Metal Gear Solid 5: Mission 16 Traitor’s Caravan

This guide will help you earn an S Rank for the mission Traitor’s Caravan in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. One of the best ways to earn an S Rank for most of the missions is to earn the time bonus, as this can help you earn the 130,000 points necessary for an S Rank score.  We have also composed a list of the mandatory and optional objectives for the mission, but keep in mind that you don’t need to complete the optional objectives to achieve an S Rank. 

Objectives

• Identify the armored escort unit (Optional).
• Identify the transport truck (Optional).
• Extract the transport truck (Mandatory).
• Eliminate the Skulls (Optional).
• Extract the transport truck driver (Optional).
• Pinpoint the escort unit’s route by recovering the intel file (Optional).
• List to all conversations between the transport driver and soldiers (Optional).
• Extract three zero risk security soldiers (Optional).

Walkthrough 

Since our guide will explain how to finish this mission quickly, we will be skipping most of the contents of the mission in order to earn the time bonus. If this is your first playthrough of this mission, you may want to follow the in game instructions and complete the optional objectives first. However, if your goal is to earn the S Rank, then prepare to follow along. Note that you will also need to have an upgraded Fulton Recovery Device in order to extract the truck for this mission. 

Begin by having the helicopter drop you off, but don’t follow what the game tells you. Instead, hop on your D-Horse and head south, straight to the airport containing the objective. Make your way around the back side of the Nova Braga Airport, where you can hop over a small gap in the barbed wire fence. Carefully follow along the wall to your left, and you should spot the transport truck around the corner, triggering a cutscene as you get closer. 

After the cutscene finishes, four Skulls will surround you and the truck, but don’t worry about them. Simply attach your upgraded (Cargo +2) Fulton Recovery Device to the transport truck for extraction. Continue to ignore the Skulls even if it activates Reflex mode. Now, just make a mad dash for the exit by running southeast down the runway.

Call in your D-Horse as you sprint out of the hot zone. When he appears beside you, hop on and gallop away as quickly as you can. The Skulls will continue to chase you as you exit into the fields outside of the airport.  Shoot them if they run ahead of you, and make some sharp pivot turns if they try to cut you off. Continue to make quick, winding maneuvers on your horse to keep the Skulls off of you. Once you fully exfiltrate the hot zone, the mission concludes. From here you can call in an extraction helicopter and head back to Mother Base to unwind. 

If you followed our instructions, then you should finish this mission in under five minutes, earning you a high enough time bonus to achieve the S Rank.

Continue to Mission 17: Rescue the Intel Agents, or return to the Metal Gear Solid 5 Walkthrough and Guide.