5 tips to help you with your journey to reconnect America in Death Stranding

Death Stranding launches today and as the reviews have revealed, it is most certainly a polarizing and divisive game, one that you’ll either love to bits or hate immensely. We at Gadget Pilipinas loved our time with Hideo Kojima’s latest masterpiece and as we dive into the game again when it is finally released worldwide come November 8, here are some tips that we think you may need to help you in your journey to reconnect America.

Take your time

As cliche as it sounds, your experience of Death Stranding would be more enjoyable if you took the time to do things. We spent around 41 hours to finish the game just breezing through the storyline and if there was one thing that I wished I had done, it was to slow things down and savor the journey.

The land, while scorched, is beautiful and picturesque. You’ll encounter snow capped peaks and rocky paths in your travels. Take screencaps, enjoy the view, and explore the world that Kojima has created because it is fantastically made. Don’t rush to make that next delivery. Slow down, immerse yourself in the world, take a piss every now and then, give away some likes, build for the people… Rushing towards the ending is one of the biggest booboos you can do in Death Stranding because as they say, the journey is the reward and it definitely rings true in this game.

Stealth is key. Or running.

You are a porter. A delivery man. You’re not Solid Snake nor do you have the best combat arsenal around. Most of the time, the best offense is the best defense as well so if you can help it, approach BT’s and Mule’s with utmost care.

BT’s can detect sound fairly well, so know that you will need to crouch to move around with minimal noise around BT’s. If you’ll need to up the silence factor, know that you can cover mouth to further silence your breathing but be aware that this takes up precious stamina. If you can avoid BT confrontations altogether, I suggest you do so, even if it means circling around the infested area.

Mule’s are easier to avoid since you can actually see them but before you can even get near, they’ve actually set up proximity sensors around their area to alert them of incoming porters such as yourself. When you trip one of their sensors, activate your Odradek immediately to send out a counter-ping, keeping you from being spotted and traversing Mule territory safely.

We do not recommend you killing them unless you wan’t to fill the place up with BT’s, so choose non-lethal weapons for Mule’s as much as possible. Or run, just run and avoid the confrontation. Often times, this is your best solution.

Ditch some weapons in favor of PCC’s

Throughout the majority of the game, I learned that a handful of Hematic Grenades, Blood Bag’s, and a Bola Gun were more than enough and I didn’t really need to bring all of the other weapons with me. I wished I had brought more PCC’s instead.

PCC’s are devices that allow you to construct structures – safe houses, bridges, generators, etc. – which in turn helps you and other players traverse the world easier. If you care about ratings, cargo damage is one factor you’ll want to look out for and since Timefall can come when you least expect it to, then that PCC you have may save your cargo from damage since you can create Timefall shelters to shield you. While structures from other players may eventually show up in your instance, you’ll want to prepare for and play as if you were alone, not depending on random structures out of nowhere to make your life easier.

Ziplines are your best friend

Among all of the items you can build from a PCC, the most useful for me was the zipline. Not only will it let you travel from point to point, 300 meters at a time with blazing speed, you’ll also effectively skip everything you pass, even BT infested territory.

Upon connecting facilities to the Chiral Network, you’ll notice that other players may have set up initial ziplines already. Use this to your advantage and just fill in the blanks in between. Chances are, you’ll only need 1-2 ziplines to connect and complete a massive network that will get you from place to place with ease. Best thing about it is that even if you’ve got a whole stack of packages on your back, the ziplines will still carry you where you need to go, no questions asked.

Floating carriers are actually useful

At some point in the game, Chiralium will be in abundance after the number of run ins with BT’s. Unless you’ve been donating every bit to each of the facilities you run into, which is not advisable, you’ll find that your stocks will be more than enough to make constant use of Floating carriers.

You may be quick to dismiss these, but on certain deliveries that require you to move fast and take care of your cargo at the same time, Floating Carriers may just be the thing you need. This also allows you to equip other more useful leg augments like the speed or all terrain skeleton.

Death Stranding will allow you to go about your business in imaginative ways and we’ll leave that up to you to figure out but these starting tips should be enough to get you going on your quest to reconnect America.