Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance stars Raiden of the previous Metal Gear Solid games, in a quest to defeat his foes with stylish swordplay and acrobatics. He's also looking to find meaning in world where war is a part of the economy, all to one of the most jammin’ and underappreciated soundtracks in gaming.
While the best solution to any given problem is usually the judicious application of slashing and stabbing, the game also has other tools to help you in your fights against cyborg soldiers, weirdly animalistic mechs (the UGs), and building-sized Metal Gears. Known as sub-weapons, here they are, ranked.
9 Heat Blade — Honorable Mention
This is Blade Wolf’s signature sub-weapon, though Raiden also uses one of these in a cutscene. The Heat Blade is just as its name suggests, a blade that gets hot enough to pierce through the armor of cyborgs and Unmanned Gears.
Though this weapon is only available in the Blade Wolf DLC, it’s worth mentioning as it is his only sub-weapon. He can hold ten at a time, and though they don’t do a lot of damage, they can be rapidly thrown and are surprisingly useful for stealth approaches — provided you can kill your target before they can alert others or you run out of blades. You can also quick-sling them by tapping the sub-weapon button during fights, for a little extra damage between combos.
8 Jam Grenade — Ineffective Except For Specific Situations
Though Revengeance is well known as an action game where you slice and dice your way through enemies, as a Metal Gear game it also allows you to play in a stealthy manner… at least for a few sections, since eventually you'll have to drop the Ninja act and start cutting fools up.
Jam Grenades are similar to Chaff Grenades of previous Metal Gear games, preventing cameras from seeing you and enemies from calling in alerts while the cloud persists. However, the bang of the grenade will put enemies into the Caution state. It’s not much good in a fight, and you’d have to be pretty good to be able to kill all enemies before the cloud dissipates. Also, you can probably just sneak past cameras since their lasers give away the direction they’re looking in.
7 3D Photo Frame — A Distraction To Remember
Similar to the Magazines of previous Metal Gear games, you throw these down and any cyborgs (and puzzlingly, the fully mechanical Dwarf Gekkos) who come across them will be temporarily distracted by a sexy dancing hologram.
They're not exactly game changing, but there are moments in the game where these can come in quite handy — especially if you’re attempting a stealth run of the game and you need to distract only a few foes for a long time. An example might be when you need to interact with an object without being seen, instead of just slipping by.
6 Drum Can/Cardboard Box — A True Metal Gear Classic
The humble cardboard box has seen usage in every Metal Gear game all the way back to its debut on the MSX, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is no exception. Much like previous games, the box is a tool of stealth, used to sneak past enemies — provided that you don’t move while it’s equipped. It’s joined by the drum barrel, which is functionally the same except you can also roll in it while you Ninja Run. This is more of an easter egg than anything, since if you do it for too long, Raiden will hork his cyborg guts out like in previous Metal Gear Solid games.
Since MGR is primarily an action game, these tools get limited use, though they’re nice if you want to try and get by some of the tougher non-boss fights in the game. Iconic though it may be, you'd think Raiden's PMC could afford better stealth tech.
5 RP Grenade — Smoke Bomb!
The loudest of the stealth options in the game, the RP Grenade goes off with a bang. It releases a cloud of blinding smoke, putting nearby enemies into Caution status if they weren’t already in Alert — meaning they’re actively looking for you.
Luckily, they’ll be doing it pretty much blind, which will allow you to slip past them and/or get some cheeky stealth kills if they aren’t in Alert mode. While the RP Grenade is useful for skipping past some fights, or even getting the upper hand, keep in mind that the effect is not long-lasting. If you pop one, they’ll be looking for you shortly after.
4 Rocket Launcher — The Original Party-Starter
When it’s time to go loud, you might as well do it in a big way. For that, there’s nothing like a classic to start a party. The Rocket Launcher works like you’d expect it to; you take aim and fire an explosive rocket at your enemy. This is harder than it sounds, since unless you get the drop on them, they’ll be hounding you even while you aim. While you can quickfire a rocket without aiming, some enemies move pretty quickly — so you might miss entirely.
The Rocket Launcher is a bit disappointing in the damage department, so even when you bring one of these out, your sword will still be doing most of the work. Still, these are valuable when dealing with UG’s, since you can damage them enough to stun them — and even take off some limbs with follow-up attacks. It's not the best, but it gets the job done.
3 EMP Grenade — Stun For Massive Damage
These release a blast of electromagnetic energy, stunning all enemies caught in its effective radius briefly. This allows you to whale on them with impunity until its effects wear off. You can use them to buy you some breathing room in a crowd of enemies, or even single tough enemies if you haven’t mastered parrying yet.
You can also quick-sling one of these; they have a generous area of effect, so throwing one out in the middle of a combo is feasible, if a bit of an overkill. Outside of getting some easy kills, these are also vital in rescuing hostages you occasionally run into, as any other means of intervention will get the victim executed before the baddies turn their attention to you.
2 Homing Missile Launcher — Fire And Forget
Basically the Rocket Launcher, but better. Aiming with one of these will allow you to lock on to pesky fliers who are just out of reach from your sword, but contrary to the description the game gives you, you can also lock on to most enemies.
The Homing Missile Launcher suffers from the same issues as the Rocket Launcher as well, since it’s unwieldy to bring out in combat. At least fliers have less aggressive attack patterns than land enemies, so they’re easier to lock on to and pop out of the sky.
1 Fragmentation Grenade — Simplicty At Its Finest
Simple yet effective, the Frag Grenade is as easy as it gets — you throw it, it explodes and deals a bunch of damage in an area. It’s pretty decent damage, too, putting cyborgs near death and stunning Gekko UGs with ease.
While you can aim and throw it like any grenade, complete with a visual indication of the throwing arc, these are especially useful in the heat of battle, since you can just quick-sling one either as part of a combo or just to get some damage out there.