So, Hideo Kojima is back at it. If you thought the first game was a literal walk in the park—albeit a park filled with ghosts and rain that makes you old—you’re in for a wake-up call with the sequel. Tracking down a Death Stranding 2 trophy guide this early feels like trying to navigate a chiral storm without a compass, but we've got enough data from On the Beach to know exactly how this platinum is going to go down.
It’s going to be a grind. A long, beautiful, lonely grind.
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Most people look at a Kojima trophy list and see "Reach Level 60 in all facilities" and think, "Oh, I'll just deliver some boxes." No. That's not how Sam Porter Bridges operates. You’re going to be managing stamina, boots, BB’s mood, and now, a giant moving base called the Magellan. The scale has shifted. We aren't just connecting America anymore; we’re heading into uncharted territory, and the trophies reflect that shift from simple delivery man to a full-blown logistical commander.
What the Death Stranding 2 Trophy Guide Gets Wrong About Difficulty
Most guides will tell you this is a 3/10 difficulty. They're lying to you. Or, at least, they’re oversimplifying what "difficulty" means in a Strand-type game. Sure, you aren't fighting Elden Ring bosses every five minutes, but the real difficulty is the mental fortitude required to trek across a desert for forty minutes only to realize you forgot a PCC for a zip-line.
That’s the "Platinum Wall."
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You’ll likely see a return of the "Great Deliverer" trophy. In the first game, this required reaching Grade 60 in several categories: Delivery Time, Delivery Volume, Bridge Link, and Miscellaneous. In Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, the categories have evolved. With the introduction of more vertical terrain and the Magellan, expect trophies tied to environmental navigation that go way beyond just holding L2 and R2. Honestly, the hardest part of the platinum won't be the combat encounters with Higgs’ robotic minions; it’ll be the "Legend of Legends of Legends" rank on 50+ unique premium deliveries.
The Most Infamous Missable Opportunities
Kojima loves a good secret. While he rarely makes trophies "missable" in the sense that you have to restart the whole 100-hour game, he definitely makes them "annoying-able."
Take the Memory Chips. In the first game, some only appeared after reading specific emails. If you didn't rest in a private room to trigger the mail, the collectible simply didn't exist in the world. Death Stranding 2 uses a similar mechanic with the new ship-based hub. You've got to talk to Fragile, interact with the cat (yes, the weird wing-cat), and actually engage with the crew. If you're just rushing the "Finish Chapter X" trophies, you’re going to find yourself at the end of the game with a massive list of unread messages and zero clue where the last few collectibles are hidden.
- The "Bring Everyone Together" Trophy: This usually requires five-starring every facility. In the sequel, some facilities are mobile or temporary. If you don't max them out before a certain story beat, you might have to wait until the post-game to fix it.
- The Crafting Checklist: You’ll need to craft every single weapon and piece of equipment. Pro tip: keep a physical notepad. The in-game menus are stylish, sure, but they’re a mess for tracking what you’ve already built.
- Social Strand System: This is the heart of the game. If you play offline, the platinum difficulty spikes to a 9/10. You need other players' roads. You need their bridges. Don't be a hero—use the grid.
Why Delivery Time is Your Worst Enemy
In any Death Stranding 2 trophy guide, the "Delivery Time" stat is consistently the one that ruins lives. Most deliveries give you plenty of leeway. You can take the long way around a mountain, fight a few BTs, and still get an S-rank. But the Timed Deliveries? They’re brutal.
You’ll be looking at a five-minute window to cross three kilometers of jagged rock.
This is where the new vehicles come in. We’ve seen the unicycle-style bikes and the heavy-duty trucks in the trailers. To get the platinum, you have to master the physics of these machines. If you hit a rock at the wrong angle, Sam goes flying, your cargo takes 20% damage, and your "Legend of Legends" rank vanishes. It’s frustrating. It’s meant to be. But finally seeing that "Great Deliverer" icon pop after a perfect mountain descent is a high most shooters can't provide.
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Complexity in the New Combat Trophies
Higgs is back, and he’s... well, he’s a guitar-playing cyborg now. The combat in DS2 is significantly more emphasized than in the first game. While the original game had a few trophies for "Defeat a Catcher," the sequel seems to have more specific combat challenges.
Expect trophies for:
- Non-lethal takedowns: Clearing an entire camp without a single kill.
- Environmental kills: Using the new destruction physics to drop a cliffside on an enemy.
- Specific boss feats: Doing things like "Defeat Higgs without using a firearm."
The game still leans heavily into the "violence is bad" theme, but it gives you way more toys to play with. Balancing the "Total Pacifist" mindset with the need to clear out robot-infested zones is a weird tightrope walk you'll have to perform for the 100% completion mark.
Dealing with the "Hideo Kojima" Weirdness
Let’s be real: some trophies are just going to be weird. There will probably be a trophy for staring at Sam’s feet too long or for making a specific face in the mirror. In the first game, we had to "Heal by soaking in a hot spring" and "Pee outside."
Don't ignore the social prompts. If the game tells you to take a photo with a certain character, do it. If there's a prompt to whistle a tune for BB-2, do it. These "Flavor Trophies" are easy to miss because they don't feel like "objectives." They feel like you're just messing around in a sandbox. But for a completionist, these are the little garnishes that fill out the trophy cabinet.
Strategic Roadmap for the Platinum
- Ignore the clock initially. Just play the story. You can't access the best gear (like the Level 3 Exoskeletons) until later chapters. Trying to five-star a facility in Chapter 2 is a waste of your time.
- Build the roads. Always. Every bit of Chiral Bandwidth you spend on infrastructure saves you ten hours of walking later. It is the single most important "hidden" step in any Death Stranding 2 trophy guide.
- Upgrade your zip-lines. In the mountainous regions, a well-placed zip-line network is the difference between an S-rank and a "Try Again."
- Check the "Hidden" trophies. Kojima loves to hide story spoilers in the trophy names, so don't look at the hidden list until you've reached the credits. Once the credits roll, then you go back for the mop-up.
The journey to the platinum in Death Stranding 2 isn't a sprint. It’s a literal marathon. You’re going to spend hours listening to the low-fi soundtrack while staring at the back of Norman Reedus’s head. You’ll get frustrated when a cargo container breaks. You’ll feel a weird sense of pride when a bridge you built gets 50,000 likes from strangers.
Actionable Steps for Your Playthrough
To get ahead of the curve, start focusing on Bridge Link levels early. Interact with every player structure you see. Give likes generously. The more "connected" you are, the more likely other players' structures will appear in your world, which trivializes the harder delivery trophies. Also, prioritize the All-Terrain Skeleton as soon as it unlocks; the ability to sprint through deep snow or mud isn't just a luxury, it's a requirement for the timed trials. Finally, keep an eye on your "Order Evaluation" screen after every mission. If you see a category lagging behind (usually "Miscellaneous" or "Bridge Link"), pivot your next three hours of gameplay specifically to address that gap. If you wait until the end of the game to start leveling these, the grind will feel insurmountable. Keep on keeping on.