From launching vehicles off cliffs to weaponized plushies and chyro-powered poop, Death Stranding 2 is gaming’s most brilliant fever dream yet.
Metal Gear Solid’s creator, Hideo Kojima, took a huge risk with 2019’s Death Stranding. Both critics and players had different opinions about the game, which followed courier Sam Porter Bridges across a broken-up America.
After years of improvement and growing fan love, Kojima Productions is back with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, a direct sequel that builds on everything that made the first game famous while also adding new features, worlds, and themes.
If you’re already deep in deliveries or just on the edge, not sure if you want to jump in, here’s a full guide to all the ridiculously brilliant mechanics, hidden systems, and gloriously pointless features Kojima crammed into his latest masterpiece.
Dollman: The Flying Tantrum Buddy You Can Weaponize
First, let’s talk about your waist-mounted friend, Dollman. What does he do? Recon from above. His side job? Being thrown at enemies like a plush grenade right into their faces. It only takes a second to stun him, which gives you time to attack harder. But be careful, hit this guy too hard and he won’t throw himself. To the point.
Tony Hawk Pro Parcel: Ramps, Tricks, and Floating Carriers
Don’t watch the Director’s Cut of the first game? Then you might not know that Death Stranding 2 ramps are used for more than just bikes. On foot, you can run and jump off of ramps, then press X in the air to do an “extreme jump”. Do it again for a double extreme.
Even better? No damage from the fall. Because physics had a break.
You can even use floating carriers as makeshift hoverboards, complete with animations that let you do tricks. Trick parks are being built for fun by some fans. Some people—okay, that was me—are trying not to break their femurs while filming.
Weapons: Flashlights, Ammo Tricks, and That Forgotten Cover System
It looks like your gun has a flashlight. Aim and tap Square. Thanks.
When your ammunition runs out, press L2 and then D-pad Down to empty the gun. The game will then automatically switch to the next gun. But here’s the trick: every time you go to your Private Room, weapons that are low on health will heal themselves for free. So… maybe don’t throw them away?
If you press R3 in the tools menu, your favorite weapon will be the first one that comes up when you quick-select something. Do you want to equip something from the ground? If you hold down L2 or R2, you can pick it up. To whip it out like a cowboy in the afterlife, press D-pad Right.
There’s also a real cover system. To pop out, get close to a wall or ledge, and press L2. You can also do it while crouching. Sneaky sneaky.
Double Ladders & Ladder Parkour
When you drop a ladder and press Triangle, another one is added on top of it. You can do twice as much when you double the height. Some of them let you climb up to high places or sneak up on the Montreal system’s roofs.
Do you want to be a real ladder ninja? The tri-cruiser has a “wheelie mode” with one wheel that lets you cross ladders without falling off. It’s silly, but it works.
Electro-Charging Yourself On Purpose: Science, Probably
If you put a shock absorber on your backpack, any electric damage you get will charge Sam’s battery. Even better, you can use voltage rods to zap yourself. Hit your feet, shock yourself, and then power back up like a Pikachu who likes pain.
Bad guys with electric rods? Get juiced up and throw those at your boots. Plus, more than one shock absorber can be stacked. You turn into a god of electricity and batteries.
Cargo Tetris: Now with Auto-Merge Magic
Have 18 different metal containers of odd shapes and sizes? Put down the Jenga tower and open the cargo menu. Then press the D-Pad Up and select Arrange Cargo.
This not only makes the stack work better, but it also joins smaller containers into bigger ones. The fewer stacks there are, the more space there is for odd packages.
Death Stranding: Zoo Tycoon Edition
When you open the animal shelter outpost, you can sneak up on animals and carefully stuff them into containers. You could also shoot them. Weapons automatically change the type of ammunition they use, so animals are only knocked out and not hurt.
Bring animals you’ve captured to the shelter, and they’ll be free to roam, making your own post-apocalyptic zoo. They do poop, though. Chest-wise. You can also get it, for Kojima’s sake.
Be careful not to step on echidnas, too. They will stab you, and your boots won’t protect you.
Sliding into DMs
To do a combat slide, press R1 while running fast. It hits the legs of the enemy and lets you do a post-slide kick to get the most rest. It’s also great for going downhill, though your boots will get worn out faster.
Still, for that speed and style? It was worth it. Plus, you can shoot and aim while you slide. In case you wanted to dress up as John Wick, who slides.
Dodging, Bracing, and the Glorious Napkick
To avoid attacks, hold down L2 and R2 and press X in any direction. You can also jump forward to get over rough ground, but it will drain your energy.
If you time your L2/R2 just right before an enemy punch, you can block the damage. If you counter with your own punch, you can give them a strong stun and send them off to sleep.
Vehicle Launching: Cliff Edition
You need to get your car off a cliff, but you don’t want it to blow up into a thousand pieces. Drive as fast as you can, then eject and let the vehicle keep going.
If you get the timing right, both you and the car will land safely. Somehow. Based on Kojima’s ideas, which include… placenta-based shock-absorbing tech, this probably makes sense. Not really—he kind of does explain it that way. (Almost.)
Paths Made by People, Not Procedural Code
The ground will slowly turn into a real dirt road if you keep taking the same path through the mountains. Blue marks turn into real paths. The rocks and trees clear the way.
This is “community-building” in Death Stranding. There are no posts or forums, just boots on the ground.
Immersion Mode: First-Person Postal Service
To zoom in, press L1. To hide the HUD and go into full first-person mode, press Triangle. Beautiful in a shocking way. You can tell how moody Kojima’s apocalypse really is by the way the lights look and how the faces move.
You’ll wonder why you ever played third person after taking a walk through your home base in first person.
Accident-Prone? There’s a Skill Tree for That
If you enable Instant Cargo Binding, your packages will be held in place by glowing blue straps in case you fall off a cliff.
You can also tie cargo to your back or a floating carrier by hand. When you fall into red water with a bunch of undeliverable goods, you’ll know why this is the real endgame upgrade.
Liking Cutscenes: The Kojima Touchpad Mystery
During cutscenes, you can “like” them by pressing the right side of the PS5 touchpad. Every time the camera turns around. For what reason?
There are none of these in your profile. That means either you’re sending metadata straight to Kojima’s personal phone… or this is only a vibe thing. I’d like to think it’s both.
Spiders On Your Face
If you get too close to a tar spider, it can grab your head and jump right onto the camera lens.
Which brings up a scary question: Who is the camera? Why are they following Sam around like a ghost cameraman in the real world? Why does Kojima act this way?
Final Thoughts: The Weirdest Game You’ll Love Obsessively
This is the strangest and most addictive open-world game I’ve played in years. No matter how you felt about the first movie, the second one is much more creative, polished, and just plain weird.
It has never felt this exciting, stylish, or completely crazy to deliver goods across a broken world.
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