While making your way through the jungle in Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, you eventually run into The Fear. He is a member of the famed Cobra Unit, and he possesses supernatural powers. So, he's certainly a dangerous foe.

You face off against him one-on-one in one of the more memorable boss battles in the game. It isn't the most complicated fight, but there are some things you need to know to be able to get the better of your strange opponent. All of that information is right here.

Right at the start of the fight, make sure you listen to Para-Medic and remove the poison and crossbow bolt from your body, as they will really hamper you.

The Fear's Attacks

Unlike many other bosses in the game, The Fear is more of a defensive enemy. The villain spends most of his time staying invisible and continually jumping to different trees, rather than attacking. As such, he's almost perpetually in motion, making him tough to hit.

When he does attack, he does so with his crossbow. He has a few different crossbow attacks, including the following ones:

  • Regular Bolt - He fires a single crossbow bolt at you.
  • A Volley Of Bolts - He unleashes several bolts at you in quick succession.
  • Raining Down Bolts - He fires bolts straight into the air, having them rain down upon you.
  • Explosive Bolt - He shoots a bolt at you that explodes right afterward.

There isn't a special way to avoid these attacks; you just have to try to see them coming and get out of the way. For the Regular Bolt and A Volley of Bolts, you can use trees as cover.

In general, the best way to deal with his attacks is to keep moving, as he doesn't have the greatest aim. However, if you're moving around, be aware of the traps in the area.

How To Defeat The Fear

As with every boss in the game, you can defeat The Fear lethally or non-lethally. Typically, this is just about what weapons you use. However, with The Fear, the lethal and non-lethal methods are a bit different.

For both methods, it's useful to equip the thermal goggles if you have them, as they allow you to see him while he's invisible. If you don't have them, then look out for a shimmer or a bit of electric static to see where he is.

Lethal Method

To eliminate The Fear lethally, you need to deplete his health bar using weapons that have the 'DMG' symbol. You're best to stick with things that are fairly quick since he jumps all over the place. For example, the AK-47 is a good choice for this battle.

With a strong weapon in hand, you want to follow his movements as he jumps between trees. He sometimes leaps straight off a branch after he lands on it, which doesn't give you much time to shoot. Other times, though, he stops for a second or two, and this is when you should start blasting him.

Another opportunity you have to attack him is when he becomes tired and climbs down from the trees to gather some food. While doing so, he won't pay as much attention to you, giving you the chance to strike.

You generally want to be very aggressive in this battle, as The Fear struggles to unleash his own attacks if he's getting peppered by your bullets. So, if you keep an eye on him and attack every time you get the chance, he will struggle to do anything.

Non-Lethal Method

The glitch method from the original game, where you throw a stun grenade at him and shoot him with an assault rifle to somehow beat him non-lethally, doesn't work in this version.

Beating him non-lethally means depleting his stamina bar, rather than his health bar. So, you need to use weapons that have either the 'STN' or 'ZZZ' symbols.

Unfortunately, it's likely that you only have one non-lethal gun at this point, and it's the MK.22 tranquilizer pistol. This isn't the perfect weapon for this situation because The Fear is quickly jumping between trees, and the tranq gun is slow.

Thankfully, though, you aren't solely responsible for lowering his stamina. You may notice that his stamina bar gradually decreases as he jumps from branch to branch. When the bar reaches about 50 percent, the boss must then climb down to the ground to eat and refill his stamina.

When he's climbing up and down trees to grab food, he's still pretty quick, but he's distracted. So, it's a good time to get shots on him. Yet, if he successfully feeds himself, his stamina will go up. You can do something about that, though.

In the area you're fighting, there is a body of water. Near that, you can find some colorful poisonous frogs and perhaps some poisonous mushrooms. Shoot or knife them and then leave them on the ground - if you accidentally pick them up, you can drop them again.

When The Fear goes down to feast, he will likely head for the food you left out. Yet, he isn't immune to poison, meaning it won't increase his stamina bar like regular food. Plus, it makes him sluggish, and he throws up, which gives you a great chance to fire darts into him.

If you do successfully poison him, you won't have to actually land many shots since his own jumping decreases much of his stamina. If you beat him this way, you gain the Spider camo.