MGS3 THE COUNTDOWN INFO

The Countdown
Official Info	Content Info	Konami Info

Time Lag

Between the time you save and shut down the game, and the next time you start up the game, the time is calculated, and Snake is rested during this time. If you save the game when Snake is hurt and tired, and you go to the office, and by the time you return home and re-start the game, Snake will be cured and rested with restored HP. Furthermore, if you have Snake take medicine and eat food before turning off the game, he will recover even more. The purpose of this is to tie the player with the game character. This way, maybe while at work, the thought will appear in the player's mind thinking that at this same instant, Snake is resting, and you wonder how well he's recovering.

Hunger Noises
When Snake is hungry, his stomach will growl. This is yet another feature to try to tie the player with the game character. Hopefully, just like a yawn is infectious, Snake's stomach growls will also affect the players into feeling hungry.

Food
Animals and plants turn into ration items if you kick them or attack them with weapons. The rations can then be stored and eaten in the Survival Viewer Menu. Delicious foods will regain more stamina for Snake. However, if you keep feeding Snake undelicious foods, sometimes Snake's taste will change, and begin to like the bad tasting food. Because these foods are raw, they will go bad and spoil with time. If you use these spoiled foods as weapons, they can be used as traps against enemies.
Tranquilizing an animal then caging them allows Snake to store animals alive. Snake can cage up to 3 animals. These alive animals will not spoil with time, and thus can be stored for a long time. However, there are some large sized animals that can not be caged. If you use caged animals as weapons, they can be used as traps against enemies.
Some animals and plants have none-food applications. Antedotes, serums, and medicines can be made out of them.

Some Food Types
Fruit Type Standard food source in jungles. Easily found above your head, even though some are hard to see. Even though they taste good, their stamina recovery is average.
Mushroom Type From normal mushrooms to mushrooms that glow or are poisonous, all kinds of mushrooms grow in the jungle. Usually found at the foot of trees or inside fallen tree trunks. Most of them have so so taste and so so stamina recovery.
Bird Type From little birds to big bald eagles, various kinds of birds dwell in the jungle. Because they are faster in speed, it is harder to capture and cage them alive. Aim with a gun and shoot them down is the easiest. Their taste and stamina recovery varies greatly from one species to another.
Lizard & Amphibian Type From snakes to crocodiles and frogs, a lot of different species bloom in the jungle. Even though some snakes carry poison, some are surprisingly delicious and recover a lot of stamina.
Fish Type From regular fishes to exotic jungle fishes there is a rich variety. Even though there are only limited locations you can capture them, there are a lot of them to capture.
Mammal Type From small mammals like rats and rabbits to bigger ones like mountain goats, mammals can be captured everywhere. Taste varies, but rabbits in particular are a good source of serums.

Life & Stamina

Survival Viewer Menu
Press the Start button anytime during the game to enter the Survival Viewer menu. Actions to ensure survival in the jungle are done in this menu.
CAMOUFLAGE Change uniforms and face paints.
BACKPACK Change equipments. After obtaining a weapon, put it into the backpack, when you want to use it, take it out of the backpack and equip it. Weapons and items each have their weights, and the heavier the combined weight of all the weapons and items currently on you the faster your stamina will deplete. Put everything you are currently not using into the backpack to reduce the overall weight you carry. Preserve your stamina.
FOOD Eat or throw away food items. With food items, some may be poisonous, some may spoil with time, so it is important to be careful.
CURE Cure your injuries and illnesses. When you are poisoned or injured, curing yourself will recover HP faster. When you are severely injured, if you don't cure yourself, your maximum HP will reduce. Depending on the situation, efficiently perform "medical cure" or "surgical cure", to always maintain the best physical condition.
OPTIONS Change game setting, screen setting, and all kinds of other details.
In the Survival Viewer menu there is also the VIEWER screen where you can get a better view of Snake or items. Use the controller stick to rotate Snake or items. You can also view cure history and food intake history. This is an important menu, where all kinds of actions relating to survival are performed.

Cure System

In the Cure Menu you can cure Snake's illnesses and injuries. Depending on the discomfort, there are different ways of curing Snake. For injuries such as bullet wounds or broken bones, "Surgical Cure" using bandages is required. Or if a bullet is embedded inside Snake, sometimes using a knife to cut the bullet out will also be necessary. For illnesses, "Medical Cure" using medicines is required. Depending on the ailment, be it poison or stomach ache, different medicines will be needed. Surgical items and medical supplies are easily procurable from enemy soldiers, so stock up whenever you have the chance.

Throwing Up
Rotating Snake in the Survival Viewer menu to make him throw up is not only for fun, but it has practical application in the game as well. When Snake eats something wrong and is poisoned, making him throw up what he ate will expel the poison from his system. "Because you can't have actual excreting in the game." - Kojima.

Camouflage

There are over 30 different camouflage uniforms. There are some camouflage uniforms which are not practical at all. There are some uniforms which have effects not related to camouflage. The camouflage uniform currently equipped will reflect in event cutscenes. At the beginning of the game, Snake will only have a limited selection of camouflage uniforms to choose from. As the story progresses, the collection will gradually increase by obtaining or commandeering new uniforms from enemies.

Place & Weather & Time

Camouflage effectiveness changes depending on what the place looks like. It also changes depending on the weather and the time of day. At the same map, with the change of weather and time of day, a completely different sneaking method will become necessary. Even though the view of the environment is the same, with the bright daylight, you must change into a light colored uniform to avoid detection, and with the dark of night, you will need a dark colored uniform to stay hidden. At one map, there will be rain and there will be fog, and you must change your camouflage uniform accordingly depending on the weather changes. Changing your appearance with the changing environment is a big part of this game.

Close Quarters Combat (CQC)
THROW
BINDING
Pattern 1	Neck Hold
Pattern 2	Knife Elimination
Pattern 3	Enemy Soldier as Shield
Pattern 4	Interrogation
Pattern 5	Bind Then Throw

Items
[BINOCULARS (SCOPE)] Adjustable zooming binoculars. For observation and information gathering from far away.
[THERMAL GOGGLE (THRM G)] Passive infrared dark visual device. Can see through the landscape the positions of enemies, items, animals, traps, etc.
[NIGHT VISION GOGGLE (NVG)] Light is magnified for vision in the dark. Even in dark places you can see brightly. But if you look at something bright with the goggles equipped, your eyes will be temporarily imprinted with the image, so be careful.
[ANTI-PERSON SENSOR (AP SNCR)] Sensor that detects human's vital signals. Alerts with vibration when enemy is getting close. When looking in first person view, the sensor will detect only the direction you are looking at.
[MOTION DETECTOR (MTN DTC)] Sensor that detects motion. When equipped, the radar on the top right corner of the screen will tell you the positions of all humans or animals that move.
[ACTIVE SONAR (SONAR)] Sensor that detects locations of humans or animals using sound waves. After button press, the positions of humans and animals will appear for a short time on the screen top right corner radar.
[MINE DETECTOR (MINE D)] Land mine detector. Audio warning whenever a claymore is close. Uses battery when equipped.
[CIGAR] Cigar. Lights up and smokes when equipped. HP gage depletes when equipped. For your health, don't smoke too much.
[PENTAZEMIN (PNTZMN)] Medicine that temporarily suppresses gun holding hand from shaking.
[CROCODILE CAP (CRCDL CP)] Headgear of crocodile. When equipped, submerge under water surface and enemies will have a hard time spotting you.

Weapons
[SURVIVAL KNIFE (KNIFE)] Knife. CQC compatible. Press button softly to swing, press button strongly to stab.
[MK22] Handgun. Tranquilizer. CQC compatible. Suppressor ready. Reload after each shot type tranquilizing pistol.
[M1911A1] 45mm handgun. CQC compatible. Suppressor ready.
[SINGLE ACTION ARMY (SAA)] Revolver type pistol. Reloading takes extra time. Fired bullets can bounce off surfaces for trajectory attacks.
[XM16E1] Continuous shooting possible rifle. Suppressor ready. "Semi-auto", "3 point burst", and "full-auto" interchangeable.
[AK-47] Assault rifle. Press aim button for shoulder supported aim. "Semi-auto" and "full-auto" interchangeable.
[M63] Light machine gun. Waist support shooting machine gun.
[M37] Shotgun. Fire at enemies at close distance with great power.
[SVD] Sniper rifle. Dragunov. Mandatory first person view when equipped. Scope magnification interchangeable between 3x and 10x.
[RPG-7] Ground to air rocket launcher. Mandatory first person view when equipped. Destructive power great, but reload time long.
[GRENADE] Tossing anti-person debris grenade. Russian-made hand grenade. Explodes approximately 3 seconds after tossed.
[WP GRENADE (WP GRD)] Napalm grenade. Explosion spreads flames to burn surrounding enemies. Explodes approximately 3 seconds after tossed.
[STUN GRENADE (STN GRD)] Special flash light and sound grenade. Explosion knocks out surrounding enemies, and confuses and slows down enemies a little distance away. Explodes approximately 3 seconds after tossed.
[CHAFF GRENADE (CHF GRD)] Electronic disruption grenade. Temporarily disables all electonic machines such as enemy radios, surveillance cameras, motion detectors, and active sonars.
[SMOKE GRENADE (SMK GRD)] Smoke emission grenade. Blocks enemy vision with a wall of smoke, and disables their mobility. If Snake is caught in the smoke he will cough for a while.
[TNT] Switch activated explosive. After set up, press button to detonate. Detonation is only possible when TNT is equipped.
[CLAYMORE] Directional land mine. Will explode if enemies or Snake enter its area. Crawl and approach to recover it.
[DIRECTIONAL MIC (MIC)] Microphone that magnifies sound from far away in front of you. Mandatory first person view when equipped. Can clearly hear the sounds of far away enemies and animals.

Note on Weapons
Depending on the weapon, there are weapon customizations. Bullet feed speed can be changed on machine gun type weapons. Set it to "semi-auto" for one shot per trigger, set it to "3 point burst" for 3 shots per trigger, and set it to "full-auto" for continuous shooting with trigger held down. Select the best setting depending on the situation, how much ammunition you can afford to waste and ammunition availability.
Weapons such as the Mk22 and M16 can be attached with suppressors, and thus can be fired stealthily. However, suppressors have limited durability, so if you fire with it too much it will break, beware.

The Three Radars
Three radars to help you detect enemies you can't see or hear. These sensors use battery when equipped. When not equipped, the batteries will gradually recharge. The speed the batteries recharge is dependent on how much stamina you have. Don't overuse these and waste their batteries.

1964.8.24
The date of the MGS3 Virtuous Mission is the 1 year old birthday of Kojima Hideo. Kojima had intended on using his actual birthdate (1963.8.24), but because he wanted the Kennedy assassination (1963.11.22) to be a factor in the storyline, he decided to postpone the Virtuous Mission by a year.

The Great Escape

With most games of this genre, the mission is completed when the main character gets to the enemy base and successfully blows up the enemy base, and the game ends with the successful mission. That formula feels more like a suicide bomber, because you don't get to go home. In MGS1 the mission takes place in Alaska, and in MGS2 in New York. These are enemies coming into your home and creating chaos. After you successfully defeat them, you are already home. So in MGS3, the setting is reversed, this time it is Snake going into enemy territory, into an enemy country without diplomatic relationship. Even if Snake completes his mission, he is still on Soviet soil. So just sneaking into the enemy's base will not be the end, Snake must come back home. So the thrill of the game is not only to survive sneaking into the enemy's base, but also to survive escaping back out after you successfully carry out the mission. The end of the game is when Snake returns to his normal daily life. Just like when the gamers finish the game and exit the fictional game world, and they return to their normal daily life.

Another Reason Behind the Jungle Setting

Both MGS1 and MGS2 were set inside man-made structures, but because of the technical advancement of the hardware between the PS1 and the PS2, the graphical environment did a leap, so the man-made building environments of the two games are completely different. With MGS2 and MGS3, the hardware platform is the same, so to present once more a completely different environment, the best way would be to drop the game into a completely different setting. Ever since MG2, Kojima had wanted to create a jungle environment for Snake. So now is the opportunity.

Father and Mother

The character setting of The Boss being a mother figure of Snake is the next step of a continuing theme throughout the MGS series, which is the defeating of one's own parent figure. In MGS, it is the defeating of the man who inherited the genes of the player character's father. In MGS2, it is the defeating of the man who raised the main character. In MGS3, it is the mother figure of the main character. "In my past games I've always portrayed father figures, and never mother figures. So this time I wanted to portray a mother figure." - Kojima.

The Boss
The Boss was inspired by the image of English actress Charlotte Rampling.

Cobra Codenames
The names of the Cobra Unit members are all feelings and emotions born out of war. Namely "fear", "sorrow", "pain", "fury". "Emotions very much like the last words 'the horror... the horror...' of Kurtz - Marlon Brando's character, in Francis Ford Coppola's movie "Apocalypse Now". - Kojima.

Snake vs Cobra

This was inspired by a hit 1969 Japanese wrestling anime cartoon called "Tiger Mask" which ran on television for 2 years, featuring voices of real life wrestlers. At the end of this cartoon, the final enemy of main character Tiger Mask was his strongest foe called Tiger The Great. The idea behind Cobra Unit's naming was similar. This time, "Snake's enemy is the Cobra, the strongest foe of the series to date." - Kojima.

Eater of Snake

After MGS, many other stealth-themed games also appeared in the game world. This was represented in MGS2 as the metal gear technology becoming widespread. And the Metal Gear Ray was created to defeat all the other metal gears, symbolizing the MGS series being better and defeating all the other stealth games. This time, MGS3 must be better than previous MGS games and defeat them to become the best in the series. So it's like we must defeat Snake himself. That's why we must eat Snake and become even better than Snake. That's the origin of adopting the name "Snake Eater" as the title. Of course, there's also the origin of the phrase being a Green Beret term referring to army soldiers' uncivilized manners. - Kojima (not direct translation, but rephrased).

Tselinoyarsk
Tselinoyarsk is a fictional name of a fictional location. The name itself was made up of Russian words the production team looked up: - tselina = virgin soil, undeveloped land - yar = cliff - sk = word end

Character Portrait Quotes
Major Zero	This is the last chance. Demonstrate your patriotism!
Paramedic	If you make it back alive I will tell you.
Sigint	I am an extraordinary expert in weapon equipments and the newest technologies.
Sokolov	All I wanted was simply to make a space rocket...
Eva	A good woman comes with secrets.
Ocelot	Ocelots are proud creatures. It never did come in groups.
Volgin	This is war. Understand, this is a spy war named the Cold War.
The Fear	How is it? The horror of poison?
The Sorrow	Death is sorrowful... Being alive is even more sorrowful...
The Pain	Let me show you what real pain is!
The Fury	I'll burn you to death with the flame of fury!
The End	Inexperienced one. You are not yet worthy of the real end.
The Boss	What we are fighting against, are enemies that are ever changing depending on the time and era of the world.
Naked Snake	My name is of no importance. It has no meaning in the battlefield.

Kojima's Thoughts on the Characters
Snake is Force Operation X = FOX. FOX is the mother form of Fox Hound. FOX is a sub-organization belonging to the CIA. The "Virtuous Mission" Snake participated in was FOX's debut mission.
The Boss is around 50 years old. She is the master (teacher) of Snake, and also like his mother, and also his love. However, Snake can never defeat The Boss, She is considered the mother of the special forces, she is extremely strong. Snake will be tossed in an instant.
Ocelot is an interesting guy. He keeps chasing after Snake. Ocelot is an extraordinary elite, he rose to the rank of major at age 19. There is a reason behind this, he has excellent pedigree. He even has his own troops. His first encounter with Snake is the first time he met with defeat. That is why he keeps chasing after Snake, and during the chase, he became attracted to Snake. He followed the advice of Snake, his enemy, and changed his pistol, that's a cute personality.
The End is quite impressive, a sniper who's over 100 years old. Usually he's asleep, going through photosynthesis. Only when fighting does he take in the power of the forest and awakes. It's a sniper battle that will go down in gaming history. A semi-hibernating sniper, that's a strong enemy. Because he can achieve complete camouflage, you can't see him even if you equip the thermal goggles. When you think you see him and shoot, it turns out to be a mushroom (laughs). That is why he's The End. Anyone that comes face to face with The End is destined to get killed, thus meeting their end.

Motion Capture Actors
Yoshida Mizuho as Naked Snake. Yoshida had been Snake ever since MGS2. He was also Gozilla in one of the recent Gozilla movies. "The CQC movements this time took a long time to get used to. Mr Mori disregarded it as acting and always came at me for real, I was stepped on so many times my toes got hurt everywhere that they turned black from inner bleeding. I'm not good at action games, it's a good thing that you can play as a plant collector in this one."
Kanazawa Taro as Ocelot. Regular actor in many of MGS:TTS director Kitamura Ryuuhei's movies, such as "Versus" and "Azumi". Will also appear in Kitamura's newest project "Gozilla Final Wars". "Because players all know Ocelot will not die, it was a little troublesome. Director Kojima warned me saying that don't think just because Ocelot can't die I can do anything I want."
Mark Musashi as Colonel Volgin. Musashi was Liquid Snake in MGS The Twin Snakes. "During audition, the staff described the role as the 'hentai colonel role', so all the other actors kind of backed away from it, except for me who's excited about the role. Maybe that's why I got the part. With motion capture, it is easy to express extreme emotions. Scenes of me getting angry with electricity running through and hitting things and breaking them are a lot of fun."