Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - S-Rank Walkthrough - Mission 30: Skull Face

Mission 30: Skull Face
You only have one objective in this mission - reach skull face on the back of the enemy camp. The best approach is to stay stealthy and complete the mission as fast as possible. Always stick to either the right or the left side of the area. This lets you skip most enemy groups. The enemies have helmets, so bring a silenced sniper rifle in case reflex mode is triggered and shoot them in the eyes. Though if done stealthy, you can complete the mission without firing a single shot and score the no traces bonus worth 120,000 points.

There are two golden rules for getting S-ranks:
1. Don't try it on your first playthrough (a lot of strategies only work when replaying missions and you will unlock better gear over the course of the game).
2. Skip all cutscenes to save time (yes, cutscenes add to your time and will greatly reduce your points!)

S-Rank Strategies, basic tips and things you should know:
- Getting 130,000 points in a mission unlocks the S-rank (same score requirement for all missions)
- Only main missions have a ranking system, side ops don't. Main missions 02, 22, 43 are an exception, they don't have any ranks. There are 50 main missions in total.
- Completing the missions as quickly as possible without being seen is usually good enough. Skip the bonus objectives, they take too long and will complicate things.
- Equipping the Invisibility Camo, Parasite Suit, Raiden Suit, Cyborg Ninja Suit, Chicken-Hat, Infinity Bandana, using D-Walkers Fulton Ballista or calling in air strikes / helicopter support will void the S-rank. With these items you are limited to A-rank at best. So don't use them!
- On your first playthrough of the missions, always try to take out the enemy radar stations. This gives you a huge tactical advantage because you can call the extraction helicopter directly to the enemy base (or start the mission there).
- S-Ranks earn you a lot more money and heroism than lower ranks

With these tips in mind you should have very little trouble following these video guides and obtaining all S-ranks. Be warned, however, that the game uses a variable difficulty system. If you use a lot of headshots, enemies will get helmets. If you always infiltrate at night, enemies will get night vision goggles. If you always use sleeping grenades, enemies will wear gas masks etc.
In this walkthrough series I stick to the basics to make it as easy to replicate as possible. These guides are fairly spoiler free as I skip the cutscenes to save time.

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Follow PowerPyx:

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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Trophies and Achievements:

Apprentice
Completed a mission using a Combat Unit staff member.

Accomplished
Completed all missions.

Executed
Completed all mission tasks.

Elite
Completed all missions with an S rank.

Undertaken
Completed a SIDE OP.

Cleared
Completed all "Mine Clearing" SIDE OPS.

Achieved
Completed all SIDE OPS.

Captured
Captured an outpost or guard post.

Search-and-Destroy
Captured all outposts and guard posts in Northern Kabul, Afghanistan.

Sweep-and-Clear
Captured all outposts and guard posts in the Angola-Zaire Border Region.

Deployment
Completed all key Dispatch Missions.

Intruder
Played an "Infiltration" FOB mission.

Cry Havoc
Made D-Dog available for deployment.

Speechless
Made Quiet available for deployment.

Trusty Steed
Raised bond with D-Horse to the maximum.

Man's Best Friend
Raised bond with D-Dog to the maximum.

War Buddy
Raised bond with Quiet to the maximum.

Extraction
Fulton extracted an enemy soldier.

Interrogation
Interrogated an enemy soldier.

To The Rescue
Extracted a female prisoner.

Platoon
Increased Mother Base staff to 50 or more personnel.

Battalion
Increased Mother Base staff to 250 or more personnel.

Army
Raised all Teams/Units to level 99.

Enhancement
Developed 50 or more development items.

Reinforcement
Developed 100 or more development items.

Locked and Loaded
Developed 300 or more development items.

Architect
Constructed all available platforms for Mother Base.

Deterrence
Developed a nuclear weapon.

Disarmament
Disposed of a nuclear weapon.

Prosperity
Earned a total of 10,000,000 GMP or more.

Conservation
Extracted all wild animal species.

Collector
Obtained all blueprints and key items.

Reminiscence
Obtained all memento photos.

Hero
Obtained the codename "Hero."

[NineConsonants]

The easiest way to S-Rank this mission is to give D-Walker the highest armor and have Snake wear the Battle Dress and Shield. You can have D-Walker just boost through the entire thing and beat it in under 2 minutes.

[leeragdoll]

Dude you must be working so hard now. Respect for bring us these great videos!

[zibby]

Nailed this S-Rank attempt on the first try thanks to this video. This entire series of walkthroughs has been phenomenal.

[Zidane_Mina]

God bless your channel. I love your video guides: no chatter & straight to the point.

[lelxrv]

I went nuclear here at first. It was World War 3.

[awesomesauce]

S. Snake:
L. Ocelot: "SNAAAAKE!"
Miller: "Cypher..."

[erdvilla]

If the Walker at the end in front of the blast doors has decided to permanently look your way, then simply go right and through the stairs, you don't need to crouch in those as the steps are small and Snake can crawl them and avoid any detection, this way you will reach the third flight of stairs inside the elevator shaft.
Also, if you do this mission and destroy all their generators (3) and independent light stations that would be on your way, complete it and then start it again, they will all remain broken, so your only light source will be the moon. Also, by destroying the generators all cameras will respawn in your next try, but with no power they will be all off.

[masuriox]

There's actually an even EASIER way to do this mission in under 3min. Just select to start the mission by night, choose whatever partner you want, select a Jeep than stop it just a few meters before the main gate with all the guards, just the enough to not get seeing, than throw a smoke grenade in the back of the Jeep an pass by everyone until you get to the end of the path, smoothly go to the stairs while every enemy still talking about the smoke, and then you finished it.

Did this, didn't draw any weapon and got luck cause there was a sandstorm in the beginning of the mission, so I didn't even got a single exclamation mark on the enemy. Ended up with 182.900 points, give it a try, even without the sandstorm works.

[NetoJN]

nah... just use d walker to go through everyone realy fast and you get s rank

[Mikks]

I somehow made the awkward car ride more awkward by playing "take on me"

[suprtroopr]

I almost cried tears of joy when I perfect stealth/no traced this mission. its a hell of a time.

[joelACdude]

You can speed through the entire base in a tank, and finish the mission in 3 minutes.

[drausanchez]

that moment when you get a sandstorm by pure luck and you get to rush trough the whole stage lmao

[hanselthecaretaker]

I got tagged by the spotlight guy at about 7:50 but restarted the checkpoint and still got No Traces! I thought it would’ve counted that like it does cumulative mission time but thankfully not. Also the walker at 8:15 was facing the way in, so I crawled behind him on the left and then hid behind the left wall of the entrance by the elevator shaft.

[Dingle.Donger]

I didn't know I could skip the awkward car ride so last time I tried it (no guide) I had a perfect stealth run but I think the time ruined it.

[reaper]

Hey guys if you do have trouble with this one you can also do it by driving through with a stout ifv-fs and turning reflex mode off

[MyChannelTracks]

Im always nervous when D dog barking 3 meters near of enemy :-D

[t_sjn]

I did 100% what he did in the vid but I didn't skip anything the know the story. That's why I got just a B at the end. Lmfao.

[DarthDracu]

SIMPLE SOLUTION! DRIVE A TANK THROUGH EVERYTHING. I DID MISSION IN 3 MINUTES! S RANK!

[waltdisneypixar]

I almost run through all the mission with the sand storm. thanks god for that amd for you as usual