Vamp

"That blood sucking freak? That was Vamp. He's Romanian, a wizard with knives as you saw.''" "''The way he moved -- didn't seem human."

- Iroquois Pliskin and Raiden

Vamp was an ex-member of Dead Cell with vampire-like attributes, including a taste for blood, the ability to run across or stand on the surface of water or vertical walls, superhuman speed and agility, and the ability to shrug off what would typically be a mortal wound (e.g. being shot in the head). Besides his seemingly supernatural abilities, he was also an expert with knives and close-quarters combat.

Early life and career
Born in Romania, Vamp lost his family in a church bombing in which he was pierced by a crucifix and buried underneath the rubble for two days. In order to survive, Vamp fed on the blood of his family until his imminent rescue; this is how he acquired a taste for blood. According to Solid Snake, his name is not a reference to his vampire-like behavior, but to the fact that he was bisexual. Also, according to rumors, Vamp was the former lover of Marine Commandant Scott Dolph. He later shared a "very close" relationship with Dolph's daughter, fellow Dead Cell member Fortune.

Prior to his membership of the Navy SEALs anti-terrorist squad Dead Cell, Vamp was subjected to experimental nanomachines, which would allow him to heal from wounds and sickness at an unusually accelerated rate. The nanomachines had previously been developed by Dr. Naomi Hunter, and her design was later perfected by other interested parties. The experiment proved to be a success, resulting in Vamp gaining his apparent immortality. At some point later, Vamp joined Dead Cell, and was one of the first members to join the unit during its formation.

In 2009, Vamp and the rest of Dead Cell joined the Sons of Liberty terrorist group, led by Solidus Snake, and participated in the armed takeover of the Big Shell offshore decontamination facility. During the incident, he tracked down some survivors of SEAL Team 10's Alpha team within Strut B of Shell 1 and wiped them out under Fortune's orders, along with a naval officer who had previously been handcuffed to the football. He also attempted to kill FOXHOUND operative Raiden in a sneak attack (he sensed he was nearby), but a SEAL Team 10 survivor, Iroquois Pliskin, distracted Vamp, but became injured himself in the process, exposing his true identity to Vamp (he noted that Pliskin carried a similar scent to Solidus). Vamp prepared to attack Raiden once more, but was contacted by Fortune, who ordered him to return immediately as she had managed to retrieve the President. Vamp rendezvoused with Fortune on the BC Connecting Bridge, where he carried the President and the football into the Shell 1 Core, while Fortune disposed of the remaining SEALs. Shortly thereafter, he also informed Fortune about his having found Solid Snake, as he promised to tell her his discovery as soon as he met up with her.

Vamp later entered the Deep Sea Dock to alert Fortune (who was in the middle of a battle with Raiden) that their fellow Dead Cell teammate Fatman had apparently gone rogue, turning into a "stereotypical mad bomber." However, Raiden attempted to capitalize on her distraction by firing two rounds at Fortune, only for her "luck" to deflect the bullets, which hit Vamp instead, apparently killing him. Vamp later woke up after Raiden left, having survived the attack, and explaining to a distraught Fortune that he couldn't die twice, as he had "already died once." Vamp later piloted the Harrier jet, which "caught" Solidus as he fell from the Shell 1-2 Connecting Bridge, and proceeded to attack Raiden and the Philanthropy-commandeered Kasatka, with Solidus acting as co-pilot. After Raiden successfully shot the Harrier down, the falling aircraft was rescued by the RAY prototype, after which Solidus ordered Vamp to leave. Vamp subsequently retreated to Shell 2, employing his supposed supernatural abilities by running directly across the water's surface and vertically straight up a nearby support pillar. Vamp later learned from Ocelot that Raiden was most likely going to rescue Emma Emmerich as well as have her install the worm cluster into GW, and lay in wait near her cell, as well as planting some underwater mines in the now flooded sections of Shell 2.

Vamp and Raiden later encountered one another within the Big Shell's purification chamber, where he was briefly grazed on the face by Raiden's gunfire, after miscalculating Raiden's movements due to his muscles being "different." After Vamp explained that Arsenal Gear had a purified hydrogen bomb on board, and hinting that Dead Cell had previously been framed, he attacked Raiden. He was once again defeated, and sank into the purified water, suffering heavy bleeding from his injuries. Vamp, however, survived yet again, and later managed to sneak attack Emma, who was attempting to cross the oil fence of the Big Shell, he then held her at knifepoint. He was eventually shot by Raiden's sniper rifle, although not before Vamp fatally stabbed Emma.



By 2014, Vamp had joined forces with Liquid Ocelot, becoming a subcommander within his mercenary army. He was spotted by Solid Snake in South America, during the latter's mission to rescue an imprisoned Naomi Hunter from Liquid, when he ordered Laughing Octopus not to kill one of the rebel soldiers they had captured. After tracking down Naomi, Snake watched as she and Vamp boarded a helicopter, and proceeded to shoot Vamp in the head, causing Vamp to collapse to the ground, although not before Vamp told the soldiers that Liquid Ocelot gave the okay to inject themselves with nanomachine suppressors prior to doing the test. However, Vamp was revived by his nanomachines with no ill effects. Shortly afterwards, Vamp fought again with his previous adversary, Raiden, in a local marketplace. Raiden was eventually pinned down by multiple Gekkos, where Vamp stabbed him multiple times, commenting on Raiden's own "immortaility." Destroying the Gekko's tethers, Snake freed Raiden, who proceeded to engage Vamp in another duel, which resulted in Vamp being stabbed in the abdomen and Raiden suffering severe injuries. Raiden was able to escape after Vamp collapsed due to his wounds, though the latter's nanomachines revived him once again a short time later. Upon awakening, Vamp contacted Liquid Ocelot, and reported that Solid Snake's DNA had been insufficient to unlock the Patriots' SOP System, and also questioned whether letting Snake rescue Naomi was a good idea before Ocelot reminded him that its part of their plan.

Vamp later traveled to Eastern Europe, and bore witness to Ocelot's hijacking the SOP system, as well as the apparent destruction of Big Boss's body (in actuality Solidus's body), after he threw the biomort into a fire. During their escape, Vamp discussed their plan with Liquid Ocelot and Naomi to obtain REX's rail gun from Shadow Moses, although he also ended up discovering the Metal Gear Mk II that was secretly planted on-board their escape craft and wrecked it during their discussion.

After Liquid Ocelot had journeyed to Shadow Moses Island and retrieved the original Metal Gear REX's rail gun, he ordered Vamp to stay behind in REX's underground base, as he knew Snake would eventually come to stop them. Because of this, Vamp also sealed the door to the cargo elevator and warehouse, resulting in Snake being forced to go through the casting facility. When Snake finally arrived, Vamp challenged him. After Vamp collapsed, upon sustaining heavy injuries, Snake realized this would only be temporary. Remembering Naomi's words during their escape from South America, regarding the truth of his immortality, Snake grabbed Vamp in a CQC hold, and injected him with a drug that repressed his nanomachines, thus making him "mortal." Raiden then appeared, eliminating several Suicide Gekko that were intending to destroy the remains of the underground base, before Vamp challenged Raiden to finally finish him.

As Otacon attempted to revive Metal Gear REX, Snake held off more Gekkos while Vamp and Raiden fought on top of REX with their knives. After Vamp incapacitated Raiden, he reached for Raiden's sword and nearly decapitated him, only to have Raiden gain the upper hand, knocking the sword free from Vamp and running him through with the blade. Defeated at last, Vamp asked Raiden to finish him, to which Raiden responded by cutting Vamp down. Vamp then staggered and fell off of REX's head onto the floor, mortally wounded. However, his nanomachines became active again, keeping him alive but in severe pain. Naomi then supplied Vamp with a nanomachine suppressor, resulting in Vamp injecting himself with it, permanently disabling his nanomachines. Vamp began experiencing massive convulsions before finally dying for good.

Personality and traits
According to Rosemary, Vamp secluded himself from other humans on several different occasions.

Adding to his vampire appearance, Vamp also possessed overdeveloped canines.

During Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, Vamp adopted Fortune's desire for death, reacting with ecstasy when he believed that Raiden may be able to kill him, hence, his quote, "Could you be the one to finally finish me?"

Vamp possessed unquestioning loyalty to Dead Cell, and to its leader, Colonel Jackson. As such, he also ends up unhappy when fellow members of Dead Cell do things that are against honoring Jackson, as evidenced by his informing Fortune about fellow member Fatman having "sold his loyalty" to Jackson and having become "nothing more than a stereotypical mad bomber."

During 2009, because of the cover story implicating Solid Snake with the death of Scott Dolph during the 2007 Tanker Incident, Vamp, like Fortune, bore much hatred towards Snake.

Vamp was extremely ruthless when dealing with his enemies and Emma, showing absolutely no mercy towards them. Vamp also harbored a deep hatred for the Patriots. After they disbanded Dead Cell and made them look like criminals in the eye of the public, he was more than happy to follow both Solidus and Liquid Ocelot's plans to destroy them. Vamp was very obedient towards his superiors, seemingly following Solidus and Liquid Ocelot's orders without question. He has, however, occasionally wondered whether the latter's orders would actually work, as evidenced by his report to Liquid Ocelot regarding Philanthropy's successful retrieval of Naomi Hunter in South America.

Since the Big Shell Incident, Vamp possessed a degree of respect towards his foe, Raiden, although it was largely one-sided.

In both 2009 and 2014, Vamp frequently wore a trench-coat, which further gave the illusion to his vampire-like appearance, giving him the appearance of a giant bat. It was green in 2009 and black in 2014.

Abilities
Although Vamp's only real armament was his seemingly unlimited supply of knives, with which he was extremely skilled, he also displayed extraordinary physical capabilities. For one, his strength, speed, and agility were far beyond that of a normal person, to the extent that he could even parry bullets with his knives, with his abilities extending to the apparently supernatural. He also possessed an enhanced sense of smell, as he managed to identify that Navy SEAL Iroquois Pliskin was actually Solid Snake solely from the latter's scent.

During the Big Shell Incident, Vamp demonstrated several gravity-defying talents, including, but not limited to, walking on water and running vertically up a support pillar, in addition to surfacing from heavily oxygenated (essentially non-buoyant) water. Otacon and Solid Snake later theorized that his wall-climbing ability was possible through technology utilizing van der Waals force, after witnessing similar feats performed by Haven Troopers in 2014, the footwear of whom was also in use by Vamp at the time.

Vamp had the ability to accurately predict the movements of an enemy by observing their muscles, and thus react accordingly. It was assumed, however, that this ability could be nullified if the enemy in question were to wear a pressurized suit, as Raiden proved when he fired at Vamp and ended up grazing him on the cheek.

He also seemed to have a degree of control over one's shadow. This was especially apparent during his fight with Raiden in the purification chamber where he could impale Raiden's shadow and prevent him from moving. Otacon hypothesized that this "shadow-binding" technique, also known as Kagenui, was some form of hypnotism; the power of suggestion augmented by Vamp's speech and movements, coupled with the manipulation of the light reflecting off the blade of his knife.

In addition to all of that, during his main battle with Raiden, he appeared, at times, to be surrounded in an orangish red aura after surfacing from heavily oxygenated water and was invulnerable to most attacks in this state.

However, perhaps Vamp's most notable trait was his apparent immortality. During the Big Shell Incident, Vamp appeared to die on three separate occasions, each caused by Raiden: he received a shot to the head and lower abdomen (the bullets having been deflected by Fortune's "luck"); he "drowned" after receiving injuries from Raiden, while attempting to prevent the rescue of Emma Emmerich; and he later fell to sniper fire, while holding Emma at knife-point. Although Vamp was knocked into the ocean, he still managed to inflict Emma with a mortal wound. Despite these encounters, however, Vamp was able to survive. Following this, his healing abilities had increased, as evidenced from when he was shot and stabbed fatally numerous times by both Snake and Raiden, each time awakening without even a scratch during Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, whereas during the Big Shell Incident, when he regenerated, he still left behind scars from the wounds (e.g., Vamp's forehead wound from his encounter at the Deep Sea Dock). A side-effect of this ability is that the process of his coming back from the dead left him with a very low body temperature, causing him to release a white mist from his mouth even in rooms that aren't cold enough to cause mist to be emitted from the mouth. He also sustained enough revivals to the extent that, shortly after Snake sniped him in the head in South America, Vamp informed the troops after relaying orders that he was going to "take a little nap."

Naomi later explained that this ability of immortality was due to the nanomachines inside his body healing his injuries at an accelerated rate, allowing him to regenerate before any normally fatal injuries could kill him. This theory was confirmed when Snake injected him with a nanomachine suppressor. When the formerly-suppressed nanomachines began to heal Vamp's fatal injuries after his fight with Raiden, he endured significant physical pain, before they were again inactivated, allowing him to finally die.

Vamp, before his death at Raiden's hands, suggested that he was also a scout before challenging Raiden to a knife fight as he said "You're a scout too are you not?"

Other than his supernatural abilities, Vamp was also a skilled pilot. This was evidenced by his piloting the Harrier before Solidus entering it.

"Deaths"

 * Hit by two bullets fired by Raiden, which ricocheted off Fortune's barrier and struck him in the head and lower abdomen, in the Strut A Deep Sea Dock;
 * Shot numerous times by Raiden before drowning in the Shell 2 Core B1 Filtration Chamber;
 * Shot in the forehead by Raiden on the Strut L Oil Fence and fell into the ocean;
 * Shot in the forehead again by Solid Snake, while in South America;
 * Stabbed in the stomach twice by Raiden in South America;
 * Shot by Snake, and then stabbed by Raiden, numerous times in REX's hangar on Shadow Moses Island.

Legitimate death
After a knife fight with Raiden, Vamp had become weakened due to his nanomachines being weakened previously by Solid Snake after being injected with a nanomachine suppressor. Being in severe pain and due to his suffering, Naomi allowed Otacon to make the choice of ending Vamp's misery, due to the fact Vamp had killed Emma, but Vamp took the nanomachine suppressor by force and injected himself, nonetheless, which resulted in his ultimate death. Even though Vamp killed Emma, Otacon did not feel better when Vamp finally died.

Unconfirmed history
Vamp, in order to escape the effects of the SOP lockdown at South America, injected himself with nanomachines to put himself to sleep temporarily shortly before Snake shot him.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Vamp (ヴァンプ) first appears in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty during the Plant Chapter and is fought by the player during a boss battle. Vamp's appearance was designed by Yoji Shinkawa, and is based on flamenco dancer Joaquín Cortés. His home country of Romania is the location of the historical region of Transylvania, from which the renowned fictional vampire Count Dracula hailed. Owing to the character's background, his English voice actor, Phil LaMarr, voiced him with a distinct Romanian accent.

Vamp was originally going to be a woman. However, when Fortune was introduced, the character's gender was changed to that of a man, although the long black hair was retained. Shinkawa's artwork and the game's script reveal that Vamp was to have worn sunglasses to conceal his eyes, similar to the other members of Dead Cell, though this idea was abandoned for the final game, due to the development staff having watched the 1999 cyberpunk film The Matrix during the game's development, and not wanting to copy the film due to it using sunglasses on most of its characters.

In Hideo Kojima's "Grand Game Plan" for Metal Gear Solid 2, Vamp was stated to be of German descent. He was to have had a fear of the cross, due to the trauma that he experienced during the church bombing in his childhood. It was also intended that this bombing be the same one that Peter Stillman failed to stop. Additionally, both Stillman and Iroquois Pliskin were each to have worn a cross around their neck, and Vamp's fear of it would have saved them during his attacks on SEAL Team 10.

Another Dead Cell member named Chinaman was intended to appear in Metal Gear Solid 2, possessing the abilities to walk on walls, ceilings and on water. When the character was scrapped, his abilities were given to Vamp instead. Vamp's fight against Raiden, in the Big Shell's purification chamber, was also intended to be for Chinaman, with Vamp being fought much later in the game, within a shrine aboard Arsenal Gear.

When fighting Vamp in the Big Shell, using the Stinger against him while he is underwater will have his O2 gauge drop severely. Defeating him in HD Collection version will unlock the achievement/trophy "Vampire Slayer."

Vamp can briefly be seen in the background of Metal Gear Solid 2 's ending cut-scene, when Raiden looks at his dog tags with Snake outside Federal Hall. This can be seen more easily in Manhattan's 3D stage model in The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2. Viewing this in the HD Collection version will award the player with the achievement/trophy "Vamp Eyer."

Vamp's survival after being shot in the head a second time is implied when Solidus and Fortune use plural words when the former mentions Dead Cell and the latter describes taking the purified hydrogen bomb.

Snake Tales
Besides his appearance in the main game, Vamp was also the primary antagonist of the non-canonical Snake Tales scenario: "Dead Man Whispers." In it, Vamp was secretly tasked by his former Dead Cell commanding officer, Colonel Jackson, to commit several political murders of high-ranking officers to "prove" Jackson's innocence. Vamp questioned Jackson's plan, as he realized that Jackson was going insane from his time in prison, but nonetheless complied. During a secret Navy SEAL drill on the Big Shell, Vamp was eventually blackmailed by Navy Captain O'Brien, who wanted to advance in his career, eventually cumulating in requesting Vamp to kill Scott Dolph, his political opponent, as a test of loyalty. He instead orchestrated a massacre on the training op, and then saved O'Brien for last. Afterwards, he encountered Solid Snake in the Shell 2 Core after taking Scott Dolph hostage. Depending on how the player went about completing the mission, Vamp will either die without revealing anything besides committing revenge for Jackson's imprisonment, end up arrested without revealing Jackson's conspiracy and escaping from prison, die before he could reveal Jackson's conspiracy, or live, reveal Jackson's conspiracy (thus also changing Jackson's fate from dying in prison to having his sentenced increased to life imprisonment), requesting Snake to kill him, and eventually being arrested.

Although Vamp's boss battle reuses the one used during Sons of Liberty, Vamp doesn't possess regenerative powers in this scenario, evidenced by the lethal kill endings as well as his request for Snake to kill him in the non-lethal ending. In addition, his sexuality was significantly toned down in this scenario, as well as his rumored relationship with Scott Dolph.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Vamp appears as a member of Liquid Ocelot's private army and as Raiden's rival. The cuts that he had previously inflicted on his chest (he adds a new one in Metal Gear Solid 2 after killing a person) seem to have disappeared, although he retains the scar of the bullet wound from his and Raiden's first encounter. Vamp also wears five sets of dog tags during the game, four of which have been speculated to have belonged to his deceased Dead Cell comrades. The use of advanced technology is used to explain some of Vamp's extraordinary abilities, implying that their testing the limits of one's imagination was no different to the perception of supernatural powers.

When fighting Vamp as Solid Snake, if the player hits him with the Solar Gun, Vamp will burst into flames for a short period of time. This is a reference to Hideo Kojima's Boktai series, wherein the Solar Gun is used to hunt vampires.

In Project Itoh's novelization for Metal Gear Solid 4, Otacon's in-universe narration frequently refers to Vamp as the "Nosferatu," another word for vampire, which was popularized in the late nineteenth century by Western fiction such as Dracula.

In the Japanese version, Shinya Tsukamoto voiced Vamp, replacing his Metal Gear Solid 2 voice actor, Ryotaro Okiayu. In the English version, on the other hand, his role was reprise by Phil LaMarr.

Concept artwork depicted Vamp with a combat suit.

Other appearances
Vamp was a playable character in Metal Gear Online in the SCENE expansion. Similar to Raiden, he was capable of moving quickly and jumping to high places by pressing the triangle button, which soldiers normally could not do without a boost. In addition, he could land after falling from any height without taking any damage, and was resurrected on the spot if he was killed. His special weapons were throwing knives and a combat knife. If tranquilized, he'd sometimes say "Raiden... is so big..."

In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a character appears in the game that resembles Vamp. Fans speculated that the character was intended to be Vamp, though his death in Metal Gear Solid 4 made this questionable. The E3 pre-show's staff interviews for Metal Gear Rising revealed that the character is actually a cyborg named Samuel Rodrigues. In a later interview, Koreikado also addressed the fans' speculations and stated that Sam is not the same as Vamp. However, Vamp's English voice actor, Phil LaMarr, did have a role in the game as Maverick member Kevin Washington, who did briefly give a vampire hiss to Raiden in a similar manner to Vamp at one point in the game, in reply to Raiden's claim that the Desperado cyborgs he was killing were "like walking vending machines." In addition, Vamp was briefly mentioned in the special edition of the Piggyback strategy guide for Metal Gear Rising in Steven Armstrong's concept art section, where it mentioned that Armstrong's usage of nanomachines exceeded even Vamp's.

Vamp appears as a participant in the Konami sponsored event E3 Battle, where he defeated Jeane from the 1995 game Genso Suikoden. Vamp then proceeded to fight and defeat James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 in the second round (although the percentage points implied that Vamp actually lost). He later faced off against and defeated Anubis in the third round, but lost against The Boss in the fourth round.

"VAMP FIRST APPEARED IN: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) Ex-member of Dead Cell. Impervious to conventional weaponry and is a master knife fighter."

- Vamp bio in E3 Battle.

He also appeared in Versus Battle, where he fought against Monsoon. His weaknesses both reference stock Vampire weaknesses, as well as the Solar Gun trick on Vamp in MGS4 with the latter.

"STRENGTHS: Knives, CQC, He's a Vampire WEAKNESSES: Garlic? Sunlight? FEATURED FACT: Vamp's astounding healing capacity stems from an infusion of experimental nanomachines FEATURED GAME: METAL GEAR SOLID 4: Guns of the Patriots"

- Vamp on Versus Battle

Appearances

 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (Snake Tales; non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Acid 2 (non-canon)
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
 * Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops (trading card)
 * Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (indirectly mentioned)

Notes and references
Vamp Vamp