Playing Death Stranding with updated visuals and a smoother performance would be enough to make us jump into it again, but Kojima Productions went above and beyond by adding two major pieces of content. The first is the Fragile Circuit, and the second is the Firing Range and its drills, a series of challenges akin to VR missions from the older Metal Gear Solid games.

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Anybody interested in the latter would be wise to follow these simple steps in order to achieve high scores. Before all that, however, you have to first unlock the Firing Range. Read on below to find out how to access these drills and then how to get S rank in the different types of challenges.

How To Unlock The Firing Range Drills

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If you have already completed the necessary requirements on the PS4 version of Death Stranding and transferred your save, you will already have unlocked the firing range. If you are starting the game from the beginning, you have to play until at least Chapter 2. You will then reach Capital Knot City.

Take an mission called Order No 14, which then prompts the Firing Range. After Die Hardman introduces Sam to the area, you will then be able to reach it from any main distribution center. Once inside the Firing Range, just walk up to the terminal to access the drills.

The Different Types Of Drills

death stranding firing range terminal

There are several different types of firing range drills. The game basically cycles through them, making you do each of them using a different type of weapon. The different challenges are as follows:

  • Take out all the mules in the area and reach the goal
  • Collect all the packages in the area and reach the goal
  • Take out all the terrorists in the area and reach the goal
  • Target practice (destroy the targets and head to the goal)
  • Take out all the BTs in the area and reach the goal
  • Take out all the gas bags (jellyfish-like creatures) in the area and reach the goal

Scores are generally ranked on a few different criteria. Including

  • Time
  • Ammo conservation
  • Perfect stealth

Strategies Against Mules

death stranding mule firing range drills

Mules do not have any long-range offensive weapons. They instead using rods to stun Sam into submission. If you are far away, they do throw the rod at Sam. Even though there is a bonus for being completely stealthy, you are better served going in guns blazing and saving time.

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Accuracy is definitely the key, however. Using too many bullets accrues a score penalty. Punching and kicking weaken them if you want to save some ammo, but the final hit has to come from the required weapon or else it won't count.

Collecting All The Packages In The Area

death stranding firing range drill

There are only a couple of these challenges. In general, the key is to just know where the packages are, so you might have to do these ones a couple of times. Use the Sticky Gun to take the packages from afar. One of the challenges has the packages on top of mules, so you either have to knock them out or use the sticky gun to steal the package.

In this instance, we recommend knocking them out and stealing the packages as fast as possible. Be wary, though, because the mules can also steal packages from your back.

Eliminate All The Terrorists In The Area

death stranding terrorist firing range drill

Many of the same strategies for the mules also apply to the terrorists. However, these enemies also have guns so you have to be a little more defensive. Blood packs are scattered throughout the play area and will help replenish health. During the drills with the Bola gun, don't forget you have to walk up to each body and kick it in order to fully knock the enemy out if the first hit didn't do so already.

Target Practice

death stranding target practice drill

These target practice goals are fairly self-explanatory. Shoot the red targets and void the blue ones. Depending on the weapon, different score criteria apply. Regardless of the firearm, ammo conservation is key. Make sure to be accurate and aim for the head for more points.

When using explosives, try to have several targets grouped up to take them out with one bullet or grenade. Just be careful that a blue target is not in the blast radius.

Take Out All The BTs In The Area

death stranding BTs firing range drills

Combating BTs works the same way in these drills as in the main game. Fortunately, simply cutting the umbilical cord does work in this case, regardless of what weapon Sam is equipped with.

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To save time, you can walk fast or even spring until the odradek scanner starts spinning more violently, indicating a BT is close. The key to getting an S rank here is repetition. Once you know where they are in a particular drill, it is easy to get the optimal time.

Destroying The Gas Bags

death stranding jellyfish

This is perhaps the easiest drill to accomplish. The gas bags are plentiful, but they are slow and easy to see in each drill. There are three types in each: the black, gold, and red. In general, try aiming for black ones first, since they will instantly destroy the other ones when they blow up.

Gold ones split up into smaller creatures, and red ones take multiple hits to destroy, wasting both time and ammunition.

Next: How Long Does It Take To Beat Death Stranding?