Some of the best gear in early Death Stranding 2 is locked behind side-quests called Sub Orders. By completing a series of Sub Orders, you’ll unlock the fabrication schematics for the powerful Tranq Rifle and somehow even-more-useful Smoke Grenades. The Tranq Rifle is a long-range Sniper Rifle that has a better scope than your starting binoculars and puts enemies to sleep. It makes a loud noise that alerts enemies, but that has a secondary effect — enemies will charge at you from very, very far in search of the sound. That makes them easy targets in open fields. Draw them out of their base and put them down one-by-one.
The Tranq Rifle is a weapon that only works on human enemies like bandits or the heavily armed Brigands. The Smoke Grenade is a different story. Smoke will conceal your movement and the quiet release is ignored by many enemy types. Mechs can be completely bamboozled by smoke grenades — and even better, smoke will completely block the vision of Watchers, the new and deadly BTs that can spot Sam with their eyes just by looking at him, making BT areas far more dangerous. Here’s how to get both weapons.
Tranq Rifle & Smoke Grenade Guide
To earn the useful Tranq Sniper Rifle and Smoke Grenade schematics for fabrication at any linked facility, you’ll need to complete a series of Sub Orders. These orders begin early in Chapter 3 after Sam arrives at the Australian continent.
- Unlocking the Tranq Sniper Rifle & Smoke Grenade:
- After adding the Government’s Base to the Chiral Network, you’ll unlock Sub Orders. Sub Orders are story-related side-quests that are more involved that standard deliveries, which unlock later and are called Standard Orders.
- Once you gaini the Government Base, complete the Sub Order [Breakable Cargo] Deliver the Dismantled Rifle to the Lone Commander.
- This Sub Order takes you to the Lone Commander prepper base. They won’t connect to the Chiral Network until you complete the Sub Order Recover the Mementos from the BT Area.
- Return with the Mementos to add the Lone Commander to the Chiral Network and unlock the Tranq Sniper Rifle and Smoke Grenade.
The Lone Commander’s prepper base is surrounded by dangerous BT areas packed with Watchers. These larger Catcher variants have glowing eyes and can see Sam with their eyes, literally reacting to him and attacking when they spot him. Your shoulder-mounted spotter device will glow yellow when these enemies see you. You can quickly stop them with the Bolus Gun or stunlock them with Blood Grenades. Both are silent so you won’t attract more Watchers — Watchers can both see and hear Sam.
Getting these weapons early is incredibly helpful for many of the next Main Orders. You’ll be sent to deal with Brigands — a heavily armed militia. These thugs control fortresses in the Australian wasteland and will kill anyone that approaches. One of the safest ways to get rid of an outpost is to find a good sniping position with a large field between you and the bandits. Start taking shots to put the sentries to sleep — they’ll hear the noise, drawing them out of cover. Pick them off in the field to clear the area without putting your gear in danger. Don’t forget to kick all the sleeping guards after arriving to permanently knock them out.
Smoke Grenades are even better. They conceal Sam from Watchers, one of the most constant and dangerous threats in BTs and can be used in a variety of creative ways to sneak up on enemies or sneak through enemy territory. Both of these weapons are essential, so get them as early as possible.
