Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Achievement Guide & Road Map

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Achievement Guide

Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10
- Offline: 40 [970]
- Online: 2 [30] ("Intruder" and "Deterrence")
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 130-190 Hours
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 1
- Missable achievements: None
- Does difficulty affect achievements: N/A
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements: N/A
- Extra equipment needed: N/A

Useful Links:

Introduction:
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain picks up nine long years after the events of Ground Zeroes. Upon waking up from a nine-year coma, Snake is thrown back into the fray almost immediately as the hospital he awakes within is attacked by militant soldiers and other deadly forces. As Ishmael, Snake’s shady, face-bandaged escort puts it while leading you out of the building, “Good news is you're in the land of the living. The bad news is the whole world wants you dead.” And with that, begins Snake’s persistent mission to reunite with Miller, rebuild their nation, and seek revenge on the man that started this war, Skull Face. Similar to Ground Zeroes, The Phantom Pain contains a balanced blend of stealth and action gameplay within an open-world environment. There are 42 achievements to be earned, spanning 50 main missions and 157 Side Ops, and a whole slew of other key features such as rebuilding your very own Mother Base from the bottom up. The achievement list will ask you earn S-Ranks on all the main missions, complete every mission’s optional objective, establish bonds with three companions and more. Offering up to, if not more than 140 hours of content, there’s plenty to enjoy for hardcore Metal Gear fans and achievement completionists alike.

Story Playthrough + Side Ops:
Upon booting up the game, you will undergo an almost hour-long, unparalleled experience that is the game’s bombastic prologue. With the help of Ishmael, you’ll get adjusted with the control scheme of basic maneuverability and combat. Completing this Prologue will in turn unlock "Awakening" and then thrust you into the next main mission, "Phantom Limbs," which unlocks its own achievement upon completion. It is after this mission that the player will begin to build the foundation of their Mother Base and unlock more missions at a steady pace. LikeGround Zeroes, your time in between missions will take place within the Ariel Command Center, otherwise known as the ACC. Here, you can sort through your mission list and choose which you would like to undertake. There are 8 more story-related achievements tied to completing specific missions, one overarching achievement for completing all 50 missions in the game, and another three achievements dedicated to completing all of the Side Ops, smaller missions that will unlock in batches after a main mission has been completed. During the early hours of your playthrough, make sure to recruit D-Dog and Quiet once you make contact with them, as doing so will unlock "Cry Havoc" and "Speechless" respectively. Finally, it's recommended to always bring a buddy along on a mission, no matter how unimportant or short. Utilizing their unique skill sets will increase your in-game “bond level” with each. As such, you can expect there to be three achievements tied to reaching maximum bond levels with D-Dog, D-Horse, and Quiet.

Milestone-Based Tasks:
Though most, not all of the work done in this section of the roadmap will be earned naturally over the course of your playthrough, it is best broken down into its own category for clarity purposes. In total, there are 12 achievements that are based on milestone accomplishments. The easiest to discuss are "Accomplished" and "Deployment," which ask you to earn an S-Rank in all 50 main missions and complete all Key Dispatch Missions; unique off-screen missions reserved for your Combat Units. One of the more difficult milestone-based achievements, "Executed," asks players to complete every single mission task in the game; small, optional objectives present within each of the game’s main missions. There are well over 200 of these mission tasks, so it’s not something to think lightly about.

There are also two achievements tied to increasing the number of staff within Mother Base: "Platoon" and "Battalion." As your Units increase in size, as will their levels. There is then "Army," which unlocks after raising all seven units to level 50 at the same time. Continuing on with Mother Base related tasks, "Enhanced," "Reinforcement," and "Locked and Loaded" can be earned by developing 300 or more items and weapons throughout the Mother Base menu in your iDroid. Finally, there remains three achievements that take some time to earn: "Architect," "Prosperity," and "Hero." The first of these is earned for building all four platforms for each unit of Mother Base, a task that involves plenty of in-game resources (fuel, metal, etc.) and GMP (Gross Military Product). The second of these achievements will unlock once you have amassed a cumulative total of 10 million GMP. Lastly, the third is obtained once you have amassed 150,000 points of Heroism by completing missions, earning S-Ranks, extracting animals, and other heroic deeds.

Collectibles:
Within the game, there are three – technically four – unique sets of “collectibles.” The first comes in the form of 47 wild animals that can be found throughout Afghanistan and Africa. Once you’ve obtained them all, you will unlock the "Conservation" achievement. Beyond this, there are also a number of blueprint and key item collectibles that are needed for the "Collector" achievement. Most of these will come naturally as you play the game and complete main missions and Side Ops, but a few will require some open world exploration. Finally, "Reminiscence" is earned for completing Side Ops #51-#60, and then visiting a secret room on Mother Base’s medical platform to retrieve a unique photograph. All of these collectible-related achievements can be tackled at any point during your playthrough and are not missable.

Miscellaneous Tasks:
What remains at this point is not directly tied to specific missions, milestones, or collectibles. For example, once you have access to your Combat Unit at Mother Base, you can select to play missions as soldiers other than Snake and unlock "Apprentice" in the process. Following this, "Captured" can be achieved at any time during your playthrough by neutralizing all of the enemy forces within a single guard post or outpost. There are also achievements tied to interrogating an enemy, Fulton extracting your very first enemy, and rescuing a female prisoner during a mission. Unfortunately, there are two achievements that will require an online connection; "Intruder," which is earned for taking part in an FOB infiltration mission and "Deterrence" for building a nuke late-game after Mission 31. "Disarmament" can be earned for breaking down the nuke once its development is complete, but will not require an online connection.

Conclusion:
It goes without saying that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is an extraordinarily well-made game. From the moment Snake wakes up at the hospital in Cyprus, the action unfolds alongside fluid and polished gameplay mechanics in ways that will rarely cause the player to part from the game's missions and overarching, wild narrative. Achievement-wise, you’ll be spending more than one hundred hours to see everything done. Though along the way you will create unique on-mission experiences for yourself, undoubtedly develop a complex relationship with the game's most interesting character, and learn a deep-rooted, hidden truth behind everything you were made to believe. The Phantom Pain is through and through an experience worth investing your time and patience.

[XBA would like to thank BiggD for this Roadmap]

Awakening

15
Complete "PROLOGUE: AWAKENING" mission.
(1)
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Phantom Limb

15
Complete "PHANTOM LIMB" mission.
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Beekeeper

15
Complete "WHERE DO THE BEES SLEEP?" mission.
(1)
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Gears Turn

15
Complete "HELLBOUND" mission.
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Caravan

15
Complete "TRAITORS' CARAVAN" mission.
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Voices

15
Complete "VOICES" mission.
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Immortal

15
Complete "METALLIC ARCHAEA" mission.
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Skull

30
Complete "SAHELANTHROPUS" mission.
Story-related, cannot be missed.
Disappearance

30
Complete "CLOAKED IN SILENCE" mission.
(3)
Story-related, cannot be missed.

Unlike the previous story-related achievements, “A Quiet Exit” has a few prerequisites that must be met before it is unlocked and ready to play. Refer below for a list of the pre-reqs.
- Spare Quiet’s life at the end of Mission 11, "Cloaked in Silence."
- Achieve a maximum bond level with Quiet.
- Experience Huey’s exile at Mother Base.
- Do not equip the Butterfly emblem.
Once these pre-reqs have been met, you will trigger Side Ops #150. Select this Op and carry through with the objective that asks you to recover an intel file at a Soviet guard post. When you read the file, mission 45, "A Quiet Exit" will automatically begin.

NECESSARY SPOILER: The simple act of triggering Side Op #150 will permanently lock Quiet out for buddy-use on missions/replays, as will completing Mission 45, "A Quiet Exit." You can delay this as long as possible by equipping the Butterfly emblem and only taking it off once you are ready to bid farewell to Quiet. Unlocking this emblem is as easy as completing any one main mission where Quiet achieves more kills/neutralizations than you. This will in turn unlock the Butterfly codename and the emblem as well.
Truth

30
Complete "TRUTH: THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD" mission.
(1)
Story-related, cannot be missed.

Similar to the achievement above, “TRUTH: The Man Who Sold The World” has several prerequisites that must be met before it is unlocked and ready to experience. Be sure to check them out below.
- Complete all significant Side Ops (designated by yellow text).
- Complete all "normal" main missions (Extreme, Total Stealth, & Subsistence variants do not count).
  - Mission 45, "A Quiet Exit," does not count either.
- Listen to all the significant Cassette Tapes (designated by yellow text).
Once all of these pre-requisites have been met, mission 46, "TRUTH: The Man Who Sold The World," will be available in the iDroid’s mission selection list.
Apprentice

15
Complete a mission using a Combat Unit staff member.
(2)
Once you have built a combat unit platform on Mother Base and have access to your combat units in the character sSelection screen during a pre-mission sortie prep, choose any solider other than Snake you’d like to play as and proceed to complete a main mission with them. It’s important to note that side ops will not count for this achievement.

You may want to choose a relatively short mission when going for this achievement, such as mission 4, "C2W," or mission 9, "Backup, Back Down." Whatever you decide to choose here, the achievement will unlock once the mission has been successfully completed.
Accomplished

30
Complete all missions.
There are a total of 50 main missions in the game that must be completed for this achievement. Exactly 38 of these are “normal” missions and the remaining 12 are “Hard Difficulty” missions, such as those marked with the [EXTREME], [TOTAL STEALTH], or [SUBSISTENCE] taglines.

Please be aware that mission 45, "A Quiet Exit," and mission 46, "TRUTH: The Man Who Sold The World," have unique pre-requisites that must be completed before they appear on the iDroid’s mission selection list. If there are questions in how to unlock these two missions, refer above to their respective achievement solutions. Once all 50 missions have been completed, this achievement will finally be yours.
Executed

30
Complete all mission tasks.
(2)
Every main mission within the game has anywhere from 2-9 mission tasks. These tasks are essentially small objectives that are sometimes mandatory to complete, though more often completely optional. Mission tasks can range from completing your main objective (mandatory), to extracting your target rather than eliminating them, listening in to all the conversations a certain NPC enemy may have with your target, rescuing prisoners or extracting wild animals found in the mission’s playable zone, and so on.

In total, there are well over two hundred mission tasks to complete for this achievement. Though that number may seem daunting, you will definitely unlock just about half of them through natural play as you explore enemy outposts during missions and traverse the entirety of the mission’s playable zone. There’s one small catch to missions tasks. When you are playing a mission for the first time, all of the optional tasks will be unmarked on your mission log, so you won’t necessarily know what they are. It is not until you complete that mission and go back to your iDroid’s mission selection list that you will then see an updated list for all of the tasks of that particular mission.

At any rate, this means you can replay missions at any time to finish off any tasks you may be missing. The best part about this is that you won’t even need to complete the mission in full for the task to count as being “completed.” That’s right, when replaying missions, you can complete a task and then pause your game and click “Abort Mission.” This will send you back to the ACC but the tasks you just worked on will be marked as having been completed.

This is a very taxing achievement and will most likely require you to revisit missions countless times, so do not hesitate in using THIS GUIDE as your ultimate resource for mission tasks completion.
Elite

100
Complete all missions with an S rank.
(8)
After you have successfully finished a mission within the game, you will be presented with a stats board which awards you with points based off your play style - rescues performed, enemies killed, alerts raised, retries used - and the amount of time it took to complete the mission. For every main mission in the game, barring missions 2, 22, and 43, the S-Rank score requirement sits at 130,000.

For this achievement, you will need to earn an S-Rank in each mission at least once. In order to do this, you will need to play smart; always take into consideration your surroundings, your weapon choice, your CQC approach, etc. While all of this is undoubtedly vital, it’s also important to know that S-Ranks in this game, unlike Ground Zeroes, are usually dependent on speed alone. Despite this, it’s not advisable to attempt S-Rank tactics until you have better gear and can return to a mission later in your playthrough. If you do earn S-Ranks along the way, that’s great. But don’t feel as though you need to get an S-Rank on your first playthrough of every mission. With that in mind, here a few more tips to consider, courtesy of PowerPyx.
- Speed & Stealth
  - Completing the missions as quickly as possible, without ever being seen or raining an alarm will net the highest score possible.
- Skip Mission Tasks
  - Skip the optional bonus objectives, as they take too long and will complicate things.
- Stick to the Basics
  - Equipping the Parasite-Suit, Chicken-Hat, Infinity Bandana, or using Stealth Camo, D-Walker's Fulton Extraction Cannon, or calling in Air Strikes and/or Helicopter Support will all limit you to an A-Rank at most.
- Destroy Outpost Radars
  - On your first playthrough of each mission, you should always make it a point to take out radar stations as doing so will allow you to use that base as a drop-zone or evac point when repaying the mission at a later time.
For an in-depth video guide that provides no commentary, and some of the most effective strategies that exist for each mission, head over to THIS LINK for PowerPyx's S-Rank playlist.
Undertaken

15
Complete a SIDE OP.
Refer below to "Achieved" for more information.
Cleared

15
Complete all "Mine Clearing" SIDE OPS.
In total, there are 10 mine clearing side ops to complete for this achievement. They will unlock slowly, one by one and sometimes even in pairs as you progress through the game’s main missions. They involve searching a hot-zone for land mines, and then either disarming them manually or destroying the mines with a few well-placed shots of your lethal weapons.

It’s recommended to bring D-Dog with you on these side ops as he will be able to spot and mark (on your iDroid’s map) land mines up to 90 meters away. Also, the helicopter’s landing zones are usually pretty far away from the actual Mine Clearing area, so once you’ve completed the side op, simply pause your game and click “Return to ACC” to avoid having to call in the helicopter and run back to the evac point. Once all ten mine clearing side ops have been completed, this achievement will unlock.
Achieved

30
Complete all SIDE OPS.
There are a total of 157 side ops within the game that must be completed for this achievement. These side ops range from rescuing prisoners and extracting highly skilled soldiers, to eliminating armored vehicles or tank units and extracting wandering Mother Base soldiers. There are even a few story-related/significant Side Ops unique to the main narrative, such as making contact with Huey, taking part in Eli’s combat challenge, finding the whereabouts of Quiet once she goes missing, and engaging in combat training at Mother Base.

Apart from the very few unique side ops, these missions will begin to feel very repetitive in nature since there are usually ten to fifteen of each category. Fortunately, they’re relatively short and act as nice fillers for GMP and Mother Base unit boosts. And as previously mentioned, you can cut down on the time it takes to extract via chopper after a side op is complete by pausing your game and selecting “Return to ACC” without losing your progress.

These side ops do not have ranks like the main missions and can be tackled however quickly or methodically as you wish. Once all 157 side ops have been completed, the achievement will unlock.
Captured

15
Capture an outpost or guard post.
(1)
This achievement simply tasks you with neutralizing the entire enemy threat guarding a roadside checkpoint (guard post) or massive enemy encampment (outpost). This can be done as early as mission 1, "Phantom Limbs," using lethal or non-lethal means to clear out the guard posts on route to your objective(s). If you don’t snag the achievement here, there will be numerous opportunities to get this during various other missions and in free-roam as well.
Deployment

30
Complete all key Dispatch Missions.
Key Dispatch Missions, designated at the top of the combat deployment mission selection screen with yellow dots/text, act as off-screen missions that your combat units will engage in once you’ve given them the go-to order. These missions net grand rewards to your Mother Base, though the risk involved is usually very high. Several of these key dispatch missions will require a fine amount of A, A+, A++, and higher-ranking soldiers in order to achieve success. At times, you will also need certain vehicles before the mission can commence, such as trucks, Walker Gear, or Huey’s Diamond Dogs Battle Gear.

Once you start to get towards the final few of these missions, the success rate will drop to around 50-60% and the missions themselves will last around two and half hours. Due to this high risk, it may take multiple attempts and several lost combat units before you finally complete the mission and unlock the next one. While the number of key dispatch missions is uncertain as of now, completing the final mission, Coup d’etat, will unlock this achievement.
Intruder

15
Play an "Infiltration" FOB mission.
“Infiltration” FOB missions take place when you invade another player’s forward operating base. These missions can be commenced through the iDroid’s FOB Mission selection screen. They will only become available once you have completed mission 22, "Retake the Platform" (which acts a tutorial for FOB missions).

Once you’ve completed this mission and can access the FOB mission selection screen, simply choose a player’s base to invade and the achievement will unlock after the sortie prep screen. This means that you don’t actually have to complete the mission at all. Keep in mind though, you will definitely need an online connection to earn this achievement.
Cry Havoc

15
Make D-Dog available for deployment.
(3)
Unlike D-Horse, you will not have access to D-Dog as a buddy right away. Instead, you will need to find and extract the pup in Afghanistan during your travels. Alternatively, he can always be found at the start of mission 4 near the landing zone when you exit the helicopter. If for some reason you miss extracting the dog during this moment, you can replay mission 4 at any time.

Once D-Dog has been extracted, return to Mother Base after a few main missions and you will trigger a cutscene with the dog, still much too young to join you on missions. After this cutscene, proceed to complete missions 7, 8, 9, 10, and two other missions of your choosing before returning to Mother Base once more. Now you will trigger a cutscene of a fully-grown D-Dog able to climb aboard the chopper, ready for combat. The achievement will unlock during the aforementioned cutscene.
Speechless

15
Make Quiet available for deployment.
(3)
Similar to D-Dog, you will not have access to Quiet as a buddy right away. Instead, you will need to complete Mission 11, "Cloaked in Silence," and choose NOT to kill Quiet during the cutscene where Snake has the handgun pointed at her head. If you do decide to kill her, replay the mission right away.

Later on in your playthrough, after mission 14, you’ll unlock Side Op #111, "Visit Quiet." Head over the Medical platform on Motherbase, down the stairs in front of you when you exit the helicopter, and you’ll see Quiet in her cell. Ocelot will speak for quite some time about her and then you’re free to call in your helicopter and return to the ACC. As you board the helicopter, you’ll trigger a cutscene and the achievement will unlock.
Trusty Steed

15
Raise bond with D-Horse to the maximum.
You will gain access to D-Horse as a buddy at the start of mission 1, "Phantom Limbs." By extension, out of all three buddies available in the game, D-Horse will most likely be the first in which you raise a maximum bond with. She is essentially a transport buddy, allowing you to traverse the terrain quickly.

Refer below to "War Buddy" for more information regarding buddy bonds within the game.
Man's Best Friend

15
Raise bond with D-Dog to the maximum.
You will gain access to D-Dog sometime after mission 10, though the canine must first be found and extracted back to Mother Base during mission 4. You will find him near the landing zone of this mission, and Ocelot will comment on the canine once you get close enough to hear his barking. D-Dog acts as an all-in-one tactical buddy: marking enemies, prisoners, and medicinal plants on your map and HUD from 90 meters away.

Refer below to "War Buddy" for more information regarding buddy bonds within the game.
War Buddy

15
Raise bond with Quiet to the maximum.
You will gain access to Quiet as a buddy after choosing to spare her life at the end of mission 11, "Cloaked in Silence." Then, she will be deployable a short time after Mission 14. Quiet acts as one of the most versatile buddies in the game, supplying you with ammo drops and providing cover fire from tactical sniping points.

In order to increase bonds with your buddies to the maximum level, you will need to use them constantly during main missions and side ops. After a main mission, you will notice on the bottom left-hand side of the post-mission stat screen your buddy’s progress bars, indicated by ten Diamond Dog logos. As you increase your bonds with each buddy, you will unlock special commands for them that will further improve their usefulness out on the field. For example, D-Horse can defecate on command as a means of applying a “booby trap” on roads for patrolling vehicles, D-Dog can kill, stun, or wound enemies nearby on command, and Quiet can be told to fire at will and essentially clear out an entire enemy encampment on her own without you ever being spotted.

Take note of two specifics concerning this achievement. First, if your buddies get injured out on the field by the enemy or by your own actions, your bond level will slightly decrease. Secondly, if you notice their progress bar in the pre-mission sortie prep screen is at 10/10 but you have not unlocked their achievement, you will need to deploy in free-roam with them, then extract via chopper as you probably previously choose the option to “Return to ACC” which doesn’t register their bond level properly.

Remember; simply keep using your buddies during missions and their bond will slowly increase over time. Once a buddy’s bond is maxed out at 10/10, their achievement will unlock.
Extraction

15
Fulton extract an enemy soldier.
During your first arrival at Mother Base, Ocelot will introduce the Fulton Recovery System and explain how it can be used out on the field to extract enemy soldiers and bring them back to Base in order to work for Diamond Dogs. After this cutscene, you will now have a supply of Fultons at disposal in your loadout and can begin extracting soldiers in mission 3 and onwards.

When attempting to extract an enemy, there will be a success rate percentage over the button prompt of their body. The higher the percentage, the more likely the Fulton extraction is bound to be a success. Always keep in mind that Fulton extractions do not work indoors, and during severe weather, such as sandstorms and rainstorm, the success rate will be rather low until you upgrade your Fulton to have greater durability. With this in mind, get ready to start extracting soldier galore throughout your playthrough. The first of these victims will unlock the achievement.
Interrogation

15
Interrogate an enemy soldier.
This achievement can only be done once you have successfully completed the side op for extracting the Russian interpreter. After you have this interpreter in your ranks, you can begin interrogating the Soviets stationed around Afghanistan, gaining intel on key items in the vicinity or the locations of their fellow soldiers.

In order to interrogate an enemy, you will need to quietly sneak up behind them and then hold the right trigger to grab them. Now hold the left bumper and on the left side of the command wheel, you can demand they "spit it out" (for key info) or "where are the rest" (for marking enemy soldiers nearby). Choosing either of these options will unlock the achievement.
To The Rescue

15
Extract a female prisoner.
(1)
During main missions, there will often time be prisoners that can be extracted for their specialized skill sets. Likewise, there are several side ops for rescuing prisoners that have been taken hostage by the enemy forces in the region. Whether you’re tackling a main mission or side op, their location can be revealed by interrogating enemy soldiers or having DD alongside with you as a buddy.

For reference, side op #28 has a female prisoner located inside the main building's second story room. Simply pick her up, lay her down outside on the walkway, and tie a Fulton to her, thus unlocking the achievement. Make sure the enemies in the outpost have either been dealt with or are not paying attention, otherwise they might shoot the balloon and the hostage!
Platoon

15
Increase Mother Base staff to 50 or more personnel.
Refer below to "Battalion" for more information.
Battalion

15
Increase Mother Base staff to 250 or more personnel.
Once you make it to Mother Base and receive the Fulton Recovery System from Ocelot after mission 2, you can begin extracting enemies out on the field. When extracted, they will return to Mother Base and begin working for Diamond Dogs under Snake and Miller, thus increasing the number of staff you possess. Depending on their skills, they will be auto-assigned to a Team/Unit, such as Combat or R&D.

This achievement will come naturally over the course of your playthrough so don’t worry about grinding it out. Simply work on your missions and side ops as you normally would, and extract any enemies that you’ve rendered unconscious via CQC means and/or tranquilizer weaponry. Before you know it, this achievement will unlock before you’ve even progressed that far into the game.
Army

35
Raise all Teams/Units to level 99.
(4)
This achievement requires you to have all seven Teams/Units at Level 50 or higher at the same time. As you extract enemy soldiers during your playthrough, they will slowly raise the level of the unit they are best suited for depending on their skill level in that specific Team/Unit. This is how the game’s Mother Base Auto-Assign feature works behind the scenes. For example, when you are out in Afghan or Africa scanning an enemy guard post or outpost, you will notice that each enemy has “vitals” on the right side of the screen. On this mini-stat board, they will have a grade between E and S++ for each skill, with E being the lowest and most common grade level for early-game soldiers, and S++ being the highest and most rare grade level for late-game soldiers. If you extract an enemy that has a C-ranking in Combat, an A-ranking in R&D, and a B-ranking in everything else, the game will auto-assign them to the R&D Unit. If the R&D Team was already full before that soldier was assigned, the game will get rid of the lowest ranking member on that Team to make room for the new candidate. If the extracted soldier were to have a B-ranking for all their stats, the game will assign them wherever there is room.

The seven units for this achievement are as follows:
- Combat
- Security
- R&D
- Base Development
- Support
- Intel
- Medical
When working on this achievement, it would be best to prioritize the development of your Command platforms at Mother Base (build all four before building anything else), as this will raise the maximum capacity of soldiers for each Team/Unit, thus allowing you to have more soldiers and by extension, increase the level of that platform quicker.

On top of this, you will want to constantly scan and extract the best soldiers you can find during your playthrough. The iScope used for scanning soldiers will usually reveal low stats, such as E, D, or C-ranking soldiers, but don’t fret; in the early stages of this game, that’s what’s going to happen. Extract these enemies anyways and as you progress through the game, soldiers will begin to have higher stats.

All in all, this achievement is going to take a long time to unlock. Work on extracting as many enemies as possible from the beginning of your playthrough and all the way through the game’s final missions. Truth be told, you may even have to grind out certain missions late-game, such as Missions 29 or 30, to find A++ and S-ranking soldiers for your Teams/Units.

Keep in mind that the Security Team is the last team you will unlock, so it will be tremendously behind in terms of its level compared to the other six teams. In addition to this, it does not have its own platform. Instead, any “leftover” soldiers - that are not of priority rank - that cannot fit on your Combat Unit will be assigned to the Security Team. This means your Security Team will start off with E, D, and C-ranking members. In order to raise your Security Team then, you should manually transfer soldiers with a high Combat skill grade to the Security Unit, which will then raise the level of your Security Team but slightly lower the level of your Combat Team.

In order to counter this, I found the following to be an excellent method late-game: Once your Combat Team has reached Level 50+, let’s say Level 52, begin making room on your Security Team by dismissing the lower ranking soldiers, and then transferring a few A and A+ soldiers from the Combat Team to the Security Team until the Combat Unit is at Level 50. Likewise, if any of your other Teams are above Level 50 and have soldiers that have A or A+, or even A++ rankings in Combat, begin to transfer them out until that team is lowered to Level 50. What you’ll be doing here is deliberately lowering all your Units to a bare minimum of Level 50, while slowly and steadily raising the Level of your Security Team to catch up.

Though a confusing method to explain through text any further, players will undoubtedly figure this out for themselves as they grind out the extraction of soldiers late-game and work with self-managing their seven teams so that they are all Level 50 or higher at the same time. Once that has been achieved, the achievement will unlock.
Enhancement

15
Develop 50 or more development items.
Refer below to "Locked and Loaded" for more information.
Reinforcement

30
Develop 100 or more development items.
Refer below to "Locked and Loaded" for more information.
Locked and Loaded

100
Develop 300 or more development items.
Over the course of your playthrough, you will naturally be developing weapons and equipment through Mother Base’s “Development” tab in your iDroid. Here, you can begin development on a number of upgraded weapons, equipment tools, suits and camos, helicopter customizations, and buddy equipment as well. The catch for this achievement is that you will need tremendous amount of GMP to develop 300 or more items. That, coupled with the fact that most items are locked until your Teams/Units reach a certain level, make this yet another achievement that will be quite the time-sink.

Generally, there is no suggested path in what items to develop over others. Rather than look at this achievement in that light, you’ll simply want to continue developing items as you unlock them; even if that means you’re developing weapons and equipment that you may not necessarily want to use at any point during your playthrough. On top of this, GMP might be an issue while working on this achievement; though between replaying missions for S-Ranks and mission tasks, selling unneeded resources such as trucks, tanks, and armored vehicles, and completing Dispatch Missions, GMP should never actually be a true problem. If it is for any reason, replaying the “hard difficulty” missions such as "[EXTREME] Traitor’s Caravan" and "[EXTREME] Metallic Archaea," both of which are pretty easy and quick following the S-Rank videos provided in this guide, can net a nice amount of GMP each time you complete the missions.

If you are in need of a specific amount of resources to further develop items that require fuel, common metal, or precious metals, refer to the link in the achievement solution below for an excellent post explaining where and how to farm unprocessed materials.
Architect

30
Construct all available platforms for Mother Base.
(1)
This achievement is obtained for constructing all four platforms for each of the seven available platforms for Mother Base: Command, Combat, Base Development, R&D, Support, Intel, & Medical. The game will inform you early on how these decks can be built using the processed materials you find throughout Afghanistan and Africa. As for the unprocessed material containers you extract out on the field, these will slowly process into usable resources over time. The higher your base development team and the more unprocessed materials you have, the faster these unprocessed materials will be made available for use.

This achievement will take a while to obtain if you are not prioritizing your fuel and common metal resources on platform development. This is because by the time you are ready to build the fourth platform of each Unit, you will need 48,000 processed fuel resources. With that in mind, hold off on developing any items and weapons that utilize a lot of fuel or common metal. Even better, make sure you are collecting the small boxes of processed materials during your missions because every little bit will help.

Overall, this is probably the second most time-consuming achievement behind "Army," but with enough persistence it can be done without much stress. For a good in-depth guide that explains where to farm unprocessed resources, please refer to THIS LINK. Then, make sure to refer to the bottom of that guide, where the author links a video on how to "AFK Farm" unprocessed materials.
Deterrence

15
Develop a nuclear weapon.
(4)
Refer below to "Disarmament" for more information.
Disarmament

15
Dispose of a nuclear weapon.
(2)
In order to develop a nuke, you will first need to have completed mission 31, "Sahelanthropus," and have built at least one Forward Operating Base. FOB construction will take place after mission 22, "Retake the Platform." You will also need an online connection for this achievement.

Once these prerequisites are met, head into the Mother Base tab on the iDroid and then into the “Resources” menu. From here, scroll over to the last sub-menu and you can develop a nuke for 750,000 GMP, 75,000 Online Processed Fuel, and 50,000 Online Processed Minor Metal, with a loss of 50,000 Heroism. Be aware that it will take about exactly 30 real-time hours for the nuke’s development. In addition, that time is for real-time, in-game hours, meaning when the game is off, progress will not be made. The time will only track when you are in-game either playing missions or just hanging out in the ACC. It's important to know that these resources must be materials that you gathered while playing Online FOB missions. Single-Player resources will not count towards nuke development. This means you'll need to engage in FOB missions frequently and sneakily extract your opponent's materials.

Once the nuke has been built, the "Deterrence" achievement will unlock. When you're ready to snag "Disarmament," simply head back into the Resources tab a second time and you can immediately dismantle the nuke for just 100,000 GMP. Unlike the former, this achievement does not require an online connection.
Prosperity

15
Earn a total of 10,000,000 GMP or more.
This achievement will come naturally over the course of your playthrough as you complete main missions, side ops, and key Dispatch Missions. All three of these mission types will net a substantial amount of GMP, which in turn allows you to develop items such as weapons and equipment at Mother Base and even expand your base by building additional platforms for all of your Teams/Units. Take note that this achievement is for amassing a cumulative totalof 10 million GMP. It would be impossible to hold 10 million GMP at once because the game caps at five million.

As a means of giving a point of reference to the reader, I was able to unlock this achievement before Mission 20, while having done every single available side op as they appeared on the iDroid's mission list. Don't worry about farming GMP at point in your playthrough then, as this achievement will come naturally regardless of how you go about spending your funds.
Conservation

30
Extract all wild animal species.
(8)
There are a total of 47 wild animal species that you will need to capture for this achievement. Take note however that there are three distinct ways to capture animals throughout Afghanistan and Africa. The first, and most prominent method is by placing down Capture Cages across the terrain. It’s worth noting that though it takes a while to obtain, you’ll want a Grade 4 Capture Cage when going for this achievement. Secondly, some animals will need to be put to sleep with a tranquilizer weapon and then extracted back to Mother Base via a Fulton extraction. This is common for larger animals such as wild dogs, sheep, and bears. The final method, used for small animals that cannot be extracted, is to put them to sleep via tranquilizer rounds and then pick them up manually as if you were picking up a blueprint or weapon.

Since most of the animals will be captured via Capture Cages, it’s recommended to always have this piece of equipment sorted in your loadout, as well as placing them out frequently during your first playthrough of every mission. It’s important to know that animals will only ever be captured in these cages when you extract a mission via helicopter or flee the hot zone on foot or by vehicle. If you choose the option under the Pause Menu to “Return to ACC," the game will not register the capture of any animals.

Fortunately, none of the animals are missable and you can work on this achievement at anytime provided you have that Grade 4 Capture Cage; whether that is naturally over the course of your playthrough or in free-roam. Also, you can keep track of your progress in the iDroid by following these steps: MOTHER BASE > DATABASE > ENCYCLOPEDIA > WILD ANIMALS.

Be sure to utilize the video guide below, courtesy of PowerPyx, if you’re missing a few animals and/or want to grind this out quickly once you have your Grade 4 Capture Cage.
Collector

30
Obtain all blueprints and key items.
(2)
In total, there are 27 Blueprints to collect towards this achievement. Broken down, 12 of these Blueprints are collectibles scattered in the open world, while six are rewarded for Blueprint-oriented Side Ops and the final nine are obtained by completing all the key Dispatch Missions in the game. It's worth stating that the last few key Dispatch Missions will only become available after Mission 31, "Sahelanthropus." On top of this, not every mission nets a Blueprint; still, you will need to complete them all.

In order to keep track of the Blueprints you have obtained, open the iDroid and follow these steps: MOTHER BASE > DATABASE > DOCUMENTATION > BLUEPRINTS. Be sure to utilize the video below for any of the open-world blueprints that you may need help locating.

As for the Key Items, there are a total of 20 to collect towards this achievement. 12 of these Key Items will be unlocked naturally by progressing through the game and completing all the main missions and important Side Ops (marked in yellow text). As for the remaining 8, take a look below to see how they can be obtained.
- Getting an S-Rank in all 50 missions – x2 Key Items
- Fulton extracting 1000 enemies – x2 Key Items
- Find all invoices (in Afghan & Africa) – x2 Key Items
- Marking 500 enemies – x1 Key Item
- Finding the first aid manual collectible – x1 Key Item
In order to keep track of the Blueprints you have obtained, open the iDroid and follow these steps: MOTHER BASE > DATABASE > DOCUMENTATION > KEY ITEMS. Again, don’t hesitate in viewing the video guide below if you’re stumped on any of the requirements for the Key Items.

If you’re struggling to find the invoices in all the outposts of Afghanistan and Africa, be sure to check either of the video’s text descriptions. There, PowerPyx has generously linked video guides for each region’s invoice locations. Once all 27 blueprints and 20 Key Items have been collected, this achievement will finally unlock.
Reminiscence

15
Obtain all memento photos.

This achievement solution contains necessary spoilers! Read below at your own risk!

There a total of 11 memento photos that will need to be collected for this achievement. Ten of these photos are rewarded for completing Side Ops #51-#60, "Extract the Wandering Mother Base Soldiers." Take note that the last of these Side Ops will not unlock until Mission 38 has been completed. With that said, these Side Ops involve tracking down former Mother Base soldiers and extracting them. The catch with these missions is that the soldiers will run away if they spot you, meaning you'll need to neutralize them from a distance with a tranquilizer weapon.

Alternatively, you can approach them while crouching under the cardboard box and they will instantly surrender to you when you've inch near them. If you want to change things up even more, you can even play the "Love Deterrence" cassette tape (once you've obtained it of course) and turn your iDroid's speakers on. This will cause the wandering solider to run up to you and surrender immediately. Further, you can bring Quiet along for these Side Ops (armed with the Guilty Butterfly) and she will tranquilize the wandering solider with ease once you've spotted the target for her.

Once these ten photos have been collected, return to Mother Base's main Medical Platform and visit the secret infirmary room on the second floor. Here, you can give Paz each photo one by one (as shown in the video). After she reminisces on a photo, you will need to exit her room, smoke the Phantom Cigar for a few hours, and reenter the infirmary to give her the next photo. By the time you're ready to hand in the sixth photograph, she will still be asleep. At this point return to the ACC, complete a few missions, then come back for another visit and continue the photo-giving process.

Once all ten memento photos have been handed over, exit the her room and you will find, on the left-hand side of the hallway, a small photograph taped to the wall. Pick it up and the achievement will finally unlock. For the sake of wrapping up Paz's story, make sure to revisit her once more after obtaining this photo.
Hero

30
Obtain the codename "Hero."
(1)
In order to obtain the codename "Hero," you will first need to have completed Mission 31, "Sahelanthropus," and then also obtain a total of 150,000 or more Heroism Points. These points are generously awarded at the end of each main mission and Side Op and can be tracked at the post-main-mission stat screen after you've obtained your rank, codename, and rewards.

These points are awarded to players who go out of their way to rescue prisoners during missions, extract new wild animal species across Afghanistan and Africa, and for completing missions with an S-Rank. On top of that, earning key collectible achievements such as "Conservation," "Collector," and/or "Reminiscence" will also award a huge amount of Heroism Points. What's more, repeating the same missions over and over again will always net Heroism Points, meaning you could farm a short, easy mission such as "[SUBSISTENCE] C2W" and obtain around 1,500 Heroism Points per each 3-minute run.

Despite this being a valid method for farming these points, there is little to no reason to farm Heroism as most players will have no issue unlocking this achievement naturally towards the end of their playthrough.