Death Stranding guide: Raid MULE camps for materials

In the world of Death Stranding, MULEs are rogue porters who have become obsessed with cargo. And they stockpile a lot of it in their camps.

Taking on a MULE camp is intimidating at first, but it’s possible — and profitable. Below, we’ll talk about why it’s a good idea to raid their camps, and what you can do with the cargo you reclaim.

MULE camps

MULE camps share a basic layout. There’s a perimeter of sensors that will trigger as soon as you cross. This alerts nearby MULEs to your presence — but not necessarily your location.

Once you’re past the perimeter, you’ll start bumping into MULEs. Most likely, you’ll meet one or two on foot at first. If you’re unlucky, you might bump into several of them on a truck.

Farther in toward the center of the camp, you’ll find some buildings (or fancy tents, really) where most of the stolen cargo is stored. You might also find a MULE truck. You’ll also find one or two MULE postboxes nearby — check the map for any nearby orange postbox icons.

Fighting MULEs

There’s not a lot that goes into fighting MULEs. You just have to knock them out. There’re several ways to do this. We’re going to focus on non-lethal methods because we don’t want to create new BTs.

• Fists. The most basic way to knock out a MULE is by punching them several times.
• Strand. With your strand, you have two options to take out a MULE. If you sneak up on them, you can take them out with a sneak attack. If they’re coming at you, you can parry their attack with your strand, and then follow up with an attack from behind that binds them.
• Bola gun. The bola gun is the easiest way to take out a MULE. Shoot them with a bola to knock them down (a linked chain icon will appear above them), and then approach them. You’ll get the option to kick them to knock them out (the icon will change to two stars). If you wait too long, they’ll stand back up and you’ll have to start over. If you land a headshot, you can combine the two steps above into one and lock them out with one shot. Just check the icon over them to be sure that they’re unconscious.
• Stun bomb. Hitting a MULE with a stun bomb will freeze them. Hitting them with a second one will knock them out. This is an expensive way to take out MULEs, but it’s useful for crowd control. Better yet, hit an approaching truck loaded with MULEs with a stun bomb to freeze them all. If you’re quick with a second bomb, you can knock out several MULEs at once.

Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Once all of the MULEs in a given camp are knocked out, you’ll get a notification on the left of your screen that the area is now clear for porters to travel.

Porters

Porters are NPCs who are doing the same job as Sam, just to a lesser extent. They move between facilities and settlements in areas that Sam has made safe.

You won’t have many interactions with them. They will, however, give you likes on structures you’ve built (which will increase your porter grade). If you encounter them in the wild, you can trade likes in person, and they might also offer you items or cargo.

Steal everything back from the MULEs

Once the MULEs are unconscious (or before if you’re super stealthy), there’s a ton of cargo to pick through in their camps. MULE camps tend to focus on one type of material, like metals or ceramics. You can see a lot with a tap of R1 and a ping of your cargo scanner.

Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment via Polygon

Drive your vehicle into the camp (or steal one of the MULE trucks), and load up on anything you want from inside. Make sure you check the MULE postboxes as well for weapons, more materials, or lost cargo from other players.

Building roads

Feeding autopavers is an expensive task, but the roads they create are invaluable. Most facilities won’t have enough materials to claim. MULE camps, on the other hand, will. Find a MULE camp with a lot of ceramics cargo, and then find another with a lot of metals cargo. You’re likely going to find enough to fill at least one, if not two, autopavers.

After a little while, the MULEs you knocked out will wake up and start being MULEs again. At that point, you can raid their camp all over again.