The DEATH STRANDING community is never short of advice!

Throughout 2026, we want to give our experienced Porters the opportunity to share their top tips and learnings with those just starting out. This week, we asked our players a simple question…

IF YOU WERE STARTING DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOURSELF?

Check out some of our favourite responses below. A huge thank you to everyone who got involved in our first Porters Supporting Porters blog! Stay tuned for more info on how you can get involved in the next one.

To my past self – Always pick up dropped cargo whenever you find it. – mandaraxdot

Build things you think would help others. You’d be surprised the amount of times I’ve needed something and not far along another Porter set something up to assist. I try to pay it forward and you should do the same. – Competitive_Bus194

Don’t be afraid to use your equipment. Don’t hoard your ladders and ropes, you can always make more, and it helps your fellow Porters! And best of all? This is more than a game, don’t just play it, experience it! Keep on keeping on! – Nickgray911

Build roads as you go. I went through quite a bit of game without putting much into roads, but once I started actually focusing on it about 2/3s in, made my life a whole lot easier. – matrixboy122

Photo credit – phanodemus

The BTs are dangerous and everywhere, but they’re not unbeatable. Take your time. You’ll unlock better gear for dealing with them soon. – Gruntgamer92

Take care of the reverse trike. Don’t take it to the Wind Farm. And find the Musician! I’d also not rush through it or try to five star every prepper. Carve trails and leave lots of bridges, rope anchors, and ladders around. – Gambyt_7

Slow down and plot your routes. It’s tempting to want to take the shortest route possible, but you can’t carry enough cargo and weapons to be prepared for every scenario. Enjoy the scenery while you take the long way around. – ShillinTheVillain

Never take a vehicle on a new main story delivery, ALWAYS go on foot for the first time you are going into unknown territory – and pause and really soak in every single song by Low Roar or other artists when they appear. Seriously. Slow down and let the song finish before approaching your destination. They carry so much more emotional weight than you could possibly know, and you will only get that first time hearing the song once. Make it something truly special. – Monograyscale

Photo credit – Siegelth

Set an alarm to go to sleep. The first time I played the game I may or may not have realized it was like 3am when it was like 11pm five minutes ago. – VerboseRhetoric

Plot your routes. There was so many times I rushed a route and I was either sprinting through BT’s or dropping stuff from falling. Plan the route – I sometimes used to build a timefall shelter nearby – + dump my cargo + clear out BTS – and head back to the shelter and collect my stuff and move forward. – gennynapolitan

Listen to your Odradek when it tells you a BT is right next to you. I had to find out the hard way on the wind farm. – Flatbread-Nines

Photo credit – plath

Stop the haste and just breathe for a moment. Game hooked me from the start – you want to get everything all at once: to run through the plot, to build more roads, to collect more likes, to get more achievements. If at the beginning I’d wanted something extraordinary to happen already and mostly just took it as the travel from point A to point B, by the end of the game, when it went by leaps and bounds, I’d wanted to go back to normalcy: usual routine-filled deliveries, nature, or the meditative sensation I felt just getting into the game. Beauty of the world can easily dissolve in the rush, and there IS a beauty you just need to see – just go and walk around the map, listen closely to the sounds surrounding you, and try to get to the places you haven’t been to yet. You can do it after the end of the game, of course, and it still will be a wonderful experience, but during the main progress it’s clearly something different, somehow more satisfying – you learn more when there is no hurry. It’s not a competition; take your time if you need it. Set your own pace, and the game will show itself from a different angle – not only as plot and characters, but as a world with its own rules, little secrets, and tiny details you may miss. – phanodemus

Make sure you have a second pair of boots in your inventory. – StellularConker

Contribute with other Porters, build roads, use vehicles, and take care of your BB! – PrettyFly4WG

Photo credit – Legio

Check out more top tips from the community via the links below:

DEATH STRANDING SUBREDDIT

DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT – STEAM