If you’ve already sunk 40+ hours hauling fragile cargo across Death Stranding 2’s post-apocalyptic United States, dodging BTs and outrunning aggressive MULEs, you’re probably rushing through the final mission to see how the story wraps. When the screen fades to black and the death stranding 2 credits start rolling, your first instinct might be to hit skip and jump into post-game content. But that choice could make you miss tons of hidden lore, exclusive cutscenes, and fun Easter eggs that you won’t find anywhere else in the game. This guide breaks down everything you need to know to catch every secret hidden in both the standard and extended credit sequences.
What You’ll Find in the Standard Death Stranding 2 Credits Roll
The standard credit sequence unlocks automatically as soon as you finish the final main story mission, where you deliver the experimental anti-extinction cure to the eastern region quarantine zone. You don’t have to complete any extra tasks to access it, and it runs for roughly 10 minutes from start to finish. Hidden cutscene snippets play between sections of credit text that fill in small gaps in the main story, like what happens to Heartman after the final battle, or how Fragile plans to rebuild her delivery company.
I hit skip on my first playthrough because I was too excited to start exploring the post-game open world, and I had to replay the entire final mission a week later just to catch those small story beats. It’s not the end of the world if you skip them, but you’ll miss the first official tease for the upcoming story DLC that’s scheduled to drop later this year. Even if you don’t care about the extra story bits, it’s worth sitting through the first two minutes just to catch that tease.
How to Unlock the Extended Hidden Credit Sequence
If you’re a completionist who wants to see every piece of content the game has to offer, you’ll want to grind for the extended hidden credit sequence. This 20-minute roll includes extra cutscenes, exclusive voice lines, and a special thank you section from the dev team that you won’t see in the standard roll. Most players don’t even know the extended death stranding 2 credits exist until they stumble on a mention of it online, so don’t feel bad if you missed it on your first playthrough.
To unlock it, you need to hit all four of these requirements before you replay the final mission:
- Complete all 237 main and side delivery missions with an S rank, including the time-sensitive emergency delivery requests
- Reach connection level 5 with every prepper facility and NPC across the full game map, including the isolated shelters in the northern mountain region
- Collect all 100 memory chips scattered across the open world, including the 12 hidden in tar belt areas that only spawn after you finish the main story
- Defeat the secret final BT boss that spawns in the southern tar belt 24 in-game hours after you complete the main story
Once you check all four boxes, you’ll get a pop-up prompt when you load your save that invites you to play a 15-minute epilogue mission. After you finish that short mission, the extended credits will start rolling automatically. This extended sequence has exclusive voice lines from Norman Reedus and Léa Seydoux that confirm long-running fan theories about Fragile’s backstory and Sam’s future in the franchise. You don’t have to grind all of this in one playthrough, either, your progress carries over to new game plus, so you can chip away at the requirements slowly if you don’t want to burn out right after the main story.
Key Lore Easter Eggs Hidden in Both Credit Sequences
The dev team packed both credit rolls full of small Easter eggs that most casual players will miss on their first watch. Some tie back to the first Death Stranding, others nod to other Kojima Productions titles, and a few tease future plans for the franchise. The list of names in the special thanks section includes every top contributor from the first game’s player community, a nice nod to the series’ core theme of global connection. There’s also a quick blink-and-you-miss-it cameo from Hideo Kojima himself as a background delivery worker in one of the credit cutscenes, if you’re paying close enough attention.
At the very end of the extended credits, there’s a 2-minute post-credit scene that confirms Amelie isn’t completely gone from the world, setting up the plot for both the upcoming DLC and the next entry in the Death Stranding franchise. If you turn on subtitles during the credits, you’ll also spot little inside jokes from the dev team in the background text, like references to their late-night snack runs during development, or subtle nods to Metal Gear Solid and Policenauts. I had to pause three separate times to read all the small text jokes, and I still missed a few until I watched a breakdown of the sequence online.
Common Mistakes That Make You Miss Credit Content
Even if you sit through the full credit roll, you might still miss key content if you make these simple mistakes. First, don’t play with your audio muted. The background score during the credits is an exclusive track from Low Roar that isn’t available on the official game OST, and it’s paired with small ambient sounds from the game world that make the whole sequence feel a lot more immersive. Second, don’t play offline if you want to see the full sequence. If you’re not connected to the game’s servers, you’ll miss the short section that showcases the other player structures you interacted with the most during your playthrough, a really sweet touch that ties back to the game’s core theme of connection.
Another common mistake is skipping the credits entirely because you think you can find all the cutscenes online. While you can definitely watch the clips on social media, there’s something really special about seeing your own playthrough reflected in the credits, from the names of the preppers you connected with to the player structures you relied on for long deliveries. If you do skip by accident, don’t panic, you can replay the final mission from the mission select menu any time to watch the credits again, no need to restart your entire save file.
At the end of the day, the death stranding 2 credits aren’t just a boring list of names you can skip past to get to the next part of the game. They’re a love letter to both the dev team that spent years building the game and the fan community that’s supported the franchise since the first entry launched, with tons of hidden content that rewards players who take the time to sit through them. You don’t have to grind for 100% completion to unlock the extended credits if you don’t want to, but even the standard roll has enough lore teases and fun little Easter eggs to make it worth your 10 minutes. Next time you finish that final cross-country delivery, take a breath, put the controller down for a minute, and see what secrets you can spot.
