+1 Like(s) Received from TheDblTap

I’ve been worried about writing this review ever since I picked the game up because I have no idea how to convey my feelings about this game. It’s gathered a huge group of naysayers since it’s release, swearing blind that the game is not worth your time and is full from top to bottom with nothing but fetch quests and, in a way, they’re right.

But they’re also so wrong.

I think in order to understand what makes Death Stranding so great we first need to understand what makes fetch quests so bad.

Fetch quests are missions, typically found in RPG games, which ask you to talk to an NPC, go and collect items or kill some enemies, and then come back to the NPC or go to a different NPC to hand in the completed quest. There’s no inherent challenge in that, sometimes the items will be hard to find or the enemies hard to defeat, but getting there is no challenge. Often you’d walk for minutes at a time just to reach your destination and do nothing except hold forward on the thumbstick to get there.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the memes, but Sam’s cargo-carrying ability is a bit ridiculous.

You have to understand, that while from a very basic perspective Death Stranding is a fetch-quest simulator, it’s done with care and effort and thoughtful design. You’re not simply walking from point A to B to A, you need to manage your tools and equipment to ensure you can get there, you need to navigate wildly varying terrain and use the right vehicles or powered legs or simply just strategy to get there.

If you’re carrying a lot of cargo you need to balance it, manage your centre of gravity, manually balance yourself in rough terrain and avoid situations which might result in cargo getting lost or damaged. All while avoiding ghastly spirits from the other side, hell-bent on having you fight a dolphin, or terrorists keen on bringing about an early apocalypse, or rival porters who want to steal your cargo and deliver it themselves for those sweet, precious likes.

Porters are perfectly fine with delivering under horrendous conditions, because of their unhealthy Like addiction.

Every delivery is a challenge that you need to be willing and able to face, you need to plan your route and fabricate the right equipment and survey the land. The result is a very satisfying and addictive system of cargo management which will quickly have you planning out hour-long delivery routes with multiple stops along the way to both deliver cargo and pick up more, from one end of the map to the other, squeezing as many deliveries as you can into your outing.

I can see how this amount of effort-per-mission can be offputting to some gamers, who would rather get to the next bit of story asap, than faff about trying not to trip over tiny rocks as they barrel down a hillside, but even Kojima predicted that his game would not be for everyone, for those very reasons.

The conditions can get quite bad. With rain and snow known as “Timefall” accelerating time for anything it touches, your cargo takes damage pretty quickly in snowstorms like the above.

It goes without saying that I loved it, I was hooked and I was determined to plat the game from the minute I picked it up, and not just because of the addictive gameplay which had me totally fine with making deliveries for 2-4 hours a day for 2 weeks, but because of the wonderful and intriguing world that Hideo Kojima has put together.

The landscape is both barren and gloomy, yet beautiful and awe-inspiring. The technology designed by Kojima and Shinkawa is incredible and stylish, yet somewhat close-to-home. The story is dramatic and pulling yet cinematic, a direct reflection of the movies Kojima wants to one day create, with a heavy sprinkling of Kojima’s signature “what on earth is going on here!?” vibes.

Deadman’s lack of respect for personal space is a prime example of the aforementioned Kojima vibes.

I was enraptured by the story, which had me on the edge of my couch-seat towards the end of the game, feeling a range of emotions – including a sadness that the game had told it’s tale and I only had a few more hours of trophy-hunting before my time with it was over, and I’d have to go back to normal life as though it hadn’t just been changed by the experience. In fact, I got the platinum only 30 minutes ago and then sat down to write this review, eager to relive what I’d experienced over the past few weeks.

I want to tell you all about it, I want to spoil every intricate detail of the game’s story, want to talk about the moments which had me leaning closer to the TV, or even the moments which made me recoil with cringe, but I won’t. Part of the experience, part of the wonder of the game, the fuel which keeps you making those deliveries, is the veil of mystery which Hideo Kojima carefully crafted up to the game’s release and the human desire to pull that veil away so that one can make sense of the madness we’re presented with and I’d hope to do my best not to ruin that experience for you.

A mirror in the private room really lets you get the most out of the fantastic job Kojima’s team did of the Norman Reedus model scan and mo-cap.

There’s a pretty amazing cast of actors in the game. Friends of Kojima such as Norman Reedus – known for playing the only saving grace of the rapidly worsening Walking Dead series – or the incredible Mads Mikkelsen (one of my favourite actors) – known for his excellent portrayal of Hannibal – bless the game with fantastic performances. They do so alongside Lindsay Wagner, Margaret Qualley, Lea Sedoux, and even renowned industry-veteran Troy Baker who gives one of his best performances to date as the mystery-enshrouded Higgs Monaghan.

Mads Mikkelsen finds his way into many of the game’s coolest shots.

You may also recognise the face of one Guillermo Del Toro, who only provided a body scan, the puppeting of which was performed by Jesse Corti – I’m sure Del Torro is far too busy to be playing around in a mo-cap room, but it’s cool to see Kojima’s adoration for his friends to reach such a level that he wants them all to have cameos. You’ll even see the face of famous talk-show-host Conan O’Brien find his way into your path and many more that I don’t recognise, I’m sure.

This desire to put everything he enjoys into his game spreads much farther than talk-show hosts and movie directors as Kojima also injected his game with his favourite music, movies, and even his favourite beverage – something which people seem to be very angry about. I don’t blame him, personally, I’d do the same in his position. Besides, after what Konami put him through that guy deserves to have a little fun!

Oh no! Product Placement! Guess we’ll have to boycott the game!

Let’s also take a moment to appreciate that one of the biggest developers of this generation, who created one of the best games of this generation, stepped up to help Kojima out with their own engine. I’m talking of course about the talented Guerilla games, creators of Horizon Zero Dawn, who we can thank for providing Kojima with the perfect engine to let out his creative energy.

In homeage, many of Horizon’s models made their way into the game as holograms.

All in all, the game was teeming from start-to-finish with challenge and wonder, inspiration and, yes, often frustration. But every last delivery, every trek across the iceland-inspired landscape, every awkward struggle against a boss, every moment spent soothing BB, every desperate flee from angry BTs, it was all worth it. It all culminated in this exciting game claiming the top spot in my top 10 games and leaving an impression on me, both emotionally and creatively, which I’ll carry with me forever.

My Death Stranding Platinum Experience

My life before Death Stranding seems so long ago now that I have no idea whether I originally intended to plat this game or not, but after just a few hours on it I was certain that I would, no matter how long it took. And, I won’t lie, it took a long time.

84 hours and 8 minutes, to be exact. Considering the quickest time I saw on /r/trophies was 80 hours, and the fact that I wasted a lot of time messing around in the game, I’m very happy with that time.

To begin with, I was just working through the story, doing as many extra deliveries as I could on my way to each main-line delivery destination. I just took it all in stride, knowing I’d come back once I had better equipment to get 5 stars on each prepper and depot location.

The Zipline, for example, made deliveries incredibly quick and easy once a good network was established.

Once I reached the end of Episode 8 of the story, where the game wanted me to:Spoiler

I stopped playing through the story, turned back and used the Fragile Jump to teleport back to Capital Knot City. From there, I used the Zip-line structure in the Level 2 PCC tool to create a complex network which went from Capital Knot to Port Knot, with branches reaching out to every Prepper and Waystation along the way. It was particularly nice to be able to soar over the treetops by the Windfarm and avoid one of the most irritating BT areas in the game.

Using this network I was able to make deliveries at blinding speed. I used this opportunity to get 5 stars at every location in the Eastern Region, and complete as many of the Premium Deliveries as I could with a Legend of Legends rating.

Legend of Legend deliveries were actually not so difficult, I only really scored lower if I took too long or my cargo got seriously damaged.

By the time I left and returned to the Central Region, I had 5 stars at every location and only needed 4 Miscellaneous premium deliveries and 8 Time-focused premium deliveries left to complete for the relevant trophy.

My first step in the Central region was then to complete the highway system. I start by doing deliveries from Lake Knot to the Waystation south of Lake Knot, taking as much Metal and Ceramic with me as I could each time, placing them into the Auto-pavers along the way.

Auto-paver roads offer a great way to quickly get around the Central Region.

I then repeated this process from the Waystation to South Knot, making a few stops at the Cosplayer on the way. With this highway complete, I went back and began making deliveries from the Craftsman and Lake Knot to the Waystation north of Mountain Knot City, completing Auto-pavers as I went. And finally, I repeated this process from the Waystation to Mountain Knot until the Highway was complete.

I then set up 2 Zipline Networks, one on the western side, connecting South Knot to the Elder, including every prepper in-between, and another network which covered all of the preppers and locations up in the Mountain ranges on the left side.

Eventually, I connected these two networks via a few zip-line anchors between Mama’s lab and the Timefall Farm with a little help from ziplines placed by other users.

Obviously, throughout this long-winded process, I made hundreds of deliveries, I managed to get the Legend of Legends premium delivery trophies and five-starred most of the locations except for the Knot Cities which require a lot of deliveries to be made and the secret Preppers; The First Prepper, The Veteran Porter and The Novelist’s Son.

From there I simply continued making deliveries. The best deliveries for the main Knot Cities turned out to be ones from City to City, such as Lake Knot to South Knot, awarding up to 2000 likes for a single delivery – which were easy to complete with the Highways built.

There was only one prepper I was unable to 5-star. Peter Englert. This one can only be completed after Episode 11 of the story, and I highly recommend you do. Everytime Peter Englert emails you, asking for a Pizza, complete the delivery. There are 4 in total, with a fifth and final pizza delivery becoming available once you’ve completed Episode 11. He will stay just under 1-star until you finally complete that 5th delivery, at which point he will jump up to 5 stars and join the Chiral Network and the UCA.

So, after what must have been 20-30 hours of deliveries between locations in the Central area, I had done all I could except collecting Memory Chips, so I proceeded on.

Always scan unique or suspicious areas to see if this icon pops up, it’s a memory chip!

I would actually highly recommend that you do the same, except get the Memory Chips before you go. Some time passes in the story and you can’t return to the area for a while. Once I got back, most of my Zipline network had been ruined by timefall and I had a much harder time getting around looking for memory chips.

Once I was done with the story I had 3 things left to do. Get my delivery time stat up to level 60, fabricate every item, and collect every memory chip. That was 2 days ago, so it took me about 6-8 hours to find and collect memory chips based on emails from preppers, do a few final time-based deliveries, and fabricate everything.

I got stuck on 71/72 items fabricated and couldn’t figure out what I hadn’t fabricated. I didn’t know at the time, but if you press on an item to fabricate it, a little description pop-up will open with a check-box in the bottom left corner. If this is checked it means you’ve fabricated it before. This doesn’t appear for Gold items such as the Gold Speed Skeleton for some reason, so I think they might not count.

As it turned out, there was a side-quest waiting for me at the Waystation South of Lake Knot for which I needed to enter a nearby MULE camp, steal some Sticky Guns, and take them to Lake Knot. After which I unlocked fabrication of the Sticky Guns and was able to fabricate it for the trophy.

The last thing I did was to get the final 7 levels of my delivery Time stat up so it would be at level 60 for the relevant trophy. I did the biggest time-based deliveries I could find; Lake Knot to South Knot, and then Lake Knot to Mountain Knot. This left me with one level left to get so I did a quick final one for the last 100 likes I needed to finally reach level 60, rounding off all my skills and netting me that gorgeous platinum trophy. Finally.

I was actually pretty sad to be finished with the game…

If you follow the above order of things, maybe completing the Memory Chip hunt earlier than me as I said, then you should have no trouble platting the game in 80 hours or less.

Death Stranding Platinum Tips and Tricks

There are a few trickier trophies in the game, and I like to think that my 80 hours of experience has bestowed me with some knowledge I can impart upon you to help make your Platinum Trophy Hunt go a little smoother.

The first thing to note is that you will need to play through the game on Hard. It’s actually not too hard, but there are a couple of boss battles which took me a while due to the difficulty, so be prepared for that.

Pumped Porter Deliver 3,000kg of Cargo

Hooked on Delivering!? Deliver 700 items of cargo

These two trophies seem like a big challenge on paper, you’d likely look at that 700 deliveries one and be thinking “Wow, okay, yeah I’ve gotta go for that trophy”. But trust me, by the time you’ve platted the game you will have made well over 700 item deliveries so don’t even worry about it. Same for the cargo weight trophy. They’ll just happen over time as you’re getting this trophy:

Great Deliverer Reach Grade 60 in all delivery evaluation categories.

This one was the last trophy I got because of the delivery time category. There weren’t many timed deliveries at the start of the game so by the time I was level 10/12 in other categories, I had only just started getting Delivery time levels.

Once I was done with every other misc trophy and only had this one left, I looked for timed deliveries which award a lot of likes, around 100-200 likes minimum to ensure I got a good amount. You’d also want to try and get a good rating on it for even more likes, and do it as a premium delivery.

Speaking of Premium Deliveries:

Birth of a Legend Complete 10 premium deliveries with an evaluation of “Legend” or “Legend of Legends” in every single category.

Growth of a Legend Complete 20 premium deliveries with an evaluation of “Legend of Legends” in all categories.

Essentially, you want to complete 80 Premium Deliveries with the rating of “Legend of Legends”. To do a premium delivery, you first need to progress enough to unlock them, but when you press on a delivery to select it, press on the next screen to select “Premium Delivery”. These have tougher parameters but reward a higher number of likes, helping you achieve other trophies much quicker.

In fact, by the end of my run, I had completed 166 premium deliveries with Legend of Legends rating, just because I was doing so many to get the likes and level Sam up so I didn’t really need to spend time purposefully grinding out this trophy the way I did, because it would have likely happened naturally.

Look at all those Legend of Legends deliveries!

Setting up Zipline networks and highway systems will help with this, the faster you can complete most deliveries, the higher the score you will receive at the end, plus you can get through them much quicker and easier this way with less risk of damaging cargo.

It’s important to note that completing a Premium Delivery with Legend of Legends rank twice will not count. Before you do a premium delivery, check in the bottom right of the left-hand menu whether you’ve already completed it with Legend of Legends rank. It needs to be 80 unique premium deliveries. I wasted about 2 hours delivering the same deliveries in the Eastern Region before realising this.

Anyway, here are the 4 categories you need to complete premium deliveries for (20 times each):

Quality Focused: These deliveries are marked with an icon of two open hands carefully holding a box. You will need to be extra careful in how you get around for these ones, don’t fall over, don’t get shot, don’t jump off cliffs in your Truck, that kind of thing. Get the cargo to its destination with minimal damage to get a Legend of Legends rating.

These deliveries are marked with an icon of two open hands carefully holding a box. You will need to be extra careful in how you get around for these ones, don’t fall over, don’t get shot, don’t jump off cliffs in your Truck, that kind of thing. Get the cargo to its destination with minimal damage to get a Legend of Legends rating. Quantity Focused: These deliveries are marked with an icon of one hand, carrying 3 boxes on its palm. They involve a lot of cargo, often meaning you will need to use a vehicle to get to your destination as it will be too much to carry on your back. Get all of the cargo to its destination for Legend of Legends rating.

These deliveries are marked with an icon of one hand, carrying 3 boxes on its palm. They involve a lot of cargo, often meaning you will need to use a vehicle to get to your destination as it will be too much to carry on your back. Get all of the cargo to its destination for Legend of Legends rating. Delivery-Time Focused: These deliveries are marked with a clock icon. You will have a set amount of time to make these deliveries and for Legend of Legends rating, you will need to make the delivery in a fraction of the available time. If you have 25 minutes, get there in under 5. If you have 40 minutes, get there in under 8. I know that maths doesn’t add up, but that has been my experience.

These deliveries are marked with a clock icon. You will have a set amount of time to make these deliveries and for Legend of Legends rating, you will need to make the delivery in a fraction of the available time. If you have 25 minutes, get there in under 5. If you have 40 minutes, get there in under 8. I know that maths doesn’t add up, but that has been my experience. Miscellaneous: These deliveries are a bit rarer, especially in the Eastern area. They’re marked with an icon of a large box surrounded by 5 smaller boxes. These deliveries usually require going out to a BT area or MULE/Terrorist camp and collecting stolen or lost cargo, which you will then need to deliver to whoever needs it. In order to get a Legend of Legends rating, you will need to get every possible piece of cargo you can. The cargo should be marked with “1 / 6”, for example, and you will then want to find and retrieve all 6.

Rest in Pieces In a BT area, cut an umbilical cord for the first time without the BT noticing

You will unlock this ability in Episode 5. Once you have it, enter any BT area and start approaching a BT, your Odradek will be telling you where they are. Once you are really close, the Odradek will turn orange and start spinning wildly, you will also see the button prompt to hold to hold your breath. With your breath held, slowly push forward towards the BT until you see a second prompt telling you to push to cut the umbilical cord.

If you stand still for a sec, BB will help you to see nearby BTs

Do so, and Sam will grab the nearby BT and dispatch it before it can cause you any damage. If you see BT footprints, just get out of there, I don’t think you can cut their cord at that point and it’s too risky to stick around.

Master Builder Build at least one of every type of structure (including signs, ladders, and climbing anchors.)

Trail Blazer Upgrade all types of structure to the maximum level

These trophies are easier than they seem, as long as you have everything unlocked. I got these trophies just before Episode 9.

The best thing to do is refer to the guide below, take out any resources you need from one of the major cities, and then build the structures somewhere nearby, so that you can upgrade them.

You can actually track which structures you have and haven’t built via the Bridge Links tab on the Cuff Links menu. Simply select Bridge Links, then your own PSNID, then press to switch over to the “Structures” tab where it will tell you which structures you have constructed.

Note that it will say you have built a bridge due to a story mission which requires you to, but this does not count. You will need to build a second bridge of your own volition to get the trophy to pop.

I had to build a second bridge for the trophy to pop. Just the foundations don’t count, you need to supply enough to get it to level 1.

Building the structures near to a main Knot City means that you can easily go back and forth to bring the supplies you need to the structure in order to upgrade it to level 3 for the Trail-Blazer trophy. You will only need to get a structure to Level 3, so if you see another player’s structure which is level 2 and you level that up, it will still count!

Death Stranding Structure & Upgrades Guide

Sign

The sign costs nothing and you can place them anywhere. I highly recommend being a good person and placing Memory chip signs near Memory Chips when you find them. Hold and press to bring up the sign menu and select the one you wish to place.

It can’t be upgraded.

Ladder

This “structure” can be fabricated in any shelter, once you have one just select it in the tool menu . Hold to select where to place it and to place it.

It can’t be upgraded.

Ladders are the most basic tool for getting around. Useful, but I didn’t really use them much.

Watchtower

You will need to fabricate a Level 1 PCC to place a Watchtower. Select the PCC in the tool menu and use it by holding and pressing to begin building the selected structure. You can switch between PCC structures by pressing .

Level 1: No cost, just place a PCC [Lv. 1]

Level 2: Add 32 Chiral Crystals and 400 Metal to the structure.

Level 3: Add 150 Chiral Crystals and 800 Metal to the structure.

Timefall Shelter

You will need to fabricate a Level 1 PCC to place a Timefall Shelter. Select the PCC in the tool menu and use it by holding and pressing to begin building the selected structure. You can switch between PCC structures by pressing .

Level 1: No cost, just place a PCC [Lv. 1]

Level 2: Add 32 Chiral Crystals and 400 Metal to the structure.

Level 3: Add 300 Chiral Crystals and 1,200 Metal to the structure.

Bridge

You will need to fabricate a Level 1 PCC to place a Bridge. Select the PCC in the tool menu and use it by holding and pressing to begin building the selected structure. You can switch between PCC structures by pressing .

Level 1: Once the bridge foundations are placed, you will need to add 800 Metal to the structure in order to complete the Level 1 Bridge structure.

Level 2: Add 96 Chiral Crystals and 1,600 Metal to the structure.

Level 3: Add 500 Chiral Crystals and 2,800 Metal to the structure.

Zip-line

You will need to fabricate a Level 2 PCC to place a Zip-line. Select the PCC in the tool menu and use it by holding and pressing to begin building the selected structure. You can switch between PCC structures by pressing .

Level 1: No cost, just place a PCC [Lv. 2]

Level 2: Add 240 Chemicals and 480 Special Alloys to the structure.

Level 3: Add 300 Chiral Crystals, 1,400 Chemicals, and 1,440 Special Alloys to the structure.

I have no doubt that you will make plenty of zip-lines as they are the most useful structure by far.

Safehouse

You will need to fabricate a Level 2 PCC to place a Safe House. Select the PCC in the tool menu and use it by holding and pressing to begin building the selected structure. You can switch between PCC structures by pressing . This is the hardest structure to build and fully upgrade. Try to find somebody else’s Level 2 safe house and upgrade that to Level 3 to save yourself some time and resources.

Level 1: You will need 300 Chiral Crystals and 2,400 Special Alloys to place a Level 1 Safehouse.

Level 2: Add 500 Chiral Crystals and 4,500 Special Alloys to the structure.

Level 3: Add 1,000 Chiral Crystals and 6,840 Special Alloys to the structure.

Any Porter in a Storm trade with another Porter for the first time

To trade with another Porter, when you see one in the wild, approach them and bombard them with Likes by mashing . They may then extend their hand out with some Cargo, which you can then take from them with . If giving them likes doesn’t work, try placing some cargo on the ground in front of them. They’ll think about it for a second and then offer you some cargo. Failing that, try it on another Porter until it works.

Best Beloved Reach the maximum connection level with all facilities

This is pretty easy except for a few secret preppers. Secret preppers are usually tougher to coerce onto the Chiral Network and will typically only earn one star at a time. When a secret prepper gets stuck at a certain number of stars, seemingly not increasing, don’t worry about it. Just keep making deliveries to them, the bigger the better.

With the Veteran Porter, for example, I did some very hefty orders each time allowing me to earn a star per delivery, especially if I brought along any of their Lost Cargo I found along the way. Always be looking for Lost Cargo when you are near them, some even have dedicated Lost Cargo spawns which refresh regularly.

Death Stranding Secret Prepper Guide

In the Eastern Region you can find:

The Musician

Head West from the Waystation West of Capital Knot City to find a Waterfall, if you huge the cliff on the left-hand side. The Musician can be found under an overhanging cliff-face just at the top of the waterfall.

He will have a Miscellaneous mission for you to complete in the nearby MULE camp in order to start receiving orders for and from him.

Ludens Fan

Head East from the Waystation West of Capital Knot City and you will enter a BT area. Just as you leave the BT area on the other side, there will be a high cliff to your right. Scan the base of this cliff to find some Lost Cargo for “Ludens Fan” and then deliver it to him at the top of the cliff in order to start receiving orders for and from him.

This lost cargo will respawn frequently so be sure to check for it anytime you’re nearby.

In the Central Region you will find quite a few secret preppers:

Peter Englert

You will receive an order for Pizza at some point in the story via email. Make sure to check the email to find out where the order needs to be delivered from, and then take it to Peter. Pizzas need to be carried flat, so if you don’t have enough on your back for the pizza to lie flat on top, take out some Metals or other such resources to fill up the backpack so the Pizza can be carried flat on top.

You will receive 5 total orders from Peter Englert. The fifth one will come after Episode 9, just make sure you complete them all as you get them. I don’t believe this trophy is missable, but it could likely get trickier if you leave it too long, I’m not sure.

Naturally, Mr. Englert’s was the last location I 5-starred.

The Collector

If you head east from the Waystation South of Lake Knot you will come across a MULE area. Just on the western border of this area there is a ravine, walk along this ravine pressing [R1] to scan your surroundings and you will eventually see that there is a prepper shelter hidden in one of the ravine walls. Use a climbing anchor or ladder to access it and then complete some of his orders to add him to the Chiral Network.

The Collector has 3 unique Miscellaneous deliveries you can do to help with your Legend of Legends premium delivery ratings if you’re struggling to find any. Completing these will likely be enough to reach 5-stars with him, or at least get you pretty damn close.

The Novelist’s Son

Head West from the Waystation North of Mountain Knot and huge the cliff-face at the north until you find this prepper shelter hidden away. Just a few meters in front of his shelter there will be some Lost Cargo which you can deliver to him, unlocking deliveries for and from this prepper.

This cargo respawns, so look for it every time you make a delivery there to get a little boost towards 5-stars. The Miscellaneous missions he offers are good for getting Legend of Legends Premium Delivery ratings, as well as reaching 5 stars with him quicker.

The First Prepper

Just east of the Spiritualist, there is a very tall mountain. If you climb to the top of this and then head a little way down the other side, you will find the First Prepper.

I didn’t find this one hard to 5-star because you will typically get a lot of likes just for delivering to him. Be sure to set up a zipline network allowing yourself to get back up there easier in the future as it can be quite an uphill trek. And look out for lost cargo for this prepper whenever you’re in that area.

Veteran Porter

Head north up the mountain-side from the Timefall Farm to find this prepper. There is a case of Lost Cargo just a few meters from his front-door, scan for it and you’ll see. This cargo will allow you to unlock deliveries for and from this prepper, but will also regularly respawn, so look for it every time you come by to make a delivery. Again, this one is tricky to level up as he’s not keen on the idea of the Chiral Network or the UCA, but make as many big deliveries as you can and be sure to scan for lost cargo whenever you’re in the mountain regions and you’ll 5-star him in no time.

That is all of the secret prepper locations and 5-star conditions. The rest will be easily found throughout the story or available to deliver to from the start.

Public Service Porter Dispose of chiralium-contaminated cargo in the crater lake for the first time.

You may have noticed on one of your many visits to the Junk dealer that there is an insane amount of rusted cargo to the right of his shelter. This is the chiralium-contaminated cargo. Load one onto your back and then head to the Chiral Artist’s Studio. South of there is a large lake of tar.

Open your cargo menu and then equip the chiralium-contaminated cargo in your right hand. Hold (or if you placed it in your left hand, just to be contrarian) once you close the menu to keep hold of it, or Sam will place it on the ground.

Then, facing the lake, press to swing the cargo like a weapon. At the apex of your swing, let go of (or ) in order to launch the cargo into the lake, netting yourself the trophy.

This is the spot!

Fount of Knowledge Restore all memory chips

Memory chips are not available from the start of the game. Most of them need to be found by NPCs first who will notify you of a “shining object” in a certain area of the map via email. You will need to 5-star every prepper in order to unlock every memory chip, so you might as well leave this hunt until you have done that.

There are some you will be able to get, though. Be sure to check around prepper shelters, waystations and Knot cities as almost all of them will have a memory chip nearby, just scan around for it. If any shelter has a unique structure or area nearby you’re pretty much guaranteed that it will be there.

Incinerators always have one on the roof and almost every MULE or Terrorist camp will have one inside their tents, so look for those whenever you find yourself nearby.

The trophy won’t pop until you hand in the memory chips at a network-connected terminal.

The memory chip hunt will take you to some very cool locations!

Homo Faber Fabricate all available weapons and equipment

Leave this until last. Once you’ve done every other trophy you’re more than likely to have unlocked everything.

There are 72 total weapons, tools, equipment and vehicles to fabricate and one of the vehicles will not be available until you hand in one of the memory chips.

I said most of this earlier, but for clarification:

If you press on an item in the fabrication menu, you might see a small check-box in the bottom left corner of the informational pop-up which will indicate whether you have crafted one before.

Some “Gold” equipment does not have this check-box, presumably because it does not count towards the trophy.

I was missing one at the end, and couldn’t figure out what I had not crafted. It turns out I had an “Order for Sam” side-delivery available at the Waystation South of Lake Knot City for which I needed to retrieve Sticky Guns from nearby MULEs, which unlocked the ability to craft Sticky Guns, the one item I was missing. If you find yourself in this situation, check major cities and waystations for any “Orders for Sam” and complete them.

Death Stranding: Extra Images

Once again, I took a lot of screenshots and couldn’t find place for them all in the main review, so enjoy these few extra images I’d like to share!

Some great art direction brought this shot into life!

Lookin’ good!

Scanning the environment has a really cool visual effect!

Higgs’ Pharoah-inspired design is the coolest in the game.

Look at the detail on this model!!