After 3 years, Death Stranding players discover a boss will bite your ear off if you refuse to fight

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A truly ear-ful fate

naven0m via Twitter
(Image credit: naven0m via Twitter)

Over three years after it originally launched, Death Stranding players are only just finding out that it's possible to lose an ear in a boss fight.

Well, that's not their ear, to be fair. It turns out that during the climactic boss fight with Higgs, if you keep blocking the boss's attacks and basically refuse to fight back, Higgs will literally bite a chunk out of Sam Porter Bridges' ear. That leaves Sam with a mangled ear for the rest of Death Stranding.

Not only do you need to block endlessly to trigger this attack, but you need to keep away from counterattacking while Higgs has Sam in his grasp. It's basically a scene that would realistically never come about, because who's going to just put the controller down and walk away from Death Stranding during the fight?

It's all a bit bananas, and completely Kojima Productions. Nothing says 'A Hideo Kojima Game' quite like a feature that'll be overlooked by 99.9% of the entire player base, only to be discovered by pure chance years after launch. Oh, and if you're worried about the authenticity of the post, just know that Kojima himself retweeted the discovery earlier today (and there's screenshot evidence on Twitter).

Death Stranding veterans are losing their minds at the discovery, including yours truly. I've never seen anything like this in Death Stranding over the course of three distinct playthroughs, and neither have the vast amount of devotees to the 2019 action game, going from the responses on Twitter.

We can't help but wonder if there's any other events linked to this instance. Does anyone remark on Sam's ear during the rest of the Death Stranding? Is there a way to fix the ear after Higgs has had a tasty morsel? Some questions we might never know the answer to.

With Death Stranding 2 still deep in production, actor Elle Fanning's friends keep telling her its one of the best things she's ever done. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.