Join The Community
If you're playing Metal Gear Survive you're probably looking for some tips and guides. We've got beginner help here for the single player, and some basic need-to-know stuff for multiplayer too. This is not your normal MGS game and has a lot of new systems and concepts to deal with, from managing oxygen to crafting new gear from recipes. The folllowing tips should help you through the opening hours of the game, as well as make sure you avoid some easy mistakes when playing multiplayer with friends.
Metal Gear Survive multiplayer guide and tips
Metal Gear Survive single player guide and tips
Boost your gear quick
Early on, collect all the iron, rags and cotton you can find. Check containers, boxes sacks and any supply caches you can find. Iron and rags will upgrade your starting machete and spear, while cotton levels up your clothing. The more you find, the more you can boost these items right off the bat to increase damage and protection.
Don't run out of food - kill all the sheep and then keep killing them
Not long after you arrive at your base, you'll get a side mission to kill some animals for food. You'll find an area with some bottles, dirty water and sheep to hunt. This area refreshes for a while, meaning you can keep revisiting it to top up your reserves. There are other opportunities that appear on the map over time, but the proximity of this means you should never be without something to eat and drink. Helpfully, even the bottles reappear. However, use the time to establish better supplies as it will disappear after a certain point in the story.
Don't get distracted
The open map and plentiful goals of Metal Gear Survive means it's easy to get distracted or sidetracked when you set out on a mission. Don't. Keep a laser focus on what you're meant to do, get it done and get back. Your constantly dwindling supplies - most crucially oxygen - means it's easy to die far from home because you've run out of crucial resources.
Don't buy oxygen unless you really need it
When you explore Metal Gear Survive's Dite dimension you're relying on an ever dwindling oxygen reserve inside its dusty areas. You can top it up by spending Kuban energy but try to avoid that if you can - the cost goes up each time, and if you buy loads early on you'll price yourself out of the market later when you really need it. It's much better to try and hit your objective then head back on a single tank. Save buying air for when you're really desperate.
Always fix the wormhole teleporters first
Because you're always running out of ammo, fences, supplies and oxygen, always fix a teleporter if there's one on the map. Whatever missions are available, that should always be a priority - every time you get one up and running you make it easier to get back to the base to craft new gear, top up your O2 and drop off anything you've picked up. Plus, it will obviously make it easier to get around quickly to reach new areas and objectives.
You can outmanoeuvre and run past enemies easily
The enemy AI is not that sharp, so unless you have to fight them, don't. You can easily run past them in the world, and leave them behind. Given the short supply of oxygen and limited ammo/weapon durability it's better to just not get involved and save supplies for when you need them.
When you do have to fight you can easily dodge and evade attacks with a readied weapon if you keep moving (even without the dodge skill you can unlock). If you keep strafing and stay mobile it should be easy to dance around Wanderers and land blows without taking a hit. Get in behind them and you should be able to perform a backstab for massive damage, even if they've detected you.
Save fences - only block entrances marked with routes, and sometimes a single fence will do
The enemy AI is pretty dumb and they'll pile up against a single fence rather than go around it. You can exploit this in one of two ways. Firstly, you don't have to block all the entrances to a base. Sometimes it might be more effective to place one fence on the main path they're following and protect that - activating a teleporter can easily be done this way. It also means that you only need to block the highlighted paths when protecting a digger. Leave anything without a glowing line through it alone until you need to worry about it.
Restart a container if you mess it up and don't skip any
Around the world you'll find containers that need a mini game to open. Always loot them as they're full of recipes you can use to craft useful things like weapons and ammo. The mini game involves turning a handle within a specific range - mess it up and trying to turn it further will make a noise to attract enemies. However, you can just quit out and restart with no penalty. Even stopping and restarting, it's still quicker than dragging a screeching handle or smashing it open.
Keep an eye on where you're heading, without the map
In some of the more dusty areas you'll find your map will falter and eventually fail, leaving you lost with no marker to follow. It will come back when you enter clearer areas but it's a good idea to note landmarks you can use to navigate when you don't have a waypoint. Keep an eye on trees, hills and other things so you don't stray too far off course. There's nothing more annoying than suffocating in the wilderness because you went round in circles.
The 'return to base' option will save your progress
There's no manual save in Survive unless you quit game and save on the way out. That can be a nightmare if you die on a mission as the main option is to 'restart from the last save,' usually that's from before you left the base and can lose the last X hours progress. However, the 'return to base option' will take you home, with your progress intact albeit at the expense of any stuff you've collected. (Which you'd lose anyway if you reset the save.) If you do die it might be worth forgetting everything you've collected in order to preserve anything you've just achieved.
