After making it through a rather grueling string of battles and leaving Snake to handle Fortune, Raiden must face off with one of Metal Gear Solid 2's most terrifying boss fights. A single Metal Gear served as a more than sufficient final boss in previous games, but Raiden must face an army of the newest model if he hopes to finish the mission.

At the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 2, players were given a few glimpses of Metal Gear Ray. This Bipedal weapon is designed to hunt other Metal Gears and has a terrifying array of weapons at its disposal. Fortunately, Raiden has long since acquired the necessary weaponry to take on something of this size.

Metal gear cypher and guard split image
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How to Beat the Metal Gear Rays

The Metal Gear Rays begin the battle standing in water just beyond the edge of the arena, where they will periodically take turns launching homing missiles vertically. These will land a few seconds after firing at Raiden's location, giving players an opportunity to move out of their path before they connect. The weak point of a Metal Gear Ray is its head, meaning that firing at its head with Stinger Missiles will deal damage, but there is a more efficient way to deal damage to them. Rather than aiming right for the head, players should first aim for the leg joints to stagger the Ray and cause its faceplate to open. Once the faceplate opens, players should fire a shot at the head before it closes, which will deal considerably more damage than simply firing straight at the head.

When a Metal Gear Ray roars, it opens its faceplate. This means that players who are confident in their aim and timing can exploit this to deal bonus damage without needing to stagger them.

Players should stay on the move to dodge incoming missiles and chip away at the Rays health bars whenever possible. After depleting one of the health bars to at least half, one of the Rays will leap onto the platform. If Raiden gets too close, it will use its high-pressure water cannon to attack, so it's best to keep some distance from the Ray on the platform. The Ray on the platform will also fire homing missiles that move towards Raiden, though their tracking can be hindered by running to the side and circling around to get behind them. Raiden's cartwheel can be useful for getting out of their way.

Once one of the Rays has gotten up on the platform, the others will circle the Arena roaring and periodically firing more vertical missiles. Players should be mindful of these vertical missiles while focusing their attacks on the Ray on the platform. Once its health is depleted, it will retreat and another will take its place. Depending on the difficulty, players will have to fight between 3 and 20 Rays to end the fight, but luckily they don't have any more tricks up their sleeves. There will never be more than three Rays actively attacking at once, so players don't need to worry about being overwhelmed even on the higher difficulties.

Difficulty

Number of Rays

Easy

3

Normal

6

Hard

12

Extreme

20