Red Dead Online kicked off Naturalist's Vitalism Studies in the latest update. As of now, there aren't many, but as the drip feeds continue to add small pieces of content, more should appear. The only animal available with the update is the male and it's a sad and restrained transformation. Players can only be in a small area of Big Valley and the transformation takes only five minutes.
While the location and restricted range cannot be changed, players can increase the amount of time they spend as a deer.
In order to transform, players need five Harrietum Officinalis and inspect the correct tree in Big Valley. After five minutes, the transformation begins to wear out. When the transformation comes to an end, a notification will appear in the upper left corner, letting players know that the connection with the buck is ending.
If you want to play the role a little longer, you need more Harrietum Officinalis. In addition to the notification, players will see a prompt in the lower right part of the screen. Holding down the button (the focus button for interacting with strangers) displays the “Extend Connection” option. Press this button to extend your processing time and make more use of the plant. When we tried it he only used one more plant, but we only had one more and it only gave us an extra minute.
There isn't much you can do as a deer thanks to the limited range and time limit. You can call with the whistle button, run, drink water, intimidate non-player characters (or player characters if you want). It's a far cry from the mechanics of the Peyote factory in GTA Online.
