How to find all Death Stranding preppers, gear and upgrades

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Eastern Region preppers
Central Region preppers

Finding all Death Stranding preppers unlocks new gear and upgrades that make a big difference to your progress, letting you carry more and for longer. They also flesh out the story, but it's that equipment that's more important - slowly making the game easier for you as you get more.

Things like new Death Stranding Weapons, floating cargo carriers, or exoskeletons take time to get, but save time once you have them, so it's worth the effort. The different preppers reward you with all this new equipment when you find them and deliver things to them, upgrading your relationship. While most of the time you'll be finding mission critical stuff through Death Stranding's story missions, much of the non-essential Death Stranding preppers provide amazingly useful upgrades.

Obviously spoilers ahead in terms of Death Stranding gear and equipment but nothing story related - just names of side characters, locations and what you get from them.

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All Death Stranding gear story unlocks

Everything you actually need in Death Stranding is unlocked by playing the story. So don't stray too far from that as you'll delay getting certain things. Stuff like the all terrain exoskeleton which makes rough ground easier to traverse is incredibly useful and best unlocked before you trek off on hours of side quests.

This is a list of all the Death Stranding gear automatically get through the story:

Postbox PCC lvl 1 (Waystation West of Capital Knot City)
Container Repair Spray (Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City)
Bridge PCC lvl 1 (Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City)
Generator PCC lvl 1 (Wind Farm)
Blood bag (Capital Knot City)
Hematic grenade lvl 1 (Capital Knot City)
Delivery bot (Port Knot City)
Smoke-emitting decoy cargo (Lake Knot City)
Power skeleton lvl 1 (Engineer)
Smoke grenade lvl 1 (Engineer)
Bola Gun lvl 1 (Craftsman)
Delivery bot (Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City)
PCC lvl 2 (Weather Station)
Floating Carrier lvl 1 (Weather Station)
Anti-BT handgun lvl 1 (Chiral Artist)
Power skeleton lvl 1 (Junk Dealer)
Smoke grenade lvl 1 (Junk Dealer)
Backpack customisation (Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City)
Truck (Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City)
Handgun lvl 1 (South Knot City)
Assault Rifle lvl 1 (South Knot City)
Grenade (South Knot City)
Sticky Gun (Lake Knot City)
Armour plate lvl 1 (Waystation North of Mountain Knot City)
Non-lethal assault rifle lvl 1 (Waystation North of Mountain Knot City)
Stabiliser (Knot City)

Outside of this list the other things you can find are more optional. For example, a level 2 Floating Carrier can take more weight but it's not essential - the base level Floating Carrier will see you through the game with ease. There are also customisation options like colours and materials that can be earned which we've left off this list. You'll also tick off the Death Stranding cameos if you visit all the preppers.

Because you have level up your relationship with different people by finding and making multiple deliveries to unlock extras, it's best to know who has what so you're not doing loads of work for something you don't want. Especially as random characters can hand out stuff almost arbitrarily, often with little relationship to where you may have unlocked the original item. Without a list you'll never know where to find some upgrades, or even that some options exist.

Reaching level five with any character will generally always unlock the following:

That character's Death Stranding hologram (sometimes unlocked earlier if they haven't got much to unlock)
The ability to rest there (if it's a prepper)
A Star for Sam to wear

Quick note: This is basically only a list of the the functionally useful stuff - we haven't noted down all the colours or materials you can get because there are loads. Plus, if a location starts at a higher level, it means you'll unlock story essential stuff earlier, and we've just listed the bonus gear.

This will obviously all get easier as you unlock more Death Stranding fast travel options.

Death Stranding Eastern Region preppers, gear and upgrades

Death Stranding preppers gear and upgrades Eastern Region — (Image credit: Sony)

1. Capital Knot City
- Level 3
  - Bridges Baseball cap
2. Ludens fan
- Level 2
  - Hologram: Ludens Jumbo Nendroid
- Level 4
  - Hologram: Ludens fan
3. Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City
- Level 4
  - Hologram: Benjamin Hancock
4. Musician
- First delivery - Harmonica

Death Stranding Central Region preppers, gear and upgrades

Death Stranding preppers ear and upgrades - Central Region — (Image credit: Sony)

1. Lake Knot City
- Level 4
  - Hologram: William Lake
2. Engineer
- Level 2
  - Power skeleton lvl 1
  - Smoke grenade lvl 1
- Level 3
  - Power skeleton lvl 2
  - Smoke grenade lvl 2
- Level 4
  - Power skeleton lvl 3
  - Engineer hologram data
3. Craftsman
- Level 2
  - Bola Gun lvl 1
- Level 3
  - Bola Gun lvl 2
  - Custom hematic grenades - restocked with subsequent deliveries
4. Elder
- Level 2
  - Vog-emitting decoy cargo
- Level 4
  - Hologram: Elder
5. Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City
- Backpack accessory: Windmill
- Level 2
  - Delivery bot
  - Bridges boots lvl 2
- Level 3
  - Truck (long range lvl 1)
- Level 4
  - Truck (long range lvl 2)
- Level 5
  - Truck (long range lvl 3)
6. Collector
- Level 1
  - Backpack cover
7. Junk Dealer
- Level 2
  - Speed skeleton lvl 1
  - Smoke bomb
- Level 3
  - Speed skeleton lvl 2
  - Custom CHIRAL ladder x3
- Level 4
  - Remote stun bomb
  - Hologram: Junk dealer
  - Custom CHIRAL ladder
- Level 5
  - Speed skeleton lvl 3
8. Chiral Artist
- Level 2
  - Anti-BT handgun lvl 1
- Level 3
  - Anti-BT handgun lvl 2
  - Chiral boots x2 - restocked with subsequent deliveries
- Level 4
  - Holograms: Chiral Artist
9. Film Director
- Level 1
  - J.F Rey "Sam" Glasses
- Level 2
  - Hologram generator (disguises post box as rocks)
- Level 4
  - Film Director hologram
10. Weather Station
- Backpack accessory: Weather Talisman
- Level 2
  - PCC lvl 2
  - Floating carrier lvl 1
- Level 3
  - Floating carrier lvl 2
11. Cosplayer
- Level 1
  - Otter hood
- Level 2
  - Utility pouch bag upgrade
- Level 3
  - Large Grenade pouch
- Level 4
  - Wandering MC and Cosplayer holograms
- Level 5
  - Omnireflector backpack colour
12. South Knot City
- Level 2
  - Handgun lvl 1
  - Assault Rifle lvl 1
  - Grenade
- Level 3
  - Reverse Trike: Defensive
  - Handgun lvl 2
- Level 4
  - Truck: Defensive
  - Second delivery bot
13. Timefall Farm
- Level 2
  - Odradek scanner nullification (cancel out Mule pings with your own Odradek scan)
- Level 3
  - Odradek human detection (shows outlines of human enemies)
- Level 5
  - Hologram: Goose
14. Veteran Porter
15. Palaeontologist
- Level 2
  - Oxygen mask
  - Hematic grenade lvl 2
- Level 4
  - Hologram: Palaeontologist hologram
16. Geologist
- Level 2
  - Climbing anchor level 2
- Level 4
  - Hologram: Geologist
17. Heartman
- Level 1
  - Thermal pad
- Level 3
  - Backpack Accessory: Cryptobiote
18. Evo-devo Biologist
- Level 2
  - Grenade launcher
- Level 4
  - Multi-rocket launcher
19. Roboticist
- Level 2
  - All-terrain skeleton lvl 1
- Level 3
  - All-terrain skeleton lvl 2
- Level 4
  - All-terrain skeleton lvl 3
20. Mountain Knot City
- Level 2
  - Stabiliser
- Level 3
  - Assault Rifle lvl 3
  - Non-lethal assault rifle lvl 3
- Level 4
  - Third delivery bot unlocked
21. Doctor
- Level 2
  - Canteen lvl 2
- Level 3
  - High capacity blood bags
22. The First Prepper
23. Spiritualist
- Backpack accessory: One Dollar Coin
- Level 4
  - Spiritualist hologram
24. Waystation North of Mountain Knot City
- Level 2
  - Armour plate lvl 1
  - Non-lethal assault rifle lvl 1
- Level 3
  - Armour plate lvl 2
25. Distribution Center North of Mountain Knot City
- Level 2
  - Assault Rifle lvl 2
  - Non-lethal Assault Rifle lvl 2
- Level 3
  - Spare ammo pouch
26. The Novelist’s Son
- Level 2
  - Backpack Accessory: Bell charm
- Level 3
  - Hologram: Novelist’s Son
27. Photographer
- Level 2
  - Shotgun lvl 1
  - Riot shotgun lvl 1
- Level 3
  - Shotgun lvl 2
- Level 4
  - Riot Shotgun lvl 2
28. Mountaineer
- Level 2
  - Bridges boots lvl 3
  - Power gloves
  - Custom chiral climbing anchor - restocked with subsequent deliveries
- Level 4
  - Hologram: Mountaineer
  - Hologram: Mountain Guide holograms