Rokovoj Bereg



Rokovoj Bereg (Russian: Роковой берег; "fatal coast" or "lake of destiny") is an area of Tselinoyarsk, consisting of a large lake beside a field of white Grass lilies.

History
In late 1964, EVA, under the alias of Tatyana, managed to prepare a WIG prototype on the lake at Rokovoj Bereg, when planning her and Naked Snake's escape from Tselinoyarsk. In addition, after The Boss covertly saved EVA's life after her cover was blown, she told EVA that she intended to meet up with Snake at Rokovoj Bereg for their final battle.

Upon reaching the lake, EVA spotted the WIG and left to prepare the craft for take off, while Snake awaited the appearance of The Boss in the field of white lilies. A brief wind storm then swept the field, following the nuclear destruction of Groznyj Grad and Graniny Gorki. The Boss revealed herself to be the cause, when Snake turned to see her holding a Davy Crockett launcher. After explaining to Snake her motives for working with Colonel Volgin, in order to reunify the Philosophers, she ordered Soviet MiGs to bomb the area within ten minutes, to guarantee that one of them would die. Snake then fought The Boss and ultimately bested his former mentor. Following her defeat, The Boss handed Snake a microfilm containing information on the Philosophers' Legacy, along with her Patriot assault rifle, with which Snake reluctantly executed her. The Boss's horse then approached the body of its owner, appearing to mourn her death, with Snake escaping to avoid the impending bombing raid.



Snake headed to the WIG, now ready to take off with EVA piloting it. As they began to fly over the lake, Major Ocelot of GRU caught up with them onboard a flying platform, damaging one of the WIG's engines. He jumped into the plane and after a short struggle, had a duel with Snake, each using a Colt SAA revolver, with only one bullet between the two. After the duel, Ocelot jumped out of the plane and landed in the lake.

Just after Ocelot left, Snake and EVA barely avoided crashing the WIG into some mountains, gaining sufficient height at the last moment. However, two MiGs suddenly appeared alongside them, but before they could fire on the WIG, they were given commands to return to base by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. They complied with the order and left Snake and EVA alone, resulting in them successfully escaping Tselinoyarsk and the completion of Operation Snake Eater.

Behind the scenes
Japanese visions of Paradise are often depicted as a flowing field of wild flowers, hence the symbolism. The white Grass lilies growing throughout this area works to The Boss's advantage as she remains well camouflaged throughout the battle due to her white Sneaking Suit. The flowers briefly change colors whenever Snake is hit during the battle, and completely turn to red after the Boss is killed. In Subsistence, this area, unlike all other areas in this version of the game, allows the player to use only the fixed camera angle setting. This ensures that the optical illusion, which often makes The Boss hard to spot, is not thrown off by different camera angles.

It was originally intended that the flowers at Rokovoj Bereg be sunflowers, in order to allude to the concept of a mother and child, though it was ultimately cut.

Rokovoj Bereg was featured in the non-canon Snake vs. Monkey level The Apes of Wrath.

In the Raymond Benson novelization for the original Metal Gear Solid, Revolver Ocelot references the gun duel on the WIG during the 1960s, and claims that Big Boss won fair and square.

Segments of this level (The Boss's part) is shown as Big Boss's flashback in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, although some of the dialogue (most notably the flashback shortly after Big Boss passed out after failing to dismantle the Mammal Pod at the AI Lab) implies that the scene was from their encounter at Dolinovodno shortly before the end of the Virtuous Mission and/or their encounter at Dremuchij North at the very beginning of Operation Snake Eater.

Rokovoj Bereg also appeared in The Naked Sample trailer for Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D, in which The Boss and Naked Snake interacted with each other like in the game itself. However, unlike the game, the trailer has Snake arriving at Rokovoj Bereg from Dolinovodno.

Boss: The Boss
There is a time limit to this battle, as The Boss says in the opening cutscene, but there is no visual countdown. The Boss will, however, warn Snake when there are five minutes, three minutes, one minute, and thirty seconds remaining; the song "Snake Eater" will also begin partway through, with the end of the song coinciding with the end of the allotted time.

When the battle begins, The Boss will be running towards Snake to attack him with CQC. When she goes to grab him, Snake will groan; the second he does, press circle, and Snake will counter her. She will stand there vulnerable for a moment, so CQC throw her to the ground (do not attempt to get her in a hold as it will not work). When she is on the ground, perform a punch-punch-kick combo and then roll over her once. From the second, harsher time she groans she will be invincible, so hide behind a tree. She will fire at Snake with her Patriot, so make sure to keep a tree between Snake and her. Do NOT have a weapon equipped when she tries to CQC you, or she will disassemble it, meaning Snake will have to recover the pieces before it can be used again.

The best way to deal with this battle is to use purely CQC. You can repeat the above manoever an endless amount of times to accomplish this. Following each attack on you, The Boss will run off and hide; her sneaking suit provides excellent camouflage, but you should still be able to see her when she peeks out from behind a tree, or with the thermal goggles when she is running. Try and get close to her without her seeing you - that way, when she does see you, she will not shoot but will attempt a CQC attack first, allowing you to counter her.

Alternatively, you can use firearms. For this strategy, the SVD (or the Mosin Nagant for a stamina kill) is very useful, as you would ideally want to stay as far from her as possible in this case. Select the Snow camouflage or the Spider outfit to blend in with the flowers, stick to an edge, use the thermal goggles to easily discover her position and snipe her.

The reward for defeating The Boss non-lethally is the Snake camouflage, which she will drop as she falls (as with Volgin, you will have a few seconds to collect it). It provides a good camouflage index in almost any area.

After the cutscene, The Boss will give Snake the Patriot and ask him to finish her off. Simply press square to do this (there is no alternative and won't count towards your kill count). If you wait too long, Snake will do it automatically.

Aboard the WIG
After The Boss' death, EVA and Snake escape in the WIG. Whilst taking off, however, they are intercepted by Ocelot who challenges Snake to a final showdown: a game of Russian Roulette. After having a short Close Quarter Combat fight with Snake, Ocelot places the two guns on the ground, which appear as item boxes so just run into one to select it. Then, after the short cutscene, press square as many times as you want to fire at Ocelot.

There are a total of four possible endings to this, based on the gun you picked and what you did with it: "Snake Wins" (where you had the bullet and shot Ocelot), "Ocelot Wins" (where Ocelot had the bullet and shot you), "Snake misses" (where you had the bullet but missed) and "Ocelot Loses" (where you had the bullet but did not shoot at all). Whichever one you experience has no bearing on the game's ending as a whole, although, if you pick the one on the right, Ocelot will let Snake keep it, allowing you to use it on your next play through. Also, Ocelot reveals if he shot Snake or if Snake shot him that the revolver that had the bullet actually contained a blank.

Hints and tips

 * Opening the weapon and equipment menus during this fight, while freezing everything in place as usual, will not stop the ten-minute countdown, possibly because the song "Snake Eater" absolutely must coincide with the timer reaching zero. As such, since the song does not pause when the weapon and equipment menus are open, neither does the timer. Opening the Survival Viewer, however, will pause the song, the timer, and the game.
 * Around the field, there are three white snakes (Liquid, Solid and Solidus) around the three logs in the field. Eating them will fully replenish Snake's stamina. These three animals are essential for collection if the player wishes to obtain the "Markhor" rank (See Metal Gear Solid 3 secrets).