In the early goings of Death Stranding, you’ll come across other humans in the open world called Mules. Formerly Porters, Mules are now opposed to everyone and steal cargo whenever possible. They usually travel in packs and often have tethers which scan for your position. If you’re pinged by said tether, then the Mules will start hunting you.
How to Beat the Mules
Thankfully, the Mules aren’t that tough to fight. You can actually assault Mule camps to steal back cargo or hijack their vehicles. Given that they have trucks, which are good on rocky terrain and for transporting heaps of cargo, you might want to take the fight to them sometimes. Sneaking is a good tactic in these cases – get behind a Mule and stealthily knock them out.
How do you fight against the Mules head on though? Firstly, use your detector to scan for any nearby (which also helps identify the cargo they’re carrying). You could drop your own cargo before engaging in combat but it’s not one hundred percent necessary unless you’re sure about taking damage. If a Mule hits you, you cargo may be dropped and damaged.
Using the basic three-hit melee combo will be enough to take down on a Mule (though sometimes it has to be done twice). Using the shoulder tackle will let you get behind those with more padded armor or defensive stances, thus opening them up for attacks from behind. Later you’ll unlock Bola Guns which make taking the Mules down even easier. Simply aim the weapon and tie them up in one shot. Walk up to each Mule and kick them in the head to take them out of commission.
The Mules possess electric spears which can be annoying to deal with (especially since they disable vehicles). If things get too hairy, just run away ideally into areas with Timefall since they won’t pursue. Try not to kill the Mules under any circumstance since they’ll leave behind bodies which can cause Voidouts (thus attracting BTs).
How to Unlock the Motorbike
Don’t worry about having to borrow or steal other vehicles for long. The snazzy motorbike aka Reverse Trike will eventually become available to unlock.
Complete Order No. 9 in the main story and you can construct a generator facility. This will let you create a Reverse Trike which, like most vehicles, run on batteries which drain overtime. Driving them into water will further drain the battery. The water’s depth determines how much is drained. Avoid loading your cargo onto the Trike itself since this will drain the battery further. Keep it on your person instead to further conserve battery life while traveling. This will also ensure the vehicle runs faster.
Reverse Trikes also have their durability degraded over time thanks to Timefall so you’ll need to repair them accordingly. This can be done at a Bridges facility by going to the Delivery Terminal, selecting the Garage and then choosing Park Vehicle. You can then select “Remove vehicle from parking lot” and it will emerge, good as new.