Guide written by [http://www.mahalo.com/member/Markb Mark Burnham]
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Act 1: Crescent Meridian
When you're ready, head up and out of the basement area on the platform of rubble.
Follow the path over the boxes. You'll come to an open area to the left with some intense warfare in the street. Walk out into the area, and trigger a cutscene.
TIP: Observe the map. Your ultimate goal is to make it all the way to the northwest position, to the objective marker.
When the cutscene ends, use the barricades for cover and then move into the small room on the right. Follow the alleyway around to the right.
Rather than going back out into the open space, crawl down through the crawlspace ahead, and find a Ration and some Ammunition. Go back out the crawl space, and climb up the ladder directly next to it. You can grab onto the ledge there and shimmy across to the other side of the street. Press Triangle to shimmy across. On the other side you'll find some Ammunition.
Go back across or drop down, and continue northward. You'll come to some rebels pinned behind a van. Take the alley to the left, and climb the ladder up to the roof. When you're up there you'll immediately encounter a crouched PMC. Waste him, and he'll yield the Automatic Sniper Rife. Also, you'll find the Javelin (!).
Go back down the ladder, and continue northward. At this point you'll encounter some fairly heavy enemy resistance. On the left you'll find another ladder. Take it up to the roof (if you want a shortcut over the street). Jump down to the ground level and trigger a cutscene. During the cutscene, follow the prompt and hold LI to get a good look at Laughing Octopus from Snake's eyes.
When the cutscene ends, that concludes the Crescent Meridian section.
Act 1: Millennium Park
When you're ready, collect the ammo from the murdered soldiers. If you need anything extra, remember to loot their bodies holding Triangle.
Head straight down the path while crawling, and make sure your Octocamo has adjusted. Stay all the way on the left side, and you won't need to engage the enemy soldiers patrolling right next to you in the middle of the street.
Go past the box on the right, and some barbed wire barricades in the street. There will be a soldier patrolling back and forth in the middle of the street. Wait until he's walked the other way, and then crawl past.
Head into the of-shoot alleyway to the left. Right as you enter the building, find the iPod tune "Theme of Solid Snake."
Go up the stairs. You'll find some Ammunition, and an enemy to the left ready to snipe you. Take him out any way you see fit (we used the Mk. 2 tranquilizer as he walked in front of us). Do not fall down the hole yet. Enter the door to the left of the hole, and walk straight ahead (there's another hole on your right, don't fall down). You'll find a Playboy in this room.
When you're ready, drop down the hole straight ahead.
Under a table you'll find a Ration. Check the lockers for some items.
Right when you drop down, search the locker for the M4 Suppressor. This is for the M4 Assault Rifle. Modify the weapon if you wish. The other lockers have other lesser items. Search them and stock up.
When you're ready, leave the enclosure and crawl out into the open. You're objective marker will be northwest, to the left diagonally.
Make your way that way, avoiding the patrolling soldier. If you crawl carefully they should have no way to spot you.
Head all the way to the left of the map, and you'll come to an arched crawlspace. Go through it, and you'll see some large tankers parked in the area. Under the truck, find a Compress.
Remain crawling at all times, unless you're completely sure no one is around you, and then stay crouched. If you are seen, get to an isolated area, blend in, and hold Triangle to "play dead," which will eventually kill the alert level.
In order to enter the compound and reach the objective marker in the northwest, you'll need to enter through a pink door right to the southwest of the marker on your map. Enter the door when you're ready, and trigger the cutscene.
Act 2: Mission Briefing
TIP: Notice the "press select for help" text on the screen during the briefing. Press it to get a listing of controls during these scenes. Wait for the moment when the mission briefing switches to split-screen, then press Square to take control over the Mk. II. Navigate it quickly around both floors of the area to find some extra items. On the ground floor you can find a Camera (used to take pictures in the field) near a desk. Also downstairs, you can find a Battery, which we're guessing will help your night vision goggles stay powered when you need them. Head upstairs to find the iPod tune "Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django."
NOTE: To make this section more comfortable, you'll want to swap the Mk. II's view to full-screen. To do this, press Triangle to put the Mk. II onto the left main window, then press L2 to make that window entirely full-screen. Otherwise navigating the Mk. II will have you squinting during these sections.
Act 2 - Cove Valley Village
Watch the cutscene. Remember to tap X rapidly to trigger a stream of flashbacks during the cutscene. You'll watch Laughing Octopus annihilate some soldiers.
TIP: Right as the mission starts, you'll notice some PMC soldiers holding prisoners at gunpoint. We dig the rebels, so we attempted to snipe the PMC soldiers and set the boys free. This worked, sort of. When you take out the PMCs standing right over the bound rebels, the rebels get up quickly and say something like "get guns!" Which they do. They then proceed to get executed anyway. However, when they restocked they apparently opened a room to the right of your starting position. When the caution level runs out, go inside the room. You'll find a bunch of items, the most notable being a Double-Barrel Shotgun, a Muna (restores Psyche) and a South American Rebel Disguise.
Follow the rooftops in front of your starting position, over to the furthest roof and climb in the window. You'll find a Ration. Across the gap, you'll spot some ammunition and a weapon. You will need to time your jump/roll (press X) perfectly to get across to the other ledge. You'll find an SVD Automatic Sniper Rifle.
On the bottom floor of this building, towards the back, find a C4.
Head to the left, across from the room with the Double-Barrel Shotgun, and crawl under the deck of the building. You'll find a Smoke Grenade. Crawl out from under the deck, and go inside this building. You'll find the iPod tune "The Fury."
Get up on the roof to the left of the building containing the iPod, and you'll find a Petro Bomb.
Act 2 - Cove Valley Village (Hill)
When ready, start the journey towards the objective marker in the northeast. Search the bodies along the way. If you sniped the PMC soldiers earlier, this will be a pretty quiet journey.
NOTE: You should be in a pretty good place to use some of your accrued DP (Drebin Points) and buy some choice gear. Remember to take a look at his selection often, as he adds new items regularly. We recommend purchasing the Mosin-Nagant, which is a non-lethal sniper rifle.
To the east, where the path is blocked, you will find a Playboy near the fence.
Head north up the grass steps. There are some enemies patrolling this area, hidden up on certain steps. Don't just run through this area, you'll get spotted very quickly. Stay crouched, using the Solid Eye to help you steer clear of any PMCs. If you are spotted, get down into the grass in the south, lie die down and play dead (press Triangle). The PMCs should blaze right past you in this position.
Start your ascent up the steps from the east-most edge of the grass steps. Get up the first two steps, then the third. Stay crouched, and stay on the east side of the steps.
TIP: There is a store-building right in the middle of the series of steps. We found one PMC guarding it, which we easily sniped from a distance. You might choose to use a Pentazemin to hold your arms steady (use the Mosin-Nagant if you bought it).
Get up to the building, through the small garden from the west. You'll find a Stun Grenade.
Continue up through the remainder of the grass steps, and head through the narrow passageway. Make your way around the corner to the west into the next area.
You'll get a Codec call from Campbell. Watch the cutscene.
When it ends continue westward, through to the next large area.
There's some fairly heavy enemy resistance in this area. Crawl through, and hug the west-most wall. This should lead you totally around the first batch of them. When you do this you'll find a separate, hidden pathway that you can crawl through along the west wall.
There is a building in the north-most wall of this area. Head for it. There is a large rock directly south of the building (in the middle of the area on the map) with a crawlspace under it. Crawl through it, and make for the building. You'll need to incapacitate the patrolling PMCs when you get to the store-house in the north section. Do so from a crawling position. You will find Ammunition there.
Make your way east towards the objective marker.
Act 2 - Power Station
When this section begins, you'll be up against a strong enemy resistance.
TIP: Hug the west-most wall of the area, crawling the whole way. Shake the Sixaxis Controller to manually blend Snake in with is surroundings.
Continue northward up the pathway along the way. There will be a battle raging between PMCs and Rebels, but don't get involved.
NOTE: You can pick up some weapons from downed PMCs, for instance the PSA3 Assault Rifle.
Make your way from rock to rock in the middle section, choosing your moments wisely. Use the Solid Eye.
TIP: When you can see the Power Station up ahead, you'll be pinned down by PMCs shooting from barricades in front of the building. To move quickly through the area, we sniped 4-5 PMCs using the Mosin-Nagant.
When ready, cross the battlefield and make your way for the truck in front of the building. Hide there until your alert level (if you've incurred one) has gone.
Come out from under the truck, and head through the wall into the structure. You'll need to crawl into the building itself through a crawlspace at your feet. Find a Playboy in the crawlspace. Turn right down the next turn, and find a Compress. Turn left next, and in the next corner find a Regain (these items are easy to find with your Night Vision on).
Come back out of the crawlspace, and carefully enter the Power Station through the door. At this point, the Rebels finally destroyed the Power Station controls, calling out cries of victory. The PMCs in the area disappear when this happens, so explore the area at your leisure.
Head for the marker in back of the building, and trigger a cutscene with Drebin.
TIP: During the cutscene with Drebin, make sure to hold L1 when the on-screen prompt tells you. This will give you a good look at the B&Bs (Beauty and the Beast) enemies flying through the air. There are a couple more of these opportunities. Follow the prompts as Drebin talks about Mantis.
Act 2 - Power Station (Part 2)
When the section begins, head straight ahead to a fork in the road. You can either go left or right down separate paths.
NOTE: If you haven't already, head back to the east towards the power station. The eastern backyard area of the power station is sealed off, but there are a lot of items up on the tower inside. To reach it, head over to the west yard (through the back door of the power station itself), climb up to the tower, and then hang down from the catwalk using Triangle. Move over and shimmy across on one of the power lines to the east yard. Drop down to find a bunch of items up on the catwalk. Among them: Rifle Scope, Anesthetic Rounds, Ammunition. Down below in the yard itself, find more Ammunition, a PSS (silenced pistol) and Pentazemin. Finally, for the big reward, find the FIM-92A, a portable surface-to-air missile launcher.
When you're ready, decide whether to go left or right down the path. We chose to head left. If the Power Station was destroyed, the area will only have rebels in it. Explore the area at your leisure.
As you head through the area, you'll find a bunch of items: a Sleep Gas Mine, Playboy (near a stack of wood), Carbine XM8 and Javelin ammo, among others.
Head through a small doorway between the rocks into the next large area. Find the few items in the middle of the area. Continue onward towards the objective marker, and trigger a cutscene.
Act 2 - Confinement Facility
This is a huge area. There are three main areas: the northeast, the southeast, and the northwest. For the purposes of this walkthrough, we will highlight one of those paths towards the objective marker, giving strategies and item locations.
When the section begins, head northeast along the path there. Snipe any patrolling PMCs along the ledges. when it's safe, drop down onto the ledge to the east. Follow it while crouched, and get up onto the dirt path along the hillside (with wood railing on the left). Follow it.
Soon enough, you'll come into view of the facility in the northeast. We used the Mosin-Nagant to snipe any and all PMCs in view. We took out about six PMCs before getting withing 100 yards of the facility.
When ready, crawl along the dirt path, and make your way towards the facility. If you clear out enough PMCs, rebels will move in and attempt to secure the facility. Assist them whenever you can.
Move around to the south side of the facility, along the rode. Again, use the Mosin-Nagant to snipe any PMCs. To the east along the road, you'll spot a Stryker tank. We know we're supposed to be stealthy, but we decided to go ahead and use the RPG-7 to destroy it anyway. Sorry.
NOTE: Make sure to loot the bodies of the soldiers as you secure the facility. We found an XM320 this way.
Move around to the north side of the facility and enter through the door. Loot the facility for supplies. Among them: a Chaff Grenade, Instant Noodles and in the east-most room find a Playboy along with the iPod tune "Metal Gear 20 Years History Part 3."
In the storeroom in the northwest of the facility, find an M870 Custom Pump-Action shotgun, and Ammunition. Also around the side of the storeroom, find a Playboy.
In the northeast storeroom, find two Playboys.
Don't forget to climb up the tower to the west, to find anesthetic rounds and some Ammunition.
When you're ready, head to the northwest towards the objective marker.
Act 2 - Vista Mansion
Watch the cutscene. Because we chose the northeast objective marker, this put us in the middle pathway, south of the Vista Mansion. Your goal here is to head through the large battlefield north and get to the mansion.
The Rebels will immediately start fighting with PMCs. Ignore this, and hug the west-most wall, crawling the whole way. The enemy forces should be pretty well distracted by the rebels, so don't feel too much need to go incredibly slow. Just snipe anyone in your immediate way with tranquilizers.
There will be two PMCs perched near a large log, which you'll need to take out to proceed.
NOTE: Find the M60E4 general purpose machine gun from one of the PMC bodies.
When you head north far enough, Otacon will talk to you and mention how the Rebels are attempting to break into the Vista Mansion using a bulldozer. He says, "Give it some cover!" We had apparently already sniped enough PMCs, because the bulldozer rolled straight through the Vista Mansion gate.
When the cutscene ends, head into the breached Vista Mansion gate. Loot the PMC bodies you come across for items.
NOTE: Find the PKM machine gun on the PMC bodies.
Crouch along towards the mansion.
NOTE: Find the M72A3 Anti-tank Rocket on a PMC body, near some boxes to the left of the breached entrance.
There will be a few PMCs perched up on the deck of the mansion. This section is a bit tricky, because they have the high ground, and sneaking past them right out in the open is tough. Instead, we used the Mosin-Nagant to take them all down. You need to use a Pentazemin to hold steady for the PMC up on the roof area manning a large gun.
Head to the back of the mansion. While there are probably a few ways to enter the mansion, we chose to dive in through a back window using X. This seemed to be the most satisfying.
This will position you in the mansion's north hall. Explore the mansion. Head left from where you dove in, and enter the dining room area. Find Ammunition inside the fireplace.
Head back out into the hall.
TIP: Stay crawling in the mansion. The PMCs can spot you from the windows outside.
Come back out into the hall, make a left into the next room. Loot it for items.
When ready, head to the upstairs area of the mansion. Crawl up. When you get to the top, make a left and go into the bedroom. Find a Ration on the table, and a Playboy on the other table.
We noticed a poster up on the roof near the fan, above the bed. Stand on the bed, and look straight up. You can enter first-person mode to get a closer look. It's a poster of a model, Akina Minami. Snake will say something when he sees her.
Exit the bedroom out onto the roof. You can use the mortar shot to eliminate any PMCs down in the battlefield, if you wish. Proceed to the open skylight area on the roof, and drop down. Head down into the basement.
Head straight through the hall, collecting items as you go. You'll find a Claymore on the table on the left. To the right up ahead, you'll find a Grenade and a Stun Grenade in the stall area.
Follow the path and you'll come to a ladder. Go up to trigger a cutscene.
Act 2 - Research Lab
Watch the cutscene with Naomi. There's are two hidden cutscenes during this section, where Snake will take a closer look at Naomi. Follow the link if you want to see where they are. Otherwise just watch.
After the cutscene ends, you will need to fight quite a lot of Haven Troopers. They will flood into the research facility, and an alert will be triggered.
TIP: If you're going for a perfect playthrough, or just in general would rather stealth, use tranquilizers (Mk. 2, or Mosin Nagant).
TIP: If you don't care about getting a perfect playthrough, you can use the M870 Custom Pump-Action Shotgun (you should have found it in the Confinement Facility in a storeroom, in the northeastern area). The shotgun is a one-hit wonder.
We chose to use the Mosin-Nagant, using L1, and pressing Triangle to go out of zoom mode and use it like a regular gun. The Mosin-Nagant is faster and more effective in a quick fight than the Mk. 2.
TIP: Stay crouched right in the room you start in, near the bed on the right side of it. This will give you a fairly good backed-in-corner position to see them enter the area from the left or right. Pick them off as soon as you can.
TIP: We found that throwing a couple Smoke Grenades out into the hall was an effective way to put a few of them to sleep. Eventually the alert level will fade. At that point you can get up and move freely around the Research Lab.
Find a Compress in the room with the muscle-skeleton, near the bed.
Head down the hall and trigger the cutscene. Get ready for a fight with Laughing Octopus.
Act 2 BOSS: Laughing Octopus
Laughing Octopus is a flying, morphing, mechanized Beast with tentacles. She can be very quick, and at times, very invisible. She will use a machine gun, her tentacles to swipe you, a devastating roll-attack and various illusions to distract you and hide. One of the main challenges of this boss fight is learning to track her consistently around the map when she disappears. Below are a few strategies we used to take her out. Remember to equip Snake's Night Vision Goggles if you completely lose her, she will show up glowing.
NOTE: On our first playthrough, we chose to use the M4 Custom Machine Gun on her for the majority of the fight.
NOTE: On our second playthrough, we used the Mosin-Nagant, pressing L1 and then Triangle to exit first-person mode. In this style, remember you will be aiming to completely deplete her Psyche, not her health. If you're doing this, you're definitely aiming to acquire the Laughing Octopus Doll.
HER VARIOUS FORMS: A dead Haven Soldier, a muscular-system skeleton, Naomi crying for help, connected pumps in the room with machines, blended into the walls, the Mk. II as Otacon and a portrait hung at the end the hall. If you see her as any of these forms, immediately open fire and get in some good damage.
If you get in point-blank range of her, she will open fire with a sub-machine gun, and hit you with her tentacles. Whenever you engage her, try and be about ten feet away. This can help ensure accuracy but is far enough away to keep her from attacking.
TIP: When she rolls up into a ball, and starts rolling at you, you've got to get up on top of something immediately. It will be a near instant-death if she hits you with this attack.
TIP: Stay out of the hall as much as possible, as she will periodically dive in and attack you. This seems to be a no-block attack.
At times she will shoot slow-moving missiles at you. If she does this, run into another room, around a corner, etc. The missiles will usually hit an obstruction before hitting you.
Whenever she clings to the ceiling, open fire on her, and she will fall. don't fire at her when she curls up into a ball, as she is temporarily invincible in that form.
Avoid walking into the black mist she sprays. When she turns into black mist, it's time to fall back and reset.
NOTE: She has an attack where she will impale Snake with a tentacle, and give him a bit of electro-shock. During this phase, it's especially important to shoot-and-move. She'll be very fast with this attack if you stay in her line of sight for too long.
NOTE: Grenades are minimally effective, don't bother.
When you wear down her health, a cutscene will occur and she will shed her suit.
In her Laughing Beauty form, try and take her out using all tranquilizers. Doing so will award you with the Laughing Beauty FaceCamo.
This next fight isn't so bad. She is very slow-moving, and not much of an immediate threat. Stay as far away from her as possible, and take careful shots at her. She is pretty evasive, and you'll be hitting air a lot of time.
If she gets too close, she'll grab Snake and embrace him, which causes a fair amount of damage. Shake L to get her off.
When she's down, watch the cutscene, which ends Act 2.
NOTE: If you've eliminated the Laughing Beauty using all non-lethal attacks, Snake will pick up the Laughing Beauty FaceCamo.
NOTE: If you defeated her in her suited Octopus form using all non-lethal attacks, make sure as soon as the Laughing Beauty fight starts you run over to the northeast room on the map, and find the Laughing Beauty Doll on the bed.
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