In Death Stranding, your health is tied to the amount of blood you have. Since blood has several uses, learning how to restore blood and heal is one of the first things you want to do. There are several ways to gain blood back in Death Stranding, and some work better than others.
We’ll show you how to get more blood in Death Stranding so you’ll have more health. We’ll also so you how to heal and restore blood to keep Sam ticking.
How to heal in Death Stranding by restoring blood
Sam starts with 1000mL of blood, and once that bar is empty, you die. The tough part of this is that Sam’s blood is one of the only effective weapons against BTs in Death Stranding. So, when you’re fighting BTs, you’ll basically be drawing on your health bar for ammunition. This means you need a constant supply of blood to heal with, or you’ll quickly find yourself defenseless and with low health when doing battle with the fiercest enemies in the game.
Fortunately, two items in particular can help mitigate Sam’s almost constant loss of blood. For a quick, instant boost to your health, you can munch on a Cryptobiote. These little buggies can be found all over the world of Death Stranding, waiting for you to grab them. Do yourself a favor whenever you see one of the telltale coral-looking rocks where Cryptobiotes hang out and snatch the 3-4 hanging out there. That way, you never have to worry about getting a little boost when you need one.
For a constant, low-level health regen, you can equip blood bags. You get one of these for free each time Sam sleeps in a private room, and you can also craft them. These bad boys are going to be your bread and butter. You can equip four of them (for a total of 2,000mL of blood) to Sam’s utility bag at a time, and each will refill 500mL of blood before they’re used up. Once they’re in the utility pouch and equipped, they’ll automatically switch out until the fourth one runs out. These won’t instantly refill your health, but they’re quick enough that you don’t have to worry too much as long as you’re not taking constant damage.
Can you increase your total health in Death Stranding?
Unfortunately, Sam can’t hold more blood than he already has. This means your total health bar in Death Stranding is fixed at 1,000mL. However, the way Blood Bags work means you can kind of cheat the system a bit.
One of the biggest drains on your health in Death Stranding is going to be using Hematic weaponry. The stronger the weapon, the more blood it needs for you to use it. This can lead to you very quickly doing more damage to yourself than your enemies are. This means that Blood Bags are an absolutely essential piece of equipment. Since you can equip four to your utility pouch with no cargo penalty, there’s no reason not to have them maxed out at all times.
Fortunately, Sam is smart enough not to hook his weapons straight up to his veins. You may not be able to increase your base blood total, but your Hematic guns and grenades will always take from your Blood Bags first. This means you can mentally segment Blood Bags as ammo, and if you take any base health damage, use Cryptobiotes to recover it. This will keep those 1000mL that make up Sam’s primary health bar full while giving you plenty of blood for your weapons.
If you really want to pull out the big guns, you can carry extra Blood Bags as cargo and tap into them when you’ve run through the ones in your utility pouch.
