Alright, so I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to the end but I have a question I was hoping someone who has finished the game could help answer.

I just finished the mission where your chopper crashes and you have to kill a bunch of Skulls while keeping them away from Code Talker. (Sorry, I forgot the number) Which I thought was the absolute worst mission I've played so far. I kept getting my ass kicked constantly, even while wearing the battle suit and I could barely scratch those armored Skull dudes.

I'm pretty sure this is because I've been focusing development on sniper rifles, assault rifles and the tranquilizer pistol while pretty much ignoring everything else. Eventually I was able to finish the mission using the basic level 1 shotgun (S1000?) and the second tier rocket launcher. Now, on to my question:

It's looking pretty obvious that a battle with Sahelanthropus is coming and I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen. Should I focus on researching more weapons like the machine guns, rocket launchers, shotguns, etc in preparation for future missions? Are there going to be more of these missions where you're surrounded by skulls and have to fight your way out? I really have no use for those weapons outside of these special missions, so I'd like to spend my GMP elsewhere if at all possible - but I'd also like to avoid another situation like I described above.

Thanks for any advice, and please try to keep your answers about future missions as spoiler-free as possible.

I beat Sahelanthropus with the default assault rifle. You'll do fine no matter what you pick, so long as you're focused and avoid his attacks.

I would definitely recommend that you research a better rocket launcher. I did okay with the third tier of the first one.

I also took down Sahelanthropus with just my assault rifle and tranq-gun equipped. The environment during the fight gives you a lot of opportunities, and remember that you have the air-strike, should it be necessary :)

I did not fire a single round from any of my guns against "Not Metal Gear". I also did not fire a single round in the fight you had trouble with either.

that's the last time you'll need to fight the Skulls (there's an optional Extreme mission that'll pit you against them again)

go ahead and R&D the launcher right under the GROM. it's got a nice ammo capacity and helped me a good deal against Not Metal Gear

oh, grenade launchers too--I R&D'd one that could use magazines specifically for the skulls and it made my life so much easier. using that and CQC (as they appear just in front of you in the air and rush you) worked like a charm

In case you find yourself playing that Skulls fight again: it's super easy with D-Walker and its gatling gun. It chews right through their armor and health, and you can get it done in literally two minutes. Or under.

I did the Skulls on EXTREME with the Brennan .50 cal sniper and basically kicked the shit out of them. As for Sahelanthropus, I went with the missile launcher that was the third one down. Can't recall the name of it. Wasn't too hard once I figured out the pattern.

Yea I died a couple of times on the Skulls mission (29 I think), backed out of the mission and then researched some D-Walker upgrades. like the above poster said, the gatling absolutely destroys the Skulls.

@jay_ray: how?

@dprotp: @jay_ray: What's this 'not metal gear' sentiment :D

Yeah, research rocket and grenade launchers. You may also want to start focusing on upgrading the battle armor Also, you are not near the "end"

The basic rocket launcher does the most damage I think. Just use that. Best option far as I know.

Sahelanthropus is a Metal Gear in every way but name. So it's a "not metal gear"

I lured the Skulls into one area and then was able to hide and then used a bombardment. Only had to do a bombardment twice. For Sahelanthropus I used vehicles in the environmentto defeat him.

I just ran around and shot the Skulls a lot with a machine gun while Quiet provided support. It was rough, but I still enjoyed it.

I would consider putting some money into rocket launcher upgrades for later missions. You are going to need them. Oh, and you still have a lot of game left to go. A lot.

I'm getting more and more irked by the amount of people saying a mission is bad and then their justification for that is just something like "i haven't developed any heavy weaponry"

Develop heavy weaponry. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize you should be prepared for any situation, in theory.

Sorry for sounding hostile but I hate when people blame the game for their mistakes. I had developed D-walker's gatling gun for the sole purpose of "being prepared" for this kind of situation. I played this mission, died, then deployed with D-walker and it was one of the easiest and quickest missions in the game after that.

I used the GROM rocket launcher during those missions and I didn't do too bad against Sahelanthropus (It did take forever mainly because I needed to figure out the timing of the attacks,) and that Skulls mission I managed to beat first try.

P.S. That mission where you have to extract Code Talker and you come across the sniper Skulls, yeah fuck that mission.

@frostyryan: to be clear, the reason I hated that mission wasn't because I was ill prepared - it's because it has absolutely no means of completing the mission other then killing everyone. That's not what I look for in a metal gear game. Also, why would I spend GMP on something I never use in regular missions? There's no way of knowing what you'd need to "be prepared" for future missions when what you've been using has worked for 90% of the others. For all I know sahelanthropus could have been weak to the water pistol and I should have upgraded that!

@jay_ray: So technically you DID Fire a shot on the sahelanthropus mission. ;)

@iburningstar: Ugh, I was afraid of that. Is this going to be another "fake ending" situation!? I hate those.

@frostyryan: it does, in fact, specifically require a rocket scientist.

I took Salad-mysinthropist on with the 12.7mm sniper rifle, and upgraded assault. Quiet provided backup, and you get additional help, also dont worry about wasting money on that one. BOMBARDMENTS AHOY

@insidioustuna: this made my day

Using the stationary weapons for the basic version of Mission 29 helped me out immensely. Less useful on the extreme version (M42? I think.), anti-material rifles and the RPK variant (PG67) saved my bacon.

If you're not mowing down Skulls with D-Walker, you are doing it wrong.

I mean, it's not like there have been forced combat sequences in every other metal gear solid game. Oh, wait.

For real though, you should be fine with what you have. Sahelanthropus is a stupid easy fight. I got hit like... one time? And that's because I literally walked into it.

Pretty much. That was the first and only mission I ever used D-Walker for. He makes it trivial.

Actually Sniper Rifles are my preferred weapon against Skulls, including that mission. A decent SMG can be useful for stripping their armor as well. But yeah, get at least one good rocket launcher, there are plenty of side-ops that will require you to take out a helicopter. I used tranq snipers, tranq pistols, and the occasional rocket launcher and completed pretty much everything in the game, plus some SMG I had upgraded for my FoB soldiers during the mission in question.

I find it kinda odd that people don't upgrade at least one of something just in case, even if they don't plan on using it regularly. I developed the CGM-25 solely in case I ran into gunships (also due to the fact that it's awesome). My main loadout is pure non-lethal (aside from C4 and Grenades for generators and stuff), but if I run into trouble then I can always call it in (or re-deploy).

Anyway, that doesn't really help you (and I'm not trying to be rude, I just find it curious!), so yes, for the upcoming fight I'd develop some kind of launcher, or alternatively call in fire support (or a tank/apc). I had support flares, so I'd just throw one and then run around firing CGMs until it ran out, then grab the resupply, and eventually got the killing shot with a nearby tank.

And as others have said, D-Walker is easy mode against skulls. The first time I ever used him just happened to be on a mission with them (or like others, I probably would've been annoyed at that fight), so I just used him again for the crash site skull fight (if I'm remembering it right, it let you go through the deployment screen before it too so it made it even easier). The one before that though, after they had their little intro I went "Fuck that" and called in a tank. I took a round to the chest before I got in, but after I did it was pretty cathartic.

@poisonjam7: I never said I didn't fire a shot against Sahelanthropus, I said I never fired a round from my guns ;)

Actually, I did fire a single tranq pistol round.

The secret to mission 29 and 42 (I think it's 42 that is the extreme version) is to get up on top of one of those buildings and shoot the skulls from above. They won't come up and get you. I beat both those missions with a heavy machine gun in about 5 mins or so.

As for the battle with Not Metal Gear... There is an APC if you run to the west of the map (I think) that you can just use to spam it with missiles. Takes like 2 minutes.

The roof strategy is fine, but you need to watch for those bullshit exploding rock mine things that they spawn at your location. The range on them when they explode is actually kinda crazy.

I did this but had Quiet kill them with her most powerful sniper. Got the Foxhound emblem right after that.

The second you shoot off your last rocket, Pequod (your dawg) performs a supply drop.

Used the basic rocket launcher, 6 shot grenade launcher and the attack helicopter. Did pretty well.

It was a little easier than I was expected.

I used a level 3 rocket launcher/ Quiet/ Pequod

Just like someone said strafing helps a lot and I aimed for the gut