• Select English on Integral to save 7 seconds at Nuclear statistics!

• Unless you are going for Rank 1 or Big Boss, you want to farm alerts in the Dock.

• There are many possible variants to the Dock, but only one thing is required. You must alter right guard's path, or kill him. If you do not, you will not be able to get on the elevator quickly (assuming stealth).

• If you alter the left guard's path, you must alter it further or kill him. Unaltered, he leaves the elevator area just before the elevator arrives (assuming stealth).

• You can use the credits as visual cues for stealth. Head up the left path when CG Artists Takashi Mizutani and Hideki Sasaki appear. The final credit is Assistant Director Yoshikazu Matsuhana.

• Instead of knocking on the wall, you can let the elevator guard exit. This is slower.

• Initial dpad movement is simple and the same on every difficulty to manipulate the Helipad guard

• Quick equip Chaff on Heliport Pickup if you performed RAM Manipulation

• Stealthy position at the searchlights

• If you do not hold up on the analog for the Miller call, Snake will stop crawling. Be sure to move forward on the analog stick at the end of the call, so you won't stop. Feel free to switch to Dpad afterwards if you prefer.

• Once out of the vent, stand up quickly by pressing triangle and X shortly after another. This will skip the stand up animation play out.

• As you approach the DARPA Chief vent, mash circle to enter the vent as early as possible (Vermillion Vent)

• Quick equip Card in Cell if you performed RAM Manipulation

Grenade Ocelot Tutorial for all difficulties

hold triangle, hold dpad up, let go of triangle, hold X, let go of dpad up and x once standing

• Hold up and triangle, release both, then press X to clip the vent. Don't press X too fast, or it won't work.

• For avoiding the mines

• Analog Buffer is equip Chaff when going to crawl, PP,P

• DPad Buffer is equip Chaff when going upleft at 3rd shadow

How to loop the Ninja without the cutscenes

IL explaination by Hau5test

Get out of the elevator and shoot your gun to the bottom left to hit Meryl.
Getting her attention has her run to the bathroom.
You can quickly grab the box if you want to perform the cave vent gltich to go out of bounds.

iLL_Pazzo & Tromboncino's Claymore phase skip is the new meta to beat Mantis into the phase skip (Meryl falling over)

Explainer of the Claymantis Extreme strategy incl. IL variant

Example of the IL strat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HJTmoIImxQ

explainer for recreation:

• start by skipping the final cutscene of Mantis reading your mind right away
• turn up right and hold square to prepare for Mantis manipulated top right position
• after a single shot hold fpv to confirm he goes bottom right of you, turn and auto aim
• only shoot when he's about to appear again, that little delay guarantees the top left position at the statue
• we need this top left position to give an extra shot to Mantis before the chair phase
• run up to the desk and hit him 4 more times
• continue as seen in the video blasting Mantis with the Famas for a total of 13 shots
• Meryl phase skip only happens on 13 shots
• the 13th shot may need to be done after the chair phase but before Mantis starts the vase phase
• run up to the desk and align slightly right of the vertical line of the desk texture
• tap down once, turn up, place the claymore as Mantis is floating down to stand
• switch to grenade on hearing the click and run to the right to avoid the damage
• from here toss the grenade at Meryl's face to end her 2nd phase
• toss another grenade at Mantis to end his hide and seek phase
• unequip grenades and menu up once to get to the famas and blast Mantis right away
• position yourself at the tables to the right for uninterrupted shots during chair phase 2
• if you're lucky you get another chair phase right after and don't need to adjust
• usually the vase / mask phase follows up, keep moving and use the box to slip past the vases and keep continuosly shooting Mantis until the fight is over

Explanation for Easy difficulty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8APeemOLizk

Here's the glitchless method as done by Repeatzzzzz

for reaching the phase skip without the claymore:

• 19 socom shots, 101 famas

For both going up and returning back through the cave

• If you knock on the wall under the pipes (where the trap door is) the time it takes snake to run down with no weapon is exactly the same time it takes until you flip him. Should be golden everytime

• Begin video at 2:12 for All Bosses.

• If you need to take a bathroom break, call Colonel early, mash through the codec, then wait by the door.

• You will need to mash through the longest codec in the game in All Bosses, good luck!

Boba Skip - 50% successrate on first try

Chaff/Stun damage alignment - click picture for fullscreen

More infos about Boba skip can be found here

Further info on the old glitchless Tower A can be found in Glitchless

• “Position your thumb at 10 o'clock while climbing the stairs, and 7 o'clock when descending. This way, you hug the exterior walls, run up the stairs in the most direct route, and don't become stuck or stalled on the banisters.” - Official Strategy Guide

unequip grenade, three to right for chaff after passing 1-4 turrets

alternative grenade turret tutorial

Before the fight, willingfully fail the lean trick to not require walking back to the start of the arena. By failing the lean trick you will be knocked back further than the regular cutscene knockback.

Visual guides

Ingame view super-wide screenshot (click for fullscreen)

END OF DISC 1! GO TO DISC 2