MGS V: The Phantom Pain How to – FOB Guide and Tips

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has quite a few activities in store for players looking for more out of their game. Fultoning animals, collecting prisoners in order to secure valuable upgrades, lifting tanks with balloons, and even building a base to use in online multiplayer. These online multiplayer bases are called Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) and provide a benefit to the player as well as new ways to experience the Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain action.

The FOB is a lot like the Mother Base in that it utilizes resources you’ve pilfered throughout your adventures in the game and through deployment of your soldiers. So your volunteers, gun placements, vehicles, and other resources will play a major part in the overall strength of your FOB.

FOBs are interacted with directly in two primary ways: Defending and Infiltrating. This guide will give you tips for each in order to ensure that the best Big Boss is always your Big Boss.

Obtaining an FOB

Of course, before you can do anything with an FOB in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, you must first obtain one. To do so, you must complete Mission 22 ‘Retake the Platform.’ This will grant you the ability to build your very own FOB (the first one is free). Players will have the ability to build up to four, but note that the other three will cost you MB coins.

MB coins are a currency that can be bought with real world money or obtained in game through methods such as the daily reward just for logging in, although you don’t get too many for that. You can also pay MB coins to move your free FOB, but it honestly isn’t worth it due to the price, so just stick with what you pick and then build your next one where you want.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you don’t want certain soldiers being shipped out to your FOB after building one, make sure to put those soldiers under Direct Contract in your Mother Base tab on your iDroid. This will lock that individual into whatever platform you have him/her assigned to.

Defending Your FOB

If you connect your FOB to the internet, it can be infiltrated by friends or anyone else who happens to be lurking in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. When this happens, one of two things will pass. If you’re online at the time, then you will receive an alert allowing you to go and defend your base in person. This turns the activity into a one-on-one PvP activity, where you and your AI controlled military must stop the enemy player from reaching their goal.

To assist you, your soldiers and security systems can help to spot the intruder, making your job a bit easier. A few things you should note are that the enemy player has more life than other enemies you’ve faced in the game and, since it is a human, has a better range of view and motion. Keep this in mind when pursuing them in order to not die an embarrassing death in your own backyard. If you aren’t online, one of your friends can take your place in order to accomplish the same task, but remember that you can’t join them and they can’t join you. If nobody is online, then your FOB’s AI will take care of the mission and everything will fall onto the quality of your soldiers and deployed gear.

The infiltrator has 25 minutes to reach the core of your base and can steal resources and soldiers from you on their way to their goal. Use everything in your power to locate this individual, because if you do, you will be granted the location of their own FOB for you to get some much needed revenge. If they succeed unnoticed then they are able to escape free with no retribution from you or your friends.

Definitely make sure to utilize the after attack review. Whether you win or lose, you will be granted information about the infiltration that will help you to better delegate forces, as well as adjust security device placement. The only mistakes are those you learn nothing from.

Attacking an FOB

Attacking an FOB is very different than defending one. For starters all of the pressure is on you, but you have a lot of chances at success, provided that you pay attention to what’s going on and remember a few valuable tips. The first of which is that the game will notify you when an actual live player is in the game with you.

If there isn’t one, then you can actually play as if you were playing single player, using all of the funny tricks you’ve been using all this time. Luring soldiers into locations for Fulton extraction, tricking security systems, sending out loads of decoys, and more. Keep in mind that while these strategies may also work against an actual human being, the chances are much more slim and you will probably end up in a bad situation.

A fun fact to keep in mind is that the platforms of an FOB in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are exactly like their counterparts on Mother Base, so use your own base as practice to prepare routes and traps for unsuspecting AI defenders.

Another thing to keep in mind is that enemy soldiers aren’t unlimited. Upon landing, you will be informed of exactly how many defenders are present on the FOB you are infiltrating. Consider it a boon to keep track of how many you kill/knock out/Fulton so that you can always be prepared for anything.

The last thing you need to keep in mind is how Success and Failure works when infiltrating. Getting killed or captured results in a failure that leads to you having to pay a ransom. This is not a situation you want to be in, as it will also relieve you of everything you’ve collected up until that point. If you see that failure is inevitable, just flee. You can keep your spoils, and you don’t have to pay a single red cent in ransom money (take that, defender).

Success is only achieved by infiltrating the core of the enemy’s FOB in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and it cannot be done while under alert. So be sure to start playing stealthy once you decide to make your move. The rewards scale according to how well-equipped the base you are infiltrating is. Harder bases directly translate to better rewards, so make every infiltration count.

Backed Against the Wall? Time to Fight

While stealth is the best course of action since it prevents a defender the opportunity to get revenge, and an infiltrator the opportunity to embarrass a defender, it doesn’t always work out. Sometimes, you have to get your hands dirty. But you shouldn’t get too dirty if you want the best rewards. Killing lowers your Heroism score as well as eliminates potential recruits. Also, killing an actual player is much more difficult than it seems.

Utilize tranquilizers on everything other than security devices (alarms, lights). It is much easier to knock a player out than it is to kill one. Also, decoys are the infiltrator’s best friend when dealing with sonar. Keep your enemies guessing where you are as you slowly (but steadily) make your way to the FOB’s core and victory.

Claymores and Stun Decoys are also valuable tools for both the infiltrator and defender. For the former, they allow them to cover their tracks just in case someone is getting to close, for the latter, they can slow down the infiltrator since that person will definitely not want to attract the attention an explosion can bring. Use them wisely to force bottlenecks and control the flow of movement on the FOB.

Also keep in mind that noise is your friend as an infiltrator, especially if you can make it far away from you using noise decoys and grenades. Lead enemies on a wild goose chase as you make your way towards the finish line.

A Few Parting Tips

While FOBs in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain are pretty straight forward, there are a few weird quirks that you should always keep in mind. For starters, for some reason traps you set as an infiltrator are removed once a live player enters the game. Why? Nobody knows, but since the AI is relatively simple to deal with (provided that you’ve been playing the game), it’s best to hold out on traps (claymores, stun decoys, noise decoys, mines) until an actual player joins the activity.

Any weapon that locks onto a human player is a bad idea, since they are given an onscreen warning which subsequently warns them of your presence. Stay away from them at all costs, unless alerting them is part of your weirdly concocted master plan. Rockets are a bit of an overkill, but if you absolutely must use them, keep it to the classic straight shooting RPG.

Noctocyanin is a pill that grants Snake hyper senses allowing him to mark enemies and track them through walls, similarly to D-Dog. It is very useful for infiltrators, since those are the ones under the biggest threat. Defenders don’t need it as every pair of eyes on the base will serve them, so don’t waste your resources.

With these few tips, you’ll be dominating FOBs and running a tight ship as you become best damn Big Boss to ever wear the title. Check out our wiki for more Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain tips and guides!