Complete listed story — includes the ending
Death Stranding
=== Setting ===
The game is set in an apocalyptic United States, where a cataclysmic event known as the "Death Stranding" caused "Beached Things" ("BTs")—invisible creatures originating from the "Beach", lands thought to be unique to each person that are typically visited during near-death experiences and are said to be the link to the afterlife—to begin roaming the Earth. BTs are created from the dead via necrosis, and when they consume a living human being, they create an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb, known as a "voidout". They produce rain known as "Timefall" that rapidly ages and deteriorates whatever it hits. These events damaged the country's infrastructure, leading its remaining population to confine themselves to remote colonies known as "Knot Cities", which form the remaining "United Cities of America".
These colonies have relied on the services of a company known as Bridges, whose porters brave the BTs, bandits, and terrorists to deliver supplies to the cities. Bridges performs various governmental functions on behalf of the UCA. If they achieve a mental connection to a "Bridge Baby" (a "BB")—a premature child reflecting a state between life and death—it is possible for a person to sense the presence of a BT. Porters carry a BB with them, stored in a pod simulating the womb of a "stillmother". Depending on its severity, a condition known as "DOOMS" allows a person to naturally sense, see, or even control a BT, as well as granting a variety of powers, such as teleportation or travel to other people's Beaches. There are individuals known as "repatriates" who can travel back from "the Seam"—a place between the world of the living and the Beach—upon death. As such, these individuals can effectively return from death, though their deaths will still cause voidouts if killed during contact with a BT.
Plot
Freelance courier Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is transporting cargo to Central Knot City but is interrupted by Timefall and takes shelter. He receives assistance from Fragile (Léa Seydoux) in evading a BT. Sam arrives at his destination, where a citizen died by suicide, with the corpse on the verge of necrosis. Due to being both a repatriate and having DOOMS, Sam is given an emergency assignment to accompany the disposal team to an incinerator to dispose of the corpse. However, an encounter with BTs causes a voidout that destroys Central Knot City.
Sam revives in Capital Knot City and meets Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti), a doctor from Bridges who has Sam deliver morphine to the dying President of the UCA: Sam's adoptive mother, Bridget Strand (Lindsay Wagner/Emily O'Brien). Bridget pleads with Sam to rejoin Bridges and help realize her dream of "reforming America" before succumbing to her illness. Sam takes her body for incineration but refuses to incinerate a Bridge Baby involved in the Central Knot City voidout. With the BB's assistance, Sam evades a horde of BTs and decides to adopt it as his own Bridge Baby; against UCA instructions to treat Bridge Babies as pieces of equipment, Sam gradually forms an emotional bond with it and nicknames it "Lou".
Upon his return to Capital Knot City, Sam receives a message from his estranged sister Amelie Strand (also Wagner/O'Brien). She tells him that over the past three years, she led an expedition across what is left of the contiguous United States, making contact with isolated cities and settlements and setting up terminals that would connect them to the Chiral Network: a system that facilitates instant communication and data transfer across vast distances through the Beach. Upon reaching the last city on the West Coast (Edge Knot City), Amelie was captured by Homo Demens, a terrorist group, to guarantee Edge Knot City's independence. She pleads for Sam to follow her expedition and complete the Chiral Network, thus "reforming America". As this pilgrimage ends at Edge Knot City, Sam can then rescue Amelie, and she can take Bridget's place as the President of the UCA. Sam reluctantly accepts the mission.
Following the instructions of Die-Hardman (Tommie Earl Jenkins), Bridget's personal aide and Director of Bridges, Sam begins his journey from the east to the west coast of North America. Along the way, he delivers valuable cargo to various Knot Cities and settlements; helps research the Death Stranding with Bridges staff such as Mama and her twin sister Lockne (Margaret Qualley) and Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs); and thwarts deadly plots by terrorists and their leader, Higgs Monaghan (Troy Baker). While connected to Lou, he experiences memories depicting Clifford Unger (Mads Mikkelsen) and his hospitalized wife and BB child. Occasionally, he is pulled into Clifford's Beach; there, he fights a BT manifestation of Clifford, who seeks his lost BB.
After reaching Edge Knot City, Sam fights and defeats Higgs at Amelie's Beach. Higgs reveals that Amelie is an Extinction Entity: a godlike being manifested by the universe to trigger mass extinction events. Amelie is revealed as the true leader of Homo Demens, having conceived the Chiral Network to enable the Last Stranding, the end of life on Earth. It is revealed that Amelie and Bridget are the same person; Bridget's soul separated from her body during early experiments into the Beaches and used the alias "Amelie" as a cover. Amelie is conflicted over her cosmological duties, finding the Last Stranding more humane than perpetual cycles of growth and extinction.
With the help of allies made on his journey, Sam reaches Amelie and convinces her to delay the Last Stranding. Moved, she accepts but must separate herself and her Beach from the world forever. Sam is rescued by his Bridges allies, returning to the living. Die-Hardman becomes President of the UCA, and Fragile resolves to rebuild her company. Sam is told that Lou is dying. Although UCA law demands dying BBs are incinerated, Sam follows Deadman's advice and removes Lou from the pod in hopes of saving its life. In doing so, Sam connects with Lou one last time and discovers the memories he has viewed are his own: he is Clifford Unger's son, who Bridget Strand had transformed into one of the first BBs, accidentally killed alongside Clifford during a botched escape attempt, and resurrected by Amelie. In doing so, Amelie accidentally caused the Death Stranding, which allowed the BTs to cross over. The spirits of deceased BBs help save Lou's life, and Sam destroys his UCA cufflinks, going "off the grid" to live a peaceful life raising BB, whom he reveals is actually "Louise" in a post-credits scene.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
=== Setting ===
The game is set eleven months after the events of Death Stranding. The United Cities of America (UCA), a nation built from the remains of the United States, is fully connected via the Chiral Network and the logistics company, Bridges, has become defunct with deliveries now being handled by the Automated Porter Assistant System (APAS) that uses unmanned delivery robots, putting human porters out of work. Transcontinental portals called "plate gates" begin manifesting across the world in areas with high chiral density, most notably one linking Mexico to Australia. The extinction event has intensified: the ghostlike creatures called Beached Things (BTs) are evolving, natural disasters are frequent, and the Australian continent is overrun by bandits and hostile robots called "ghost mechs".
Characters include: Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), a legendary retired porter; Lou, his adopted daughter; Fragile (Léa Seydoux), an ally of Sam and founder of the private company Drawbridge; Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti), a Death Stranding researcher; Tarman (George Miller/Marty Rhone), Dollman (Fatih Akin/Jonathan Roumie), Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs), and Rainy (Shioli Kutsuna), members of Drawbridge who aid Sam in his expedition; the President (Alastair Duncan), leader of the Automated Public Assistance Company (APAC) which operates APAS; Charlie (Tommie Earl Jenkins), Drawbridge's mysterious benefactor; Tomorrow (Elle Fanning), an amnesiac young woman who possesses powers relating to the tar; Neil Vana (Luca Marinelli), a mysterious spectral soldier; Lucy (Alissa Jung), Sam's late wife; Amelie (Lindsay Wagner), Sam's adopted sister and the "Extinction Entity", a being manifested by the universe to trigger an extinction event; and Higgs (Troy Baker), the primary antagonist of Death Stranding who seemingly returned from the beach, the space between the afterlife and the physical world, to exact vengeance on Sam and Fragile.
Plot
Sam lives in peaceful isolation with Lou near the former US–Mexico border after deserting the UCA. Fragile tracks him down and asks him to connect Mexico to the Chiral Network using abandoned APAC terminals. As incentive, the UCA will pardon Sam for taking Lou, who is considered Bridges property. Though reluctant, Sam accepts, leaving Lou in Fragile's care. After successfully linking Mexico, Sam reaches a research facility where Deadman left behind a recording. Deadman explains that he discovered a mysterious anomaly in southern Mexico called a "plate gate", which acts as a portal to Australia, where survivors remain. He also reveals that Lou's BB identification number belonged to a decommissioned unit, meaning Lou was never officially registered in the UCA's system. Sam returns home, where he finds that his shelter was attacked by an unknown armed group. Fragile survives, but Lou is apparently killed.
A month later, Sam struggles with grief and Fragile invites him aboard her tar-traversing ship, the DHV Magellan, to travel through the plate gate and connect Australia to the Chiral Network. During the journey, Lou appears again as a BT-like entity inside Sam's BB pod. Onboard, Sam meets the crew of Drawbridge, including a mysterious figure known as the President, who explains that connecting Australia will activate additional plate gates capable of linking continents worldwide. While expanding the network across Australia, Sam encounters Higgs, who now commands powerful "ghost mech" forces that terrorize settlements. Sam also experiences strange 'tarfall' anomalies where he is teleported into battles against a spectral soldier named Neil Vana. After his first encounter, Sam discovers a chrysalis containing an amnesiac young woman, whom Fragile names Tomorrow.
Following repeated confrontations, Sam eventually defeats Neil and experiences his memories. Sam learns that Lou is actually his biological daughter, believed to have died years earlier with Lucy during a voidout. Lou survived because she was secretly taken by Bridges beforehand and designated BB-00, the first successful Bridge Baby. Neil worked for Bridges smuggling braindead pregnant women from Mexico to the UCA to supply BB programs. Neil tried to help Lucy and Lou escape, but both he and Lucy were killed during the escape, and Lou was secretly preserved. Following the revelation, Fragile informs Sam that his BB pod has been empty throughout the mission and that Drawbridge allowed him to hallucinate Lou to process his grief.
Meanwhile, Higgs lays siege to the final hub needed to complete the Australian network. Sam and Drawbridge fight through his forces and successfully activate the last terminal. However, the President betrays them, revealing himself as an amalgamation of thousands of dead human souls connected to APAC. He explains his intention to use the Chiral Network to isolate humanity within their beaches permanently, eliminating the threat of BTs by separating the living from the physical world. He also admits to reviving Higgs to create fear that would push survivors to accept the network. Charlie intervenes and reveals himself to be Die-Hardman, the former UCA president, who secretly altered Sam's Q-Pid to sever the President's connection to the network once it was fully activated.
Higgs returns and captures Tomorrow, revealing that she is actually the adult Lou, and that due to her connection to Sam and Amelie, Lou is the next Extinction Entity. Higgs plans to use her to trigger the Last Stranding and wipe out humanity. Sam and Drawbridge pursue Higgs to a beach connected to APAC. Sam confronts Higgs in battle, fighting him with Higgs's electric guitar. Lou manifests in a massive form and eats Higgs, severing his connection to the beach and ending the Last Stranding. Soon after, Fragile dies, revealing that her soul had been killed during the original attack on Sam's home but her physical form had remained alive long enough to protect Lou. Later, Sam witnesses Neil's memories and learns that Lou had survived the attack and was teleported to Neil's beach, where she was protected and encased in the chrysalis, aging rapidly into adulthood. With her memories restored, Lou reunites emotionally with Sam.
In a post-credits scene, an older Lou follows in Sam's footsteps as a porter and prepares to travel through a plate gate.
=== Setting ===
The game is set in an apocalyptic United States, where a cataclysmic event known as the "Death Stranding" caused "Beached Things" ("BTs")—invisible creatures originating from the "Beach", lands thought to be unique to each person that are typically visited during near-death experiences and are said to be the link to the afterlife—to begin roaming the Earth. BTs are created from the dead via necrosis, and when they consume a living human being, they create an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb, known as a "voidout". They produce rain known as "Timefall" that rapidly ages and deteriorates whatever it hits. These events damaged the country's infrastructure, leading its remaining population to confine themselves to remote colonies known as "Knot Cities", which form the remaining "United Cities of America".
These colonies have relied on the services of a company known as Bridges, whose porters brave the BTs, bandits, and terrorists to deliver supplies to the cities. Bridges performs various governmental functions on behalf of the UCA. If they achieve a mental connection to a "Bridge Baby" (a "BB")—a premature child reflecting a state between life and death—it is possible for a person to sense the presence of a BT. Porters carry a BB with them, stored in a pod simulating the womb of a "stillmother". Depending on its severity, a condition known as "DOOMS" allows a person to naturally sense, see, or even control a BT, as well as granting a variety of powers, such as teleportation or travel to other people's Beaches. There are individuals known as "repatriates" who can travel back from "the Seam"—a place between the world of the living and the Beach—upon death. As such, these individuals can effectively return from death, though their deaths will still cause voidouts if killed during contact with a BT.
Plot
Freelance courier Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is transporting cargo to Central Knot City but is interrupted by Timefall and takes shelter. He receives assistance from Fragile (Léa Seydoux) in evading a BT. Sam arrives at his destination, where a citizen died by suicide, with the corpse on the verge of necrosis. Due to being both a repatriate and having DOOMS, Sam is given an emergency assignment to accompany the disposal team to an incinerator to dispose of the corpse. However, an encounter with BTs causes a voidout that destroys Central Knot City.
Sam revives in Capital Knot City and meets Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti), a doctor from Bridges who has Sam deliver morphine to the dying President of the UCA: Sam's adoptive mother, Bridget Strand (Lindsay Wagner/Emily O'Brien). Bridget pleads with Sam to rejoin Bridges and help realize her dream of "reforming America" before succumbing to her illness. Sam takes her body for incineration but refuses to incinerate a Bridge Baby involved in the Central Knot City voidout. With the BB's assistance, Sam evades a horde of BTs and decides to adopt it as his own Bridge Baby; against UCA instructions to treat Bridge Babies as pieces of equipment, Sam gradually forms an emotional bond with it and nicknames it "Lou".
Upon his return to Capital Knot City, Sam receives a message from his estranged sister Amelie Strand (also Wagner/O'Brien). She tells him that over the past three years, she led an expedition across what is left of the contiguous United States, making contact with isolated cities and settlements and setting up terminals that would connect them to the Chiral Network: a system that facilitates instant communication and data transfer across vast distances through the Beach. Upon reaching the last city on the West Coast (Edge Knot City), Amelie was captured by Homo Demens, a terrorist group, to guarantee Edge Knot City's independence. She pleads for Sam to follow her expedition and complete the Chiral Network, thus "reforming America". As this pilgrimage ends at Edge Knot City, Sam can then rescue Amelie, and she can take Bridget's place as the President of the UCA. Sam reluctantly accepts the mission.
Following the instructions of Die-Hardman (Tommie Earl Jenkins), Bridget's personal aide and Director of Bridges, Sam begins his journey from the east to the west coast of North America. Along the way, he delivers valuable cargo to various Knot Cities and settlements; helps research the Death Stranding with Bridges staff such as Mama and her twin sister Lockne (Margaret Qualley) and Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs); and thwarts deadly plots by terrorists and their leader, Higgs Monaghan (Troy Baker). While connected to Lou, he experiences memories depicting Clifford Unger (Mads Mikkelsen) and his hospitalized wife and BB child. Occasionally, he is pulled into Clifford's Beach; there, he fights a BT manifestation of Clifford, who seeks his lost BB.
After reaching Edge Knot City, Sam fights and defeats Higgs at Amelie's Beach. Higgs reveals that Amelie is an Extinction Entity: a godlike being manifested by the universe to trigger mass extinction events. Amelie is revealed as the true leader of Homo Demens, having conceived the Chiral Network to enable the Last Stranding, the end of life on Earth. It is revealed that Amelie and Bridget are the same person; Bridget's soul separated from her body during early experiments into the Beaches and used the alias "Amelie" as a cover. Amelie is conflicted over her cosmological duties, finding the Last Stranding more humane than perpetual cycles of growth and extinction.
With the help of allies made on his journey, Sam reaches Amelie and convinces her to delay the Last Stranding. Moved, she accepts but must separate herself and her Beach from the world forever. Sam is rescued by his Bridges allies, returning to the living. Die-Hardman becomes President of the UCA, and Fragile resolves to rebuild her company. Sam is told that Lou is dying. Although UCA law demands dying BBs are incinerated, Sam follows Deadman's advice and removes Lou from the pod in hopes of saving its life. In doing so, Sam connects with Lou one last time and discovers the memories he has viewed are his own: he is Clifford Unger's son, who Bridget Strand had transformed into one of the first BBs, accidentally killed alongside Clifford during a botched escape attempt, and resurrected by Amelie. In doing so, Amelie accidentally caused the Death Stranding, which allowed the BTs to cross over. The spirits of deceased BBs help save Lou's life, and Sam destroys his UCA cufflinks, going "off the grid" to live a peaceful life raising BB, whom he reveals is actually "Louise" in a post-credits scene.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
=== Setting ===
The game is set eleven months after the events of Death Stranding. The United Cities of America (UCA), a nation built from the remains of the United States, is fully connected via the Chiral Network and the logistics company, Bridges, has become defunct with deliveries now being handled by the Automated Porter Assistant System (APAS) that uses unmanned delivery robots, putting human porters out of work. Transcontinental portals called "plate gates" begin manifesting across the world in areas with high chiral density, most notably one linking Mexico to Australia. The extinction event has intensified: the ghostlike creatures called Beached Things (BTs) are evolving, natural disasters are frequent, and the Australian continent is overrun by bandits and hostile robots called "ghost mechs".
Characters include: Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus), a legendary retired porter; Lou, his adopted daughter; Fragile (Léa Seydoux), an ally of Sam and founder of the private company Drawbridge; Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti), a Death Stranding researcher; Tarman (George Miller/Marty Rhone), Dollman (Fatih Akin/Jonathan Roumie), Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs), and Rainy (Shioli Kutsuna), members of Drawbridge who aid Sam in his expedition; the President (Alastair Duncan), leader of the Automated Public Assistance Company (APAC) which operates APAS; Charlie (Tommie Earl Jenkins), Drawbridge's mysterious benefactor; Tomorrow (Elle Fanning), an amnesiac young woman who possesses powers relating to the tar; Neil Vana (Luca Marinelli), a mysterious spectral soldier; Lucy (Alissa Jung), Sam's late wife; Amelie (Lindsay Wagner), Sam's adopted sister and the "Extinction Entity", a being manifested by the universe to trigger an extinction event; and Higgs (Troy Baker), the primary antagonist of Death Stranding who seemingly returned from the beach, the space between the afterlife and the physical world, to exact vengeance on Sam and Fragile.
Plot
Sam lives in peaceful isolation with Lou near the former US–Mexico border after deserting the UCA. Fragile tracks him down and asks him to connect Mexico to the Chiral Network using abandoned APAC terminals. As incentive, the UCA will pardon Sam for taking Lou, who is considered Bridges property. Though reluctant, Sam accepts, leaving Lou in Fragile's care. After successfully linking Mexico, Sam reaches a research facility where Deadman left behind a recording. Deadman explains that he discovered a mysterious anomaly in southern Mexico called a "plate gate", which acts as a portal to Australia, where survivors remain. He also reveals that Lou's BB identification number belonged to a decommissioned unit, meaning Lou was never officially registered in the UCA's system. Sam returns home, where he finds that his shelter was attacked by an unknown armed group. Fragile survives, but Lou is apparently killed.
A month later, Sam struggles with grief and Fragile invites him aboard her tar-traversing ship, the DHV Magellan, to travel through the plate gate and connect Australia to the Chiral Network. During the journey, Lou appears again as a BT-like entity inside Sam's BB pod. Onboard, Sam meets the crew of Drawbridge, including a mysterious figure known as the President, who explains that connecting Australia will activate additional plate gates capable of linking continents worldwide. While expanding the network across Australia, Sam encounters Higgs, who now commands powerful "ghost mech" forces that terrorize settlements. Sam also experiences strange 'tarfall' anomalies where he is teleported into battles against a spectral soldier named Neil Vana. After his first encounter, Sam discovers a chrysalis containing an amnesiac young woman, whom Fragile names Tomorrow.
Following repeated confrontations, Sam eventually defeats Neil and experiences his memories. Sam learns that Lou is actually his biological daughter, believed to have died years earlier with Lucy during a voidout. Lou survived because she was secretly taken by Bridges beforehand and designated BB-00, the first successful Bridge Baby. Neil worked for Bridges smuggling braindead pregnant women from Mexico to the UCA to supply BB programs. Neil tried to help Lucy and Lou escape, but both he and Lucy were killed during the escape, and Lou was secretly preserved. Following the revelation, Fragile informs Sam that his BB pod has been empty throughout the mission and that Drawbridge allowed him to hallucinate Lou to process his grief.
Meanwhile, Higgs lays siege to the final hub needed to complete the Australian network. Sam and Drawbridge fight through his forces and successfully activate the last terminal. However, the President betrays them, revealing himself as an amalgamation of thousands of dead human souls connected to APAC. He explains his intention to use the Chiral Network to isolate humanity within their beaches permanently, eliminating the threat of BTs by separating the living from the physical world. He also admits to reviving Higgs to create fear that would push survivors to accept the network. Charlie intervenes and reveals himself to be Die-Hardman, the former UCA president, who secretly altered Sam's Q-Pid to sever the President's connection to the network once it was fully activated.
Higgs returns and captures Tomorrow, revealing that she is actually the adult Lou, and that due to her connection to Sam and Amelie, Lou is the next Extinction Entity. Higgs plans to use her to trigger the Last Stranding and wipe out humanity. Sam and Drawbridge pursue Higgs to a beach connected to APAC. Sam confronts Higgs in battle, fighting him with Higgs's electric guitar. Lou manifests in a massive form and eats Higgs, severing his connection to the beach and ending the Last Stranding. Soon after, Fragile dies, revealing that her soul had been killed during the original attack on Sam's home but her physical form had remained alive long enough to protect Lou. Later, Sam witnesses Neil's memories and learns that Lou had survived the attack and was teleported to Neil's beach, where she was protected and encased in the chrysalis, aging rapidly into adulthood. With her memories restored, Lou reunites emotionally with Sam.
In a post-credits scene, an older Lou follows in Sam's footsteps as a porter and prepares to travel through a plate gate.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Exact listed stories combined in catalog order. Sources retain their stated license; formatting and headings adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Death Stranding. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license