Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance walkthrough, Part Nine: GRAD

On the lookout for a bunch of orphans who may be undergoing indoctrination to become child soldiers, Raiden has run afoul of a beefy GRAD in Desperado's underground research facility. He'll have to use all his wits to beat this thing, as running straight at it with sword raised probably won't do much good.

The first part of this battle is pretty simple. GRAD will sit in one spot, firing at you whenever you come into the middle of the warehouse floor. Weave from niche to niche as you approach the GRAD to avoid any missiles it might fire. Once you get close enough, start slashing. It will eventually rear back to try to shove you away; parry this to force it back through the warehouse. Do this enough times and you'll clear a path to the second half of the room.

This is where the real fight begins. GRAD now enters 'weapons mode', wherein' it stands up, revealing itself to be a hefty robot with a lot of firepower. It has several different attacks, but most boil down to three things:

• A close range, physical swipe
• Ranged gunfire, usually accompanied by missiles that will home in on Raiden
• Heavy-duty ranged gunfire which you can't block, and which will always knock you over

The latter two you can only deal with by Ninja Running and keeping close to GRAD. The former is what you want, as normal attacks just won't cut it with this thing. You want, in particular, for GRAD to use the big paddles on either side of its head (?) in a slapping attack. Parry that and you'll open up the opportunity, so long as your timing is good, to slice those same paddles to pieces. You can do this twice to inflict significant damage, though it also makes GRAD move around a lot more.

Once the paddles are gone, the missiles are gone too - which is good and bad, because the missiles drop healing items if you manage to dispose of them with your sword (which usually still causes damage - not the greatest option in the world). GRAD now becomes very skittish, and will only resort to physical attacks if you manage to get in close. Parrying is still an option, especially on GRAD's slamming attack, but it's harder to manage in this part of the fight.

What you're mainly waiting for here is for GRAD to hunker down and start firing missiles. It's difficult to get GRAD to stay still, but it will stop dead for several seconds when it unleashes this barrage. Dodge by them and attack it from the side, slashing at its head. You can do significant amounts of damage this way, potentially dizzying GRAD and opening up for some Blade Mode slashing.

One of the most annoying, and completely understated, threats in this fight are the tanks spread throughout the area. GRAD moves around a lot, and it has a tendency to wipe out tanks while trying to target Raiden. These tanks are not only huge, they pose a triple threat: the initial explosion and the hunks of debris (typically two pieces) that fly out when they're destroyed. You need to keep away from these tanks as much as possible, especially when GRAD is near them. Having to dodge the wreckage when they explode further complicates and already difficult fight.

Once GRAD is toast, head into the adjoining hallway. There are two guards out here, though after the fight with GRAD they'll be a joke. Dispose of them and head to the next door to find a cryo lab. Inside you'll find VR Mission 007, and in the room past that… well, the end of the chapter. Among other things. Completing it will earn you the Mariachi Uniform, as well as unlocking a bunch of new buyables in the Customize menu. Not the happiest way to end a chapter, but…