Metal Gear Solid V: TPP Guide – Tips for Expanding Mother Base

Focus on R&D and Intel

Mother Base in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain can be really overwhelming when you first gain access to it, but knowing which units to focus on can give you a serious edge during the early hours of the game. The first thing you’ll want to do is upgrade your R&D and Intel Units. This will allow you to unlock the better upgrade tiers for your trusty binoculars. Upgrading them will help Big Boss see a soldier’s stats before deciding whether or not to Fulton them back to base.

The best way to expand Mother Base and its staff is by kidnapping soldiers on the field, but you want to kidnap only the ones that are worth bringing onboard. With the upgraded binoculars, you’ll also be able to check what specific traits and skills they have. Efficient kidnapping is key to building a strong staff back at Mother Base, so make sure to upgrade those binoculars ASAP.

Upgrade the Fulton Recovery System

At the same time, you don’t want to ignore your Support Unit either. At the start of the game, your Fulton Recovery System will only be capable of extracting soldiers. As your Support Unit levels up, however, the Fulton system will soon be able to extract small turrets, vehicles, tanks, and even large containers containing valuable resources.

Not only that, you’ll also be able to carry a larger number of Fulton balloons into the field, allowing you to extract more soldiers and items in one go.

Don’t Neglect the Base Development Unit

If you’re looking to expand Mother Base and construct all the platforms you can in the shortest amount of time possible, you’ll want to focus on your Base Development Unit. It might not seem like much, but this Unit will help collect vital resources such as fuel, biological material, and metals. These resources can be difficult to come by while Big Boss is on the field, but they’re absolutely necessary for the construction of new platforms and decks.

Aside from just construction purposes, some of these resources can also be poured into the development of new gear and equipment for Big Boss. Once you’ve upgraded your binoculars and Fulton Recovery System, I recommend focusing your efforts on the Base Development Unit to get that expansion process underway.

Always Send Out Your Combat Unit

Once your Combat Unit becomes available to you, try to assign at least five men to the Unit. This will allow you to start sending them out on Dispatch Missions and other ops that can net you various rewards such as extra resources, volunteers for Mother Base, and of course, valuable GMP. The early missions will take about 10 to 15 minutes each, so be sure to check your iDroid regularly to grab those rewards.

You’ll also want to make sure that your teams are strong and capable enough to handle the Dispatch Missions. You can check this by looking at their fighting ability and the percentage for loss probability.

Switch Up Your Teams

Don’t be afraid to reassign your staff members as you see fit. If your R&D Unit needs to level up once more before you can start development on that sweet rocket launcher, feel free to take someone out from your Medical Unit and place them in R&D instead. Grab that rocket launcher for yourself before sending that staff member back to Medical where he belongs.

Don’t let a soldier’s rating dictate which Unit he should go to, either. Just because Hideo Kojima has an S rank in Intel doesn’t mean he can’t put his A rank in R&D to good use. Basically, know which Units will serve you best, and assign your staff members accordingly. You can also get Miller to auto-assign staff members, but it’s a lot more rewarding to sort them out yourself.

Do Target Practice Side Ops

Each time you construct a new platform or add a new deck to an existing platform, you unlock a target practice side op on your mission list. Be sure to do these, as they’re a really easy way for you to earn a good 30,000 GMP. Not only that, newly constructed platforms and decks will usually have rough diamonds scattered around the areas, so it’s definitely worth it for you to visit your new platforms once you’ve built them.

Granted, the target practices get increasingly tougher as you add new decks. However, if you’re looking for an easy and risk-free way of grabbing some easy GMP, the target practice side ops are the way to go.