Decoy Octopus

Decoy Octopus was the impersonation expert and mimic of FOXHOUND. He, along with the rest of the unit, went rogue during the Shadow Moses Incident.

Early Life
There is very little that is known about Decoy Octopus. At some point in his life, he had his nose, ears, and cheekbones shaved down to make disguising himself easier, as well as having his hairline shaved back to ease copying different hairstyles. While mimicking someone, Decoy Octopus would even go as far as to swap his blood for that of the subject he is copying. In his mind, he not only would take on a disguise, but he would become that very person.

Decoy Octopus was one of the FOXHOUND operatives who took part in the revolt under Liquid Snake's leadership. When Solid Snake infiltrated Shadow Moses Island, he met the DARPA Chief Donald Anderson who died shortly therafter, right before Snake's eyes. As Snake continued with his mission, he later discovered the corpse of Donald Anderson. He noticed that the body had been drained of blood, and despite the DARPA Chief having only died a few hours earlier, it showed signs of decompositon over several days.

It was later revealed that the man Snake met was not Anderson but was in fact Decoy Octopus in disguise. After only coming into contact with Snake for a short time, Octopus was killed by the FOXDIE virus.

The real DARPA Chief was the corpse that Snake found in the prison cell. Anderson had actually been killed by Revolver Ocelot several days before the start of the mission, and his blood had been drained and swapped with Octopus's blood, as part of his disguise.

The body of Decoy Octopus was later retrieved by Vulcan Raven.

Trivia

 * Decoy Octopus is the only FOXHOUND operative whose primary specialty wasn't in combat, hence, he did not end up fighting Solid Snake.

Behind the Scenes

 * Octopus is only vaguely seen in his normal appearance once, though his actual voice is never heard.
 * Originally, Snake was to fight Decoy Octopus outright, but Hideo Kojima's vision wasn't possible on the PlayStation hardware, so it was omitted. His ideas were later integrated into the Laughing Octopus boss battle in Metal Gear Solid 4.
 * Octopus' past was elaborated upon in the Metal Gear Solid Official Mission Handbook. According to the strategy guide, he was born in Mexico, before moving to Hollywood and becoming a successful actor and SFX artist. He was later recruited by the CIA for his exceptional skills in mimicry, where he was used to impersonate government VIPs on top-secret missions. Sometime later, he left the CIA to join the FOXHOUND unit. Due to the nature of the information source, it is unclear whether this should be considered canon. The Metal Gear Solid 4 Database does not mention anything about Octopus' past.