Metal Gear Solid 5 - Hunting Down: Human trafficker location, intel file, Sortie Prep
How to find the encryption key, rescue the hostages, and track down the human trafficker in The Phantom Pain's Hunting Down mission.
Welcome to Metal Gear Solid 5 - Hunting Down, the 25th main story mission of the game, following on from Aim True, Ye Vengeful.
Hunting Down Mission checklist:
- Pinpointed the trafficker's escape route from an intel file
- Eliminated the trafficker
- Eliminated the trafficker before he reached Kiziba Camp
- Extracted the trafficker and 5 escort soldiers
- Extracted 4 prisoners being held at Ditadi Abandoned Village
- Extracted a side-striped jackal near Kiziba Camp
Things aren't looking good at Mother Base right now. Luckily, though, your Intel Team might have found a useful lead. Once you're back in the air, open your mission list and initiate 26-Hunting Down Next, set your Landing Zone to the south-east of Ditadi Abandoned Village and enter the Sortie Prep screen. Choose D-Dog as your buddy, pack a tranquilliser sniper rifle (such as the RENOV-ICKX TP), set the Drop Time to 0600 and commence the mission.
This time around, your objective is to locate and eliminate a human trafficker, on the run somewhere on the savanna. Unfortunately, the only information you have concerning his whereabouts is a coded transmission. To decode the transmission, you'll need to locate the comms room at Ditadi Abandoned Village and secure an intel file containing the encryption key.
Hunting Down: Infiltrate Ditadi Abandoned Village and secure the encryption key
Once you touch down, bring up your iDroid and place a marker on Ditadi Abandoned Village - there are no yellow objective markers to follow, so you'll need to create your own. Immediately begin moving north-west toward the village which, fortunately, is only a short distance away.
Before long, if you're heading directly toward your waypoint marker, you'll spot a small tent near a water tower just up a hill to the right. If you brought D-Dog along for the mission, he'll sniff out a prisoner inside the tent (as well as one further down the hill ahead).
Climb the hill, dealing with the nearby guard, and extract the prisoner. When you're done, look north behind the tent and locate the raised satellite dish that marks the comms tower. Approach the dish and eliminate any hostiles roaming the area. Next, raid the two nearby tents to secure some valuable resources and blueprints. Return to the comms tower and locate the table full of radio equipment nearby. The intel can be found here so examine it to secure the encryption key.
Rescue the remaining hostages at Ditadi Abandoned Village
Next, begin working your way south-west down the hillside, moving toward the green triangle on your HUD that marks the second prisoner's location.
While you're moving, you'll be informed that your main target - the human trafficker - is making his way toward Kiziba Camp. His predicted route will be added to your map. Unsurprisingly, you'll find it much harder to eliminate the target if he makes it to the camp - as such, speed is of the essence.
As you near the triangular marker, you'll come to a lone tent. Sneak inside, grab the prisoner then extract them out of the area. Note that there are two more prisoners to be found in the village - and rescuing all four will complete a hidden mission objective. One hostage lies in a lone tent near a water tower directly to the north-west. Prisoner number four can be found in a ruined building near a comms dish - directly behind the watchtower on the hill to the north-east.
Need help with The Phantom Pain? Our Metal Gear Solid 5 guide and walkthrough explains how to complete every main story mission, and explains their many optional objectives. We also have lists of Blueprint locations, Tape locations, Key Item locations, how to unlock S Ranks and a Metal Gear Solid 5 Achievement and Trophy list.
Locate and eliminate the human trafficker
Next, open your iDroid and place a waypoint marker on the starting point of the target's predicted route to the south-west. You should also place a marker at the route's midpoint (where it changes direction) and on Kiziba Camp itself.
Once you're ready to continue, begin moving to a point somewhere between the first and second markers that you placed, staying low as you cross over the main road ahead. A little further on, you'll reach another large road with a long, low hill nearby.
Scramble up the hill, pull out your sniper rifle and do a wide zoomed-in sweep of the savanna from south to the north. Look carefully and you should see the trafficker and his entourage making their way toward Kiziba Camp. Unfortunately, you're likely too far away to get a decent shot from here. As such, begin moving closer to the trafficker's position, searching for a reasonably high vantage point that gives you a clear line of sight to your target.
When you're suitably positioned, use your sniper rifle to put a tranquiliser shot in the heads of your main target and his bodyguards. Before moving in to extract them however, be aware that there's likely a sniper in the area too. You'll need to deal with him before approaching the trafficker.
Once the coast is clear, Fulton everyone out of the mission zone then call in a support helicopter, directing it toward the Landing Zone slap-bang in the middle of the savanna, Finally, hop onboard to complete the mission. You'll receive the At Mother Base [Supplemental 2] cassette tape as a reward for you troubles. Good work!
- The next part of our walkthrough explains how to complete Root Cause.
- You can find the rest of our Metal Gear Solid 5 walkthrough from the first page of this article.