Death Stranding – Boss Fight Secret Discovered After Nearly 4 Years

Kojima Productions is known for its absurd attention to detail, with many players discovering major secrets for games like Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater years after release. Death Stranding isn’t immune to that phenomenon either, it seems. Spoilers follow for the story, so be warned.

X user @naven0m discovered that in the boss fight with Higgs, protagonist Sam can lose part of an ear. You need to block every attack and not counterattack when Higgs grabs Sam. As a result, the former will bite a piece out of the latter’s ear. The crazy part is that the disfigured ear remains like this for the rest of the game (as seen in the comparison images posted).

This kind of attention to detail is crazy, but it’s also amazing how it remained undiscovered for so long. Death Stranding was released in 2019 for PS4 before coming to PC in 2020. It would receive a Director’s Cut in 2021 for PS5 before that also arrived on PC in 2022. Then again, for many Kojima fans, this is par for the course.

As for the future, Death Stranding 2 is in development for PS5. There’s no official release date, but it could arrive in 2024, per the ArtStation profile of PlayStation Studios Visual Arts senior artist Frank Aliberti.

If you keep blocking Higgs' punches, you'll lose part of your ear permanently #DeathStranding pic.twitter.com/utAHgkSDOB

— NV (@naven0m) July 23, 2023

#DeathStranding pic.twitter.com/tOeTjLetY0

— NV (@naven0m) July 23, 2023