Death Stranding Beginner's Guide - Hints, Tips, and Tricks

Death Stranding — and Death Stranding Director's Cut — is a weird game. Full of systems, mechanics, and features, the game is unlike anything you've played in the past. That's a good thing, but it also means that it's going to take some time before you've got everything it asks of you fully figured out. We want you to experience that for yourself, but here are some hints, tips, and tricks to get you started. As part of our Death Stranding guide, we're going to give you some pointers that will aid you in building structures, highlighting important items, and what you shouldn't worry about in Death Stranding.

Death Stranding - Basic Information

Here are some basic details about Death Stranding and Death Stranding Director's Cut that will give you a helping hand with its controls, traversal, and combat.

Controls

Here's the default control scheme in Death Stranding.

Button Input Action
X button Jump
Square button Perform action
Triangle button Pick up cargo/items
Circle button Change posture
D-pad up Select equipment
D-pad right Select tools
D-pad down Select structure
D-pad left Select items
L1 Enter compass mode
L2 Left hand action
R1 Scan terrain
R2 Right hand action
L3 Move/Sprint with hold
R3 Move camera/switch camera perspective
Touchpad Call out
Options button Pause/access Cuff Links

Traversal

Plotting courses and making your way to Preppers in need is what you'll spend the vast majority of your time in Death Stranding doing, which means a lot of travelling. You can choose to kick your journey off with a light jog or pick the pace up with a sprint, but be aware that this will drain your stamina meter fast. Vehicles become much more plentiful as you progress through the game, but for the first few chapters, you'll have to rely on your own two feet.

Make sure you have a ladder, climbing anchors, and PCCs with you at all times. These are the tools that will aid you in navigating steeper terrain or crossing bodies of water that could prove hazardous. If you come up against a sheer cliff on your journey to an objective, consider placing a ladder on the ground to make at least some progress up the mountain. From there, you'll more than likely find a route through the rocky surfaces. On the other hand, climbing anchors are perfect for when you want to make your way back down. Stick one near the edge and begin descending, but beware that you only have so much rope to take advantage of.

Combat

Taking on enemies in full-frontal engagements is not the main focus of Death Stranding by any means, but there will be times where there's no getting around the situation. Combat with human foes, most notably the Mules, is fairly straight forward. Punches and kicks can be thrown by mashing the square button, and after roughly six or seven hits, an enemy will be downed. This works well when you're taking on a single combatant, but you're going to have to mix things up when a group is on your tail.

If you manage to separate one of them from the group, take them down but make sure to grab the cargo they were carrying. Using this, you can either throw it at another Mule or swing for them with it, resulting in a one-hit kill. Every Mule carries a piece of equipment on their back, so you can effectively chain this attack until they're all down for the count.

For more information on how to kill BTs, please click through the link.

Death Stranding - Hints, Tips, and Tricks

Here are some useful hints, tips, and tricks that will help you out while playing Death Stranding.

Build Online Generators

If you equip anything that is tied to battery power or choose to take a vehicle out for a spin, online generators are going to be your best friend. Since those gadgets use up their battery lives fairly quickly, they're going to need to be recharged fairly often, and that's where the online generators come into play. Constructed via a PCC, you'll be able to build them anywhere which has Chiral Network coverage. If you've got one equipped and you're about to run out of juice, quickly build one and you'll be back up and running in no time. It'll also be there for next time you're in the area and running low on power.

Stand Still to Detect BTs

You can detect BTs and pinpoint their location by activating your odradek scanner with a press of the R1 button, but what the game doesn't do a good job of telling you is that you need to be stood still for this to work. You can still activate the scan at any time, but it's not going to pick up any Beached Things. Therefore, no matter how intense the situation might be getting, if you want to know the exact location of a BT, you need to stand still before sending out a scan.

Don't Worry About Leaving Equipment Behind in Private Lockers

If you're going to take advantage of fast travel on a regular basis, you need to get used to leaving your equipment behind. Quickly switching between safe houses leaves all the items you were carrying on your back behind in a private locker, which is exclusive to that particular private room. You cannot pick it up at another location further down the road.

But that's okay. When you reach the next safe house via fast travel, make sure to fabricate some new equipment before you leave. It'll use up materials and resources, but we never had any issues with running low on supplies. There's a give and take with fast travelling, but item fabrication is on hand for you to be able to pick up the pieces.

Take Advantage of the Shared Locker

On the other hand, if you are running low on items and materials, take a look in the shared locker at any safe house or distribution centre. It contains things that other players have marked as free for other users to take. These items can range from lost cargo to weapons, boots, and Hematic Grenades — all of which are handy and don't cost anything to take for yourself. The shared locker literally gives you items for free, so take full advantage when you can.

Use the Private Room to Stock Up and Restore Stamina

Private rooms are available at every single safe house and distribution centre, meaning they're pretty much an easy way to regain stamina and stock up on grenades. Sam will automatically restore his stamina in its entirety by simply entering the room itself after some sleep, while EX grenades can be gained by going to the toilet. Sitting down and standing up produces different types.

Equip the Power Skeleton as Soon as Possible

Seriously, equip the power skeleton as soon as you possibly can. Given to you somewhat early in the story, this boosts the amount of weight you can carry on your back exponentially. And it's a genuine game-changer. It turns deliveries that were previously a little cumbersome due to the fact that you'd have to deal with your load swaying in the wind into a complete breeze. You won't have to worry about fighting the weight of your load for anything under 100kg with the power skeleton attached to your legs, meaning you're going to have a much easier trip to the Porter you're headed to.

Vehicles Are Much More Common Than You Might Think

While you won't come across any in the early game, vehicles start becoming fairly common past chapter 2. Taking the form of either a motorbike or a truck, they allow you to cover a lot of ground much more quickly than you would sprinting. Use them as often as you can, especially so when you have either a long delivery ahead of you or one that comes with a time limit.

Do you have any other Death Stranding and Death Stranding Director's Cut hints, tips, or tricks to share? Complete a delivery in the comments below, and check out our Death Stranding guide for lots more.