Board Thread:Metal Gear Solid V/@comment-109.193.182.64-20150922080055/@comment-1971498-20151110165418

SSBBfan666 wrote: The Armor of Sahelanthropus was Depleted Uranium, which if the Metallic Archaea was used as the catalyst, The Metal Gear itself is the nuclear weapon. Sure there is its RailGun and it could've fired off nukes like REX and ZEKE, but Sahelanthropus could waltz into enemy territory and activate the self destruct feature. ST-84's armor is weaker than REX's for reasons, Huey states this after Ocelot get's his fun with him.

REX has different armor than ST-84. Listen to the tapes on Sahelanthropus and what Huey and CodeTalker also say about the stuff (Huey talks about his creations and CodeTalker speaks of how Skullface mixes in the Archaea with the Walker Gears and so on for his plans). Exactly this. Sahelanthropus was designed to look imposing, but that doesn't mean it was meant to be able to withstand battles as long as Rex did. The fact that it was more of a scare tactic with a self-destruct feature (which parallels Peace Walker) kind of shows how even its durability was scaled down for very specific reasons.

In this way, Sahelanthropus might have 'looked' advanced but its purposeful design wasn't meant for battle during long periods of time. It was meant to act as a deterrent, and anything else about it was more for appearances than practicality. The fact that it even needed Mantis in order for it to assume its upright positioning really shows the impracticality of its construction.