Porters are freelance delivery personnel commissioned to transport cargo to and from clients across the continental UCA and Australia.
Overview[]
The porter logo.
Freelance porters wear a standard suits, and can be encountered roaming the various regions, navigating terrain and delivering cargo in the same manner as the player. Porters tend to offer Sam a piece of their cargo, and he can interact with these porters by donating or trading cargo with them, or by giving Likes and calling out to them with the controller's touchpad. Porters can also make use of structures such as ladders, climbing anchors and generators, and will give likes when using them.
Porters generally avoid territories occupied by MULEs and Demens, but they will be able to safely travel through hostile camps if Sam can clear the enemies out of the area. If BT's are close by a porter, he will cower in fear and stand still and if caught by it, no tar pit nor catcher will form, instead the porter will scream and swing at the air before a voidout occurs.
Sam is among the most highly revered porters, so good at his job that he has earned monikers such as "The Great Deliverer", "The Legend" or "The Man who Delivers". The Veteran Porter grew up in post-Stranding America, where private porters picked up the slack for the destruction of the United States and its infrastructure, and eventually became one such porter, and eventually joined a porter outfit led by none other than Higgs Monaghan, who at that time was a porter too and "had a nose for BTs".
History[]
Background[]
Before the Death Stranding, communication and delivery networks were the backbone of society, largely automated and managed by AI, with drones handling the bulk of deliveries. The prevailing belief was that removing humans from the equation would revolutionize logistics—but things didn’t unfold as expected. Over time, people began exhibiting symptoms of what came to be known as “drone syndrome.” Entrusting everything to machines left many feeling disconnected and obsolete. Oxytocin deficiencies and hormonal imbalances confirmed what society had overlooked: human involvement was essential.
In response, new laws were enacted to reintroduce people into the delivery system—a step back from technological progress, but a necessary one. Those once displaced by automation, now called back into service, came to believe society couldn’t function without them. This, in turn, gave rise to another condition: delivery dependence syndrome.
Post-Stranding[]
When the Stranding tore the world apart, the delivery problem worsened dramatically. Chiral clouds rendered air travel impossible—grounding planes and drones—forcing society to once again rely entirely on human porters. Over time, many became full-time professional porters, some operating independently, while others worked under established distribution organizations like Fragile Express.
However, prolonged exposure to chiralium—a substance discovered alongside the Beach—takes a toll on both the body and mind. The chiral radiation from chiralium causes hormonal imbalances that can impair memory and judgment. For some porters, this manifests as an irrational obsession with delivery work, earning them the moniker Homo gestalt aka MULEs. To prevent this descent into obsession, it’s said the best remedy is to align oneself with a strong distribution organization that offers structure and support. Other methods to manage the condition include increasing oxytocin levels through social interaction, taking smart drugs, or using a hormone supplement known as likecin.
Notes[]
- You can receive tools and gadgets from the porters. You just have to grab the object that they offering. Also you can give them something if you like. To do this you have to drop the cargo on the floor near of the porter and he will keep it.
- If you give a porter another player's cargo he will refuse to take it.
- You can attack and rob the porters, but this will cost you likes, even if you hurt them by accident.
- If porters are encountered in the rain, they will not stop to interact with Sam, even if called out to or given likes.
- It seems that the porters are based on the Japanese 'Bokka', step-cargo porters who carry over 100kg of supplies on customized wooden ladder frame, up and down to remote mountain guesthouses inaccessible to vehicles.
Gallery[]
