Table of Contents

Ladder Glitch

Ladder glitch is used in Hold No.1 during the Tanker chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2. This was first found by droogie1xp, then Stealth_Edge managed to get it effective in a speedrun. It can save at least 10 seconds (or more) depending on both execution and variant used. All ladder glitches follow the same principle: Equip the camera before going onto the ladder and Snake/Raiden will enter a glitched-state. This can also be done with other items such as the Digital Camera, Scope, and Boxes. Ladder Glitch works on all versions and platforms. This can also be done in other areas of the game, but serve no practical purpose to the speedrun currently.

Here's an overview of the different approaches and what time they take to perform:

Standard Approach

This is the standard approach used by most runners:


Alternate Approaches

The following are several alternate variants of ladder glitch used by some runners:

Left-Side Ladder Glitch:

Ergx found that taking ladder from left was faster than front side.

Magazine Ladder Glitch:

This is one of the harder variations, and requires a magazine. However, it’s the fastest.

  1. Firstly menu once up from USP/M9 to magazine
  2. Go to left side of the ladder
  3. Follow the steps for previous setups by punching and equipping camera and pressing triangle.
  4. Equip Magazine and do ladder glitch.
  5. Hold right then when animation ends and you are in the ladder glitch hold square, let go of right and hold/press left. Keep square held long enough to not break the camera when you fall down.
  6. The visual cue for when to let go of square is when snake goes into the wall and the camera changes.


Magazine Ladder Glitch, Left-Side Hold No.1, 06:44:16 by Stealth_Edge

Magazine Ladder Glitch 2.0:

Really fast and simple version of Magazine Ladder Glitch:

  1. Switch to your M9 on previous.
  2. Move to the left-side of the ladder.
  3. Menu one up to the magazine.
  4. PPK (not necessary, but easier) to Camera to Ladder.
  5. Hold right on the analog stick and mash square (turbo square works too).
  6. After Snake is done with his animation of getting on the ladder, keep mashing square (or turbo it), but move the analog stick up-left.

Note: Its possible to fall out of bounds. Its also possible to get the camera stuck when you reach the surface, to avoid this make sure you take a sharp up-left angle for the final step.

Super Variant:


Backup Approaches

Fill this with non-ladder glitch approaches to Hold No.1


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