The EZ Gun was a small tranquilizer gun with a built-in suppressor and laser sight.
History[]
The EZ Gun was created by Sigint from a base design of the FP-45 Liberator pistol given to the French resistance during World War II. Sigint found that modeling the gun into the Liberator's shape was the most difficult part of the weapon's design. When questioned why he would go to all the trouble, Sigint replied enthusiastically that it "[looked] cool". The gun's ammunition itself was silent, meaning that the user never had to worry about an equipable suppressor wearing out over time. While the EZ Gun could only hold one round, it could be reloaded as fast as the Mk.22, whereas the Liberator took much longer to reload.
In the 1970s, the Militaires Sans Frontières developed several variants of the EZ Gun (discernible by their paint patterns), chambered for different rounds, from Life Recovery to miniature transmitters for supply drops and artillery strikes, instead of tranquilizers.
Behind the scenes[]
MGS3 EZ Gun weapon window icon.
The EZ Gun first appears in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. The gun can be obtained by capturing or killing all 48 types of plants and animals in the game, including the four medicinal plants. It is also found in Naked Snake's backpack upon starting on the Very Easy difficulty level. It possesses infinite ammo and having the gun equipped raises Snake's Camo index to 80%, while lowering stamina consumption (it can even cause stamina to increase if Snake is traveling light and standing still). A similar weapon also appears in the minigame Snake vs. Monkey as a method for stunning monkeys, although it is now golden, fires small "balls" that temporarily stun the monkeys, and is called the Monkey Shaker (Saru-Gun-Shake in the Japanese version).
Liberator pistol - the basis for the EZ Gun.
The EZ Gun makes a reappearance in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, although the manner in which it is used has changed. The Life Recovery version can be procured after procuring design specs in an extra ops mission taking place at the coffee factory. The Psyche Recovery version is procurable during the Date with Paz extra ops mission while she is asleep by patting her down. The only way to get her to sleep is by choosing the bolstered version of "Say 'good night'" (Indicated by three "!"s).
A similar gun (presumably based on the Liberator gun just like the EZ Gun) appeared before Metal Gear Solid 3 in the non-canon game Snake's Revenge, although its purpose was closer to a flaregun and was referred to as such in-game.
Sigint tells the EZ Gun's silent ammunition is achieved by a piston inside the cartridge to propel the bullet, identical to the function of the PSS pistol, a weapon seen in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and featured as an usable weapon in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
In-game weapons descriptions[]
- "The EZ Gun. A suppressed tranquilizer gun developed especially for FOX. The suppression function is built into the gun itself. Also equipped with an internal laser sight. When equipped, causes stamina to recover faster and keeps the Camo Index high. Also eliminates footstep noise."
- ―EZ Gun description in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- "Special gun that knocks out monkeys. Press ◻ button to aim, release to fire. Equipping it puts you in a monkey-catching mood."
- ―Monkey Shaker description in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- "A special pistol developed by technical genius Sigint. Equipped with a built in suppressor so that the suppression effect never wears off.
Fires "LIFE Recovery Rounds" that restore the LIFE of the target. As such, its use in solo missions is rather limited; its real value is in CO-OPs when fighting alongside teammates." - ―EZ GUN (Life Recovery) weapons description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- "A special pistol developed by technical genius Sigint. Equipped with a built in suppressor so that the suppression effect never wears off.
Fires "PSYCHE Recovery Rounds" that restore the PSYCHE of the target. As such, its use in solo missions is rather limited; its real value is in CO-OPs when fighting alongside teammates." - ―EZ GUN (Psyche Recovery) weapons description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- "This pistol, a unique R&D Team creation, is used when requesting support supplies from Mother Base. It fires a marker that indicates the supply drop location.
Useful in missions where supplies are difficult to procure on site." - ―Support Supply Marker weapons description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- "This pistol, a unique R&D Team creation, is used when requesting support strikes from Mother Base. It fires a marker that indicates the strike location.
Use it to gain the upper hand in combat by taking advantage of Mother Base's firepower." - ―Support Strike Marker weapons description in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker