Towards the beginning of Death Stranding, you’ll be asked to input your birthday. Given the game’s ambiguity, there’s no immediate explanation of why you’re being asked to input your birthday and what it does. To hopefully shed light on this system, we’ve put together a quick guide answering the question of why you need to enter your birthday in Death Stranding.
Why do you need to enter your birthday in Death Stranding?
© Kojima Productions
Based on my experience, and the collected experience of early reviewers, your birthday has no real immediate impact on gameplay in Death Stranding. The game explains that people born under certain constellations have higher DOOMs, with Fragile telling Sam his DOOMs are “level two” in the Prologue.
Regardless of which birthday you enter, Fragile will always refer to Sam as a “level two” in this area of the Prologue. Using info provided by Death Stranding lore and loading screens, those born under the constellations of Cancer, Pisces, Cetus, Delphinus, and Gigas all have naturally high levels of DOOMs.
What are Cetus, Delphinus, and Gigas? Well, these are harder to decipher as they’re not zodiac signs with clear birth date ranges so much as constellations in the shape of various animals. For example, Cetus is the constellation of the whale, and Delphinus is the constellation of the dolphin.
Using guesses already put forth by others, like PC Gamer, the consensus is that these constellations relate to a particular month when they’re at their highest degree of visibility. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each constellation and birth date range.
- Cancer: June 21 - July 22
- Pisces: February 18 - March 20
- Cetus: November
- Delphinus: September
- Gigas: January
I was able to test this out as my birthday is November 17, which potentially means that I fall under the constellation of Cetus. As of right now though, I haven’t noticed any special references to being born under Cetus (November). Sam doesn’t appear to have any added DOOMs abilities based on the birthday I entered.
One compelling theory is that Death Stranding may use the birthday you enter to send you a typical “Happy Birthday” message when it rolls around in Death Stranding. For example, when you input your birthday on a social media platform, and it wishes you a happy birthday when you log in, and that’s about it.
This guide will be updated in the event new outcomes based on the birthday you entered are discovered. In the meantime, you should probably enter your real birthday in Death Stranding whether it falls under the constellations with higher DOOMs or not.
Now that you know why you need to enter your birthday in Death Stranding, be sure to check out some of our other guides including what aphenphosmphobia means in Death Stranding, what DOOMs are in Death Stranding, and how to save in Death Stranding.
