Higgs Guitar

Higgs' guitar from Death Stranding 2: On the Beach as a weapon for Lethal Company.

• Played, not pointed. It hangs in front of you the way a guitar is played: the left hand holds the neck from underneath in a chord grip, the right hand hangs loose over the strings. It sways with your steps, and taking it out swings it round from your back.
• Sonic blast. Use the item: the right hand rakes the strings (the guitar kicks, ripples leave the strings) and is flung off them, forward and down, opening as the body turns into the stroke; a wave of heavy sound leaves along your view. The left hand moves to the next chord. The wave hurts and briefly staggers every enemy in its cone, sets off landmines and makes turrets go berserk, like a shovel hit would. It is loud; enemies that listen will hear it from far away.
• Solo and fire (Q). Higgs' way: a wild solo, the guitar swung round neck forward, and after the run up a beam of blue, violet and orange fire shoots from the head of the guitar along your view and bursts where it lands. It burns everything in the beam and the burst for as long as the solo lasts and the battery holds; charge the guitar at the ship's charger. With a flat battery the solo still plays, just without fire. Press Q again to cut it short. No strikes while the solo is on.
• Rides on your back. Switch to another inventory slot and the guitar hangs across your back instead of disappearing.

Everyone in the lobby needs the mod.

Usage

Buy it in the terminal: higgs-guitar (typing higgs is enough). 75 credits by default. It takes a normal inventory slot, not the utility belt.

Config

BepInEx/config/reagan.higgsguitar.cfg, created on first launch. The file is re-read while the game runs: with a guitar in the world, save the file and the new values apply within a second, which makes the Hold, FirstPerson and Back sections easy to tune by eye. LethalConfig works too.

Notes

• The item is assembled when the game starts, not loaded from an asset bundle.
• There is no guitar animation in the game, so all of the above is animated by the mod itself, every frame: arms, fingers, upper body and the guitar. Legs keep the game's own walking.
• The strike is synthesised; the solos are cut from "One Last Fight" (Death Stranding 2 OST, as played by SirBarryGameX); the fire's roar and the fire itself are the Old Bird's blowtorch from the game, recoloured.
• Solos are guitar_solo_1.wav, guitar_solo_2.wav, ... in the mod's folder (16 bit PCM). A solo lasts as long as its file; replace them to play your own.

Credits

• This work is based on "Higgs' Guitar | Death Stranding 2" (https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/higgs-guitar-death-stranding-2-b2903e7569ea41a689fda898d9fd5f73) by MadlessHatter (https://sketchfab.com/MadlessHatter) licensed under CC-BY-4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The model was rescaled, merged into one mesh and its textures packed into one atlas.
• Original design: Kojima Productions, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. This is a fan mod and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Kojima Productions or Sony Interactive Entertainment.
• LethalLib by Evaisa.

Changelog

1.2.1

• E no longer starts the solo; only Q does.
• New look for the fire: the Old Bird's own blue and violet flamethrower, unchanged and dimmed a little, repeated one after another along the whole reach and stopping at walls. The old beam is still there as FireStyle = Beam.

1.2.0

• Q: a guitar solo that calls up fire. The guitar swings round neck forward, and after the run up a beam of blue, violet and orange fire shoots from its head and bursts where it lands, burning enemies in both.
• The fire runs on the guitar's battery (charge it at the ship); on a flat battery the solo plays without fire. The strike never needs the battery.
• Three solos that take turns, with shredding animation: the left hand runs along the neck, tremolo picking, head banging.
• The strike is quieter.

1.1.0

• The guitar is now held and played like a guitar instead of like a shotgun: it hangs in front of the chest, the left hand holds the neck, the right hand strums.
• A use is a big downstroke: the right hand rakes the strings and is flung off them, and the wave leaves with it. The chord is heavier and lower.
• Animated by the mod: finger grips (three chords for the left hand, an open hand after the stroke), the upper body turning into the hit, the guitar kicking and swaying, ripples off the strings, and swinging the guitar round from the back when it is taken out.
• The old Hold settings (Roll, Pitch, Yaw, Up, Left, Forward) are gone; see the new Hold and FirstPerson sections.

1.0.0

• First release: the guitar as a store item, sonic blast, carried on the back while pocketed.