One of the most insidious and dangerous bosses in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was the legendary sniper End. Fighting him is a real test of endurance, requiring patience, the use of various tools and resourcefulness in situations that are extremely rare in the modern gaming industry (video games).

This encounter remains roughly the same in the Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remake . Additionally, there are two unique ways to skip the boss fight. In this guide, we’ll tell you how to avoid the fight with End, and what you stand to lose if you decide to do so.

Option 1 – Kill End’s sniper before the final confrontation

The fight with End takes place in a multi-level region called “The Innermost”, shortly after defeating another boss, Fir. But End can actually be killed before you even get to that region and fight him.

After you get out of the cave by defeating another boss, Payne, you’ll find yourself in the Lowcountry: South location – a long, narrow river that you’ll need to wade through. Make sure you have a full stamina bar, then dive underwater and quickly swim across the river to avoid the spotlights and guards illuminating the water.

Just before exiting this area, turn left to enter the additional area “Ponizovye: West”. There are many useful items to collect here, but the most important one is the Dragunov SVD sniper rifle, which you will find in the building on the right side. It is guarded by a soldier with an 8mm film. It is not easy to get the item, as you need to perform a proper grapple or aim the weapon at the enemy.

• If you don’t need the coil, quickly knock out the two guards in the nearby area with darts or gunshots and enter the building to pick up the sniper rifle and the items scattered nearby.
• If you want to get the film for the Secret Theater, save your game before proceeding so that you can load your last save if necessary.

Return to “Lowlands: South” and go through the northern exit on the left side. You will get to the area with the pier, where a cutscene will start: End will appear in a wheelchair. As soon as the cutscene ends, take a sniper rifle and kill End. As a result, you will completely avoid the fight against the boss, and also get a separate achievement “Early Ending”. Thus, instead of the boss fight in “Sekretno” against End, you will face 8 Ocelot fighters. Moreover, you can either eliminate them or sneak past without raising an alarm.

Option 2 – “Cheat” with game time

Another method is available after you’ve reached the actual boss fight. After the cutscene, save your game. The paramedic will warn you that you need to return quickly, and this is a really important hint. Close the game and manually change the system clock. We tested this on PS5 , but we assume it will work similarly on other platforms.

If you move the clock forward a week and then load the save, you’ll see a cutscene where a revived Snake is shot, and End sends him to prison in the lab you visited earlier. If you move the clock forward two weeks (I added an extra day to be safe), you’ll see a different cutscene where End dies of old age, and Snake laments that he never got to fight End in the final battle.

Fast forwarding one week and then two weeks worked for me, but the accuracy of this time frame may vary. Basically, if you see the prison cutscene, just keep rewinding your system time until you see End’s death when loading Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.

What will you lose if you kill Enda early?

Skipping this fight means you’re missing out on one of the best loadouts in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Add to that the fact that the boss fight itself looks awesome. If you keep End in your sights, he’ll eventually drop his Moss Camo uniform. This is one of the best camos in the game. It’s slightly better than the Jungle Leaf Camo , and it also has photosynthetic properties that allow it to restore Snake’s stamina when exposed to sunlight.

Since you get this camo by locking on to the boss rather than non-lethally taking him out like other Cobra agents, your reward for non-lethally capturing him is his tranquilizer sniper rifle, which can be picked up after the final cutscene (look just to the left and below).