MGSV GZ: Recon Guide

This guide should help you with reconnaissance and mission planning in Ground Zeroes.

Introduction

Hello and welcome to my guide! As the title explains, here you'll be able to find the most useful and safe recon locations so that you can mark enemies with ease. The locations are seperated into categories, so you can easily find the spots you're looking for. I'll be talking about the pros and cons of each spot, as well as the missions the spot is most useful in.

Enjoy!

Watchtowers

Okay, to start off with I'll be going through perhaps the most obvious recon locations: the base's watchtowers. Camp Omega has 8 towers for you to climb and spy from, but they each come with advantages and disadvantages. I'll be going through them all now.





The watchtower seen above is the one easily located near the starting point of the Ground Zeroes mission. It's easy to climb it undetected and there is only ever a guard up there in the main mission. It has a great view of the eastern refugee camp and the south side of the warehouses, as well as a little peek into the helipad area in the north of the map.

The best thing about this tower is that guards are rarely ever stationed near it, and the covered fence makes it easy to climb undetected. However, you do have to be careful of any guards in or around the metal tower directly to the north, as they can sometimes see Snake if he is standing, particularly on Hard difficulty.

This tower is useful for the following missions:

- Ground Zeroes
- Classified Intel Acquisition (Jump out of the truck when you pass it to get an early glimpse of the agent)
- Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements (If you don't like the starting point)





This watchtower is my least favourite. The only good view it has is of the east refugee camp, where only one or two soldiers ever walk. You get a decent view of the road going along the south of the map, however. Also, in the Ground Zeroes mission, it gives you a good view of the escaped prisoner's execution zone, which is located in the east camp. This can provide you with a good shot at the soldiers to begin his rescue. The barrel at the base of the watchtower can also be used to destroy it, which will result in a nice little distraction. Obviously, though, the tower is then rendered useless.

This tower is useful for the following missions:

- Ground Zeroes (For the escaped prisoner)
- Classified Intel Acquisition (The searchlight can be used to signal the agent)





This watchtower is located in the southern area of the warehouse section. It's a risky one to climb, but it can provide some great views if you're careful. The area is almost always patrolled by a guard or two, and the tower itself is usually manned. Before you attempt to go up it, make sure you neutralise any guards at the base who might spot you. Even at the top of the tower, excercise caution, or hop up onto the roof and lie down to decrease your chances of being seen.

This watchtower is brilliant, as it has good views of both refugee camps and the warehouse area. However, it's a very risky one to climb, especially on Hard, and requires some preparation beforehand. For this reason, I recommend this watchtower for Normal only, unless you're skilled.

This tower is useful for every mission, if you can get up there undetected.





The forth tower is located at the northern end of the warehouse area. Much like the tower shown above, it provides excellent views, if you can get up there. The area surrounding the tower is very heavily patrolled, and there are often several soldiers who have a clear line of sight on it. Just when things couldn't get any worse, it's also manned most of the time, so even getting near it is a challenge. Make sure to neutralise any nearby guards, perhaps the entire warehouse area, before even trying to get up this one. Just getting over there to take a screenshot was hard! :)

The best thing about this tower is that it offers some of the best views of them all, almost making it worth the task of getting up there. As with the tower before, lying down on the roof makes you more hidden, but makes descending even riskier when you're done.

This tower is useful for every mission, but particularly Ground Zeroes, as the mission has you exploring most areas of the map.





Okay, we're back to a wooden tower now, and this one is in the south-east of the map. Anyone playing Ground Zeroes on Hard probably finds this one to be a pain in the arse (Or is it just me?), as it watches over the western refugee camp, which is my preferred route to the old prison area. As it's in the corner, you get good views of the road that runs around the edge of the map, as well has a helipad area if you look closely. While it's often manned, if you crawl nice and slowly you can often reach it undetected, and then it's only a matter of neutralising the guy inside.

This tower is useful for the following missions:

- Ground Zeroes
- Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements





This tower is just north of the one I talked about previously, and while it's the riskiest wooden tower to climb, it's got great views of the western side of the base (excluding the old prison). The tower has an explosive barrel at the base, meaning it can be destroyed to create a distraction, but be wary of starting an alert status in the area, as there are often a lot of soldiers. On Normal, you can usually climb the tower with ease, as most of the guards nearby are looking elsewhere. On Hard, however, you might want to neutralise a couple because of the increased guard viewing range.

This tower is useful for every mission, especially Eliminate the Renegade Threat, as it is the tower used for the popular S-Rank method, which is shown below (Video produced by PowerPyx).

Watchtowers Pt. 2

I reached the word limit in the last section, so the watchtowers are split into two groups.





This rarely manned watchtower looks over the old prison area and the surrounding cliffs, and there's not much else to say. It's useful for spotting any soliders guarding the prisoners, but it's usually easier to mark them on the way in using the slope. You can also jump down from the front of the tower to land right inside the cell area (See the picture below), but there is also a hole at the bottom of the fence just next to the tower which serves the same purpose.



This tower isn't really useful for any mission, as there are more basic spots nearby with views that are just as good.





We now come to the seventh watchtower, which is a dangerous one, and not all too useful, as there is another, safer spot covering the same area, which I'll talk about in a later section. The tower is very heavily guarded and usually manned, as with the other two metal towers from before, but you do get some impressive views of the heli-pad area and a little glance into the west refugee camp. Once again, lying on the roof (See picture below) provides cover from guards on the ground, but anyone in the control tower next to you can easily spot you.



This tower is useful for the following missions:

- Ground Zeroes
- Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements (Even though it's stupidly risky to get up there in this one)







And finally we have the control tower, a fairly risk-free viewpoint with good views of the helipad and warehouse area, despite being a little annoying to get to. To reach this one, you must enter the admin building, most likely through the south-western door, and proceed onwards. Once you get to the main area turn immediately right and there is a ladder, which can be climbed to reach a walkway (Seen above). Proceed along this walkway and climb another small ladder to reach the tower. It's commonly manned, and it's usually down to luck if you are spotted eliminating the guards up there. The walkway to get there is also viewable from the helipads by the wall, so crouch to avoid detection when crossing. The views are good, and it's a great spot for planning escapes, but be careful of getting spotted, as it's in easy view of most soldiers.

This tower is useful for all missions, especially those that involve going inside or around the admin building (Such as Ground Zeroes).

And that's it for the watchtowers!

Other Recon Spots

Now I'll be talking about a few good spots that don't have the height of watchtowers, but still allow you to see a lot of the base.







This building, located just north of the easternmost AA gun, provides views of the entire helipad area, as well as the front of the admin building. You can access the roof either by a ladder or by climbing on top of a machine, both of which are shown in the pictures above. No guard ever goes up there unless they're investigating a noise or strange sight, so there's barely a need to worry about being seen. However, you will want to either lie down or crouch when up there, as you can get spotted or heard if you are careless. The helipads in front of the building are relatively well-manned, so keep an eye out.





This building, located just inside the southeast door of the admin building, provides good views of the inside of the area, helping you to plan your indoor infiltration route. It's climbable using the machine seen above.

This spot is particularly useful for Ground Zeroes, being a great place to plan how to rescue Paz. Guards almost never look in that direction, but be wary of anyone entering through the door behind you. Guards can't climb up there, as there is no ladder.



This viewpoint, which is exactly where you start Ground Zeroes, is great for getting views on the southern warehouse area, with little peeks at the helipad and surrounding watchtowers. A little bit of moving also lets you look in on the west refugee camp if you wish. However, the best thing about this spot is that guards will almost never see you up there, even when standing, unless you're really unlucky. From my experiences, it's also the quietest landing zone for the helicopter, should you need to call it in.







Following the picture directions above, you can reach this handy little viewing area. It provides almost the same views as the watchtower nearby, but it's slightly more hidden, and you needn't worry about being seen here. It's also a good sniping point, if you like playing the assassin role. >:D If you're having trouble finding it, follow the directions above or start the Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements mission, as that's where you start.





And finally we have trucks! Snake can easily climb into the backs of trucks that are sat around the map, giving him limited views of the surrounding areas. You only need to worry about being seen by guards in watchtowers, so lie down if you're near one. The good thing about trucks is that guards will occasionally get in and drive it somewhere, giving Snake a nice tour of Camp Omega! Just be wary of getting driven outside the mission area by guards heading out.

Recon/Planning Tips

Now I'll quickly talk about some general tips for recon and planning missions.



Make use of map markers! They can easily be placed when viewing the map by pressing the Enter key. They're very useful for remembering important locations and making your own 'checkpoints' to aid your infiltration.





Interrogate guards whenever possible. Interrogating guards is one of the most useful things to do when gaining intel, as they can mark other guards for you, tell you where to find ammo as well as other bits of information to make the mission much easier. You can also utilise the 'Call your friends' option to lure other guards into a CQC trap!





Make use of distractions. There are many ways to cause distractions in Ground Zeroes, but my favourite ways are listed below.

- Throwing magazines
- Destroying watchtowers or AA guns using barrels
- Using the 'Call your friends' option on a guard
- Firing an unsilenced gun
- Destroying security cameras

Causing distractions can help you in several ways. You can lure a guard to investigate, either leading him into a trap or making him leave his post so you can sneak past. It can also make previously unmarked guards enter your line of sight, so you can quickly mark them. Be careful, however, as certain actions, such as firing a gun, can cause an alert mode, so make sure you have a nice hiding place to retreat to.



Make use of the 'view' feature! Pressing the V key zooms in Snake's vision, allowing him to focus on objects in front of him. This allows you to mark guards and vehicles without having to pull out your binoculars, and you can also use this technique to mark guards from behind cover.

Conclusion

Well then, that's it for this guide! Hopefully by now you'll be fully prepped for whatever mission you want to do next, with a few extra tricks up your sleeves.

I hope you enjoyed reading this guide as much as I did darting around grabbing screenshots. Thanks for reading!

[Nescius]

this is nice.
the 100% guides or whatever are necessary and laborous, but this is the kinda stuff that's hard to find.

[Kak]

No problem! :D

[matda2tom]

thx man :)

[Kak]

Once you complete the main 'Ground Zeroes' mission, several side operations will unlock. A few of these take place in the daytime.

[matda2tom]

how did you play this in the daytime?

[Kak]

No problem! Glad I could help you out. :)

[Stahlfrau]

Thank you for such a nice guide!