If you played the first Death Stranding, you know the experience swings wildly between meditative cross-country delivery runs and white-knuckle encounters with BTs that can erase your progress in seconds. It’s no surprise so many fans and new players alike are asking about Death Stranding 2 difficulty before jumping in, especially with all the new mechanics, vehicles, and enemy types added to the sequel. Kojima Productions didn’t just copy the first game’s difficulty system, though — they built something far more flexible, so every type of player can get the experience they want, whether you’re here for the story, the survival challenge, or just to hang out with BB on the open road. This guide breaks down every part of the difficulty system, from default presets to custom tuning, so you can pick the right level for your playstyle.
Core Death Stranding 2 Difficulty Levels Explained
The game ships with four default difficulty presets, each tuned for a different type of player, and you can switch between them at any point from the settings menu. Easy mode is designed for new players or anyone who wants to focus on story and exploration without constant setbacks. Easy mode is still designed to reward careful route planning, not let you sprint through every delivery without thought — you’ll still have to avoid steep cliffs and timefall storms, but you won’t lose half your cargo if you trip over a small rock. Normal mode is the default, and it matches the difficulty of the first Death Stranding’s default setting for most players, with balanced BT aggression, stamina drain, and cargo damage.
Hard mode ramps up every challenge: BTs spot you from farther away, stamina drains 30% faster, and cargo takes twice as much damage from falls or collisions. Very Hard mode is only recommended for players who 100% completed the first Death Stranding and mastered its core mechanics — on this level, a single fall from a moderate height can destroy most of your delivery, and BT grabs can kill you in two hits if you don’t have the right equipment. I tried Very Hard for my first 10 hours of play as a returning player, and I quickly switched back to Hard after losing a full load of rare medical cargo to a surprise BT swarm I didn’t even see coming.
Custom Difficulty Tuning: Tweak Challenge to Your Exact Preferences
The biggest change to the Death Stranding 2 difficulty system is the addition of fully custom difficulty sliders, so you don’t have to stick to the one-size-fits-all presets. You can adjust individual mechanics to make parts of the game easier or harder, depending on what you enjoy most. For example, if you hate combat with MULEs but love the puzzle of planning long, heavy delivery routes, you can turn combat difficulty all the way down and crank cargo durability and timefall erosion up to make the delivery parts more challenging. The available sliders include:
- BT Aggression: Controls how easily BTs spot you, how fast they chase, and how much damage their grabs deal
- Cargo Durability: Adjusts how much damage your packages take from falls, collisions, and timefall exposure
- Stamina Drain: Changes how fast Sam gets tired from running, climbing, and carrying heavy loads
- Combat Difficulty: Tunes enemy health, damage output, and accuracy for both MULE encounters and boss fights
- Timefall Erosion Speed: Alters how quickly your equipment and cargo degrade when caught in timefall storms
You don’t have to set all sliders to the same level, either. I usually keep BT aggression on medium, cargo durability on hard, and combat difficulty on easy, because I hate MULE fights but love the tension of making sure my fragile cargo makes it to its destination in one piece. You can adjust custom difficulty settings at any point in the game, even mid-delivery, with no penalty to your progression or rewards. If you’re stuck on a brutal boss fight or a section with endless BT swarms, you can bump the relevant slider down for that part then turn it back up later — no one is going to judge you for it.
How Difficulty Impacts Rewards and Progression
One of the most common questions players ask is if playing on a higher difficulty gives better rewards, and the short answer is yes — but not enough that you should feel forced to play on a level you don’t enjoy. On Hard and Very Hard modes, you get a 15% and 30% bonus to likes for completed deliveries, respectively, and a higher chance of earning rare crafting materials like chiral alloy from premium delivery requests. Very Hard also has a small set of exclusive cosmetic rewards, like gold backpack accessories and vehicle skins, for completing S-rank premium deliveries on that setting.
There are no difficulty-locked story beats, so you can experience the full narrative of Death Stranding 2 no matter what challenge level you choose. That’s a deliberate choice from Kojima Productions, who have said they want the game’s story to be accessible to everyone, even if they don’t have the time or patience to master the survival mechanics. You also don’t miss any core gameplay features, like the multiplayer shared construction system, on lower difficulty levels. The only downside to playing on Easy is you won’t get that small bonus to likes, but you’ll still unlock all the same gear, upgrades, and story cutscenes as someone playing on Very Hard.
Tips for Picking the Right Difficulty for Your Playstyle
It can be hard to pick a difficulty when you first boot up the game, especially if you haven’t played the first one, but there are a few simple rules of thumb to follow. If you’re a brand new player with no experience with the Death Stranding franchise, start on Normal. If you find yourself getting frustrated every time you trip and damage your cargo, or if BT encounters feel too stressful, drop to Easy or adjust the relevant custom sliders to make the experience more fun for you. If you’re a returning player who put 100+ hours into the first game, start on Hard — it will feel familiar, and you can bump up to Very Hard once you get used to the new mechanics like the floating carrier upgrades and new vehicle types.
If you’re here almost entirely for the story and the meditative open-world vibe, go for Easy or a custom preset with low BT aggression and high cargo durability. Don't let anyone pressure you into playing on a higher difficulty than you find fun. Death Stranding 2 is first and foremost an experience, and there’s no “right” way to play it. If you want to challenge yourself later, you can always start a New Game Plus run on a higher difficulty once you finish the story, and carry over all your upgraded equipment to make the challenge fair.
At the end of the day, the Death Stranding 2 difficulty system is built to work for you, not against you. You don’t have to stick to the default presets, and you don’t have to prove anything by playing on the hardest setting if it’s not fun for you. I’ve put over 80 hours into the game so far, and I’ve adjusted my custom difficulty sliders at least a dozen times, depending on if I felt like a relaxed delivery run or a tense survival challenge that day. No matter what you pick, you’re still going to get the full, weird, wonderful Kojima experience that made the first game such a cult hit.
