Walker Gear

Venom Snake at the helm of D-Walker in 1984.

Venom Snake and D-Walker in the plains of Africa.

Walker Gears were bipedal, small arm equipped, manned vehicles that were developed by Huey Emmerich in 1984. These mechs saw limited use by the Soviet military in Afghanistan, several private military/mercenary forces in Africa (which had been supplied to them via XOF/Cipher), and Diamond Dogs. They had originally been developed to ensure the Soviets won their invasion of Afghanistan and possibly the Cold War, although the XOF commander Skull Face soon gained an interest in them in his plan to rid the world of the English language and make each individual a nuclear power.

Description

Modeled after the Metal Gear concept, but on a smaller scale. Walker Gears were designed for more conventional anti-infantry/anti-vehicle combat use. They were capable of bipedal movement for greater maneuverability on rough terrain or could fold up and move on wheels for greater speeds on flat terrain. Every model of Walker Gear had two front-facing headlights for greater visibility during night patrols or operations. They could be loaded with different heavy weapons for designated anti-infantry or anti-vehicle roles.

Walker Gears also came with two small arms, hidden in the front of their chassis, that wielded pistols or submachine guns as backup weapons. Most mass produced Walker Gears came with an armored face shield, that could withstand a few high powered shots, to protect the pilot's head. These face shields had an unarmored slot so pilots could see in front of the Walker Gear. Walker Gears were all armored enough to withstand small arms fire for an extended amount of time. However, too much damage would eventually pierce the armor and damage the critical components within. Being too close to an explosion could knock a Walker Gear offline momentarily, leaving the pilot exposed and unable to return fire.

Types

• CCCP-WG: Designation for models used by the Soviet military.
  • Type-A: Equipped with a minigun.
  • Type-C: Equipped with a missile launcher.
• CFA-WG: Designation for models used by the Contract Forces of Africa.
  • Type-A: Equipped with a minigun.
  • Type-C: Equipped with a missile launcher.
• D-Walker: A unique, customizable, AI equipped Walker Gear used by Venom Snake and the Diamond Dogs.
• Huey's Walker Gear (WG:PP): A Walker Gear very similar to the D-Walker was seen in Huey Emmerich's lab in Afghanistan. This model could only be activated by him. It was equipped with a minigun and arm, the latter of which was not included in the mass-produced models.

WG:PP.

CFA-WG Type A.

CFA-WG Type-C.

CCCP-WG Type-A.

CCCP-WG Type-C.

D-Walker

The D-Walker (short for Diamond-Walker Gear) was a custom Walker Gear built for the Diamond Dogs by Huey. This model was installed with an onboard AI that would come to the pilot's location when called, could locate/mark enemies, and eventually commence attacks on its own. The D-Walker was able to carry a variety of heavy and back up weapons. It could be fitted with a variety of head modules for different tasks and all of its weapons, reload speed, ammo reserves, and armor could be upgraded. The D-Walker was built with an exposed third arm capable of picking up dead/unconscious/stunned persons, throwing targets within its reach, or wielding a machete for lethal melee attacks. Unlike the mass produced models, the D-Walker did not come with a face shield. The D-Walker's paintjob could be changed, including different camouflage patterns. It also featured a silent running system, which allowed for it to move undetected, thus also making it ideal for infiltration missions.

Heavy Weapons:

• Minigun
• Missile Launcher
• Flamethrower
• H-Discharger
• F-Ballista

Side Arms:

• WU Silenced Pistol
• D114 Pistol
• Geist K11 Pistol
• ZE'EV Submachine gun

Head modules:

• Support Head (can be upgraded to be less detectable when not in use)
• Scouting Head (automatically locates and marks enemy targets)
• Intercept Head (capable of identifying and attacking enemies on its own with sub weapon)

Huey's Walker Gear

There was also one Walker Gear in the Afghanistan Central Base Camp's laboratory hangar, which Huey could only be activated by himself and was specialized. He used it in an attempt to escape the facility, although Venom Snake piloted it himself after placing a bag back on Huey (as he had come to "extract" him for Diamond Dogs as revenge for his presumed role on the Mother Base attack nine years earlier). Although Miller did not think it was a good idea to use the Walker Gear, both due to doubts about whether the Walker Gear was actually operable, and especially due to his grudge against Huey for his perceived role on the destruction of the Militaires Sans Frontières, Ocelot suggested using it to cover the distance between the encampment and the landing zone. This Walker Gear's design was very similar to the D-Walker, though it lacked the driving mode.

Skull Face's plan

Walker Gears, besides acting as part of a scheme to get PMCs from around the globe to come under Cipher's thumb, were planned to be equipped with the English strain of the vocal cord parasites. Because of their near-unlimited potential for traversing terrain and crossing long distances, they would have been able to quickly and efficiently spread the parasites all throughout the world. Not only that, but PMCs unaware of the parasites would play a hand in spreading them during their travels and involvement in wars.

Certain Walker Gears were also intended to have depleted uranium armor plating similar to that of Metal Gear Sahelanthropus. By selling these to various factions around the world, along with the metallic archaea to quickly enrich the uranium from the Walker Gear's armor into weapons-grade uranium, the global community would have access to nuclear weaponry in a form other than nukes. This was intended as a back up plan, based on nuclear deterrence theory, in case his plan to rid the world of the English language using the vocal cord parasites failed.

Behind the scenes

These mechs were first seen in the E3 2013 trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, and later in the first Metal Gear Online 3 trailer. They resemble the TX-55 Metal Gear as well as the later Metal Gear Mk. II.

A screenshot posted to Hideo Kojima's Twitter account revealed that at least one type of combat mech can be piloted in the single player portion of The Phantom Pain while the player is on a mission. In an interview with Yoji Shinkawa just prior to Ground Zeroes release, Shinkawa alluded to the weapon.

The Official PlayStation Magazine and Official Xbox Magazine supplied the mech's identity, and also confirmed that it, alongside Quiet, DD, and D-Horse, were one of at least four combat partners for the player to accompany them. The E3 2015 demo revealed its weapons capabilities as well as its description, and also revealed that it is automated by having it come to Big Boss when he calls it by whistling. In addition, it also possesses the unique ability to "Search", which means scanning an area and marking all enemy personnel. According to Sean Eyestone during the coverage of the demo, this function will outrank the findings found by the Intel Team, depending on the rank of the Intel Team when it was used.

The Walker Gear is the only Buddy not to have any trophies/achievements relating to either use on the field or developing a bond to the maximum level.

Though the pilot's legs are clearly exposed from the front, the player cannot hit them due to how each Walker Gear's collision boxes were implemented. This makes getting into firefights with Walker Gears, when using non-lethal firearms, a generally bad idea.

According to Kojima's notes in the Piggyback Collector's Edition Guide's art gallery, the premise behind the Walker Gears in the game was to enhance the player's freedom of action, since the game was not necessarily about perfect stealth but rather about free infiltration, thus allowing the player to experiment with new play styles and game strategies.

The models used by PFs and Soviet soldiers have a total health of 6,000. Whereas the WG:PP has a health value dependent on the current mission sequence. It initially has 30,000 health but gets set to a max of 10,000 during the Sahelanthropus escape sequence.

Walker Gears make a return in Metal Gear Survive where they can be used to travel through areas and combat various Wanderers. Aside from their in-game appearances, Paper Craft Model versions of both the Soviet Army and CFA models of Walker Gears also acted as pre-order bonuses for the game from Game TSUTAYA and Sofmap-Ion, respectively.

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