Q: How many versions of Metal Gear are there?
A: Three. For more detailed info check out this page:
MGMSX Regions, Versions and Platforms.

Q: What qualifies for a guard spotting/noticing me?
A: Guards will only notice you if they see Snake’s lower body within their range of vision (waist down).

Q: A bomb I placed disappeared after I used the menu, what gives?
A: Opening the weapon menu removes any placed items from the current game screen.

Q: The floor is opening up under Snake, wtf?!
A: At certain parts through the game, there are several pitfall traps
you need to avoid otherwise they will kill you.
The detailed guide will tell you how to avoid them.

Q: When do I rank up?
A: Every fifth hostage is one rank.

Q: What good is hitting an enemy once and stunning it?
A: When stunned, enemies can't detect you and you can move
through them as if they don't exist.

Q: What alerts are mandatory?
A:There are 8/9 total forced alerts in Metal Gear (MSX).

• (1) The rocket guards atop building 1 (1 extra if playing on Easy difficulty)
• (1) roof of building 2
• (3) The screen before building 3
• (3) first screen of building 3

Q: What tells you a wall is breakable, even with explosives?
A: When you have Snake punch a wall,
if a question mark appears above him the wall is breakable.

Q: How far away can you place the bombs before they don't work anymore for opening a wall?
A:

Q: When does a kill count in Boss Survival and the timer for that boss stops?
A: A kill on a boss counts as soon as the boss health value is reaching 0.
That causes the Boss Survival timer to pause and load the next boss.

Q: How does Health and Damage work
A: See this page for a full explanation:
Metal Gear (MSX) Health and Damage values

Q: How does Metal Gear work with its maps?
A: See this page for a full explanation:
Metal Gear (MSX) Map System

Q: What are the Item and Weapon IDs?
A: See this page for a full explanation:
Metal Gear (MSX) Item ID System

Q: What is faster, holding X or spamming inputs?
A: spamming inputs in most cases does let the dialog boxes disappear
one frame in the game faster, it can be at least 66ms time difference.
For the any% category, the total timesave with perfect execution can be 6.5s for example.

Q: Why is GOG and PS2 PAL a separate category on Speedrun.com?
A: The PC GOG version and PS2 PAL version run at different speeds.
PS2 PAL executes its updates 11% faster than the NTSC/HDC versions.
The GOG PC version updates at around 1% faster than the NTSC/HDC versions.
Because of these differences, both IGT and RTA categories are separated
to their own subcategories.

For more infos see this spreadsheet about different game versions and speed comparisons.

Q: Is there a TAS for Metal Gear?
A: Yes there is. The actual MSX version of Metal Gear for the MSX 2.0
computer has received a TAS by Dunnius a few years ago.
While we have found some updates to this game versions speedrun tech,
a new version has not yet been finished. Watch the TAS video right here:

Q: What are the requirements for Big Boss/FOX rank?

There are more ranks available in the PS2 port of Metal Gear (MSX). They are as follows:

• Difficulty: Easy
• Time: 49:59 max
• Continues: 1 or more
• Alerts: 10 or more
• Human Kills: between 1 and 3
• Rations: 2 or more
• Special Item: No

• Difficulty: Easy
• Time: 7:59:59 maximum
• Human Kills: more than 3

Alternatively, you can get Deer also by playing between 4 hours of IGT and 8 hours of IGT.

Q: How am I supposed to remember that long sequence for the MG fight?

A: See here for a broken down pattern:

1) R R L
2) R L L
3) R L L
4) R R L
5) R L R
6) R

Return to Metal Gear MSX Overview page