I Captured and Summoned BTs in Death Stranding 2: Here’s How It Works

When I first heard that Death Stranding 2: On the Beach would let you catch and deploy BTs, I honestly thought it was a joke. The idea of turning those terrifying tar-dwelling phantoms into something like a combat pet felt completely absurd. But sure enough, after grinding through the campaign and reaching Episode 8: Deluge, I found myself lobbing an EX Capture Grenade into a Catcher’s mouth and watching it shatter into dust. As of 2026, this is one of the coolest and most useful late-game mechanics on PlayStation 5. Let me walk you through the entire process.

First, you can’t just start collecting BTs from the opening hours. You need to push through the main story until Episode 8: Deluge. While completing deliveries, you’ll eventually take on an order to bring Cryptobiote Variants to the Chronobiologist. Once that delivery is done, the Chronobiologist’s facility gets added to the Chiral Network. That connection is the key because it unlocks the fabrication recipe for the EX Capture Grenade. Without that device, capturing a BT is impossible.

Fabricating an EX Capture Grenade isn’t too bad if you’ve been hoarding materials. Each batch costs 120x chiral crystals, 30x resins, and 25x special alloys. The nice part is that a single fabrication run gives you five grenades, so you’ll have some room for error if your first toss misses.

Here’s the capture loop that finally clicked for me:

1. Find any area where BTs regularly spawn. I had good luck near ruined shelters and weather-affected zones.

2. Let a Gazer or Watcher spot you. Don’t sneak away—you actually want the encounter to escalate.

3. When Hunters appear, let them drag you down into the tar. Just make sure you are not dealing with the Golden Hunter variants, because those do not trigger the same sequence.

4. The tar will dump you into a different spot where a big Catcher BT emerges. This is the creature you need to weaken.

5. Fight the Catcher normally. Keep shooting, hitting weak points, and dodging until its health bar is low enough to show red.

6. Watch for the moment the Catcher opens its mouth. When you see that opening at low health, toss an EX Capture Grenade straight into its maw.

7. The Catcher will petrify, then collapse into dust. All that remains is a BT Crystal, which you can pick up from the ground.

The first time I pulled that off, I felt like a proper BT hunter. The BT Crystal you loot corresponds to the monster type you just captured, and that’s the currency for summoning a temporary ally. Before you ask: no, it doesn’t go into your regular cargo. It lives in the Specials tab of your inventory, waiting for the right moment.

Summoning a captured BT is a little strange because you cannot simply call one out in the open. You have to be fighting another Catcher when you use the BT Crystal. Open your inventory, jump to the Specials tab, and select the BT Crystal with the type of monster you captured. Activating it costs additional chiral crystals, so keep a healthy stockpile ready.

Once the summoned BT appears, the battlefield changes completely. It has its own health bar and will fight on your side for up to three minutes. The enemy Catcher treats your summoned creature as the bigger threat, which usually means you get ignored. That’s your window to shoot the target, toss grenades, or reposition without eating tar attacks. I ended up using this trick to break the tempo of fights that otherwise felt overwhelming.

A neat bonus: if your target is low on health and it’s a different Catcher type from the one you already have, you can throw another EX Capture Grenade to add it to your collection. I started treating it like a spectral version of Pokémon, except these monsters are nowhere near as cute. You can even chase rarer variants such as the Lord of the Tar Lake and Gigas, which are absolute nightmares to fight but incredibly satisfying to capture.

One thing I learned the hard way: bring more chiral crystals than you think you need. The summon activation drains resources quickly, and running out mid-fight leaves you without your trump card. It’s also worth exploring the Chronobiologist connection further because this part of the game ties into other NPC reward chains, like the Pizza Chef and the Ghost Hunter. Both have unlockable goodies that can make the later delivery loops more manageable.

Overall, capturing and summoning BTs completely refreshed the way I approached combat in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. It turns one of the scariest parts of the world into a tool you can use, and that sense of power feels earned after all the earlier stealth sections. If you have been avoiding BT zones out of habit, it might be time to change your strategy. Stock up on EX Capture Grenades, gather those chiral crystals, and start building your own little army of tar-born allies. Good luck out there, porter.