Sam is Virtually Invincible in Story Mode
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Death Stranding 2 On the Beach (DS2)
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There are four difficulty settings to choose from when starting Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (DS2). Read on to learn the differences between each difficulty, the best difficulty to play on, how to change difficulty, and find out if there is a difficulty trophy.
List of Contents
All Difficulty Settings
| All Difficulty Settings | |
|---|---|
| Story | Allows you to focus completely on the story. Sam is virtually unkillable, cargo is less likely to get damaged, and combat is a breeze. |
| Casual | Gameplay remains relatively effortless, allowing you to enjoy the story. Recommended for those who want to enjoy a few moderate challenges along the way. |
| Normal | Mixes challenging gameplay with an enjoyable story. Recommended for those who are familiar with action games and want to experience everything this title has to offer. |
| Brutal | Recommended for those who want a real challenge to accompany the story. Enemies are more aggressive, Sam takes more damage, and cargo contents are easily damaged. |
There are a total of 4 difficulty settings for Death Stranding 2. On Brutal difficulty, enemies are much more aggressive (and have more varied attack patterns), making voidouts a more common occurrence compared to playthroughs on lower difficulties.
All Difficulty Differences
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Sam is Virtually Invincible in Story Mode
Sam's HP is probably the biggest difference you'll encounter across each difficulty setting of Death Stranding 2. In Story mode, you're virtually impossible to kill since you take reduced damage and you get auto HP regen when dropping below 300 HP (even with no Blood Bags).
This isn't the case for the other difficulty levels, with the most extreme being Brutal difficulty. In this setting, Sam's HP is easily chunked away when taking nasty falls and tanking hits from large BTs.
Cargo Damage Varies Depending on Difficulty
The damage Sam's cargo takes when dropped varies depending on difficulty. When playing on Story difficulty, you'll usually only get a -1% drop in contents damage even on the hardest of drops. On Brutal, these wipeouts can result in you losing as much as -24% content damage in one go.
Enemy HP Increases and Behavior Changes Based on Difficulty
In Story mode, BTs are a minor annoyance at best since they barely deal damage and are easily killed. However, on Brutal difficulty, BTs are much more aggressive and they have a much higher HP pool.
When fighting large BTs on the hardest difficulty, enemies have more varied movesets and their deadly grab attacks can easily trigger voidouts if you aren't careful. You'll also have to prepare many more items given how tanky BTs become on Brutal.
Best Difficulty Setting to Play On
Play on Story Mode if You Only Want to See the Story
For players who are only interested in the story Kojima wanted to tell, you're best bet will be to play on Story difficulty. On this setting, you are virtually unkillable, allowing you to experience the story seamlessly (rather than having to take breaks between story beats to gear up).
Story Mode Also Allows Players to Skip Boss Fights
If you still, somehow, lose against the game's boss fights on Story Mode, you will get an option to “Pretend You Won” and skip the boss fight upon dying.
We highly recommend just completing the fight and its hyper reduced difficulty as it takes an extremely long time for Sam to die in this difficulty and losing to bosses to skip them is far more tedious than just defeating them normally.
Play on Normal to Get the Best Experience
For a balanced playthrough, we recommend playing Death Stranding 2 on Normal since Story and Casual are too easy for players looking to sink long hours into the exploration and delivery loop of the game.
Remember, Brutal difficulty is nothing short of masochistic, especially with no difficulty trophy on the line. This difficulty is only recommended if you already have a mastery of the game's mechanics (or if you're a returning veteran of Death Stranding 1).
Is There a Difficulty Trophy?
No Trophy for Beating the Game on Brutal
Thankfully, if you're gunning to platinum Death Stranding 2, you can rest easy knowing that there is no difficulty trophy. This means that Brutal difficulty is entirely optional even for trophy hunters looking to 100% the game.
Seasoned Porter Requires at Least Casual Completion
 Gold
|
Seasoned Porter |
|---|---|
| Complete 10 deliveries, 10 recoveries, 10 elimination/destruction standard orders with an S rank in Casual difficulty or above. |
The Seasoned Veteran trophy requires you to get at least 30 S Rank ratings under your belt across multiple activities while playing on Casual or higher. If you plan to Platinum the game, you can play on Casual then switch to Story once you get this trophy.
How to Change Difficulty
Change Difficulty via the System Menu
When you first start a new game of Death Stranding 2, you'll be asked to choose a difficulty: Story, Casual, Normal, or Brutal. Once you've started your game, the difficulty can be changed at any time via the System menu.
Death Stranding 2 Related Guides
Beginner's Guide: Tips and Tricks
All Beginner's Guides
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Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (DS2) Walkthrough & Guides Wiki
All Difficulty Differences and Best Difficulty Setting
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Do bosses drop more chiral crystals on brutal? in first game Very Hard difficulty would mean more creatures where there were one - so more crystals