Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty/Bosses

These strategies assume Extreme/EuExtreme difficulty. They may not work in other difficulties. In general if there's a "loop" available for a particular boss, it will be faster than other methods.

Tanker

Olga

• Loop (Ex/EuEx)

Olga has a loop that allows you to shoot her repeatedly shortly before her first mini-cutscene. It works by making her empty her clip, and then interrupting her reload at the front, forcing her to reload at the back later. As she shoots more rapidly in Ex/EuEx, this only works in those difficulties. In the US version of SoL, Olga often runs out to the right, making this strategy fail. All other versions have her run to the left the first time.

An Any% method is to push against the hatch, hold R1, then quickly hold R2 as well when Olga runs out, to dodge her shots. As long as she sees you, she should run back to the left firing, then move to the back.

In 100%, you will probably need both M9 bullet caches, which gives you no time to use the above strategy. You can collect the east, then middle caches, then go close to the barrier in the middle, a little to the left of the eastern set of crates. Duck here and stay still, and Olga should miss you when she runs out (some positions do leave you open, so experiment). You then want to run to the right, such that when she notices you she's already started reloading. The timing is quite hard to get right.

A riskier and less consistent method: after collecting the cache in the middle, stand behind the left side of the eastern set of crates. As Olga runs out, run out a little so that she sees you, then duck back in.

Once you've enabled the loop, move to the east fence (pick up the M9 cache at the southeast if you need them) and aim towards the back. You want the laser to be aimed a little to the right of the small gap between a horizontal and vertical set of poles in the frame Olga is hiding behind. When she is reloading, her head is here. Fire as soon as she starts reloading, then wait for her to recover and try to reload again. If your aim is a little too far to the left, you may miss if you shoot a little early. Four headshots wins.

• Free first shot

At the start of the battle, crawl and look through the gap in the crates in the middle. When Olga runs out she'll stop and look puzzled, allowing you to shoot her easily. This is fairly slow, and only works once.

• East-side firefight

The east side of the area is the best to battle Olga as she's fairly predictable, easy to get headshots, and quick to beat. The easiest way to deal with a firefight is to stand at the far east in plain sight, enter first-person, and use the L2 button to dodge her shots.

After her first mini-cutscene, she will always run to the front, giving you a chance of headshot. At the front, she will always pop her head out at the same place, but she shoots quickly, so you have to shoot her first and dodge her own shot.

At the back, she will attack from either a standing or crouched position, but you get slightly longer to dodge. In addition, if she is standing, she waits a second or so before hiding, giving you time to hit her. If you miss first time, aim at the correct spot for the next attempt, as she uses the same position a few times.

• Tarpaulin phase

In general, if a battle reaches this phase, you aren't doing it quick enough, but sometimes Olga will tire of an east-side battle early. In Ex/EuEx the tarp can't be shot off, so it's easiest to wait for a silence indicative of her getting out a grenade, and shoot blindly at her.

After hitting her once, Olga will run forward via the east side to shoot the tarp herself. This gives you ample time to hit her in the head before she does so.

Soldiers

• General strategy

The safe place in this battle is crouching behind the crate nearest to the action. There are two main methods from this point:

You can back up against the crate, and use the pop-out technique (hold Sq at the left side of the crate) in conjunction with first-person mode. This has a lot of overhead time from the pop-out/in animations, and you should make sure you let go of R1 before popping back in.

Alternatively, stay facing forward, hold R1 to go into first-person and also R2 (which has no effect at first). When you hold L1 as well, you will lean over the crate, allowing you to aim and fire. Let go of L1 to duck back into cover.

There are three types of soldier. One crosses to the west, and then fires or jumps out from that position. One stays in the east and does the same (this is the most dangerous as you can't see what they're up to). The other moves to the crate at the back (essentially the same position as you are) and fires or later throws grenades.

Take advantage of the fact that moving soldiers can't hit you. While the west/back soldiers move into position, headshot them before they get there. You have to take the east soldier out the hard way, and you should be wary of him attacking while you try to take out the other two.

Each soldier is replaced after a certain amount of time, by a soldier of the same type. If you take out the soldiers in a particular order, you can predict the order of the next wave.

Once at least three (or two in the easier difficulties) of each type of soldier have been eliminated, and no more soldiers are on the screen, three last guards will rush you. You can stay in the same position, or retreat to distance if you see it coming. Headshots will deal with these without trouble, but if you shoot the first soldier too quickly, the last one will lose his nerve and hide for a few seconds. It's quicker to wait a little.

• Instant kill (Ez/VE)

Your enemies are soldiers with the same attributes as regular soldiers. On Easy and Very Easy, just plug them with a single M9 bullet.

• Headshot on moving targets

When using Previous equip mode (this can be done with Unequip, but it is slower), lock-on and shoot a moving soldier with the USP, then use their recoil time to switch to the M9 and hit them with a headshot.

• Clear a phase quickly

If you're not aiming for no kills, you can trigger the last phase or finish the battle more quickly by killing the last soldier(s) rather than tranqing them. When tranqing, the elimination is registered when they start snoring - with a lethal weapon it's registered as soon as the killing shot hits.

Plant

Fortune

• General strategy

Make sure you've got a cardboard box. With the smaller turning circle, you can run back and forth without running the risk of Raiden messing up a 180-degree turn. Stay at the far south and get into a rhythm of running to the east so Fortune shoots straight down, then turning to the west and doing the same.

• Simple dodging (Ez/VE/Nm/Hd)

On the easier difficulies Fortune only fires one shot at a time. Stand in the middle at the back, and crouch just as she fires, then stand back up once the shot has passed.

• NTSC vs PAL

In order to make up for the horrific amounts of slowdown in the NTSC (US/Jp) versions of this battle, Fortune has a different attack pattern between NTSC and PAL (Eu). Particularly, the PAL version lasts significantly longer in game time (enough that it's longer in real time despite the NTSC slowdown) as Fortune shoots about 20 more bolts at you.

Fatman

• Loop (Ex/EuEx) (SoL)
• Repeated headshots

When you knock Fatman down by shooting him with the SOCOM, you can headshot him repeatedly with the M9 by abusing quick reload and auto-aim in first-person (hold R1 and L1). You can start firing shortly before he stops sliding back. You can sometimes get better accuracy by crouching and maintaining distance. You can get three headshots on harder difficulties - it is possible to win with a single knockdown on Very Easy.

Harrier

Vamp

• Loop

Vamp's loop can be triggered any time (preferably the first time...) he jumps out of the water.

First, to get to that point, hit him with an M9 headshot as fast as you can, then wait at the south near the edge of the water for him to surface. You can do a little more damage with stun grenades in the water if you like, but it's negligible.

When Vamp jumps out, edge north off the ledge so you drop into the water and grab it. This changes Vamp's behaviour so he drops and walks slowly around to investigate. Preferably you want him to go around the east, as he gets stuck a little at the west. When he gets close enough he'll take a knife and slash at your hands. As soon as the animation begins, climb back out - you can start climbing out before the animation to save time, but ensure it's late enough that you're still climbing when the slash hits. You'll end up very close to him, and can punch him freely while he recovers from his slash animation.

In this position, you can start the loop. You want to hit Vamp with two punches, delay a little, then repeat. The key is to avoid doing a three-hit combo while still being quick. If you're still up close when the attack is over, he'll try to slash you again - this is your cue to run out of range, then back in and start hitting him again.

You should aim for at least six hits per loop (perhaps less on the first loop), but it's possible to get eight. Always ensure you continue the loop though - if he hits you, most of the time he'll dive, and if you run away from him too early he'll do so as well.

• Critical hit

There's one point on Vamp's body that is a critical hit box - the gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead. You only get one real opportunity to hit it, and that's at the very start of the battle, if you wait for him to bow in your direction. If you use the loop above, this takes too long for the increased damage to be worth it.

• Claymores

If all else fails, you can lay Claymores on the and east and west paths, and Vamp will walk right into them while on the ground. This takes a very long time and doesn't help you with no kills.

Vamp 2

Tengus

• Exit trigger

As soon as you reach the final phase, make sure you can go about 5 seconds without being attacked (stun grenade, for example). Press yourself against the door and then let go and go into first person. Then do a three-hit combo, and as the kick animation starts let go of R1. Differences between your position in and out of first person will push you into the exit trigger on the inside of the door, completing this battle.

• Coolant trick

This glitch works in both Sons of Liberty and Substance, but the requirements for making it work in Substance are so strict that it's not feasible for a speedrun. You should consider this an SoL-only trick.

The trick is performed in the last phase. You start by hiding behind one of the boxes at the south of this phase to lure Tengus into that area. When a Tengu approaches, spray them with coolant, and repeat this until all available Tengus are being sprayed. You now need to continue spraying the Tengus to gradually push them back, and eventually behind the box you're hiding. You may need to adjust your position (usually to move forward) at times, and you may need to quickly tranq one of the Tengus in the top level that shoots at you.

Once all Tengus are behind the box, the game should consider you out of their line of sight, and this will trigger the end of the alert phase. However, you should leg it out quick before they realise what's up, and watch out for any others on the top level.

• Phase skipping

This battle consists of a number of phases triggered as you advance further north. Most of these phases are triggered when you pass a horizontal line on the ground. When you trigger a new phase, the game assumes you've eliminated all the Tengus in the previous phase, and they become inactive. This means that theoretically you could reach the last phase without eliminating a single enemy.

Tengus 2

Rays

• Open mouth attack

The basic way to deal damage against Ray is to attack a leg, causing it to open its mouth so a head attack will deal heavy damage.

At times (particularly shortly after a new Ray appears), Ray will do a battle cry. If you can anticipate this (there's very little time, if any, to react), you can hit them for open mouth damage with a single shot.

The simplest time to do this is at the very start of the battle. The middle, then right, then left Ray will do a battle cry, and with perfect shooting you can hit all of them. Hold R2 before the battle begins to immediately equip the Stinger, then instantly fire and then lock on to the head and move on to the one on the right to do the same (mash Square to get an instant shot). If you find it too hard to hit three, then go for the middle and left Rays.

When a Ray is on the platform with you, when close up and directly in front of them they will do a water cannon attack. You can bait this by getting close and running horizontally past their field of vision. Continue running past to dodge the attack, and you can get a free open mouth shot. Don't be too close though, as you may not be able to aim the Stinger high enough. You can also bait the water cannon after hitting a Ray, by simply standing in front of them.

Solidus

• Loop

Solidus' loop is probably the easiest in the game, it works in both phases, and can be triggered right at the beginning. However, it is (marginally) more difficult to maintain in the easier difficulties as he's a weakling and falls over easily in the others.

In the first phase, slash at Solidus with the sword and stay very close right in front of him, to tempt him to attack you back. Hold L1 to block and he will kick at you, leaving him open.

In the last phase, make sure you're facing Solidus as he dashes at you, and block his attack. If he shoulder-barges, he's open immediately. If he slashes, however, block all three strikes, slash him to knock him off balance, and run close to him to attack.

The attack you want to use is two slashes (vertical or horizontal, doesn't matter). You then want to wait a bit, and move to his right side (the side without the eye patch - he has better eyesight on this side and is able to block more easily), then slash him again. If you knock Solidus down with this third slash, it's too early. If he attacks through it, it's too late. If he blocks, it's just right. He'll then try another kick, which will leave him open to another two slashes.

On harder difficulties you can stay in front of him and slash as he crosses the blades together in order to make him block, but this has a short window and isn't recommended unless you can't reach his right side.

After forcing him to block, you can reposition yourself before he kicks if you're in a bad position - for example if you're near an edge.

Substance

Gurlugon (Raiden)

Run up to the large collection of crates in the centre of the area, and press yourself against the south edge of the southmost crate. As soon as Gurlugon roars, edge south to dodge the blast, then pick up the book that appears. Place it on the ground in front of you, and stand there like a vending machine.

The cutscene is horrifically long, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than any other strategy.

Mech Genola (Snake)

Start by tricking Mech Genola into blowing up the left side box on the second row from the front. This is done by nearing the box, running into the searchlight and immediately taking cover behind the box. You may have to dodge when he actually fires at you. Immediately fire a Stinger at his head and collect the Chaff Grenades, then climb onto the left side box at the front. Finally, throw a Chaff Grenade into the hole where his head was.

Genola (MGS1 Snake)

Collect the Stinger and run as far left as possible. If you look to the left (don't do it in an actual attempt >_>) you can see where the wall ends (both at the end and the bottom); make a note of a point just below the bottom of the wall, and just to the right of the end of it. Look north and equip the Stinger, and lock on the target (it's behind the back wall), then quickly move your aim to the point explained above and fire. If you're still locked on and your aim is true, the missile will go through the hole in the back wall, hit the target and summon Gurlugon.

Alternatively, hit the target revolving around far above you to summon Mech Genola. This is harder to find and also difficult to hit due to the distance.

There's also the option of shooting out three of the scaffolds holding a pan above Genola's head with an assault rifle, but that takes a loooong time.