While Lethal variants are generally slower for Fatman, they are more consistent. On Easy and Normal runs, the M9 is ignored entirely, so this becomes the optimal way to fight him.

Non-lethal variants of the fight are faster on all difficulties, as you can fit more than two shots per cycle with the M9 (exception: Extreme and European Extreme).

Fatman can be defeated with 4 M9 headshots after shooting him in the leg once with the M9 as well:

• Regular Setup: Go to the right bomb first and defuse it then go the the middle and check what Fatman does (stands still, goes clockwise, or goes counter-clockwise):
  • If he stands still, then go to the left and shoot him in the leg
  • If he goes clockwise, then wait for him to make it to the right side of the cycle before shooting him in his leg.
  • If he goes counterclockwise, then try to shoot him in the leg as fast as possible.

• Edboi Setup: Hold d-pad right and before reaching the first black line do a punch-punch-kick combo, and as your face touches the 2nd black line cartwheel.
  • If you don't knock him down with the cartwheel then quickly turn around and shoot him in the leg.

• Tino Setup: Hold d-pad right until you reach the middle of the gap between the 2 boxes, after that hold d-pad down until you barely pass the horizontal line. At that point, you want to start punch-punch-kicking.
  • If you don't knock him down with the punch-punch-kick then quickly turn around and shoot him in the leg.

Fatman can be defeated with 5 M9 headshots after knocking him down with the Socom:

• Fastest Setup: Go to the left bomb first and defuse it, after that you will have to see where Fatman goes. Fatman can go in 2 directions, either up where he always goes if you defuse the right bomb first or down in the South-West corner of the Helipad.
  • The fight is faster only if he goes up. If he does go up you want to knock him down with the SOCOM and then quickly shoot him 5 times in the head with the M9 (the timing is tight and you have to do it fast), after that you can go to the right bomb and defuse it to end the fight.
  • This strat is only recommended for ILs and Boss Survival as it's too risky to do in Tanker-Plant runs or Plant ILs.

(Credit to Major_Zero)

• Fastest strategies for Fatman - Normal and below

• Getting at least one 3-shot cycle with the M9 on Fatman speeds up the fight immensely, but is recommended for advanced players only as the timing is incredibly strict. Fastest method possible is two 3-shot nonlethal cycles plus one extra shot to finish.
  • 1 3-shot cycle: 32 seconds
  • 0 3-shot cycles: 37 seconds
  • Lethal: 36 seconds

The following is a loop on Extreme and European Extreme that is only possible on versions of the game that run at 50 Hz (i.e: PAL PlayStation 2, PAL PlayStation 3 at 576p, etc.)

• PS2 PAL Loop

• HD PAL Loop

Return to MGS2 Bosses