Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Setting

The game is set eleven months after the events of Death Stranding. The United Cities of America (UCA), a nation built from the remains of the United States, is fully connected via the Chiral Network and the logistics company, Bridges, has become defunct with deliveries now being handled by the Automated Porter Assistant System (APAS) that uses unmanned delivery robots, putting human porters out of work. Transcontinental portals called "plate gates" begin manifesting across the world in areas with high chiral density, most notably one linking Mexico to Australia. The extinction event has intensified: the ghostlike creatures called Beached Things (BTs) are evolving, natural disasters are frequent, and the Australian continent is overrun by bandits and hostile robots called "ghost mechs".

Characters include: Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), a legendary retired porter; Lou, his adopted daughter; Fragile (Léa Seydoux), an ally of Sam and founder of the private company Drawbridge; Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti)^[c], a Death Stranding researcher; Tarman (George Miller/Marty Rhone)^[d], Dollman (Fatih Akin/Jonathan Roumie)^[e], Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs)^[f], and Rainy (Shioli Kutsuna), members of Drawbridge who aid Sam in his expedition; the President (Alastair Duncan), leader of the Automated Public Assistance Company (APAC) which operates APAS; Charlie (Tommie Earl Jenkins), Drawbridge's mysterious benefactor; Tomorrow (Elle Fanning), an amnesiac young woman who possesses powers relating to the tar; Neil Vana (Luca Marinelli), a mysterious spectral soldier; Lucy (Alissa Jung), Sam's late wife; Amelie (Lindsay Wagner), Sam's adopted sister and the "Extinction Entity", a being manifested by the universe to trigger an extinction event; and Higgs (Troy Baker), the primary antagonist of Death Stranding who seemingly returned from the beach, the space between the afterlife and the physical world, to exact vengeance on Sam and Fragile.

Plot

Sam lives in peaceful isolation with Lou near the former US–Mexico border after deserting the UCA. Fragile tracks him down and asks him to connect Mexico to the Chiral Network using abandoned APAC terminals. As incentive, the UCA will pardon Sam for taking Lou, who is considered Bridges property. Though reluctant, Sam accepts, leaving Lou in Fragile's care. After successfully linking Mexico, Sam reaches a research facility where Deadman left behind a recording. Deadman explains that he discovered a mysterious anomaly in southern Mexico called a "plate gate", which acts as a portal to Australia, where survivors remain. He also reveals that Lou's BB identification number belonged to a decommissioned unit, meaning Lou was never officially registered in the UCA's system. Sam returns home, where he finds that his shelter was attacked by an unknown armed group. Fragile survives, but Lou is apparently killed.

A month later, Sam struggles with grief and Fragile invites him aboard her tar-traversing ship, the DHV Magellan, to travel through the plate gate and connect Australia to the Chiral Network. During the journey, Lou appears again as a BT-like entity inside Sam's BB pod. Onboard, Sam meets the crew of Drawbridge, including a mysterious figure known as the President, who explains that connecting Australia will activate additional plate gates capable of linking continents worldwide. While expanding the network across Australia, Sam encounters Higgs, who now commands powerful "ghost mech" forces that terrorize settlements. Sam also experiences strange 'tarfall' anomalies where he is teleported into battles against a spectral soldier named Neil Vana. After his first encounter, Sam discovers a chrysalis containing an amnesiac young woman, whom Fragile names Tomorrow.

Following repeated confrontations, Sam eventually defeats Neil and experiences his memories. Sam learns that Lou is actually his biological daughter, believed to have died years earlier with Lucy during a voidout. Lou survived because she was secretly taken by Bridges beforehand and designated BB-00, the first successful Bridge Baby. Neil worked for Bridges smuggling braindead pregnant women from Mexico to the UCA to supply BB programs. Neil tried to help Lucy and Lou escape, but both he and Lucy were killed during the escape, and Lou was secretly preserved. Following the revelation, Fragile informs Sam that his BB pod has been empty throughout the mission and that Drawbridge allowed him to hallucinate Lou to process his grief.

Meanwhile, Higgs lays siege to the final hub needed to complete the Australian network. Sam and Drawbridge fight through his forces and successfully activate the last terminal. However, the President betrays them, revealing himself as an amalgamation of thousands of dead human souls connected to APAC. He explains his intention to use the Chiral Network to isolate humanity within their beaches permanently, eliminating the threat of BTs by separating the living from the physical world. He also admits to reviving Higgs to create fear that would push survivors to accept the network. Charlie intervenes and reveals himself to be Die-Hardman, the former UCA president, who secretly altered Sam's Q-Pid to sever the President's connection to the network once it was fully activated.

Higgs returns and captures Tomorrow, revealing that she is actually the adult Lou, and that due to her connection to Sam and Amelie, Lou is the next Extinction Entity. Higgs plans to use her to trigger the Last Stranding and wipe out humanity. Sam and Drawbridge pursue Higgs to a beach connected to APAC. Sam confronts Higgs in battle, fighting him with Higgs's electric guitar. Lou manifests in a massive form and crushes Higgs, severing his connection to the beach and ending the Last Stranding. Soon after, Fragile dies, revealing that she had actually been fatally wounded during the original attack on Sam's home but kept herself alive long enough to protect Lou. Later, Sam witnesses Neil's memories and learns that Lou had survived the attack and was teleported to Neil's beach, where she was protected and encased in the chrysalis, aging rapidly into adulthood. With her memories restored, Lou reunites emotionally with Sam.

In a post-credits scene, an older Lou follows in Sam's footsteps as a porter and prepares to travel through a plate gate.

Music

The soundtrack was composed by French singer-songwriter Woodkid and Swedish composer Ludvig Forssell, the latter of whom previously composed the score for the first game and worked on Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. After ten years of working as the in-house composer for Kojima Productions, Forssell left to tackle freelance projects. When he returned to write music for the sequel, he said his independence helped him to focus better. Forssell decided to make music that was "much more lyrical and melodic" than the first, with more "human facets".^[27] An album of Forssell's original score was released on June 27, 2025.^[28]

Woodkid was initially approached to create original songs for the game, following the death of Ryan Karazija of Low Roar, whose songs appear often in the first game.^[29] Woodkid worked in-studio and in-person at Kojima Productions in Tokyo across a span of three years composing new music alongside the development of the game.^[30] Many of Woodkid's songs are procedural, and dynamically adapt to the player's actions in-game. The released album condenses the procedural tracks, usually a number of hours long, into a few minutes each.^[31] The single "To the Wilder" was released alongside the pre-order trailer on 9 March 2025.^[32] Woodkid released his full soundtrack album for Death Stranding 2 in collaboration with Hideo Kojima on 13 June 2025.^[33]

The game includes songs, some original and some previously released, from the artists Low Roar, Caroline Polachek, Grimm Grimm, Silent Poets, Magnolian, Hania Rani, Chvrches, Daichi Miura, Gen Hoshino, Usada Pekora, and Kunio Miyauchi.^[34][35][36] The 1969 song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", sung by B. J. Thomas, is used extensively throughout the game both as non-diegetic background music and being sung by characters in-universe.

Sales

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach surpassed 2 million copies sold worldwide following the release of its PC version in March 2026.^[55]

Accolades