If you’ve spent any time hauling cargo across Death Stranding 2’s sprawling, hazard-filled map, you know how tedious and risky long trips can get. Between timefall storms that eat through your gear, BT-infested forests, and steep mountain passes that can destroy fragile cargo in one wrong step, walking every delivery route gets old fast. If you’re wondering death stranding 2 how to fast travel to cut down on unnecessary travel time, this guide breaks down every available method, their unlock requirements, and when to use each to make your runs far smoother. I spent my first 12 hours with the game trekking back and forth across the central region before I unlocked half these options, so I’m saving you all that wasted time and lost cargo.
Death Stranding 2 How to Fast Travel: All 3 Available Methods
Unlike the first game, which only had one limited fast travel option, Death Stranding 2 gives you three distinct ways to skip travel, each suited for different progression stages and delivery needs. None of them are unlocked right from the start, but you can get access to the first one within your first two hours of play. Here’s a quick breakdown of each:
- Private Room Terminal Teleport: The earliest accessible fast travel option, limited to major connected settlements
- Player-Built Shelter Fast Travel: A flexible mid-game option that works across most of the map with community support
- Chiral Relay Node Jump: The late-game premium option that lets you bring all your cargo and vehicles along
You’ll likely use a mix of all three as you progress through the game, depending on what kind of delivery you’re running and how much of the map you’ve connected to the Chiral Network. None of them are strictly better than the others, and each has clear tradeoffs you’ll need to weigh before you use them.
Unlock Requirements for Each Fast Travel Method
You won’t have access to any fast travel right when you start the game, but you can unlock the first method almost immediately after completing the opening tutorial missions. The other two unlock as you progress through the main story and raise connection levels with key NPCs.
The Private Room Terminal Teleport unlocks as soon as you connect your first Knot City to the Chiral Network, which happens after you complete the first main delivery mission for the Eastern Knot City. To use it, you just head to the private room terminal in any connected settlement, select the teleport option, and pick any other connected Knot City or prepper shelter you’ve already registered. Just note that you can’t carry large or fragile cargo with this method — you’ll only be able to bring your basic gear like your exosuit, backpack, and small personal items. It’s not useful for mid-delivery skips, but it’s great for moving between major hubs to pick up new orders.
Player-Built Shelter Fast Travel unlocks once you hit Connection Level 3 with the Craftsman, an NPC you’ll meet in the central region a few hours into the main story. You can raise his connection level by completing his side delivery requests, which mostly involve bringing him construction materials like metal and ceramic. Once you unlock the Shelter Construction Kit from him, you can build shelters anywhere within Chiral Network range, and you can also use any shelters built by other players as long as you register them first by visiting the shelter’s terminal. This method lets you carry up to 50kg of non-volatile cargo, so it’s perfect for mid-delivery skips to remote prepper locations.
The Chiral Relay Node Jump is the last fast travel method to unlock, and it only becomes available after you connect the Mountain Knot City to the Eastern Chiral Network late in the main story. Once unlocked, you’ll see tall relay towers marked on your map across all regions. You have to climb to the top of each relay and interact with its terminal to register it, and once you have two or more registered, you can jump between them at any time. This method lets you bring all your cargo, including heavy loads and even vehicles like trucks and bikes, but it costs 150 Chiral Crystals per jump no matter how far you’re traveling.
Pros and Cons of Each Fast Travel Option
Each fast travel method has clear upsides and downsides, so you’ll want to pick the right one for your specific situation instead of relying on the same option every time.
The Private Room Terminal Teleport’s biggest pros are that it’s completely free, it works between all major connected settlements, and it has no extra requirements beyond network access. The downside, as we mentioned earlier, is that you can’t bring any delivery cargo with you, and you have to be inside a private room to use it. It’s best used when you need to switch between major hubs to pick up new high-priority orders, or when you need to restock on supplies after a long delivery run. It’s useless if you’re already halfway through a trip with a cargo load, though.
Player-Built Shelter Fast Travel’s biggest pro is its flexibility. Since the Death Stranding community builds shelters all over the map, you can usually find one within a kilometer of almost any delivery destination, as long as you’ve registered it ahead of time. You can carry small to medium delivery cargo with you, and it doesn’t cost any resources to use. The only real downsides are that you have to visit each shelter first to register it, and you can’t bring large cargo or vehicles with you. I use this option for 70% of my delivery runs, especially for small urgent orders to remote prepper locations that would take an hour to walk to.
Chiral Relay Node Jump’s biggest pro is that it lets you bring literally everything with you, from 400kg bulk cargo loads to full trucks packed with supplies. It’s the only fast travel option that works for large, heavy deliveries that require a vehicle. The downsides are the high Chiral Crystal cost, the late unlock time, and the fact that you have to climb to the top of a relay to use it, which can be dangerous if the area around the relay is infested with BTs. I only use this option for long cross-region bulk deliveries, where the time saved is worth the crystal cost. It’s not worth using for short trips under 2km, since the time you spend climbing the relay is almost the same as the time you’d spend driving to your destination.
Common Fast Travel Mistakes to Avoid
I’ve made almost every possible mistake with fast travel in my 40+ hours with the game, so these tips will save you a lot of lost cargo and frustration.
First, never try to fast travel with volatile timefall-sensitive cargo. Even if the method says you can carry cargo, any items that have a timefall decay meter will degrade completely during the teleport, and anti-BT supplies like blood bags and hematic grenades will actually explode on arrival, destroying all your other gear and leaving you defenseless. I learned this the hard way when I tried to teleport a batch of blood bags to a remote prepper in the volcanic region, and all of them exploded as soon as I landed, leaving me stuck in a BT zone with no way to defend myself.
Second, always register every player shelter you pass, even if you don’t need it right now. It only takes 10 seconds to walk up to the shelter terminal and hit register, and it will save you hours of walking later when you get a delivery to that exact area. I once had a delivery to a remote prepper in the northern mountains, and I didn’t register a shelter someone built 1km from the prepper’s house on my first trip through the area. My second trip took me two hours of climbing through snow and BTs, when I could have just teleported to the shelter and walked the last 10 minutes.
Third, don’t waste Chiral Crystals on short relay jumps. If you’re only traveling 1 or 2 km, just take a bike or truck instead. The 150 crystals you save can be used to build roads, repair your exosuit, or craft anti-BT supplies, which are all far more useful than saving 5 minutes of travel time. I only use relay jumps for trips longer than 10km, where the time saved is actually worth the cost.
Fourth, always check the connection status of your destination before you confirm the teleport. During heavy timefall storms, remote shelters and relays can drop off the Chiral Network temporarily. If you try to teleport to a location that’s offline, you’ll spawn in the middle of nowhere, usually in a BT zone, with no way to get back. I’ve had this happen twice, and both times I lost my entire cargo load to BTs before I could get to safety.
At the end of the day, figuring out death stranding 2 how to fast travel isn’t just about skipping walking time — it’s about making your delivery runs as efficient as possible so you can focus on the parts of the game that matter, like connecting new settlements and helping other players. Play around with each method to see what works best for your playstyle. If you love exploring every corner of the map, you’ll probably rely on player shelters more than anything else. If you’re focused on beating the main story as fast as possible, the late-game relay jumps will be your best friend. Don’t forget to build extra shelters in remote areas when you can, too — other players will thank you for it.
