Support Weapons

Guide to Support Weapons

Support weapons in Metal Gear Online are carried alongside your primary weapon and secondary weapons. They bring a wide range of utility and complement your playstyle based on your chosen type of support weapon. Projectile support weapons are used to suppress or reveal enemies from afar or behind cover. Placed support weapons are used to trap foes or passively hold claim over areas of the map.

Grenade

Stats

Drebin Points: 0

Damage: 75%

Effects: Explodes a few seconds after being thrown. Creates an explosion which sends foes flying.

perks

Useful for checking for enemies behind cover or forcing foes away from goal locations.
Can confirm a kill on a player in the ragdoll animation after they land but before they can act.

Counters

The Toughness 3 skill prevents the knockback and ragdoll animation, but not the damage dealt. You also get less invulnerability frames with Toughness 3.
The sound of a grenade being readied and thrown is distinctive. If you hear or see a grenade, you should have time to run or roll away from where you expect it to explode.
Riot shields can sit next to an explosive to silently ignore its effect. This can fool an opponent into thinking there is no one behind the cover the grenade exploded at.

White Phosphorus Grenade

Stats

Drebin Points: 500

Damage: 70%

Effect: Explodes a few seconds after being thrown. Creates an explosion which sends foes flying and sets them on fire. Also leaves behind a patch of fire on the ground.

perks

Useful for preventing players from standing on goal locations whilst the fire lingers.
Can confirm a kill on a player in the ragdoll animation after they land but before they can act.
Enemies will take extra damage whilst on fire, allowing this to potentially kill on a direct hit if the flames are not extinguished.

Counters

The Toughness 3 skill prevents the knockback and ragdoll animation, but not the damage dealt. You also get less invulnerability frames with Toughness 3.
The sound of a grenade being readied and thrown is distinctive. If you hear or see a grenade, you should have time to run or roll away from where you expect it to explode.
You can extinguish flames on yourself by equipping a Cardboard Box to smother the fire.

Stun Grenade

Stats

Drebin Points: 0

Stamina Damage: 75%

Effect: Explodes a few seconds after being thrown. On explosion, blinds and deafens all nearby players. Duration is based on proximity and whether the character orientation was facing the direction of the flash. The duration of this is up to 6 seconds. Will deafen and blind allies even with the Friendly Fire rule disabled.

perks

Useful for incapacitating an enemy long enough for you to advance on their location.
A direct hit can be combined with a MK.2 PISTOL shot or Shield whack to quickly stun an opponent, as it does not grant invulnerability frames.
Can be used to escape a situation where you are outnumbered.

Counters

The stamina damage and blind effect can be blocked by equipping a Cardboard Box.
The sound of a stun grenade being thrown is distinctively different from a regular grenade. Learn the sound cue to hide in a Cardboard Box in plenty of time.
Facing your character away from the flash dramatically reduces the blind duration.

Chaff Grenade

Stats

Drebin Points: 500

Effect: Explodes a few seconds after being thrown. On explosion, disables all SOP effects and disables the mini map including goal indicators for all players. Disables the ability to in-game chat.

perks

Useful for sneakily securing objectives without alerting the opposition, such as BASE goals and Dog Tags.
Temporarily stops the use of SOP based skills such as Monomania, Sixth Sense and Narc.
Disables Enemy Locaters and the Sonar Gun.

Counters

The effects of a Chaff Grenade cannot be prevented, so try to think about why one was used.
Travel to unlikely BASE goals your team possess to ensure no one is trying to steal it during the confusion.
Whilst on defence, keep an eye on GA-KO or KEROTAN in TSNE and RES modes in case the opposition is trying to nab it.
Move to the last known position of allies in case Old Snake has incapacitated a straggler for their Dog Tags.

Smoke Grenade

Stats

Drebin Points: 0 (500 for coloured variants which give +2 ammo)

Effect: Dispenses smoke a few seconds after being thrown. The smoke effect lingers for several seconds, with the first few seconds of the duration stopping enemy movement whilst they choke on the fumes. For the full duration of the smoke, the area is heavily obscured with both enemy and ally nametags disabled. Auto Aim also fails to lock-on through the area.

perks

Useful for stopping an enemy long enough to easily land a MK.2 PISTOL headshot to put them to sleep.
Unlike regular grenades, Shields cannot block the choking effect of the smoke.
Can be used to move between cover without the enemy seeing you.
Very effective at preventing Auto Aim.

Counters

The effects of a smoke grenade cannot be prevented, so try to roll away or behind cover when you see one heading towards you.
The sound of a smoke grenade being thrown is distinctively different from a regular grenade. Learn the sound cue to ensure you are not caught choking whilst away from cover.

Enemy Locater

Stats

Drebin Points: 1500

Effect: Activates a few seconds after being thrown. Sends out pulses of light which ignores cover and reveals the location of enemies in the area. This data is shared with SOP linked allies.

perks

Useful for modes where players like to camp behind cover such as RES, TSNE or TDM.
Grants assist points to the thrower if allies defeat revealed enemies.

Counters

The SOP Stealth skill completely negates the revealing effect, which can lure the thrower into a false sense of security.
The sound of an active Enemy Locator is distinctive. Be sure to run away from its location so that the enemy can no longer see you through cover.

Claymore

Stats

Drebin Points: 750

Damage: 85%

Effect: Placed on the ground. Once placed, a small area in-front of the Claymore detonates if it detects running or crouch-running players. The explosion deals damage and sends them flying.

perks

Useful for trapping desirable locations such as BASE goal points or flank routes.
The high damage will instantly kill already injured enemies.
The Monomania skill will also reveal players damaged by a Claymore.
The Claymore is not easily spotted due to its camouflaged colouration.

Counters

The Sixth Sense skill highlights Claymores even through cover.
Claymores do not trigger on animations done whilst prone.
You can crawl or prone pencil-roll over Claymores to disarm and pick them up. This works for both allied and enemy Claymores.
Shooting a Claymore from a safe distance will detonate it without causing harm.

Sleeping Gas Mine

Stats

Drebin Points: 1500

Stamina Damage: 100% per second

Effect: Placed on the ground. Once placed, they beep three times over three seconds whilst they become armed. Once armed, a small area around the S.G.MINE detonates if it detects running or crouch-running players. The detonation releases a cloud of sleeping gas which rapidly drains stamina. The gas lingers for several seconds after detonating.

perks

Useful for trapping desirable locations such as BASE goal points or flank routes.
The high stamina damage is very likely to instantly incapacitate a player.
The lingering gas denies a decent area and can even knock out players who underestimate the duration of the lingering gas.

Counters

The Sixth Sense skill highlights S.G.MINES even through cover.
S.G.MINES do not trigger on animations done whilst prone.
You can crawl or prone pencil-roll over S.G.MINES to disarm and pick them up. This works for both allied and enemy S.G.MINES.
Shooting an S.G.MINE will destroy it without releasing gas.
S.G.MINES make a distinctive noise when being setup, and take time to arm themselves. Be sure to check around corners if you hear the noise of an S.G.MINE being placed.

C4

Stats

Drebin Points: 1000

Damage: 100%

Effect: Placed on the ground, walls or other player's backs. Once placed, the CIRCLE button will remotely detonate a placed C4, starting with the most recently placed. Detonating C4 causes an explosion which deals damage and sends players flying.

perks

Useful for trapping desirable locations such as BASE goal points or flank routes. Wall placed C4 can be particularly tricky to spot on some maps.
The very high damage will kill an enemy stood near C4 when it detonates. Enemies caught at the edge of the blast radius may survive.
With the CQC+ skill, you can place C4 on enemies whilst you have them in a CQC hold.

Counters

The Sixth Sense skill highlights C4 even through cover.
Shooting C4 from a safe distance will destroy it without causing harm.

Sleeping Gas Satchel

Stats

Drebin Points: 1250

Stamina Damage: 100% per second

Effect: Placed on the ground, walls or other player's backs. Once placed, the CIRCLE button will remotely detonate a placed S.G.SATCHEL, starting with the most recently placed. Detonating an S.G.SATCHEL releases a cloud of sleeping gas which rapidly drains stamina. The gas lingers for several seconds after detonating.

perks

Useful for trapping desirable locations such as BASE goal points or flank routes. Wall placed S.G.SATCHELS can be particularly tricky to spot on some maps.
The high stamina damage of the sleeping gas is very likely to knock out anyone who enters the area.
The lingering gas denies a decent area and can even knock out players who underestimate the duration of the lingering gas.
With the CQC+ skill, you can place an S.G.SATCHEL on enemies whilst you have them in a CQC hold.

Counters

The Sixth Sense skill highlights S.G.SATCHEL even through cover.
Shooting an S.G.SATCHEL will destroy it without releasing gas.
S.G.SATCHELS make a distinctive noise when being setup. Be sure to check around corners if you hear the noise of an S.G.SATCHEL being placed.

Magazine

Stats

Drebin Points: 0

Effect: Placed on the ground. Once placed, any player other than yourself will become distracted if they move near the Magazine. Distracted players will stop moving and idly giggle to themselves for several seconds.

perks

Useful for trapping desirable locations such as BASE goal points or flank routes.
Distracted enemies are easy to deal with as they cannot control their character for the duration.
Magazines are traps that lie flat to the ground, making them hard to spot by players who are not paying attention to where they are walking.
Multiple players can become distracted by a single magazine.

Counters

The Sixth Sense skill highlights Magazines even through cover.
Players cannot become distracted if they move over a magazine whilst in a Cardboard Box.
Prone pencil-rolls and other rolling manoeuvres can also be used to safely move past a magazine, so long as the roll does not finish next to the magazine.
Shooting a magazine will destroy it.