I deployed with an infinite durability supressor that I didn't research. Why?

Question

MGS 5: TPP On Xbox One

My normal loadout consists of a Renkov Tranq Conversion sniper rifle. I got the legendary gunsmith, and customised this to add a grade 1 suppressor rather than researching the suppressor for this rifle (also a neat paintjob).

It works great - however something really unexpected happened the last time I deployed. My suppressor on this rifle had infinite durability, marked by a small infinity sign next to the suppressor bar on the weapon when equipped. After using several magazines of tranq rounds, the durability didn't go down.

I was about to start story mission 19, and was just running around stealing resource containers and capturing guard posts in Africa. I started at the oil well base, and moved south - east from there, capturing everything in my path, all the way to the mine, picking up everything I could - I wonder if this was an item I picked up and didn't notice.

I called in a supply drop multiple times and kept my infinite suppressor, but mistakenly called in a loadout (containing the same weapon) and lost it when I jumped in the box.

TL;DR

Where did my infinite suppressor come from - any chance I picked it up as an item while running through the various checkpoints and bases I was raiding? Is it a bug, exploit, or is there a random chance I will get one?

Answer 1

I've been playing the game since release and I have yet to see a situation, story mission or otherwise, where you get an infinite suppressor for mission-based reasons. Even training missions, like the shooting gallery missions on Mother Base -- they still wear off even though you get infinite ammo.

However, there IS a gun in the game that can get an unlimited durability suppressor: the Wu tranquilizer pistol at max upgrade level. My guess is that something in the game's code made it think that it should give you that suppressor instead of your normal one. I would definitely assume that it is a bug. If you can reproduce it, it would be worth documenting somewhere (and might shed more light on whether it is a bug or some weird hidden mechanic).