The most important thing in Death Stranding is the cargo.

The second most important thing in Death Stranding is patience. Don’t rush. If you’re not on an urgent or time sensitive run, there is no reason not to take your time. You might feel pressured to rush if you are surrounded by BTs or MULEs, but you will generally be better served by keeping a cool head and moving with purpose rather than speed.

This is never more important than when crossing rivers that are yellow when scanned. Grip your backpack to conserve energy, take your time, and don't let your stamina drop below one segment. This should keep you from falling.

When you are carrying cargo through hazards, take a moment beforehand to check your inventory and make sure you’re not wasting the inventory slots with blue icons to the left of them on gear. These blue icons indicate the box in that slot is hard-mounted to you and can't fall off.

You won’t always be able to keep all of your cargo in these slots, but it’s a good idea to always use them for cargo when you can. Most importantly, the automatic cargo organizer in the inventory menu does not take this into consideration -- it only pays attention to weight. So use the organizer with caution.

In order to receive "S-Legend" rank on premium deliveries, you must be playing on at least Normal difficulty. No matter how well you do on lower difficulties, you will never be awarded more than "S-Awesome" rank.

The key thing with cargo damage is that there are two meters for every piece of cargo: container and cargo. The game does not adequately explain that you are not graded on container damage, only cargo damage. Containers are damaged by impact and by timefall. Cargo is damaged only by impact and adverse conditions defined by the type of delivery.

Some cargo is fragile and needs a careful touch. Some cargo can't be submerged. Some cargo needs to be kept warm, while other packages need to be kept cold (make sure you unequip your thermal pad and stay away from timefall shelters!).

Cargo can take damage from impact regardless of the status of the container, but generally speaking, as long as the container has some durability left, your cargo is fine and your ratings won’t be affected. But if you're on a special delivery, make sure to do what is necessary to protect your cargo because the container does not matter in these cases.

Throwing cargo off a cliff will not (necessarily) destroy the container. Hitting cargo with a vehicle will immediately destroy the container and the cargo inside.

To keep your containers intact, you want to expose yourself to timefall as little as possible. Eventually you will gain access to weather forecasts, but the key to timefall in the early game is first to keep moving, and second to stay out of the center of timefall areas, if you can. Timefall is lighter around the edges, and BTs don't spawn there.

How hard the timefall is falling and porter signs can both help you determine where the edges of timefall are, but you can make a good educated guess just by looking at the map. Timefall regions are always in the way. They are between you and where you want to go, centered over the easiest paths. There is some fluctuation, and some areas get hit more often than others, but it is always the same patterns repeating.

When you come across lost cargo, consider how far into your trip you are and how many likes the cargo is worth. If you've just set out and you see an XL box to the side of the path, maybe walk it back to where you started. You’ll still get some likes for doing that, and lugging the beast with you overland is going to slow you down and make controlling Sam a bear. On the other hand, if you find an XL box right outside your destination, consider just picking it up in your hand and fat-walking with it the last few yards, even if your back is fully loaded.

Larger cargo is generally always worth more likes, but you have to pay attention. The number of likes goes up with distance from destination and also with how long the package has been in the system without being delivered. There's no sense in lugging around an XL box worth 100 likes if you can pick up six S boxes each worth 40.

Picking up lost cargo that does not have a porter name associated with it can get you a small amount of star rating with its destination even if you entrust it rather than delivering it, but it is inconsistent.

Other porters’ entrusted cargo can be found in the shared locker at most destinations. You don't get much for hauling other porters’ lost and entrusted cargo. A few likes, and Bridge Link XP, and the only thing Bridge Link XP does is increase your interactivity with other porters, so if you're not into that it's pretty meaningless. Hauling entrusted cargo is kind of its own game: haul entrusted cargo, get more entrusted cargo to haul.

Consider entrusting your own cargo if the difference between the likes you’ll get at your current location and the likes you’ll get for complete delivery is under 100. You have to use your judgment, but generally speaking that difference isn’t worth the effort unless you know you’re headed in that direction. Remember, too, that entrusting cargo helps other porters gain likes and XP, as well. If it’s just sitting in your private locker, it’s not doing anyone any good.

As was stated above, you can skirt around most timefall, and since BTs only occur in deep timefall, you can also skirt around most BTs. This is recommended, as it also keeps your cargo more secure. You can pick up all the chiral crystals you will need without hunting BTs.

If you have to pass through deep timefall, scan constantly. Watch the odradek and learn to gauge its reactions. Be patient; standing still for a few seconds will reveal BTs in silhouette quite a distance away. The game will force you into BT territory from time to time, so familiarizing yourself with their behavior is not a terrible idea, even if you avoid them in the normal course of play.

Fighting BTs in the early game is impossible, but this changes relatively quickly and gets better as the game goes on. At its best, though, it’s irrelevant to the point of the game, which is delivering cargo.

You should take some time to familiarize yourself with combat against MULEs, because bog standard action game combat is a substantial portion of the late game, but counterintuitively, BT combat is not. You will never be rewarded for learning how to fight ghosts, except with more chiral crystals.

It's absolutely possible to avoid going loud, and sneak between BTs, but it isn't simple or easy, mostly because your ability to know where they are is inconsistent at best. They become fully visible at right around the same range that they detect you, which is no help at all.

Once you get the cord cutter, you can cut a very slow path straight through BTs by alternating holding your breath and cutting cords, but it is a high-risk, low-reward option.

Your best bet is to stay out of deep timefall as much as possible, or if you are looking to practice, move into timefall until you see one or two BTs and play with how close you can get without them spotting you.

Still, if you’re familiar with action games you’ll get the hang of BT combat pretty quickly. They can only hear you, so stay low and slow until you’re in a good position to attack (i.e., not surrounded).

Stay mobile if you are planning on using unsilenced firearms, because if the BTs locate you, it’s boss fight time. Best advice is to use your weapons to clear a path and keep moving. Don't bring a vehicle, though; being on a vehicle will not help you avoid BTs and can even make it impossible.

If you do end up in combat with a BT boss, the good news is that defeating the boss briefly ends timefall in the area, so you can clean up any cargo you dropped and get out. Don't get cocky, though; it is only a brief reprieve, and if you are still in the boss area when it ends, you will find yourself back in deep timefall.

You can also flee from most world bosses, even a few that are scripted. Reaching a minimum safe distance will despawn the boss, but you'll be far away from any cargo you were forced to drop, so this is not recommended if you were hoping to make a quick recovery and move on.

Triggering boss fights is a decent strategy for dealing with timefall areas if you are good at combat -- it is certainly faster than sneaking around. BTs don't care about or damage cargo, so you can put it down, fight the boss, then pick the cargo back up and move on.

But there is one major risk to this strategy: voidouts are real. If you are killed by a BT, you will repatriate, but on the edge of a massive new area of impassable terrain. This area slowly returns to normal as you play, but it will change your travel routes in the meantime, so be warned.

When you place a sign it’s put down about a meter directly in front of Sam, facing him. You can use this to indicate more precise direction with directional signs if you position Sam just right.

“Don’t Give Up” and “Keep on Keeping On” signs give other porters a small stamina boost when they pass near them. “Likers Get Liked” signs give them a like. “Way to Go, BB” signs give them a bonus to their BB bond. “Speed Up” and “Slow Down” signs actually provide boosts and braking when a porter passes through them, so consider this carefully when placing them.

Sam throws the rope from a climbing anchor behind him when releasing it, so if you’re using an anchor to ascend, face away from the cliff when you release the rope and Sam will throw the rope back down for the next porter.

Many times, you don’t need a bridge; a ladder will do just fine. Many times you don’t even need a ladder! If the odradek scan shows the river as completely blue, take a running jump and just ford it. It’s faster in nearly all cases than wrestling with a ladder.

Along these same lines, the important thing about ladder placement to cross rivers is that you bypass the yellow bit in the middle, not that you stay dry. A submerged ladder can sometimes be useful in a wider river. Don’t try this trick over a red river, though.

It’s generally a good idea to keep a PCC around at all times, and a key reason is for building an emergency postbox. If you find yourself in the unenviable position of having to drop your cargo for whatever reason, it’s always better to pop it into a private locker or entrust it to another porter than just leave it on the ground to rot. Don’t worry about cluttering the landscape; if anyone doesn’t like it, they can dismantle it for themselves.

These are good for getting the drop on MULEs when you have to cross their territory, and not much else. If you’re consistent with your scanning and using your binoculars you won’t get much new information by placing a watchtower.

Self-explanatory. You’ll be glad you have these later on.

I would say these are self-explanatory, except that porters love to build them in the middle of flat, open areas. Stranded bridges. Maybe it’s an artistic statement of some kind.

They are bridges. They go over ravines and rivers that are too wide for ladders.

Timefall shelters are extremely useful for a number of things, but the most important thing they do is let you pass time ten minutes at a go. Once you have access to weather forecasts, you’ll be able to see what the weather looks like in your region for the next half hour in ten minute increments, so this makes it very easy to avoid deep timefall provided that the weather is cooperative.

However, a timefall shelter only permits you to pass time when it is in timefall, so consider this when placing one. You want it far enough inside a timefall area that they will give you the option to pass time, but not so far inside that you have to wrestle BTs to get to it. Try advancing into timefall until you are warned there are BTs about, but the odradek hasn’t woken up yet.

Your hood going up is not an indicator that you are far enough inside!

Timefall shelters also generate heat, which makes them safe places to rest at high altitude, but be sure to steer clear of them if you are carrying a package that must be kept cold!

Place zip lines on ridges or at the edge of cliffs, where they’ll get the most visibility in all directions. When dismounting a zip line, point the camera where you want Sam to come down, or you could be in for a bad tumble.

Zip lines get one range increase at upgrade level two. This is pretty useless, because you’ve already placed the zip line and can’t move it -- except in that you can connect to a level two zip line at increased range using a level one zip line. So if you know you’ll need the increased range, place, upgrade, and then place the second zip line.

These are best used in central locations where they can serve as waystations to a number of different delivery stops. The game has very few obvious crossroads, but they do exist. Keep an eye out. Some porters place safe houses right next to important destinations to provide additional garage storage. This is an expensive exercise, but as your personal permanent vehicle storage at any one garage is limited to four vehicles, you may find it convenient.

As was stated above in the section on BTs, voidouts are real. If you kill a MULE, you're going to have to quickly drag their sorry carcass to the nearest incinerator, or somewhere down the road your game will just end without warning when their BT comes into contact with another MULE or a porter.

You can really screw yourself over with this; some porters report not having an autosave old enough to fix the problem once it happens. Use lethal firearms at your own risk. They are not necessary to complete the game.

A headshot with the bolo gun will knock MULEs unconscious, but if you don’t get the precise hit, you can still run over to them while they are restrained and kick them to knock them unconscious.

In addition to protecting you from unbreathable atmosphere and poison gas, wearing the oxygen mask makes it harder for BTs to detect you and slows the stamina drain from holding your breath, which makes BT areas somewhat easier to traverse.

The thermal pad has a small onboard battery, so when you have one equipped outside of a cold region and it is not burning power, it actually increases your battery capacity. This can be useful if you are planning a long hike and are concerned about battery drain.

Make sure to unequip these if you are carrying a package that must be kept cold!

The most important thing to note about vehicles is that cargo left on them is not secure. It might as well be left on the ground. This includes cargo on vehicles left on elevators. If the vehicle isn’t in a garage, the cargo on it is not secure and will be redistributed to other porters if you get far enough away.

Get used to boosting, popping wheelies, and jumping early on. The trike is designed to navigate rough terrain; if you’re weaving around smaller rocks you’re doing it wrong.

You also don't have to weave around MULEs -- hitting them with the trike is generally not fatal.

The ‘Ride With Norman Reedus’ branded version is hot garbage. It’s fast, but it handles like a drunk mule. The fourth-wall-breaking one-liners are admittedly kind of fun.

More passable off road than the game makes you think, but definitely not the goat the trike is. One of the best things about the game, though, hands down. They handle like butter, even when boosting. Once you get some roads rebuilt, load one up and just haul from stop to stop. Like Knot City.

Note that hitting a MULE with a truck is usually fatal, although it is possible to clip one into unconsciousness if you are lucky.

If you are stopping at a Waystation, it is difficult but not impossible to park trucks in a place where the terminal will pick up their cargo. The place is right up against the door of the terminal shed, parked perpendicularly. Be prepared to do either a little truck ballet or a little shuttling on foot.

The long-range variants of the truck are not particularly useful, but if you are planning on taking a truck through active MULE territory without the benefit of a road, take a defensive variant -- weapons make short work of the truck.

These have terrible battery life and terrible cargo capacity, and you can’t store them in garages. Useful for cleaning loot out of a pacified MULE base, but not much else.

The game doesn’t explain how to use the hologram projector when you get it.

It’s treated like an article of clothing. Press up on the D-pad and “equip” it like your hat or sunglasses.

The ending sequence of Death Stranding begins in Episode 9, out of 15.

There are two Distribution Centers in Episode 9. You can fast-travel out of the first one, but when you reach the second one, your path will be locked through Episode 14. Your options will be constrained, and you will not be able to play the game the way you have been.

Episode 15 is open world freeplay, so don't freak out, but getting there will take some doing.

Upon completing Episodes 9 and 10, you will lose some of your equipment and cargo. It is not clear why, or how the game decides what you lose, but if you are carrying anything you care about and don't need, leave it in the private locker at the Edge Knot City Distribution Center after defeating the boss in Episode 9, or at any convenient private locker in the Central Region before reaching Lake Knot City during Episode 10.

Episode 12, 13, and 14 contain numerous long cutscenes and require 5+ hours to complete. The cutscenes are mostly skippable, but there are gameplay segments that are not. That seems like a strange thing to say, but some of these segments have set durations, and others are dense with threats that can make saving impossible.

Unlike in other Kojima games, Death Stranding does not prompt you to save and quit at intervals during this sequence.

This is Bad with a capital B. But keep on keepin' on. Episode 15 awaits.


*mostly

Death Stranding is quite stable, at this point in its lifecycle, but it does have an unrecoverable bug that it is important to warn porters about. If you are playing the game and you get an "Access Violation (C0000005h) has occurred in thread 'Main'" error and crash, reload and see if it the error is reproducible by returning to the same geographical location.

Note that this is "in thread 'Main,'" not in a numbered worker thread. The numbered worker thread errors seem to be random and not reproducible.

If the error is reproducible, stop playing. Start working backward through your old saves until you find one that permits you to approach the geographical area without triggering the error, and continue playing from there.

This is a terrible solution, but it is the only one available. Even if the geographical area you are prevented from visiting doesn't seem worth the effort now, it may be the site of a future storyline mission that would prevent you from completing the game, at which point you might not have a save old enough to correct the problem and would have to restart the game from the beginning.

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29 Sep 2020
11 Oct 2020 - added equipment section (oxygen mask, thermal pad); updated information about safe houses.
17 Oct 2020 - updated section on BT combat
23 Oct 2020 - updated No-Spoiler Ending PSA
25 Oct 2020 - made some changes related to keeping chilled deliveries from taking damage from thermal pads and timefall shelters
12 Dec 2020 - reorganized BT section; updated BT and Equipment sections with a warning about voidouts; updated BT and Vehicle sections with some vehicular combat advice
24 Apr 2021 - added warning about S-Legend only being awarded on Normal and higher difficulties; updated BT section with the boss fleeing strategy; added section on resolving "Access Violation in thread 'Main'" error
01 Jan 2022 - updated BT section with standing still as a means to locate BTs. Happy New Year!