If you’ve spent any time hauling fragile cargo across Death Stranding 2’s post-apocalyptic American landscape, you know how brutal rough, unpaved terrain can be. Flat tires, damaged cargo, unexpected BT encounters, and trikes wiping out on muddy hills are all par for the course until you unlock the auto paver system. Figuring out the Death Stranding 2 auto paver map can be confusing if you don’t know what you’re looking for, so I spent 12 hours last playthrough mapping every node and testing every feature to save you the hassle. The auto paver isn’t just a nice-to-have convenience tool either — paved routes cut cargo damage by 70%, let you drive vehicles at full speed without risk of crashing, and even reduce BT spawn rates along high-traffic paths.
What the Death Stranding 2 Auto Paver Map Actually Shows You
Your default map won’t display every auto paver station right off the bat, and many players miss the subtle indicators that mark unbuilt or partially completed routes. First, let’s break down the different icons and lines you’ll see related to auto pavers when you open your map. Solid light blue lines mark fully built, usable paved roads that you can drive on immediately. Dashed light blue lines mark planned paver routes that have been unlocked but not fully constructed yet. Small grey crane icons mark individual auto paver stations where you can deposit materials to build the route. You won’t see unactivated paver stations on your map until you connect the nearest chiral network terminal to the national network, so make sure you prioritize connecting prepper shelters and knot cities as you progress through the main story. Each paver station requires a specific mix of ceramics, metals, and chiral crystals to complete, and you can see exactly how much of each material is still needed by hovering over the station icon on your map. You don’t have to fund every paver entirely on your own, either. Materials deposited by other players count toward the total, so it’s common to log on and find a paver you only dropped a few hundred ceramics into fully built by the community. I once had a remote mountain paver I only contributed 20% of materials to finished while I was offline, saving me almost an hour of hauling heavy metal supplies up steep slopes.
Hidden Auto Paver Locations Most Players Miss
There are 17 total auto paver stations scattered across the game’s map, but 4 of them don’t unlock automatically even after you connect all nearby chiral network nodes. These hidden pavers connect remote regions that most players assume have no paved route options, and unlocking them cuts cross-country delivery times by almost 60%. To unlock these hidden stations, you have to complete specific side orders for nearby preppers:
- The mountain pass paver north of Mountain Knot City: Unlock after completing the "Emergency Medicine Delivery to Mountaineer" order with an S rank
- The coastal paver south of Lake Knot City: Unlock after delivering 10 units of fresh fish to the old fisher prepper located on the southern coastline
- The volcanic region paver east of South Knot City: Unlock after repairing the prepper shelter damaged by a recent volcanic eruption side order
- The snowy tundra paver north of the Spiritualist's shelter: Unlock after delivering 5 rare alpine plant samples to the environmental researcher prepper
Pro Tips to Use the Auto Paver Map Efficiently
Once you have all the paver stations unlocked, there are a few tricks to use the map far more efficiently than most players do. First, You can filter the map to only show auto paver stations by opening the map menu and selecting the "construction" filter, which hides all other icons like delivery points, BT zones, and MULE camps so you can focus on planning your paver building route without distractions. When you’re hauling a load of construction materials, plot your course so you stop at every unbuilt paver station along the way to drop off a portion of your supplies, instead of making separate trips for each individual paver. You’ll cut down on travel time significantly, and you’ll get contribution credit for every paver you add materials to. If you mark a paver station as a waypoint, the map will also show you exactly how many of each material you still need to contribute to finish it, so you never haul more supplies than you actually need. If you contribute 50% or more of the total materials for a paver station, you get a permanent 20% discount on all chiral network upgrades in that region, so it’s worth putting in extra materials if you have extra supplies on hand. Paver stations in high-traffic areas between major knot cities get far more community contributions, so if you’re low on materials, focus on building the remote pavers first, since other players are far less likely to contribute to those. You can also toggle a setting on the map to show which paver stations other players have recently contributed to, so you can pitch in a small amount of materials to get those over the finish line faster for everyone.
Common Auto Paver Map Mistakes to Avoid
Even experienced players make simple mistakes with the auto paver map that waste hours of their time. The most common mistake is assuming that all dashed light blue lines are fixed, unchangeable routes. That’s not the case at all. You can edit the paver route by interacting with the paver station before you start contributing materials, so you can shift the path slightly to go past a prepper shelter you visit often, avoid a frequent BT zone, or bypass a steep hill that gives your truck trouble. I adjusted one of the central plain paver routes to run directly past a farm prepper I deliver to 3 or 4 times per playthrough, and it cut each of those delivery times in half. Another common mistake is trying to build a paver during a timefall storm. Paver stations shut down entirely during timefall, and any materials you leave at the station will degrade 3x faster than normal, so you’ll end up losing a huge portion of your supplies before the storm passes. Check the weather forecast on your map before you head out with a load of construction materials, and plan your build trips for clear weather windows. Don’t skip the small, seemingly insignificant paver stations between major cities, either. Those small connectors fill in gaps in the network that force you to drive over rough terrain for short stretches, which can still damage your cargo or get your vehicle stuck. I once skipped three small paver stations between Lake Knot and South Knot to save materials, and I ended up getting my truck stuck three times in one trip, wasting more time than it would have taken to just build the pavers in the first place.
At the end of the day, the Death Stranding 2 auto paver map is one of the most useful tools in the game if you take the time to learn how it works. You don’t have to unlock every paver in your first playthrough, but even building a few key routes will make your deliveries far less stressful and far more efficient. Don’t be afraid to contribute small amounts of materials to pavers other players started, every little bit helps both you and the entire player base. Next time you open your map, take a minute to check for any unbuilt paver stations near you, you’ll be glad you did.
