How to kill BTs in Death Stranding 2

Death Stranding 2 BTs — (Image credit: Sony)

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How to kill BTs
Gazers and Watchers
Hunters
Catchers
Jellyfish BTs

Death Stranding 2 BTs can be killed with specific weapons, usually blood or MP-based weapons that are specifically designed to kill the game's shadowy ghosts. BTs themselves serve as powerful enemies that have to be carefully navigated around for the best chance of survival, and are arguably more dangerous than any other enemy type in Death Stranding 2.

BTs can often be snuck around, but sooner or later you'll need to understand how to fight them, if only for those situations where you fail to sneak around the ghosts and have to fight them off. If you need to know how to kill and defeat the Death Stranding 2 BTs, here's how to become a grade-A ghostbuster.

How do you kill BTs in Death Stranding 2?

Death Stranding 2 mine locations — (Image credit: Sony)

BTs in Death Stranding are specifically weak to blood-based and MP weapons, and you'll unlock a variety of them throughout the course of the game in various forms. In reality, what kind of BT you're fighting should change your strategy, as some of them have weaknesses or strengths that others don't. With that in mind, I'll cover the three major types of BT in Death Stranding 2 and what you need to do to defeat them, but here are some general tips first.

How to kill Gazers and Watchers

Death Stranding 2's ending

The ending of Death Stranding 2 explained — (Image credit: Sony)

There is a suitably bonkers conclusion for this game, so our Death Stranding 2 ending explainer should make things a bit clearer.

These BTs look like ethereal spirits floating in the air. Gazers are sized like normal humans and have umbilical cords, while Watchers are bigger, with glowing eyes. If they spot you, they summon hunters (see below) and potentially other BTs to attack you. They're semi translucent and don't show up until you're close, making them easy to miss. Here's what you need to know:

Stealth around them. Don't get weapons hot on these until you're spotted. Use your Odradek to mark them more easily, see where it's pointed to know where the nearest one is, and keep in mind that the smaller Gazers are, ironically, blind. If you're close to them, hold R1 to hold your breath, and they won't be able to notice you. The bigger Watchers are not blind, so you'll need to stay behind them or in cover.
Isolate them and pick them off. Use quiet attacks to pick them off before they can react and alert. Silenced MP weapons and Blood Grenades can work for this. If you've unlocked the Blood Boomerang, you can use this not only as a powerful throwing weapon, but also to stealth-kill any BT with an umbilical cord.
If one sees you, kill it! These BTs simply exist to summon others, and they do that when they manage to make physical contact with you, disappearing and bringing Hunters or Catchers in to replace it. If one moves in your direction, do whatever you can to end it before it reaches you.

How to kill Hunters

When spotted by Gazers or Watchers, they'll summon Hunters, a pool of tar to wade through while gooey human shapes try to drag themselves out of it and pull you down.

Keep moving. The longer you spend in the tar, the more danger you're in. If you're pulled too deep or spend too long in there, it'll summon the deadly Catcher (see below).
Don't bother with stealth. At this point, you need to open fire. Find a balance between trying to escape the tar and shooting the Hunters who hold you back. A shotgun or machine gun is a good choice, as they'll be too close for explosives.
Get out of the tar! Ultimately if you can get free of the tar, this section is over and the Hunters should despawn. Whether you kill them all or just get away, it comes down to the same thing.

How to kill Catchers

Catchers are the most powerful form of BT, huge entities that look like all sorts of things – squids, whales or even huge people, that cause the entire area to become tar and therefore difficult to navigate. Catchers appear when you're dragged down enough by Hunters, usually after they pull you prone, but can also occasionally appear when you're spotted by a Watcher. This is effectively a boss fight, and should be treated like one, similar to when you have to work out how to kill the first Death Stranding 2 BT boss in Mexico.

Stay far away! Catchers can kill you instantly if you don't escape their grapple, and depending on the shape of the BT, you might not get the prompt to try and escape it.
Aim for raised ground. Because you need to stay evasive, use the raised ground above the tar as stepping stones for faster movement and the ability to dodge.
Target the glowing sections. All Catchers will have an area that glows white or orange – that's the weak point. Put everything you have into that.
Use grenades to stun them, especially when they charge. A weapon with a grenade launcher underbarrel attachment is good here, as Catchers tend to reel back when their weak spot is hit by an explosive. When one charges at you, using a grenade to cause it to recoil is a great way to delay it.

How to kill floating Jellyfish BTs

Outside of the above hierarchy, sometimes players will encounter huge, jellyfish-like BTs floating above sections of coastline in large groups, both red and black. These are very simple enemies that will simply float towards the player to attack them if not dealt with, so simply stay at a safe distance and use a machine gun, grenade launcher or built-in vehicle weapon to pick them off. If you can kill the red ones, they'll explode and wipe out other jellyfish nearby.

Outside of battling BT ghosts and exploring the dangerous wilderness, Death Stranding 2 has plenty of other challenges. Rainy and Tomorrow are happy to quiz you via the Death Stranding 2 platypus question and Death Stranding 2 F1 fastest route puzzle.