Add silencers, grenade launchers and underbarrel shotguns to your weapons in Metal Gear Solid 5 with the Legendary Gunsmith recruit. Capturing this unique soldier unlocks the Weapon Customization menu, allowing Big Boss to create Frankenstein combinations of any weapons you’ve unlocked in R&D.

Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has so many weapons, items and outfits to unlock it seems like over-kill to include customization along with it. The extensive weapon-swapping menu allows you to combine and switch out any gun pieces, attaching exclusive extras that don’t come standard through normal R&D unlocks. With the Legendary Weaponsmith, you can attach silencers to sniper rifles early, stick grenade launchers on assault rifles and improve everything with gold paint.

How to Unlock Gun Customization

To earn the Weapon Customization feature at Mother Base, you’ll need to recruit the Legendary Gunsmith. These Side Ops normally become available following Mission 13.

Once Mission 13 is complete, check the Side Ops menu for 107 – Extract The Legendary Gunsmith. This op is located in Bwala ya Masa in the African map. Make sure there are no overlapping Side Ops and complete them if this op isn’t available.

Bring D-Dog or Quiet to easily locate the gunsmith prospect. D-Dog will automatically sniff out nearby enemies, while Quiet must be ordered. On the iDroid map, scroll through Quiet’s Buddy commands with the D-Pad and select the area you want to scout.

When the recruit has been scanned, a blue circle will appear over his icon. Extract him to complete the Side Op.

After completing 107 – Extract The Legendary Gunsmith, you’ll need to complete two more Side Ops; 108 – Extract The Legendary Gunsmith Again (Afghanistan Central Base) & 109 – Extract The Legendary Gunsmith Yet Again (Yakhoo Oboo Supply Outpost).

Once again, if those two Side Ops aren’t available, make sure there are no other overlapping Side Ops in those areas. Complete any Side Ops near the locations listed above and the Legendary Gunsmith missions should become available.

Complete all three missions and Weapon Customization becomes available in the Customization menu at Mother Base. Here you can create preset weapons using parts you’ve unlocked.

R&D certain grenade launchers to use undermounted launchers on assault rifles — a feature otherwise impossible with regular R&D unlocks.

Get creative and repaint weapons designed for your specialized needs with this awesome secret feature.

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Kevin Thielenhaus is a freelance writer for The Escapist. Find him on Twitter here.