Earning Porter Grade in Death Stranding 2 is just one of the ways that the game creates a fluid skill system, letting you play it however you want, and earn different grades based on what you're doing. Though it's not entirely clear at first, once you unlock APAS Enhancements (Death Stranding 2's skill system), the skills you are able to unlock are based on your Porter Grade.
This means that your chosen playstyle sculpts your skill tree, as you unlock new skills by earning additional grades. It's a tad confusing at first, but it basically comes down to: Do what you like and the game will give you more skills based around how you play. Either way, I'll explain Porter Grade and APAS Enhancements below.
This guide is based on the PS5 version of Death Stranding 2, but we'll update it if anything changes as and when the PC version arrives. If the first game is anything to judge by, we could see it coming our way in around six months time.
Death Stranding 2 Porter Grade and APAS Enhancements
There are five different aspects of Porter Grade and you earn each of them by doing different things while playing the game. Whenever you deliver cargo, including lost cargo, your Porter Grade will update based on your recent actions.
Grade | How to earn it |
Porter | Successfully deliver any cargo. |
Combat | Defeat enemies in open combat. |
Stealth | Be sneaky and remain undetected from bandits or BTs, including stealthily incapacitating foes. |
Bridge Link | Interact with other players via liking or using Strand Contracts to share structures. If you're offline, you also seem to be able to get this by interacting with NPC porters once you progress far enough. |
Servicemanship | Return lost cargo and interact with shelters/clients by liking SSS posts, or liking their structures and aid requests while out in the world. |
Why are these important? Well, once you unlock APAS Enhancements during Episode 3: Drawbridge, when you first arrive in Australia, you'll be able to unlock new APAS Enhancements based on your Porter Grade in each of these. The skill tree you get when it unlocks will also be based on your grade and the skill unlock requirements it fulfills.
This means that doing any of the above actions and levelling your grade will unlock new skills you can purchase in each of those categories, since each skill has a grade-based unlock requirement. First, though, you'll need memory to activate them.
How to get more APAS Memory in Death Stranding 2
Thankfully, you can get more 'Available Memory' by doing most stuff in Death Stranding 2. You'll mainly get it by improving your star-based connection rating with shelters, which you do by completing orders, delivering lost cargo, and finishing aid reqests. When you level up with a shelter you'll get a new reward and a "firmware update" which will increase your overall memory for APAS Enhancements.
Essentially you just need to progress the game and your memory will actively accrue alongside new APAS Enhancements based on the way you're playing—it's a very freeform skill system. You can also respec your skills at any time by holding triangle on controller when in the APAS Enhancements menu, accessed via the main Ring Terminal menu.
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