Death Stranding 2 Secret Boss – How To Defeat Or Capture Lord Of The Tar Lake

Are you excited to defeat or capture the Lord of the Tar Lake in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach? This creature might be one of the biggest foes that you’ll face in the game, and bringing it down will not be a walk in the park. There are also multiple steps that you need to undertake before you even get the chance to encounter it. We’ve got all the details to help you out.

How to defeat or capture the Lord of the Tar Lake in Death Stranding 2

To make the Lord of the Tar Lake secret boss appear, you must first boost your connection/reputation with the Fisherman NPC/Prepper. Here’s a quick summary:

• The Fisherman is an optional Prepper, which means you won’t meet him normally as you go through the main story.
• Instead, you’ll be given a main order to deliver Chiral Microbes to the F5 East Distribution Center facility. Once you’ve completed this task, you should see an optional mission in the facility’s terminal. This is Sub-Order 116: Deliver all the Stranded Ship’s cargo to the Fisherman.
• Load the cargo in a vehicle and drive back the way you came. Head north along the coast and turn left before you climb up the slope to the Metagenomicist’s camp. This place is crawling with BTs, but you should see a bridge (built by another player) which should help you reach the Fisherman’s camp to the left.

How to increase your connection rank with the Fisherman

Before you can face the Lord of the Tar Lake in Death Stranding 2, your connection rank with the Fisherman must be at level 4 or higher. Unfortunately, this process can take a while:

• You can find other lost cargo along the shoreline leading to the Fisherman’s camp. These items are unlikely to spawn again the future.
• The Fisherman does have a standard order that shows up in the terminal each day or so. It requires you to kill the Floating BTs at the nearby beach area. Keep doing this task until your reputation is above rank 4.
• While you’re tackling these objectives, the Fisherman will tell you about the Lord of the Tar Lake that resides in the large body of goop. Upon getting past rank 4, though, he’ll make an SSS post saying that he knows how to summon the giant beast. But first, you need to find another creature that would serve as bait.

Sub-order 117: Defeat the Lord of the Tar Lake – Capture the special giant BT

Return to the Fisherman once prompted and pick up sub-order 117 from the terminal. This is a two-part mission where your first objective is to capture a special giant BT. You can refer to our capture/summon BTs guide for more information about this mechanic. In any case, here’s how to tackle this objective:

• Go to the Weapons Factory in the desert area–i.e. between the Data Scientist and Pioneer. Make sure you have some EX Capture Grenades with you.
• Upon arriving at the location, let yourself get dragged down by Hunters. This will cause the giant BT, the Delphis, to spawn.
• The Delphis mostly just jumps and rams your character, but it does have a lunging attack that can swallow Sam whole.
• Keep damaging the Delphis until its health bar is red. Then, when it opens its mouth, toss an EX Capture Grenade to catch it. This grants you the Delphis BT Crystal.
• Summoning the Delphis in battle costs a measly 250 chiral crystals.

Note: The Delphis must be captured, not killed. You don’t want to summon another BT during this fight either, as they can accidentally kill your target. If the Delphis dies, you can just reload a backup save.

Sub-order 117: Defeat the Lord of the Tar Lake – Preparations and summoning

Now that you’ve captured the Delphis, you should be able to fight the Death Stranding 2 Lord of the Tar Lake secret boss. As expected, this behemoth is located in the large lake of black goop near the F5 East Distribution Facility. Before you make your way there, you might want to prepare:

• Craft and bring weapons like the LW Multirocket Launcher/Quadruple Rocket Launcher, Machine Gun, or Assault Rifle.
• Bring an extra EX Capture Grenade or two.
• You can either drive a normal vehicle there, or you can fabricate and use a Coffin Board instead. It offers improved mobility since the entire place is covered in tar anyway.
• When you arrive at the marked location, open the Specials tab of your inventory and select the Delphis BT. Once the Delphis has been summoned, the Lord of the Tar Lake will emerge and gobble up the bait.

Sub-order 117: Defeat the Lord of the Tar Lake – Boss abilities and best BT summons

Since you’re going toe to toe–or toe to fin–against the Death Stranding 2 Lord of the Tar Lake boss, you might want to know how to finish off this giant creature:

• The Lord of the Tar Lake is a flying whale. It moves very slowly, but its attacks deal tremendous damage.
• Its abilities include an area-wide bombardment attack, a fiery focused laser beam, and a means of spawning exploding tar clones.
• As far as BT summons go, we recommend Raia, since this monster also flies around and is more versatile in the air. Kheir and Gigas are also fairly decent due to their high health pools.
• While your summoned BT has the Lord of the Tar Lake distracted, you should be able to shoot your foe with your rockets, grenades, and all sorts of bullets until it’s downed.

Is it possible to capture the Lord of the Tar Lake?

Yes, you can certainly capture the Lord of the Tar Lake, but you need to be very careful as well. Here’s what you need to know:

• You can keep summoning different kinds of BTs, but you need to hold off if the boss’ health is roughly at 40% or lower. You don’t want your summons to kill the boss with their attacks.
• Once the boss’ health bar is red, be ready for its ultimate move. It will swim underwater and then reemerge to swallow you whole. This is denoted by a large yellow outline on the ground.
• Move out of the way immediately and, once the boss head/mouth is visible, quickly chuck an EX Capture Grenade at it.
• If you did it right, the boss’ body will turn into a crystal that you can pick up. Note that summoning the Lord of the Tar Lake costs 1,200 chiral crystals.

That does it for our guide on how to defeat and capture the Lord of the Tar Lake in Death Stranding 2. Whether you killed or caught this target, you should receive the “Showdown at the Tar Lake” trophy. Moreover, you should return to the Fisherman NPC, whose reputation/connection would get maxed out because of your deeds. Here are his rewards:

• Rank 1: Remote Detonation (RD) Grenade Launcher [MP]
• Rank 2: Backpack Cover Level 1
• Rank 3: Lightweight Remote Detonation (LW-RD) Grenade Launcher [MP]
• Rank 4: Backpack Cover Level 2
• Rank 5: Custom Hologram: The Fisherman and Patch 48: BT Cetus – Note that the Cetus is the flying whale specie of the Lord of the Tar Lake.