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 you leave and re-enter, 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 Twins Snakes, Snake only needs to crawl backwards to the back of the vent for the game to load a different excercise animation.


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


 * Shooting Meryl after she has been downed 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, slashing the lock in MGS and slicing the door in half for TS.


 * After escaping from the cell, when Johnny is chasing you, ignore and don't attack him; when you 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. Knock on the door to hear Johnny groan in pain.

Codec

 * If you keep calling Mei Ling and choose "DO NOT SAVE", she will tell you to stop calling her on the third try. On the fourth call, she will say nothing and prompt you 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 you keep calling Nastasha Romanenko, she will eventually tell you about her past, and what happened to her parents, which led to her hate for nuclear weapons and of war.


 * Every time you finish a boss battle or complete a significant event, some members of your support crew (via 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 you acquire any kind of weapon will prompt him to on how to use the weapon. If you haven't already called Nastasha, he will tell you Nastasha's frequency.


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


 * During boss fights, different characters will give you 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 PSX 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 you wait a while to throw away Ocelot's Timer Bomb, Deepthroat will call Snake 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 your second play should you submit to Ocelot's torture; if you successfully resist the torture you instead get the Infinity Bandana, which gives Snake unlimited ammunition with any weapon. The Camera item will also be available from the start if you picked it up.
 * On the third playthrough, Solid 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 blue, similar to Spider-Man's color scheme. Depending on which version you are playing, Meryl will also be wearing Snake's sneaking suit.

Policenauts

 * The "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 made by Kojima Productions 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 of the scattered around the first Metal Gear Solid, in the PSX version only, 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 you. Equip one of your cardboard boxes so that it is ready to go with quick-change. Hit Meryl, then quickly equip your cardboard box. She'll whistle to call the wolves to attack you, but instead, they will sniff the box and urinate on it. The advantage here is that when crossing the cavern later in the game, if you are wearing the box, the wolves won't attack you.

Sniper Wolf

 * After beating Sniper Wolf a second time, leave to the area where you insert disc 2. Then return to the snowfield. Wolf's body will be gone and a white wolf will be in its place.


 * On the right side of the snowfield near the ration, press Snake against the hill. The camera will pan 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 a helicopter (helicopters with ejection systems require specialised explosive bolts to detach the rotors) and must have left the parachute deliberately to show Snake he was still alive.

Psycho Mantis

 * When you meet Psycho Mantis, the game looks through your 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

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

Shooting the bandages off one of the Mantis busts will make Mantis unable to read your mind if you 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 you have already called him enough times for him to tell you to "use the controller port" but died afterwards without switching ports.

Ghosts

 * Once you have the camera in your possession, you 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 president Baker
 * The cliffs of the Heliport
 * Corpse of Sniper Wolf (Jeremy Blaustein)
 * Policenauts/ZOE 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 you take a picture of him.

Mono TV?
If you call Campbell during the Hind D fight, one piece of advice that he'll give you is to listen for the sound of the rotor blades. If the player does not play on a stereo television or have the sound settings on Monural, Campbell, Naomi and Mei Ling will express pity towards Snake for not owning a stereo TV set. However, Campbell reassures Snake that he can still beat the Hind.

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 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).
 * If Snake is discovered by sentries early in the game, another cut-scene will be activated if Snake goes through the second floor ventilation shaft where two guards talk about another intruder.

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 key, 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.