A quarter of a century after Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty first came out, speedrunners have now discovered a way to skip one of the title’s boss encounters. As caught by speedrunner Apel, the boss in question is the one against Olga Gurlukovich in the Tanker chapter of the game, which also serves as the only boss encounter until players reach the Plant chapter.
Olga was seen as a necessary boss fight that couldn’t be avoided since defeating her is how Snake gets his hands on the USP pistol, which is necessary to destroy the sensors that would trigger an explosion in another part of the ship. The tranquilizer pistol itself, while far more effective when it comes to dealing with enemies, can’t destroy these sensors, and as a result, players can’t avoid the fight against Olga.
In a video showcasing the skip, Apel takes us through the early parts of the Tanker chapter, swiftly making their way to the ship’s bridge where the encounter takes place. Along the way, Apel picks up all the extras they might need, like ammo, while also taking out a few troublesome guards with their tranquilizer pistol. When it’s time to actually deal with the sensors, rather than getting their hands on the USP pistol, Apel instead lures a guard to the sensors to trigger an explosion.
How the skip works is a bit more complicated when taking behind-the-scenes details into account. Like many games, Metal Gear Solid 2 also has progression flags that are triggered in its memory state to track player progress. While players will still get a game over screen even if Snake isn’t directly the one to trigger the explosion, the speedrunner can avoid this by rolling into a checkpoint while the bomb is being triggered. This means that the “game saves the value of the flag after the explosions happen”, which means that the encounter with Olga can be completely skipped.
Along with being a major step forward for the speedrunning community for Metal Gear Solid 2 in general, this is also the only boss skip to have been discovered in the game so far. Despite players having discovered many tricks over the years that might allow them to speed through various areas of the title, the boss fights have always been considered mandatory. This new skip will likely lead to plenty of speedrunners figuring out new, quicker routes through the game. As a result, there will also likely be a plethora of new world records set in the coming days.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was originally released on the PS2 back in 2001. The title eventually made its way to more platforms – the PS3 and Xbox 360 – thanks to its HD Edition re-release alongside Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. When it comes to modern gaming hardware, players can get their hands on the title by picking up Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1, which was released on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch back in 2023. Check out our review for more details.
