Metal Gear Solid 2 Achievement Guide [WIP]

● 10/10 Estimated Difficulty – Big Boss Rank
● 40 Estimated Hours to Completion
● 4 Minimum Playthroughs – 3 for dog tags and 1 for Big Boss – this is 4 minimum but likely more
● 29 Missable Achievements

These achievements are story based and cannot be missed.

You get these from guards when you hold them up, and some bosses have them too. To get them off guards, get near them and aim your gun at them (the SOCOM or the M9 work best). Then, Snake will shout “Freeze!” and the guard will put up their hands.

There are 6 weapons to collect in the Tanker chapter.

• M9
  ㆍDefault weapon
• USP
  ㆍAutomatically acquired after beating Olga
• Chaff Grenades
  ㆍDeck-C, Crew’s Quarters – Inside the locker to the left of the stairs after the first camera.
• Stun Grenades
  ㆍDeck-A Crew’s Lounge – At the bottom of the stairs that take you to the Engine Room, Starboard. You have to pass them as part of the story.
• Hand Grenades
  ㆍEngine Room – Near the exit at the very bottom of the stairs on the bottom level. Bottom left corner.
• Magazine
  ㆍThese will be automatically acquired when reloading a weapon

There are 17 weapons to collect during the Plant chapter. You only need to collect at least one of the grenade type weapons.

The weapons and their locations are listed below in the order that they become available.

• Chaff Grenades
  ㆍStrut A Roof
  ㆍFA Connecting Bridge
  ㆍStrut F
  ㆍShell 1 Core 1F
  ㆍStrut L Perimeter
  ㆍKL Connecting Bridge

• M9
  ㆍStrut F – Top floor in the room on the right after entering via the FA top floor bridge.
  ㆍCan also be found near the start on Very Easy.

• Magazine
  ㆍThese will be automatically acquired when reloading a weapon

• Coolant
  ㆍGiven to you by Stillman as part of the story.

• Book
  ㆍStrut F – Hang over the railing on the top floor and drop onto the crates below to reach
  ㆍShell 1 Core 1F south lockers.
  ㆍShell 1 Core B2 Computer Room – On top of lockers in the west hallway. Melee the locker to get them down.
  ㆍShell 2 Core B1 Filtration Chamber 2 in a locker of Emma’s room.

• Stun Grenades
  ㆍStrut F – Bottom floor
  ㆍStrut E
  ㆍDE Connecting Bridge
  ㆍShell 1 Core, B1 – In Lockers

• Claymore Mines
  ㆍEF Connecting Bridge – Crawl across the bridge to collect them
  ㆍStrut E Heliport
  ㆍStrut A Roof – After Fortune Fight
  ㆍShell 1 Core 1F South lockers

• AKS-74u
  ㆍStrut F Bottom Floor after Fatman Fight

• M4
  ㆍStrut F top floor after Fatman Fight in the room on the middle left

• C-4
  ㆍStrut F top floor top right room in a locker
  ㆍShell 1 Core 1F – South lockers
  ㆍShell 2 Core B1 Filtration Chamber 2 in a locker of Emma’s room.

• Directional Mic
  ㆍShell 1 Core B2 Computer room – Story required item.

• RGB6
  ㆍStrut F After meeting Ames. Top floor top left room.

• PSG-1
  ㆍStrut F After meeting Ames. Top floor middle right room.

• PSG-1T
  ㆍStrut F After meeting Ames. Top floor middle right room. Crawl into the vent in the room.

• Grenades
  ㆍStrut F After meeting Ames. Top floor bottom left room.

• Stinger
  ㆍAutomatically given to you during the Harrier fight.

• Nikita
  ㆍShell 2 Core, B1 – Story required weapon. Will have to swim underwater to find it.

• HF Blade
  Automatically given to you by Snake after escaping the torture room.

There are 7 Cardboard boxes to collect.

• Tanker
  ㆍBox 1 – This is found in Deck-D, Crew’s Quarters inside of a food storage room. This room is to the right of the stairs you use to come up.

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• Wet Box – This is found after the fight against Olga, It is outside on the Navigational Deck, Wing. As you go to turn the corner, a guard will come out of a door. This box is up by the spotlight near where the guard goes.

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• Plant
  ㆍBox 1 : Strut A – This Box is found by crawling underneath pipes in Strut A after getting the Lv. 1 Card. You’ll need to go up the small stairs in the bottom left of the room with pipes. Go over the stairs, crawl under the pipes on your first right and then climb over the box below to reach it.

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• Box 2: Strut F – This box can be found on the bottom floor of Strut F. It is in the room on the bottom left where the Radar Node is found. It requires the Lv. 1 Card.

• Box 5: Strut E – This box is found in Strut E. It will be on the conveyor belt near the Radar Node.

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• Box 3: Strut E Rooftop Helipad – This box is found on the roof of Strut E. It is on the bottom left corner of the rooftop.

• Box 4: Shell 1 Core – B2 – This box is found across from the Radar Node on the B2 floor near the Directional Mic and Parrot.

In order to unlock the Bandana, you’re going to need to collect at least 50 Dog Tags in the Tanker chapter.

You can do this by getting all Dog Tags across Very Easy and Easy difficulty.

You have to complete the entire chapter. If you selected Tanker only, all you have to do is complete the Tanker. If you selected, Tanker-Plant, you will need to finish both the Tanker and Plant chapters before the Bandana is in your inventory.

After completing your selected chapter, you’ll need to make a completed save file so that you can use the special items on your following playthroughs.

• See the Dog Tag Collectible Guide for more details.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYKmVVtBLUc&t=56s
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYCkLLn3FXY
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZvefWP0Y-4&t=14s

In order to unlock the Tanker stealth suit, you’re going to need to collect at least 76 Dog Tags in the Tanker chapter.

You can do this by getting all Dog Tags across Very Easy, Easy and Normal difficulties.

You have to complete the entire chapter. If you selected Tanker only, all you have to do is complete the Tanker. If you selected, Tanker-Plant, you will need to finish both the Tanker and Plant chapters before the Tanker stealth suit is in your inventory.

After completing your selected chapter, you’ll need to make a completed save file so that you can use the special items on your following playthroughs.

• See the Dog Tag Collectible Guide plant below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CknJ8ZguYbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe6xhNY2Bjo&t=421s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwS4eOBjm7s

In order to unlock the brown wig, you’re going to need to collect at least 80 Dog Tags in the Plant chapter.

You can do this by getting all Dog Tags across Very Easy and Easy difficulty.

You have to complete the entire chapter. If you selected Plant only, all you have to do is complete the Plant. If you selected, Tanker-Plant, you will need to finish both the Tanker and Plant chapters before the brown wig is in your inventory.

After completing your selected chapter, you’ll need to make a completed save file so that you can use the special items on your following playthroughs.

• See the Dog Tag Collectible Guide plant above for more details.

In order to unlock the Plant stealth suit, you’re going to need to collect at least 120 Dog Tags in the Plant chapter.

You can do this by getting all Dog Tags across Very Easy, Easy and Normal difficulties.

You have to complete the entire chapter. If you selected Plant only, all you have to do is complete the Plant. If you selected, Tanker-Plant, you will need to finish both the Tanker and Plant chapters before the Plant stealth suit is in your inventory.

After completing your selected chapter, you’ll need to make a completed save file so that you can use the special items on your following playthroughs.

• See the Dog Tag Collectible Guide plant above for more details.

There are 3 different ways of collecting the digital camera.

• Beat the game. You’ll be automatically given the digital camera.

 

• Get Cardboard Box 5 in Strut E. Get on the conveyor belt in Strut E and equip Box 5. The conveyor belt will stop. Get on and you’ll ride the conveyor belt down into a room where the digital camera can be found.

• After escorting Emma, you’ll need to quickly reach Snake. After climbing the ladder up, you’ll be in Strut E. When you exit the room, there will be a Level 5 door on the top of the small area. Go in there and you can get the Digital Camera. This is before going up to the conveyors belt area.

This can be earned as both Snake and Raiden, but can be earliest earned in the Tanker section of the game in Deck-A Crew’s Quarters.

Kill or tranquilize the enemy patrolling the hallway.

Drag him with to the room with lockers.

Open a locker and drag him to it. Snake will automatically place him in the locker and shut the door.

The in-game name for the “girlie magazine” is “Book.”

A Book can be found in Strut F on the bottom floor on top of some crates.

Flip over the railing by leaning against it and pressing / on the top floor and shimmy to the right until you are over the stack of crates. Drop down by pressing / and then pick up the Book.

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Equip the Book and place it in an enemy’s path. When he sees it, he’ll be distracted by it.
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This counts cameras across the main story, Snake Takes and VR Missions.

Whenever you come to a camera, shoot it. You must use a lethal weapon for this. Non lethal weapons will not destroy cameras.

It’s also important to note that the Cypher cameras do not count. This only counts the cameras that are mounted up on the walls.

This can be earned in the Tanker section of the game in Deck-D, Crew’s Quarters. This is near the kitchen/cafeteria area where the food storeroom is.

Stand across from the laser trap in the hallway. Wait for the guard to walk over so that he is in view.

He’ll stop right next to the fire extinguisher. When he does, shoot the extinguisher. You can use a non lethal weapon for this.

This can easily be earned as you are holding up guards for their Dog Tags.

When behind an enemy, aim at the radio on their lower back side.

Shoot it and you’ll see little sparks fly from it when it’s hit. Non lethal weapons can be used for this.

This can be earned during the Tanker chapter. There are a lot of pipes throughout this section.

There are a couple ways to get this.

You can hold up a guard near, or drag them near a pipe, and then shoot the pipe. Steam will shoot out. Keep shooting the pipe until the enemy dies.

You’ll know it’s hitting them because they will move their hand in front of their face to try and clear the air.

The other method you can do is shoot the pipes along the wall later in the Tanker. You’ll come to a section where guards will be attacking you. This will take place in a narrow hallway lined with pipes. So, just shoot the pipes near the enemies until one of them dies.

This can be earned in the Tanker chapter of the game in Deck-A Crew’s Quarters.

Open the lockers until you find one that has a poster of a woman on the inside of the door.

Get in the locker and lean up against the back wall inside and Snake will close the door.

The poster will be right in front of you. Hold / until you hear a kissing noise.

• Snake Beater

After earning Kissing Booth, exit the locker and press / and stare at the poster. You have to get really close to the poster. Like right up against it.

While in first person view staring at the poster, open the codec and call Otacon.

See the “Kissing Booth” Achievement above for more details.

This is earned during the Tanker chapter.

Toward the end of the Tanker, you’ll be sneaking past rooms full of marines. In the second hold, there will be two screens that the marines are switching back and forth to.

Take a picture of the screen on the right with the camera Otacon gave you for Metal Gear Ray pictures.

If the screen is not active, you can actually interact with the projector to switch to it.

This is earned during the Tanker chapter.

Toward the end of the Tanker, you’ll come to a hold full of marines. If you look out into the crowd, you’ll see one with no pants on.

Take a picture of him with the camera Otacon gives you. This will not work with the Digital Camera special item.

After taking the picture, you’ll need to reach Hold No. 3 where Ray is.

Go to the bottom right corner of the room and interact with the computer to send Otacon the photo.

Make sure you do this before taking pictures of Ray.

This can be earned as soon as the Plant chapter begins.

Pick up a ration and then lay on the ground near the bugs. Just lay there for a bit and then one of the bugs will be on your rations in your inventory.

Both of these are in Plant chapter of the game.

For this, you’re going to have to use the Directional Mic to hear secret conversations. The Directional Mic is a story required item.

• Location 1

This will be when you find Ames. During the cutscene, he will tell you to use the Directional Mic to listen to Ocelot and Solidus’ conversation.

When they start talking, aim the Directional Mic a little to the left until you hear Johnny talking to himself in the bathroom. Keep the mic on him until he’s done.

• Location 2

This takes place during the section where you have to provide cover for Emma as she crosses the oil fence. When she goes behind the second platform, aim the Directional Mic at the platform. You’ll hear Emma run into Johnny and they will have a quick conversation. Keep your mic on them until he leaves.

This is earned during the cutscene after beating Solidus on the rooftop. So do not skip the cutscene otherwise this will be missed.

While Snake is talking to Raiden in the street, he’ll ask, “By the way, what is that?” Raiden will look at his dog tags and say, ” No, never heard the name before.” As soon as you hear that, hold / to zoom in and use the stick to look around. You’ll see Vamp standing in the background. Zoom in on him.

Before you can earn this, you’re going to have to complete the entire game.

After you’ve done that, go to:

Main Menu > Special > Casting Theater.

Select Demo 8 and replace Raiden with Rose and Solidus with Raiden.

Then, just watch the scene play out.

This is something you’ll earn when collecting dog togs for the special items.

In order to get this, you’re going to have to use the M9 or PSG1-T to put enemies to sleep.

This should come naturally over time as you collect Dog Tags, but just make sure you’re using the M9.

Enemies will have “Zs” over their head when put tranquilized.

In order to break an enemy’s neck, you’re going to have to get behind them and then grab them with / . Keep tapping / until their neck breaks.

There are a few ways to unlock this.

You can to use attacks to beat an enemy unconscious. You have to keep landing melee hits until they pass out.

Another way would be to hold up a guard, look at his groin and punch him. If you land the punch just right, that will knock him out in a single punch.

Toward the very end of the game, you’ll receive a sword. If you hold open the inventory on the HF Blade and press / , it’ll flip the blade to non lethal. The icon will be blue. You can hit enemies with the non lethal side of the sword to knock them out.

You’ll know when an enemy is unconscious as there will be stars above their heads.

 

• Do 200 pull ups.

Hang over a railing and press + / + to do a pull up. You’ll need to repeat that 200 times. You’ll need to climb back up to refill your grip meter when doing this.

• Drop from one railing and catch yourself.

This method is faster, but there is chance you can die. Press / to flip over and hang from a railing. Press / to drop. Quickly press / to catch yourself on the railing below. Pull yourself up and get back up to the top railing and do it again. If you miss, you’ll die and have to start over.

1 drop and catch is the equivalent of 10 pull ups. So that means you’ll need to drop and catch yourself 20 times. Your progress will be reset if you die.

This will be earned when you earn the “Love Hurts” Achievement

Boss Survival is a mode available from the main menu after beating the entire game.

You’ll be taking on the bosses from both the Tanker and Plant chapters one after the other.

The easiest way to complete this is on Easy difficulty using Raiden.

The reason you want to choose Raiden is for the fight against Solidus. With Raiden, you’ll have the HF Blade. With Snake, you’ll only be able to use your melee attack.

• Olga
• Soldiers – Tanker Ambush
• Fatman
• Harrier
• Vamp
• Tengu Soldiers
• Metal Gear Rays
• Solidus

Snake Tales are shortened missions that are available from the main menu.

You need 1 of them to complete.

You’ll be playing as Snake in different scenarios across both the Tanker and Plant. All you have to do is complete them.

• A Wrongdoing
• Big Shell Evil
• Confidential Legacy
• Dead Man
• External Gazer

 

See the “Virtually Impossible” Achievement for more details.

There are over 500 VR/Alternative missions. So, 50 is really not that much in the overall scale of how many missions there are.

To get first, you just need to have to beat the fastest time for a VR/Alternative mission.

There are a lot of these that are pretty easy, so you’ll likely get more than enough without having to try too hard for this as you work toward completing every VR/Alternative mission.

When going for this, make sure to only use non lethal weapons against enemies.

This includes the bosses that have a stamina bar as well.

When fighting Solidus at the end of the game, you’re going to have to switch the HF Blade over to the non lethal side as well.

You can go for this right away, or wait until you have unlocked the stealth camo.

This will be void if it says, “ALERT” in red in the top right corner of the screen. You’re okay if it says “CAUTION.”

You’ll also be okay if an enemy sees you, but you stop him from calling in back up. You have a short window of time from being spotted to the enemy running away to radio it in. You won’t be in Alert mode until he finishes his radio call.

If you’d rather make this much easier, you can just equip the stealth camo and run through game invisible. Enemies and cameras will not see you.

However, you will not be able to use stealth when interacting with the elevator in the Shell 1 Core. You must wear the disguise and equip the AK in order to safely interact with the elevator. It is required by the story that you do this. The camera will see you even with stealth equipped if you try it.

You should also save your game regularly so that you can re-load and try again if you end up in alert mode.

There several areas of the game where Alert mode is unavoidable. These DO NOT void the Achievement:

• Boss fights
• Soldiers hallway fight in the Tanker
• After speaking with Ames in the hostage room.
• Tengu soldier fight with Snake

The Master Collection comes with Screenplay books for each of the games. These can be accessed from the menu when starting the game up.

Open the Screenplay and tab through all of the pages to the end and this will pop.

You’re going to have to complete the game while meeting the following criteria.

This is the hardest Trophy/Achievement in the game and it should be saved for last. You’re going to have to really become familiar with this game in order to reach the Big Boss title.

• Tanker-Plant
• Difficulty – Extreme
• Time – 3 hours or less
• Continues – 0
• Rations Used – 0
• Kills – 0
• Alert Mode – 3 Times or fewer
• Shots fired – 700 or less
• Mech Damage – Under 60 – Cameras, Cyphers, MG Rays. Yes, the Rays count toward this. You
• have to kill 20 of them during the fight. So your actual number is under 40.
• Damage Received – 10 Health Bars or less
• No Special Items
• No Radar

Here are some suggested save points.

1. Before the Fortune fight
2. Before Fatman fight
3. Before destroying the Semtex on the bridge ahead of the Harrier fight.
4. Before Vamp fight
5. Before covering Emma as she crosses the oil fence.
6. Before the Tengu fight
7. Before the MG Ray fight
8. Before Solidus fight.

These are just some general ideas. If you’re comfortable with the bosses, but struggle with other sections, change up the save points to better suite your game.

Below are some time saving tips:

• First thing you need to know is that cutscenes add time to your count. You’re going to need to skip every single one immediately as they begin. This includes codec conversations as well.
• Do not answer optional codec calls.
• When saving the game, make sure to save right after entering a new area. Re-loading a save file always starts you over at the beginning of whatever area you saved in.
• If you call an elevator, press the button a second time if the doors don’t open right away.
• Make use of Snake’s roll and Raiden’s cartwheel to move a little faster through areas.
• Do not spend time looking for ammo or items that you do not need. Which will be most things as you aren’t able to kill or use rations.

It might seem daunting to not be able to use any rations, but getting caught voids the codename, so you won’t really need rations anyway because you won’t be fighting guards.

The only time you’d need them is during boss fights. Which can be tricky, but not impossible. There are several points throughout the game where the game will refill your health.

• After the Olga boss fight
• After the Fortune fight
• After Fatman boss fight
• After Vamp boss fight
• After the first torture
• After the MG Rays boss fight

Before we get to the boss fight strategies, here are some time checkpoints you should be aware of. You’re going to want to be around these times when beginning the fights, give or take a minute or two.

• Fortune Fight – 00:45:00
• Fatman Fight – 00:49:00
• Harrier Fight – 01:10:00
• Vamp Fight – 01:25:00
• Cover Emma on the Oil Fence – 01:40:00
• Tengu Soldiers – 01:56:00
• MG Ray Fight – 02:08:00
• Solidus Fight – 02:22:00

Skip all skippable cutscenes afterwards.

• Olga

Shoot the spot light and bottom corners of the tarp right away. She’ll shoot at your last known location, so use your roll to get to a blind side of hers.

If you take damage, it’s okay. You’ll regain health after the fight.

• Fortune

This will come down to timing. Equip a cardboard box and walk back and forth. You need to do this at the very bottom of the screen. As soon as her second shot finishes, immediately turn around and go the other way. So, if you’re heading left, turn back and go right. Repeat that over and over until the fight ends. You’ll need to watch out for debris and exploding barrels. Her shots are gonna come in fast so it might take a few tries to get the timing down.

• Fatman

You’re going to need to stay somewhat close to Fatman so that you can freeze the bombs as they are planted. You don’t want to wait until they are all planted. If you get close to him while he’s planting a bomb, melee attack him to knock him down and then use that extra time to freeze the bomb he planted.

Melee him while as he skates by you. While he’s getting up, shoot him in the head with the M9. If he’s far away, you can shoot him with the Socom repeatedly to knock him down. While he’s down, shoot him in the head with the M9. Shooting him with the Socom will only do a little damage to his health bar.

If you’re fast enough, you can shoot him in the head with the M9 immediately as he falls down which will allow you to shoot him in the head a second time.

• Harrier

As soon as the fight starts, pick up the Stinger and fire as many shots on the harrier as you can. When he’s flying around the perimeter of the area, you can get a shot or two in on him.

When he flies straight out, follow his contrails and wait. There will be a flash. Once you see that, fire the Stinger at him and then quickly take cover.

Eventually, he’ll hiver above you to burn you with his thrusters. Spam the Stinger at him at the middle of the jet. You don’t have to wait for the lock on. Just keep firing at him.

When he drops bombs from above, you can avoid them by getting to the bottom level.

When he lines up in front of you to shoot rockets, get all the way to the left side of the area up the stairs. When he starts firing rockets, cartwheel your way over to the right side to avoid the rockets.

The only other attack he’ll do is getting in close to fire his gun at you. Get to the bottom floor and get behind the big gray box. The harrier will change position so you’ll need to move around to the other side of the grey box.

• Vamp

You can actually cheese Vamp here.

As soon as the fight begins, shoot him in the head with the M9. When he jumps in the water, shoot the water with the Stinger and it’ll drain his O2 meter. As soon as that happens, slowly step off of the platform toward the water so that Raiden falls and grips the platform. Do not fall in the water. Vamp will slowly walk over to you. Right as he’s about to crouch down to attack, pull yourself up. You want Vamp’s attack to go as Raiden is climbing up. You’ll avoid taking damage.

Then, attack vamp with two melee punches. When he crouches down, run to the left or right but stay close. Just get far enough away to avoid the slash attack. As soon as that attack finishes, get back and punch him with two quick attacks. Repeat that until the fight ends. If he jumps back into the water, just use your Stinger to shoot the water and start the method again.

• Tengu Soldiers

You’ll have the sword now, but stick to your non lethal weapons. You’ll take too much damage if you’re running around fighting with the sword.

Snake will take damage, but you can actually get in front of him and use the block with the sword to deflect the bullets. This will protect Snake and he’ll kill the enemies. You have to stand still when doing this.

• Metal Gear Ray

The main thing with this fight is that you will be fighting 20 Rays. Be quick with your shots and make sure to listen for other missile barrages from the Rays on the outside of the arena.

Incoming bullet fire or the 1 missile attack can be dodged by running left or right and doing a cartwheel when the rounds are close to you.

• Solidus

During the first phase, Solidus’ melee attacks can be blocked with your sword. You can also block the attack with his suit tentacles. The missiles can be dodged with a cartwheel or cut in half by the sword. You can bait him into using the melee attacks. Get your attacks in and then get a little bit away from him and then run back toward him. Block his attacks and then hit him.

During the second phase, attack him and then run away. Get far enough so that he doesn’t slide from point to point. You want him to just come straight at you. Hold the block up and you should block his elbow attack. Deal some damage and then run away again repeat the method.

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