The Pizza-Do Acrobatic Karate in Death Stranding 2 is a type of martial arts you can learn from the Pizza Chef character, learning special new strikes and grapples that allow you to beat up enemies in unarmed combat and add a new dimension to melee fighting in Death Stranding 2. It's certainly one of the goofier elements of the game's systems, as you can throw around pizza dough while performing physically implausible martial arts moves to bring down enemies with your bare hands.
If you've seen these comedic moments online and want to know how to do them yourself, I'll explain how to get all the Pizza-Do Karate martial arts moves in Death Stranding 2, as well as how to get the associated Rubber Pizza from Pizza Atami.
How to unlock Pizza martial arts and karate in Death Stranding 2
If you want to unlock the Pizza-Do acrobatic karate martial arts in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, here's how to do that:
- Progress the main story until you go to Heartman's Lab (Order No. 23).
- You'll then be given a main order to bring Yeast to the Pizza Chef past the Brigand Camp. After this is done, the Chef will be added to the network.
- Keep doing missions and delivering cargo until the Pizza Chef's reputation is close to two stars (the Sub Order "Recover one or more empty pizza containers from the Armed Survivalists" obtained from the Data Scientist will do a lot for this).
- Once your reputation is high enough, the Pizza Chef's bunker door will open. Head down and fight the Ghost Mech enemies inside.
- After defeating them, open the door to the Kitchen for an… interesting cutscene.
- You'll reach two stars after this, and be given both the fabrication for Rubber Pizza and the first Pizza-Do Acrobatic Karate scroll.
- Continue to increase your reputation with the Pizza Chef to learn two additional karate moves at 3 and 4 star reputation.
All Pizza-Do martial arts moves in Death Stranding 2
There are three Pizza-themed martial arts moves in Death Stranding 2 that you can unlock, as well as an item attached to them.
- Great Spinning Pizza Strike (Two Star Reputation): Hold R2 and Circle. This is a diving strike where you basically fly forwards in a straight line, horizontal to the ground. This move clears distance quickly, breaks enemy blocks, and does average damage. A good way to open a fight, spinning at the enemy to knock them off guard for follow-up attacks.
- Pizza Whirlwind Kick (Three Star Reputation): Hold L2 and Circle. This is a charged attack where you spin rapidly with a combo of whirling, spinning kicks, hitting and breaking blocks of all nearby opponents. This is a move best used for when surrounded by groups of enemies, as it will hit anything close to you and clear space, knocking down foes.
- Great Spinning Pizza Slam (Four Star Reputation): Hold R2+L2 and Circle. This is a special grapple and takedown move where, when triggered, Sam runs forward and grabs any opponent he hits before performing a powerful slam on them. It breaks blocks and works on any enemy roughly his size, usually powerful enough to instantly defeat most standard foes.
- Rubber Pizza (Two Star Reputation): Grenade Fabrication. This isn't a special move, but a new kind of throwing weapon used for stealth that's equipped in the Grenade slot. If you throw it and hit a human enemy in the head, it instantly knocks them unconscious, no matter how armored they are.
Is Pizza Do Karate and martial arts in Death Stranding 2 good?
Perhaps most importantly, are these moves actually worth learning? Well, they're certainly fun and quirky additions, and they don't use up any slots or weight to know them, so you don't lose anything by having that knowledge. However, as an alternative to guns or similar, I wouldn't say they're particularly powerful, with the exception of the Great Spinning Pizza Slam, which can be pretty effective at getting rid of individual foes. The reality is that most enemies use guns or ranged attacks, so going melee-only will always have you at a bit of a disadvantage – especially if you're stupid enough to try kicking any of the Death Stranding 2 BTs.
That being said, while Pizza martial arts may not be the best build for optimum combat, it can definitely be fun to just try them out for a time. If you want a fun self-imposed challenge, I suggest finding a brigand base of bandits, unequipping any firearms, and going in with a Battle Skeleton and Combat Gloves to see how far you get just fighting your way through them. It can be a good time! However, if you're out for survival and efficiency, you're better off finding all the best Death Stranding 2 weapons.
Around this time in the game you'll start getting fielded random questions by Rainy and Tomorrow on the DHV Magellan. If you don't want to be caught off guard, check out our guide on the Death Stranding 2 platypus question, the Death Stranding 2 block puzzle, or the Death Stranding 2 F1 fastest route puzzle respectively!
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