How To FOB (How To Improve In It)

Overview

Why FOB?If you have progressed far enough into the game to have a look at the FOB/Elite (or whatever they are) weapons, the ones in yellow, you probably thought to yourself how in the heavens anyone could possibly be able to justify the immense price tags of these weapons. Most of them have a deployment cost that high that you could barely use it once with your lifetime earnings of plants and other ressources. And theres still a development cost for it which in case of the highest tier non-lethal AM MRS (sniper) includes spending 15’000 of two different plant types. In this way Konami really tries to push FOB missions on their players because with FOB missions it is very justifiable to use these high tier/high cost weapons in every sortie. So if you want to use these weapons you’ll have to do FOB missions.For people who seek challenge (and i especially understand that because there is no real difficulty setting for MGSV TPP apart from the 12 replay missions) FOB missions are, too, the way to go. In FOBs you have many more guards which are all wearing tough body armor, you have hundereds of blind spots with no budddy whatsoever and once you are detected by one guard they will find you and they will kill you (or fulton if they are non-lethal) (insert meme here).

How To Infiltrate

The process of infiltrating an FOB can be roughly split into two phases:
1. Passing through decks: this phase goes from start to the beginning of the last deck. During this phase, all you have to do is sneak your way past the guards and reach the platform. It is relatively easy because you only spend very little time on one deck and so even just the distraction of a few magazines will give you enough time to easily sneak through one deck.
2. The last deck: this phase is the hard part of the infiltration, mostly because you are used to a flat environment from the singleplayer campaign. In FOBs, however, you have a third dimension added which you have to pay attention to. This means that while you are climbing the building above and underneath you can always be a guard that could easily spot you through the floor. The UAVs (flying drones) also don’t make your job here much easier.

It is very important that you focus on your actual goal: reaching the core! What I exactly mean by that is the following: MGSV TPP has the Mother Base as a central game mechanic which makes you extract as many soldiers as you can so you can improve your gear. So in single player, you would usually go into an enemy base and try to tranq every enemy and extract them.
In FOB missions, you have to change that mindset! Your only goal is to reach the core. But what about the soldiers and resources on the FOBs, you ask? Well, you secure most rewards through reaching the core and not through extraction. What I’m saying is: ignore everything you possibly can ignore in order to reach the core! To illustrate my point consider the following examples (they apply mostly to the “first phase”):

• On the first deck a guard spots you (white indicator). You now have two options: Take him out or quickly rush past him (without him noticing you of course). If you decide to take him out another guard could notice it and raise the alert level. If you even decide to extract him there is an even higher chance of someone noticing you. That is just too much risk when considering you could just rush past the guard. All you need to do is to keep walking/crouching (or using one of my movement techniques) or if its necessary distract him with a decoy etc. Clearly, ignoring the guard seems like the best choice here. If he blocks your way or would detect you, you’d have to act differently but I describe that in another chapter. This example is quite important since if you can easily ignore most of the guards and it will speed up the process of an FOB mission by a lot!
• A camera is in your way: Two options again, destroy it or sneak by. If you destroy it, the guards will raise the alert level. Not exactly what you want. So you want to try and sneak by or if that is too difficult use a smoke grenade.
• UAV is in shooting range: If you are not on the last deck I would recommend not shooting it because if it alerts the guards things get more difficult. If it is a UAV on the last deck, however, I do recommend to shoot it because UAVs can sometimes detect you in the most unexpected areas. (When destroying a UAV it crashes into a random direction. If it crashes into the ocean no one will notice so there’s a bit of luck involved).

Equipment

You may have noticed that you have a relatively large inventory in this game. The only reason you don’t completely fill it with equipment is the deployment cost for all the weapons and you, of course, want to save resources for better use. As I mentioned before FOB missions give you plenty of GMP and resources so you don’t need to worry about that which means you should pack everything you could possibly need in your inventory.
If you want to put together you own loadout always keep in mind that you need something for absolutely everything that could happen during the mission because if it happens there is no restarting from a checkpoint. Also, bear in mind that lethal weapons will make a guard scream if hit alerting nearby guards. Stun weapons will do the same thing except the guards won’t lose their minds as much as with lethal weapons. Tranquilizing weapons will barely cause any reaction from any guards. While non-lethal weapons are more silent, the guards can be woken up again while with lethal weapons they are dead for good.
Here is the loadout that I use normally:

• Primary Weapon (Hip): S1000 Air-S; this is a non-lethal shotgun with a silencer. Its damage stat is crazy high so you can one-shot guards consistently from 50 meters away. It is probably the most potent hip weapon in the game and the deployment costs are definitely justified.
• Primary Weapon (Back): AM MRS-71 NL; This is a non-lethal sniper rifle which is semi-automatic meaning your character doesn’t have to reload each shot manually (like with the other non-lethal sniper rifles) so you can shoot much faster. This is the weapon I use the most when trying to neutralize guards since it does it in the quietest way. You can also use the tranquilizer rounds to shoot against a wall or on the ground to distract a guard (works exactly like the magazine).
• Secondary Weapon: Macht-37L; This one is arguably the best SMG in the game. It is a lethal weapon so the main purpose it has for me is to destroy any kind of security equipment like anti-theft devices, cameras, mines, etc. I pick an SMG over a pistol because I need this weapon to destroy UAVs which works better with an SMG in my opinion. Many pistols, however, have the advantage of having an infinite suppressor.
• Secondary Weapon (Prosthetic): I usually don’t play as Snake so I can’t equip a prosthetic hand but when I can I choose the Hand of Jehuty.
• Support Items: Important: Decoy, Sleep Grenade, Smoke Grenade, Stun Grenade, Magazine. Fill up the rest of the slots with other things such as mines etc. whatever you please. I’ll get to their use in just a moment.
• Items: Important: Noctocyanine, Cardboard Box, NVG. Noctocyanine acts as your temporary D-Dog during FOBs since it lets you see everyone meaning you don’t have to worry about being surprised by a guard from a blind spot. The cardboard box can be used as a kind of decoy: while you are crouching in the box you dive forward which will leave the box behind you. Especially to a defender who doesn’t know you can use your cardboard box like that, this will look like a free kill until he realizes it is a decoy. The night vision goggles are really useful when there is mist or during nighttime although I would recommend having them on at all times since they highlight any guard or security device (aka anything of interest to you). I always bring Pentazemin with me because it doesn’t cost a lot and it just feels better to aim without any hand tremors.

Other good choices include:

• BRENNAN LRS-46 / Bambetov: These two are lethal snipers (please use a silencer for both!). They have the advantage that they one-shot any enemy device (except the UAVs with the Bambetov if you don’t hit them in the camera). Also, they can take out enemy guards for good although they will scream when they die, alerting nearby guards (approximately in a range of 40 m in my experience). You can, of course, use an under barrel attachment (which I recommend!) that is non-lethal. Optimal would be the highest tier WU tranq pistol which makes your gun lethal and non-lethal in one (since you can switch back and forth between them and still use the same scope) but a sleeping gas grenade launcher attachment works as well.
• WU S-Pistol +SB / AM A114 RP (sleeping gas pistol): Both of them should probably be your weapon of choice if you are looking for a non-lethal secondary weapon (if you like SMGs go for the stun-SMG). Both pistols will put you target to sleep instantly!. While the WU +SB has a total of 30 rounds you will need to hit them in the right spot. With the AM RP, you don’t need to worry about where to hit you target since they will be put to sleep no matter where you hit them (not effective on guards with a gas mask but I haven’t ever seen one on an FOB).
• C4 (Thanks to Valtiel for the suggestion): While you’re not looking to specifically destroy anything you want to use this as a tool for confusing the guards in a dangerous situation. So you want to place some C4, preferably on an AA (Anti-Air) gun because that’s minus one weapon for the enemy but only go for an AA if you happen to come accros one. Try only using it when the situation is dangerous or there is no other way of sneaking by a passage since it will raise the alert level of the guards.

Equipment Techniques

A big challenge in FOB missions is to master your equipment and know when to use what. I covered some of this in the above description but let me get into a bit more detail here.
While the AI certainly is quite intelligent it isn’t perfect. And you need to exploit those predictable things. For example, it is a lot of times unclear where a guard will walk next or which direction he will face next and when he will do so. Predictable things are for example that a guard will always face the direction he just heard a noise from if he’s not distracted by something else.
Important predictable things about the AI are (spotting = white indicator on your HUD, detecting = reflex mode activated, then alarm):
– Spotting priority: a guard will always check things first that caught his attention first. So if you get spotted by a guard and throw a magazine next to him he will (if unalerted) turn his head in its direction and after 2-3 seconds continue walking towards you (if he is alerted he will not care about the magazine. This works only for the same level of attention catching (I’m just going to call it that way). So if you get spotted and you pop a decoy in front of the guard he will first check the decoy instead of you and if you throw a grenade he will focus on that instead of the decoy or you.
– Spotting distances: A guard will spot you from 40 m when crouching and 20 m when prone and he will detect you from 20 m when crouching and 10 m when prone. These values are for the “correct” camo (Grey or Square). Note that carrying a dead/knocked out guard will have the same values as being prone. While you can walk faster with this you’ll also be limited to your secondary weapon and (support) items.

These two things should help you determine whether and how you need to act when you get spotted. Being spotted isn’t so bad since it takes a while for the guards to act upon it so don’t worry too much about it if it happens during the first phase. During this phase, you can easily avoid being seen at all by just throwing a few magazines so that the guards face the center of the deck. Don’t be afraid to use many magazines, you have enough of them and they won’t cause a real increase in alertness.

The second phase is much harder but there are a few things you can do to make it easier in advance:

1. While lying prone on the bridge there is almost no chance anyone will spot you so you want to take out as many guards as you can from long range from there as you can.
2. While still being on the ground/bridge you want to look for opportunities to throw sleep grenades. Don’t use them sparingly! While you can use them a bit later to block off certain paths a smoke grenade can do the same thing so just bombard them with the sleep grenades.
3. Shoot down UAVs. Being detected by a UAV is one of the most annoying things that can happen. If a UAV crashes into the deck it will explode and alert the guards but the tradeoff is still worth it.
4. Draw the attention of everyone to the opposite side of the deck you want to start your ascent by shooting a mine or throwing a grenade for example (not so recommended if the alertness level hasn’t been raised yet).

Most cores you need to reach are high up in the large building on the last deck (with a few exceptions which are easier) so you now want to start climbing (walking up stairs/climbing). There are many different paths to your destination and the more you play the better you know them. While climbing there are many things that can come unexpectedly so you want to be prepared. Here is a list of situations and how to react accordingly:
(when referring to a guard spotting you I mean a guard that is spotting you and would detect you if you were to keep on going your way)

• Spotted by a guard you can shoot: just shoot him, duh!
• Spotted by a guard you cannot shoot: 1. try taking him out with other things like sleep grenades, stun grenades, decoys (popping a decoy near a guard will knock him out!), etc. 2. try distracting him with decoys, grenades, C4, etc. 3. wait for him to move to a more favorable position to take him out.
• Spotted by UAV/Camera: Shoot it! If you can’t, dive away and hide.
• A potential threat is in your way / observes the way you wanted to take: 1. Search a better way 2. if the alertness level won’t be raised through it, take it out if you can. 3. block its line of sight with a smoke grenade or distract it with decoys, grenades, C4, etc.

This list is by for not complete but keep in mind that if a similar situation occurs you need to be creative and feel free to use anything in your inventory to help you out even if it seems ridiculous at first. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t on the go.

Movement

In the beginning of an FOB mission, you have approximately 5 seconds of camo. During these 5 seconds, guards cannot see (but hear) you (but IR-Sensors will, unfortunately, detect you). You should dash up the stairs paying attention not to trigger an IR-Sensor if there is one and sprint across the first deck. This is usually enough that you can pass the first deck extremely easily.

There are two types of movement you should already know: crouching and being prone. While these are comfortable to use and don’t require much thinking they have a major drawback: their lack of speed.
I want to introduce to you two new types of movement which can come in handy quite often. While they are both faster than and just as stealthy as crouching and being prone they require your attention and your character can neither shoot nor throw anything while you are doing these so if there’s the need to shoot just stop for a moment.

• Rolling: While you are lying prone you need to first hold down your aim button (otherwise you’ll stand up) and then also hold down the shift button (sprint button). Now you will roll sidewards if you try to move around. It is about as fast as crouching but the spotting/detection range is the same as lying prone. To change the direction you are rolling simply stop rolling, face at a right angle to the direction you want to roll to and go into first-person view very quickly (press F twice). This will turn your character into the direction faced.
• Dolphin Diving / Dive Canceling: There is already a guide for this on Steam so I will briefly recap here. The idea is to continually be able to dive forward. It takes a bit of practice but here’s how to do it: 1. Dive forward (Space Button) 2. Hold down the aim button (right mouse button) until you see the crosshair 3. press the stance button (C) 4. repeat step 1 to 3. I should note that after pressing the stance button you’ll need to wait a split second before you can dive again. Another error that occurs quite often is pressing the dive button while you are still holding down the aim button. This will cause you to switch weapons instead of diving forward. As I said it will take a little bit of practice but it is faster than crouching but the spotting / detection range is the same as for crouching.
• (Diving upstairs: In case you didn’t know that already, you can dive upstairs. It’s a very fast way of climbing up stairs.)

Mastering these movement techniques will be especially useful during the first phase when you need to get past the first few decks.

Conclusion

I’m well aware of the fact that I didn’t include absolutely everything there is to say about FOB infiltrations but I’ll try to keep this guide as updated and informative as possible.
If you discover something I got wrong or have any sort of idea or criticism please let me know and I will update the guide accordingly.

Have Fun! 😀