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Anticipated for years before its release and surpassing many expectations, Hideo Kojima gives us his first game released under Kojima Productions in Death Stranding. As expected from the brilliant auteur, Death Stranding doesn't disappoint in building a strange and beautiful world with a well-written story that has a decent pay off in its final moments.

At its basest level, Death Stranding is a series of 70 fetch quests with a focus on maintaining the quality of your deliveries through periodic precipitation known as timefall – corrosive rain (and severely corrosive snow, late in the story) that will affect your cargo and equipment quality and life-span. With only a smattering of combat from enemy package thieves known as MULEs and the more frequent floating ghosts that pop up during timefall known as BTs ("beached things"), there is little to worry about concerning difficulty throughout the story.

On a grander scale, Death Stranding is about connecting the world together, both in the story (as Sam travels the country connecting sites to the United Cities of America network) and in the cooperative use of player made equipment you will likely see in your gameplay and be able to use throughout your experience. The addition of other user's ladders, climbing anchors, signs indicating collectibles and Ziplines, will not only make the journey easier but will also remind you that you are not alone in what can sometimes feel like a solitary experience.

Death Stranding: Director's Cut (PS5 Exclusive): I have added the necessary information in order to get the platinum in the Director's Cut version of the game below as well. The game is largely the same game with some added features, enhanced graphics and 39 more items that will need to be unlocked for the platinum.

Death Stranding: Director's Cut (PS5 Exclusive) - There are 39 more items to unlock in the Director's Cut in order to complete Homo Faber , Master Builder  and Trail-Blazer , otherwise the requirements for platinum are identical to the PS4 version of the game. I have added the additional requirements to those trophies below.
 
If you are looking to export your already completed PS4 platinum save to the Death Stranding: Director's Cut PS5 version, I have created a walkthrough that will get you from start of game to platinum in four to six hours. The Guide Supplement can be found here: Death Stranding PS4 Platinum to PS5 Death Stranding: Director's Cut Quick Platinum Full Walkthrough

Step 1 – Play through the story

Play through the story and deliver every "Order for Sam" that is given to you. Along the way, you will meet and form connections with the other members of the Bridges Team and Fragile, along with other people in the world, that will enrich the interesting story as you travel across the country. Without too much exploration, the story can be finished in around thirty to forty hours. Nothing in the game is missable. Despite how it may appear in Chapter 2 (without spoiling the story) you will be able to return to the East Region after you migrate to the Central Region. The only rule you need to remember is to never use a lethal weapon on any living NPC, even the MULEs. Allowing a dead body to decompose over three days in this world will cause what is known as a voidout and can cause you to have to reload a previous save and burn the body (or never kill the NPC in the first place). This fact is fully fleshed out very early in the story and you are reminded by multiple Bridges members to never kill anyone many times over throughout the story so you will understand why by the time you have access to lethal weapons.

Difficulty is fairly fluid in Death Stranding and not much about the game is difficult even on Hard. I found some of the traversal and managing BTs towards the end of Chapter 2 and during the later parts of the story in the mountains to run smoother at a lower difficulty until I got used to the controls, the terrain and the resources that aid in the journey. Whatever difficulty you are comfortable with, you can change it at any time in between orders. The biggest benefit or difference you will experience playing on Hard is the ability to select the Premium Delivery option, which are non-story related deliveries you can make starting after arriving at the Wind Farm late into Episode 2. On Hard, this option can award you many more Likes (which in turn increases your connection with a facility through a 5 star rating system) and gives you the opportunity to be awarded a Legend of Legends Ranking on the Premium Delivery. You will need to achieve 20 of these for each of the four delivery categories so it is always good to get a few in during the story if you choose to play on Hard throughout.

As you make your deliveries and connect to new Facilities and Preppers, you will be given new items you can craft to use as equipment, gear, weapons, vehicles or backpack customizations so that as you travel further West across the country, you will have more amenities you can use to aid in your journey. Keep in mind all structures that you create outside (and any item you travel with as cargo) will deteriorate over time in timefall so don't spend too much time creating a network of ziplines as soon as you have the ability to make them as they may not be operable by the time you need them post game.

As the story progresses, you will be introduced to all but six of the Preppers you can deliver to and coerce on to the UCA. Two of the remaining Preppers will be in the East Region, the other four are in the Central Region where you will spend most of the story. You are welcome to seek these facilities out during the story progression (see In Sam We Trust ) if you so desire. Some will take multiple deliveries and many rest periods to finally open up to the idea of joining the UCA and it is truly unlikely you will be able to have the chance to make a sizeable dent in this effort with Preppers like the Veteran Porter or the First Prepper until post game. It will be much easier to accomplish this goal after you have finished the story with a reduced amount of waiting using all of your resources and a good network of ziplines.

By the end of this step you should unlock the following story trophies at the minimum and all the miscellaneous trophies you cannot avoid through the story:

Delivering Is What I Do  
Like and Be Liked  
Sleep Tight, Little BB  
Rebuilding America  
Apprentice Builder  
A Baby Blessing  
A New Day for the UCA  
Snooze 'n' Soothe  
Chiral Crafter  
The Custom Kid  
Well Connected  
Building Bridges  
Prominent Porter  
The People's Porter  
Boots Are a Porter's Best Friend  
Catcher Crusher  
We Need You  
Well-Traveled  
I Won't Break  
BB...  
We're Whole Again  
BBs: A Bridge Between This World and the One Beyond  
"BB"  
Sixty Deaths and Sixty Births in a Day  
The Particle of God  
I'm Your Die-Hardman  
Bring Back My Baby  
She's waiting for you on the Beach.  
Pumped Porter  
Thank You, Sam  
Thanks for Everything  

Step 2 – Work towards getting all Facilities to 5 Stars through Premium Orders, build and fully upgrade all types of structures, collect all Memory Chips and fabricate all items

After the final roll of the credits, you will be back in the world, tasked to "Pass the time" two weeks before the final moments of the story. Don't let the timespan worry you though, you will have an unlimited amount of time to take care of the post-game content. If you at any time played on Very Easy to Normal Difficulty, now is the best time to switch to Hard for the rest of your gameplay. This will allow you to start working through the Standard Orders and picking the Premium Option to work towards S ranking 20 Premium Deliveries in each of the four categories (See Growth of a Legend  ).

If you have yet to find the final six Preppers, work on finding and connecting them as you travel and pick up any Lost Cargo for them you may find in your journey (See In Sam We Trust  for these locations and tips for getting the more stubborn Preppers to join the UCA). Complete as many Premium Deliveries to each facility and Prepper you may need and keep reading emails you receive for urgent deliveries or special requests that will help in working towards getting 5 stars across the map at every facility.

As you improve connection with every site and finally reach 5 stars, you will be given the ability to fabricate more items and you will increase the bandwidth of resources throughout the country. Build all ten structure types (thirteen for the Director's Cut), upgrade the seven PCC structures to Level 3 (ten for the Director's Cut) and build at least one road. Once you have access to all 72 items (108 in the Director's Cut) you can fabricate, you have the option to make all of them at once through fabrication and recycling the resources (See Homo Faber ) in order to complete this task. The game also makes note of what you have made in the fabrication menu so this is easily done at the end of your gameplay.

Lastly, you will need to read through all of your interview files and emails from the facilities you receive once you form a strong connection with each. These add volumes to the lore of the game but many of them also spawn the ability to collect memory chips throughout the map. Look out for player-made signs indicating memory chip locations or check the walkthrough for the Fount of Knowledge   trophy.

By the end of this step you should unlock:

Step 3 – Clean-up any miscellaneous items you haven’t already completed

By the time you have reached 5 stars with all stations and reached at least Grade 60 in all delivery evaluation categories, you may have already completed all there is to do in this game. If you have yet to complete any of the miscellaneous trophies below, please check the Guide to see how to clean up what you have left.

By the end of this step you should unlock: