Death Stranding 2 requires these Visual C++ redistributables

Most players who install Death Stranding 2 on PC already have a handful of Visual C++ redistributables on their system. They think that’s enough. It’s not. The game’s engine — Decima, which Kojima Productions brought over from Guerrilla Games — is picky about runtime versions in ways that modern Unreal or Unity titles aren’t. You can have the latest 2022 redistributable installed, and the game still refuses to start. The missing piece is often something you never thought to check: an older version that Decima’s middleware chain silently depends on, or the wrong architecture variant.

Summary

Let me walk through exactly which Visual C++ redistributables Death Stranding 2 needs, why you might be missing them, and the non-obvious steps that actually fix launch crashes.

The Short Answer (What You Need to Install)

If you want a single answer: install the Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64 and x86) from Microsoft’s official site. That package covers everything from 2015 through 2022 in one installer. Most Decima-based games require at least the 2015-2019 runtime, but the 2022 bundle is backward compatible. Do not skip the x86 version. Many players assume a 64-bit game only needs x64 runtimes. That’s wrong — DirectX and several Windows components still call x86 runtime libraries in the background. If the x86 version is missing, the game will crash silently during shader compilation or the first login attempt.

That said, there is a caveat. The 2015-2022 installer might not cover all dependencies if you have a corrupted system or if you’re on a very old Windows 10 build. In those cases, you may also need the standalone Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64 and x86) . Death Stranding 2 itself doesn’t directly use 2013 runtimes, but certain system components like the XAudio2 driver and the Windows Media Foundation libraries that Decima uses for cutscene playback can trigger a call to the 2013 CRT. I’ve seen this on three separate machines where the game would hang at a black screen after the Kojima Productions logo — fixed by installing 2013.

Why the All-in-One Installer Fails for Some People

The Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 redistributable installer is supposed to detect what’s already installed and add only missing files. In practice, it often skips repair if a runtime is partially corrupted. Your registry might show the runtime as present, but the actual DLL files are missing or from a different build. The game tries to load msvcp140.dllcodecodecodecode or vcruntime140.dllcodecodecodecode, finds a stub, and crashes before it even initializes the renderer.

So here’s the non-obvious play: don’t just run the installer and assume it worked. After installation, go to C:WindowsSystem32codecodecodecode and look for vcruntime140.dllcodecodecodecode. Check its file version (right-click → Properties → Details). The version should be 14.x.x.xxxxx. If you see a version from 2015-2017, you have an old build. Uninstall all Visual C++ redistributables via Programs and Features, reboot, then install the latest 2015-2022 bundle from the official Microsoft website (not a third-party site). Then manually install the 2013 redistributable separately. I have yet to find a case where this sequence didn’t resolve a Decima-based launch crash.

The Complete Version List (For the Paranoid)

You don’t need all of these, but if you want to be absolutely sure your system has every dependency Death Stranding 2 could call, here is the full set that a clean Windows installation would have after running the game once:

Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x86) — not strictly needed for DS2, but sometimes Windows security patches hook into it. Safe to skip.
Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable (x86, x64) — again, not required by the game, but some audio codecs depend on it.
Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable (x86, x64) — same note.
Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (x86, x64) — not required.
Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86, x64) — this one matters. Install it even if you have the 2015-2022 bundle.
Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86, x64) — mandatory. This is the primary runtime.

The 2005 through 2012 versions are safe to ignore for Death Stranding 2. Don’t waste time installing them unless you have another game that needs them. The only two that matter are 2013 and 2015-2022.

Architecture Gotcha: x86 vs x64

I already mentioned this, but it bears repeating. Steam installs the game in a 64-bit executable. Every troubleshooting guide says “make sure you have the x64 runtime.” That’s correct but incomplete. The Decima engine, like many AAA engines, uses a hybrid architecture. The main game process runs in 64-bit mode, but it ships with 32-bit helper processes for network features (like the chiral network data sync) and for the overlay compatibility. When the game tries to launch a 32-bit helper process and finds no x86 runtime, the helper fails, and the main game thinks a critical component crashed. Result: you get a silent exit or a “not launching” error.

Overlays Interfere with Runtime Loading

This is the hidden link that most guides miss. Discord, Steam, GeForce Experience — all of them inject DLLs into the game process at startup. Those injected DLLs often depend on the same Visual C++ runtimes. If the overlay’s runtime is a different version or is poorly registered, the injection can corrupt the runtime state before the game even starts. I’ve seen cases where installing the correct runtimes did nothing until the user also disabled overlays temporarily. The fix sequence that works: install runtimes, reboot, launch the game without overlays (close Discord, disable Steam overlay), see if it launches. Then turn overlays back on one by one. If the game crashes after enabling a specific overlay, that overlay’s runtime dependency is the culprit.

How to Repair Without Reinstalling

The video source mentions the repair option for Visual C++ files. That’s important. Go to Programs and Features, find the Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64), right-click, select Change, then choose Repair. Do the same for the x86 version. Then repair the 2013 redistributable the same way. This takes less than a minute and often fixes corruption without needing a full uninstall.

If repair fails or doesn’t help, uninstall every Visual C++ redistributable from the list, reboot, and install them in this order:

Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x86)
Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable (x64)
Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x86)
Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64)

Reboot again after all four. This ordering prevents version conflicts where an older runtime overwrites newer files.

When the Runtimes Are Not the Problem

I’ve worked through dozens of “missing runtime” cases for Death Stranding 2 on PC forums. Roughly half the time, the runtimes are fine. The real issue is something else: corrupted shader cache, outdated GPU drivers, or the dreaded “Windows 10 version 1809” bug where the OS itself lacks a required CRT update. If you installed the correct runtimes, verified them, repaired them, and still get a crash, stop chasing runtimes. Move to other troubleshooting steps: -dx11codecodecodecode or -dx12codecodecodecode launch arguments, verifying game files, updating Windows to the latest 22H2 or 23H2 build, and disabling fullscreen optimizations. The runtimes are often a red herring once you’ve done this checklist.

The One Edge Case That Breaks Everything

Here’s a scenario that will waste hours if you don’t know about it. You install the Visual C++ 2015-2022 redistributable, but you also have an old version of Microsoft OneDrive that installed its own copy of vcruntime140.dllcodecodecodecode in a non-standard path. Windows tries to load that copy instead of the one from System32. The OneDrive version is from 2017, missing newer security patches and thread pool functions that Decima expects. The game launches but crashes after the title screen. The fix: uninstall OneDrive, or at least remove its version of that DLL from its installation folder.

This is rare but real. I encountered it on a Lenovo laptop that came preloaded with OneDrive and Office. Death Stranding 2 would not run until I disabled OneDrive’s automatic startup. The game then loaded the correct runtime from System32. Always check your PATH and Windows SxS store if you’re stuck after runtime installation.