How to beat The End in Metal Gear Solid Delta

How do you beat The End in Metal Gear Solid Delta? Said to be the father of sniping, The End has lived for over 100 years and has been hardened after decades of fighting, culminating in his showdown against Naked Snake. Spanning across several battlefields, this conflict will test both your survival and combat skills as you take on a legend of the battlefield.

The End boss fight is up there among the best in Metal Gear Solid Delta and quite possibly in the entire series. Compared to the other Metal Gear Solid Delta bosses in the stealth game, The End knows how to perfectly blend into his environment, making it a difficult task to track him down. We're here to break down all the methods you can use to take down The Boss to earn his unique reward, granting you a sniper rifle equipped with tranquilizer darts.

The End boss guide

There are multiple ways to defeat The End in Metal Gear Solid Delta, but the best method rewards you with his Mosin Nagant sniper rifle, an essential tool for stealth playthroughs. There's also a bonus reward for holding The End at gunpoint, giving you access to the Moss camo that regenerates your stamina and health when positioned in grassy areas.

Here are all the ways you can beat The End in Metal Gear Solid Delta:

• Skip the fight
• Non-lethal approach
• Lethal approach

Skip the fight

You can save yourself the hassle of fighting this sneaky boss by taking him out when he first appears at the Ponizovje Warehouse. The End can be sniped from a distance and eliminated in a single shot, skipping the entire fight later on in the game. You can find the SVD sniper rifle in Ponizovje West (located on the left path before you enter the warehouse area), but you need to pick this weapon up before you trigger the cutscene where The End first appears.

Alternatively, if you save the game and wait seven days (you can skip the time by waiting or by changing your system clock to one week ahead), The End will simply die of old age. While these methods are effective, you miss out on the opportunity to receive his boss rewards, so you might want to avoid this unless you're going for a fast completion time.

Non-lethal approach

To obtain the Mosin Nagant, you need to secure a non-lethal takedown. As this is the non-lethal strategy, you're going to be relying on your Mk22 to put The End to sleep. If you picked the New Style play style when starting the game, you will have a tougher time using this weapon, as you'll have to account for bullet drop when firing from afar. The non-lethal approach is considerably easier to do on the Legacy Style, as your shots don't suffer from bullet drop.

In this boss battle, The End will attempt to track you down, moving between the same sniper vantage points before taking a shot at you. Fortunately, The End doesn't fire bullets at you, opting for tranquilizer darts instead. As long as you continue to top up your stamina by eating food at regular intervals, you don't need to worry about taking any hits.

You can bait The End into revealing his position by firing any of your weapons into the distance to show him exactly where you're located. Once The End has you in his sights, he will spend some time lining up his shot, giving you an opportunity to spot him in the distance. When you have a rough idea of where he is, you should be able to spot his sniper's glint moving in the grass.

The first thing you should do when you think you've spotted The End is to equip your thermal goggles to ensure you aren't wasting your tranq ammo shooting at the grass. You can also pull out your Directional Mic to listen to the sounds of The End breathing to gain a rough indication of where he could be hiding. As you deal damage to The End, his breathing becomes louder, making it easier to track him down.

When you've located his hiding spot, you can shoot him from a distance, or if you're feeling really brave, you can attempt to hold him at gunpoint for maximum damage, earning the Moss camo in the process. Aiming your weapon at The End isn't enough to get him to drop the camo, you need to point your weapon at his head for a prolonged period of time, forcing him to throw a flashbang before escaping.

If you do manage to hold him up, be sure to chase him as he tries to find a new hiding spot. This will make it easier to locate him in the future, and when combined with the Directional Mic, this method is one of the fastest ways to take him down.

Lethal approach

The lethal approach is largely the same as the non-lethal approach, relying on the same methods to locate The End. The only difference is that you can use any weapon in your arsenal, though the most natural fit for this fight is the SVD. If you didn't pick up this sniper rifle earlier in the game, it can be found in Sokrovenno South inside the only building in the area.

In addition to the SVD, you can spot The End's pet parrot perched on the building, though its location may change depending on the difficulty you're playing on. Killing the parrot will cause The End to become enraged, causing him to fight more aggressively than before. This will make it more difficult to sneak up on him, but it will make it easier to spot him as he will spend more time trying to snipe you.

By taking advantage of all three methods, you should have no problem beating The End in Metal Gear Solid Delta. With this boss finally out of the way, you can focus on the MGS Delta Raikov mission before moving on to the tricky MGS Delta prison escape sequence.