If you’ve spent any time exploring the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Kojima Production’s latest sequel, you’ve almost certainly stumbled across red BTS in Death Stranding 2 and wondered what makes these eerie entities different from the standard BTs you fought in the first game. Unlike the pale, semi-transparent creatures players learned to avoid back in 2019, these red variants are far more aggressive, unpredictable, and tied directly to the game’s core plot about the second Extinction Event. I’ve put 70+ hours into my first playthrough, fought more than 30 of these red BTs across every region of the new map, and put together this breakdown to help you handle them without wasting all your repair supplies or losing half your cargo mid-delivery. Even if you’re a veteran of the first Death Stranding, you’ll want to brush up on their unique mechanics before you wander into their territory unplanned.
What Makes Red BTS in Death Stranding 2 Different From Standard BTs?
The first thing you’ll notice about red BTs is their deep, glowing crimson hue that makes them stand out even in dark, foggy tar-covered areas. They don’t drift aimlessly like standard BTs either; they actively patrol set paths, and will change direction to investigate small sounds even if you’re well hidden. They don’t trigger the standard BT detector chime until they’re already targeting you, which is the biggest surprise for most players coming from the first game.
From a lore perspective, standard BTs are formed from the residual regret of people who died during the initial Death Stranding event, while red BTs are tied directly to people who were killed in voidouts. That residual trauma makes them far more violent and focused on dragging living people into the tar to trigger more voidouts. I first learned this difference when I tried to sneak past one outside the new Edge Knot City outpost, held my breath like I always did for regular BTs, and it still charged me right away before I could react.
Key Attack Patterns You Need to Watch For
Red BTs have three core attack patterns that you’ll need to memorize if you want to survive encounters, whether you’re planning to fight them or run away. I’ve listed them in order of how common they are during encounters:
- Charge strike: They sprint at you at twice the speed of standard BTs, and a direct hit will knock 30% of your cargo off your back even if you’re wearing the upgraded level 3 exosuit. This is the first attack they’ll use almost every time they spot you.
- Tar pool summon: At half health, they’ll spawn three small tar pools under your feet that pull you toward them, making it almost impossible to run away without a level 2 speed skeleton equipped. The pools last for 8 seconds, so you’ll need to time your escape carefully if you don’t want to get trapped.
- Area of effect scream: If you stay within 5 meters for more than 10 seconds, they’ll let out a scream that stuns you for 3 full seconds, leaving you open to a follow-up attack that can trigger a small voidout if you’re carrying volatile chiral cargo.
So the biggest mistake I see new players make is treating red BTs like regular ones, trying to just sprint away as soon as they’re spotted. If you don’t have a clear escape route already plotted before you enter their territory, you’re almost certainly going to take damage. If you’re on a time-sensitive delivery of fragile or volatile goods, it’s almost always better to take a 10-minute detour around red BT territory instead of trying to sneak through, unless you’re fully stocked with the right supplies.
The Best Strategies to Defeat or Avoid Red BTS
If you’d rather avoid fights entirely, your best bet is to equip the new BT scent blocker that you unlock after completing the third main story delivery for Fragile. It lasts for 20 minutes of real play time, and will make you completely undetectable to red BTs as long as you don’t run directly into them or make loud noises like firing a gun nearby. If you don’t have the blocker unlocked yet, stick to elevated terrain – red BTs can’t climb slopes steeper than 45 degrees, so you can often walk along ridge lines right past their territories without being noticed at all.
If you do want to fight them for rewards, prioritize hematic rocket launchers over standard hematic grenades, because they do 3x more damage to red variants and you only need 2 direct hits to take most of them down. Never use lethal weapons against red BTs – if you kill one with a regular bullet, it will explode into a small voidout that destroys all cargo within 20 meters, and lowers your connection level with the nearest outpost by a full rank. I learned that the hard way during my first attempt to deliver medical supplies to the new mountain outpost, lost 3 hours of progress because I grabbed the wrong gun from my storage before heading out.
If you defeat a red BT without lethal weapons, you’ll get a rare chiral crystal cluster that’s worth 5x more than regular chiral crystals, so it’s a good trade off if you’re farming materials to upgrade your facilities or exosuits. When you’re facing red BTS in Death Stranding 2, always make sure you have at least two stacks of hematic ammo in your inventory before engaging, because running out mid-fight is almost always a death sentence.
Lore Connections Between Red BTS and the Main Death Stranding 2 Plot
If you’re the type of player who cares as much about Kojima’s weird, layered story as you do about completing deliveries, you’ll be happy to know red BTs aren’t just a random new enemy added to make the sequel harder. Each red BT you encounter is the residual form of a character who died during the events of the first game, many of them porters who helped Sam deliver supplies during the first extinction event mitigation efforts. You’ll also notice that red BTs only appear in areas that were directly affected by the voidout that Sam triggered at the start of the first game, which ties directly to the sequel’s plot about trying to stop a second, even larger voidout that would wipe out the last remaining human settlements.
Another small detail I noticed on my second playthrough: if you scan a red BT with your chiral scanner before attacking it, you’ll get a small, hidden log entry that gives you more context about who they were before they died. It’s a small touch, but it adds a lot of weight to what could have just been a generic new enemy type. Finding and scanning all 12 unique red BTs across the map will unlock a secret cutscene that explains more about Higgs’ return in the sequel, so it’s well worth taking the time to track them down if you want the full story without waiting for a director’s cut release.
At the end of the day, red BTS in Death Stranding 2 are one of the best new additions to the sequel, adding more tension to exploration, better rewards for skilled players, and deeper lore ties to the world Hideo Kojima has built over the last decade. Don’t get discouraged if the first few you encounter wipe out your cargo or force you to reload a save – once you learn their patterns and stock up on the right supplies, they become a really fun, rewarding challenge to take on during your cross-country deliveries. If you have any other tips for handling these enemies that I didn’t mention, feel free to drop them in the comments below.
