metal gear knowledge dump

Metal Gear Big Boss Rank FAQ

=== Versions ===============================================================================================
There are three distinct versions of Metal Gear.
1. Metal Gear for MSX
2. Metal Gear for NES
3. Metal Gear on Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (which itself is on the HD and Legacy collections) on PS2/PS3/X360

This FAQ pertains to 3, as it is the only version to have an in-game ranking system, the highest of which being Big Boss.


=== Big Boss Rank ===========================================================================================
In-Game time of less than 45 minutes
Exactly zero enemy kills
Eight or less alerts
Zero or one Ration used

Saves are recorded, but irrelevant to Big Boss Rank. This means a BB Rank does not have to be single segment.

In-game time starts on difficulty select, and ends when you reach the top of the escape ladder.

The in-game time is remarkably accurate to realtime.
It does not use the system clock.
Instead of the clock, the game increments a particular memory value by 1 every 4 frames, under 60fps NTSC conditions.
In-game time is calculated by that memory value divided by 15 to get the total number of seconds played.
For example, if the memory value for game time is at 15, this means 15*4 = 60 frames have passed. 60 frames divided by 60 frames per second means 1 second has passed.

The only time the game time stops is during the memory card screens, when the menu reverts to MGS3 styling.
The in game pause dialogue does not pause the in-game timer.

When you die, you go back to the last "checkpoint", typically an elevator room. This *resets* your in-game time to when you died, but you still get charged a continue. This means in-game time *should not* be used for runs that have a death in them as it will be inaccurate. Instead, manually time between difficulty select and top of escape ladder.

I believe loading new buildings/maps into ram for the first time (i.e. since loading the game from the MGS3 menu) causes a slight delay in game time, adding less than a second to real-time for each building load (so up to 3 seconds). **I believe is on ps3 only**


Enemies kills only counts towards non-boss humans.
Dogs and scorpions to not count as enemy kills.
No bosses (including any of the 4 "normal" looking guys guarding the suppressor in Building 1) could as enemy kills.


There are several scripted alerts in the game where an Alert is triggered simply be entering a room, not by being spotted.
Eight are mandatory in a Big Boss run.
There is on on the roof of Building one.
There is another on the roof of Building two.
And there are two near building three; one outside the main entrance and one as soon as you enter.
You go through those rooms 3 times, making 6 alerts from those two rooms alone.

Apparently Easy Mode has two alerts on the roof of building one, making the minimum for that mode (and a Fox rank) 9 alerts.


The one ration is generally used to cross the final electric barrier before Metal Gear.
With full or nearly full HP as Class 4, you can make it across with no ration.
That makes it possible, but not required, to beat the game with zero rations.




=== General Knowledge ===========================================================================================

Text boxes can be accelerated, scrolled through, and dismissed all by holding X.

While the game does run at 60fps, every other frame is a "lag" frame where no input is taken and no animation is updated.
This effectively make the gameplay 30fps with every frame of animation being duplicated.

There is input delay or more accurately "input lockout" that prevents mashing. My personal estimation is 6 frames of input lockout after every input.

You start at 1-star Class.
Every 5 rescued hostages increments your class.
You must rescue 15 hostages to achieve 4-star class in order to beat the game for two reason.

The first is you need 16 C4/Plastic Explosives to beat Metal Gear. The only way to hold that much is to have 4-star rank, as 3-star rank can only hold 15.

The second is you must call Jennifer on the transceiver with 4-star Class to spawn the Rocket Launcher for pickup.
Rocket Launcher is necessary to defeat the Bloody Brads (for keycard 7) and Big Boss (to finish the escape sequence).

The pattern for Metal Gear is R-R-L R-L-L R-L-L R-R-L R-L-R R
I memorized this by breaking it into chunks of three,
and remembering that sets 3 and 4 is simply sets 1 and 2 swapped.

(a) R-R-L
(b) R-L-L
(b) R-L-L
(a) R-R-L
R-L-R
R

The only "sequence break" is simply not talking to the real Dr. Madnar twice.
First time he tells you to rescue his daughter.
Upon rescuing her and returning to him, he tells you the pattern for Metal Gear.
If you already know it, you don't have to do this part of the game.

Ammo boxes increase Pistol, Machine Gun, and Grenade Launcher, and Rocket Launcher ammo.
RC missile, Mines, and C4 all have independent pickups.
You never pickup mines.

When you run into an enemy, you take "1 tick" of damage and have a few seconds of invincibility frames (about 2 seconds).
When shot by a bullet, you take 4 ticks of damage. With the body armor, this is reduced to 2 ticks.



=== RNG ===========================================================================================

The RNG is pretty simple in this game.
The RNG seed is stored as a 64-bit number in RAM.
It is initialized to 0 on game load form the MGS3 menu.
Save does not persist RNG, neither does load.
Quitting a game of Metal Gear to the title screen and starting a new one does not reinitialize it either.
The only way to reset the RNG to 0 is to leave the game and restart it from the MGS3 menu.

RNG is incremented in a very fixed manner. It's not the case the RNG is changed every frame or ever second arbitrarily.

Certain in game events will take the current RNG value and progress it one time.
By "progress" I don't mean add 1 to; I mean it generates a new 64-bit hash to store.

These events are based on the RNG and also increment the RNG to a new value:
(incomplete list, I'm sure)
* Entering a room with a sleepy guard
* Entering a gas room
* When dogs wake up
* When dogs change direction based
* Every second in an alert phase
* Every time fire trooper's firebar extends out
* Every time a gas sprite in a gas room despawns
* Every time Metal Gear's explosion sound effect is played
* Every time the first tank shoots a missile/bullet (including when you are walking up to it from the screens below)
* Every scorpion movement cycle

While the RNG can't be directly "manipulated" to a specific value, most of these increments can be controlled by specific player movement to increment the RNG the same number of times every run.

=== WR HISTORY ==========================================================================================

36mXXs	Various segmented YT videos
32m51s 02/25/15	puchiedarcy - single seg, NTSC, body armor, 7 ammo in b2 basement
29m03s 04/07/15	Jaguar_King - ss, PAL, no body armor, 10 RC, 10 rockets/10 C4 in b2 basement, 4 rockets by duck
26m40s 06/13/15 puchiedarcy - ss, PAL emu, no armor, 5 RC, 8 rockets/5 C4 in b2 basement, 8 rockets by duck

PAL is fastest version. While running at only 50ps compared to NTSC's 60fps, Snake and other enemies movement speeds and animations are increased about 10 to 12% faster than NTSC's. You gain time by simply walking faster in PAL.

=== THE ROUTE ===========================================================================================

The primary concerns of the route are:
* Getting keycards to open locked doors
* Getting weapons to defeat bosses
* Rescuing hostages to increase Class

Basic Route

B1 Floor 1
Get Keycard 1 (needed for gas mask)
Get Gas Mask (to survive gas rooms without having to use rations)
Elevator to B1 Floor 3

B1 Floor 3
Rescue Hostage 1
Pick up 5 C4 (need 4 for B1 Basement)
Get Keycard 2 (needed for grenade launcher)
Rescue Hostage 2
Pick up 5 RC missile (need 2 to disable electric floor coming in and out of Dirty Duck)
Rescue Hostage 3
Pick up Grenade Launcher (needed for Hind D, tank 2)
Rescue Hostage 4
Elevator to B1 Floor 1

B1 Floor 1
Rescue Hostage 5 (2-star Class)
Rescue Hostage 6
Pick up Submachine Gun (needed for bosses/dogs/scorpions)
Get captured

B1 Basement
Rescue Gray Fox (Hostage 7)
Pickup Keycard 3 (needed for parachute)
Pick up Bomb Blast Suit (needed for B1 Roof)
Pick up Enemy Uniform (needed to enter B2)
Elevator to B1 Floor 2

B1 Floor 2
Rescue Hostage 8
Rescue Hostage 9
Get parachute (needed for keycard 4)
Elevator to B1 Roof

B1 Roof
Hind D
Parachute to courtyard

Courtyard
Get Keycard 4 (needed to leave B1)
Rescue Hostage 10 (3-star Class)
Leave B1

B1-B2 Desert
Pickup 3 sets of 5 C4s (needed for Metal Gear)
Enter B2 Floor 1

B2 Floor 1
Pick up Antenna (needed to call jennifer)
Elevator to B2 Roof

B2 Roof
Rescue Hostage 11
Get keycard 5 (needed to get rocket launcher)
Elevator to B2 Basement

B2 Basement
Rescue Hostage 12
Rescue Hostage 13
Get keycard 6 (needed for rocker launcher)
Elevator to B2 Floor 2

B2 Floor 2
Rescue Hostage 14
Rescue Hostage 15 (4-star Class)
Get Rocket Launcher (needed for bloody brads, big boss)
Elevator to B2 Basement

B2 Basement
Pick up 1 pack of 5 C4 (to have 19, exactly enough to finish the game)
Pick up 1 Ration
Pick up 4 sets of Rocket ammo (2 each, so 8, exactly enough for Bloody Brads [4 each])
Elevator to B2 Floor 2

B2 Floor 2
Keycard 7 (needed to leave B2)
Compass (needed to get to B3)
Elevator to B2 Floor 1

B2 Floor 1
Leave to Desert

B2-B3 Desert

Enter B3
Get O2 Tank
Back to B2

B2
Refill 4 ammo packs to get 6 more rockets (2 for Dirty duck, 4 for Big Boss)
Keycard 8 (needed to get through B3)

Back to B3
Win Game