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Dwarf Gekko, commonly known as Tripods and Scarabs, are small, unmanned weapons that guard important areas and are used for reconnaissance. They were used most often by Liquid Ocelot and his mercenary forces.

Physical appearance and abilitiesEdit

Dwarf Gekko are small, black spheres - about 1/3 as tall as the average man - with a large, blue "eye" and three organic-looking arms, similar to Screaming Mantis' additional arms. Their main methods of locomotion are to roll around in their spherical form, or use their three arms to hop about and run in a limited fashion. While one or a few are easily defeated, the Dwarf Gekko often attack in large groups, where they show their true deadly potential. Scanning any areas they are guarding with a beam of light, if they detect an intruder, an alert is raised, causing Dwarf Gekko reinforcements to converge en masse upon an enemy. Besides rolling into or swiping at their enemies to cause injury, they are capable of latching onto them and inducing a painful, electric shock with their central "eye." They detonate when destroyed, making it dangerous for enemies to be nearby when taking them on. Sometimes, they can even self-destruct by clinging onto someone, ensuring that their enemy dies. They also have the ability to latch onto walls and work like a security camera, and if they are too far away to engage in hand-to-hand combat, they use their human-shaped hands to operate a FN Five-SeveN hand gun.

Other than combat-related duties, Dwarf Gekko are also somewhat efficient in disguising themselves, with three Dwarf Gekko being enough to, after donning a fedora cap and a trenchcoat, pass for another person, as evidenced with their use in Eastern Europe. In addition, they could also act as a digital-optical output mounted proxy (DOOMP) for soldiers should they be activated and/or reprogrammed to be controlled remotely by cyborgs. They also contained a USB port by 2018 in case they had to retrieve data remotely as a DOOMP.

HistoryEdit

DevelopmentEdit

The Dwarf Gekko were designed to combat and infiltrate compact spaces, as full Gekko were incapable of doing so as discovered by their increased deployment into urban counterterrorism operations. This largely acted as the primary reason for their name of Dwarf Gekko. The Gekko itself can also act as their mothership. During the height of the War Economy, the Dwarf Gekko underwent field testing, and as such, was considered top secret to non-military/PMC personnel, although rumors nonetheless circulated among military analysts

Liquid Ocelot's InsurrectionEdit

See Liquid Sun, Solid Sun, Third Sun, Twin Suns, Old Sun, and Naked Sin/Naked Son

In 2014, Dwarf Gekko were briefly seen by Solid Snake in the Middle East, attached to the "head" of a Gekko.

Three Dwarf Gekko later appeared in Eastern Europe, disguising themselves by stacking on top of one another and donning a trenchcoat and fedora. They spied on Snake as he followed a Resistance member to Big Mama's hideout, but they were eventually discovered and destroyed by the latter. As Snake and Big Mama entered the sewers, another Dwarf Gekko spotted them and alerted Liquid Ocelot of their presence.

When Liquid returned to Shadow Moses Island to steal Metal Gear REX's rail gun, he had the Werewolf PMC deploy a large number of Dwarf Gekko in the area, knowing that Snake would soon come to stop him. They constantly scanned and guarded most of the indoor areas of the abandoned disposal facility, accompanied by several Gekko. Around this time, Nastasha Romanenko supplied Otacon with some information on the Dwarf Gekko, which he later relayed to Snake.

Dwarf Gekko later appeared in the missile hangar of Outer Haven, attacking in three large waves as Solid Snake made his way across the walkways towards GW's server room. When he arrived there, numerous hidden Dwarf Gekko revealed themselves and nearly overwhelmed Snake before they were deactivated by FOXALIVE.^[1]

RevengeanceEdit

Despite FOXALIVE taking down the Patriots AI network, the Dwarf Gekko still continued to see use. When they had initially been developed, cyborgs were still not commonly known, especially when the Patriots were still around, and as such they were somewhat weak against cyborgs. However, by the time of the late 2010s, in large part because of cyborg development, the Dwarf Gekko's designs were improved to take into account cyborg combat: Specifically, their weapons systems and armor utilized CNT musclefiber, and they were also capable of leeching MCFC fuel cells from cyborgs until they detonate after consuming enough MCFC fuel. Several were later utilized by the PMC Desperado, with one of its captains, Mistral, also being capable of merging various Scarab arms to herself. However, at least one ended up being reprogrammed by the PMC Maverick agent, Raiden, during his mission as a means to scout and/or dispatch his enemies remotely. Several Gekkos also accompanied Mistral in her fight against Raiden. There was also a variant that acted as conjoined twins, called a Humanoid Dwarf Gekko in reference to their overall humanoid shape.

Behind the scenesEdit

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the PatriotsEdit

Although Dwarf Gekko (小人月光 Kobito gekkō) made appearances in Act 1 and Act 3, they are not actually encounterable by the player until Act 4.

When confronting Dwarf Gekko in combat, the best resort is to use grenade launchers and machine-guns at a distance, shotguns at close combat, or simply to rush through them with forward rolls. Despite their great numbers, they possess one notable weakness that a patient adversary can exploit: unlike the larger Gekko, their scanning beam is easily thwarted by inanimate substances. An intruder who remains immobile inside a metal drum, or even a cardboard box, will effectively be invisible to a Dwarf Gekko. However, if the player lies in wait at one of its patrol routes even using metal drums or cardboard box, they will discover the player thus triggering an Alert.

Chaff grenades are highly effective against Dwarf Gekko, as any units in the vicinity will be stunned for a period of time, giving Snake the chance to destroy them or find a hiding spot. Also, the stealth camouflage is useless against Dwarf Gekko, as they use thermal scanners to detect their targets.

In Act 5, Dwarf Gekko spawn indefinitely on the walkways within Outer Haven's missile hangar, after Snake leaves Meryl to deal with the Haven Troopers. This can be useful for achieving a large amount of Drebin Points as the Gekko can be destroyed with relative ease, leaving behind random handguns that can then be sold (using a large magazine machinegun will make this easier still).

Metal Gear Solid: Rising and Metal Gear Rising: RevengeanceEdit

The TGS demonstration of Metal Gear Solid: Rising has a Dwarf Gekko appear at one point. They perform acts such as spinning watermelons, juggling bowling pins, or balancing their own kind, and when defeated, will applaud Raiden. This particular model is known as the Kogekko.^[2]

The Dwarf Gekko were not seen in promotional material for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance until the TGS 2012 trailer. While they are confirmed to be enemies, the trailer has also shown that Raiden can capture at least one and turn it over to his side by attaching a cable to his neck and reprogramming it, making it scout and attack as well. One of the Desperado cyborgs, Mistral, has the ability to attach multiple Dwarf Gekko arms onto herself. When the play gets hit by Mistral The dwarf gekkos will either applaud Mistral or laugh at Raiden.

The Dwarf Gekkos were used as a chair for Mistral in the Bladewolf DLC. They can be heard sayng things like "HOLD HER!" some of them even made wailing sounds similar to crying and straining because they were having trouble supporting her. (Note Most cyborgs weigh 300+ pounds)

Two special edition figurines of Dwarf Gekko were released to various members of the development staff to commemorate the game's release. They were given the colors yellow for Kojima Productions, and silver for Platinum Games. They would later be issued for sale.

Other appearancesEdit

Dwarf Gekko later appeared in the Versus Battle page of the official Metal Gear Solid website, where they fought against the Cyborg Soldiers. The Dwarf Gekko stats noted that they were reconfigurable, relentless, and resourceful, but were only intended for guard duty and reconnaissance.

"STRENGTHS: Reconfigurable. Relentless. Resourceful.
WEAKNESSES: Geared for Guarding & Recon
FEATURED FACT: Often attack in groups, can operate firearms, detonate when destroyed.
FEATURED GAME: METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE"

— Dwarf Gekko stats in Versus Battle on metalgearsolid.com