Red Dead Online is here, and is huge and ambitious as Red Dead Redemption 2. You'll also have to learn new things, so don't think you can become a real multiplayer cowboy just because you were in the main campaign. In this guide we'll help you get started, give you some details about Red Dead Online what you might miss and some tips on the best things to do to get ahead.
Help | Red Dead Online Tips and Tricks to Get Started
Better to play as a team
In a game called Red Dead Online , you should play together with other people. Others are already doing so, rest assured that a gang of three or four gunmen will beat a lone wolf almost every time. Playing alone means being exposed to constant assaults and often seeing your wallet emptied.
If you really want to play solo, all you need to do is start a game of Red Dead Redemption 2. If you're playing Red Dead Online , however, it's better to do it as a team since it's a multiplayer mode. Let's start to see how to make the most of the online game Rockstar.
What can you do in Red Dead Online
Almost everything you can do in normal offline Red Dead Redemption 2 mode is available in Red Dead Online . You can still hunt, cut your hair, hunt treasure and play story quests. The main difference here is that you'll be doing this while the world is inhabited by other players (some of whom may want to kill you just for fun).
There are, however, a lot of completely new missions, events and distractions in Red Dead Online . These include:
- Missions of history. History Missions appear on the map like those of RDR2, i.e. highlighted by a yellow circle. They are quite long missions, sometimes divided into several parts, which complete the narration of Red Dead Online .
- Free roaming missions. These appear on the map as a stylized figure of a greeting person. Free Roaming Missions are the online equivalent of the Unknowns Missions of the single campaign. You get a (relatively) simple task - sometimes with a timer to complete it - and an equally small reward.
- Free roaming events. Free roaming events are challenges that jump out from time to time as you roam the world. You'll receive a notification at the top left of the screen and can decide to participate.
- Races. You'll see them on the map with a checkered flag icon. In these horse races, you'll have to race your own horse against those of others in three types of races: Lap Races (races around a predetermined route), Point-to-Point (from one place to another) and Open Races.
- Showdown Events. Showdown events appear on the map with the icon in the shape of two or three people, depending on the size of the teams involved. These events are one of the most fun and interesting components of Red Dead Online . In the section below we go to analyze them more specifically.
Showdown Events
Showdown events are teams and competitions in which you play with strangers who are chosen after matchmaking.
At launch, there are several Showdown modes:
- Hostile territory. Your team must conquer areas of the map and defend them against the opposing team.
- Make it count. Last man standing alive wins. Bow and arrows or just throwing knives, limited amount of ammunition and the playing field is constantly reduced. It is, in essence, the battle royale of Red Dead Online .
- Most Wanted. Most Wanted is an outlaw hunt: the higher the score you get for killing, the more points someone gets when they kill you.
- Name your weapon. These games work like Shootout or Most Wanted matches, but your score depends on the weapon you use: pistol kills, for example, are worth more than shotgun kills.
- Shootout. One against all, where the player with the highest number of kills wins.
- Team Shootout. Team Shootout is like Shootout, but it's team against team.
How Posse Works
The Posse are the executioners of the West, as an old movie said. They are team events that serve to join forces with other players. There will always be a Posse Leader to organize the event.
There are two types:
Temporary Posse that have a limit of four players and disappear when the Posse Leader stops. It can be seen as a quick and easy way to get your friends together. They can be organized without limits.
Persistent Poses, on the other hand, have a cost. A maximum of seven players can play and this event remains even after the Leader has retired. Players can customize and fight against opposing Posse, creating a kind of versus mode.
Posse members can go hunting together in specially equipped areas to repel waves of animals. In addition to hunting, players can also track plants and conquer gang hideouts together.
To create a Posse, press left on the D-pad and select Form Posse from the menu. You can use the Player section of the same menu to add members to the Posse.
How the Fields work
Players who are not on a team have a Player Field, which is like a hybrid between the band field in the Red Dead Redemption 2 campaign and what you can create and transport during the campaign. If you are in a Posse, you will have a Posse field.
The camps offer a safe place to rest, access the cloakroom, a place to sew and cook - and, after the upgrade, to make quick trips.
If you buy certain items, such as ammunition, from the Catalogue (it is available in the Weapon Wheel or you can hold left on the D-pad), they will appear in a Delivery Box in your Camp. (You can also pick up those deliveries at a post office.)
Honor in Red Dead Online
Just like in Red Dead Redemption 2, your actions will affect your honor. Some of these actions will be obvious - how to leave someone tied up on the train tracks or not - while others you may not notice - how to increase your bond with the horse.
Honor can affect the missions you're asked to complete. If you've kept a high honor, you'll get more "good" missions like protecting chariots, but if you tend to be bad, you'll get missions like releasing other outlaws from prison.
Discussion or Contestation
The world of Red Dead is wild and ruthless. You will be shot for no apparent reason. You will be thrown off your horse by other players. It happens.
But if it keeps happening, there's a system to help you settle matters with other players. If you and another player end up in an endless cycle of reprisals, you'll trigger a choice:
- Discussion. When a player activates this mode, you will end up face to face with your enemy, but you won't be able to use your weapons. You will have 10 minutes to talk (parley) and resolve the issue.
- Contestation. Both players must opt for Contest. If both players agree, they are launched into the three-minute Shootout mode. Whoever gets the highest number of kills wins.
The choice option appears after you've been killed by someone four times.
Skill Cards
The Abilities cards give Red Dead Online you skills with a variety of effects. Put a card in a slot and you'll get the corresponding effect.
You can buy Skill Cards from the Skill menu (located in the main menu). You'll get your first Skill Card for free during the introductory mission, while each subsequent pair of Skill Cards costs $50 each within the menu. You can also equip (or remove) them from this menu.
The first slot unlocked is for Dead Eye. Unlike the campaign, Dead Eye doesn't slow down time in (because Red Dead Online this is an online game and wouldn't work), as it does with Fallout 76's VATS. Some examples of skill cards:
The Paint It Black Skill Card allows you to highlight targets while in Dead Eye.
The Focus Fire I card allows you and your team members to "inflict a little more damage" while using Dead Eye.
The A Moment to Recover ability card slowly regenerates your health when you use Dead Eye.
You also get level skill cards while getting XP. (You can see the XP you've earned when you're flying over the card in the Ability Cards menu.) Each card has three levels (or levels), and each enhances the ability.
You can unlock multiple card slots at level 10, 20 and 40.
How to make money in Red Dead Online
If you want to know how to make money in Red Dead Online , read our guide on how to make money fast.
Horse Insurance
You will have to buy horse insurance during the introductory mission. Technically, insurance allows your horse to "recover health automatically over time if it is seriously injured". Basically, the horse you buy will not die and disappear forever. It will heal over time.
If an uninsured horse that you own "dies", you must pay to cure it in a stable. If you have insurance, there's no charge.
It's a great policy. But you have to buy insurance for each horse, and the cost seems to be based on the quality of the horse. If you have a really good horse, it's gonna cost you a lot of gold bars.
That's what you need to know before you start playing the Red Dead online mode. If, on the other hand, you're still busy on hangover rides and storming trains in the Red Dead Redemption 2 single campaign.
