Overview
Guide on how to build FOBs without having to deal with its terrible game mechanics.
The Steps
If you have already unlocked your FOB and have beaten the mock-infiltration, then sorry, you must restart your save, or ask someone that has not completed mission 22 for their save game.
1. The first time you deploy on mission 21, shortly in the beginning of the mission you will get a call about an invasion in your MB (mission 22).
2. Accept the alert and complete mission 22.
3. Game will ask you to purchase FOB, get it. Those that restart will not need to buy it again.
4. When the tutorial for a mock-infiltration pops up (after building your security team), DO NOT start it. It is imperative that you NEVER complete the mock-infiltration tutorial.
5. To get out of the forced screen, break the internet connection in the game in any way you want. You can also end the process or find a way to exit the game. The whole point of this is to not access the iDroid while connected in the ACC. In other words, step 4 could be skipped if you purchase the FOB and run security measures outside of the ACC.
That’s it. Remember to never complete the tutorial.
THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR
-If you access the iDroid while in the ACC (by accident or whatever), then you will be in the forced screen again. You must repeat step 5. If you are in your ACC, then do NOT use the iDroid while connected. Hit esc and disconnect before entering the iDroid while in the ACC.
-If you want to connect online (to get dailies or build more FOBs) without seeing the forced screen, then connect online outside of the ACC. In other words, connect in the MB, or connect during a mission, side ops, or free roam.
-Make sure you are disconnected when in the ACC.
FOB Online vs. Online only?
This may or may not work: There might be a way for those that wants to play FOB, but only Online vs. Online. Currently offline players get punished from light to heavy.
Basically have 2 back ups of the saves. Save1 is non tutorial completed. Save2 is tutorial completed with FOB progression. Before you go to sleep or offline, boot up Save1 and connect online at least once so the game registers that your profile has currently not completed the tutorial and will lock you out. When you do decide to play again, boot up Save2.
Idea works in theory, but I do not know how the server prioritizes save information and profile logs. By profile logs, I mean that for a regular player that goes through the regular FOB progress, before he/she sleeps the log of all their resources and staff get sent to the server. Then whatever damage incurs are sent back to the user after connecting online.
Think about it this way: I was unfortunate to have wasted 50 hours of my first playthrough, only to have gotten past the FOB tutorial (point of no return) and realized how inadequate it was. I then proceeded to make a new save to get to mission 22 again from scratch. The FOB was already made previously, so no prompt to purchase an FOB came up again. My espionage points remained in tact as well, so the server does log the online data and is seperate from client data. But my newly created save seemed to be an off switch for the infiltrations since I have not completed the mock tutorial.
If it doesn’t work, then perhaps the game creates a unique ID every time the tutorial is done, and assigns that to your profile log. There are some issues with this logic as well though.
I am too busy enjoying the SP of the game at the moment, so someone else that has time to test this should update some info/discussion here. Thanks in advance.