Unlockables and Camouflage
- Boss camouflage (defeat them with the tranquilizer gun): Ocelot = Animals; Volgin = Cold War; The Fury = Fire; The Pain = Hornet Stripe; The Fear = Spider.
- EZ Gun: capture all the animals and collect all the plants; alternatively start the game on Very Easy.
- Banana Suit: beat the top score in every Snake vs. Monkey mission. Stealth Suit: capture all 64 Kerotan frogs or finish the game without alerts. Tuxedo, Patriot, Extreme mode and Snake vs. Monkey levels 4 and 5: finish the game once.
- Mosin Nagant: defeat The End using only the MK22.
- Title screen: R3 changes the background; L3 the design; L1 or L2 the colors of Snake and the soldier; R1 slows down and R2 speeds up the animation; Triangle turns the background black.
End-of-Game Ranks
The rank depends on alerts, continues and kills. For each difficulty:
- 1-20 alerts: Scorpion (0-40 continues, 1-100 kills); Tarantula (0-40 continues, 101-299 kills); Centipede (41+ continues, 1-100 kills); Spider (41+ continues, 101-299 kills).
- 21-50 alerts: Jaguar (0-40 continues, 1-100); Panther (0-40, 101-299); Leopard (41+, 1-100); Puma (41+, 101-299).
- 51-80 alerts: Jackal (0-40, 1-100); Tasmanian Devil (0-40, 101-299); Mongoose (41+, 1-100); Hyena (41+, 101-299).
- 81-249 alerts: Iguana (0-40, 1-100); Crocodile (0-40, 101-299); Komodo Dragon (41+, 1-100); Alligator (41+, 101-299).
Special ranks: Chameleon (0 alerts, 0 kills, 0 continues, 0 medicine); Kerotan (shoot all 64 Kerotan frogs); Markor (capture every plant and animal); Pigeon (0 kills).
Ranks by difficulty (Very Easy/Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme):
- No alerts: Flying Squirrel (Easy), Bat (Normal), Flying Fox (Hard), Night Owl (Extreme).
- Less than 5 hours of play: Swallow (Easy), Falcon (Normal), Hawk (Hard), Eagle (Extreme).
- More than 30 hours: Koala (Easy), Capybara (Normal), Sloth (Hard), Giant Panda (Extreme).
- More than 100 saves: Cat (Easy), Deer (Normal), Zebra (Hard), Hippopotamus (Extreme).
- More than 300 kills: Piranha (Easy), Shark (Normal), Mammoth (Hard), Whale (Extreme).
- More than 31 foods eaten: Pig (Easy), Elephant (Normal).
- All the negative records (more than 300 alerts and kills, more than 31 foods, more than 30 hours, more than 60 continues, more than 100 saves): Chicken (Easy), Mouse (Normal), Rabbit (Hard), Ostrich (Extreme).
- Perfect runs (no special items, 0 alerts, 0 kills, 0 medicine, less than 5 hours, 0 continues, few saves): Hound (Easy and Normal), Doberman (Normal), Fox (Hard), Foxhound (Extreme). Hound and Doberman on Hard/Extreme tolerate 1-2 alerts and fewer than 3 medicines.
Secrets and Tricks
- Bats in the cave: if you run in the cave they attack you; send a sound pulse with the sonar and they mistake you for one of them.
- Turning off the alarm: capture a guard and interrogate him: you get a radio frequency (it changes every time) to end the alert.
- The End's parrot: after the opening cutscene look for it with the thermal goggles on a branch: kill it or capture it (and call Para-Medic to talk about it); either way it appears as a ghost in the fight against The Sorrow.
- Avoiding the fight with The End: after starting the fight, save, turn off the console and on restart set the clock a week later: you receive a call announcing his death. Or, after the mines and the rivers with the hovercrafts, as soon as the cutscene in the new area ends use the SVD to shoot the guard in the head and then The End in the wheelchair: he whispers something and explodes.
- No damage during the torture: hold L2 throughout the sequence. Snake's nightmare: after the capture at Groznyj Grad save and reload: a minigame opens that is only accessible this way.
- Extra cutscene in prison: instead of eating the food, throw it out through the bars toward the card; repeat 3 times for a secret cutscene. Mill cutscene: after the escape do not use Cure to remove the transmitter: if Snake still has it when he meets Eva, you see the cutscene in which she removes it.
- Codec: call the characters many times to make photos appear on their pages; call Eva repeatedly in the cave mission between the two mills to find out about Ocelot's past.
- Duel with Ocelot: put down your gun and step out into the open: you can challenge him to a fast-draw duel (first-person view): draw and fire only at the right moment. If you do not shoot at all, Ocelot wonders why. With the Single Action Army spin the gun with R3: Ocelot responds with a performance and praises or criticizes you.
- Ricochet shot: the bullets of the Colt Single Action Army bounce off rocks, metal and walls: useful for hitting enemies around corners.
- Bees: with the Hornet medal (from The Pain) you can tame the bees: hit a hive and they buzz around you; approaching an enemy tortures him. Three little snakes: in the final fight with The Boss look with the Thermal Goggles for three snakes in the grass (Liquid, Solid and Solidus Snake): they have strong healing power.
- Camera in cutscenes: Triangle adjusts the zoom, the left analog stick rotates the camera. R1 cutscenes: hold R1 in some scenes (after Snake's treatment at the Virtuous Mission, during the spying on Volgin, after The Shagohod, in the horse scene after The Boss, with the President, at the cemetery) to look around and see The Sorrow, The Boss, Ocelot and more.
Easter Eggs
- Ghosts: in The Sorrow's mission photograph all the bosses to see the members of the MGS3 team as ghosts. Kojima references: in Granin's office there are models of Metal Gear Rex, Metal Gear Ray and Jehuty.
- Granin: after talking to him, stand next to the door to hear him talk. Snake and Eva vomiting: in the Survival Viewer press R1 and make Snake turn with the analog stick; during the escort repeat with Eva (repeating it gives her cramps).
- Time paradox: kill Ocelot after the first encounter: Game Over with "Ocelot is dead" and Campbell scolds you; on every Game Over the message may become "Time Paradox". Naked Raiden: shoot Raikov and during the fight with The Sorrow a naked man runs along the river.
- Introduction: R1 speeds it up, R2 slows it down. First game: the choice between "this is my first MGS", "I like MGS1" and "I like MGS2" changes the introduction (Snake without a beard in the second case, a special cutscene in the third). After the first time you finish the game, Snake has an eye patch in the title screen cutscene.
