Select Character?

[Lestrad]

Just curious if there is some trick to 'activating' recruited soldiers for combat. Is there a particular mission you have to do,

I've done 1,2,3,4,6, and 9, plus the side mission for the translator.

[Gritsunorak]

they have to be in combat unit

[Greb]

Originally posted by Gritsunorak:

they have to be in combat unit

And be worthy of the tatau.

[Lestrad]

But when/how do you unlock that?

All I have is: Waiting Room, R&D, Base Development, Support, Intel and Medical.

[Greb]

Originally posted by Lestrad:

But when/how do you unlock that?

All I have is: Waiting Room, R&D, Base Development, Support, Intel and Medical.

I can't remember but I know the game is in "baby mode" until about Mission 20. Have you unlocked Combat Deployments yet? It's probably related to that, since that's when the combat unit actually becomes useful. And functional.

[Outlaw1109]

Yeah, you have to unlock the combat unit. You'll get a tutorial about deploying your troops. After that, you'll be able to switch between Snake and your "recruited" soldiers.

Really not worthwhile early on. Snake has A++ ratings for everything.

And those ratings apply to things he does on the battlefield (like reload speed, reflex time and a number of other things). So, best bet is to wait until you get some S ranked soldiers.

Edit: The combat unit is unlocked after a certain mission/base development. It's a scripted event and will happen as the game progresses.

Don't worry, you won't miss it...

[Gritsunorak]

Originally posted by PFC.Mike:

Yeah, you have to unlock the combat unit. You'll get a tutorial about deploying your troops. After that, you'll be able to switch between Snake and your "recruited" soldiers.

Really not worthwhile early on. Snake has A++ ratings for everything.

And those ratings apply to things he does on the battlefield (like reload speed, reflex time and a number of other things). So, best bet is to wait until you get some S ranked soldiers.

Even then, some of updates for Snake kinda make him S ranked (but not "official")

[Panicsferd]

What you can do do, once you unlock to select a different character if you play as them on any of the story missions - it will actually level that guy and he depending on what his default stats are he can get just as good if not better then snake (from my experience, I haven't had a guy yet rank to S, I had him go to A++).

A thing I noticed as well, if you are playing as one of your "recruits" and you end up going on a massive killing spree - it doesn't seem to affect snake's demon meters so you (as snake) wouldn't have a longer horn and be bloddied.

edit: I think overall snake will always be better because you can upgrade various stuff on his arm which will make him better then any s rank (even though it's not displayed official) but you can see some combat "recruits" will have abilities that increase either there: Speed, reflex, and damage recieved (like you can take more damage I think).

[Greb]

Originally posted by PFC.Mike:

Yeah, you have to unlock the combat unit. You'll get a tutorial about deploying your troops. After that, you'll be able to switch between Snake and your "recruited" soldiers.

Really not worthwhile early on. Snake has A++ ratings for everything.

And those ratings apply to things he does on the battlefield (like reload speed, reflex time and a number of other things). So, best bet is to wait until you get some S ranked soldiers.

Not exactly, the skill ranks pretty much only effect how much XP a unit will gain when the soldier is deployed (as in it only effects how much a combat unit/intel unit etc levels up), it's not Peace Walker unfortunately. It seems S rank Soldiers fight better than E rank soldiers in combat when controlled by the AI...but I've never noticed the difference myself.

Eventually, Snake gains upgrades through his prosthetic that allow him to pick up double yields from plants, run faster, aim in quicker, have extra damage resistance, crawl and climb faster etc. Soldiers don't have the prosthetic and thus don't get all these abilities, but they can sometimes come with a skill that functions the same as one of the prosthetic upgrades - useful if you've not researched that particular upgrade yet.

For example, if you don't have the plant collection upgrade to get 20 instead of 10, but you have a Botanist, you could use them to collect Digitalis Lutea and Haoma (which are ultra rare plants) in order to get more yields sooner than usual.

[Outlaw1109]

I can't really argue because it's not awknowledged in the game, but I do know that I have an S ranked marksman I play with for side missions and she heals faster, reloads faster, but her reflex time is crap.

If it has changed because I use her frequently, I haven't noticed. I compared the two (her vs. Snake) when I first became aware of her existence and those things are what I found. Plant gathering is not something I tested...

[Jackal]

Originally posted by Lestrad:

But when/how do you unlock that?

All I have is: Waiting Room, R&D, Base Development, Support, Intel and Medical.

When you are equipping a loadout for your sortie, go to character and select one from the combat unit.

[Panicsferd]

Originally posted by PFC.Mike:

I can't really argue because it's not awknowledged in the game, but I do know that I have an S ranked marksman I play with for side missions and she heals faster, reloads faster, but her reflex time is crap.

If it has changed because I use her frequently, I haven't noticed. I compared the two (her vs. Snake) when I first became aware of her existence and those things are what I found. Plant gathering is not something I tested...

I guess same here, but I mainly experienced the recruit who had the increased reflex time and I was utilizing her for sideops and the like.

[Outlaw1109]

Well, I was wrong, the game DOES officially acknowledge what I've been experiencing.

http://i.imgur.com/vvx8h6Y.jpg

[Greb]

Originally posted by PFC.Mike:

Well, I was wrong, the game DOES officially acknowledge what I've been experiencing.

http://i.imgur.com/vvx8h6Y.jpg

That is real interesting. Thank you for that.

I used to mock soldiers I found on the field with S in both combat and medical/intel. I guess I'll stop doing that now.