How to uncover the identity of the headless Rider in Death Stranding 2

In this Big Friendly Guide, we'll walk you through how to find and defeat the Headless Rider in Death Stranding 2 so you can get The Ghost Hunter into the system.

How to uncover the identity of the headless Rider in Death Stranding 2

The Headless Rider is a rumor The Ghost Hunter prepper asks you to check into once you meet him in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and you'll need to complete the quest if you want to get this weirdo onto the Chiral Network. This is a really neat quest that's pretty different than most of the other stuff you'll encounter in Death Stranding 2, but it's a little confusing to start -- even with Dollman chirping tips in your ear.

In this Big Friendly Guide, we'll walk you through how to find and defeat the Headless Rider in Death Stranding 2 so you can get The Ghost Hunter into the system.


How to meet The Ghost Hunter and prepare to hunt The Headless Rider

Image: Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment

You won't be able to meet The Ghost Hunter and start The Headless Rider quest until after Death Stranding 2's Intermission (yeah, it has one of those, don't worry about it). Shortly after, you'll go on a long trek, hit another big story mission, and finally get The Chronobiologist online. Once you're able to accept new jobs from The Chronobiologist, you'll see a sub-order asking you to visit The Ghost Hunter, who is just down the mountain from where you are now. Take this on and head down.

When you arrive, The Ghost Hunter will tell you that he's heard about a mysterious ghost attacking people on the northern coast. He'll clearly mark an area on your map and tell you to go investigate.

You should do that, but first we recommend a bit of prep. While it's entirely likely that you'll be able to find these items on your way to the quest, you're better off fabricating some things for yourself and taking them with you/driving them to your destination:

  • A Tri-Cruiser bike (assuming you're using a truck)
  • An assault rifle with a large amount of ammo (or multiple assault rifles)
  • A weapon with a grenade launcher attachment
  • Explosive grenades
  • Stuff to deal with BTs (this isn't for the quest, but depending on where you cross the river, you may run into some)

Once you're decked out, get on your bike and ride.


How to uncover the identity of The Headless Rider and defeat the 'boss'

Image: Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment

Once you reach the marker on the northern coast of Australia, you'll find a bunch of busted Tri-Cruisers and Dollman will make some comments about it while giving you hints. The idea here is that you need to ride into the mission area on a Tri-Cruiser at night. If it's daytime for you like it was for me, run over to a nearby Timefall Shelter or home base and take a nap by holding square. Once it's night, get on your bike and ride through the area (there should be a working Tri-Cruiser nearby, if something happened to yours).

Image: Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment

When you ride into the area, an evil Auto Paver will activate, creating a race track in the sky and taking you with it. Once you're up there, a bunch of automated motorcycles (complete with gun attachments) will appear to chase you around this phantom road. It's cool as hell, dude.

Anyway, this is when your weapons will come in handy. You'll need to ride along the track on your Tri-Cruiser and shoot at the other bikes as they ride up and try to attack and lance you. You can equip weapons while driving by holding right on the D-pad — you'll just have to fire with R1 instead of the trigger. It's very Final Fantasy 7 Remake. After you've killed a few bikes, The Headless Rider will appear. Take it down the way you took down the rest of the bikes and you'll return safely to the ground. All you need to do now is inform The Ghost Hunter of your victory and he'll let you connect him to the Chiral Network.

Enjoy your new briefcase bazooka (for real).

This post originally appeared on BigFriendly.Guide

Please pardon any formatting weirdness