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The ending of Death Stranding 2 is complex and might take you a while to piece everything together. If you have played the original Death Stranding, this comes as no surprise although the sequel has a somewhat faster pace and a more direct approach to the ending. Although most of the concepts like BBs and BTs carry forward from the prequel, you must form a deeper understanding of all of these to make sense of Death Stranding 2's ending and the story.
Death Stranding 2 has only one ending, and it paints a unique picture that might also hint at a new protagonist for the third installment (if Kojima Productions decides on one). In this article, we will explain the story and ending of Death Stranding 2, so that you can get a clear idea of the picture Kojima has painted.
Note: This article contains major spoilers regarding the plot of Death Stranding 2. Proceed with caution.
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Death Stranding 2 story: Important characters and their roles
Death Stranding 2 takes place around 11 months after the events of the original title. If you have not played the prequel, there are more than just a few things that you will fail to understand. Many of the major concepts, such as Bridge Babies (BB), Beached Things (BT), and even the entire Chiral Network, play a major part in this sequel. Old faces also pop up, the most important being Fragile.
Sam is living a peaceful life with Lou, the BB he adopted and named at the end of the prequel. However, this turned out to be the calm before the storm, as Fragile approaches him with a request to connect Mexico to the Chiral Network. Although Sam agrees, this is easier said than done, and thus begins Death Stranding 2, with the mission of connecting the world to the Chiral Network.
APAC (and APAS)
Sam and Fragile work for Drawbridge, which has a unique vessel called the DHV Magellan. Now, APAC and the President are technically backing this up, with the help of APAS even. The latter, called the Automated Porter Assistance System (APAS), helps Sam with various upgrades throughout the game and also operates robotic deliveries throughout the land.
APAC's goal has been clear — they want to connect the world to the Chiral Network, although a hidden agenda is in the works. APAC wants to connect all humans to the beach, thereby restricting their movement altogether. The idea is to stop human movement so that no void crashouts can occur, since they can track BTs once everyone is connected to the Beach.
However, this also means that the humans will be trapped on the beach forever, in a state of "undying." APAC's goal is to save humanity this way, and while this does achieve the goal, it is twisted to a great extent. Towards the end of the game, a more sinister plot comes into play, which is also related to a familiar and unfriendly old face - Higgs.
Higgs's resurgence
You would have thought that Fragile had stranded Higgs on the beach in Death Stranding 1, damning him to all eternity. Higgs, on the other hand, found a way and is continuing with his goal to accelerate the Stranding. It seems that the 4000 souls on the beach actually served as a catalyst to his resurrection, aiding his master plan to get revenge on Sam, Lou, and Fragile.
Higgs mentions that he was finally done with the loneliness and suffering on the beach, and just at the brink of exhaustion, the souls asked him to team up. Higgs says:
"And just... when I finally embraced oblivion, these dead folks right here... up and called me back. Four thousand poor b*****ds who joined with APAS in a convergence. To them, I was another ghost. Just another... lingering soul. Well, with so much in common... they thought I should team up with their little "company." And me being me, I played along. All the while, I was working towards my own... personal goal."
Higgs's personal goal remains the same — he wanted to accelerate the Last Stranding. However, without access to Amelie, his only way to do this was by using Tomorrow, which is Lou (or BB-28, or BB-00).
Throughout the game, Higgs appears with his band of red-clad cybernetic soldiers. Higgs himself boasts a robotic body with an electric guitar for a weapon, jamming up chords to attack with it.
Fragile
No character in Death Stranding 2 is simple. Fragile is one of the more complex ones and plays a major role in the story and ending of Death Stranding 2. During the very first episode of the game, Fragile and Lou are attacked, and the latter is seemingly killed. However, this is not the case as Fragile lost her memory.
As you reach Death Stranding 2's ending, you will come to know that Fragile lost her life in that attack as well and was surviving on "borrowed time" thanks to BB-28 or Lou. Essentially, Fragile died at the very beginning of Death Stranding 2, in Episode 1. Lou was not dead and made her way to a different beach.
At the same time, Fragile's Ha and Ka were somehow separated when the shot was fired. On the other beach, Fragile decides to give BB-28 to the Lost Souls, thinking that she would be safer with them. In turn, Fragile also forgot all of these events. When Sam rescued her in Episode 1, she had no memory of these at all.
Neil Vana
Neil Vana is a completely new character in Death Stranding 2, but he has immense importance in terms of the story and its eventual ending. Simply put, Neil Vana was related to Lucy, Sam's therapist and eventually wife. You must have seen her for a short duration if you've played Death Stranding 1. Lucy was also a therapist for Neil, but they had met previously, long back. As it turns out, Lucy had once saved Neil from a BT attack when both of them were very young.
Neil and Lucy developed a romantic relationship, and the extent of this is not something that was disclosed in the game. However, this changed after Lucy found out that she was carrying Sam's daughter, Lou.
At the same time, Bridges wanted to use Lou as an experimental BB since she had the same repatriate DNA as Sam. In an attempt to protect the baby, Lucy asks Neil to pretend to be the baby's father, to which he reluctantly agrees. Lucy also gives a necklace to Neil, which contains a storage device with all her knowledge about Bridges.
Eventually, both Lucy and Neil die while planning their escape. While the baby was extracted from Lucy and designated BB-00, Neil's body had gone necrotic, and he caused a massive voidout that wiped out the entire city. Neil's soul was now trapped, but not without purpose.
In Death Stranding 2, Neil is the one who protects Lou/Tomorrow when Fragile passes her on to him. He is more like a spirit of vengeance, similar to that of Mads Mikkelsen's Cliff in the prequel title. He will face off with Sam countless times, never really fully harming him. In their final encounter, Sam finally defeats him, and Neil hands over Lucy's storage device to him, with his last words:
"I'm so sorry...I tried to protect them. I'm sorry. [Gives the Storage Device to Sam.] From Lucy. For you. Keep Lou safe."
Lou / BB-28 / BB-00 / Tomorrow
Lou is perhaps the most complicated character and plays the most significant role in the story and ending of Death Stranding 2. BB-00, which was extracted from Lucy, was hidden away by Bridget Strand and redesignated to BB-28. This was the same Bridge Baby that Sam carried throughout his journey in Death Stranding 1, not knowing that it was his own child instead. It is likely that Bridget knew about this, and manipulated the events to ensure this outcome.
Back in Episode 1 when Fragile died, it seems her Ka was picked up by Lou. Fragile's Ka then gives Lou to Neil Vana and his soldiers, who vowed to protect this baby according to his promise to Lucy. Lou's cradle has also transformed into a container, from which Tomorrow emerges, almost like a metamorphosis of sorts.
After Sam's first encounter with Neil, he comes back to the beach to find Tomorrow there as well, and he takes her back to the DHV Magellan.
Tomorrow, although an adult, seems to be a child at heart and mind, as she can be seen often sucking her thumb, and questioning the most basic stuff. She grew up in an unknown world and had a hard time adjusting to the outside world. The reason for this should be obvious. Sam still does not know who she is and how they are related by fate.
Death Stranding 2 ending explained
The ending of Death Stranding 2 forces a lot of revelations on Sam and the player. As it turns out, the President of APAC was just a placeholder, and it was an amalgamation of the AI and 4000 souls that died during the voidout. This also happens to include the soul of the Elder from Death Stranding 1. The ultimate goal remained the same: bring all humans to the beach to prevent any future voidouts, thereby "saving" humanity.
Higgs was originally meant to be a pawn to drive Sam into finding the Chiral Plates and eventually connecting all of humanity to the chiral network. Higgs chose to be a wild card and follow his own agenda, which was to use Tomorrow and bring forth the extinction event anyway.
The clutch play in Death Stranding 2's ending comes from Charlie, which is none other than Die-Hardman. It turns out Die-Hardman never trusted APAC or APAS for that matter, and the Q-pid that they used had a function that could control the flow of data. APAC had never actually accessed the entire data of Drawbridge, since it was restricted to begin with.
While the DHV Magellan actually stands for Deep-tar Hunting Vessel, a fifth-wall-breaking dialogue from the Commander implies that DHV also refers to "Die-Hardman's Vessel." Die-Hardman reveals that he was already aware of how APAS, or APAS 4000, commissioned Lockne to make a new Q-pid, one that could control the entire humanity someday.
Die-Hardman sabotaged this plan and instead devised a Q-pid that could not only create new connections but could also sever them. This would lock APAS 4000 out of the human beaches and return it to a primitive state where it will only provide the automated porter services, as automatically intended. Die-Hardman says:
"The purpose of this Q-pid was not just to facilitate connections, but to sever them. Namely, the ones between our systems and the dead. And without their influence, APAS will go back to being a tool."
In the next cutscene, Die-Hardman also explains the need for his deception, and why he kept his identity a secret from everyone else. Turns out, he still needed the continents to be connected without raising any doubts at APAS's end.
The crew heads on for the final fight, and huge Super BTs show up at the beach. In what seems to be a deplorable scenario, Deadman, or his Ka to be specific, comes up with a clutch play. Deadman uses his Ka as a medium to fuse the DHV Magellan and the Super BT, making it one giant human-controlled composite being.
In the meantime, Sam goes off to face Higgs for the last time, and after an epic battle, manages to defeat him. In the final scene of the battle, a large baby Lou appears and picks up Higgs to gobble him. She throws a thumbs-up (like) towards Sam, and flies off. In the next scene, we see Amelie emerging again. A grey and colorless Fragile appears with baby Lou and keeps it at Sam's feet. Amelie hugs Sam, before pushing him into the water.
Sam wakes up in a frosty region, with baby Lou and keeps traversing the icy desert and navigating its peaks, till the DHV Magellan appears in front of him. Turns out Sam was dreaming and/or hallucinating, and was actually on the beach where the final fight took place. An unconscious Tomorrow lay beside him as well.
Back at the Magellan, Sam finally comes to know the truth about Fragile, who has been dead since Episode 1 of the game. Fragile herself had forgotten about this and only remembered it when she was on APAS's beach. She wanted to spend her remaining moments traveling with Sam, which serves as a testament to their growing relationship since the first game.
On the other hand, Fragile also blames herself for taking away from Sam the joy of watching Lou grow up. During the flashback and cutscene, she said:
"It's my fault that you never got to watch Lou grow up - me who stole all those precious years. I'm so sorry Sam. I can't give you back the time you've lost, but promise me you'll make the most of your future with Lou."
As the monologue ends, the color-washed Fragile appears yet again, telling Sam he will never be alone, and pointing to the singular picture on his board with Lou, Fragile, and Sam. With that, Fragile vanishes, and her character is finally put to rest in the Death Stranding 2 ending.
The final moments in Death Stranding 2 ending
The final cutscene explains the entirety of Neil and Lucy's backstory, which was explained earlier. As Tomorrow wakes up, she remembers Sam from their shared journey in Death Stranding 1 and immediately hugs him. The scene also shows that Tomorrow has a heart-shaped birthmark on her left elbow, confirming that Tomorrow is actually Lou.
The last scene in the game is a surprise that nobody saw coming. We see a white-haired character sitting atop a cliff, sporting the same set of extra hands around her neck that Fragile used to have. This character is also wearing the porter uniform and lights up a cigarette the same way Fragile used to do. This character has three postcard photos with her, and says the following monologue:
"Me, I've always loved porters. Through freezing rain and biting wind, across rivers, mountains, and endless deserts... They come to deliver something priceless. A glimpse of a life I've never known. They're my window - my sole connection to the outside world. And I know they'll be back again today. And every day, even when we're long gone. Death can't tear us apart. That's why today is another day on the road."
This character also seems to wear Rainy's bell on her ankle. As the camera finally pans to her face, we see that this character is none other than Lou or Tomorrow, clearly a few years after the happenings at the beach.
With that, Death Stranding 2 comes to an end. However, several questions still remain. What is the mission of Sam and Drawbridge? What happened to the APAS 4000? And why did Amelie show up in Sam's dream at the beach? Several continents are still left to be connected to the Chiral Network.
Moreover, does the last scene indicate Death Stranding 3 with Tomorrow as the protagonist? The possibilities remain endless, and only time (and Hideo Kojima) will be able to answer these, hopefully in the near future.
For more articles on Death Stranding 2, check out the following:
- 5 best tips and tricks for Death Stranding 2 beginners
- What is Motherhood Password in Death Stranding 2
- All Death Stranding 2 difficulty levels, explained
- How to check map in Death Stranding 2
- All Death Stranding 2 Controls: Movement, vehicle, and more
- Death Stranding 2 Digital Deluxe Edition: Content, pricing, and is it worth getting?
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