How to Tranq The Skulls (Sniper)?

[Jackal]

I picked up the game again after not having played much of last month and I snuck up directly behind one of the Sniper Skulls. I wanted to extract her. Seeing that I couldn't CQB grab or anything, I pulled out the wu (suppressed) at point blank range and shot at her head. She 'parasited' out of the way and it did nothing. Do you have to openly engage them so their stamina/health bar goes down to a certain degree or what?

[Panfilo]

As far as I know, the skulls have a stamina bar and can be disabled accordingly. I know with Traitors Caravan, if you get close enough to the truck to trigger the armor skulls to come out, but hang back, you can hit them with non-lethal weapons without them necessarily spotting you initially.

Just so you know, even if you use 'lethal' weapons you can still extract skulls so long as your fulton has the appropriate upgrade. So either lethal or nonlethal its up to you. With the sniper skulls, much like quiet when you kill/stun them, they seem to jump to a predetermined area where you can fulton them.

[Frag Maniac]

Actually you can take them down via tranq sniping with the best silenced tranq sniper rifle as well if not faster than via the level 4 non silenced Brennan ballistics sniper rifle.

I had 3 of them taken out via the tranq sniper rifle and the 4th one down to very low health and just made a stupid mistake taking too much time aiming at her after making her shoot with a quick popup tease. In fact I'd have done it in less time than via the time I DID take them all out with the level 4 Brennan, which started out in darkness and went into sunrise.

The reason I use those two rifles as an example is it takes quite a bit of R&D and Combat level to develop anything higher. The fact is, the silencer on the tranq rifle easily makes up for the Brennan lvl 4 having a bit more power.

I used D-Walker to spot them via Search mode. If they're too far away for him to detect, just trace to their position with the binocs and zoom it to max level. They see your aimed scope reflection MUCH easier than the binocs, so be aware of that.

If at first you get too many of them aiming at you, you can pop smoke and use NV, toss a decoy, or crawl further away. It's best to be behind a rock large enough and far enough away so you can stand behind it and melee them when they appear near you. They will do that repeatedly after being shot or seeing/hearing you shoot enough times from one spot.

DO NOT fear their melee, it's part of what makes taking them out easier. They'll only come near one at a time and infrequently, and once they appear near you they will not shoot at you. Just keep D-Walker in Search Mode, otherwise they're much harder to see. You can easily hear them appear near you though, and they give you ample time once they initiate an attack to see the CQC hand icon, which is your cue to counter (LMB) which automatically disarms their machete and lays it into their head or gut.

Besides smoke and decoys to obscure you from their view and make them look elsewhere, you can crawl and inch you way around a rock to see them, preferably while they're not looking at you or if you can do it with tree foliage obstructing their view. If having relocated I've also used bush and grass foliage.

Truth be told, the main difference between those two rifles is the tranq one takes down health, while the other takes down armor. The fact that the Brennan is a bit more powerful is somewhat negated by it being non silenced. The Brennan has more ammo though, so be sure to account for a supply drop or two for the tranq rifle.

After having used both though, I would use the tranq one any day over the lvl 4 Brennan, mostly due to the silencer keeping you harder to locate. Note as well the best way to play Code Talker, or esp Code Talker Extreme, is to take out only 3 Skull snipers on your way to the mansion (unless you're going for the extract all Skulls side task), and then farm the puppets, which are high rank and easier to get by than the regular soldiers.

[Jackal]

Thanks alot for all the info guys, I'll be trying all of it out when i get a moment.

[GrayHound]

Just throw a smoke (an answer to everything in this game :D) and shoot with a sniper, silenced or not, lethal or non-lethal, doesn't matter.

If you can have your D-Walker stand behind you and mark them all the time, it's even easier.

[Mike]

Take any tranquilizer sniper rifle, shoot them in the head a few times each. You can "kill" anything that's living in pretty much any MGS game in two ways, either with damage or by draining their stamina to zero. The tranquilizers do work on them.

And it's a sniper battle, not a gun battle, so they're going to move positions every time you get a hit on them, it's not that you're not hitting them. You basically pop up to bait out their shot, shoot them while they're vulnerable, then wait on them to move and see where they show up next, repeat.

You can take Quiet with you too and have her equip her non-lethal rifle and she'll shoot them and draw attention for you too. Just follow the lasers.

Make sure you stay in prone if you move around too. If you're in any other stance they'll be able to instantly notice you, even if you're moving behind cover.

[Captain Blue]

Originally posted by jerjare:

As far as I know, the skulls have a stamina bar and can be disabled accordingly. I know with Traitors Caravan, if you get close enough to the truck to trigger the armor skulls to come out, but hang back, you can hit them with non-lethal weapons without them necessarily spotting you initially.

Just so you know, even if you use 'lethal' weapons you can still extract skulls so long as your fulton has the appropriate upgrade. So either lethal or nonlethal its up to you. With the sniper skulls, much like quiet when you kill/stun them, they seem to jump to a predetermined area where you can fulton them.

Extracting skulls isn't related to fulton upgrades. The ability to fulton skulls happens when you have developed a certain item that gets unlocked during the story progression.

[Captain Blue]

Originally posted by Redneck:

Take any tranquilizer sniper rifle, shoot them in the head a few times each. You can "kill" anything that's living in pretty much any MGS game in two ways, either with damage or by draining their stamina to zero. The tranquilizers do work on them.

And it's a sniper battle, not a gun battle, so they're going to move positions every time you get a hit on them, it's not that you're not hitting them. You basically pop up to bait out their shot, shoot them while they're vulnerable, then wait on them to move and see where they show up next, repeat.

You can take Quiet with you too and have her equip her non-lethal rifle and she'll shoot them and draw attention for you too. Just follow the lasers.

Make sure you stay in prone if you move around too. If you're in any other stance they'll be able to instantly notice you, even if you're moving behind cover.

Or you can use max rank rocket punch (stun version).

[cowbell]

Originally posted by Tarman:

Extracting skulls isn't related to fulton upgrades. The ability to fulton skulls happens when you have developed a certain item that gets unlocked during the story progression.

You fulton Skulls after Metallic Archaea.


I just use Quiet, a Serval, and tag team each sniper.

[winkerbean76]

I find it easiest to just bring a tank. It's easy but a tiny bit difficult on Extreme Code Talker seeing how their shots do more damage to the tank. At that point you can head away from the battlefield area, exit the tank, avoid the melee, call in a new tank and keep shooting

[Frag Maniac]

Originally posted by winkerbean76:

I find it easiest to just bring a tank. It's easy but a tiny bit difficult on Extreme Code Talker seeing how their shots do more damage to the tank. At that point you can head away from the battlefield area, exit the tank, avoid the melee, call in a new tank and keep shooting

LOL, tried the tank in Extreme Code Talker after someone said it doesn't take damage. It takes a fair bit on Extreme and the game wants to drop it in the river valley, which is a LOT harder to get in good shots from.

Dropping in new ones is expensive, so I opted not to. The silenced tranq sniper rifle and D-Walker to spot them or the Noctocyanin pills works well enough. There's always smoke and decoys if you don't have the level 3 Battle Dress too.

I didn't use Quiet on Extreme Code talker because I wanted to follow the story and she leaves 3 missions prior. You CAN however use the Butterfly emblem prior to mission 45 and make her stay.

[Overseer]

You can't tranq bosses. You only drain their blue meter.

[winkerbean76]

Originally posted by Frag Maniac:

Originally posted by winkerbean76:

I find it easiest to just bring a tank. It's easy but a tiny bit difficult on Extreme Code Talker seeing how their shots do more damage to the tank. At that point you can head away from the battlefield area, exit the tank, avoid the melee, call in a new tank and keep shooting

LOL, tried the tank in Extreme Code Talker after someone said it doesn't take damage. It takes a fair bit on Extreme and the game wants to drop it in the river valley, which is a LOT harder to get in good shots from.

Dropping in new ones is expensive, so I opted not to. The silenced tranq sniper rifle and D-Walker to spot them or the Noctocyanin pills works well enough. There's always smoke and decoys if you don't have the level 3 Battle Dress too.

I didn't use Quiet on Extreme Code talker because I wanted to follow the story and she leaves 3 missions prior. You CAN however use the Butterfly emblem prior to mission 45 and make her stay.

I know about the butterfly emblem. I used it from the get-go and dreaded losing her so I farmed the heck out of everything until my resources were stacked (hence my lack of concern of losing one or two of my 80 tanks). The update came in where you can get her back and that's when I played M45 (which was easy because I had every weapon/item maxed out by then) and got her back by playing M11 seven times.

But yeah, at that point, money isn't too much of an option. You can take your time and stay cozy in your tank with noctocyanin.

[strikertlj]

Sniper skulls.. Someone said they will only come one a time for melee.. uhm thats not true had 2 come lots of times.. especialy when there are only 2 left. Personaly I believe the brennan is more powerfull than the tranq for the snipers. Also head shots mean alot.. Quiet on that mission code talker either one is subjective I find her of little value as once she shoots they will spot her and and shoot more than likely she gets taken out of that mission and you have nothing. DDOG works well. but you have to be usualy close for him to spot them. Never used Dwalker. I have played that mission several ways . for various reasons S rank. side tasks
But honestly I think I had more fun fighting them in the forest. It is just a great feeling fighting in there.. NVG a must see them easily.. The fun is in the learning

[Frag Maniac]

Originally posted by Overseer:

You can't tranq bosses. You only drain their blue meter.

LOL, One could just as well say you can't "kill" them with bullets either, since they just relocate, lay still, then appear in a cage on Mother Base after you extract them.

Regardless what you call it, once the tranq sniper rifle drains their blue bar all the way down, they lay there as if tranqed.

What else would you call it, killed, shot? The point is they are dispatched by then, and as downed as if you shot them with a Brennan, and they won't even get back up unless you leave the forest.

Originally posted by strikertlj:

Sniper skulls.. Someone said they will only come one a time for melee.. uhm thats not true had 2 come lots of times.. especialy when there are only 2 left. Personaly I believe the brennan is more powerfull than the tranq for the snipers. Also head shots mean alot.. Quiet on that mission code talker either one is subjective I find her of little value as once she shoots they will spot her and and shoot more than likely she gets taken out of that mission and you have nothing. DDOG works well. but you have to be usualy close for him to spot them. Never used Dwalker.

When done specifically as I described, they will only come one at a time to melee. You were too close if that happened. There's usually one Skull that is closer than the others. It doesn't make much sense to get in close enough to alert them all and risk multiple angle simultaneous shots and rushes, and it only makes it harder to relocate. That's not good sniping, especially when you're going 1 on 4 against elite snipers.

It also matters what level of Brennan you compare, but I was comparing specifically max silenced tranq rifle to level 4 Brennan, and I DID clarify the Brennan though more powerful, can take as long if not longer due to them locating you easier due to no silencer.

Keep in mind I clarified I was also using level 2 Battle Dress, which can still result in a one shot snipe kill, so you have to be more careful if you lack the resources for higher R&D stuff.

Seems you only read a few parts of what I actually said, and kinda took it out of context in the process. I've seen vids of people trying to rush through this, and they often end up too close using panicked tactics, getting lucky in the process. Makes me wonder how many failed attempts they recorded and deleted.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Overseer:

You can't tranq bosses. You only drain their blue meter.

That's the stamina meter. It's non-lethal "health". In other MGS games, if you performed non-lethal takedowns on some bosses, special things would happen, or sometimes it was much easier to drain their stamina than outright kill them. Giving minibosses stamina bars is just a way to continue that, I guess. It is considered "tranqing" them. A lot of the time you put them to sleep or they faint.