Death Stranding: Multiplayer guide

Introduction

Death Stranding is one of the newest and also hottest games in the world right now. It's unique in many ways, including how you play multiplayer. In fact, many people consider it to be a "social" game because there are many ways and things where you can work together with other people in order to progress. The easiest way of understanding this is to realize that your actions can help other players in the game. Of course, it is up to you to decide whether you want to help anyone or you don't.

The exciting thing is that you can help others without even thinking about it too much. For example, every single time when you leave a structure that you've built or just leave any kind of supplies that you won't need anymore, someone will take advantage of them. Besides, you can ever deliver other peoples' cargo and tools if they dropped them for some reason.

Let's take a look and see how can you actually interact with other players in Death Stranding. Keep it in mind that it is possible to see some changes once the first significant updates start kicking in.

Building structures and leaving them behind

As we mentioned above, Death Stranding is a game where you can go any structure (as well as the tools for it) that you don't need anymore. Many different arrangements can do the job, such as places where they can keep their cargo, for example. However, the most useful things are definitely ladders and ropes. A well-placed ladder or cable can be an absolute lifesaver, especially if the other player is new to the game and does not have any tools.  Of course, whether you want to help anyone is entirely up to you. If you don't want to do help anyone, you can simply collect the things that you've used, and you won't leave anything behind.

Apart from ropes and ladders, you can also build larger structures such as bridges, for example. A well-placed bridge can be priceless for other players, so this is a great way to help them. The cool thing is that you can even contribute to the decks or watchtowers of other people. Not only is this going to help him, but it will also help you because you will receive tons of likes for it. Unfortunately, every single structure is very likely to be destroyed unless you maintain it properly. This means that you need to re-visit the structures that you've contributes to so that they don't collapse.

In addition to buildings, you can leave behind even your footsteps. They can also be handy because if a player is new to the game, he will know where he needs to go through in order to progress in the game. 

In theory, every single action you take might have an impact on other players. It is up to you to decide if you want to be social or not.

Getting Likes

This is something that is not going to be to everyone's' likings. The devs of Death Stranding decided to add a special "Liking" system in the game. It works similar to Facebook in a way that you can merely like some stuff that is left by other players to help you. Likes are the right way of none-physical interaction.

Apart from the sheer social aspects of likes that make you feel "special," if you get a lot of likes, you will be added to some sort of a "list." This will basically boost your Porter reputation and get various different bonuses, such as posturing when you're under stress or even having an increased carry capacity.

Lastly, it is possible sometimes to find some roaming NPCs. If you are friendly enough with them and/or like what they've done, you can sometimes get free gear, which is pretty cool.

Returning Lost or Dropped Cargo

 Another critical element if you want to be a social player in Death Standing is to return cargo that's been either dropped or lost. In fact, this is something that you will come across pretty often. Many players just give up and decide to dump their stuff on the ground. 

When you find something like that, there are two main things you can do. First, you can just use them to your advantage (this is the preferable option, especially if you are in need). However, if you don't need anything, you can also try to find the dude that dropped the cargo and give it back to them. In order to do that, you need to take the shipment to a UCA or just prepper facility, and they will send it back to the original owner.

Of course, your act of kindness won't be left unnoticed. In the vast majority of cases, you will earn a lot of likes for your action. However, if you decide to return the cargo by yourself, you will definitely earn a lot more. On the other hand, if you don't want to go through all this, you can simply entrust any cargo you find via any of the shelters that are connected to the Chiral Network. Just keep it in mind that this cargo does not go to where it's supposed to go for a certain period; it will be destroyed.

Leaving Signs and Resting

If you want to be as helpful as possible, Death Stranding allows you to leave all kinds of signs to help other playe5rs in this game. These signs can be anything from showing where to go to signalize if there is any sort of danger nearby. As you can imagine, this will earn you a lot of likes, even if the sign isn't really useful on its own.

Death Stranding has many cool features, and taking a rest is one of them. At any given time, when you feel like you need it, you can simply sit down and have a rest. In fact, you can even take a nap or have a small massage, which can be a lifesaver in certain situations. Of course, this doesn't really benefit other players directly, right? Wrong!

If you take a rest anywhere on the ground, you will leave some sort of a holographic image and a couple of stacked rocks. So, when anyone else takes a rest near these rocks, the recovery process will be nearly doubled, which will save him a lot of time.

Requesting Supplies

If you are helpful enough and get a decent amount of likes, you will unlock a feature called "Requesting Supplies." This will be very useful whenever you run out of gadgets and want to continue to do your thing.

In order to request supplies, you need to basically "order" the items you need from the fabrication menu. When someone finds them, they will be delivered to the postbox that you've chosen. Needless to say, this usually takes some time, but in most cases, you will be able to get them pretty fast. When a player decided to help you, you will be informed via a notification. Visa Versa, you can complete the orders of other players when they need help.

Bridge Links and Strand Contracts

As we mentioned earlier, Death Stranding is a game where you can interact with the building of other players and help them. If you happen to help someone more often than other players, you can make a specialized "bond" with them called Strand Contracts. However, you will be able to unlock this feature once you finish the ninth order in Episode 2, which is the exact same time when you will also unlock the ability to request supplies which we covered above. In addition to that, you will also be able to add Bridge Links to the Cuff menu.

Whenever you visit Bridge Links, you will see a special list of players that you've been in contact with. On top of that, you can also see their Poter Grade Progress, which is basically showing the progress that every one of them has done throughout the game.  And of course, let's not forget the Strand Contracts, which basically allow you to have a more in-depth relationship with some of the players in Death Stranding. In order to start using this, the first thing you need to do is to increase your Bridge Link grade. The only way to do this is to get more likes of your structures, which is a slow but doable process.

Once that's done, you can click on add to the Strand Contract, and you will see that you have a new list of contacts. The cool thing is that you don't need anyone's permission to add them. However, you can only have a handful of Strand Contracts at a time. If you want to increase this number, you have to keep leveling your Bridge Link Grade. For every ten levels that you advance, you will be able to get five additional contracts.

Playing offline

Death Stranding is an fantastic game when you play with your friends. Despite that, it is also possible to play offline. That said, this means that you won't be able to use a lot of the features that are otherwise available such as finding ladders and ropes dropped by others, getting likes, and more. Technically, this means that you can still increase your Porter Grade, but it won't nearly as quick as if you've gotten some likes by other players.

The good thing is that if you build any structure while you're playing offline, it will be automatically "moved" the online world whenever you decide to join it.

To make a long story short - it is not advisable to play Death Stranding offline. You will just miss out on a lot of key features that make this game unique. Our advice would be to ask your friends and show them how cool this game can be as it offers an entirely new concept of social helping rather than just killing mindless beasts.