Death Stranding guide: How to get more Likes

Getting Likes in Death Stranding is more than just online validation. Likes contribute to your overall porter grade, and that upgrades everything from the connections you can make to the amount of cargo you can carry.

There’s a lot you can do in Death Stranding to get likes. Below, we’ll show you how to maximize your Likes.

Help yourself by helping other players

Death Stranding is obsessed with helping others, and good deeds breed Likes. So when you do something to help yourself, think about how it will help others, too.

Is there an annoying little stretch of water that you have to slog through a lot? (Yes, there is.) Building a bridge will help you cross it and make your life less annoying. If your bridge automatically appears in other players’ games, it’ll make their lives a little less annoying, too. They’ll use it, and you’ll get Likes. Everybody wins. Help yourself by helping others.

Drop useful signs

A quick way to get a few Likes is to drop signs. Many signs are just there to convey information, so use them to mark important places, point out good places for structures, or just to convey your current mood. If you place them in well-trafficked areas, someone will notice.

The best place for Like-baiting signs is around the entrances to structures and cities — everyone is going to come there at some point. Out in the wilderness, your signs should be along logical routes. Placing a sign in the middle of an empty field doesn’t make much sense. But if you mark an easy path up a slope that you know others will be traveling, you’re more likely to be helpful to someone and get those likes.

If you want to know the best signs to place, check out our guide on signs in Death Stranding that give benefits to you and other players.

Make connections

Whatever calculations are happening behind the scenes to determine what structures from other players appear in your world (and vice versa) are largely unknowable in Death Stranding. But there is one way that you can influence it: form strand contracts.

Strand contracts are strengthened bonds between you and another Sam. Practically, that means you’re more likely to see one another’s structures and cargo. And seeing will translate into Likes when they use your stuff or give Likes manually.

Build useful things when and where you need them

If you find yourself wishing there was a ladder to get up a cliff or praying for a safe house after a long slog across the wasteland, chances are that another player will be having the same thought. So, put useful things in the world to help out those other players.

Early on, you won’t have the resources to build and upgrade everything you wish you could. But a convenient ladder is going to be just as useful as a fully upgraded safehouse to someone. Climbing anchors in a useful place can be more useful than a road. And that utility will get you Likes.

As you progress and start building more and more elaborate structures, you’re going to keep helping other players. Put safehouses near locations that don’t have a private room (to create fast travel links nearby). Build generators along routes where there are no roads. Build timefall shelters in areas where it rains a lot. For more suggestions, check out our guide on where to build the best structures.

Build whatever you need when and where you need it, but when you have flexibility, build with a plan.

Clear MULE camps to let porters travel

As you journey across America, new NPC porters will eventually appear in the world. These are just (computer-controlled) people out doing the same thing you’re doing (just with much, much less stuff on their backs). Clear out MULE camps with your strand, bola gun, stun bombs, and fists. Once they’re all clear, porters can traverse the area safely (until the MULEs come back).

The porters will use your structures — like ladders — to make their own deliveries, and will award Likes along the way.

Make deliveries and do a good job

Earning Likes from other players is great and all, but you’re also going to be getting Likes from NPCs. You’ll get extra Likes for your deliveries if all the cargo is there and in good condition. You’ll also get more Likes as you increase your connection to each NPC.

Take on premium deliveries

You can make certain deliveries premium deliveries, which basically means that there are extra restrictions on the delivery — usually, they have to be delivered with less damage or faster. But in exchange for the extra hassle, you’ll get more Likes when you complete it.

When you’re taking on standard orders, choose the Select Premium Delivery by hitting right on the thumbstick or D-pad. Meet that delivery’s premium requirements, and you’ll get many more Likes than you normally would.

Claim lost cargo and complete others’ deliveries

Check the share locker at locations for lost cargo. This is stuff that other players didn’t manage to deliver. These will earn you Likes when you pick them up, and then many more Likes if you complete the delivery.

You might also find lost cargo out in the world. Picking it up will earn you a Like. Once you have it, you can either deliver it to its intended recipient, or drop it into a share locker for someone else to deal with.

Lost cargo isn’t usually worth a trip on its own (unless you’re really desperate for Likes), so look for deliveries along a route you were already planning on traveling.