Red Dead Online, now out at last in beta, is a totally different ballgame from Red Dead Redemption 2 proper. This time around, you have a whole different campaign, and entirely different mechanics governing your progress through what can only be called an MMORPG set in the Wild West. Here’s where we come in—in this guide, we walk you through making your way through what Red Dead Online has to offer.

STORY PROGRESSION TO 100%

Once you finish the story in Red Dead Online, you might notice that your story progression is stuck at 75%. There’s a reason for this—the final missions in the game actually differ based on your Honor rating, and you need to see the High and Low Honor missions both to achieve 100%.

Thankfully, this is easy enough—once you complete the game, just make your Honor swing to the other side. So if you had high honor, work on lowering it (and work on making it higher if it was low). There’s an in game NPC who can reset your honor for you, so use that to get a clean slate in case you’re too far gone in either direction.

Once you reach a high (or low) enough rating, the other set of missions will open for you, and you can complete them to achieve a 100% completion.

EARNING 10,000+ XP IN AN HOUR

There is a totally awesome way to earn 10,000+ XP in the game in an hour, and jump straight to level 50. Before we move ahead, ensure you don’t trigger the boss fight cutscene. To drop this, you need the following:

The mission “Kill Them, Each and Every One of Them” needs to be unlocked (it doesn’t matter if this is a replay). Then you need a posse of 2 people. Note that you need at least 2 people; you can have more than that, but you earn less XP per person.

From here on, XP farming is dreadfully simple. First, select the mission from the Progress Menu, and quit out of the lobby as soon as you start. Now travel to the yellow marker in New Austin, and select “Start Mission” instead of matchmaking when you get there. Now, play the first checkpoint. Literally, kill and advance inward until you reach the back of the fort. Here, get killed as dying loses you no XP, and restart from the previous checkpoint. Rinse and repeat.

If done right, you can earn up to 10,000+ XP in an hour. Furthermore, the video below can help you in farming XP.

Red Dead Redemption 2’s biggest selling point is the realism and immersion that it tries to extend. The game has multiple survival and simulation elements, and the world is a glorious and stunning recreation of the end of the Wild West. However, it’s still a game that knows how to have at least some fun with itself, and have some, well, unexpected elements within it, to put it lightly.

One of these is the legendary vampire in the game. This vampire is also intrinsically tied to the strange murders that have been occurring around Saint Denis. This may seem like a mystery that’s just flavour and world building to you at first glance, but it is in fact something you can get to the bottom of. It is entirely possible to find the vampire, and try to resolve the murders.

The simplest way to do so is to keep track of the strange graffiti on the walls in Saint Denis. There’s five of these for you to find, and once you do, Arthur pulls out his journal and draws a pentagram there. Juxtaposing this pentagram with the game map shows you the center—a location that, when you go to it, has a church. Wait there till night, and a dead body suddenly shows up on the radar. This will bring you face to face with the vampire…

The videos below show you exactly how to work your way through this interesting and unexpected quest.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a remarkably polished game, but it does have some glitches and bugs in it. A lot of these can be hilarious, but there’s some… interesting ones, that can play pretty hard to the nostalgia players may have for the original game that came out in 2010.

One of these glitches is one that lets you get to Mexico. It’s a part of the map that’s in the game, but is basically completely empty. You can also glitch to Guarma Island, which is based on Cuba, and is similarly empty. Presumably this is just unused map data that was left in the game—but for anyone who wants to go there anyway, there is an easy way to do it, although, as I am sure you have caught on to by now, it requires you glitching your game.

You also need to have completed the game entirely to be able to use the glitch. This means you must have completed the final mission.

Keeping all of this mind, and being mindful of the fact that these videos almost certainly have spoilers, you can watch them to figure out how to glitch outside of the playable map area in the game.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an open world game hiding a hell of a lot within its crevices. These include weapons, loot, gear, and more. Sometimes, finding this treasure is a simple matter of stumbling upon it. Other times, you must find the right treasure map and follow it to its marked destination to get what it is that it guards. This guide covers both of those.

HIGH STAKES TREASURE MAPS

High stakes treasure maps are a line of special treasure maps you can find in Red Dead Redemption 2. There are two ways to get started with this quest—either via random encounters in the World, or by purchasing one of the maps from a Fence if you miss the encounters too many times. This part of the guide details the encounters for all three maps.

Map 1: The first map is with an older hunter, who usually hangs by the Riggs Station. Alternately, there are reports of him showing up along Valentine and Strawberry as well. Once you see him, you will need to rob him, because he doesn’t give it up willingly. Upon finding the map, it will lead you to treasure by Cumberbatch Falls, close to Valentine, which you probably remember as the site of the first bounty in the game. Approach the falls from the west and swim to the rocks on the southern side, where a tree will let you climb behind the falls and get to the first stash.

Map 2: The second map is gotten in the treasure stash at Cumberbatch Falls. Once you retrieve it, it leads you to the seconds treasure stash, in Barrow Lagoon, between Lake Isabelle and Widow Rock. Once you are on the frozen lake, find the tree acting as a bridge, where, inside a knot on the log, you will find the second stash. This also includes the third map.

Map 3: Follow the third map leading to the final stash of treasure. The map leads you to Fort Wallace, but you really want to look by the formation of rocks next to it to follow them to a slight drop between peaks to find the final treasure stash and complete the quest line.

EXOTICS LOCATIONS

There are five exotic missions comprising 19 locations in Red Dead Redemption 2, which count towards 100% completion. They are available after Chapter 4, once you complete the Duchess and Other Animals quest. This quest is given to you by Algernon Wasp in the north of Saint Denis, in the Garden House.

This is a long quest—it depends a lot on random spawns a lot of the times, and it can take you upwards of 10 hours, depending on how much the RNG decide to favor you on a given day. The whole quest primarily has you hunting two specific kinds of objects:

• Birds
• Plants

The plants are reasonably easy to find once you know where you are looking for, because they are always fixed spawns. You simply have to activate Eagle Vision (L3+R3 or LS+RS) once you are in ther right area, and you will always find them highlighted by blue dots. There will always be more of these available than you actually need, which means it’s very hard for you to mess up this portion of the quest.

On the other hand, the birds can be tough to find. See, they spawn in a small radius around the quest giver, but the spawns are totally random. The worst part is you need to skin multiple of them to get the feathers you need to complete the quest. So the only thing for you to do is to keep farming the area for the birds until you get what you have. As I said above, this quest can take you a long time, because there are five Exotics requests to complete.

There is no easy way to show you where to find the things you need, short of actually, well, showing you where to find them. The video below walks you through the locations you need to go to to find all the Exotics and complete this challenging quest. However, the video is not in English but translation is available.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has you look for certain special people and special locations. The special people are Fencers, who buy items from you that no one else will buy, like stolen items and gold bars. The special items are Shacks, which include valuable secrets and loot in them. In this guide, we cover both.

FENCERS

As mentioned previously, Fencers are folks who will buy stuff from you no one else will. They will also craft Talksmans and Trinkets for you, powerful items that can give you perks and buffs.

You can find them in the following locations:

• Emerald Ranch. This is a part of a story mission you do in Chapter 2, so you’ll run into it yourself. This is the Wagon Fence.
• Clemens Point. This is a part of a story mission you do in Chapter 3, so you’ll run into it yourself. This is the Horse Fence.
• Rhodes
• Van Horn

SHACK LOCATIONS

There are several shacks to be found around the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, each hiding special loot, and story snippets about whatever lies within it. You need to find at least five of these to be able to get a 100% completion. They are not missable, and for them to count, you just have to enter the Shack.

The video below shows your where to find five of them.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has a lot of horses and a lot of weapons you can find for yourself. However, given that this is a modern AAA game, there are obviously RPG elements at play here, and some are better than others. In this guide, we talk about finding some of the best ones of each.

THE BEST WEAPONS IN THE GAME

• Rare Rolling Block Rifle: Pick it up from the sniper in the back of the barn in the mission Magicians for Sport
• Otis Miller’s Revolver: This can be found in Rattlesnake Hollow, which is a cave by the north border of Cholla Springs
• Algernon’s Revolver: Complete The Side Quest “Duchesses and other Animals”
• Granger’s Revolver: You need to beat Gunslinger Granger to get this
• Midnight’s Pistol: You need to beat Billy Midnight to get this
• Calloway’s Revolver: Pick it up from the ground after beating Slim Grant in the quest the “Noblest of Men”. If you do not, it will disappear forever.
• Flaco’s Revolver: Beat Gunslinger Flaco
• Rare Double Barrel Shotgun: Set a waypoint right below the letter “a” where “Manito Glade” shows up on your map. There will be a house here, where you need to kill a man. You can loot this from him when you do
• Viking Hatchet: Find this in the Old Tomb
• Broken Pirate Sword: Found in the shipwreck of the pirate ship by the islands south-west of Saint Denis
• Ancient Tomahawk: Found in northeast Calumet Ravine
• Hunter Hatchet: Set a marker below “K” in Window Rock, break into the house, beat the man, and get this weapon

THE BEST HORSE IN THE GAME

There’s a lot of great horses in the game, some gated by story progress, some only available if you pre-ordered the game, and so on. However, arguably the best one is one you can get for yourself at any point, just by roaming around in the world. This section of the guide deals with that:

• Go towards Lake Isabella. It’s a snowy area, and the horse is white, so it will be hard to see it right away, keep that in mind
• Once you see it, Focus on the horse and walk towards it slowly
• Pay attention to the meter on the bottom right—if it is about to get full, stop walking and wait for it to go back down
• Once you’re close enough, press X/Square to calm the horse down
• Mount it. The horse will try to buck you off, so hold on to it tightly pressing the analog stick in the opposite direction of where the horse is moving
• Once this has happened, move around with it until the game tells you you have broken it in
• Once this happens, you can put your saddle on it. Congrats, the horse is now yours!

Red Dead Redemption 2 has a camp that’s your base of operations, and your home, as well as where your band of outlaw brothers and sisters try to stay on the run from the law, and survive against the harshness of the wilderness. As such, it’s a camp you need to invest in the upkeep of.

Speaking of the wilderness, Red Dead Redemption 2 lets you engage with its wildlife in all sorts of ways—one of those ways is fishing. In this guide, we discuss fishing and camp item request locations.

CAMP ITEM REQUEST LOCATIONS

You need to deliver five Camp Companion Items—the Harmionica, Penny Dreadful Book, Naval Compass, Pearl Necklace, Creeping Thyme, and Crime Novel. You need five out of those six to achieve a 100% completion in the game, and more importantly, you need to get this done before the beginning of Chapter 5. If you have not done it by then, you won’t be able to do it, period.

Keep that in mind. The video below includes locations for all six of these items.

LEGENDARY FISH LOCATIONS

Much like with the animals in Red Dead Redemption 2, there are Legendary rank fish in the game as well. In fact, there are 13 of them to fish out, and you need to find all of them to get a 100% completion rate. But that’s not all, there’s more conditions at play here:

• You need to mail each one of the fish for it to count as having been caught
• You need special Lures to catch them, which cost $20 in the fishing supplies shop in the Bayou. They cannot be caught without these special Lures.

With this in mind, then, here’s a video showing you where to find all 13.

Red Dead Redemption 2 gives you a lot of options to manage your character. These include Talismans and Trinkets, which bestow perks upon you that can boost or rebuff stats to your liking. It also includes War Horses, which are a far better breed of horse than anything else you can get. In this guide, we discuss all of this.

GETTING PERKS VIA TALISMANS AND TRINKETS

Like just about everything else in Red Dead Redemption 2, getting perks is a long, drawn out process. It entails you hunting down Legendary Animals, skinning their pelt, gaining crafting parts that a Fence can synthesize into Talismans and Trinkets, and giving them any other unique items they might need to do so. Oh, and of course, these Talismans and Trinkets also cost extra money, so there is that. Oh, and you don’t want to damage the pelt when you hunt the Legendary animal either.

I love all the systems at play in this game.

One of the Fences in the game can be found early near Emerald Ranch, if you complete a certain story mission, but there are many more to be encountered. Once you find a Fence, you can obtain the following Talismans and Trinkets for yourself.

Trinkets

• Coyote Fang: Needs- Legendary Coyote Fang (Increases Deadeye XP bonus by 10%)
• Beaver Tooth: Needs- Legendary Beaver Tooth (Slows down weapon degradation by 10%)
• Lion’s Paw: Needs- Lion’s Paw (Stamina XP bonus raised by 10%)
• Cougar Fang: Needs- Legendary Cougar Fang (Stamina XP bonus raised by 10%)
• Tatanka Bison Horn: Needs- Legendary Tatanka Bison Horn (Melee defense  increased by 10%)
• Pronghorn Horn: Needs- Legendary Pronghorn Horn (Will prevent animal carcass on your horse from rotting)
• Buck Antler: Needs- Legendary Buck Antler (Skinned animal quality will be better)
• Elk Antler: Needs- Legendary Elk Antler (Get 10% more money when looting)
• Moose Antler: Needs- Legendary Moose Antler (Health XP bonus raised by 10%)
• Fox Claw: Needs- Legendary Fox Claw (Can use Eagle Eye for 5s longer)
• Panther’s Eye: Needs- Legendary Panther Eye (Deadeye Bar drains slower)

Talismans

• Bison Horn: Needs- Abalone Shell Fragment, Legendary Bison Horn, Silver Earring (Stamina core will decrease 10% slower)
• Alligator Tooth Talisman: Needs- Vintage Civil War Handcuffs, Gold Jointed Bracelet, Legendary Alligator Tooth (Decreases Dead Eye Core draining speed by 10%)
• Raven Claw: Needs- Old Brass Compass, Legendary Raven Claw (Weapon degradation slowed by 20%)
• Bear Claw: Needs- Silver Chain Bracelet, Legendary Bear Claw, Quartz Chunk (Health core drains 10% slower)
• Boar Tusk: Needs- Legendary Boar Tusk, Gold Earring, Cobalt Petrified Wood (Horse cores will drain 10% slower)

GETTING A WAR HORSE

War horses are, well, special horses. Higher health, higher stamina, just all around better (although their speed and stamina is lower). You will probably want them, but they’re expectedly harder to get. You can gain one in any one of the following ways:

• You get one if you pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition
• You can tame one in the wild. They are found in Northern Blackwest
• Certain stables sell them—bear in mind though, they are very expensive. They can go as high as $400

Red Dead Redemption 2 has a lot of wildlife, wildlife you can interact with. You can hunt animals, and you can fish for, er, fish. However, not all animals are created equal—some are simply better than others, and for the best results, those are the ones you want to hunt down. This guide deals with hunting down Legendary Animals, as well as learning how to fish.

LEGENDARY ANIMALS LOCATIONS

There are 15 Legendary Animals in the game, found in the wild. None of them are missable, and you can return to hunt them at any time you want. Two of them also have story missions, while some of them need you to have completed the story before you can get to them.

You need to hunt 5 Legendary Animals — any 5, it doesn’t matter which ones — to get 100% completion. You also need to make sure you’re the only one looking for them when you are trying to track the animal down. If you get to an area to find a Legendary Animal, and it says there’s too much activity in the area, try scaring the people and animals off, or simply leave and come back at a later time.

The video below shows you where to find all the Legendary Animals in the game:

HOW TO FISH

You unlock fishing by completing a mission in Chapter 2, named A Fisher of Men.  Fishing itself is simple—open up the weapons wheel and switch to items, equip the fishing rod, when the fishing rod is equipped, attach bait to it by using the Bait wheel.

Once this is done, aim with the left trigger. Use the right trigger to throw a cast—hold for a long cast, tap for a short cast. Maybe rotate the bait with the stick to lure a fish. Once a fish bites, don’t pull it in yet. Hold the right trigger and tire the fish out. Drag the fish in the other direction it wants to go. Cause tension in the line by holding the left and right sticks in the opposite directions. Once the water stops splashing, reel the fish in by rotating the right stick clockwise.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that strives and pushes for realism beyond anything any other game has done before. This includes the in game economy too. While you need money for everything you do in the game, you won’t find it easily—money can be hard to come across in this game. Hey, I told you it’s realistic.

In this guide, we consider different ways of earning money: by doing so legitimately in game, and then by using exploits to try and, well, game the system.

EARNING MONEY LEGITIMATELY

• It goes without saying, but you want to complete the missions. Missions typically give you money in large amounts, so they’re the easiest way to get some
• Hunt: hunting lets you skin animals for pelt, which you can then sell to trappers for cash. The better the quality of the pelt you are selling, the more money you get
• Bounties: walk into the Sherrif’s office in town, and you’ll see bounties posted. Complete those bounties, and you get a cash injection. Plus, they’re fun little side missions as well
• Loot dead bodies: they will always give you some ammo and consumables, but they are often carrying treasure maps (that can lead you to cash), and valuables that you can pawn off for money
• Fence carriages. Early in the story, you unlock the ability to sell off a carriage you’ve stolen. This can earn you a pretty penny, but of course, it comes with its risks, as do…
• Robberies and heists: you can rob banks and trains, as well as stores and people. All of this will make you money, and the higher profile your target, the more the cash payout you get. Of course, you also risk getting caught and/or a huge bounty on your head, so keep that in mind…
• Help people: you’re an outlaw, but if you ever run into someone along the way who needs help, go ahead and help them. At best, they give you something valuable, while at worst, they give you information on where to find something valuable

EARNING MONEY ILLEGITIMATELY

Even for a game about an outlaw in the Old West, there are illegitimate ways of earning money. Usually, that means exploiting a glitch in the game. And sure enough, there is an item duplication glitch you can leverage to earn a whole lot of money in game.

Now, before we proceed:

1. Turn off autosave
2. Make sure to keep a backup of your save to revert to should something go wrong
3. Do keep in mind that this exploit could be patched, and you won’t be able to use it any more

With that in mind, here’s what the glitch works on: the principle of you selling a gold bar (which goes for a lot of money). If you have a lot of gold bars, you can have a lot of money. This glitch can be used to duplicate the gold bar infinitely, potentially giving you infinite money. Here are the steps:

• You need a gold bar to begin with. I recommend the one found in Limpany
• Go to the Sherif’s office and find the lockbox. Open it, but don’t pick up the gold
• Save the game here
• Pick up the gold—as soon as the Gold icon shows up on the right of the screen, hit pause and manually save, overwriting the latest save
• Now, load the save you just made
• You will find the gold bar in your inventory and also in your box—from here, you can keep reloading the save over and over to have as many gold bars as you want
• You can sell your gold in Emeral Ranch

Just in case you want a good visualization, the video below walks you through these same steps: