By Scott McCrae
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Action Games
Death Stranding 2 will “allow players that want to fight to do so more freely,” Hideo Kojima says, like how Metal Gear Solid 2 “made it a little easier to use weapons”
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Death Stranding 2 may have “a man’s hands and legs sliced off by a robotic samurai” but its ESRB rating just revealed the most shocking detail of all: “The word ‘f**k’ is heard in the game”
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Hideo Kojima wanted Death Stranding 2 to have “a clearer focus on combat,” giving players a “range of approaches” including Metal Gear Solid-style stealth
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How to unlock Pizza-Do Karate martial arts in Death Stranding 2
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Hideo Kojima celebrates his new delivery sim with the official Death Stranding 2 Giga Meat pizza, complete with can of Red Bull
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Death Stranding 2
Death Stranding 2 has a “completely hidden mechanic” that lets you fire lethal rounds, meaning voidouts are now inevitable
Scott McCrae
2 July 2025
The Pizza Chef teaches you how to kill…
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(Image credit: Kojima Productions)
Death Stranding 2 has made it way harder to kill people than the original game now that guns shoot non-lethal rounds, but players have discovered a “hidden mechanic” that allows you to use lethal rounds on your guns.
Spoilers to a storyline featuring a minor character in Death Stranding 2 follow.
Death Stranding’s world actively discourages killing. If a dead body is left too long, it can trigger a voidout, which has the capacity to completely level cities off the map. In the first game, you would need to take these bodies to a designated furnace to burn them, which has been made easier in Death Stranding 2, as certain outposts have their own furnaces… but it’s extremely hard to actually kill anyone in the first place due to weapons shooting non-lethal rounds.
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Death Stranding 2 will “allow players that want to fight to do so more freely,” Hideo Kojima says, like how Metal Gear Solid 2 “made it a little easier to use weapons”
Death Stranding 2 may have “a man’s hands and legs sliced off by a robotic samurai” but its ESRB rating just revealed the most shocking detail of all: “The word ‘f**k’ is heard in the game”
Hideo Kojima wanted Death Stranding 2 to have “a clearer focus on combat,” giving players a “range of approaches” including Metal Gear Solid-style stealth
Turns out there’s a secret way to use guns to kill enemies in the game, however. On Death Stranding’s in-game social media, a user ponders how brigands are able to kill people with their weapons, but shortly after, when you connect the Pizza Chef to the Chiral Network, he sends an interesting message. “Here’s a special code for a ‘free pizza’: hold right to open up the weapons menu then hold L2 R2 and Circle at the same time.” Once you do that, you receive a notification stating, “Live fire mode is now active.”
There’s a completely hidden mechanic in Death Stranding 2:Only hinted at by one message in the SSS, if you open the weapon wheel, highlight your guns and hold L2 + R2 + O, it will activate live fire mode allowing you to actually take out enemies permanently. pic.twitter.com/Ot4bC9VqXLJuly 2, 2025
Once you deliver the Pizza Misanga item to the Pizza Chef, you discover that ghost mechs have invaded his outpost, and you’ll gain access to his Pizza-Do Karate skills. Presumably, this means it was actually the enemy factions that shared the secret to lethal weapons with Sam, based on the previous SSS notice. But now, if you have an insatiable bloodlust, you can kill enemies in Death Stranding 2, if you please; just remember to dispose of the bodies properly, otherwise you’ll be dealing with huge craters in the map.
If you’re still not sold, check out our Death Stranding 2 review, or feel free to check out our guide to Death Stranding 2’s ending explained.
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He’s typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.
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Death Stranding 2 will “allow players that want to fight to do so more freely,” Hideo Kojima says, like how Metal Gear Solid 2 “made it a little easier to use weapons”
Death Stranding 2 may have “a man’s hands and legs sliced off by a robotic samurai” but its ESRB rating just revealed the most shocking detail of all: “The word ‘f**k’ is heard in the game”
Hideo Kojima wanted Death Stranding 2 to have “a clearer focus on combat,” giving players a “range of approaches” including Metal Gear Solid-style stealth
How to unlock Pizza-Do Karate martial arts in Death Stranding 2
I’m enjoying Death Stranding 2, but I wish Hideo Kojima would stop teasing me with cool powers I’ll never have
Hideo Kojima celebrates his new delivery sim with the official Death Stranding 2 Giga Meat pizza, complete with can of Red Bull
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