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The Headless Rider is an optional boss encounter in Death Stranding 2 that appears after you’ve unlocks after you’ve found the Chronobiologist on the main story. This bunker will encourage you to travel to the Ghost Hunter where you’ll learn more about BTs and get a quest to find the Headless Rider. The Headless Rider only appears under very specific circumstances, so this is what you’ll need to do.
There are lots of optional bosses in Death Stranding 2 — including giant, bizarre BTs that drop giant piles of Chiral Crystals if you’re willing to face them. The Headless Rider is a completely different type of beast and leads to one of the most unique boss fights in the game. You won’t want to miss this wild encounter. You’ll even earn a big reward from the Ghost Hunter for getting this job done.
How To Find the Headless Riders
The Headless Rider appears after linking East Fort Knot to the Chiral Network and continuing the story — you’ll be able to access this encounter after linking to the Chronobiologist in the snowy mountains. This begins a long trek through the mountains in a long episode that’s especially difficult because vehicles don’t have enough traction to climb the mountains.
After meeting the Chronobiologist — take their sub order to find the Ghost Hunter. The order will take you directly to their bunker, at the base of the mountain near a large BT area. The Ghost Hunter has unique insights into paranormal events. They’ll only join the Chiral Network if you complete the “Headless Rider” order.
- At the Ghost Hunter, take the Sub Order “[Elimination] Discover the identity of the Headless Riders and Remove the Threat” to begin the hunt.
The objective tasks you with going to a stretch of road to the east and discovering the Headless Rider. The riders will only appear if you fulfill a very specific requirement. Go to the location with a Tri-Cruiser. You may find more near the road, but if you don’t, go to another bunker and fabricate one. A Tri-Cruiser is required for this order.
- Go to the location marked by the Ghost Hunter’s Sub Order — there will be a section of road already built near the river.
- Drive on this section of road with a Tri-Cruiser at night. You must be riding a tri-cruiser and it must be at night.
- Drive on this road until you reach the auto-paver on the east side. If you’ve fulfilled all requirements the encounter will begin.
If you’re driving a tri-cruiser at night and reach the auto-paver, the auto-paver will glow red and construct a road in the sky, moving Sam (and your Tri-Cruiser) into the air where Ghost Mech motorcycles attack. This begins the encounter, and you’ll want to be prepared.
How To Beat The Headless Riders
The Headless Riders encounters is on a floating highway — you’ll need to drive and avoid attacks from Ghost Mech motorcycles with powerful blade weapons and machine guns.
- Before The Fight: Bring Shotguns and Machine Guns into this encounter. The more attacks you can successfully land, the better here. Your goal isn’t to be accurate. You need to deliver as much damage as possible — but you’ll need enough ammo to keep fighting.
- Equip x4 Blood Bags because you will inevitably sustain a lot of damage in this fight.
Keep driving and press [D-Pad: Right] to equip your gun, then hold [R1] to shoot. You will automatically lock-on to nearby enemies once you move your cursor over them. More motorcycle mechs will appear as you go, leading to a big encounter against a more powerful central Headless Rider mech.
- Defeat the Headless Rider that’s glowing blue to complete the encounter and escape.
For completing this order, you’ll add the Ghost Hunter to the Chiral Network and unlock a few rewards. You’ll get the Woodland Pattern for your Porter Suit, and the Rocket Box [MP] — a cargo container that serves as rocket pods you can launch when attached to your suit. These are MP rockets so they’ll work on BTs, Ghost Mechs and humans.
