Gaming
Games
9 Essential Tips to Help you Survive in Red Dead Redemption 2
America, 1899 isn’t the safest of times, especially when you’re an outlaw like Arthur Morgan, so we’ve put together some tips together to help you survive everything the Wild West throws at you.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, you may find yourself on the undiscovered plains of Western America all alone, and there are a lot of threats to your safety. They can come in the form of bears, cougars, or alligators, wanting nothing more than to tear you from limb to limb. Rival gangs won’t think twice about gunning you down for a bit of extra loot, and even the bitter cold or crippling heat can cause both you and your horse a great deal of suffering.
Knowing the best ways to face these dangers is half the battle, and we want to make sure you’ve got every base covered.
Red Dead Redemption 2 from Rockstar Games
© Rockstar Games
1. Manage your cores
Perhaps the most obvious of all but keeping your core stamina and health over 75% is vital, not just for you but your horse as well. If you notice your cores are low, take a few moments to eat some provisions, such as oatcakes or peach slices. These will drain over time simply by living in the world, but proper management will make each much easier for you to have to spend a lot of time worrying about them. Running will see your stamina deplete faster and getting into senseless gunfights put a risk to your health. Find the lowest part of a river if you need to cross it, as swimming drains your stamina at a quicker rate.
The Dead Eye core is also important to manage, but you’re not going to die if it reaches zero. It’s worth noting that rest is going to be the best thing you can do to fill up your cores, so when you get a chance to sleep, do so. Use the time like you would in real life and avoid spending the night time doing any missions if you can.
2. Fill up your bars
Each of your cores have a circular bar around them, and they act much more like the typical gauges in most games. There’re plenty of tonics to help top them up, and some even fortify them for short periods of time, meaning they won’t run down in that time frame. The bars offer instant health and stamina boosts, whereas the cores are longer term, but both are important and should be filled up whenever you can.
3. Dress Accordingly
One of the main causes of rapid core depletion is being too hot or too cold. There’re multiple biomes in Red Dead Redemption 2, so having a variety of different outfits is going to help massively. Make sure you store three different types on your horse so that you can switch when moving between cold and hot locations. To specifically select which outfits you want to store on your horse, you’ll need to visit a wardrobe to do so; head to a hotel or your camp to do this.
4. Robbing trains
Robbing resources is crucial
© Rockstar Games
Looting bodies is important to find minor items and a bit of extra cash, but for a bigger haul of goods and supplies, robbing is going to be a huge win for you, providing you go in prepared. Some folks will allow you to take things from them whilst others will put up a fight. You may have to kill and risk committing a crime, you may not. Regardless, head into your items wheel by pressing L1/LB and equip your bandana before doing so. That way, if anyone is alerted or if a witness manages to report you, there’s no tie to you – Arthur Morgan.
If you really want to go big, and are confident enough to do it, there’re plenty of trains for you to jump on, all filled with wealthy passengers. Get that bandana on and threaten everyone on board to get plenty of money for your cause. There’re plenty of ways to rob trains, and there’s no set way to do it; you just need to use your head a bit. You can ride along side a moving train on your horse and press Square/X when prompted, or simply buy a train ticket and rob once the train is in motion. There’s a huge risk/reward to robbing trains, so picking the right moment is vital. Wait until you’re in the middle of nowhere, or on a bridge for the least amount of attention. Go in with firepower and be incredibly smart.
5. Clean your weapons
Rockstar has literally thought of everything, and with that there are things you may not think about, but things you need to do if you want to survive a gunfight. Over time your weapons will get dirty, meaning its stats will decrease and render the weapon less affective. By maintaining your guns by clicking the right analogue stick when prompted, you’ll spend a few seconds sprucing it up and making it as good as new.
6. Go Fish
Hunting will most certainly provide you with bountiful meals and wonderful pelts to sell or craft fancy items with, but it can take time. Fishing isn’t necessarily any quicker, but the art of swinging your rod and standing at the edge of a glistening, serene lake not only provides you with sustenance with the fish you catch, but it’s also a soothing and satisfying pastime. You won’t unlock the ability to fish until completing Chapter 2’s ‘Pouring Forth Oil – III’ mission, but as soon as you can, take full advantage of it.
Head into the items wheel and select your rod. You’ll be able to choose different kinds of bait, all with the ability to catch better fish (depending on whether you’re fishing in a lake with said fish). Once equipped, hold L2/LT then let go to deploy your bait and swing your rod. When you feel a slight rumble of the control, don’t react; wait until the rumble gets more intense when move the right analogue in a circular motion to reel it in. If the fish starts to pull, stop moving the right analogue stick in circles and move it from left to right instead so the fish can’t escape. As soon as it stops, continue as before until the fish is in your hands. It’s a quick and easy way to gather food for you and your camp, and provides a nice relaxing sidestep from all the killing.
7. Never forget your camp
Fight to survive in Red Dead Redemption 2
© Rockstar
It’s easy to forget about your camp when off galivanting, but the more you put in, the more you gain. Your camp gives you access to provisions and medical supplies, ammo and more, and after unlocking the ability to donate cash to the camp’s kitty (completing the ‘Money Lending and Other Sins’ mission given to you by Leopold Strauss), upgrading is hugely important to providing a better life your everyone. You can build fancier lodgings for Dutch which inspires others to bring more money to the camp, improve the medical carriage that offers more supplies, extra hitching post for horses, and unlock fast travel, amongst other things. Of course, you can donate supplies to Pearson, but by upgrading the camp the workload will be shared, and each day will become more bountiful than the last.
Whenever you visit the camp, you’ll see three icons coloured in one of three different ways. This represents the amount of food, medicine, and ammo your camp has. It’s important these are never in the red because it means your camp is suffering. Moral will drop, people won’t want to help, and you’ll be forced to work harder to provide. If the icons are white, things are better, but you want to keep these icons gold. Spend all your initial money you earn in Red Dead Redemption 2 upgrading the camp, and you’ll need to worry less about providing everything to it.
8. Stay on your horse
It's important to stay on your horse
© Rockstar Games
Exploring the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 can often lead to trouble, but your horse will always offer a quick getaway when things go south. Only go on foot in towns or at your camp; its fine to explore abandoned buildings and campsites, but if you can stay on your horse when in the open, it’ll be more beneficial if you hear the growl of a cougar or the snap of an alligator’s jaws. You never know what’s out there, so making sure you’ve got a quick exit gives you piece of mind in unfamiliar territory.
9. Sleep under the stars
If you find yourself a long way from home, or even a local town, don’t discount the benefits of a good sleep under the stars. Not only will it refill your cores, but it means you’re not racing back in the dead of night to your camp and risking a deadly encounter with a bunch of rival outlaws or an angry predator. You can also cook a filling meal and craft some items over a fire; camping alone has more benefits than just being a fancy mechanic. Everything has a purpose in Red Dead Redemption 2, and this is no different.
