You spent dozens of hours in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker doing the dirty work. You've kidnapped soldiers with balloons, raided cold Soviet outposts, and hunted massive AI weapons in the tropical heat. But the real payoff isn't just seeing Mother Base grow. It’s that moment you finally walk into the hangar and see Metal Gear ZEKE standing there. It’s a mess of scrap metal, stolen Soviet tech, and high-end AI processors. And honestly? It’s probably the most personal Metal Gear in the entire franchise.
Most Metal Gears are boss fights. You see them, you blow them up, you watch a cutscene. ZEKE is different because it belongs to you. Or, at least, it’s supposed to.
Hideo Kojima really leaned into the "Build-a-Bear" aspect of nuclear deterrence here. You aren't just given a giant robot; you have to scavenge it. You’re literally peeling armor plates off the Pupa, grabbing the railgun from the Chrysalis, and snatching the radome from the Cocoon. It’s a mechanical Frankenstein. But beyond the gameplay loop of grinding for parts, ZEKE represents a massive shift in the lore. It was the first time Big Boss—Snake—actually had his own nuclear-equipped walking tank. It turned the Militaires Sans Frontières (MSF) from a ragtag group of mercenaries into a global superpower.
What Metal Gear ZEKE Actually Is (And Isn't)
People often confuse ZEKE with the other AI weapons in the game. It’s not just another boss. It’s the first Metal Gear built by Huey Emmerich under the direction of Big Boss. While the other machines you fight—the Peace Walker project—were designed by Coldman to prove a point about automated nuclear retaliation, ZEKE was built for defense. Or so Snake thought.
The name "ZEKE" comes from the Allied reporting name for the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. It’s a nod to Japanese history, but in the context of MSF, it’s a symbol of independence. It’s a machine built by soldiers, for soldiers, outside the reach of any government.
✨ Don't miss: Pennsylvania Lottery Pick 3 Explained: Why Most Players Leave Money on the Table
The Modular Nightmare
One of the coolest things about Metal Gear ZEKE is how it changes based on what you find. If you’re a perfectionist, you aren't just settling for the basic parts. You’re hunting the "Optional Parts" that turn it into a monster.
- The Railgun is the big one. Taken from the Chrysalis, it gives ZEKE the ability to launch a nuclear strike.
- The Radome increases accuracy.
- Jet Boosters allow for high-speed mobility.
- Armor Plating... well, that’s obvious.
If you just slap together the basic components, ZEKE looks like a skeleton. It’s flimsy. But once you fully deck it out with the special parts from the Type II or Custom boss battles, it starts to look like a legitimate predecessor to the Metal Gear Rex we see later in the timeline.
Why the AI Boards Matter More Than the Metal
If you’ve played Peace Walker, you know the pain of the "Memory Board" mini-game. After you disable a boss, you climb inside its AI pod and start ripping out chips. This isn't just busywork. These chips determine how Metal Gear ZEKE actually behaves when you send it out on Outer Ops.
There are four categories: Sense, Attack, Mobility, and Control.
Think about that for a second. You are literally programming the "personality" of your nuclear deterrent. If you focus entirely on Attack, ZEKE becomes a glass cannon. If you ignore Sense, it’s basically blind. It’s a level of customization we haven't seen in any other Metal Gear game. In MGSV: The Phantom Pain, we got the Battle Gear, but it was a total letdown—you couldn't even pilot it or see it do much. ZEKE felt alive. It felt like your team's mascot, if your mascot was a bipedal tank capable of ending the world.
The Betrayal: When Your Own Machine Turns on You
We have to talk about the ending. You spend the whole game building this thing, upgrading its legs, and polishing its railgun. Then, Paz Ortega Andrade—the girl you thought was a harmless student—reveals herself as a Cipher agent.
📖 Related: Which Pokémon Games by Sales Actually Defined the Franchise?
She hijacks Metal Gear ZEKE.
Suddenly, the machine you spent 40 hours building is trying to step on you. It’s a brilliant gameplay move by Kojima. The difficulty of this fight actually scales with how much you upgraded ZEKE. If you made it an absolute powerhouse with the best armor and the strongest railgun, you just made your own life a living hell. It’s a literal manifestation of the theme of the game: deterrence can easily turn into a threat.
The fight against ZEKE on Mother Base is iconic. Not just because of the music (the theme "Koi no抑止力" or "Love Deterrence" is a bizarre, J-pop contrast to the violence), but because of the emotional weight. You’re destroying your own hard work. When ZEKE eventually sinks into the ocean, it’s a gut punch. It’s the moment MSF loses its innocence.
Technical Specs and Lore Nuances
Huey Emmerich designed ZEKE to be modular, which is why it looks so different from the polished, sleek designs of the later years. It’s a "Generation 0" Metal Gear.
- Height: Roughly 10 to 12 meters depending on the leg configuration.
- Armament: Standard machine guns, a missile pod, and the optional (but narrative-required) railgun.
- AI Core: Based on the Mammal Pod technology developed by Dr. Strangelove, though less "sentient" than the Boss AI in Peace Walker itself.
It’s important to note that ZEKE wasn't just a combat unit. It was meant to be a political tool. By having a Metal Gear, MSF became a "Nuclear Power" without a nation. This is what eventually leads to the events of Ground Zeroes and the destruction of Mother Base. The UN (or rather, Cipher disguised as the UN) wants to inspect ZEKE. That inspection is the Trojan Horse that ends everything.
What Most People Get Wrong About ZEKE
A common misconception is that Metal Gear ZEKE is the same machine as Sahelanthropus from MGSV. They aren't the same at all. Sahelanthropus was way more advanced—maybe even too advanced for the 1980s—and relied on psychic powers to even move. ZEKE was "real" tech. It was clunky, it used hydraulic systems that made sense for 1974, and it felt like something that could actually be built in a secret offshore facility.
Another thing: people think ZEKE was permanently destroyed in the fight with Paz. It wasn't. It was recovered and repaired, but it was hidden underwater during the XOF raid. It’s one of the great tragedies of the series; Snake and Miller spent all that time and money on this deterrent, and it spent the most important battle of their lives sitting at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, useless.
Actionable Tips for Building the Best ZEKE
If you are currently playing through Peace Walker on an emulator or the Master Collection, don't just rush through. You want the best version of this machine for the endgame and Outer Ops.
- Focus on the Chrysalis for the Railgun early. You cannot finish the "true" ending without it. Don't waste time on the base weapon; go for the Railgun as soon as the Chrysalis fight is repeatable.
- The "S" Rank Secret: To get the best AI parts, you have to damage the pod as little as possible. Focus your fire on the legs or the weapons. If you blast the AI pod with rockets, you’ll get "Scrap" instead of high-functioning memory boards.
- Outer Ops Dominance: Don't put ZEKE in your Outer Ops squad until it has at least 50% armor. It’s expensive to repair, and losing it in a simulation is a massive resource sink.
- The Radome is Key: Many players skip the Cocoon grind because it’s a long, boring fight. Do not skip it. The Radome dramatically increases the hit rate of ZEKE’s missiles in the Paz fight and in automated missions.
Metal Gear ZEKE remains a high point in the series because it bridged the gap between "Snake the Hero" and "Big Boss the Warlord." It wasn't just a weapon; it was a statement. It told the world that MSF wasn't just a group of guns for hire—they were a force that could look the superpowers in the eye and not blink.
Even if it ended up being the very thing that brought their world crashing down.
To maximize your efficiency with ZEKE, start farming the Type II boss variations immediately after the main story ends. This will give you the high-tier scrap needed to bolster Mother Base's defenses for the late-game Outer Ops, which are the only way to unlock some of the best blueprints in the game, like the stealth camo and the high-end Carl Gustav launchers. Keep your AI boards balanced between Attack and Sense to ensure ZEKE doesn't miss its most powerful Railgun shots during automated combat.