Death Stranding might be a game all about loneliness and isolation, but that doesn't mean there aren't any intense moments that get your blood pumping. The back end of Death Stranding's story has a bunch of memorable encounters with the game's biggest villains, one of which has you wait deep in some black ooze fistfighting with Higgs Monaghan. It's a pretty brutal encounter, but it was recently discovered it can get a whole lot worse should you refuse to fight Higgs for an extended period of time.
First posted on Twitter by user Naven0m (thanks GamesRadar), a video shows Sam blocking each one of Higgs' strikes until he gets fed up and breaks Sam's stance. Higgs will then get in a few headbutts, before turning his attention to Sam's ear. If you continue to do nothing, Higgs will then chomp down on Sam's ear, tearing a piece off and spitting it into the black ooze they're both stood in.
It's an interaction that pretty much no one will ever discover naturally, given that your primary instinct at that point is to just start wailing on the man that's been tormenting you for the majority of the game. However, what makes this detail special is that Sam will have a piece of his ear missing throughout the rest of your time with Death Stranding, as the person who discovered the little trick has posted several screenshots of Sam with a damaged ear after the fight is over.
If you're doubting the validity of the video (which we wouldn't blame you since mods are so good these days), Hideo Kojima himself retweeted the video showing off the interaction, so we can safely assume that means it's something built into the game itself rather than something fan made. To be honest, knowing Kojima it's probably a reference to the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield back in 1997, especially given how the two are essentially in a more aggressive version of a typical match.
Who knows, maybe this little detail will carry over to Death Stranding 2 when it eventually launches, though that may be wishful thinking. It'll probably be a little while before we get to see anyway, as it was confirmed in February that recording for Death Stranding 2 had only just begun. Recording is usually one of the first things that a studio gets done when making a game, so we can assume Death Stranding 2 is still a ways away. Hopefully, we'll get release window at some point next year.