The MULEs, also called Homo Gestalts due to their irrational obsession with their profession, are a group of cargo thieves that ambush porters while on delivery or near their camps.
Overview[]
The MULEs wear a suit similar to porter uniforms where each one has a unique color, different details and a lot of different equipment such as: ski masks, tactical masks, helmets, hoods, bags, armor plates, communication devices, combat vests, and wear an exclusive footwear, the MULE boots. They can carry cargo on their suits like other porters, mainly ceramic and resin, are equipped with electrified pole weapons, which they use as both melee weapons and ranged throwing weapons, and a sticky gun, which they use to catch others' cargo, and use a three flap Odradek variant. Even if armed they, however, do not kill anyone, mainly because of their sole interest in cargo and also due to fear of necrosis, which leads to the birth of BTs. They also use a armored variant of the Cicada PHI which - sometimes with cargo in tow - they use to patrol and chase porters that enter their territory.
The MULE nature is highly aggressive. They do not kill, but will not hesitate to attack porters until knocking them out to steal their cargo. MULEs will not attack if one has no cargo or equipment, but trespassing in their camps will provoke them to attack nonetheless. Like an organization, they seem very united and organized - the camps look peaceful when there's no intruder. It's probable that the MULEs have a feeling of brotherhood among them, at least within the same group. The nature of interaction between different camps its unknown. In the various MULE camps, a lot of materials can be found like ceramics, metals, special alloys, resins and chemicals. Each camp has one kind of material in particular, but sometimes a variety of materials can be found. The camps also house lost cargo stolen from Sam and other porters like weapons, deliveries, structures, and porter equipment. This cargo can be returned to the porter, delivered to its destination, or kept.
History[]
Background[]
Back before the Death Stranding, the comms and delivery networks held society together and the system was automated and AI-managed, with deliveries carried out by drone. The belief was that taking people out of the equation would revolutionize the whole system, but things didn't quite pan out that way and instead, people back then started seeing cases of what would eventually be dubbed "drone syndrome." It was too much for some folks to accept, leaving everything to machines and nothing for the common man, and indeed, the oxytocin deficiency and hormonal imbalances, lead the confirmation that humanity needed to be part of the process. To solve this, laws were put in place, thus taking a step back from progress.
All the people put out of work by machines who got called up again convinced themselves society couldn't survive without them, and that brought on a whole new disorder, a syndrome called Delivery Dependence Syndrome.
Post Stranding[]
When the Death Stranding tore the world apart, the delivery problem spiraled even further. The chiral clouds prevented planes and drones from flying, which meant people had to go back to relying completely on human couriers whether they liked it or not. Eventually they become professional porters, where delivering goods became all some lived for, and some of them where even used by distro organizations like Fragile Express and independent porters.
Unfortunately, prolonged exposure to chiral radiation emitted by chiralium, a substance discovered at the same time as the Beach, impacts their physical and mental health. The resulting hormonal imbalances frequently lead to a impaired memory and judgment, which has led these porters to develop an irrational obsession with their profession, hence the Homo Gestalt moniker.
For those at risk of losing it, they say the only way to stave off the syndrome is to join a distro organization with strong leadership and support to help keep you on the straight and narrow or using some method to alleviate the symptoms like: increasing oxytocin secretion through contact with other people, administering smart drugs or using a hormone dubbed "Likecin."
During Sam's westwards expedition for BRIDGES, two MULEs camps are present: one in the eastern region nearby of Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City and one in the central region nearby of Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City.
Notes[]
- Homo Gestalts means "broken man" in Latin.
- A mule is a domestic equine hybrid between a donkey and a horse, and is used as a means of transporting, for people and cargos, in many regions of the world due to its ability to carry weights for 20% of its body mass and its resistance.
- There is also a possible connection to the 1982 Atari classic M.U.L.E., which encouraged the aggressive gathering/buying/selling of resources in an effort to edge out competing prospectors, so much so that being the sole controller of a given resource was considered ideal. This cargo was transported from plots of land to market by way of a "Multiple Use Labor Element", hence the name.
- If Sam enters a MULE-occupied area while not carrying cargo, he will not be detected by the MULE's sensors, as their sensors only ping off cargo.
- There's no MULE camp with chemicals. You can find small quantity of these in various camps, but the only camp that has it in large amounts is a terrorist camp.
- The Cicada PHI trucks used by MULEs are the slowest vehicles in the game.
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