======================================================
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Boss Guide
Version 1.10
By Travis Rappa (Dauragon C Mikado88)
======================================================
—————————————————-
Updates
—————————————————-
Version 1.00
Started the FAQ. All boss strategies have been added. Fun Tactics
will come in later updates.
Version 1.01
-Corrected Rex’s Rear Laser charge (Level 3 -> Level 5)
-Added the abbreviation to quickly get to the Liquid fight.
Version 1.10
-Changed ’Fun Tactics’ to ’Additional Tactics’
-Added many user submitted strategies.
-Added MGO ID for a new contact method.
—————————————————-
Table of Contents
—————————————————-
I. Introduction (INTRO)
II. General Tips (GENTIP)
III. Bosses
1. Laughing Octopus (LOCT)
2. Raging Raven (RRAV)
3. Crying Wolf (CWOL)
4. Vamp (VAMP)
5. Metal Gear Ray (MGRAY)
6. Screaming Mantis (SMAN)
7. Liquid Ocelot (LOCE)
IV. Additional Tactics
V. Contact Info
VI. Credits/Copyright
To navigate to a Boss quickly, use the Find function on your browser
and type in the abbreviations in the parenthesis.
—————————————————-
I. Introduction (INTRO)
—————————————————-
Metal Gear Solid 4 is finally here and it was well worth the wait!
The Metal Gear series is known for its clever and thought-invoking
boss fights, and MGS4 is no exception. Many of the bosses are very
challenging this time around and considering how many of the bosses
possess superhuman abilities and suits, many of the bosses take many
hits before going down. However with the right strategy, each boss
can be taken down. Well that’s what you’re here for anyway, right?
—————————————————-
II. General Tips (GENTIP)
—————————————————-
1. Use your Octocamo – Just because it’s a boss fight doesn’t mean
stealth isn’t important. Bosses that become confused and unaware to
your presence will allow an easy shot.
2. Pay close attention to your psyche. – The psyche gauge is just
below Snake’s health bar. The higher the bar is, the greater Snake’s
psyche is, and thus, better performance. High amounts of stress in
combat will cause his psyche to deplete gradually; this occurs
frequently during bosses and will drop your aim considerably. Eating
noodles, drinking Regain, smoking a cigarette, resting, reading a
magazine and the syringe you receive later on all help keep the
psyche meter high.
3. Take cover often and rest. – If you take a lot of damage and don’t
have much recovery items left, find safe cover and have Snake rest
idly as long as possible. Snake’s health will gradually restore
itself. The higher Snake’s psyche gauge, the quicker it will restore.
The higher Snake’s psyche gauge, the quicker it will restore.
—————————————————-
III. Bosses
—————————————————-
====================================================
1. Laughing Octopus (LOCT)
====================================================
Difficulty: Medium
The first boss you fight, it seems like quite awhile before you even
fought one. Unlike most first bosses in the series, Laughing Octopus
is not a push around and can deal some serious damage if you don’t
think on your feet.
Octopus will rely on the same technology – Octocamo as well as
facecamo which allows her to take on the face or even shape of
another object or person. Because of this, it’s important to keep
note of your surroundings and any changes.
If you are going for a tranq kill, prepare for a long fight. Stun
Grenades work well here, as she will usually deflect your MK bullets
with her tentacles. Fighting her upfront as she is approaching you is
usually useless in this sense.
She will primarily attempt to fool you by using disguises and
blending into the environment. Using your night vision on the Solid
Eye is a good tactic for discovering where she is. Pay close
attention to the radar as well, she will frequently yell and give out
her location. She will not move from her position until you shoot her
out of it. Make good use of this advantage and rest to recover health
when needed.
Occasionally, Octopus will send out these small floating red orbs
that will attach themselves to you if they touch you. You can either
shoot them in the air or roll if they attach to you. They will
explode after some time if you run away from them as well.
Be careful to maintain distance from her as well, her tentacle attack
has range and can deal a large bit of damage. Be especially careful
of her rolling attack which can catch you extremely quickly and deals
massive damage if you are hit. Find a crate to go up on if you see
this coming.
Normal weaponry will take awhile to bring her down with, any heavy
assault weapons will bring her down faster. If you are just going for
the facecamo, you can lethal kill the beast.
After you kill Laughing Octopus, she will shed her protective armor
and enter human form: Laughing Beauty. I don’t really consider this
its own boss fight so I am including it here. All you must do is keep
shooting her as she slowly walks to you. There is no reason to get
hit at all, and if you do she will try to choke you, in which you can
easily shake her off. I recommend stamina killing her for her
facecamo. You will eventually land shots and bring her down
regardless of her dodging.
Congratulations! You have beaten the first boss.
====================================================
2. Raging Raven (RRAV)
====================================================
Difficulty: Medium (Another long fight)
Another fairly long, but not too difficult boss fight. Raging Raven
possesses other unmanned flyers which fire missiles at Snake, making
the fight a bit more of a headache. Unlike your fight with Octopus,
you are given a much larger battlefield to maneuver in. Personally I
fought this battle on the roof, but it is possible to win it on the
lower levels, I just feel it is harder to win it there.
So with that being said, begin the fight by making your way to the
top of the tower. You will encounter a large amount of the unmanned
flyers here; take them all out with an assault rifle, which will
force Raven to make her appearance. She will usually stay in one
position for a few moments before flying to the next one, allowing
you to hit her with your best weaponry. Be careful however, she will
fire missiles at you while you are shooting; hit-and-run shooting is
the way to go. If you are hit with the missile Snake will go flying,
and can even fly off the roof (instant death). Luckily, it does not
deal a large amount of damage.
If you have the RPG-7 and have well aiming you can deal heavy damage
to her if it lands. Handguns and assault rifles will make this LONG
fight. You can also attempt to snipe her head if you can aim well.
Either way, this fight tests your ability to aim quickly, as the
unmanned gliders are also difficult to shoot down at times.
Occasionally, Raven will overheat and throw a Stun Grenade at you.
Quickly equip the Box or the Drum Can to resist the flash once you
hear her say she is overheating. This will give you a few seconds to
shoot her some more. She will then fly over to one of the far roofs
and rest for a moment. You will notice many flyers around her as
well. This is a perfect time to snipe her or fire a missile at her
for easy damage.
If you wish to rest and recover naturally, go back down into the
tower and go down the first set of stairs, but rest at the wall that
is there before the next set of stairs. I never got hit here once,
even with Raven shooting missiles at me.
Once you deal with Raging Raven you will fight her human form, Raging
Beauty. This is the exact same battle as when you fought Laughing
Beauty. Tranq her if you want her facecamo, otherwise you can kill
her quickly with the RPG-7.
====================================================
3. Crying Wolf (CWOL)
====================================================
Difficulty: Easy (with Solid Eye NV) Very Hard without
Similar to Raging Raven, you will also have to deal with FROGS during
this fight. Make good use of your Octocamo here and pick them off
one-by-one. I recommend equipping a suppressor to whatever gun you
use so you don’t get an alert.
Solid Eye with Night Vision is ESSENTIAL to make this fight easier.
You will be able to track Wolf’s unique prints in the snow, and track
her down when she moves positions. It will also allow you to see
through the intense blizzard. Projectile missiles are also essential
to deal good damage to her. Sometimes she will appear out of her
protective wolf armor, in which you could snipe her, but she can
detect you from far away and will send her own missiles at you.
Sometimes she will charge at you and will jump on you. If you want
too long it becomes unavoidable, it will deal massive damage to your
health AND your psyche gauge. Stay moving at all times if she is
running to you. You can also attempt to shoot a missile at her if you
are quick enough, but it is risky.
Basically repeat this until she dies. You can easily track her
movements with the Solid Eye on Night Vision, so keep that on at all
times.
After you beat her, she will become Crying Beauty. Same deal as all
the others. Either tranq for facecamo or kill lethally however you
want.
====================================================
4. Vamp (VAMP)
====================================================
Difficulty: Easy (if you know what to do)
Vamp is a pretty straight forward fight, attack him with an assault
rifle at his head, and gradually bring him down. He will mostly jump
around places, but will sometimes make a large leap at Snake. Use a
side roll to avoid it. He may throw knives at you as well; you can
either take the damage or run away from them. They do not do that
much.
Once you bring his health down to zero the fight seems over. After
about 5 seconds he will get up again and the fight will resume with
him at full health. This can continue forever if you do not stop his
regeneration.
To beat him, get behind him once he falls to the ground after you
defeat him. Make sure you have the syringe equipped. Once he is up,
quickly hold down R1 near him and you will grab him in a CQC hold.
Make sure you have a handgun, knife or no weapon equipped so you can
grab him. Assault rifles do not work properly. Once you have him
held, press the action button (triangle) and you will inject him with
the syringe. The fight will then be over.
====================================================
5. Metal Gear Ray (MGRAY)
====================================================
Difficulty: Easy
Could you ever imagine such an epic battle…? Metal Gear REX vs Metal
Gear RAY. Ray was designed to eliminate all other Metal Gears, but
this fight is actually quite easy, as long as you are aware of Rex’s
abilities. You can change which weapon you use from the weapons menu.
You can employ each of Rex’s weapons used against you in MGS. This
includes the gatling gun, the homing missiles and the rear laser.
The rear laser must be charged before it can be used. You must hold
down the aiming button to charge it. You can actually charge it all
the way to level 5, which takes some time, however it has the best
damage you can deal to Ray, I would recommend using it often.
All three of the weapons will overheat if you use them too much, so
switch to another weapon when this happens, fortunately they cool
down quickly. Use the missiles as a good alternative to the laser;
just make sure you have a clear shot to fire. I recommend switching
between the laser and the missiles; the gatling gun is not worth it.
Ray’s attacks are all similar to the ones used against Raiden in MGS,
including the missiles and the ’water cutter’ attack that it used to
escape the tanker. The water cutter attack is very powerful, stay
moving frequently to dodge it. Ray will also attempt to tackle Rex,
and jump on it for a large amount of damage. Use the X button and
dodge to the left or the right to avoid this. After you have done
that, get close to Ray and wait for a signal for the action button to
come up. Rex will then grapple Ray in its mouth and hit it with the
rear laser to deal a large amount of damage, very cool to see.
Overall this fight is quite easy, and I find REX actually has the
advantage over Ray here. Focus on using the laser and missiles as
your primary attack, and use the sidesteps to dodge when needed.
====================================================
6. Screaming Mantis (SMAN)
====================================================
Difficulty: Easy (once you know the proper strategy)
This fight is extremely nostalgic to Psycho Mantis, and you will soon
find out why. You must protect yourself, as well as Meryl’s own life
from Mantis’ control.
Begin the fight by immediately injecting yourself with the syringe,
the actual fight will begin once you do that. If you look carefully,
you will notice two dolls to the left and right of Mantis. A Psycho
Mantis doll and a The Sorrow doll. You must shoot these, not Mantis
herself. Be careful of the floating FROG corpses, they can shoot you
or stab you if you get too close. Once you shoot either doll a few
times, Mantis will begin to manipulate Meryl more and have her attack
you.
Take cover behind one of the pillars at the top of the stairs, and
Meryl will leap over to you. Grab her using a CQC attack (remember
only handguns, knives or unarmed for a grab), make sure the syringe
is equipped, and then press the action button when she is grabbed to
inject her with the syringe. Basically this is the exact same thing
you did to Vamp. It will instantly knock her out.
Once Meryl is knocked out, continue to fire on Mantis’ dolls. After
another few more hits, Mantis will raise Meryl once again, and put
the gun to her head this time. Quickly go down to the center of the
battlefield and grab Meryl in another CQC hold and inject her again
with the syringe. The FROGS corpses will most likely be near you and
will attempt to stop you. Keep trying to hit her with the syringe if
they land a hit on you.
Once you deal with Meryl again, you will finally be able to kill
Mantis freely. Continue to work on whatever doll you were shooting at
the time, you will notice it gradually fall from her side. After
about 10 hits or so it will fall from her side and fall to the ground
nearby. Quickly run to where the doll fell and pick it up before she
does herself.
Repeat this for the second doll. Be careful of her warping and slash
attack, she will scream "SNAAAAAKE" before she warps to you, giving
you plenty of time to run away. Once the second doll falls, you can
now kill Mantis. Equip the Mantis doll and fire off the projectile at her.
If it lands, you will be able to string her up like she did to the others.
Hold L1 and keep moving the Sixaxis back and forth between you and the screen,
this will shake her and inflict damage to her. You can kill her in one go
with this, quickly ending the fight. Note that both her stamina and health
gauge will deplete together.
You know the drill now, either tranq or lethal kill Screaming Beauty
to win.
====================================================
7. Liquid Ocelot (LOCE)
====================================================
Difficulty: Varies. Fairly difficult overall.
The fight you’ve been waiting so long for is finally here…Snake VS
Liquid Ocelot, and boy is it an epic fight.
There are four stages to his fight, the last one being very straight
forward. Each stage represents a progression from MGS1 to MGS4, each
to music from the respective games, very nostalgic.
Each form of Ocelot has his own unique move set, some easy, some more
difficult. You will first begin to MGS1 music and fighting a very
similar style Liquid. Press Select to bring up the controls for Snake
if needed.
Sidesteps are a good way to avoid blows and get a combo on Liquid,
you can also block his attacks and counter with your own. He can use
the running head butt attack similar from MGS1, it can be blocked but
it will break your guard. Keep dodging, blocking and delivering
combos and eventually you will come to…
MGS2 Liquid Ocelot, the alert music from the tanker will now play. I
find this form most easy to beat; Liquid will focus primarily on
using a powerful lunge fist which will deal a massive amount of
damage if it lands. Sidestepping will work best here to counter, but
even blocking gets the job done. Once you dodge the attack, you can
either try to get a combo on Liquid or do dash punches (Forward + X
combined with R1). Playing defensive and dodging is the way to go on
this form.
Eventually Liquid will change fighting styles once again, to reflect
on Ocelot from MGS3. Snake’s name will change to ’Naked Snake’ and
Liquid’s to ’Ocelot’. The theme for Snake Eater will now play as
well. Ocelot will focus on short-range CQC attacks. Do not use the
dash punch now or it will most always miss. Being aggressive with
combos helps more, as well as the occasional ducking and
sidestepping. If you are caught in a hold, hit the action button
quickly when it is displayed and you can break the hold. If he gets
you in a chokehold, rotate the left analog stick as quickly as you
can to break free.
Once you deal with Liquid a third time, the music will change to ’Old
Snake’ from MGS4, and both fighters will move very sluggishly towards
one another. You will only be able to swing using R1 now, make sure
you are close to Liquid before pressing R1. Keep mashing the button
to keep striking Liquid consecutively, if you wait too long then
Liquid will strike back. You can actually die on this part if you let
Liquid continue to counterattack, then you’ll have to start all over
if you do. Keep this up, and eventually the fight will end.
Congratulations, you have beaten the Final Boss in MGS4. Enjoy the
lengthy but enriching ending!
——————————————————
IV. Additional Tactics
——————————————————
Here I will post strategies and tips sent to me by e-mail. If you want to
submit your own just e-mail me at my contact info below.
====================================================
Laughing Octopus
====================================================
While I was fighting the Laughing Octopus, I’ve found that the survival knife
is a good way to do some decent damage and save ammunition. Here are a couple
of examples, one-when she first uses her camouflage and stands against the
wall (I am quite sure you know what I’m talking about), I usually run up to
her and pull off a knife combo, afterwards, she would still be standing there
and so I would pull off two to three more hits before she would fall to the
ground. This did alot more damage than I expected by the way. Other examples
are very similar, and this when she either hides on the wall over the
painting, hiding in a box, lying on the floor as a FROG, disguising as one of
those human figures, or lying on the floor with her face disguised as Naomi.
The technique applies to All the examples. Also, I want to point out that
when she does disguise her face as Naomi, you can still slice and dice her
even as she is spewing out that ink. if Laughing Octopus is lying on the
floor disguised as someone else, be sure to attack her in First Person mode
while crouching to hit her. This is only if you don’t have the auto aim
function enabled.
-Submitted by Jonathan S.
This is an interesting bug I found when fighting laughing octopus.
There should be a room where 2 boxes stacked on each other. Get on the
highest box and wait there while facing the door. She will continually walk
past the door and shoot at you. Since there’s a wall, her bullets will not go
through. But if you shoot at her while she’s shooting at you, you can still
damage her. This mostly work when she’s at 50% life/psyche, and she will
eventually move away to hide. If so, just go ahead and leave the spot, shoot
her, and run back on the top of the box.
-Submitted by Long Phan
====================================================
Raging Raven
====================================================
Nothing here yet!
====================================================
Crying Wolf
====================================================
Get under the tank, and equip Night Vis. Preferable weapon is sniper, for
when she runs into the woods, because she opens her armour and you can crack
off a great shot that’ll significantly lower her health. The worst that can
happen is that she attacks the tank and you lose about 1/5 of health (if
that…) which recovers quickly either. Whilst she’s running around it’s fun
to pick off the FROG’s too ^_^.
-Submitted by Bo17
After the cutscene ends and you regain control of Snake, duck under the truck
parked near you. From there, by using the Face and OctoCamo, you’ll be 99%
invisible. The soldiers looking for you will search the area, and it is broad
enough that you can snipe them with head shots. I used the M1 because it has
a good scope without having to customize it, and you’ll just need 1 shot to
take out the soldiers, as well as being silent. Its range is great, too. The
best bet is to snipe them in open areas where others can see the body.
They’ll go towards the fallen comrade and kneel to check their status
(perfect baiting technique). Once you dispatch them, it’s one-on-one against
Wolf. Stay where you are and wait until she comes into an area you can see
her. Once she pops her head out to scan for you with the rail gun, shoot her
in the head, wait for her head to recoil, shoot a 2nd time, wait again, shoot
a third time. She’ll get back into the machine and run off. Rinse and repeat.
Every 3 head shots took a quarter of her life, so I did this 4 times and
finished her easily, but not quickly. It’s a sniper showdown, so if you’re
patient, you’ll get the best of her. The second half of the battle when she’s
Crying Beauty is the same as the others. I’ve only beat her with lethal
means; I have not attempted this with the Mosin Nagant or the Mk22.
-Submitted by Fireagle (MGO ID)
====================================================
Vamp
====================================================
Nothing here yet!
====================================================
Metal Gear Ray
====================================================
Nothing here yet!
====================================================
Screaming Mantis
====================================================
Nothing here yet!
====================================================
Liquid Ocelot
====================================================
I found out of a tactic that works pretty well.
MGS1 Fight:
Go for the Big punch here. Punch him on so he is near the edge and continue
with the big punch. Be sure to press the punch button two or three times
since he will nearly fall of the edge the first time. When he rises continue
to punch him and you’ll take him down easily.
MGS2 Fight:
As you mentioned, he will focus on the powerful hit. Just step aside when he
is about to hit you and the Big punch him or combo him down. CQC and grab him
works well too.
MGS3 Fight:
I did go for the same tactics here as Ocelot did. CQC and choke him to
deplete his stamina bar wich will deplete his life bara when his stamina is
down to zero.
-Submitted by Bjvrn Andersson
——————————————————
V. Contact Info
——————————————————
E-mail: Neolavie@live.com
MGO ID: Crisis
I will accept other people’s ’Additional Tactics’ for any boss. Simply put
in the subject ’Additional Tactics for xxxx Boss’. Make sure you include
your name or screen name so I can give proper credit to you.
I will also accept Additional Strategies for any boss as well. Please give
me something to credit you by for this as well or I will use whatever name
was given to me in the sender line of the e-mail. I will not post your e-mail
publically unless you tell me to do so.
If you absolutely need help with a boss or are confused with a
certain strategy listed you may also e-mail me. I would recommend
using the MGS4 board at GameFAQs if you are having trouble past my
strategies.
You can also send me corrections to the guide if they are needed.
Lastly, you can contact on me MGO if I am on. I also run a knife/CQC clan
called Aurora. Feel free to apply if you love it as much as I do.
——————————————————
VI. Credits/Copyright
——————————————————
I would like to thank the amazing team of Kojima Productions for
putting out such an amazing MGS game. It was a very long wait, but
well worth it.
I would also like to express thanks to GameFAQs as well as other sites that
have allowed and requested to host this guide.
The information expressed in this guide is copyright to me, Travis
Rappa (Dauragon C Mikado88). By no means are you permitted to call
this guide or information within this guide your own. You are not
allowed to illegally host this file on your website without
permission of myself first. Please contact me first if you wish to
host this file, or use this information elsewhere.
This walkthrough reposted to TheGameReviews.com with permission of the author.
”
