MG-Rays are the seventh boss fight of the game. They can only be defeated with the Stinger or RGB6.

MG-Rays have two phases, the first phase where the initial three Rays (A01E, A02E, A03E) line up in a straight line facing the player. After a certain amount of damage, the Rays will then transition to the second phase. They will remain in this second phase for the remainder of the fight. In the second phase, the Rays will always attempt to take a specific formation where one of the Rays is on the field attacking the player, another one is outside the field directly behind the player, and the final one is outside the field directly in front on the player.

Difficulty	Very Easy	Easy	Normal	Hard	Extreme	European Extreme
Total Health	3072	5120	7168	10240	20480	20480
Amount of Rays	3	5	7	10	20	20

Machine Gun	16	16	16	16	16	16
Missiles	40	40	40	40	80	40
Water Cannon	24	24	24	24	24	24
Stomp	48	48	48	48	48	48
Knock down with foot	0	0	0	0	0	0

Stinger (open-head)	1280	320	320	320	320	320
Stinger (closed-head)	???	100	100	100	100	100
Grenades (open-head)	???	200	200	200	200	200
Grenades (open-head)	???	70	70	70	70	70

General Information:

RAYS have 1024HP on all difficulties. Stinger does 320 open and 100 closed. Grenade does 200 open and 70 closed. Attacks on Very Easy do 4x damage.

You must do the damage equivalent of 3, 5, 7, 10, or 20 RAYs.

There are three aspects to this fight: control of movement, control of Stinger, and control of RAYs.

RAY will take critical damage if you fire at its head while the mouth is open. If the mouth isn't open, it deals standard damage.

Any damage dealt to the RAY will stun it. Firing at a leg will knock down that leg's knee, opening its mouth for a critical hit.

RAY will open its mouth to perform a battle cry. There is the typical, long battle cry and a short battle cry.

When a RAY spawns, they walk towards the stage. When they get close to the stage, they will leap to the edge. Once at the edge, they will walk in place and do a battle cry. After the cry, they will move into position along the edge of the stage if a RAY is on stage.

If no RAY is on stage, typically the RAY with the lowest health will jump on stage. If you attack and stun the earliest RAY (denoted by letter and number), sometimes a later RAY will jump on stage and gain priority.

You should prioritize the RAY onstage, especially for Extreme. It is the most aggressive of the three RAYs.

After taking damage, RAY will shuffle in place. Use this animation to judge when to fire the next stinger.

Rays' Attacks:

RAYs have 5 attacks: a stomp, a machine gun burst, a water cannon, an offstage missile launch, and an onstage knee missile launch.

Stomp

RAY will stomp if you are close to its feet. If you aren't stomped directly but are near the foot, it will knock Raiden to the ground. The knockdown combined with offstage missiles is deadly. In addition, you can be stomped while the RAY jumps on stage or walks around the stage.

Machine Gun

RAY typically won't machine gun burst unless on stage. The machine gun fires from medium range. RAY will cover its face while firing the bullets, so fire at the legs. The bullets travel in an arc, requiring you to do a U shape dodge as it crosses towards Raiden. With body armor equipped, Raiden can survive the machine gun on Extreme. While it will put Raiden into bleeding, it is the only survivable attack on Extreme.

Water Cannon

RAY typically won't water cannon unless on stage. The cannon fires from short to medium range. After cocking its head back, RAY will fire a high pressure water cannon in a linear path. Cartwheel or run left or right to avoid this attack. While its firing, the RAY's head is vulnerable to a critical hit. You can dodge the water cannon by shifting your weight in FPV.

Offstage Missiles

RAY typically won't missile unless it has moved to its offstage spot. If a RAY is not damaged or stunned while standing off stage, it will eventually fire 3 homing missiles. The beeping will progressively get faster as it homes on Raiden. Cartwheel out of the way to dodge the missiles.

Onstage Knee Missiles

RAY will fire missiles onstage missiles when at a far distance. Before firing missiles, it will typically move to the center of the stage, and stand there doing nothing. You can fire at the knee to destroy one of the missiles. To dodge, run to the left or right, and cartwheel when the missiles cross paths. This is the hardest attack to dodge from an onstage RAY!

Stinger

This fight tests your stinger skills. Be aware of your distance from the RAY. The further away you are, the longer you have to wait between shots. For example, it take a long time to fire from the opposite end of the stage, making a critical shot quite difficult.

Since the RAY's face will face towards to the hurt knee, we want to fire at the leg that is closest to Raiden. For example, if a RAY is walking away from Raiden while offstage, fire at the knee closest to the stage.

If you do fire at the wrong knee, it becomes hard to hit the RAY's face, but not impossible. Fire an unlocked missile above the RAY's head, then lock on to curve the missile towards the face. This technique takes practice, and its timing depends on your distance.

Remember, unlocked missiles do not travel as far as locked missiles.

General strategy - Normal difficulty.

Very Easy

On this difficulty, we do not use any loops. Instead, we try to kill the 3 Rays as fast as possible. There are two strategies used:

Standard Strategy:

Equip the Stinger as soon as possible and fire into the open-mouth of the middle Ray (A01E) and then into the open mouth of the left Ray (A03E).
Step away from the center of the field as the right Ray (A02E) jumps in.
When its in, fire at its leg then its head.

Fast Strategy:

Equip the Stinger as soon as possible and fire into the open-mouth of the middle Ray (A01E) and then into the open mouth of the right Ray (A02E).
Unequip the stinger and move closer to the left ray (A03E).
Once A02E dies, equip the stinger and fire into the left Ray's leg. Move a little closer then fire into its head.

Sons of Liberty (USA):

On this version of the game, the Rays don't die instantly from an open-mouth shot so the previous two strategies will not work. Instead, we'll be doing the first part of the loop thats used in the other difficulties.

Loops

On the difficulties Easy, Normal, Hard, Extreme, and European Extreme, loops are used to control the fight and go through it quickly.

Before setting up the loop, we'll have to deal damage to the Rays in the quickest time possible to have them transition into their second phase. This can be done in two ways:

Standard Setup:

Do an aerial forward and equip the Stinger.
Alternate open-mouth shots (shoot their legs first) between the middle (A01E), the right (A02E), and the left Ray (A03E).
Do this twice. Then fire one open-mouth shot into A01E followed by a closed-mouth shot into A02E.
Unequip the Stinger and move backwards then do an aerial once A01E jumps into the field.
Move right then equip the Stinger after A01E misses with its water cannon attack. Fire at A01E's leg then head.
Fire at A02E's leg then head to finish it off.
Pick up the Stinger ammo box thats closest to the player as A03E begins to jump onto the field.
Do two leg into open-mouth shots to A03E to finish it off. Keep a short delay between the leg and mouth shots to prevent A04E from jumping in too early.
After this, A04E and eventually A05E will be in the top right corner and the player can begin doing the loop.

Risky Setup:

Equip the Stinger as soon as possible then fire an open-mouth shot into the middle Ray (A01E) followed by the left Ray (A03E). Keep a small delay between the shots otherwise the second shot will miss.
Move closer then fire a closed-mouth shot into the right Ray (A02E).
Move even closer then fire leg into open-mouth shot into A01E followed by A03E followed by A02E.
A01E will open its mouth now, fire into it immediately followed by a leg into open-mouth shot to A03E.
A01E will jump onto the field, do an aerial forward to avoid being knocked down.
Fire a closed-mouth shot into A01E to finish it off.
Fire a leg into open-mouth shot into A03E to finish it off.
If fast enough, A02E will immediately jump in. Do two leg into open-mouth shots to A02E to finish it off.
After this, A04E and eventually A05E will be in the top right corner and the player can begin doing the loop.

Anonymityhope Loop

This loop was developed by Anonymityhope. Its a little tricky to do with some risky shots involved.

dlimes13 Loop

This loop was developed by dlimes13. Its the standard strategy for full game runs.

Rose Loop

This loop was developed by LeoviciusTV. This loop involves keeping the the Ray modeled A05E (hence the name 'Rose Loop') alive for the duration of the fight. While this loop is slower by a few minutes, it might be safer for some runners.

Return to MGS2 Bosses

Table of Contents

Very Easy

Loops

Anonymityhope Loop

dlimes13 Loop

Rose Loop