As you progress into the Central Region and get introduced to new Preppers you’ll start to come across Death Stranding Vog craters. Specifically, there will be missions where you have to venture into toxic craters to retrieve important items. Later in the story there will be an unskippable mission where you have to deal with Vog, so there really is no avoiding this.
If you come across a crater before the game explains it or you simply don’t quite understand the extent of the Vog mechanic, let us guide you through the process. In this guide, we’re going to teach you what Vog is, how to deal with it and how to use it against your enemies.
In the wild world of Death Stranding, Vog is shorthand for toxic gas. A strange name indeed, but nonetheless, it’s part of the Social Strand System vernacular, so get used to it! Vog only appears in a few locations on the map but it’s important to understand what it does. Just like when you deal with Death Stranding MULEs and they start to fill your yellow ‘consciousness’ bar by prodding you with their electric stun poles, Vog will eventually lead to unconsciousness if you stay in it too long.
Vog is usually used to obscure cargo, memory chips, and other important items during missions. Sam is often forced to wade into the Vog to retrieve items for preppers. Given that the rewards are often lucrative for these special missions, they’re certainly worth doing and one later in the game is part of the campaign, so it’s good to know all about it early. Now that you know what it is, you’re probably wondering how to deal with it…
How to deal with Vog in Death Stranding
To deal with Vog in Death Stranding you can hold your breath, but the results are limited and wading into a Vog pit without the necessary equipment is a quick way to lose all of your cargo and pass out.
The real fix is to acquire and wear an Oxygen Mask. This piece of equipment will bolster Sam’s stamina when he’s in high altitude but also make it so that he isn’t affected by the toxic Vog fumes when he’s wading into the murky green craters. You still can’t stay there forever and you must manage your stamina in tandem or face losing consciousness regardless of your mask. Another complementary tip is to bring multiple climbing anchors to a Vog pit. You’ll often notice that cargo can be stacked on higher levels than the depths of the crater which are inaccessible from below unless you’re savvy with a Ladder. The easiest way to fix this is to use an anchor to rappel down to the cargo and grab it. You can certainly do a Vog crater run without the mask, it’s just much more difficult.
How to unlock the Oxygen Mask in Death Stranding
You unlock the Oxygen Mask in Death Stranding by connecting the Paleontologist to the UCA on assignment from Heartman. This is part of the main campaign so you can’t really miss it, as you need it to enter a Vog crater and retrieve some items important to the story.
Once you’ve unlocked the Oxygen Mask you can fabricate it from any delivery station you’ve connected to Bridges. It’s in the second tab with all of your skeletons and wearable equipment. Once you’ve fabricated it make sure you apply the mask to Sam. Just fabricating it won’t do the trick.
We’ve got a bunch more guides on Hideo Kojima’s latest, from how long is Death Stranding and how many episodes are there in Death Stranding, to how best to tackle BTs. So if you’re struggling then we’ve got your back.