Metal Gear Solid 5 isn't exactly short of options for approaching its open-ended stealth scenarios. But encouraging players to use every tool at their disposal can be difficult once they've found a loadout that they like. Its Subsistence rule was one of Kojima's solutions to this, allowing players to re-enter previous missions without a specific loadout and forcing them to scavenge weapons and equipment on the fly.
But this solution didn't go far enough, at least according to MGS 5 modder mohtalgear. And to celebrate the sequel's tenth anniversary, they decided to do something about it, resulting in the Definitive Subsistence Update.
The Definitive Subsistence Update aims to be the equivalent of the Substance and Subsistence updates for MGS 2 and 3. "Definitive Subsistence adds new content and new meaningful gameplay mechanics that'll make you feel like you're playing MGSV for the first time," mohtalgear says in its Nexus Mods description. It does this by layering in substantially more detail to the Subsistence system, as well as several other mechanics central to how Metal Gear Solid 5 functions.
This starts with a complete overhaul to on-site procurement, with the mod folding in significantly more variety to the weapons you can collect in Subsistence mode. If you interrogate an enemy, for example, they'll now drop a random support weapon, plus a support item if you question them a second time. You can also collect an enemy's sidearm by holding them up, pick up tranquilizer guns in the field, while enemies can also wield "every base gun" including weapons that were previously unavailable to them like grenade launchers.
In addition to this, the mod adjusts The Phantom Pain's innovative dynamic revenge system so that instead of evolving across the whole game, those evolutions happen during each mission with the system resetting at the end. So if, say, you go in guns blazing at the first checkpoint you spot, the next convoy you encounter might be armed and armoured to the teeth. Alternatively, if you get spotted while sneaking and guards raise the alarm, subsequent outposts you explore will have a higher level of awareness.
The mod's end goal is to unlock The Phantom Pain's full emergent potential, to make every mission different and surprising and avoid players falling into the same patterns of play. There's a YouTube video by mohtalgear showing the mod in action, and as you can see, it's transformative.
Alongside these core mechanical changes, the mod adds a couple of other, independent features. It ports over the hard mode from The Phantom Pain's standalone prequel Ground Zeroes, which "updates enemy sight, enemy sleep time, player health, and player camo values". Finally, it lets you play as both Ocelot and Quiet, each of whom has different limitations. Ocelot cannot dual wield weapons, but he can still single-wield his Tornado-6, while Quiet cannot interrogate guards because, as mohtalgear points out "she's Quiet".
2025 has been the best year for Metal Gear fans in a long while, thanks mainly to Konami's diligent remake of Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. And while a brand new Metal Gear seems unlikely to arrive anytime soon, Konami plans to continue overhauling the existing entries in the series, which may even result in a remake of Metal Gear Solid 5.
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