10 Essential Red Dead Redemption 2 Tips
Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most epic open world games ever made. There’s a lot to do in the game, from story missions to sidequests, from hunting animals to robbing banks. And that means Red Dead Redemption 2 can, at times, feel overwhelming.
There are some fundamental things you need to learn in order to enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2. And they should help you succeed at playing the game without dying too often. So, here are some essential Red Dead Redemption 2 tips all players should know…
1. Take Note of Your Surroundings
This may seem obvious to some, but it’s worth mentioning. Don’t just focus on your destination or waypoint. Instead, scan the horizon for places worth exploring and people worth meeting.
Smoke rising into the air means someone has a campfire. A white circle denotes a stranger mission is close by. You’ll also see or hear animals close by that may be worth hunting.
2.
Always Set Destinations on Your Map
The map in Red Dead Redemption 2 is vast. So vast, in fact, that a fast travel option becomes available in Chapter 2 by upgrading Arthur’s lodgings.
However, if you are riding anywhere, always set a destination on your map, just as you would with Google Maps. The game will guide you via the shortest route, and with a destination set you can enable the cinematic camera and travel hands-free.
3. Keep an Eye On Your Cores
In Red Dead Redemption 2 your character and horse have cores that need to be maintained. Your character has cores for health, stamina and dead eye, while your horse has cores for health and stamina.
These all need to be maintained, or your character will suffer. So keep an eye on your cores, and eat, sleep, and take tonics as required. This is especially important when you’re heading into a mission.
4. Pay Your Bounties Off ASAP
For every crime you commit (even by accident) you’ll earn a bounty.
This will be specific to the region in which you committed the crime, making it difficult to travel there in the future.
If you commit a crime don’t make it worse by killing people to escape the law, as that will just increase your bounty. Instead, surrender to lawmen or clear the area while they investigate. Then, as soon as you’re able to do so, go and pay the bounty off at the nearest post office.
5. Bond With Your Horse
Horses are crucial in this game. Without one you’ll struggle to get anywhere or do anything. Which is why it’s important to bond with your horse as much as possible.
Doing so will open up new moves (making it easier to get away from enemies) and increase the range at which you can whistle for your horse. And all you need to do is pat, brush, and feed your horse now and again (by standing near your horse and opening the relevant menu).
6. Greet Everyone You Meet
Red Dead Redemption 2 employs an honor system. Do good deeds (such as helping strangers) and your honor will increase.
Do bad deeds (such as killing people camping in the wild) and your honor will decrease.
There are advantages to being honorable, including getting money off items for sale in shops. And one simple way of increasing your honor is simply greeting everyone you meet. Just don’t accidentally press the wrong button and shoot them dead instead.
7. Do Talk to Strangers
As kids we’re taught not to talk to strangers, but in the case of Red Dead Redemption 2 you definitely should. Even random NPCs can pass on useful or interesting information. Or provide you with a reward for helping them out.
However, it’s the strangers in the stranger missions that you should seek out. You’ll get rewards, tips, and extra strands of story often ranging over several chapters.
8. Use Dead Eye Whenever Possible
To survive in Red Dead Redemption 2 you need to be handy with your gun. You can fire off the hip or take aim in the hopes of killing someone with a single shot.
However, Dead Eye is by far the best method of winning a gunfight. It enables you to tag a number of enemies at once in slow-motion, giving you a definite advantage.
To activate Dead Eye, hold down the aim button, and then click the right stick. Everything will then slow down, allowing you to tag enemies before firing off a barrage of shots.
9. Keep Your Weapons Clean
Over the course of Red Dead Redemption 2 you’ll pick up a lot of different weapons. And unless you’re an absolute saint you’ll shoot them all numerous times as well.
Your weapons will get dirty, and when they’re dirty they’ll be less accurate and slower to load. So buy some gun oil and clean your weapons more often than your character cleans his clothes.
To clean your weapons, just open the Weapon Wheel, highlight a weapon, and press the right stick to inspect it. You’ll see the condition it’s in, and can select the option to clean it.
10. Make Friends With the Fence
In Red Dead Redemption 2, fences are black market traders who will buy and sell illicit objects.
You’ll unlock one after a Chapter 2 mission, but you can also take the long ride out to Saint Denis to meet one early.
Fences are invaluable assets. They’ll buy your ill-gotten gains off you without asking questions, and sell you valuable items such as new recipes, talismans, and a silent lock breaker.
Savor Every Minute of Red Dead Redemption 2
There’s one more piece of advice that you need to heed. Which is to savor every minute of Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar has built a living, breathing version of the American Frontier circa 1899, and you should embrace every part of that.
Don’t rush through the storyline to get to the end. Don’t skip stranger missions to save time. Instead, camp out under the stars, visit saloons late at night, and ride your horse to the four corners of the map with the cinematic camera enabled.
This is the only way to truly appreciate the world Rockstar has created. And when you finally finish the game using our Red Dead Redemption 2 tips you should check out some other classic games set in the Wild West or perhaps pick up some tips for another epic game, Witcher 3.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Cheats
(Image credit: Rockstar)
These Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats can make things easier or just more fun with codes that give you money, spawn gear and equipment and more. Whereas GTA 5 cheats can span a range of weird and wonderful effects, the codes here are more restrained: never leaving the bounds of reality, bar the spontaneous creation of guns, gold, horses and so on.
That’s not to say you won’t drastically alter the game with these Red Dead Redemption 2 cheat codes. You can change attributes, gain wealth, weapons, outfits and gear, and generally open up the Wold West instantly to your needs. It couldn’t be easier to use these codes either — you just have to type in certain phrase you’ll discover in newspapers in Red Dead Redemption 2 . You don’t even have to find them as we’ve got them a listed here for quick and easy use. So here are all the Red Dead Redemption 2 cheat and codes for you to use.
Where can you find Red Dead Redemption 2 cheat codes?
Most people will have probably come across a cheat code in Red Dead Redemption 2 without actually knowing it.
Many are found at random, scrawled into ice or etched into a cabinet in a lonesome shack.
However, there is actually one guaranteed way of finding cheat codes: buying newspapers. Head to Valentine, Saint Denis and Blackwater and pick up the New Hanover Gazette, Saint Denis Times and Blackwater Ledger respectively from the newspaper seller in town. Certain newspapers will only be available after clearing particular flashpoints in the story, and a number of cheats are actually locked off depending on your progress, so to get the best experience, you probably want to finish the campaign first.
The newspapers don’t cost very much, and if you’ve already beaten the game then you should be loaded with cash, so quickly pick up every copy available. Once you’ve done that, simply open up your satchel, pick a newspaper, flip it over and zoom in to the bottom of the paper. If the paper has a cheat code, there will be a little tagline underneath one of the articles which contains a phrase.
This phrase is what you have to type in to unlock the corresponding cheat code.
How to enter Red Dead Redemption 2 cheat codes
Activating cheat codes in Red Dead Redemption 2 is a fairly simple process. Hit pause to access the main menu, then navigate to the Settings tab, and if you look in the bottom right corner you’ll see ‘Cheats’. Tap Triangle/Y to navigate to that screen.
You’ll most likely be faced with a blank list if you’re yet to enter any cheats, but fear not! Tapping Triangle/Y once more will open up a text box for you to type in the phrases you’ve discovered during your travels. Once you’ve done that, you can either toggle or tap the cheat codes to activate them in your game.
Be warned, activating cheats will disable both saving and Trophies or Achievements, so tread with caution! We recommend entering all the codes you want, then manually saving your game to lock them in before experimenting with them.
Red Dead Redemption 2 cheat codes
When entering these cheat codes, capitalisation isn’t important — but punctuation is required as written for the codes to work.
Most can be entered at any point, but a few require that you purchase the newspaper containing them first, and we’ve marked these in italics along with the point in the story the relevant paper becomes available from. There are 37 cheat codes in Red Dead Redemption 2, as follows:
“Abundance is the dullest desire” — Gives Arthur infinite ammunition
Purchase newspaper from Chapter 1 onwards
“A simple life, a beautiful death” — Gives Arthur a set of Basic Weapons
“Greed is American virtue” — Gives Arthur a set of Heavy Weapons
Purchase newspaper after completing «Advertising, the New American Art» in Chapter 3
“Death is silence” — Gives Arthur a set of Stealth Weapons
“History is written by fools” — Gives Arthur the Gunslinger side mission weapons
“You long for sight and see nothing” — Removes Fog of War from the map
Purchase newspaper after completing «Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern» in Chapter 3
“Greed is now a virtue” — Gives Arthur $500
“Vanity.
All is vanity” — Instantly unlocks all in-game outfits
“Eat of knowledge” — Teaches Arthur every crafting recipe
“Share” — Unlocks every camp upgrade
“Virtue unearned is not virtue” — Gives Arthur maximum Honor
Purchase newspaper after completing «Urban Pleasures» in Chapter 4
“You revel in your disgrace, I see” — Gives Arthur minimum Honor
“Balance. All is balance” — Gives Arthur neutral Honor
“Be greedy only for foresight” — Gives Arthur Infinite Dead-Eye
“The lucky be strong evermore” — Gives Arthur Infinite Stamina
Purchase newspaper after completing Chapter 5
“Guide me better” — Dead Eye Level 1
“Make me better” — Dead Eye Level 2
“I shall be better” — Dead Eye Level 3
“I still seek more” — Dead Eye Level 4
“I seek and I find” — Dead Eye Level 5
“Seek all the bounty of this place” — Permanently increases Arthur’s Health, Stamina and Dead-Eye meters
“You flourish before you die” — Fills Arthur’s Health, Stamina and Dead-Eye meters
“You seek more than the world offers” — Fills meters and fortifies Arthur’s cores
Purchase newspaper after completing «The King’s Son» in Chapter 6
“My kingdom is a horse” — Increases Arthur’s Horse Bonding level
“Better than my dog” — Let’s Arthur call his horse from any range
“A fool on command” — Plies Arthur with alcohol, induces drunkenness
“Run! Run! Run!” — Spawns a race horse
“You are a beast built for war” — Spawns a War Horse
Purchase newspaper after completing the Epilogue
“You want more than you have” — Spawns a Superior Horse (Arabian)
“You want something new” — Spawns a random horse
“The best of the old ways” — Spawns a stagecoach
“Keep your dreams simple” — Spawns a wagon
“Keep your dreams light” — Spawns a horse-drawn buggy
“Would you be happier as a clown?” — Spawns a Circus Wagon
Purchase newspaper after completing the Epilogue
“You want punishment” — Gives Arthur a Wanted Level
“You want freedom” — Drops Arthur’s Wanted Level
“You want everyone to go away” — Removes Arthur’s notoriety/bounties
Congratulations, you’ve unlocked every Red Dead Redemption 2 cheat code!
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Iain originally joined Future in 2012 to write guides for CVG, PSM3, and Xbox World, before moving on to join GamesRadar in 2013 as Guides Editor.
His words have also appeared in OPM, OXM, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, and SFX. He is better known to many as ‘Mr Trophy’, due to his slightly unhealthy obsession with amassing intangible PlayStation silverware, and he now has almost 500 Platinum pots weighing down the shelves of his virtual award cabinet. He does not care for Xbox Achievements.
With contributions from
- Leon HurleySenior Guides Co-ordinator
Red Dead Redemption 2: Maniac — where to find the killer
Red Dead Redemption 2 placement of maniac clues is one of the many side quests you can encounter while playing the massive open world adventure.
Unlike other quests that require you to find strangers to start the quest, in this quest you may come across clues quite by accident. And they will be terrible.
There are a total of three places to find maniac clues, collect a map, and catch a serial killer.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Assassin: Clue Part 1
The first clue location is south of Valentine, between Citadel Rock and Caster’s Ridge:
If you follow the road north, you’ll find a bloody trail on the right leading under the lot railroad.
On the left side you will find the head again, and the second part of the killer’s clue.
One more part of the map remains to be read.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Assassin: Clue Part 2
The second part of the clue can be found between Strawberry and Wallace.
Go to the road that intersects with the railway, there you will find a bloody stain and body parts on the side of the road.
Follow the trail of blood until you reach a large rock at the top of the hill for a particularly gruesome scene.
Nearby, on a stone, a head with a sheet of paper in its mouth, this is the 1st killer’s clue, after reading which you will activate the quest to find the maniac.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Assassin: 3rd part of the clue
The third and final location of the maniac clue is south of Rhodes.
If you haven’t reached this location yet in the story (you need to go there in Chapter 3), don’t worry, you can use fast travel and the train to get there at any time from the beginning of Chapter 2 onwards.
You need to specifically head east of Braithwaite Homestead, near the «S» in «Meadows» that trails vertically down the map:
From the north, look to the right to find a trail of blood leading to a tree.
The victim’s head and the third and last part of the killer’s clue on the left.
Map of the location of the killer’s hideout and how to stop the maniac
Now we have all three map fragments. Here’s what it looks like:
The location points to a place called Lucky’s Cabin. It won’t be named as such on the map if you haven’t been around, but you will find it to the southwest of Valentine. When you get close enough, an area with a white stranger will appear on the map, telling you that you are moving in the right direction.
Look for a ruined hut with a pair of doors leading to the basement. This is the only building on the map within this radius, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find. There is a hint on the map on how to open these doors and enter.
Once inside, be sure to equip your Lantern (it’s in the weapon slot, in the lower right corner) to see everything clearly, although there’s little to see.
Read the two letters on the table on the right before you go around the corner. When you’re ready, examine the knife in the middle of the floor at the back of the basement.
As soon as you do this, you will be ambushed. After the cutscene, hit back — one hit should knock out the maniac. Now tie him hand and foot and take him to the local sheriff according to the instructions.
When you get there, drop it near the table and after the cutscene, be ready to point your weapon at the killer attacking the sheriff.
He will reward you with 20 dollars for your rescue, a rather pitiful amount for the difficulties you have gone through. But by itself, revealing these scenes (and stopping the killer) may be reward enough.
26 Essential Red Dead Redemption 2 Tips You Need to Know Before You Play
We all know that you need to set aside a few hundred hours to play Red Dead Redemption 2.
It’s a vast, vast game that you can settle into and take a little trip to 1899 year and the Wild, Wild West. Like GTA 5, there are plenty of sub-menus, systems, and other things to get to grips with before this one, and that will help our Red Dead Redemption 2 tips. From how to make the most of your horse, what to do in a gunfight, where to improve your bullets, and much more, these Red Dead Redemption 2 tips should have got you covered.
1. Use Dead Eye to hunt
Morgan’s rapid fire skills are especially handy when targeting smaller prey like squirrels and foxes. The Dead Eye will also release animal life forces, and nailing a shot to the heart or neck will usually be instantly clean if you use the correct caliber of ammo.
2. Enable «Toggle to Run»
Select this option from the main control menu to save a little effort by switching to a system where you only need to press A/X once instead of holding it down all the time. Sprinting in Red Dead is exhausting enough.
.. especially when Arthur often carries a dead body on his back.
3. Give Simple Commands to Your Horse
You can make the loyal Mong Morgan follow, stay or run by holding the left trigger while in close proximity to your pony.
4. Unlock secret moves by bonding with your horse
The more you bond with your monster, the more abilities you can unlock. At bonding level two, your horse will come out in classic Wild West style by holding RB/R1 and tapping X/Square. At level three, the hairy companion can perform what is essentially a twisting handbrake when you press RB/R1 and A/X while moving. Once you reach the maximum level of four links, your horse will duck side to side if you hold B/Square mid-gallop — a handy maneuver when you’re riding through dense woods and want to quickly manage round tree bushes.
5. Know your HUD options
You can disable the radar and all other on-screen displays by holding the D-pad and then selecting «radar» for a more impressive experience.
In this mode, no HUD and a quick down press on the D-pad will briefly bring your radar back.
Conversely, you can also expand the radar by selecting «expand», which is useful for finding enemy icons during sharp firefights. To get to the halfway approach, select the «compass» option, which will show you the general direction you should aim for as you head towards your target, rather than the exact fastest route that normal radar provides.
6. Learn to play poker at the camp
Learn to play cards at the Dutch camp so you don’t risk losing your hard-earned money while you’re still learning the poker ropes. The maximum bet when playing your gang buddies is a measly dollar; all you can lose in these games is a few cents, but the game here is useful for learning the basics of poker before you hit the high rollers in the world. Handily, there’s also a full explanation of poker rules hidden away in the help section of the pause menu.
7. Feel lazy? Use Cinematic Mode
Set a waypoint and enter cinematic mode to have your horse return to its destination with zero input required from you.
..although we would advise you to stay on the console. If bounty hunters or rival gangs attack Arthur midway through, you’ll be quickly unloaded from cinematic mode and are expected to be on the defensive.
8. Take the wild western egoist
Select Arthur’s camera from the item wheels and you can click on great virtual shots of your surroundings that can then be uploaded to the Rockstar Social Club. Helpfully, any photos you upload will also be tagged with handy hashtags where they were copied, so #Valentine or #SaintDenis for example.
You can even take the old secret man with Arthur’s camera. What a progressive criminal he really is.
9. Keep your cores high
While tonics and other potions will keep this outer ring of your dead eye, health and stamina, you will need to watch your cores. No, this does not mean you will go to the gym, but it does mean that Arthur Morgan will be well fed, watered and smoked, otherwise you will be severely limited in how far you can run, how long you can survive and even shoot.
Make sure you open this bag regularly to give Arthur the food, drink, and other supplies he requires to keep his cores, and if in doubt, go back to your camp or make a temporary one to give Arthur the well earned rest to keep it on top.
Same with your horse. Make sure you hook them up where possible to give them proper rest, brush them to replenish your stamina, and feed them sugar cubes and other horse delicacies to keep them as healthy as possible.
10. Spend a lot of tobacco
Smoking cigars, cigarettes, or even drinking raw Indian tobacco will replenish your dead meter. Since you are probably going to shoot down a lot of guys in slow-mo, this is the core that will deplete the fastest. Snake Butter can also be brewed at camps to preserve your Dead Eye core. However, be careful about drinking too much raw tobacco. You can eat as many plants for 24 hours in the game until their effect starts to wane. Resist the urge to hang on to Indian tobacco throughout the day and they will return to their full power.
11. Go to the post office to redeem bounties
It’s hard to travel across the border with the world with a bounty on your head. To ensure that bounty hunters and other delinquents don’t go after Arthur every time he has a bounty hanging over him, visit the post office — most towns and train stations have one — to clear these criminal charges. Keep in mind that the bounties are for the county where the crime was committed, so the $120 you purchased shot all those deputies in the Heartlands won’t carry over to West Elizabeth.
12. Fast travel… at the price of
For the first 20 hours or so, Red Dead 2 doesn’t have the traditional fast travel system. To cover long distances quickly, you will have to buy a train ticket and ride the rails. Tickets usually range from $5 to $15 depending on the length of the journey. If you’re really tempted to visit New Orleans-esque Saint-Denis hours before history takes you there, you can take Valentine’s train to Deep South City for just ten bucks.
13. Keep your horse in whistling range
Your horse does not have telepathic hearing. If you whistle it and Arthur is walking through the streets of Saint-Denis and Machorside’s Horse is in the middle of the Heart, your buddy won’t run. Try not to wander off your horse between missions if you can help him. It also pays to link to your crepe. The higher the grip level of the horses, the farther you can whistle.
14. Store hats on the horse
Lost your fave to collect cowboy hats in the salon? Do not worry. You can store three hats on your horse, which can be selected from the Devoted Chom saddle at any time. Even outlaws appreciate style and protection from that beating sun.
15. Read Arthur’s journal
Keep left on the D-pad for a short version of the story so far, said from Arthur’s point of view. It even fills in the gaps in Morgan’s life story shortly before the game starts. It turns out that Morgan and Hosea were running the cons in Blackwater and seemed pretty content, to the point where they even planned their own heist, away from the rest of the gang.
Of course that pesky Dutchman messed things up with the exhausted Blackwater ferry whip, he dragged them both in. Silly Dutch.
16. Use the book to upgrade your camp.
The book isn’t just for keeping track of how many gang members contribute to camp life. You can also use this book to upgrade your camp’s medical, ammo, and food stalls. Upgrade them and Arthur will not only be able to fill his pockets with more bullets and snacks before going on business trips, but the morale in the camp will also improve.
It is also worth renovating the Dutch living quarters as soon as possible. Doing this sees the rest of your bandit friends instantly start pouring more money into the camp. The general camp fund is what is used to upgrade their facilities, so make sure you donate generously. Throwing in a healthy heap of changes after every few missions will ensure you’ll soon have a neat amount to spend on camp upgrades.
17. Bring a horse respawn kit for all times
With Red Dead Redemption 2 horse permeates absolutely item , you’ll want to be prepared for the worst — and try to keep your furry friend safe at all times.
One way to do this—along with refraining from throwing him off a cliff, driving him into a tree or wagon, putting him in the middle of a gunfight, or leaving him on railroad tracks—is to make sure you always have a horse recovery kit in your pocket. These massive injections will bring your valiant steed back from the brink of death and can be purchased from any stable for 9.50 dollars. And trust me, when your horse is about to disappear, you will be grateful for one of these guys.
18. Shoot in the air to scare off potential enemies and predators
You’ll recognize this as part of Red Dead Redemption’s history, as part of a sheep herding expedition — yes indeed, but you can draw your weapon and then press D -Pad to shoot in the air. It can scare off anyone who threatens you, clear a saloon, or give a wolf or other animal predator a scare that might come in handy.
19. Always wear a jacket in case of a cold zip
It may sound like we’re a concerned parent, but the weather can be changeable, especially when there’s hoof potential in the mountains on any given mission.
You must store a cold outfit on your horse when you visit mountain areas, which you can make from your clothing chest in your camp home area. The cold affects your health and stamina, so it’s worth getting ready.
20. You can split all your bullets at the stake to make them more powerful
If you set up a desert camp you have a few options available but one that you may have access to fairly early on in the game, breaks down into all your ammo. It takes some time since you have to do it on a bullet with a bullet, but will increase the damage they deal and slow down the dead eye drain when you are in your cell.
21. Use your bandanna liberally if you want to risk being identified when committing crimes
Criminal crimes are basically your bread and butter when it comes to crime, but there is a way to minimize the risk of being identified when committing them . Don your bandana — located at the bottom left of your items menu — to hide your identity.
That way, when you have a bounty on your head, you can still walk around cities without legislators who know exactly who they are looking for.
Although the top tip is to talk to other civilians, be sure to remove the bandana or they won’t want to talk, as they know you are really the head of the crime.
22. Press the gallop button to slow down the horse’s stamina usage
Most of your time in Red Dead 2 is spent with your horse galloping between one point and another, which can be quite a long journey if you don’t go all out strength. Unfortunately, this gnaws at your horse’s stamina if you don’t press the canter (A/X) button in time with your horse’s gait, as it will allow you to increase speed without increasing your stamina. Gallop away outlaw outlaw!
23. You can change your horse’s name
Forming a bond with your horse takes some time, and it can feel a little weird when they’re just called Kentucky Schordler or [insert other horse breed here].
Luckily, you can rename your horse by heading to any Stable, click «Manage Your Own Horses» while selecting the horse you want to rename, and then go to «Services» and there you’ll find the horse rename option hidden.
24. Hold Settings / Select to open the map.
This might seem silly to anyone who has already figured it out, but designing that holding Select / Options calls up your card — instead of forcing you to select a card from your options menu — is genuinely blowing the minds of several members of the GameMe team. Label unlocked.
25. If you’re trying to mark problems, check your journal
There are many problems that you’ll start to want to mark with your various adventures in the Rockstar Wild West, run across the rabbits with your horse, eat all four different varieties of berries. But you can only see when you get the first thing you need and the last. You need to go to the Challenges tab in your journal (the tab on the left side of the D-Pad) to see your progress.
