While theMetal Gearseries may be named after oversized war machines, it’s actually about a group of Snakes. These aren’t actual Snakes, however, they’re human operatives that use the Snake codename. They don’t just give that name to any random scrub.
The ones that have held it in the Metal Gear series are incredible warriors that could easily best the average soldier in combat. So, they’re all impressively strong. Yet, how do they all compare to one another? In an attempt to get to the bottom of that, here is a ranking of them based on their strength in combat.
6Solidus Snake
Took Out Multiple Metal Gears, But Not Raiden
Solidus is a tough one to judge since you don’t really see him in his prime. He only appears in Metal Gear Solid 2 as a fairly old man, who isolder than he looksbecause of his accelerated aging. Despite his age, though, he still proves to be a significant threat to Raiden. That said, he is wearing an impressive-looking suit that enables him to use robotic tentacles and move incredibly quickly. So, that does help offset his age a little bit.
It still doesn’t help him beat Raiden in a fight, as he loses against the protagonist in the final battle of the game. The result of this duel makes him officially the weakest of the Snakes. However, you still can’t call him very weak since there is one scene where he eliminates multiple Metal Gear Rays at once and gets the better of Olga, who is an impressive combatant in her own right. If he hadn’t lost to the non-ninja version of Raiden, his strength would be more respected.
5Raiden
Beat Solidus And A Few Other Dangerous Foes
Raiden only has the Snake codename for a few minutes in Metal Gear Solid 2 before it’s changed to Raiden. As brief as this stint is, it is enough to count him as one of the Snakes. He has the codename long before he receives his overpowered exoskeleton or gains the ability to run across walls and leap really high. So, none of that can be considered when judging his strength as a Snake.
During the time he receives the codename, he isn’t incredibly impressive. He’s still a bit of a rookie, who hasn’t made much of an impression in real-world combat yet - unless you count his stint as a child soldier. Additionally, unlike the other snakes, he lacks the genes of a legendary soldier. However, he still manages to defeat some Dead Cell members, including Solidus Snake. This is enough to put him above that particular Snake, even though the antagonist’s accelerated age probably played a part in his defeat.
4Liquid Snake
His Dominant Genes Were Not Enough To Beat Solid Snake
Liquid’s only real appearance as an adult in the series comes in the original Metal Gear Solid. During the game, he serves as the main antagonist, but doesn’t actually get into much combat that doesn’t involve him piloting a vehicle. That said, he does have an epic brawl with Solid Snake late into the story. This battle alone proves how powerful the guy is. He can land some significant strikes on his clone brother that deal a lot of damage. This should come as no surprise since he’s supposed to be the better twin.
Even though he thought he was given Big Boss’s recessive genes in the cloning process, he was actually given the dominant ones. So, in theory, he should be stronger than Solid Snake. Yet, genes only get you so far. In a one-on-one fight between the pair, Solid Snake won, despite being the genetically inferior twin, which proves he’s actually the stronger one. Still, though, it was a close fight, so Liquid is clearly a powerful fighter in his own right.
3Venom Snake
Not Many Other Warriors Could Best Quiet
Venom Snake is the protagonist of Phantom Pain, and believes himself to be Big Boss. Only duringa shocking twist at the end of the gamedoes he learn that he isn’t actually the legendary hero. Instead, he’s a medic who sustained significant injuries, and while being put back together, he was made to be physically and mentally identical to Big Boss.
Somehow, this also meant that he possessed many of the same combat capabilities as the person he was modeled after. This is shown throughout Phantom Pain when he tackles various dangerous foes, from Metal Gears to the talented Quiet. In the original Metal Gear game, though, he faces off and is defeated by Solid Snake, proving himself not to be the strongest Snake.
2Naked Snake
Defeated The World’s Greatest Soldier
Naked Snake is the original Snake, and it serves asone of his many nicknames, alongside Big Boss. He carried the codename proudly as he defeated each member of the famous and powerful Cobra Unit. Along the way, he beat the incredibly strong Colonel Volgin and the very talented Ocelot, too. He even bested huge, deadly machines and vehicles on his own.
His greatest triumph, though, came against the leader of the Cobra Unit and his mentor, The Boss. She was known as the world’s greatest soldier and taught Naked Snake much of what he knows. Yet, in their final battle, he beat her in a straight-up one-on-one battle, earning him the title of Big Boss and proving himself to be the world’s best soldier. That is, until the events of Metal Gear 2, where he was bested by another Snake, which is the only reason he can’t be considered the number one Snake.
1Solid Snake
Defeated Most Of The Other Snakes
Solid Snake is the main hero of the Metal Gear series. This provides him with some element of plot armor. However, that isn’t something that can be just disregarded when discussing who’s the strongest Snake in the series. After all, you’re able to only judge them on what they’ve done. And something Solid Snake has done is defeat Liquid, Venom, and Naked Snake. Through that, he’s proven himself to be the strongest Snake.
Yes, Venom and Naked were pretty old when Solid beat them, but in MGS4, Solid proved that an aging body is no excuse. As Old Snake, he was still able to save the world while defeating a bunch of enhanced antagonists along the way. Plus, even though Naked Snake was old during their battle, Solid Snake was unarmed, so the antagonist still had the advantage. This shows that Solid Snake doesn’t need weapons to defeat the most dangerous foes, which is a sign of true strength.
