Death Stranding

The video game that is not a game, but a piece of art. In Death Stranding you assume the role of a delivery man after a cataclysmic event made mankind retreat into bunkers. There are occasional combats, but the primary mode is to remain undetected (“stealth game”). This Wikibook can serve as your guide.

This section contains circumstances you wish you had known before playing the game. It does not contain any spoilers.

Slow narration: Death Stranding can be a looooong game

Depending on how you would like to play the game, expect anything between 40 hours at the Very Easy setting focusing just on the main story missions to over 800 hours at the Very Hard game difficulty setting completing everything to perfection on your own (= offline, without connecting to the internet).

Watch your mental health

Death is an ever‐present topic in this video game. If you play the game over the course of multiple years, consider the chance that you may witness death in your social sphere, too. The combination of death in real life and (the topic of) death in virtuality may become too much to cope with. To get a good night’s sleep avoid playing Death Stranding right before going to bed.

Eastern region is tutorial

It is not advertised as such, but consider the first map one long tutorial. Avoid spending excessively more time or resources than necessary. At the end of this stage you will transfer to another map where you spend by far the most time. Later you gain the ability to “teleport” should you want to revisit the first map.

• You can export your saved game from Death Stranding to Death Stranding Director’s Cut.
• The best way to play Death Stranding on Steam Deck while using the FSR optimization seems to be:
  • No TDP cap
  • 40 FPS lock (40 Hz)
  • Default graphic settings
  • FSR set to quality
• Before the game begins you need to enter your birthday and month. Choose a day you like playing on, e. g. a holiday during the cold “indoor” season.

To avoid unnecessary confusion, this section explains some aspects of the game the in‐game help explains poorly or not at all. It contains “spoilers” insofar as you may ask questions, but those questions only arise if you are playing the game.

• Although there is “lost” cargo scattered all over the map, you will not lose any cargo. You can deliberately let go of cargo by entering the Cargo menu. In close combat or should you fall very hard, cargo may detach but you will notice that right away as a cargo tag pops up floating above it.

• Vehicles remain operational even if damaged 100%. You do not have to get them repaired.
• Gear does not show wear. Unlike in real life, you do not have to replace anything just because it has been used.

• In many video games you can find ammunition and fill up magazines instantly. In DS there are no ammo packs. Instead, if you carry weapons as you enter your private room, those weapons get a refill. You do not have to destroy and (re‑)fabricate weapons to refill them.

Part of the game is finding things out on your own. This section contains tips and tricks not pointed out by the game itself.

• Lost cargo and chyral crystal are spawned at random locations. Should you spot precious cargo or large crystal, head for them right away; it may be gone as soon as you turn around (literally as soon as the object is not in your [third‐person camera’s] view).
• Lost cargo appears at the same spots over and over again, the locations changing a bit with each episode. After you have picked up something at one location, it takes a while before a new item appears in that same spot.
• If lost cargo is undesirable, leave it and go away. After approaching the same location again, some random lost cargo is generated which may be more to your taste.

• In some missions you deliver materials. Frequently the recipient rewards you by fully or partially sharing the materials you just delivered, i. e. it becomes available for you to use. To maximize profits consider claiming materials from the destination facility right before delivery so a full reward does not exceed the facility’s resource limits.

• The routes you take while fulfilling a mission stay on the map. You cannot erase them. The routes you take while roaming around – gathering resources, collecting lost cargo, and so on – eventually disappear from the map, even if taken repeatedly. The routes you take form trails – especially rocky or snowy ground is hard to traverse, so a beattrack is a blessing. Therefore, consider exploring the area before accepting an order so you take a route where you would like a trail to appear and stay for the remainder of the game. Otherwise you may end up with a trail that is unfavorable.
• Sometimes you can use other porters – non‐playable characters that also deliver cargo – as guides to get through unknown areas. Scan their cargo to find out where they are heading next. Porters do not enter dangerous areas and take routes that can be traversed without tools (say ladders).

• You can repair and recharge vehicles by giving them a paintjob. Park the vehicle on the elevator and select Garage from the delivery terminal menu. It is not necessary to rest in your private room.

• Upgrading a structure also fully repairs it. You may withhold upgrades until a structure is significantly deteriorated.

In this section you will learn about plot points as far as it can prevent loading a saved game or just having a frustrating experience. For example, the guide may point out an ambush making you lose all your precious belongings, therefore you want to travel light.

When the prologue video ends, recover your dropped items. Walk a straight line until a cave.^[1] Press up to wear sunglasses. Once the movie ends, go down the cliff from right cross the river and keep pushing toward the city. There is a force field. Go right to cross the river. When you get more items you must maneuver and balance the cargo weight when taking turn or else they fall.

Getting to the incinerator there are not any enemies. There is a cutscene then some BTs appear and you get past them holding left alt^PC/Rb^XBox/R1^PS. If they surround you try and get away by hitting F/🗙^XBox/▢^PS.

While delivering aid package, you can both avoid or fight BT whale with grenades. If you have the bike park it halfway at the distribution center.^[2]

Withhold building any roads until the 25^th order, although you may already add materials to any but the first road segment.

As you probably already have found out, the Central Region features roads you can build by supplying tons and tons of materials. The way highways take cannot be influenced, so some sections pass through enemy territories whether you like it or not. Rest assured, while driving on four short sections of the roads you get close enough to trigger BT warnings, yet you are not in danger.

The 25^th order is not be available if you have already completed a highway section on your own accord.^[3]

The next order entails combat: some equipment can be found at the battle field, but you may want to consider gearing up for combat e. g. with armor plates and high‐tech (lethal) weapons.

As soon as you make delivery to the spiritualist, there is a thunderstorm. The thunder can be heard (almost) all over the map and is extremely annoying (because it sounds cheap: there is no difference between distant and close thunder).

You do not want to take a vehicle to the cabin because you will wake up in MKC but your vehicle is parked all the way up in the mountains.

A memory chip can be found in the debris of the cabin that got destroyed at the end of the 53^rd order.

This section contains data that can be accessed from within the game, but the game does not provide an overview as presented here.

To plan ahead of your trip, you may want to consult this table to determine how much materials you want to carry to a facility. These maxima do not apply private lockers; they can store an infinite amount of stuff.

Access the map to find out how much resources are currently stored at a facility.

1. ↑ "Death Stranding Walkthrough Guide: Prologue Tips - GameSpot". Gamespot. September 24, 2021. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
2. ↑ "Death Stranding - Episode 2 missions list: How to complete Orders 4 to 16 to bring Port Knot City into the Chiral Network". Eurogamer.net. November 29, 2019. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
3. ↑ Vinheim (November 25, 2019). "[Order No. 25] Road Reconstruction: How to use the Auto Paver Walkthrough". Retrieved June 28, 2025. This order WILL NOT appear if you've completed a road.