Death Stranding 2: On The Beachis one of the most Kojima-esque stories ever told, with complex plots and random dance numbers that make it a joy for the whole playthrough. Being a sequel to the first game, there are plenty of returning characters that we know and love from the first game to help Sam expand the network.
While Deadman, Heartman, and especially Fragile rejoin Sam and support his journey through Australia to connect people together, again, there are others that we never expected to see again. Whether through obscurity or defying the laws of death, these characters find their way into a narrative full of unexpected twists.
6Alex Weatherstone
One of the earliest waystations you were expected to connect to the chiral network to the UCA in the first Death Stranding was a weather station manned by Alex Weatherstone. Alex was among the first of those who went along with Amelie to establish the groundwork for the chiral network and, with your help, unlocked the ability to predict timefall on the map.
Moving to Mexico and branching the network even further, no one expected this weatherman to be so far from home as a familiar hologram at the Geophysics Research. As Alex explains, he was asked to be a part of Deadman’s research team into the tar, beach, and other phenomena surrounding the Death Stranding, which makes him a good ambassador for sharing the news of his passing and empathizing with Sam.
5Viktor Frank
Most likely a difficult-to-recognize character from the first game, especially for players who haven’t picked it up in a few years, Viktor Frank is the brother of Igor Frank, the original caretaker ofBB-28, or “Lou”, before succumbing to timefall and causing a voidout, which happens in a major cutscene. You can discuss the event with Viktor, who entrusts BB-28 with Sam along with a Ludens charm that is found on BB’s pod.
It’s then a surprise to see Viktor Frank go from the UCA to the other side of the world in Australia. Viktor explains he joined APAc’s initial expansion into the plate gate that leads to Australia, most likely to get far away from his brother’s death and the voidout that took so many lives. Viktor even laments a little at the missing charm on BB’s pod when you meet him at the terminal for the first time.
The charm, Ludens, is the Kojima Productions astronaut mascot.
4The Elder
As a part of a series of more difficult routes toconnect isolated preppersin the first game, you must navigate a large plateau containing a very old man known as The Elder. Like most of the other preppers, he is distrustful and takes some time to allow the expansion into the UCA, but with your connection to Fragile Express, he eventually opens up and allows you to place him into the network.
The Elder’s exact fate is sort of mysterious and is hinted at in a lot of ways, but the primary way in which he reappears in Death Stranding 2 is when the president of APAC begins to morph into many familiar faces but chooses The Elder to express a good portion of his evil villain monologue. With the message that The Elder leaves Sam, which can be viewed in the Corpus, he might be one of the 4000 souls in the APAS system, but his exact nature is unclear.
In the first game, you can let the Elder die if you don’t make enough deliveries to him.
3Amelie
The split ka from Bridget Strand’s Ha many years ago, Amelie is known as an Extinction Entity, who is meant to wipe out humanity’s existence following the Death Stranding. Although meant to happen many years into the future, Amelie takes it upon herself to bring about the last stranding as quickly as possible. Part of her plan required Sam to connect the entire UCA into the chiral network, combining everyone’s beaches into her own.
By the end of the first game, you may convince Amelie to hold off the last stranding, which means Amelie must sacrifice her own connection, isolating herself on her beach until the end of humanity. She makes a silent appearance in Death Stranding 2, as you and the crew of the DHV Magellan travel to her beach to stop Higgs. Luckily, she hasn’t forgotten her promise and allows Lou to devour Higgs as a giant baby.
2Lucy
Mentioned in a few cutscenes and shown in a faded photograph affected by a drop of timefall in the first cutscene in the game, Lucy Strand was Sam’s partner and the mother to his child. The first game implies that Lucy had an accident in childbirth that led to necrosis and a voidout, which claimed the lives of everyone in the city, except for Sam, who is effectively immortal.
This character explains most of Sam’s behavior, particularly his isolationism and strong resurgence of his fear of touch. Experienced much in the same way Cliff’s story was revealed in the first game, the truth of Lucy’s death and the voidout becomes clear in the second game. It turns out that BB-28 is BB-00, and Lou is Sam’s biological child, whom Lucy gave her life to protect.
1Higgs Monaghan
Somehow the primary antagonistof both games, Higgs is essentially a super terrorist with plans to bring about the end of the world by any means necessary. Also in both games, he is empowered by a supernatural entity that gives him the tools and information necessary to act on his own. In the first game, you defeat Higgs on Amelie’s beach after an intense battle where Fragile takes her revenge and shoots him off-screen.
Except you forgot to remember that when a character dies off-screen they aren’t really dead, because Higgs returns piloting ghost mechs, isolated on Amelie’s beach for years in beach time, growing more resentful by the minute. The mistake in letting Higgs live is ultimately Fragile’s fatal flaw, as he nearly sets off the events of the last stranding again, but luckily an electric guitar battle saves the world.
