Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker/Walkthrough

You are Snake - also known as Big Boss - the legendary soldier who killed your turncoat mentor The Boss and saved the world from nuclear annihilation. Your legend has grown larger than you and you have amassed a following of soldiers. With the help of your right-hand man Kazuhira Miller, you have built this following into a highly-trained force of mercenaries who will fight any enemy without consideration to the state or ideology of the client. At this time, your men are training on the beach and you are on your way to join them.
 * Participate in the training exercise and show your men who is Boss.

Barranquilla Coast, Colombia
The soldiers of Militaires Sans Frontieres or "MSF" are training on the beach, practicing the art of Close Quarters Combat developed by Big Boss himself. It is here that you can join your men in this training session which operates as an introduction to the game's basic mechanics. A drill instructor will introduce a mechanic, tell you and the men how to do it, and then ask you to demonstrate it for your men.

The first thing the drill instructor will teach you is how to manipulate the camera.
 * tilt up
 * tilt down

The drill instructor will order you to press the Action Button to move on to the next training section.
 * Action Button

The drill instructor will order you to look left and right.
 * pan left
 * pan right

The drill instructor will teach you how to change your stance. You can stand and you can crouch. You can move, hide, and attack in either of these states. You can also lie down, but you are immobile while in this state. You cannot crawl in this game.
 * Tap to toggle between Standing and Crouching
 * Hold to lie down

Next, the drill instructor will go over basic movement with the analog stick. A full tilt will move at full speed. A partial or gentle tilt will have you walk or stalk. Your footsteps while running produce noise that attract enemy attention. Stalking produces no noise.
 * Tilt the fully to run
 * Tilt the gently to stalk

You will next be instructed on how to use the rolling technique. Rolling has limited uses in this game but is effectively this game's dodge maneuver. Use it to get away from attacks you can see coming your way. Often, the game will register a press rather than a tap, forcing you to rather than roll. It is good practice to double-tap the button to execute the Roll.
 * Tap while tilting  to Roll

You will next be taught how to use the basic melee attack. Tap the Attack Button while standing still to perform a basic melee. The basic melee attack has extremely limited use in this game and this walkthrough does not recommend using it.
 * Attack Button
 * Press →→ to execute a three-hit combo.

You will then be taught how to attack with a weapon, in this case, the Stun Rod. You will always have the Stun Rod in your inventory. Weapons are prepared by holding down the Aim Button, then pressing the Attack Button.
 * Aim Button

At last, the drill instructor will bring up CQC. The most basic CQC maneuver is the Throw. Often, you might just tap the Attack Button, which will make you rather than execute the Throw. It is good practice to hold the Attack Button rather than tap it when you are trying to throw an enemy to the ground with CQC.
 * Press while tilting  to throw an enemy to the ground

Next will be the core technique of CQC, the Restraint. must be neutral before you press and hold the Attack Button. Restraining an enemy will cause them to take nonlethal damage every second. You can speed this process up by mashing the Attack Button to choke them out.
 * Hold to Restrain an opponent

You will then learn how to execute a more powerful Throw after Restraining an opponent.
 * Hold to Restrain an opponent
 * Tilt to throw a Restrained opponent

You can also throw Restrained opponents at other enemies, damaging both of them and knocking them down. You will be required to demonstrate this twice. Tilt at the enemy at whom you wish to throw your restrained enemy.

Finally, you will be asked to demonstrate Consecutive CQC. Consecutive CQC occurs when you're surrounded by multiple enemies in CQC range and you are throwing one of them. Press the when the icon appears to quickly grab and throw the next enemy. You can mash the for the same results. You will be asked to do this twice.

Once the training exercise is complete, Miller will arrive with a client and MSF will be offered a mission.

Playa del Alba
You have set foot on the soil of Costa Rica. Snake personally takes point on this mission while Miller the men support you from behind the scenes. Miller will offer instruction and advice through the radio.

You can accustom yourself to the game's gunplay at one of these scarecrows. To fire your currently-equipped ★1 M16A1, press and hold to aim and press  to squeeze off a round. Shooting the helmets off of the scarecrows will add Weapon Experience to whatever you use to shoot it. You can restock your ammo at the respawning Ammo Pickup just north of your position. However, if you practice with your Mk.22, your Suppressor will run out and will not be replenished during this mission.
 * 1. Get Some Target Practice

To move to the next area, you will have to destroy the obstacle in front of you: the chainlink fence. You are equipped with ★1 Grenades for this purpose, though Grenades will not be used often in this walkthrough. First, you must equip the grenade by holding down to open the Weapon Menu. Next, you must highlight the ★1 Grenade on the Weapon Menu by pressing  and then release  to close the Weapon Menu and equip the Grenades.
 * 2. Throw a Grenade

To throw a grenade, use it like any other weapon by pressing to prepare the grenade and pressing  to toss it where indicated.

Once the gate is destroyed, you can move onto the next area where the first mission Investigate The Supply Facility will officially begin.

Missions
Before you do begin, there are some things you should consider. Each mission is timed and scored. After completing the next mission, you can select from a list of missions to participate in and even repeat for a better score. Time - rather than stealth - is the biggest contributor to your score.

No Traces
This is a stealth walkthrough. The instructions provided by this walkthrough are to get you the player through the missions while maintaining perfect stealth. Other walkthroughs will suggest shooting every enemy you see with the game-breaking Mk.22 Hush Puppy tranquilizer pistol, but the desire of this walkthrough is to complete missions without it. "No Traces" for the purposes of this walkthrough is to get past the enemy even without arousing their suspicion.

No Traces is slow and will often disqualify you for the highest rank you can get for a mission: S. S-rank requires speed in addition to stealth. Therefore, the walkthrough will also offer S-Rank Tips as sidebars. The instructions provided should be followed if you wish to complete the mission with an S-rank. However, you shouldn't worry too much about S-rank for your initial runs. You can always come back later.

Most importantly, cutscenes count for your mission time. If you view a cutscene during a mission, you will not get an S-rank in nearly all cases. Don't worry too much about it and enjoy the story as you play through with No Traces.

The strategy goes out the window if you are seen by the enemy. If you are seen, the enemy will overwhelm you with numbers. If you are seen, just restart the mission. There is no penalty to your score in this game if you restart a mission.

Espanding MSF
You are also charged with acquiring talent from among the ranks of the enemy and from prisoners of war you find in missions. Many other walkthroughs will advise you to extract everyone you can, to take a stance of "quantity over quality." This walkthrough will point out any soldiers who is consistently worth extracting, allowing you to have a "quality over quantity" mentality when expanding the forces of MSF and maintaining enemy soldiers on the map.

A soldier's abilities can be confirmed through the use of an item called the Analyzer which will tell you the soldier's aptitude and rank as a letter grade. The gold standard of enemy soldiers worth recruiting is C-rank because it is relatively high and most C-rank soldiers are consistently placed. Anything less than C isn't worth your time unless otherwise pointed out by the walkthrough. This mission will identify any worthwhile recruits as a sidebar titled Building Mother Base and will provide instructions to divert and capture that soldier before returning to your regular route through the mission.

CO-OPs
CO-OPs are the multiplayer function of this game. Most missions can be played with a second player via a peer-to-peer connection over the internet; there are no servers so multiplayer can be done at any time between any players. Bosses allow for up to four players. This walkthrough is mostly geared toward single-player, but if the two players generally stick together when moving along the prescribed routes, this walkthrough could also apply to them. Four players at boss fights should communicate and divide the labor. Any resources acquired by one player is acquired by all players, so don't worry too much about loot greed when it comes to extracting enemy soldiers, prisoners of war, or vehicles.

With all that in mind, proceed to the next mission.