Metal Gear RAY (Unmanned Gear)

The modified Desperado Metal Gear RAY was a new model encountered by Raiden in 2018 during the events of the Desperado Incursions.

Design
The new RAY was a UG (Unmanned Gear), meaning it was controlled by an internal or external AI rather than a human operator. Improvements in technology led to RAY's original synthetic muscle actuators being replaced with CNT (Carbon Nano Tube) muscle fibers, saving significant internal mass which was used to equip the RAY with improved sensor systems and a vastly increased arsenal of weapons. Rigid armor was laid over the CNT core to provide additional protection. The new design featured the blocky thighs of the mass-produced RAY models from earlier conflicts, but a tail even longer than that of the prototype and a redesigned head with multiple compounded eye sensors.

The refit dispensed with RAY's back-mounted cluster missiles and the hydro cutter, replacing them with stealth cruise missiles and a hugely powerful plasma cannon. The refit also replaced the oscillating propulsors mounted on RAY's "wings;" the unit on the machine's left was replaced with storage for more missiles, both a variant of the AGM-65 Maverick and large cylindrical High Explosive Multi Purpose (HEMP) rocket / bombs with folding tail fins, while the right "wing" was instead fitted with an enormous folding HF blade. The water propulsion system used by this variant is not clear, though it could still travel underwater.

The modified RAY also dispensed with the knee-mounted anti-tank rocket launchers and awkward "wing"-tip mounted gatling guns, replacing these with four retractable quad machine gun turrets, two on the thighs and two on the lower parts of the "wings" just above the shoulder.

History
At an unknown point between 2015 and 2018, Raiden managed to uncover blueprints relating to the modified RAY.

Raiden encountered the actual modified RAY UG during his mission to protect Prime Minister N'mani in Africa. Just before his arrival at N'mani's immobilised limousine, the RAY attacked the Maverick bodyguards defending it, accompanied by Sundowner. It utilized its plasma cannon to flip over the limousine, also destroying a large building in the process. Making his escape with N'mani, Sundowner left Raiden to deal with the Metal Gear. The Maverick commander, Boris Vyacheslavovich Popov, expressed shock that Desperado actually had, and was using, a Metal Gear.

Raiden faced the RAY in single combat, the giant machine proving no match for his skills as he cut away at its external plating, damaging the core systems as he did so. Eventually RAY aimed a heavy swing at him with its HF blade, Raiden blocking it and hurling the entire Metal Gear into the air before running up the HF blade and hacking off RAY's right "wing." RAY fell to the ground, seemingly destroyed, and Raiden took up pursuit of the fleeing Sundowner.

As Raiden made his way to a rooftop overlooking a sprawling church, the damaged UG returned a second time. Fighting it off again, Raiden ran along a volley of RAY's missiles and sliced through the remaining "wing," only for RAY to lunge at him with its jaws. Raiden succeeded in stabbing it as it held him, RAY hurling him against the top of a nearby clock tower. The severely damaged UG made one final attempt to kill Raiden with its remaining missiles and plasma cannon as the cyborg ran down the vertical face of the clock tower, but was ultimately cut clean in half by Raiden's HF blade.

Maverick eventually managed to retrieve the blueprints after Raiden was wounded in a fight with Samuel Rodrigues, via the data stored in Raiden's severed left arm. Only one of the three sets of blueprints was intact, the other two, alongside most of the rest of Raiden's combat data, ended up corrupted and placed in quarantine.

Behind the scenes
This Metal Gear RAY Unit appeared in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance as the first boss of Chapter R-00: Guard Duty, where it is fought twice. Its boss theme, "Rules of Nature", was a remix of the Molly Hatchet song "Locked and Loaded," which it also shared with the Grad UG in Chapter R-02 and the twin Grad fight early in Chapter R-03.

The fight between Raiden and the RAY Unit was shown as early as the VGA 2011 trailer revealing the change from Metal Gear Solid: Rising to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, with it ultimately being similar to the start of and the conclusion of the first battle, although it bore some differences: One difference was in its design, where its plasma cannon was apparently externally applied to its head via a device similar to Peace Walker's head, and had a blade at the end of its tail. Another difference was in the overall environment, as Raiden fought the RAY unit while in his custom armor, rather than his modified Metal Gear Solid 4 armor as was the case in the final game, and the setting was hinted from graphics to be late morning, early afternoon, while in the final game indicated it was nearing the evening.

The Modified RAY's last design was later issued via the viral marketing site "Make it Right" by typing "Metal Gear RAY" onto the command key, where it popped up as a blueprint that was explained as being downloaded from Raiden's arm. A bit more than a week later, another, corrupted blueprint data of RAY's parts were also uploaded onto the site and accessible via keyword, this time by inputting into the command key "KA-120," based on someone's Codec ID on the Saga timeline portion of metalgearsolid.com. A corrupted blueprint depicting a cross-section of RAY's main body was later uploaded onto the site via a similar method to the previous one. Only this time, the passcode was "Big Shell," with the Codec ID in question (KA-119) only acting as a hint as to where to look for it. There was also initially supposed to be a demo showcasing the beginning of the fight against RAY at E3 2012, but outside of a low-quality screenshot for RAY, the fight was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Portions of the RAY fight were eventually shown at the Santa Monica boot camp for Metal Gear Rising, with a trailer being issued showcasing portions of the first and second phases, ending just as Metal Gear lunges at Raiden. In addition, a second demo showcasing the fight for RAY was later issued to select stores in Japan, with any customers participating who managed to defeat all of RAY's forms under 10 minutes will receive one of two double posters, one containing the two different variations of Raiden's sword brandishing pose, and the other containing the 25th Anniversary and Ground Zeroes. In addition, the English Locations trailer released around the same time also unveiled how Raiden finished off RAY, although it ended just as Raiden put away his sword.

Besides its appearance in the main game, the weapon or at the very least a similar mech will reappear in the Sam DLC, which the screenshot implies would be a boss in the storyline. Similarly, its likeness also will appear in some VR missions in the VR DLC, where it acts as a cardboard cutout for target practice with a Gatling gun.

Gameplay
The two fights with RAY are the only ranked battles in R-00.

First fight
RAY is the first boss in the game, and is thus relatively easy. It has a surprisingly large number of attacks, with Raiden's distance from it the main factor in determining what it will do. The first battle takes place in a long rectangular arena with parked cars and palm trees, which are quickly destroyed by RAY's attacks. After several attacks, RAY will jump high into the air, to either the middle of the arena or the ends. In this battle it has the following attacks:

Close range:


 * Bite: Raiden must be in front of RAY for this attack to trigger. RAY rears back and then snaps at Raiden with its jaws, before delivering a final lunge that buries its head in the ground and briefly leaves it open to attack while it pulls itself out. Doing damage during this vulnerable phase can result in a Blade Mode prompt, which allows Raiden to destroy the armor at the top of RAY's head.
 * Foot stomp: RAY raises the foot nearest to Raiden and tracks him with it for a short time before stomping hard on the ground. A red line indicates where it is aimed and a circle on the ground shows the damage radius; for a short distance outside this radius Raiden will be stunned briefly. Easily avoided by moving out of the way.
 * HF Blade: RAY unfolds its massive HF Blade and swings it from side to side in front of it. This attack can be parried, or Raiden can avoid it entirely by moving closer to RAY.

Medium to long range:


 * Charge: RAY rears back and then runs the length of the arena with its head lowered, dealing damage if any part of its body touches Raiden.
 * Cruise missiles: RAY fires a series of cruise missiles from its back with aim and radius lines much like the stomp attack. If any strike Raiden directly they will explode, otherwise they will stick in the ground and explode after a short delay. In this state they can be cut to drop nano-repair paste, which recharges Raiden's health.
 * Homing missiles: RAY opens its left "wing" and fires a series of Maverick missiles in a horizontal spread which home in on Raiden. While Boris suggests cutting them in Blade Mode, this is difficult to do without taking damage and it is better to simply avoid this attack.
 * Machine guns: RAY's gun turrets pop out and red laser sights appear, followed by machine gun fire which can be deflected with the Ninja Run. RAY can do other attacks while the machine guns are firing.
 * Plasma Cannon: RAY bellows and an orange glow appears around its mouth, then fires two beams which pan along the ground. The first is always at Raiden's current position, while the second pans from left to right and is best avoided by jumping.
 * Tail whip: RAY turns and swings its tail around, from left to right and then from right to left. The range of this attack is deceptively long, up to half the arena. It can be avoided by jumping, or parried; to parry the attack the player must press the stick towards RAY, not towards the tail. Parrying the attack brings up a Blade Mode prompt which allows Raiden to destroy most of RAY's tail. Successfully doing so and actually utilizing Blade Mode will award the player the achievement/trophy "Steel Tail."

Boris instructs Raiden over the Codec throughout the battle, calling out how to deal with most of RAY's attacks. Actually damaging RAY requires that Raiden reduce the health of its body to bring up a Blade Mode prompt and destroy part of the Metal Gear's armor; parrying the tail gives a free attack on it, while the other vulnerable areas are the head after the bite attack and the two feet. Each foot can be attacked for two Blade Mode prompts, the first destroying the lower leg armor and the second destroying the gun turret on that leg.

When RAY's health is reduced to 0.1% it will jump away with Boris telling Raiden to finish it off. As he approaches, RAY will perform a plasma cannon attack before swinging at Raiden with its HF Blade, which is blocked with an Execution (Triangle+Circle / Y+B) prompt. From here a QTE follows, with the player called on to repeatedly press Square / X, Triangle / Y and then Square / X again to finish RAY off.

The first battle is ranked only by time and damage; the maximum time bonus is +1,000 for completing the battle in 3:00 or less, and a bonus of +1,000 is given for taking no damage. The S rank threshold is 1,000.

Second fight
The second RAY encounter takes place on a narrow platform with little room to manoeuvre, making RAY's physical attacks substantially more dangerous. RAY has the following attacks here:


 * Bite: RAY rears back slightly and then snaps its jaws, before burying its head in the platform and getting stuck for a moment. Parrying this attack will give an instant Blade Mode prompt if either of the two armored areas remain.
 * Cruise missiles: RAY leaps away from the platform and fires cruise missiles from its back as it did in the first fight. It is more important to cut them before they explode in this battle, due to the smaller space.
 * HEMP bombs: If Raiden is standing at the far left of the platform when RAY starts its HEMP rocket attack it will instead drop two salvoes of bombs straight down out of the "wing." These can be cut in Blade Mode and may drop nanorepair paste.
 * HEMP rockets: RAY swings its remaining "wing" over to the far left of the arena and opens it up, firing two salvoes of slow-moving HEMP rockets which can be cut in Blade Mode, with a chance of dropping nanorepair paste.
 * Lunge: RAY rears back and orange energy gathers around its head before it lunges from left to right and buries its head in the side of the building to the right of the arena, getting stuck for a moment. The left side of the platform is safe, or the attack can be parried like the bite for an instant Blade Mode prompt.
 * Machine guns: RAY's single remaining gun turret pops out and fires. Due to RAY's head being in the way, it very seldom results in damage, but the gunfire can still be deflected using the Ninja Run.
 * Plasma cannon: RAY always begins the battle with this attack, openings its mouth wide and gathering energy before firing. The beam now pans across the arena from right to left and then left to right at torso height, and is best avoided by jumping; slashes can be used to gain extra "air time."

The main target in this battle is RAY's head, with the first Blade Mode prompt destroying the armor on RAY's jaws and the second the gun turret on the left "wing." Once RAY's health is reduced to zero, it will trigger a QTE; Raiden must use Ninja Run (R1 / RB + left stick) to run up RAY's missiles, then a Blade Mode prompt will appear to destroy the armor of RAY's left shoulder. Following this is a brief sequence running down the clock tower; the far-right is safest, and the gap in the side of the tower does not actually exist in gameplay terms. Once Raiden reaches RAY, a prompt to repeatedly press Square / X will appear, followed by Raiden cutting the boss in half automatically.

The battle is again only ranked by time and damage; the maximum time bonus is again +1,000 for 3:00 or less, and another +1,000 is given for taking no damage. In addition, an automatic bonus of +1,000 is given for the single compulsory kill in this stage. The threshold for an S rank is 2,000.