Death Stranding Director’s Cut is right around the corner! With plenty of new features, plus a graphics update and loading times worthy of the PS5, this is a brilliant opportunity to hop into the game if you didn’t get the chance before. Whether this is your first time playing, or if you have already walked in the boots of Sam Porter Bridges, this Death Stranding beginners guide will give you few tips that will help you along your journey.
Death Stranding Director’s Cut releases on the 24th of September. Currently it is only releasing for PS5, with no news yet on if it will arrive on PC. It is likely it will release on PC eventually, like its standard edition counterpart, but it will probably be at a later date. Owners of the standard edition on PS4 will be able to upgrade to the Director’s Cut for $10 at launch, rather than paying the full retail $49.99. Death Stranding Director’s Cut can be pre-ordered on the PS5 PlayStation Store.
NEVER LEAVE EMPTY BACKED
While there is so much more to the game than the delivery system, deliveries are still a main aspect of the game. Deliveries means likes, and likes means goodies and progression. You could think of likes acting as this game’s version of experience points. Likes make the Death Stranding world go ’round. It’s always a good idea to have a delivery on you at all times. If you’re planning a trip to a certain area, bring along some cargo for the preppers or depot stations along the way. If not some cargo, bring along some construction materials to help build up your own or other player’s structures.
Gotta love a nicely stacked cargo tower
SCAN EVERYWHERE
There’s lost cargo, building materials, equipment, crystals, useful structures, and more absolutely everywhere. You can get yourself some extra likes by delivering some lost cargo to their intended destination, or even just entrust them somewhere else for a few less likes. This includes items lost by other players, which you can either use yourself, or you can return them for likes and the gratitude of other real life players. Scanning also highlights materials around the world, which you can grab and use for buildings. Buildings and placed equipment will also be highlighted, including things placed by other players. These will give you an idea of where to go, as well as the means to get there.
Icons and names of nearby stuff is highlighted with a scan
COLLECT ALL THE CRYSTALS
Trust me when I say to collect every single chiral crystal you see. They are extremely useful for building anti-BT items, and some other useful pieces of equipment later. They are also used in building roads in the Central Region. Because of this, chiral crystals are probably the most important building material you can grab for building these roads. Ceramics and metals are pretty easy to come by, but crystals don’t come in large amounts and are usually only found in time fall areas. They can be farmed quite easily from BT infested areas, but you’ll need some good anti-BT weapons and patience.
These things are a gold-ish colour for a reason
TAKE OUT MULE CAMPS
Silent or loud, it’s up to you. Clearing out Mule camps comes with plenty of benefits. You’ll receive likes from NPC porters who are able to pass through the area now. Plus the Mule camps themselves are always loaded with goodies, especially in the Central Region. A lot of equipment can be snagged from Mules if you need them, but there’s always a load of valuable building materials there, plus usually at least one memory chip. Don’t forget to scan for Mule mailboxes as well, which can hold even more items and lost cargo that you can return for likes.
Make sure you keep a bolo gun with you when you unlock them, as they’re incredibly useful for taking out Mules without getting too close. The camps will respawn after a while, which means they’re a great source for farming building materials.
They forget that I’m the protagonist
BUILD ROADS
Once you get to the Central Region, you’ll come across auto-pavers that will build a portion of road with enough metal, ceramic, and chiral crystals. This part of the world can get very rocky and delivering fragile cargo or travelling by vehicle can become very difficult. Building these roads takes time and effort to collect the resources, but the end result is absolutely worth it. Vehicle batteries aren’t drained while driving on the roads, so it’s an unreal feeling to blast from one end of the map to the other with ease! It will make a lot of future deliveries in the area a breeze. Make sure you also build a truck when you unlock them, as they can hold over 1000lbs of cargo and make hauling all the heavy building materials so much easier.
Nyooming down a freshly built road feels amazing
READ THE EMAILS AND INTERVIEWS
This tip is less important, but you’ll find yourself more invested if you take the time to read through some of the emails and character interviews when you can. It will help you figure out the lore and characters better, which will help to understand just what the hell is going on in the story. Kojima always did like his deep and complicated stories, and this is one of the big reasons to push on through the game. I personally like to read them in the private room with some music in the background. Makes me feel like Sam is really getting a little down time.
Emails give some nice development for even minor NPCs
KEEP ON KEEPING ON
You’ll hear this a lot in the game. It’s a great phrase that works well both in the main goal of reconnecting the United Cities of America, and for the main part of the gameplay. I’ve heard of a lot of people getting put off by this game, particularly in the first chapter in the Eastern Region. You don’t get a lot of options on how to deliver cargo or where to deliver it, which can make things pretty repetitive in the relatively small area.
Once you get to the next chapter and the much larger Central Region, you start to get a lot more options. You’ll start to unlock buildable vehicles, new equipment that will make carrying cargo so much easier, as well as the kick the story really needs to get going. Not to mention the peaceful serenity you get when some Low Roar music kicks in and you really take in the environment. It’s a very relaxing game that helps to forget a lot of your problems most of the time when you aren’t stressing with Mules or BTs.
A journey may be long, but oh can it be worth it
(BONUS) SHOW YOUR GRATITUDE
If you use another player’s structure or placed equipment, take the time to give them some likes. As mentioned earlier, likes make the Death Stranding world go ’round. The structures other players build such as bridges, watch towers, generators, etc., can save your time and your life. The same can be said about other players when you also place a structure.
Even if you do it for yourself, you’re helping other players. There is no competitiveness in this game, just fellow porters helping each other out to make delivering cargo just a little bit easier. So go on, throw some likes on that rope that helped you scale a cliff, or that generator that saved your vehicle that was just about to die. It’s a great way to return the favour.
I like leaving likes
Got any good delivery stories? Or maybe you’d like some advice on something specific? Let me know in the comments below!
