Metal Gear Solid secrets

This page lists the secrets in Metal Gear Solid.

Meryl

 * Near the beginning of the game, when entering the air vent to meet up with the DARPA Chief, look into the vent before the Chief's to get a first glimpse at Meryl doing sit-ups. If the player leaves and re-enters the vent, she'll be doing leg stretches and push-ups. On the fourth time, Meryl will have taken her trousers off and repeat the same exercises in her panties.
 * In The Twin Snakes, Snake only needs to crawl backwards to the back of the vent for the game to load a different excercise animation.


 * If the player does not acquire the SOCOM before meeting Meryl for the first time, Snake will hold the tip of Meryl's FAMAS with his hand when he calls her a rookie.


 * Later in the game, if the player rushes into the ladies bathroom in close pursuit, Meryl will be wearing her panties because she didn't have enough time to pull her pants up.


 * After finding Meryl, if the player looks at her face in first person view for an extended period of time, Meryl will blush. Meryl will also comment if the player looks at her face or breasts for extended period of time.


 * If the player hits Meryl, she will slap Snake.


 * When Meryl is being controlled by Psycho Mantis, if the player presses the first person view button, it will show the view through Meryl's eyes.


 * Shooting Meryl after she has been shot by Sniper Wolf will provoke angry comments from Campbell and Naomi.

Holding Cell

 * The amount of times Ocelot shocks Snake is dependent on the difficulty level set for the game.
 * Easy: 3 "Had enough yet? We're not finished yet!"
 * Normal and Hard: 4 "You're still okay? Want me to go on? Can you take one more?"
 * Extreme: 5


 * In The Twin Snakes, the set number of shocks is always three, due to the fact that the game was rushed to completion. Ocelot can, however, be heard saying "Can you take one more?" in the first teaser trailer for the game.


 * Wait a while (three torture sessions) to escape from the cell, and Gray Fox will come to Snake's rescue (by slashing the lock in Metal Gear Solid and slicing the door in half for The Twin Snakes).


 * After escaping from the cell, if the player does not knock Johnny out, he will chase them. Ignore and don't attack him; when they run through the doors that leads into the torture room, a short sequence will begin where Johnny suddenly has another bout of diarrhea and rushes for the toilet. If the player knocks on the door, Johnny will groan in pain.

Codec

 * If the player keeps calling Mei Ling and choose "DO NOT SAVE", she will tell them to stop calling her on the third call. On the fourth call, she will say nothing and prompts the player to save or not. Choose not to save again. On the fifth call, she will stick her tongue out and close the channel without prompting to save.


 * If the player keeps calling Nastasha, she will eventually tell them about her past, and what happened to her parents, which led to her hate for nuclear weapons and of war.


 * Every time the player finishes a boss battle or complete a significant event, some members of the support crew (via the codec) will reveal their thoughts on the matter.


 * Calling people while holding some items will drum up an interesting conversation.
 * Almost everyone lectures Snake while he has his cigarettes equipped.
 * Calling Campbell when the player acquire any kind of weapon will prompt him to on how to use the weapon. If they haven't already called Nastasha, he will tell them Nastasha's frequency.


 * Call Campbell four times during the Psycho Mantis battle. On the fourth call, he will tell the player the secret to beating Mantis. If they then die without changing controller ports, he will tell them the other secret to defeating Mantis.


 * During boss fights, different characters will give the player tips and information.
 * Call Campbell and Naomi will give a detailed background on the current FOXHOUND member.


 * Shooting the rats near the Comm Towers will prompt different responses from Snake's teammates.


 * Killing the ravens before the boss fight with Raven will provoke the same kind of responses; Master Miller will also correct Snake who calls them crows. Additionally, Raven will be given an extra line when he meets Snake.
 * All references to the "crows" will also be changed to "ravens" if Snake calls Miller first.


 * Call Master Miller while walking on a noisy floor. In the PlayStation version, he tells Snake to try "fitting his socks over his shoes" after Snake expresses his frustration trying to walk stealthily. The line is changed in the remake, however.


 * If the player waits a while to throw away Ocelot's Timer Bomb, Deepthroat will eventually call Snake at about 15 seconds to go and warn him about the bomb in his equipment.


 * In the Japanese version, there are two hidden codec frequencies: 140.07 and 140.66. 140.66 plays classic Metal Gear themes, including "Discovery", "Zanzibar Breeze", and "Theme of Solid Snake."

Unlockables

 * Otacon's Stealth Camouflage will be available on the player's second playthrough if they submit to Ocelot's torture; if they successfully resist the torture, they will instead get the Bandana, which gives Snake unlimited ammo for all weapons. The Camera item will also be available from the start if the player is able to find it.
 * On the third playthrough, Snake will be wearing a tuxedo, which is an obvious homage to the James Bond series. Also, Gray Fox will have a different color palette on his exoskeleton, changing to red and grey, similar to Iron Man's Silver Centurion armor . Depending on which version the player is playing, Meryl will also be wearing Snake's sneaking suit.

Policenauts

 * The "doo, doo, doo, doo doo, doo doo doo" jingle when the Konami logo appears is actually taken from the introduction song from another Hideo Kojima game, Policenauts, the game was made by Kojima just before Metal Gear Solid, which reached four platforms; the PC98, 3DO, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. As well as the jingle, there are various posters scattered around in the PlayStation version, and the sequence when Otacon talks about anime is a cutscene taken directly from Policenauts. The game, which Kojima has said to be the most exhausting game he has ever written/directed. It is also the first game that Yoji Shinkawa ever worked on, first as a debugger in the PC98 version, before taking over as art direction in the console versions of the game.

Wolves

 * After going through the wolf cavern for the first time, Meryl will be on the other side waiting for the player. Equip one of the cardboard boxes so that it is ready to go with quick-change. Hit Meryl, then quickly equip the cardboard box. She'll whistle to call the wolves to attack the player, but instead, the wolf pup will urinate on the box. The advantage here is that when crossing the cavern later in the game, if the player is wearing the box, the wolves won't attack them.

Sniper Wolf

 * After beating Sniper Wolf a second time, leave to the area where the player must insert disc 2. Then return to the snowfield. Wolf's body will be gone and a wolf pup will be in her place.
 * On the right side of the snowfield near the ration, pressing Snake against the hill will pan the camera out to reveal a parachute spread out on a tree. A short codec conversation will follow, where Snake and Campbell debate whether it belongs to Liquid, with Snake concluding that Liquid couldn't possibly have ejected from the Hind D (helicopters with ejection systems require specialized explosive bolts to detach the rotors) and must have left the parachute deliberately to show Snake he was still alive.

Psycho Mantis

 * When the player meet Psycho Mantis, the game looks through their memory card for saves from other Konami games. Mantis will then make comments referencing those games.

The following game saves (and probably some others) provoke responses: In addition to receiving a special message from Hideo Kojima (Japanese version only).
 * Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
 * Policenauts
 * Silent Hill
 * ISS Soccer
 * Azure Dreams
 * Suikoden
 * Snatcher
 * ''Poy Poy

In The Twin Snakes, the game will read off these savefiles:
 * Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
 * Super Mario Sunshine
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee
 * The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker


 * If the player presses the first person view button during the boss fight with Mantis, it will show the view through Mantis' eyes.


 * Shooting the bandages off one of the Mantis busts will make Mantis unable to read the player's mind if they happen to not be using another controller port. This actually simply destroys the statue's head, and only works if Campbell has already suggested it; he will do this if the player have already called him enough times for him to tell them to "use the controller port" but died afterwards without switching ports.


 * During the first part of the boss battle with Psycho Mantis, he will scream "Blackout!", and it will look like the player's TV is out. But, on the top right screen, it will say "HIDEO", not "VIDEO."

Ghosts

 * Once the player has the camera in their possession, the player will be able to take photos of the game staff styled to look like ghosts. There are over 30 of them hidden throughout the game.

Known locations

 * Unconscious Johnny outside Meryl's jail cell.
 * Corpse of ArmsTech president Baker.
 * The cliffs of the Heliport.
 * Corpse of Sniper Wolf (Jeremy Blaustein).
 * Policenauts/Zone of the Enders poster (Hideo Kojima).
 * Electrified floor
 * Holographic model of the Comm Towers in the Commander's Room (Dennis Dyack).

Strangely, the guard who shows signs of life in the Hallway of Death before fighting the Ninja can be exorcised from the photo if the player take a picture of him.

A mono TV?
If the player calls Campbell during the Hind D fight, one piece of advice that he'll give them is to listen for the sound of the rotor blades to tell where the Hind is. If the game sound is set to mono, however, Campbell, Naomi and Mei Ling will express confusion that Snake doesn't own a stereo television. Campbell, however, reassures Snake that he can still beat the Hind without the use of a stereo TV.

Alternate Dialogue
At some points in the game, different lines of dialogue will be said under certain conditions.
 * If Snake takes too long to board the elevator down at the Docks, Campbell will note that Snake was a little slow.
 * If the player has not done any VR training, Snake's line about training will be omitted.
 * If Snake is discovered by sentries early in the game, another cutscene will be activated if Snake goes through the second floor ventilation shaft where two guards talk about another intruder.
 * If the player takes too many times to defeat Ocelot, Ocelot will make fun of Snake, telling him that he'll never live up to the name of the boss (referring to Big Boss, who Snake is a clone of). Ocelot will also have a different response when Gray Fox severs his hand.
 * If the player has not saved in a long time prior to the torture sequence, an extra line is added in which Ocelot will comment about it.

Alternate Game Over Dialogue

 * During the boss fight with Ocelot, if the player kills Baker, Ocelot will call them an idiot.
 * If the player dies during the torture sequence, Liquid will angrily say "Ocelot, you did it again" (referring to Donald Anderson's death) and Ocelot apologizes.
 * If Snake kills Meryl during the boss fight with Mantis, Snake will somberly say "Meryl..."
 * If the player hit Meryl, she will slap Snake and take a small part of his health. If she kills Snake, she laments about it.
 * If Snake falls into the molten metal in the Blast Furnace, there will be no dialogue from any of Snake's teammates. Additionally, Snake's codec will not emit a ringing sound.
 * If the timer during the battle with Liquid Snake reaches zero, Liquid will laugh maniacally.

Hal's Lab

 * In the hallway of Nuclear Storage B2, Otacon seems to have scrawled "Hal's Lab" on the door leading to his laboratory. This may be a reference to HAL Labs, where Kojima's close friend and game designer Masahiro Sakurai formerly worked.


 * Inside "Hal's Lab", a Net Yaroze edition PlayStation with a DualShock controller can be seen in the middle part of the lab. For the remake, it is replaced with a GameCube and a Wavebird controller. Statuettes of Mario and Yoshi can also be seen sitting on the console in the upper-right corner. Shooting Mario's statuette will result in replenishing Snake's health (accompanied by the standard 1 Up sound effect and animation).

PAL Key
Sometimes when Snake has to recover the PAL Card, he will discover that a rat has eaten it. To get it back, he will have to kill it some how by shooting it or blowing it up with C4.

In The Twin Snakes, there is a small catwalk area with a steam pipe and a liquid nitrogen pipe. These can be used to shorten the length of time it takes to activate Metal Gear REX by simply shooting the pipe with the keycard equipped.

Moai
The Konami trademark Easter Island head can be seen in the second room of the hallway in the B2 Warhead Storage.