Complete non-lethal guide for all bosses in METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: Snake Eater. Learn boss strategies, earn exclusive camo rewards, and master stealth tactics for an ultimate playthrough.
Table of Contents
Introduction
This guide provides detailed strategies for defeating bosses in METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: Snake Eater non-lethally. From Ocelot to The Boss, learn how to earn exclusive camo rewards, utilize key items like Thermal Goggles and Cardboard Box, and navigate each encounter with stealth and precision.
Boss Rewards Overview
- Ocelot – Animal Camo: Reduces weapon shake; use tranq gun for non-lethal takedown.
- Hornet (Pain) – Hornet Camo: Bees target enemies instead of you.
- Fear – Spider Camo: Provides 85% camo index; drains stamina rapidly.
- End – Mosin Nagant (Non-Lethal Sniper Rifle) – Moss Camo: High jungle camouflage, stamina regeneration.
- Fury – Fire Camo: Immunity to fire (may vary by game version).
- Volgin – Cold War Camo: Enemies facing you frontally won’t attack.
- Sorrow – Spirit Camo: Silences footsteps, recovers stamina in CQC.
- The Boss – Snake Camo: High camouflage in most environments.
Essential Gear
- Thermal Goggles: Spot hidden traps, see camouflaged bosses, and follow footprints.
- Cardboard Box: Useful for extinguishing flames and sneaking.
Boss Guides (Non-Lethal)
Ocelot
- Use tranq gun, watch for reload timing, free shots available.
Hornet (Pain)
- Fight from water, use tranq gun when bees disperse.
- Optionally, use smoke grenades to scatter bees.
Fight from the water: Stay in the river and use your tranquilizer gun. Shoot him when the bees aren’t covering his body.
Bees are a shield: When the swarm surrounds him, they act like a bullet barrier.
Option 1: Switch with a lethal weapon to disperse the bees, then quickly switch back to the tranquilizer and shoot him in the head.
Option 2: Wait until the swarm disperses naturally, then take your shot.
When he shouts “Grenade!”: Immediately swim away to avoid damage.
When he sends bees at you: Swim away again. This applies both when he launches them directly and when he fires “bullet bees.”
Positioning:
You start on a small island.
There’s another island to the northeast side of the cavern you can also use for cover.
Tips:
You can also use smoke grenades to disperse the bees. Credit: thetimebendingidiot
I found equipping the grenade camo you get infinite amount of smokes to throw at him. Made extreme easy for me.
Fear
- Avoid traps using Thermal Goggles.
- Tranq shots when visible; stop stamina recovery by intercepting food.
Trapped area before the fight: Before you reach him, you’ll pass through a section filled with traps. It can be a bit of a pain, but if you grabbed the Thermal Goggles (from earlier near Ocelot), you can easily spot and avoid every trap.
Spotting The Fear:
He uses camo to blend into the trees.
With thermal goggles on, you’ll see him clearly, making the fight much easier.
It’s basically a run-and-gun battle. Keep moving and use your tranquilizer weapon whenever you get a clean shot.
Stopping his recovery:
When his stamina gets low, he’ll shoot down fruit from the trees to restore it.
As soon as you see him drop down from the branches, that’s usually the cue he’s going for food.
Get to it first to prevent him from recovering stamina.
The End Boss
- Use Directional Microphone & Thermal Goggles to track.
- Sneak behind him to earn Moss Camo.
- Monitor stamina recovery and prevent it.
The End’s boss fight spans three large areas. It’s a slower fight than other encounters, but with the right gear ( Directional Microphone and Thermal Goggles – if you picked them up earlier ) It becomes much more manageable.
Getting Started
Go prone and begin moving left from the starting point. You’ll find a small shack with loot inside. Grab what you need, then continue.
From cover, use the Directional Microphone to locate him. You’ll hear two key sound cues:
Breathing → He’s awake, likely aiming down his scope searching for you.
Snoring → He’s asleep, giving you a chance to sneak up.
Finding Him
Use the Thermal Goggles to spot his heat signature through camouflage.
You can sometimes see his sniper glare, but it’s faint and unreliable compared to thermals.
Stay prone and sneak behind him. When you’re close enough, aim your weapon at him, this will make him drop his Moss Camo.
Moss Camo: High camouflage rating in jungle areas and stamina regeneration in sunlight. So equip it right away.
Staying on Him
After dropping the camo, The End will throw a flashbang and run. Be ready, if you get stunned, listen for audio cues to track his movement.
Use thermals to follow his footprints in the mud if you loose sight and close the distance again. Or your back at square one and you’ll have to use the Microphone again.
Preventing His Recovery
When his stamina gets very low, you’ll hear him mutter about “Mother Nature.” That’s your warning he’s about to restore stamina, and he does it fast.
Immediately track him down and stop him before he recovers.
Ammo
If you run out of ammo during this fight, Like I did on my extreme run I found out you can hold him up again and he’ll drop tranq ammo.
Rewards
Defeating The End non-lethally earns you the Mosin Nagant sniper rifle, a great weapon for draining stamina in later boss fights.
Fury Boss
- Use Mosin Nagant for faster stamina drain.
- Roll on ground to extinguish fire; cardboard box also works.
This battle is more straightforward than most, but a few tricks make it much easier.
If you have the Mosin Nagant, open with it, it drains The Fury’s stamina much faster than your standard tranquilizer.
Sneaking Suit
If you own it, equip the Sneaking Suit. It muffles your footsteps, making it harder for The Fury to track you.
Dealing with Fire
If you catch fire, roll on the ground to extinguish it.
A cardboard box also works as a quick way to put out flames.
Where to Shoot
Focus on his torso – headshots don’t land properly since his helmet deflects them.
Avoid the fuel tank on his back, it won’t help in a non-lethal fight.
Tactics
Keep moving, stay mobile, and circle around him. Whenever you find an opening, hit him in the body, this turns into one of the simpler non-lethal encounters.
Sorrow
- Walk through sequence without contact for Spirit Camo.
- Collect Kabuki face paint at waterfall cutscene.
If your an old school player of MGS like myself I can confirm you Can not use the fake death pill on sorrow. You gotta walk.
This encounter isn’t really a fight, it’s basically a walking sequence.
Difficulty scaling: The more people you’ve killed during your playthrough, the more spirits you’ll encounter. If you’ve gone for a non-lethal run, you’ll only see the boss characters (like The End, The Fury, etc.), even if you defeated them with non-lethal damage.
What to do: Just keep walking forward while avoiding contact with the spirits. That’s all there is to it. When you get passed all the bosses You’ll see Sorrow dead corpse in the lake. Walk into it. Once you’ve killed Sorrow You’ll die, Just take the revival Pill.
“Cheese” method: You can use the Fake Death Pill and then revive yourself to skip the sequence, but doing this prevents you from earning the reward, so it’s not worth it if you want the camo.
Also don’t worry about having to pick it up. You’ll get it when you reach the waterfall cut scene.
Reward – Spirit Camo
Reach The Sorrow’s body at the end of the river to receive the Spirit Camo.
Effect: Completely silences your footsteps.
After the fight once you’ve met up with EVA in the cave. Head back outside to the waterfall.
At the bottom of the waterfall you’ll find the Kabuki camo facepaint.
Volgin
- Focus on CQC; avoid bullets unless necessary.
- Watch electrical charge animations; roll over when stunned.
This fight is all about CQC – ammo isn’t very effective here.
Don’t waste bullets: If you pull out your gun, Volgin will respond by blasting you with electric orbs. Stick to close-quarters combat instead.
Breaking his electric shield:
Get close, grab him with CQC, and throw him to the ground.
This disrupts his electric field, leaving him vulnerable.
While he’s down, roll over him to inflict extra stamina damage.
Alternative (riskier) method: You can try to get behind him and use a tranquilizer, but it’s slower and less reliable than CQC.
Extra Tips:
Watch his charge-up animation: When his body glows and sparks, he’s about to unleash a big electric attack, back off to avoid heavy damage.
Stamina strategy: If you already have the Mosin Nagant, a few well-placed shots after breaking his shield can chunk his stamina quickly but don’t rely on it as your main tactic.
Volgin/Shagohod
- Target drill cores with RPG, circle behind to drain stamina.
By this point, you already know the drill – literally. Your goal here is to disable the Shagohod so you can get to Volgin.
Don’t waste ammo on Volgin directly, He’ll just deflect bullets with his electricity.
Target the drill cores:
Use the RPG to blast one of the Shagohod’s drill cores.
Whichever side you hit, Volgin will turn to face it exposing the back of his head. ( See below when I shot right leg. )
Non-lethal follow-up:
While he’s distracted, circle around to his backside.
Tag him in the head with the Mosin Nagant to drain stamina.
Repeat the process: RPG a core → move around back → Mosin shot.
EXTREME DIFFICULTY
He’s got an extra Mechanic where he shoots missiles, Shoot them with Lethal. Save Ammo for Boss.
Extra Tips:
Keep moving – standing still makes you an easy target for his shockwaves.
Save your RPG ammo for the drill cores; don’t waste it anywhere else.
If Volgin is about to shoot you with the Shadowhog just shoot him to interrupt him.
No rewards for this run as you get it from the first fight with Volgin.
Boss Guide Non-Lethal
- High camouflage; manage CQC carefully.
- Defeating non-lethally grants Snake Camo.
This showdown is all about CQC timing and patience.
Opening CQC:
As soon as the fight begins, you’ll be forced into a CQC sequence.
Watch for the slowdown and audio cue,that’s your signal to press the button.
If you succeed, you’ll throw her to the ground. Don’t waste ammo, just roll over her to deal stamina damage.
When she uses the Patriot:
Take cover behind a tree and keep track of her movements.
If you have the Mosin Nagant, wait for her to peek out, then tag her for big stamina damage.
Shooting her during the Patriot stance isn’t worth it — she’ll soak bullets without much effect.
Repeating the pattern:
When she shouts “Get ready!”, she’s pulling you back into the CQC timing sequence.
Rinse and repeat: win the CQC, roll over her, then prepare for the next exchange.
Important tip about weapons:
If you fail a CQC prompt while holding a weapon, she’ll dismantle it and toss it away.
Then You’ll have to find it again in the flower field.
Use your Thermal Goggles to spot the weapon case more easily.
Best precaution: as soon as you hear her audio cue for CQC, unequip your weapon and be ready to counter.
Reward – Snake Camo
Defeating The Boss non-lethally earns you the Snake Camo.
Effect: Grants a relatively high camouflage index in almost any environment.
Tips & Tricks
- Stun grenades muffling footsteps.
- Time skip The End battle to skip fight.
- Glowcap or frog to absorb Volgin’s electrical attacks.
There are a few things from the original release of MGS3 that players reported and confirmed worked, However I haven’t personally confirmed them in MGS Delta.
Silent Running with a Stun Grenade
If you run while holding a stun grenade in your hand, it muffles or silences your footsteps.
The Fear – Fake Death Trick – No longer works.During the fight with The Fear, if you use the Fake Death Pill, he will come down from the trees.
After reviving yourself with the Revival Pill, you could throw a stun grenade and then shoot him with the AK.
This dealt stamina damage and still counted as non-lethal.
Confirmed by Terry Wrist.
Truck Skip to Shagohod Hangar
After escaping your cell, when back on Groznyj Grad’s grounds, there’s a truck with boxes loaded in the back.
If you climbed in and disguised yourself with a Cardboard Box, the truck drove you straight to the Shagohod hangar.
The truck box method uses either Cardboard Box A or B.
A gets you into a storage room in the weapons lab.
B gets you into the hangar.
C doesn’t do anything. Thanks @Terry Wrist for confirming this one.
This would allow you to skip the entire East Wing and the preceding area.
Time-Skipping The End Battle – Confirmed works
If you turned off your console (or change the system clock) and wait about 8 days, you’ll return later to find The End has died of old age, allowing you to skip the fight entirely.
Torture Sequence Invincibility
While Volgin is torturing Snake, You would hold down R2 (or RT) In this case I think it’s E? through the black screen, and Snake takes zero damage. Let go too early, and you get hurt.
Raikov Mask Confusion
Wearing the Raikov mask during Volgin’s hangar fight makes him hesitate, gives you a window for surprise attacks.
Throwing a Glowcap or Frog at Volgin
Drop a Russian Glowcap on the ground near Volgin and it soaks up electrical shocks.
by crow
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