Transcript

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog Book club.

So Death Stranding 2 is releasing in two days and while we obviously won’t be finishing Death Stranding 1 quite in time, you can be sure we are much more interested in playing it sooner than later. Now that this game is really firing on all cylinders. What do you think, Alex, how far.

[00:00:23] Speaker B: We are in the game right now? It has definitely piqued my interest to play Death Stranding 2 maybe a little.

[00:00:30] Speaker A: Sooner than later, but still that, that’s even without having finished just running one. I, I think I’m already intrigued, interested to continue on. I mean, it will be a backlog entrance for sure, but it’s not necessarily going to be a five years from now backlog item.

[00:00:47] Speaker B: No, it’s going to be, it’ll be sooner than. Yeah, a lot sooner than backlog of this Stranding one from when it came out till now. So, yeah, definitely intrigued, very intrigued to see anything about Part 2, about Death.

[00:00:59] Speaker A: Stranding 2, and something that was interesting too. So I noticed when I logged in to start up this, this Death Stranding episode, it was crazy to me. So on PlayStation, only 29.3% of people who booted up ever Death Stranding director’s cut have actually finished episode two Amelie, according to the trophy list on PlayStation. Of course, that isn’t including those who played the original release before the director’s cut, but it’s still such a low percentage so early in the game. I would expect people to get a little bit farther than that. I guess most people try something, don’t like it immediately and bail out.

[00:01:35] Speaker B: I agree. I think that’s what it is. I think it’s, as we said, sort of in earlier episodes, I’ve saw things that people said like, wait, get like eight to ten hours in maybe, and it starts to pick up. And I will agree, those people were right.

[00:01:49] Speaker A: Absolutely. It clicks at that point. Once you start getting access to more things and sort of understand a bit more and the story heats up, it makes a major difference and I hate to have to, you know, it’s not a waste in this case, but spend that time not thoroughly enjoying something to get farther. Same with a TV show where they say watch five episodes and then it gets good. I prefer to just like something from the beginning, but in this case, it’s been worth the wait.

[00:02:14] Speaker B: Yes, it definitely has. I’m really enjoying this game. I’m now finding myself just sitting and playing hours, long sessions, because I’m just in. Yeah, I just want to keep playing.

[00:02:25] Speaker A: Far beyond the required orders that we set out. Exactly. It’s pushing me into carving out extra time that I was thinking of maybe just doing the required orders and moving into actual side quests as well, which is always a good thing.

We went through nine required orders in this first two thirds of episode three. What has your experience been like overall?

[00:02:46] Speaker B: Overall, for these first nine orders? Pretty good, actually. Definitely feel.

I definitely felt more confident with some of the stuff you get with these orders, some of the rewards. It has definitely made me feel more confident of moving through the territories, dealing with mules, BTs, etc. So, yeah, I definitely feel more confident. I’ve. These nine orders we’ve done, I have really enjoyed.

[00:03:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it. It’s definitely a bit of sort of stacking, much like Sam’s cargo stacking. Your capabilities and your ability to move things around and move yourself around. And it’s much more comfortable, in a sense, to be able to hike through, especially the more intense terrain. And, yeah, it’s definitely, you know, it’s caught my attention so much that I just don’t want to stop at this point.

But here we are. This podcast is keeping us at a normal pace instead of binging it all in, like, one weekend.

I guess it’s not a bad thing.

[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So this episode, I mean, we started what we finished fighting at the end of episode two.

[00:04:01] Speaker A: We fought the Higgs monster. Higgs the cracking monster. And took.

[00:04:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Kraken monster.

[00:04:07] Speaker A: The barge across the lake.

[00:04:08] Speaker B: The barge across.

And then we arrived here in Lake Knot City.

And first thing.

First thing we did was very easy, just moving some packages just to the main.

Main destination of Lake Knot City, the main center.

And then from there, it really picked up quite a bit more.

[00:04:31] Speaker A: They especially, they put in some story beats here that I think were really interesting. And obviously this episode is Fragile. Fragile, as they all seem to say. And it obviously is revealing more of her backstory. I think what I caught on to was they explained a bit more about her relationship with Higgs. Someone said he took everything from her and then some. And then she comes in and explains at some point, all of their history. And obviously there’s a lot of rumors swirling around about Fragile, both between herself and Die Hardman and all the other preppers that seem to be around in the wilds there. So we’re learning quite a bit more. And even the fact that, you know, Fragile uses her beach to teleport, and she can actually teleport you through her beach, which ends up being the fast travel system in this game.

And it’s nice to have a fast travel system. Of course, you lose any cargo you’re carrying and is placed in a private locker instead of going with you. So that can be a bit of a pain and have to account for that.

[00:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah. It was really intriguing to learn more about Fragile and her background. You said, like, basically, Higgs tried to take everything from what her father and her built for the company and try to destroy it. Also, we did find out that she, as you said, she has her own beach that she can jump through, and she also. She can’t summon bts like Higgs can. So that was one ability she does that he has, but she doesn’t.

Also, I did find out. I think it came.

I don’t know if it came right after this or a little later. I don’t know if you read it. There was an interview. If you go in and read an interview about Higgs, but the interview basically said that his name is Higgs because of the Higgs boson particle, AKA the God particle.

[00:06:17] Speaker A: Yes, you’re right. I did read that one.

[00:06:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So basically, he thinks he’s God. That’s. That was what I was getting. Like, he thinks he’s.

He is God Almighty. He can summon the bts.

Yeah. No one will take him down.

I do like that. That’s why his name is Higgs. And it’s based off that. I thought that was.

That was a fun, interesting bit of lore.

[00:06:37] Speaker A: There’s always going to be a second layer of meaning behind anything.

So outside of the setup for this episode about Fragile, I took on, obviously, there’s three orders to preppers. You need to reconnect the chiral network to a handful of preppers, convince them that Bridges, or the network overall for the uca, is worth committing to or being a part of. And.

And that’s really the first three order required orders here. And so I set off on my way to the engineer. And you, of course, have to either go a long way around or go through mule territory. So I was pinged by the mules.

I saw one get really close right as I dropped the decoy briefcase on the other side of a giant rock and then snuck around the backside. But there were tons of them, and fortunately, I had my cargo all perfectly packed to not wobble. So I just went into a dead sprint as fast as Sam could go towards the marker I had put down, dodging all these electric interference spears that kept landing nearby. And I finally outran them when I ran out of stamina.

What a rush.

[00:07:47] Speaker B: You had a wow you had a pretty intense.

Yeah, intense moment there with the mules. I had not quite as intense.

A little.

A little bit more. A little similar.

I, yeah, had all my cargo. I had everything. Because I’m very good now at once I get all my cargo is I just automatically go into the menu and just auto reshuffle it so that it’s in a definitely better balancing order.

[00:08:16] Speaker A: That’s the first step. Always.

[00:08:17] Speaker B: Yeah, always the first step. But yeah. So for you. Yeah, I did encounter the mules. I tried to sneak around.

I was able to sneak up on one and get one with a strand, like sneak up and take him out.

But then I tried to go a little bit further and a couple more. I got pinged and saw me and started to run after me. And I just as a sort of. You sort of started to sprint. But unfortunately, at one point I got very lucky. I sprinted and I lost balance in the water because I didn’t have enough stamina anymore. And like I fell in the water and my stuff all came out. I started floating down and I was like, oh, no, no, no. And like mules was still sort of chasing me, but they weren’t going as fast. And I was able to luckily get to a part where I was able to stand up and all my stuff was coming right at me. So I was just spamming triangle. Like throw them back, throw them back, throw them back. And I got all my cargo back onto my back. And then just from there, I actually, amazingly, wasn’t too far from the engineer and just got my way. And then I had to. Couldn’t sprint because I didn’t have much stamina. I had to let that come back.

[00:09:27] Speaker A: So drink an energy drink.

[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I was able to luckily make it to the engineer to drop off the first package to. Yes, these. These three preppers that we get to meet.

[00:09:40] Speaker A: So it was.

[00:09:40] Speaker B: It was a little bit intense, but I got very lucky that if you fall in the water, like it doesn’t damage your cargo because it’s just floating in the water. Luckily.

[00:09:49] Speaker A: Well, I have a story about that.

[00:09:50] Speaker B: Later and I was able to just pick it all up again. Yeah. But made to the engineer, who. Yeah. So for the engineer, we drop off the, like the dev unit. The evo dev unit, I think is what it was.

And what was nice about that is then he gave us a blueprint to a power skeleton.

[00:10:08] Speaker A: The biggest difference maker of them all. I thought the auto trike was going to be the best part or the reverse trike. And no, it is definitely the no.

[00:10:16] Speaker B: This Power Skeleton is a.

It’s like a godsend. Yes.

[00:10:21] Speaker A: They make so nice movement. So great running carrying cargo so much easier. They recharge in sun or time fall and wow. It’s just such a difference maker.

[00:10:34] Speaker B: Yeah. There’s. I’m definitely not as much hitting the R2 L2 or both together to balance or.

[00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah. It still happens from time to time shift my weight. It’s definitely much smoother and so I don’t think those. And it requires you to not have things attached to your hips but. But it gives you more carry capacity on your back. And I’m never going to take those things off. I’ll replace them every time I need to.

[00:10:54] Speaker B: They’re just too good. Yeah. I’ve just. I’ve kept them on. I actually I’ve got mine. Since we’re talking about them. I’ve got mine up to power scale of 10. Level 2.

Dropping a couple things off other. Just standard orders to the engineer.

[00:11:07] Speaker A: Yep.

[00:11:07] Speaker B: So now I just have.

Yeah. Power Skeleton level two and it is. It’s a big. It’s a big difference.

[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And that was something that was cool that I kind of discovered as well in this segment of playing is that the side quests in many cases provide upgrades to your equipment that you can then fabricate. So that in itself is a great reason to do side quests even if they are somewhat fetch questy more than most other games. I got that upgrade to this as well. And it’s really nice for a side quest to give you something that actually affects gameplay and not just some experience.

[00:11:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I agree.

[00:11:38] Speaker A: And I didn’t. On the way to the Elder I didn’t run into much trouble. I just kind of hiked. I set up some ladders and whatnot but it was pretty uneventful. But the order from the craftsman to get his tools back from that BT infested area which kind of looked like a mall with escalators, was tense. I don’t know what your experience was but I. I tried to. As I was escaping I tried to crouch through an area with a low overhang and knocked a bunch of cargo off the giant stack on my back. So I won’t be doing that again. Don’t try to crawl through when you’ve got a bunch of cargo.

[00:12:12] Speaker B: Okay. That’s good to know. I have not had that happen. Okay. That’s.

[00:12:15] Speaker A: And it did some damage to the containers too.

[00:12:18] Speaker B: That’s why container. Container repair spray is very, very helpful.

[00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah. I actually still used it. Yeah.

[00:12:27] Speaker B: I carry like two or Three all the time on me, and I will use them.

But, yeah, for the. Yeah, for the craftsman to get his tools back, it was.

I had quite a few of the hematic grenades on me. I had. I didn’t need as many as I had. I think I had, like, 20 on me, but I just. Yeah, basically, it was just crouching through, as you said, lamal area. I kind of just. Basically, once you get to the wall of the area, I went to the left and then through a little room and then out and then through some escalators where there were BTs around. But I was able to just take them out pretty easily. I mean, I was crouching the whole time, so I was kind of going slow.

I didn’t really have to hold my breath as much because the second I could see him pop up, I’d already have the hematic grenade equipped. So I just aim and just throw it right at it.

[00:13:21] Speaker A: Those grenades are helpful.

[00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah, they’re very helpful.

[00:13:24] Speaker A: I like to try to stealth through as much as I can, and then if I need it, I’ll use one of those.

[00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah.

And then when I got to the area where the tools were, there was actually a bt, like, hovering around it, which I’m glad I did, because earlier when I was walking over there, the BT kind of went. It looked like he spawned inside the area where the tools were rough. So I was like, okay, I gotta take this one out.

Because if I pick up the tools and he spawns in there all of a sudden and then instantly touches me, it could be kind of screwed. So I just. Yeah, I took him out and then got the tools, and then I basically went back to the same exact way I came in. I think I took out one. Yeah, I took one more BT out. That kind of got pretty close, but other than that.

[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn’t. I didn’t feel like going back through all the BTs that I had just sell through, because I didn’t kill any of them. And so I picked up the package and then kept going in, basically, to complete the circle to get out. And that’s where I ended up hitting that overhang.

There were no BTs around, but then it knocked the things off, so I couldn’t go under. So I had to climb a bit into this collapsed building, and then I jumped onto the main retaining wall of the place and then jumped down on the outside. It was an interesting approach, but I’m glad it was able to actually work.

[00:14:46] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah, I see this. Why like. Like that? So you were talking about, like, You. You’re different. Your experience to mine is totally different.

[00:14:53] Speaker A: Yeah, there’s a lot of variety in here.

[00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah, there’s a lot. And that’s the thing you can do. You can pick and choose what you want to get. Like do if you want to do it. As you said you were a bit more stealthy. I was stealthy for a bit, but then there were ones where I was like, I’m just going to take these guys out so that I don’t have to deal with them potentially coming back through here.

[00:15:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I hear you. I should probably do that more often because I have plenty of hermetic grenades.

So you get back to the engineer and he gives you the bullet gun, which is great for knocking down mules when you’re being chased. And then you get to kick them in the head for good measure. Knock them out. I tossed in a bunch of smoke grenades whenever. When I stole the server and then sprinted out of there.

[00:15:35] Speaker B: Oh, so you. Okay? Yeah. I have not used the smoke grenades, so I’m a fan. Okay. That’s.

[00:15:41] Speaker A: You make them. They make the. Whoever it is kind of cough a lot and then they get semi incapacitated and then you can just run.

So I use it. I throw a smoke grenade to where I’m going, pack the chest or the. Wherever they have something stored to steal, snag it. And then they’re still coughing and I start running. And then they, of course, chase after you. So I either turn around and.

And throw more grenades. Right. And now swapping to the bullet gun and keeping them from running.

[00:16:09] Speaker B: Okay. So for that one for me. Okay. Mine was different. Yeah. The bowler gun is great. I love that. You can shoot the mules. Take him out. As you said. Kick them to knock them down. If you headshot them. It’s an automatic knockout.

If you headshot them.

[00:16:20] Speaker A: I did not try that. I’ve only been shooting at their torso and legs.

[00:16:23] Speaker B: Nope. If you can aim it and hit them in the head with it, it will automatically. They’ll have the little knockout symbol, like the full knockout symbol above them.

[00:16:30] Speaker A: Nice.

[00:16:31] Speaker B: When they’re done.

[00:16:31] Speaker A: I like how it also has a sort of slingshot type trajectory. So you hold the trigger down further. It goes longer and wider.

[00:16:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I haven’t. Yeah. I’ve been so my different. I had a little bit different of that server thing. You went against stealthy with smoke bombs and all that. I kind of went John Wick style and just bola gunned all the everybody. Everyone was chasing me and I was like, run. And I Just turn and then just bully gun kick. Or if I had a headshot knockout and then I was free to just go to the go and pick up the server from the post box and I just grabbed it and then ran back to. Ran back to Lake Knot City to deliver Sam Wick. Yeah, basically I kind of was. I like the bowler gun. It’s a good bowl and I didn’t. It’s actually nice that you get.

Well, I have it now upgraded to two because again from earlier from doing some stuff for the Craftsman I have have it upgraded to level two.

But even the level one ones, I mean you get like 14 shots and it’s just one shot per. What’s it. So you can take out a camp with one gun, if that. So it’s pretty nice.

It is quite useful. And if you can do that with the. With using a strand and sneak up where I was able to get against the most stealth kills, then you can save quite a bit of ammo.

[00:17:49] Speaker A: It’s also interesting that all the. At least on our. On the good guys side of this story, no one’s actually killing anyone. They’re using non lethal methods because killing means likely a giant explosion.

So this electric bullet gun is cool. The electric spears of the mules use is interesting. Obviously the hematic grenades don’t I think have much of effect on them on a person. But it’s. It’s a unique take to have. You’re not actually killing anyone.

[00:18:18] Speaker B: No. You just basically. Yeah. Knocking him out, knocking him unconscious. Like with the strand when you kind of. You just sneak up behind and just get him in a chokehold from behind with the strand it’s just knocking them out, putting them to sleep basically.

[00:18:31] Speaker A: And so have you after. After most of these mule encounters where I’m in a dead sprint for a long distance, you know, obviously I use an energy drink halfway through if I really need it to keep going. But then eventually Sam kind of runs out of gas. Have you done the rest and sleep option that’s available?

I think you just hit circle when you’re in the. Out in the wilderness.

[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yes, I have. I have done it a few times. Yeah. When I. Where I’ve rested for this first part for a bit. Going back and forth between like engineer elder craftsman dropping stuff off.

I had a couple times where I had sprinted too much and if your stamina goes all the way down at one point you lose one of your squares, one of your stamina bits. It will get lined. It’ll get lined through.

So I had actually two of Those out. So I only had. I can’t remember, what did we start? Do you start with 4 or 5?

[00:19:25] Speaker A: Let’s see, the 3 or 4. And then if you drink them. If you drink an energy drink in your private room.

Boosts it.

[00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:19:32] Speaker A: Then. Yeah, you end up Okay. I didn’t know four.

[00:19:35] Speaker B: So I had lost. I was down to two. Just two total between stamina. So I was trying to really be careful not running. But then I was able to get to the distribution center south of it. I was able to rest and that kind of put them back together and then drank an energy drink. And that puts it. That put them back all square where I had full. The regular, full stamina. And then I drank another one and it gave me one extra bar.

[00:19:59] Speaker A: Right.

[00:19:59] Speaker B: It was nice.

[00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah. The. The resting option when you’re out and about is nice because you don’t have to go all the way back somewhere because then you’d be just walking. I guess the thing that was funny to me, if you leave him. So when you go into rest and there’s no enemies around you, it is a quick auto save. And it’s funny because Sam starts talking to himself in his sleep.

I don’t know if he left him sleeping.

[00:20:23] Speaker B: I haven’t. No, I haven’t. I didn’t sleep him. I didn’t leave him long enough then to get that. I only did like a minute, minute and a half maybe. That was.

[00:20:30] Speaker A: I think you get the benefits. I think I just did that. Put the controller down for a second and looked at something else and then he just starts talking. So kind of caught me off guard.

[00:20:40] Speaker B: Okay. I might have to just try to just leave it for a bit and see because I want to just experience that. See if we see mostly just for.

[00:20:46] Speaker A: Your own entertainment purposes.

[00:20:48] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:20:48] Speaker A: You have an interesting thing that I caught onto and I. It was in an interview or an email at some point and. But it’s definitely caught my attention. So the likes in this game, the whole system of liking other people’s structures or the deliveries they serve as the experience and leveling up system here of how much you can carry or even how many more likes you can get for a delivery.

And that interview file talks about an offshoot of that brain chemical oxytocin, which is the pleasure chemical and it’s called lycasin. And it’s so blatantly commenting on our current Internet culture being so obsessed with validation from strangers, it’s almost just smacking across the face with why does anybody care?

[00:21:36] Speaker B: I get what you Mean when you the likes with the xp because I’m now after completing. I’ve done a few standard missions. I don’t know what you’re at because obviously there are different levels.

[00:21:45] Speaker A: It tells you and it’s in a star format. So you go in five different directions for different stats.

[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. But then overall there’s like a level sort of level. Well overall it’s like I’m level over level 100. I’m like a hundred. I’m like Porter level 100 something now after same quite a few what’s it. And then. But the higher those go it gives you more options to do like it opens up more bandwidth somewhere.

It. It increases stuff for you which is definitely helpful which also is another reason why to do some more standard orders because if you can get that up then it gives you more benefits yourself and Sam as a porter which is. Which is nice and useful.

[00:22:25] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, exactly. There’s. And I. I think. Let’s see even. I don’t know when it came up exactly but at some point I did a. It actually was not a standard order. It was an order for Sam. But I think it kind of connects to this whole like thing because it was. Did you get this quest the pizza delivery service?

[00:22:43] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:22:44] Speaker A: So it’s you know and it’s even so on point. It’s complete with a 30 minutes or less time limit just like the real pizza delivery people and. But I think it connects into the. The like system in terms of just trying to please people is a part of this experience overall because you get some visceral reaction from the people you’re delivering to and it obviously is life changing for them whenever they get anything because they’re. They’re too afraid to go outside.

The pizza delivery is a funny, funny thing to have in a game like this though.

[00:23:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it was pretty funny. I mean I think it was for. Yeah. For the person that you sent it to. I think it was for his sister because I remember reading the emails for something after that she was sick and that a pizza was just the perfect thing that she needed. But I do. It was my first. I don’t think I’ve done any before but I think this was my first. They’re called urgent orders because they have a time limit as you said.

[00:23:33] Speaker A: Right, right.

[00:23:35] Speaker B: I’m sure there’ll be more later on. And this was a side quest that we didn’t have to do but it was pretty close to like not city. It wasn’t very far. It was just a unique thing to do as you said like it’s a 30 minute or less pizza, get it there in time.

[00:23:51] Speaker A: Watch this become a, a pizza delivery game instead of reconnecting a network sponsored by Pizza Hut.

[00:24:01] Speaker B: That would be funny.

[00:24:02] Speaker A: And so after or at some point around that time also.

Hell yeah, the reverse trike is back. And I also, I think almost immediately unlocked a long distance version with extra battery power but less storage capacity, which. Holy crap, that makes a huge difference too.

[00:24:23] Speaker B: Yeah. When we delivered that server that we stole from the mules. Yeah, we get the blueprint for the trike. I built one of the long lasting battery ones, but I didn’t, I built it and I didn’t really realize, I didn’t read it thoroughly that you couldn’t carry cargo on it.

[00:24:38] Speaker A: Right.

[00:24:39] Speaker B: So I then just built a regular one as well. So I haven’t tried the long battery one because I’ve like, like having the usage of being able to put the cargo on the trike.

[00:24:48] Speaker A: Yeah. And so I think, I think based on what you’re saying and my own experience, I think think there’s obviously various uses. I think if you’re just doing a bunch of back and forth for standard order delivery, it’s great to have a standard trike.

But when you’re going along, you know, you’re going a long distance and it’s for potentially a main story quest and you’re really far away. The long distance one is absolutely worth it because you don’t get to store anything or much. You can get super far. So right after that I took on a side quest to contribute to a piece of the road right outside of Lake Knot City.

And it turned out it was the materials that I got for that quest directly from Die Hardman and put into the auto paver that was all that was needed to finish not only that section but a massive chunk of the road. So I was able to take that extended battery reverse strike and go like 80% of the way to the south distribution center where the next main order was because it so many pieces of the auto paver. Like I only completed one piece. But through the Chiral Network, through the other people that have played this game, a huge other chunk of the road was done. So I got almost to where I needed to be and that saved a lot of time.

[00:26:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I’ve noticed that I did that road, the road reconstruction one as well that order to bring it there. Though my experience of bringing it there was a little different, I think. I.

How do I get there? Did I use a trike?

I use a Trike where I walked with some of the heavy ones. And then I offloaded it and then went back and it took me a little longer, but I got them all there and delivered everything. But yeah, it’s nice because once you’re on the Carl network I’ve come back from.

So from when I did that, I had that big part of the road and another section of road done. And then when I came back to the game a couple days or a day or two later, as you said, since it’s online, I had another.

At some point, more of these bridges built and another big section of a road built. And I was like, oh, this is amazing.

Now I can definitely get to some of these places easier.

And it’s just. It’s so helpful. And I like that other people can put in the materials needed to build.

[00:27:05] Speaker A: These roads because there’s a lot of materials required to do it.

[00:27:08] Speaker B: It is a lot.

[00:27:10] Speaker A: Something that I had heard previously before starting this game, even reading about it a long while ago, is that obviously the people that played and reviewed this game at launch, at original launch, you know, had the complaint of obviously all the things required to get around. And at some point it seemed like so many people had contributed to these roads, contributed to the bridges.

Obviously you don’t get access right away because you need to connect each segment of the map to the chiral network to get access to them. But it.

A lot of people that came back to the game a year later said it was significantly improved because you were able to move around more easily. I like how it’s required to be connected to the chiral network, though, for most of it, because it gives you that mixed experience. Best of both worlds, where you get to do some of the hiking and wandering through an area, but then once you’re connected, you get. Your backtracking is so much easier. It really expands here. It makes it easier. But you’ve already been through it a little bit and you’re not. You’re not undercutting your experience by using them. By the time you get access to them in each section of the map.

[00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I really like how it is online like this. That. Yeah, you can. Yeah. Before you’re on the Kyle network, obviously it should be. It’s your main mission to get this place right on the chiral network. So it’s going to be tough to get there. You got to get there. You got to find your own route to get there. Trying to. If you want to try and make it harder on yourself or see if you can find A little bit easier of a path to get to. But you said once you’re on the Kyle Network and you can see everything that everybody else has built, all the signs that they’ve put up letting you know, like, hey, there’s BTS here. Hey, there’s a bridge here. Hey, there’s whatever here.

It’s. It is nice.

[00:28:54] Speaker A: Something that’s interesting too, was in the second episode of our podcast, I mentioned that the Chiral Network almost seems like just Sci Fi Wi fi. And it still does to an extent. Obviously you’re connecting people together. When you connect a chunk of the Chiral Network, you get access to other people’s structures.

I’m wondering if there’s ever going to be an in universe explanation of why you couldn’t see this bridge before, but now you can see it and use it, or if it’s just a gameplay mechanic and that’s just where it stays. But I know they’ve also mentioned the reason that everyone has their own beach, that the term multiverse has been thrown out a couple times through interviews and even cutscenes. So I’m very curious where or if that comes back or comes into play or is described in any way.

[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that’ll be interesting to see if it does come back.

Yeah, but just have to wait and see because I’m not so sure right now.

[00:29:47] Speaker A: Hard to say. And so arriving at the distribution center, that was where we end up getting access to the auto delivery bot. So you can basically assign a minion to bring a standard order to someone and just pump up your likes and experience. What was funny to me was as you select the thing, it pops up this little cutscene next to your terminal. A hole opens up on the floor and the auto delivery bot comes out. But he hums the tune to itself as it walks off.

[00:30:17] Speaker B: Yeah, he does.

And I don’t.

[00:30:20] Speaker A: I didn’t recognize what it was, if it was an actual song or if it was just some noise. But that was very sort of funny.

[00:30:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn’t. Yeah, I. Again, I didn’t catch what tune it was. I mean, I might have to. Maybe I’ll do another order, see if I can try and figure it out or just Google it. But I think it’s supposed to be like. Supposed to be more of a sort of humanize. Yeah, funny character. Out for a straw. Out for a straw. Yeah.

[00:30:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Just given, you know, doing some work for the human you’re assigned to. And it definitely gives off a bit of a Star wars droid vibe.

Companion droid, like an R2D2 or.

[00:30:56] Speaker B: I could see. Yeah.

[00:30:57] Speaker A: Or a BB8 or whatever else with all the personality attached but no voice.

[00:31:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it definitely does give off, like. Yeah. Type of companion droid. I agree. That did, actually. So you have to do a standard order there, sort of to just see how the bot works. Right. To do it. I then actually later on did another standard order with a bot just because I saw there’s a trophy. This was just me, just trophy farming. Just that said, like, have a delivery. Standard. Yeah. Have a. Like, have a delivery done by a bot, by Autobot, by the bottom.

And so I was like, okay. So I just picked one that wasn’t. Didn’t look like it’d be too hard. I think it was something from the distro to the elder, and he delivered it. I got it. When he finishes it, you have to go back to the terminal, go to that order, and then select that it’s finished. Unfortunately, the only downside of that is I got a grade C out of that. So the grade was C because it got. The Cargo was maybe 50% down almost there. So that’s the only issue.

[00:32:01] Speaker A: You can’t. Again, I didn’t what route to take, I guess.

[00:32:03] Speaker B: No. So I did it once to get the trophy, which again. Yeah, I don’t know. That was just me seeing that as a trophy and be like, I’ll just do it once. And I was like, okay, I’m not gonna. And after I saw it was a C, I was like, yeah, I’m not gonna do that again. I’ll just do it myself.

[00:32:17] Speaker A: And so, moving on from the south distro center, you go to the weather station. And I’m curious to hear your experience, because on the way to the weather station, you go through this very rocky, hilly terrain, and it starts raining pretty quickly. So I just ditched the bike really early, got through the BT area without much trouble.

But then soon after that, I tried walking through a very narrow stream without scanning first, but it was too deep. And like you said before, I got swept up, lost most of my cargo and was floating downstream for a long time.

It was definitely on a hill, I think. Was so worried and thought there was going to be a waterfall and that I was effed because I hadn’t saved in a long time. But fortunately, my cargo washed ashore same way it did with you. And then I did a little bit further downstream. And so I was able to go and pick it up, but a lot of it was damaged. And I really luckily had a ladder attached still to My tool belt that I was able to use to get to the other side where all my cargo was, because I did not want to go all the way from the distribution center. Again.

[00:33:22] Speaker B: I had the exact same experience as you there. It was another river debacle for me as well.

[00:33:32] Speaker A: Fool you twice. Yeah, that’s the. It’s the. I guess scan any moving body of water in this game.

[00:33:39] Speaker B: Yes. And realize now, because obviously it’s blue, yellow, red, and red is.

Red is deep red. You can’t go through.

So, yeah, again, I took my trike originally from the distro center, got up to a part where I was like, okay, I’m not sure how I can drive this through.

I’m sure there’s a way, but I don’t know. So I got off. I made my way through killing, taking out some BTs on the way with some hermetic grenades. And then again, as you said, I got to that river.

I didn’t know it was like that part of it deep, because I think I just went quickly and didn’t scan it. And yeah, again, all my cargo fell off. But it was luckily for me. Yeah, and as you said, it’s. It’s downhill. I was going for a while and I was trying to control it to be like, please get to the edge so I can get up.

I was able to get to an edge and I was able to get to a shallower part. And then again, all my.

Most of my cargo actually floated down to me. So again, I just was spamming to pick it up quickly on my back, and then some was trapped against a rock. So I was able to walk back up slightly, get it off a rock.

And luckily for me, I checked the containers were damaged, but the actual cargo was not. So I was okay.

So I just used some container repair spray on them.

But, yeah, so I was lucky that it wasn’t actually damaged. But then I made it across that big river, got all my stuff, and then there’s another little river later on. And then I was lucky. I had.

I was like, I’m not even gonna take a chance. I had a ladder on me.

I just threw it down and crossed.

[00:35:10] Speaker A: Ladders are useful. Yeah, the ropes are useful on. On cliffs, but the ladders are super useful for the rivers.

[00:35:17] Speaker B: Yeah, ladders are very useful.

[00:35:19] Speaker A: I don’t want to waste a PCC to make a bridge in most cases.

[00:35:22] Speaker B: No, definitely, no. Definitely not. And then, yeah, made my way to.

[00:35:26] Speaker A: The weather station, and the unlock from the weather station was very cool. I haven’t used it much to be honest. But I like the fact that you’re able to semi predict the time fall, where it falls, what time and how basically what time in terms of how far in minutes from now. So you can get an idea of maybe plotting a route out and going around any timefall if you don’t want to encounter bts. Cool that it exists. I guess I have to wait and see if I’ll end up using it more. Have you used it much yet?

[00:35:57] Speaker B: I have, I’ve looked at the map. I’ve noticed that like in the areas where there’s timefall/Potential BTS, I’m assuming, I don’t know if it. I can’t remember if it always just shows you if there’s BTs there. I don’t think it does. It’s all blue diamonds. If you scroll over the part shaded blue diamonds where you can see where the timefall is and obviously in some of those places there are going to be bts. But yeah, I like that. I would sometimes, yeah I’d look to see if there are there and then you can move it up the time wise. I think you said up to like 30 minutes to see even though I’m not really sure. I mean it’s cool but I don’t know since this is, I don’t know is 30 minutes, like how long is.

[00:36:35] Speaker A: That in terms of walking?

[00:36:38] Speaker B: Is it in terms of walking or is it like real time?

[00:36:41] Speaker A: You know one of the interviews or explanations that I saw right after we got that too was basically just weather is unpredictable though.

So they’re just commenting on real life weather. Weather forecasts, you know, they can be very accurate or not at all.

[00:36:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it’s gonna 90% chance of rain today and then all of a sudden oh, it’s 90 degrees. Never mind, we’re not gonna get rain. Thanks. Thanks weather weather team.

[00:37:05] Speaker A: And yeah, who knows, I guess I’ll keep trying it and see how accurate it is.

So leaving the weather station I took on the immediate really quick order because it’s right down the hill from there is building your safe house which gives you a private room and a rest spot and all that. Right around there I built a watchtower trying to get a view down to the timefall farm and down the whole hill in the area I was gonna have to walk across.

And so I was like okay, I built it. And I was like why can’t I customize it? Because you sometimes walk up on these watchtowers and you see specific things that you know holograms and Music and whatnot. So I was just. Because it was expecting it to take a couple seconds to do and it wasn’t available, so you have to upgrade it. And so I went to go get some materials to upgrade it and I realized, okay, no, I’ve taken all of the claimable materials from the weather station and I need more. So I was like, okay, I’m gonna. I had forgotten that you can’t transfer cargo through fragile. And I went into the safe house. I fast traveled over to Lake Nod City to try to get more from there. And then I arrived there and was like, oh, yeah, you can’t do that. I also thought in the fast travel system that maybe they would give you a little bit of a God of War style fast travel sort of in between space where you see fragile beach, but they just really just teleport you.

[00:38:25] Speaker B: She just comes out, comes out, talks.

[00:38:26] Speaker A: To you, brings you, brings. Yeah, talks to you for a sec.

[00:38:29] Speaker B: Tells you like. Yeah, tells you like, hey, like, close your eyes, think of where you really.

[00:38:32] Speaker A: Want to go, right?

[00:38:33] Speaker B: And then you go. I have heard a rumor, and I only know this rumor because I looked up. I had to look up something to do with the safe house and with Fragile Jump, which I’ll get to in a second. But I have heard that if you use it too much, she gets angry.

[00:38:47] Speaker A: Oh, because it does some damage to her or something, or it takes a lot of energy out of her. She explained. And so if you do it often, she gets angry. Supposedly interesting. And not in the fast travel moment, but in the normal cutscenes. Whenever she shows up, she always offers you something to eat with one of those grub cryptobiotes in her hand. So it seems like she’s just constantly inhaling those things to keep herself from struggling.

[00:39:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s probably what that is for. So you built the safe house. I did the same thing. I did the safe house. I got all those materials, built it up, and then I did something different. So instead of going then down, I took a little longer. I didn’t go straight then down to the Timefall farmers.

I, as you said, I fragile, jumped from the safe house to the distro center and got myself a trike and then basically drove my way up to the weather station.

And luckily at that point, all the Timefall had gone. So there are no BTs or no timefall in the area. So I drove up like clear and I was able to just find. Zooming in on the map, just trying to find the path and just driving along. It took Me a little while. But I found like a path through a little bits of the river where it was a little more shallow, where I could go through with the trike instead of losing it potentially in the river.

[00:40:16] Speaker A: So you were just exploring?

[00:40:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I was just exploring. And I was able to find, as I said, it took a little bit a path up to the weather station to take a trike with me, which was very helpful. But when I. After I did that and it says like, obviously you said like when you fragile jump, it says, oh, you can’t take your cargo. It says all your cargo placed in a private locker.

And I’m not gonna lie, I was getting a little frustrated. I had no idea.

I was. Kept going in and out of the safe house. How do you access the private locker here? Because in the menu, if you press start and look at. On the map, you can view the cargo there. And it’s all my cargo’s there. But I was like, how do I access it?

[00:40:57] Speaker A: I think it’s only through the distribution terminals.

[00:41:00] Speaker B: Nope. So you can.

So I found it. I figured it out.

So if you go.

If you’re on your safe house. So say that safe house that you built, if you’re on it and you go to the structure area where you build it and you hold down your start button for the structure menu. Yeah, I didn’t see it, but at the corner my. I saw in the top, it says it tells you you can upgrade it or dismantle. I thought those were the only options. But if you press R1, it goes over and then there’s your private locker. You can do materials, you can do all this other stuff.

[00:41:34] Speaker A: Damn it. So, okay, the other reason I. That I fragile jumped was to get materials so I could fabricate reverse trike to go down the hill to the Timefall Farm. And I didn’t know this detail. And so I. I went back and forth and I didn’t have the materials, so I just literally had to walk all the way to the Timefall Farm. So you were able to get.

Okay, good to know.

[00:41:55] Speaker B: Yeah. So if you. Yeah. So when you’re on your own safe house. So I have heard though, if you.

Because I have safe houses of others, of other people’s safe houses.

[00:42:04] Speaker A: I had seen one in the distance, but before I knew what it was and then didn’t use it because I.

[00:42:08] Speaker B: Did read the direction. I tried, Yeah, I tried to look it up because I was. I. Because I said I was getting a little bit frustrated. Like, how do I get this stuff out of the locker. I tried to look it up. I couldn’t find anything about that, of how to get it out.

But what I did read was people. I found ones of people who went to other people’s safe houses. And if they then deleted their safe house, like, stuff was like, gone.

So that’s good to know. It’s good to know if you’re gonna stay in someone else’s safe house and you want to travel, like, do not have much to leave.

[00:42:41] Speaker A: Okay. Because their. Their safe house might disappear and you’re gonna.

[00:42:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it might disappear.

[00:42:45] Speaker A: Okay. And then that’s good to know. So safe house is not as useful when someone else builds it.

[00:42:49] Speaker B: No. But your own one, as I said. Yeah. If you go to the structure menu, you press R1 or whatever it is to go over, then you have your private locker. So I was able to get all my stuff back out. I was like, oh, thank God.

[00:42:59] Speaker A: Oh, geez.

[00:43:00] Speaker B: Okay, everything’s here. And then.

Yeah, I. As you said you walked. You can tell me about your experience, but I. I took a nice little, little ride down the hill to the Tidewall farm.

[00:43:12] Speaker A: You. How long did that take? Like two minutes.

[00:43:15] Speaker B: Two minutes.

[00:43:16] Speaker A: I was walking for like 10.

[00:43:18] Speaker B: I know what you had to go through. And I was just like, cruising through.

I had my wife next to me and I was like, huh? Andrew said. He. Andrew was like, Andrew made it sound like this section was going to be hard. And I was like, I just drove through it within two minutes.

[00:43:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Bastard.

[00:43:33] Speaker B: But then I was like, I understand why now. It was hard for you. So. Yes. What was your experience?

[00:43:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Going to the time Timefall farm, which is a cool concept, by the way, because I explained it to you before you even get there. Is that obviously a cool sci fi thing I hadn’t seen before? Obviously Timefall advances time very rapidly and so they’re using it to super quickly grow crops and food on a farm. And so they’re able to get, I think it was like four rotations of a crop in the time that it would usually take one year for one rotation. Hey, pretty sweet. You know, when you get there, they end up explaining to you that the weather prediction helps a lot because obviously all the weather patterns got effed up during the time fall, during the death stranding with the BT arrival and all that. But anyway, I had a wild walk.

So once I finally got all the way down the hill, across the rivers and whatnot, and, you know, realized, yes, this is mule territory again, there was a ton of tall wheat for stealthing through.

I Used a decoy smoke box. And then I got caught pretty quickly. I got pushed or punched a couple times and fended them off. Then I used the bola gun to keep them down. So I sprinted all the way to the farm.

Once I got there, it turned out that two of my four cargo boxes were not on my back anymore and had been knocked off in that scuffle.

[00:44:50] Speaker B: Oh, no.

[00:44:51] Speaker A: So since I was already there, I delivered the two that I did have just to make sure I didn’t lose them too. And I went off searching for the the other two.

Luckily, they were easy to find with the Audra deck Ping. And although the way stealthing through the grass along that whole path to one of the boxes, they were in two separate places. I was binding mules with a strand. Lots of fun doing that because you can also parry them with that, like throw them off and then bind them right afterwards.

Once I found the first cargo, I was circling around this giant rock that it was supposedly behind. And then I got close enough and realized it was actually a hologram of a boulder, not an actual boulder. So that’s something that exists. And so I was able to just hack in and pull out my cargo.

Also realized in this process that you can actually hijack the mule vehicles.

So I took one of their giant trucks, although it was short lived because they immediately stalled it with an electric spear. And I had to. I got knocked out and had to sprint. But I think if you knock out all the mules, you can actually take their trucks with you, which is something I’ll have to try out next time.

[00:45:57] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:45:57] Speaker A: All in all, did not know that.

[00:45:59] Speaker B: That’s good.

[00:45:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, huh, Is this like a gta? Like, can I just go and hit square and drive a truck? Can. I tried to use it as my getaway vehicle and yeah, it didn’t work, but. But good to know. All in all, it was super fun going through that gameplay loop, I gotta say. You know, it was wild and unexpected and unpredictable. But as I was improvising along the way, I ended up just kind of really enjoying that. I ended up with enough damage to those two pieces of cargo that I got a C grade on the delivery. Overall.

[00:46:28] Speaker B: Oh, no.

[00:46:29] Speaker A: I don’t think I had gotten below an S until that point. So that was a bruise to the ego. Obviously. Don’t get in fight fist fights with mules when you have important cargo if you can avoid it.

[00:46:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s a. Yes, that is a. That is a good point to take out of this. Yes. Do not do not get in fistfights. I just love. Yeah, that was your experience. And my experience was more like a me on my bike, mules trying to chase me. And I’m just like Ellie being like, bye, bye, dude, and just see you.

[00:46:59] Speaker A: So that the end of the required orders for this first section, this first podcast episode about episode three of Death Stranding. But, Alex, you mentioned to me on the side that you found a pretty fun Easter egg at one of the watchtowers.

[00:47:14] Speaker B: Yes, so I’ve actually found a few fun Easter eggs now.

[00:47:22] Speaker A: So.

[00:47:24] Speaker B: But before that, actually, I was going to mention this just earlier that after, for the weather station, I noticed the. One of the things that. Another thing that we can now build other than the safe house, was this Timefall shelter, which was actually pretty.

[00:47:36] Speaker A: I didn’t try that yet.

[00:47:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I haven’t tried it, but I think we haven’t. Once I put the time on this.

[00:47:40] Speaker A: We got access to that. So that. That’s.

[00:47:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, once I put the farm on the chiral network, someone had built one in the farm by me. So if you. I just drove under it with my trike, and. And basically it repairs you. It repaired my trike, it repaired my cargo, like the cargo containers, and it puts you out of the rain, so they are useful.

[00:48:01] Speaker A: Okay, well, that’s good to know. And you get an upgraded PCC to be able to build those, too.

So I think that’s that. Well, I’ll have to use that the next time I run into a BT area.

[00:48:11] Speaker B: Yeah, but I bring that up because as you said, the Easter egg thing, there’s an Easter egg with that for me. So as I park under that Timefall, the hologram that is under there, you.

[00:48:22] Speaker A: Can set holograms on the Timefall.

[00:48:25] Speaker B: It seems like you can set holograms.

[00:48:26] Speaker A: On any structure you build, which.

[00:48:28] Speaker B: Yeah, Watchtowers, Timefall. I don’t know about bridges, but maybe it’s just. Maybe it’s just watchtowers.

[00:48:33] Speaker A: I’ve seen them on bridges. Yeah, I’ve seen them on bridges. I don’t know if I’ve seen them in the lockers, but still all fun, but yeah, for.

[00:48:39] Speaker B: For the Timefall shelter, I park under it. And hologram wise, who’s there? Kojima. Kojima. Just standing as a hologram under there, which was hilarious. And then a couple others I found as, again, I did.

After I left the Timefall, I went back to the Distro center because you have to.

I think for the next orders, we have to do you to go back to the Distro Center.

[00:49:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I have. I stopped in the. I’m still at the farm.

[00:49:07] Speaker B: Okay. I. I went back there to. To and I looked, and the order is there. I haven’t got the order yet because I just stopped there. Because then after that, I just did some standard orders.

One I found is I dropped some stuff off to the craftsman, and after I dropped some and his rating goes up again, like, as you said, the stars, it unlocked Aloy and Watcher hologram for me.

So I now can do the holograms of Aloy on the watcher. And when I left the craftsman, he’s out there on a hologram waving, and so is Aloy and a watcher waving at me as I leave.

[00:49:42] Speaker A: Well, that’s pretty cool. I was not expecting that. I believe you mentioned that you saw near the Engineer a Watcher hologram already there.

[00:49:50] Speaker B: Yes, the engineer. I’d seen one. That was the first one I saw. And, yeah, I think I took a screenshot and sent it to you because I was like, what?

So that was. Yeah, that was the first one I saw. But, yeah, now. Now I have. I guess now, after doing a couple more standard orders for him, I now have the option to.

To create that hologram, to create Aloy and Watcher’s will.

And then one of the biggest ones that I had. Again, this is because I. I just assume I was a chiral network. This isn’t what I draw. The.

[00:50:20] Speaker A: The standard orders.

[00:50:21] Speaker B: Yeah, no, but, no, this was for just driving around. There was another Timefall shelter.

It was close to the Craftsman, actually, for me. Someone one put up, I drove into it, and I’m like, who is this character?

And I’m looking, and it’s like a guy wearing what looks to be like a polar bear head, like, costume hat.

[00:50:39] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:50:40] Speaker B: Look at the face. I’m like, that’s Conan o’ Brien.

[00:50:44] Speaker A: No way.

[00:50:45] Speaker B: Yes, it’s Conan o’ Brien in an outfit with, like a. It’s like. It’s like a hood, but the hood is like a polar bear head.

I was like, that is 100% Conan O’ Brien standing under this Timefall shelter.

[00:50:56] Speaker A: Conan O’ Brien as a hologram.

[00:51:00] Speaker B: Sounds like. That’s hilarious.

[00:51:02] Speaker A: The defiler, I was like.

[00:51:06] Speaker B: I would assume, though, because some of the holograms like, you see of, like, the people like that are usually at some point in the game. So I’m curious on if we’ll meet him again at some point. Like, I’ll meet him officially in the game of what he is.

[00:51:19] Speaker A: Well, based on the Fact that I met Jeff Kiley as an actual prepper, I wouldn’t be surprised if Conan then showed up as a prepper.

[00:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so there’s a good. Okay, so there is a good chance that would be cool. But I just found that hilarious. I was like. I was, like, looking like. I, like, drove in close. I, like, walked up really close to it, and I was like, yep, that’s definitely Colin o’ Brien.

I was like, what? Well, this is crazy.

[00:51:45] Speaker A: He must go help the chiral network.

[00:51:48] Speaker B: Yeah, he must at some point in the game.

But yeah, just to, like, end off with chapter three for me, I said I went back to the distro center and then did a few standard orders. But then I also started. I built.

Started to try and build some of the roads. I built one road because it didn’t need much.

[00:52:09] Speaker A: They require a lot of materials. So, yeah, a lot back and forth.

[00:52:12] Speaker B: This one didn’t need. Didn’t need too much.

So I had the Kyle crystals on me, so I was able to do that instantly. But then it needed a few more metals and some ceramics. So I was just like, kind of using the Audra deck scanning, and I was able to find, like, 80 ceramics over here, 60 over there, or whatever. So I just would drive over, pick them up, and then some of the mules on them had metals. So I was like, okay, I’m just gonna go take out a few of these guys, pick up the metals. So I was able to build one part of a road, which was helpful.

And then I started working.

It got late, so I didn’t finish, but I started working on another section of the road, which I’m kind of hoping that since it’s online, maybe it might be even closer to done by the time I next get on the play, which would be nice because, again, it was another one where, like, it wasn’t far off. It was needing, like, maybe 400 of this, like, 200 Kyle crystals, which that doesn’t take really long because they’re everywhere. They’re pretty easy to find.

[00:53:10] Speaker A: Right.

[00:53:11] Speaker B: It’s really. The ceramics are the harder ones. I’ve noticed. Like, I don’t see those as much.

But, yeah, I was trying to just build roads for myself and for. If they go on to other people’s who are still playing.

[00:53:24] Speaker A: As far as I can tell, that’s the way it works. So maybe I’ll come across your road or contribute to it or vice versa.

[00:53:30] Speaker B: Yeah, but.

[00:53:31] Speaker A: So go ahead.

[00:53:34] Speaker B: No, I was just gonna say, but for, like, the conclusion of this, for These orders that we did for chapter three. I. I had a lot of fun. Like I found myself really enjoying one, doing the orders. But two, having all some of these upgrades now and getting everything like the power skeleton, the Bowler gun. I’ve been doing a lot of these side orders. I just find myself being. I want to explore more. I want to find this material. I want to do all this stuff.

[00:54:00] Speaker A: It sounds like this game has its hooks in you. You’re sleeping way too late and doing a bunch of side quests.

[00:54:07] Speaker B: Yeah. I need to. Yeah. Stop saying staying up a little too late. It’s. The time is. I’m not gonna lie. The time kind of flies by playing is.

[00:54:14] Speaker A: Are you getting hit with timefall in real life?

[00:54:16] Speaker B: It feels like it. But no, I’m really.

I’m definitely more like really hooked into this game now story wise and just.

[00:54:24] Speaker A: Let’S get invested and. Yeah.

[00:54:26] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:54:26] Speaker A: Exactly.

[00:54:27] Speaker B: The play style of it. It’s very unique. It’s very different to anything I’ve ever played before.

[00:54:31] Speaker A: For sure.

[00:54:31] Speaker B: But it’s really fun. I find it really fun now.

[00:54:35] Speaker A: It’s definitely. And even the simple things like the tow. Floating tray.

[00:54:40] Speaker B: That was something we didn’t talk about. Yeah.

[00:54:41] Speaker A: It’s simple but it, you know it gives you just another option to have more cargo without weighing you down so you can still sprint. And the thing it floats so it can go over literally anything. I haven’t tried climbing up a cliff with it yet but I know it can go over rocks no problem.

[00:54:56] Speaker B: I only use it very quickly. Yeah. To get back to that. To the. For the.

To build the. The private shelter.

[00:55:04] Speaker A: Right.

[00:55:04] Speaker B: Your private room. That was it.

But did. I don’t know how far it goes because I did remember reading or seeing actually they said like mama tells you it can only go a certain distance and then you have to feed it chiral crystals to like keep it going.

[00:55:17] Speaker A: Oh. But I don’t. Yes. I don’t know how. Seemed like my chiral crystals were shrinking in quantity so I wasn’t able to tell like how long do I have really.

[00:55:25] Speaker B: It definitely didn’t for at least from going to where you have to build the safe house. It didn’t. So I’m curious on what the distance is and then if it. Because I haven’t reached it. Like if it tells you like hey it’s running low. You need to put in blah blah, blah amount of chiral crystals to keep going.

So that’ll be something. Yeah. In the future I’ll try out in the game and see lots to experiment.

[00:55:48] Speaker A: With and lots of, lots of fun in the progress of figuring it all out.

And so that we’re about two thirds of the way through this episode three.

And we’ll take this week to wrap up the chapter about Fragile.

So the specific required orders that you should focus on this week are numbers 30, 32, 33, 34, 36 and 38. And following that we’ll move on from Fragile’s chapter onto episodes four and five. I’m certainly excited, ready to see how her section of this. Obviously I think all the characters will pop in and out, but how this specific section about her will wrap up and where we’ll see her in the future.

[00:56:33] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely intrigued because I mean the ending of episode two was quite intense and I’m sure this will have a very probably intense or really fun ending to this chapter. It’s been.

[00:56:46] Speaker A: I’m already expecting a wild boss fight.

[00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I’m expecting it too. I’m just really intrigued on what it. What it’s going to be.

[00:56:52] Speaker A: What is it? Is Higgs coming back? Is it coming from someone else that we don’t know yet.

[00:56:57] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:56:57] Speaker A: What will happen?

[00:56:59] Speaker B: Yeah. But I will say yeah, we’re going in the part two. But when moments we finish it. I have, I have enjoyed this chapter just the story wise and just the gameplay wise quite a lot.

[00:57:11] Speaker A: It’s a good time.

It’s like that break free part where you get past the tutorial section and get to really enjoy the experience overall. It feels a lot like up until the end of the previous chapter was the initial section of Breath of the Wild and then you finally get your kite and jump off the cliff and go into the real Hyrule and you get all access to everything.

That’s what this feels like. We have a true open world. I think there’s obviously you probably could go fairly far distance without doing anything order related and explore. I think it makes the most sense for your time to do it the way that they set out more or less. But it seems like this is the expansive part that also seems why it’s the largest longest episode so far and I think that the story will get a lot tighter as the story beats end up being more focused on shuttling you to the ending.

[00:58:03] Speaker B: So yeah. Yeah. I’m excited to continue this story and see where this goes.

[00:58:11] Speaker A: Excellent. Let’s jump into the next portion of this episode and catch back up next week.

[00:58:18] Speaker B: Sounds great.

[00:58:19] Speaker A: Thank you.

[00:58:22] Speaker B: If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of death Stranding and any future games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club Podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram under the same name. Thanks.