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Abilities can be upgraded, and each one has three levels. Skills, now referred to as Abilities, make a return in MGO3, where they enhance the performance of a character or weapon. The inclusion of different classes is intended to balance gameplay, make MGO accessible to newcomers, and ensure that every member of a team has a vital role in a match. The game offers three classes Scout, Enforcer and Infiltrator each of which have their own specialties and weaknesses.
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MGO3 opted for the inclusion of a class-based system of gameplay. which permits one buddy to teleport directly to another. Furthermore, buddies share a gauge that when at 50% allows one buddy to spawn on another and when at 100% allows the use of the E-RB WORMHOLE GEN. This allows players to assist their buddy, as whenever the buddy is aiming at an enemy that enemy is temporarily marked on the screen. New to this iteration of Metal Gear Online is the "buddy" system which allows two players to salute each other in order to pair up.
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Players have the ability to use CQC in the same way it is used in the base game, and interrogating enemy team members also automatically marks other enemy combatants. Players stay marked until they are either Fulton extracted or killed, and marking is shared between all team members. Players can utilize the same tagging feature introduced in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes and operates identically to the single-player feature. The core gameplay is heavily based on the mechanics present in Metal Gear Solid V with much the same equipment from the single-player game making its way in to Online. Metal Gear Online 3 supports 16-player online battles for the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions and supports 12-player online battles for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.
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