Welcome to Pakistan! Turn around and try to get up the rocks behind you. You'll have to go left a bit to find a spot you can climb up but once you get to the top, you'll find [VR Mission 7.1]. Run down the hill and towards the main gate but don't get on the road. There's a checkpoint on the road that you want to hit from the side.
Go into the small ditch just before the road and come up to the checkpoint by standing behind the large concrete cubes on the side of the road. There will be three Cyborgs in the street. One of them will patrol in front of the other two in a triangle pattern. There will be one stationary in front of the gate and one more stationary just in front of the concrete blocks. This last guard has [Left Hand 7.1]. When you are ready, spring over the blocks and take this first guard out with a Zandatsu before fighting the other two guards. Before entering the compound, investigate the crater on the other side of the road and you'll find [Humanoid Dwarf Gekko 5 of 5] in the rocks.
Cut through the front gate and start heading to the left a little. Up ahead will be two APCs parked. Get behind them and a Heavy Cyborg will patrol across the middle of the lot towards the front gate. Walk between the two APCs and wait for him to pass before you come up behind him for a Zandatsu. Make sure you take his left hand for [Left Hand 7.2].
Immediately get back behind the APCs because guards may come to investigate. If they do, try to get a Zandatsu on them as they walk away. Otherwise, start from the left (back side of the lot) and try to work your way through the crowd. If not then there's two Armored Cyborgs, one Cyborg with a rocket, and a Gun Camera here. Make sure you take out the Gun Camera mounted on the wall first or it will cause problems for the entire fight. Then go for the regular Cyborg and the rest is just a straight up melee fight. Before leaving, check the left side of the area just above the two APCs to see a green overhang. Climb up the crates nearby to get up there and grab [Data 7.1].
Enter the Hangar near where the Gun Camera was stationed and just inside will be a rack of rockets. A Heavy Cyborg will walk to the left past the rockets and when he does, run the long way around the rockets so you come up behind him and kill him. Now quickly run up the stack of boxes next to the rockets and you should see a guard walking across a bridge in the middle of the room and he should be walking away from you. Come up behind him and take him out as well.
Just beneath the bridge, you'll see another guard who is on the entrance side of the hangar by himself. He'll walk under the bridge and there's a giant lift in the middle holding the bridge up. Wait for him to be next to the lift and take him out from above. The Lift will shield you from view. Not long after that, a Heavy Cyborg should walk on the far side of the lift and you should have no problem sneaking up on him for the kill. Make sure you take his [Left Hand 7.3]. There's one last guard on the far side of the plane in the hangar. Wait for a good opportunity and run around the nost of the plane to come up behind him for the kill.
In the hangar, look forward at the large gate. On the right side of the hangar under one of the walkways should be [VR Mission 7.2] (last one!). Next to the gate, climb up the boxes on the right side, take out the Gun Camera and at the top of the crates will bea [Blade Box] with [Life+ 6 of 6] (last one!). If you look back, you'll see a tall stack of crates that's lined up with the propeller on the plane. Climb up the stack of crates, jump over to the propeller and grab [Data 7.2] (last one!) on one of the propeller blades.
Get rid of the Gun Camera on the left side of the gate and then cut your way through. Just to the left will be three guards and a Gun Camera. The guard on the upper level has [Left Hand 7.4] (last one!) but don't go for it yet. Check the locations of guards and try to get rid of the Gun Camera first if its safe. There's also a patrolling guard that will walk under the camera area and then walk back, allowing you to kill him easily. After that, the other guards will seldom move so you can hit them with an EM grenade if you want to get things over with or you can start a fight by attacking the upper guard. You should be able to kill him before the other can get to you (he's a Heavy below).
Before continuing, there's one last thing to get. Huge the left wall and follow it up and over the crates. Below you near the corner of the map should be [Man in Box 5 of 5] (last one!). If you've followed along, you should now have all of your collectibles. The achievement/trophy for these will not pop up until you finish the mission but once you do, you're going to get a whole slew of achievements (at least 5). Continue towards the mission marker to continue.
Metal Gear Excelsus
Metal Gear Excelsus has several attack patterns that are each very different but all very simple to avoid when you are aware of how. The first set of attacks are overhead swings. Blades will appear and the arm is lifted high into the air. It will alternate using each arm and you simply need to Ninja Run in either direction to avoid it. After it comes down, immediately turn around and hit the blade a couple of times. This will happen several times before it will use both arms at once. Run towards the center of the area to avoid this. When it lands, you'll have a good window of attack.
He can also use the arms for horizontal swings. He'll place one of the blades close to the ground and you merely have to jump over these (Jump and swing your blade to stay airborne). After several attempts, he may place both of the blades down together in a manner that prevents you from jumping over them. When this happens, Ninja Run directly towards the blades and Raiden will dive between them.
After dealing a decent amount of damage, it will lift one of the large feet over to the field. The foot has a different attack pattern. The most dangerous is a horizontal slide. The foot will glow red when this happens and you want to try to start at the front of the area and run backwards (or vice versa) to avoid this attack. He also has a stomping attack where the foot will stomp several times in one place. It may move a little but not much. Avoid the attack and then try to get a hit in after it lands but don't overstay your welcome because it will almost certainly stomp on you again.
When you get health down to below 70%, you'll be able to cut parts off of the leg. This will allow you to Ninja Run up the left and then severe the leg further along at the joint.
With the leg severed, you'll land back on the ground and you'll have a chance to get in quite a few hits on Excelsus' head. Get as much damage in as you can and after he retracts his head, he'll drop a couple of Gekkos on the ground. Don't bother with them though because he's going to charge up a huge set of energy beams that will move towards you from the front of the area and almost certainly take out the Gekkos in the process. Just run horizontally to avoid this attack and then clean up the Gekkos is they've only been wounded. If they haven't been destroyed then he will perform a horizontal beam sweep which you avoid by running back towards the camera.
After this, Excelsus will resume its regular attack pattern. You'll be able to avoid attacks and deal damage as you did before. After you cut off the second leg, you'll start a QTE:
- Rapidly tap Heavy Attack
- Rapidly tap Light Attack
- tap Heavy attack
- tap Heavy Attack
- Heavy Attack + Activate
- Rapidly tap Light Attack
- Blade Mode
Steven Armstrong
The first part of the fight is typical melee fare. He'll attack with physical attacks, most of which can be parried and countered. He does have a couple of unblockable attacks but he glows yellow for a moment before and gives you plenty of time to prepare. If you are close then it usually results in an explosive attack outward from him, otherwise it will be a charge attack similar to a Gekkos. Get him down to about 92% for a quick break.
After the break, you'll have to fight Armstrong barehanded. It's much the same fight but you aren't intended to win. After you've been beaten, you'll have a quick time even where you need to:
- Rapidly tap Light attack
- Rapidly tap Heavy attack
This is where the fight proper starts. His attacks will change significantly at this point. He will also have new defenses. The most important one to remember is that your aerial attack where you perform a charging kick towards your enemy will never land and will earn get you a little banged up so don't perform it at any point.
The first attack is a quick ground attack. When he does this, a stream of fire will break out of the ground as it comes towards you and it will be followed closely by a second stream. There are two other varieties of this which take a little more time for him to execute. One of them causes to large sets of explosions similar to the one he just performed except it creates geysers the remain for a short period. The up side is that they move out in straight lines that create about a 150 degree arc. The other will create lines across most of the ground and these lines will shortly errupt. Simply stand in a spot with no lines to avoid this.
After performing either of the two alternate attacks, especially if you are caught inside the arc (which can obscure your view of him), he'll perform a charge attack. THIS charge attack is now something you can parry and even counter (but he still has the unblockable version as well) so be prepared to block in the direction he started the Geyser attack from. If you are OUTSIDE the arc then you can Ninja Run over to him and start a combo instead which should prevent his charge attack.
There's also an explosive attack similar to before where he will cross his arms over his chest and start to bend forward a little bit before striking outwards. There's not much you can do except for run and if you happen to be in the middle of a long animation, you're kind of in trouble so try to avoid attacks with long animations if possible.
He also has an attack the requires you to execute a couple of QTEs and if you perform them correctly, you can deal some extra damage to him. However, after you've done so, you'll be left without your sword. The sword will usually be directly behind you so if you run towards the screen and hit the B button, you should pick it up. At that point, you'll want to run somewhere else because he'll likely follow up with an attack.
At certain intervals, (the first is after about 160% health), he'll leave the arena and toss some objects at you. This isn't entirely different from what Monsoon did BUT it will require extra precision. The objects he throws must be cut in a very specific manner sort of similar to when you fought Sundowner. Cut across all of the boxes indicated to clear that object. There will be three in all and when you cut through all three, he will come at you with a dash attack. Stay in Blade Mode and hit his head to stop this attack. If you succeed in completing this sequence, not only will deal a good 20% damage to him and avoid damage yourself, but four Repair Nanopastes will land on the ground! Don't get cocky though because this fight is far from over.
He'll acquire a new ability at this point as well as using the unblockable charge attack more frequently. He now has the ability to heal himself. The move draws green ribbons of energy towards him and during this time, almost every attack will either be parried and countered. If you try to hit him from the front with a blade mode swing, he'll stop it and damage you before resuming his healing. The solution is to hit him with Blade Mode in the back. When you attack from the back, you'll see a red square. Hit that with Blade Mode to stop his healing.
Recognizing these moves is key and it may take a few tries before you've both recognized them and conditioned yourself to act appropriately. Otherwise, the rest of the fight is similar to what you've already done and will test your ability to parry and counter at the appropriate times. Once you get his health down to about 15%, you'll start the final QTE:
- Shake left stick
- Blade Mode his right hand
- Blade Mode his left hand
- Heavy Attack + Activate
- Rapidly tap Light Attack
- Blade Mode chest repeatedly
Congrats! You've completed the game and finished a rather tough fight.
