the conversation.

Now, you could listen to them, or you could listen to a guy from MGS1 take a dump, which is what we're going to be doing. Instead of aiming the mic towards Snake and Ocelot, aim it to the left to hear Johnny on both ends. The video below will show both places where you have to listen to Johnny, but this is going to be the first half of the video.

Once he says "Ah... There's no paper...", then you're good. After listening to the rest of the conversation, Ames will say that Solid Snake is dead, but this man is claiming to be him. Either he's dead, or there's two of them. After mentioning the ransom, he'll say that the nuclear strike wasn't a threat, it was the objective for Dead Cell this whole time. The goal is to use the nuclear launch as kind of an EMP to put Manhattan in the dark. Ocelot will enter the room, so Ames cuts the conversation again.

You'll get the Lv3 security card from Ames, but you'll have to equip your AKS-74U before Ocelot approaches you. Ames and Ocelot will talk a bit before Ames' pacemaker fails him, causing him to have a heart attack (and a FOXDIE moment). It looks like nobody knows which squad Raiden is in, and Ocelot points his revolver at him. Before he can shoot, Mr. X comes down from above and almost cuts off his left arm. He'll cover your escape out of the room, but now the alarm is sounded.

Shell 1 Core (B1 Floor)

You'll ask the Colonel about the false information, and his explanation is that it's not like he's given all the right information either. On the way to the elevator, there's one guard up above, so either wait for him to come in view or run in after him before he turns around. You're going to want to go back up to the first floor.

Shell 1 Core (Floor 1) ==> Strut F (Warehouse)

Just go right and back towards Strut F, we're going to pick up a sniper rifle now that we have the security card for Lv3.

On the upper floor, there are four rooms, one to the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. The sniper rifle will be in the southeast room. You can find C4 and claymores in the north-eastern room, and a grenade launcher in the northwest, both of which are things you don't really need. In the southwest room will just be an M4 and some ammo, which you don't really need either since you have the AKS-74U, but this room has a bomb inside, so if you want to get it, make sure you shoot out the panel to the left.

Strut F (Warehouse) ==> Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge

To get to where you need to go, you have to go back to Strut D. Once inside, stay on the upper floor and use the door in the center (not the center of the room, but between the doors on the left and right). This will take you to the Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge.

There's a few of those little bomb panels that you need to shoot out, because if you try to pass the sensors without doing so, the bridge will detonate. One will be way off in the distance on top of a CYPHER, so you can either be very careful or use a pill of pentazemin if you have any; it's best to save your pentazemin for later, though. There's two other panels on the walkway right in front of you, but be careful, because they're right next to some explosives. Another will be directly in front of you on the cylindrical structure. The fifth is going to be on the other side of the bridge, seen on the wall, and surrounded by five explosives. The last is going to be on the north-western corner of the bridge. If you want to better see where these panels are, the video below will show you where they are.

You'll know when you got them all when a small cutscene plays out, showing the sensors being deactivated. Snake will call to let you know he's found a Kasatka, and his partner Otacon is piloting it. To save all the hostages, they'll have to make two trips. But what strikes Raiden as important is Otacon, whom he recognizes from the details of the Shadow Moses Incident. Otacon and Snake have been branded as a terrorist organization just for destroying Metal Gears all over the world. As sure as Snake is dead, this Otacon can't be the same as Hal Emmerich from the Shadow Moses Incident. But if Snake is dead, he can't be the one in charge of Dead Cell.

Pliskin and Otacon will pass by in their Kasatka towards the Strut E Heliport. This Snake will appear on the other side of the bridge, claiming to not only be the boss, but the boss that's better than even Big Boss, who's been involved in Solid Snake's missions since the 90's. But as soon as he claims to be Solid Snake, Pliskin will come back around and say that this man is definitely not Solid Snake. He'll call Pliskin his brother, who does not recognize him as such. He'll then call Pliskin "Snake" (which should have been obvious), which Raiden is surprised at.

When Snake starts firing at him, he tells Snake that he's completely different from Liquid Snake. His name will be revealed as Solidus Snake when he uses his suit to somehow gain muscle mass. Snake will hit him with the grenade launcher, and Solidus will fall... right onto the Harrier being piloted by Vamp. The Kasatka can't stand up to the Harrier, so you're going to have to shoot it down with the stinger that Snake tosses onto the bridge.

First things first, pick up the stinger, which will be right in front of you. If you're fast enough, you can equip it and launch about two or three missiles into the Harrier before it takes off. It'll fly out of range, so get ready to aim another missile towards where it's going to come back from. Snake should toss you a ration in this time. If the Harrier starts to hover over the bridge, it's going to burn you with its jets, so pelt it with missiles as a punishment. If it goes right into launching some red glowing missiles at you (which you'll see in a small cutscene), then you're going to have to dodge these. You can do this by either finding a place on the lower floor of the bridge or by flipping onto the railing when they fall, or coming back onto the ground when they fall (either will put you in a state of invincibility).

If Solidus says "I'll let you go out in style" when he's out of range, that means his next attack won't be dodge-able by cartwheeling. Lock a missile onto him as soon as you can and hide behind the cylinder, and lean into it with cn_LS. His next attack should be a missile barrage, and the missiles go so slowly on this difficulty that you should be able to run around on the bridge to hide from them. If you can't, then that's fine, you should be able to survive a few of them. When he's done firing, you'll have a few seconds to launch more stinger missiles at him. The Harrier should be wrecked around this point, but if not, continue reading.

If the Harrier is still working after you've hit it from the missile barrage attack, it'll go back out of range, into the attack where you have to hide behind the cylinder. After this should be an attack where it fires a bullet spray on you, but on this difficulty (and with Snake providing rations) you should be okay to just take a few hits and rain ammo onto the Harrier. After each boss battle, your health will be restored to full, so if you're about to beat him and you're low on health, just hang in there and try not to use the rations in case you need it later.

The Harrier will crash into the bridge, and as it falls, Metal Gear RAY will swoop up to nab it before coming back down. It looks like Solidus' eye was taken out in the fight, making him resemble Big Boss even more. RAY and Solidus will dive down into the water, while Vamp just runs on the water and up walls to get wherever he's going.

Snake and Otacon will talk about why they're doing what they're doing. Otacon is also here for his sister, who's being held in the Big Shell somewhere. Rose will call to save the data (remember you can also just save whenever you feel like it).

To get off this rubble, you're going to have to go around the perimeter of Strut L to get to a connecting bridge. Flip onto the edge of the railing that's leading off into the air by pressing cn_T and shimmying across until you're above the orange pipe. Then drop down by pressing cn_X and slowly walk to the end; moving too fast near the bird poop will make you slip off the pipe into the water below. Make your way around and flip over the railing further on to get onto a partially broken bridge. The first broken section will not have a railing for you to hold on to, so you're going to have to lean into the wall-isa side of this bridge and slowly move your way across. The second part will have a rail for you to move across. Go up the ladder and you'll be on the outside of Strut L.

Strut L (Perimeter)

There's a few windows here, and it wouldn't be a challenge unless there's enemies looking outside them. Make sure you don't get caught by them and keep going to the right. At one point in the perimter, the floor will start to fall off, so you're going to have to get off those panels fast. Up next will be another floorless area, so you'll have to lean into the wall again to get across. There's a structure coming out of the wall that will be in your way, so you'll have to crouch with cn_X to move across. Once you're across, you'll most likely get a cutscene of a guard who needs to pee really bad. Calling the Colonel when the pee is directly on your head will make for a nice dialogue.

KL Connecting Bridge

Flip over the railing here to land on the bridge. On the far side of this bridge is a ration. Like the EF Connecting Bridge, you're going to want to move into the core, so go left and across yet another broken bridge to reach it. Watch out for CYPHERs; you can either shoot them down or just use a chaff grenade to disable them.

Shell 2 Core (1F Air Purification Room)

Once inside, Raiden will pull out the directional microphone to listen in on Olga's conversation. You'll learn that the President is being kept inside a room guarded by an electrified floor. To make things more complicated, the only way to disable it is in the room that the President is in. The Colonel reminds you of your VR Training, that you'll need to use a Nikita missile launcher to direct a missile through the air ducts into the room. To find the nikita, make your way around the room, picking up ammo as you go. There are no enemies in here yet, so you can go straight to the elevator.

Shell 2 Core (B1 Filtration Chamber No. 1)

This floor appears to be flooded. Once you dive underwater with cn_O, the Colonel will automatically call you to teach you how the swimming controls work. The nikita should be right in front of you on the floor, so pick it up and go back up the elevator.

Shell 2 Core (1F Air Purification Room)

With the nikita now in tow, all that's left to do is find the air ducts. Go back around this floor to a stack of three containers shaped like an L. Climb onto the lower one and fire a nikita missile into the air duct to the north. Directing it through the ducts is kind of hard to explain with words, but it should be fairly straight forward. Make sure you don't hit the president when blowing up the circuitry; if the president is sleeping standing up in front of it, the explosion will still kill him, so you'll have to fire a shot in there to use as an alarm clock.

The President was expecting you to kill him for his betrayal, which he is prepared for. But what Raiden isn't prepared for is for the President to check if he's a man. He'll explain that he input the code because he wanted power, but now that he knows that Dead Cell wants destruction, he's not going to work with them anymore. He's just a figurehead; the real power belongs to the Patriots. They're made of twelve men, who make up the Wisemen's Committee. The reason President Johnson wanted Metal Gear RAY was to use it to bargain, so that he could join the Patriots.

Raiden will ask about Solidus, who was the President of the United States before Johnson, who went by the name of George Sears. He too was offspring of Big Boss, but came after the twin Snakes Solid and Liquid. Solidus was given the presidency until he was forced to resign after starting the Shadow Moses Incident four years ago. Before the Patriots could kill Solidus, Ocelot helped him go into hiding. Solidus' plan is to steal the Patriots' new Metal Gear and declare war on them. But RAY isn't the new Metal Gear, the new Metal Gear is the entire facility; the Big Shell is just a guise for what's underneath.

This Metal Gear, Arsenal Gear, is being protected by several RAY units and has control of the U.S. armed forces. Arsenal will maintain the Patriots' control as the rulers of the United States, but their one threat is digital information, which there is more and more of every day. They plan to censor it to create their own truths to control the public. Arsenal is going to be fully completed as soon as GW, an artificial intelligence, is integrated into it. To stop GW from being integrated, you'll have to find Emma Emmerich, who's stuck in the B1 Floor, past all of that water you saw briefly. Johnson will give you a virus to give to Emma, who knows how to use it to stop GW.

Johnson still needs to pay for his betrayal of the Patriots. Before he gets you to shoot him, Ocelot pulls the trigger himself and leaves. Once you leave the room, Raiden will call the Colonel about the mission, and Snake will call to ask about the President. Snake will go over what happened on the Tanker two years ago. Turns out that Emma Emmerich is in fact Otacon's sister, but he has no idea what she's doing here. Time to go back down to the B1 floor.

Shell 2 Core (B1 Filtration Chamber No. 1)

Swimming should be pretty straightforward, and it's made a lot easier with the radar. Once you come up for air early on in the flooded floor, Otacon will call to tell you that E.E. is afraid of water because she almost drowned with her step-father (Otacon's father) in their swimming pool; his father didn't survive. Eventually you'll find a room with a door that you can turn the handle of. Open it and you'll come across a slight surprise.

In the next area, you're going to have to swim around a bunch of collapsed trusses. In one of the pockets of air in here, you'll find the PGS1-T, a sniper rifle that shoots tranquilizing darts. At the end of this room is another handle to turn, and on the right after that door are the stairs out of the flooded area.

Shell 2 Core (B1 Filtration Chamber No. 2)

Vamp will talk about the nuclear threat for a little bit, and then tell you about the water in this room, in which you'll sink like a rock if you fell into it.

When fighting Vamp, there's an incredibly useful exploit to this fight that makes him a piece of cake, which is extremely effective on the harder difficulties. You're going to want to get a head start on Vamp's stamina, so shoot him once with a tranquilizer dart before he dives into the water. Now walk slowly towards the open water in the center of the room, which will cause Raiden to automatically grab onto the ledge. Once Vamp comes up, he'll walk towards you to slash you with his knife, and when he starts this attack is when you want to press cn_T to come back onto the floor. He'll swing again, so move out of harm's way and punch him after he swings. This cycle will repeat as long as you're close enough for him to swing again after you're done punching, BUT if you punch too fast, you'll go into that kicking combo, which you don't want to do, so punch in small intervals to prevent this from happening. Vamp should fall quickly.

When you make your way into the next flooded section, check the room next to the air pocket to find body armor, which is in the same place on all difficulties, so don't forget to take this every time you get to this place. The body armor reduces damage you take by half, so it'll be pretty useful later on, especially on harder difficulties. After you get it, finding your way to the next room should be a piece of cake; this area isn't very big.

In this locker room, you'll find pentazemin out in the open, and you're really going to need it later. In the lockers are C4, a book, and thermal goggles, all of which you don't really need, but feel free to pick them up if you want to. If you look at your radar, you can see a small dot indicating which locker Emma is in. Open it and you'll surprise her hard enough for her to pee herself.

You'll fill her in on some details, and she'll be at a loss for words when you tell her Otacon is here too. Turns out that he was right, Emma really doesn't want to swim. Once she prepares herself, you'll be swimming in the previous room. The only new dilemma is that E.E.'s oxygen bar is pretty short, so treat the situation as if that's your maximum oxygen now. Once you make it out, you'll have to guide Emma along by holding cn_T, since her legs were injected with something to make them weak. In the next room, Emma will talk a bit about how it used to be when she and Hal were kids.

The Colonel will call, and will remind you that Olga said something about an oil fence on the bottom of Strut L, so you're going to have to use it to get to Shell 1. Then you'll talk to Snake, and you'll put Emma on the line with Hal to have a bit of an awkward conversation. After this, you'll only have to guide E.E. across the room to the door to get to the rest of the water. Don't go to the left, someone has now placed claymores on that side of the room somehow (not that you would go left anyway, since you're already on the right side of the room).

Raiden starts to get curious about the Patriots, so he asks Emma to tell him what she knows. The Patriots want to delete any digital information that might be harmful to them, and the physical structure that does it is inside GW. The Patriots also used the Y2K bug to their advantage. E.E. will ask if her parrot is okay. If you shot it earlier on in the story, she's probably not going to be too happy about that.

Make your return trip back to the elevator whilst keeping an eye on E.E.'s oxygen. Upon reaching the elevator you'll see a lot of bugs moving around. E.E. is scared of them, and tossing a grenade at the bugs won't work to get rid of them. Tranquilize E.E. and drag her into the elevator.

The main floor doesn't have many guards patrolling it, so you should be fine guiding her along, stopping to take out an occasional enemy. The last one only spawns when you and E.E. are close to the area, so going there beforehand won't work for him. Once you're both at the other side of the room, return outside to the KL Connecting Bridge.

KL Connecting Bridge

There's a few CYPHERs floating about, which you can either shoot or disable with a chaff grenade. The one enemy at the other side of the bridge shouldn't be a problem for you, so you can ignore him and extinguish the fire that's blocking your way with the coolant. Once you get to the door you'll find that the door has Lv5 security and you can't get in, until E.E. pulls out her ID, which has the necessary clearance.

Strut L (Sewage Treatment Facility)

There's only two guards in this small strut, and on the other end is your way to the oil fence.

Strut L (Oil Fence)

E.E.'s legs are working again, and the walkway can only support one person at a time, so you'll have to cover her with sniper fire while she goes first. Snake will tell you over the codec that there might be claymores, but they don't appear here on this difficulty. Since there aren't any, you won't need the thermal goggles from the room you found E.E. in.

Inside this video is also the moment when you need to use the directional microphone for the one miscellaneous trophy specific to the Plant section of the story. When E.E. starts to cross, look towards the first pillar she's going to, and try to shoot out any enemies that come around the upper and lower perimeters. On this difficulty, Snake will call you to tell you he's in position when E.E.'s about halfway across the first bridge. Call him immediately after the current conversation is over to have this section become infinitely easier. For some reason, Snake can only fire on things visible in your scope, but that's still very useful. You can try this out now, having any enemy or CYPHER in view of your scope will cause Snake to shoot it down quickly, making this little to no work on your part, save for the aiming.

When E.E. reaches the second pillar, pull out your directional microphone and listen to the beautiful conversation that ensues. This location's moment starts at 01:22 in the video.

Time for the last stretch. With Snake doing all the work, all you really have to do is zoom your scope out and focus it over Emma. But it seems Vamp didn't actually die from when you defeated him earlier, and he's prepared to kill Emma. A well placed headshot should finish him off, but do you think he's really gone?

Unfortunately, Emma's been stabbed, so Snake rushes her to the Computer Room while Raiden dashes across to keep up.

Strut E (Parcel Room B1) ==> Shell 1 Core (B2 Computer Room)

Emma is working with the virus, and now you're on the lower floor of Strut E. On the EF Connecting Bridge are a couple CYPHERS patrolling about, but you have more than enough time to shoot them down. Inside the Shell 1 Core, if you straight north to the elevator, you'll cross paths with a claymore. But you can just go around the long way or crawl onto it to remove it.

The virus won't upload past 90% for now, and Emma is slowly dying. She mentions not adding another page to their family's dark history, a history found inside later titles such as Peace Walker and The Phantom Pain. You'll see a few more cutscenes involving Emma and Hal, before Hal leaves to rescue the hostages and the virus loads enough to be effective. To get inside Arsenal Gear, Snake has an alternative plan for your entry inside. Rose will call to save your data again.

Arsenal Gear (Stomach)

After calling you "Jack the Ripper", Solidus will scan you with his tentacle thing, in which you will have to mash cn_T so you keep breathing. It seems Raiden learned all his skills from Solidus, which he explains to you. After Ocelot says he finds the whole experience nostalgic, Olga will walk in and talk to you over the codec. She says she's being sent in by the Patriots to support you, because the Patriots have her child. If Raiden fails, the Patriots will consider it a failure for Olga too, and they'll terminate her child. Olga will let you go after she's left the room, and Rose will call to ask if what Solidus said was true. Raiden will remember more of what happened back then and tell Rose about it. After that emotional conversation, Raiden will be released, and after realizing he's fully naked, will cover himself with his hands. The way into the next section will be to the northeast.

Arsenal Gear (Jejunum)

The Colonel will call, and after some fuzzy communications, Raiden will ask about why he keeps saying "role". The answer is simple, it's a role-playing game. After things start to get very suspicious, the Colonel will say "We have Rosemary" before stopping communications.

When naked, you won't be able to attack or hang over railings, so you basically can just run, walk, crawl, and cartwheel. To sneak up to where Snake is, stay on the lower level until you reach the very end of the hall; on the left are some stairs leading to the upper catwalk. Cross the nearby bridge and continue east to find Snake.

When you get near the end of the hall, you'll get a very strange call from the Colonel, and you'll continue to get these strange calls, even when you enter the next room.

Arsenal Gear (Ascending Colon)

You can listen to these calls as long as you feel like, but when you're ready to move on, move north towards the door and eventually one of the calls will be from Rose. She'll say her little secret backstory, being that she's been reporting everything about you to the Patriots. After Raiden gets reasonably upset, the call will start to fade out, with Rose saying she's carrying Raiden's kid.

After Snake makes his appearance, Raiden will ask why Snake didn't tell him about Olga earlier. Like most things during their time on this mission, it's because he never asked. He'll also give you the sword Olga was using earlier. Snake will give you a bit of a tutorial on the sword controls, and you'll be given some time to practice swinging it. You'll have some time to grab the ration at the southern end of the hall, and after enough time, the story will continue once you move towards the door to the north. If a cutscene doesn't start when you approach the door, try moving back to the middle and moving to the door again.

Snake can supply you with infinite ammo, since he's got a bandana on his head. Tengu are more advanced than the enemies you've seen up to this point, and some will have swords of their own, so be careful as you take down the guards in this hall. At the end, more Tengu will drop down than before, and after they're all down, Otacon will reveal to you his new findings: Raiden has been talking with an AI this whole time, not the Colonel.

Arsenal Gear (Sigmoid Colon)

The Colonel will call once more, to say that Rose has been captured. Snake reassures you that this isn't possible, and you almost have a reality crisis.

For this section of fighting Tengu, you're going to want to pull out your sword. Snake does an excellent job of killing enemies in this area and you can run around swiping down anyone you come across. If you have enough ammo, feel free to use it as well, just as long as it isn't stinger ammo. After a while, Fortune will come to greet you, and fight the man she thought killed her father on the tanker two years ago.

Arsenal Gear (Roof)

At the top of Arsenal Gear, Solidus will go on a bit of a monologue. After a while, he'll sic his army of Metal Gear RAYs on you. Fortunately, on this difficulty, you only have to take down about three of them. Good thing it's not something ridiculous like twenty.

To destroy a RAY, it's going to take one stinger missile when its "mouth" is open. A sure way to get its mouth open long enough for you to launch a missile into it is to fire at a RAY's knees. Do this three times and the fight will end. It's pretty simple and should be a very, very quick fight.

Just as all hope seems lost, Olga will appear to defend you, since if you die, her child will die as well. Solidus will make quick work of her. Soon after this, E.E.'s program will have started to corrupt GW. Arsenal Gear is also going haywire. Fortune has captured Snake, and you'll soon be prompted to save.

Solidus will attempt to literally squeeze the information he wants out of you, and to combat this you'll have to mash cn_T (which won't be too hard on this difficulty). It appears what Solidus was after the whole time was the names of the Patriots, the twelve people in the Wisemen's Committee. To make things even more confusing for you (don't worry, I was confused too my first time through), Ocelot has been working for the Patriots the entire time, and this entire ordeal - Raiden's infiltration, Solidus' plan, Dead Cell, the cyborg ninja - all of it was just to create as close a replication to the Shadow Moses Incident as possible. Ocelot sees the S3 Plan as a means to create a soldier whose skills are leveled with Solid Snake. All of this was just to recreate the same kinds of situations, except for Snake himself making an apppearance. Even Solidus' and Raiden's relationship mirrors the one between Solid Snake and Big Boss.

"Given the right situation, the right story, anyone can be shaped into Snake."

Ocelot reveals to Fortune that he's the reason her father died, as well as her husband. She'll try to fire a shot at him, but he uses his signature revolver to actually shoot her in the chest. It seems she wasn't able to be hit by weaponry because she's been shielded by the Patriot's advanced technology. She'll try to fire at Ocelot again, but he's got the same tech Fortune had. Solidus, naturally upset by his position as just a pawn, attempts the same on Ocelot, but to no avail.

With Ocelot in the cockpit of a Metal Gear RAY, Snake's handcuffs will get hit by a ricocheted bullet. With Ocelot ready to fire a huge payload on Raiden and the Snakes, Fortune gets up to make her last stand. It appears she might have something to her after all.

Before Ocelot can fire the metal cutter thing at you, the amputated right arm taken from Liquid Snake starts to act up, and Liquid takes control of Ocelot. As soon as Liquid and RAY start to leave, Snake takes after them and dives with them into the ocean. Arsenal will have crashed into the coast, and Solidus and Raiden land on top of Federal Hall. Solidus finds it funny, so Raiden asks why. He asks the biggest question in the entirety of Raiden's mission: Do you know what day it is today? And the answer is: April 30th.

Federal Hall (Roof)

If you're an American you should probably know that April 30th is the day George Washington first took office. For me, this moment was a really really big moment, because if you can recall from that node in the bottom of Strut A at the beginning of the game, you had to put in your name and birthday, which would be applied to the save data. Right after that was the first time Rose asked you the importance of April 30th, so when I put in my actual birthday (April 30th) I thought that my birthday actually mattered this whole time.

Solidus wanted to retain liberty and freedom, something the Patriots would be getting rid of if they were successful in their plan of censoring digital information. He'll then talk about genetics for a bit and that the three brothers cannot reproduce. Since they can't pass on their genetic code as proof of their existence, Solidus aimed to leave his mark on history, as the man who defeated the Patriots.

Now that you've heard from Solidus, it's time to hear from the Patriots themselves. They'll explain a lot of things about themselves and the reason they're trying to censor digital information. After that, they'll explain what the S3 Plan really was, and why they chose Raiden to test the plan. The Patriots need you to kill Solidus to complete the exercise for them, but you don't want to. The Patriots swiftly remind you of Olga's child, and that's enough to convince you.

Solidus starts talking again, to say that unless you kill him and face your past as a child soldier, you'll remain tied to Solidus. To top it all off, now the only information that can lead to the Patriots is inside Raiden's nanomachines, so Solidus now has a reason to kill you.

So, to sum up, you have to fight Solidus because of Olga's child, because Solidus will remain tied to you like Snake was tied to Big Boss, because The Patriots want you to, and because Solidus wants to kill you for information. That's a lot of pretty good reasons. Solidus will toss you a sword for you to use in the fight.

For this fight, all you really need to do is swing at Solidus until he's off balance/off guard, and then you should be able to get three swings in at him. His attacks should be easily dodge-able on this difficulty, so you should be fine there; some attacks can't be blocked with the sword, but your health on Very Easy should be able to take quite a lot of hits, especially if you equip the body armor from earlier. Once he's taken enough damage, the second phase of the fight will start, where he knocks off his tentacle-thing. From now on, all of Solidus' attacks can be blocked with your sword, making this final stretch easier for you.

After this, there will be a few final cutscenes, which I will sparsely describe so you can just enjoy them and watch (as if you relied on my descriptions for these cutscenes anyway). First, Snake and Raiden will have a little chat, and then Rose will ask if you remember Federal Hall, and Raiden will finally remember what's so special about April 30th: it's the day he and Rose first met. Again, for me I thought that the day was centered around which day you put in as your birthday, so up until this point I thought that Raiden couldn't remember his own birthday - for the entire game. Snake closes up the game with a nice speech on humanity, and then you're given a last exchange between Snake and Otacon, which will set up some of the plot for future Metal Gear Solid titles.

  • Vamp Eyer

    Catch a glimpse of Vamp standing in the streets of New York during the end cinematic

    Vamp Eyer
    Offline Mode - These trophies require play in game modes that do not require a connection to any live services, such as Play Station Network.Single Player - These trophies can be obtained by a single player.Missable - These trophies can be missed.

And there you have it, if you have completed the Tanker story on this same save file (please get used to saving over the same file, you'll need to for the dog tags) then you'll unlock this next trophy.

  • A Cut Above

    Beat the Tanker and Plant chapters on any difficulty

    A Cut Above
    Offline Mode - These trophies require play in game modes that do not require a connection to any live services, such as Play Station Network.Single Player - These trophies can be obtained by a single player.Main Storyline - These trophies are gained automatically by progressing through the main game mode.

Now that you've played the game's story, you can either go and knock out the Boss Survival mode, start doing some dog tag runs (I recommend trying it out on the Tanker on Very Easy first so you get a feel for what to do), or you could start the intense slog through 511 VR Missions.

There are still some miscellaneous trophies you can get through the story, but you shouldn't really worry about these because you'll surely be getting them throughout your five dog tag runs for the Big Shell Incident. All are very self-explanatory, but for shooting radios, you'll have to be a bit precise and shoot the radios soldiers use to call in alerts. You can shoot these on unconscious and dead enemies too, if that'll be easier for you.

The one trophy that you'll probably have to actually work towards is Steamed, which requires you to kill enemies while they're blasted by steam from pipes. This was detailed once in the Tanker's story for the Down in Smoke trophy, but unless you did this with the USP, you didn't actually kill the guy. Try to knock this one out on later runs of either story, or even in VR Missions.

  • Steamed

    Kill 5 enemies with pipe steam

    Steamed
    Offline Mode - These trophies require play in game modes that do not require a connection to any live services, such as Play Station Network.Single Player - These trophies can be obtained by a single player.Cumulative + - These trophies are obtained by repeatedly performing the same action or set of actions over time.

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