RDR2 beginner tips: what to know from your first hour in the game

RDR2 beginner tips start with setting expectations: this is a slow game. Arthur walks around camp, opens drawers one at a time, and his horse gets tired. The one point guide writers agree on: RDR2 is meant to be savored, not sprinted through. The main story takes about 50 hours (HowLongToBeat estimate), about 80 with side content and around 180 for 100%.

Next to the minimap there are three circles: Health, Stamina and Dead Eye. The inner part of each circle is the core, the outer ring is the bar. The bar is used up in fights or while running and refills on its own, but faster the fuller the core is. Cores slowly drain over time and need topping up.

• Health: food (meat from hunting, canned goods), tonics.
• Stamina: food, coffee. The bar grows as you run, swim and ride a lot.
• Dead Eye doesn’t refill by itself. Accurate shots give some back, and chewing tobacco, which often drops from bodies, is the quickest fix.

Dead Eye slows time and lets you tag targets. New levels of the ability unlock through the story, and the cheats “Guide me better” through “I seek and I find” unlock levels 1–5 at once, but they disable saving. While hunting, Dead Eye highlights an animal’s vital organs, which makes a one-shot kill easier and keeps the pelt intact.

The gang’s camp is your base. You can eat, sleep, change the time of day and pick up chores here. After Strauss’s mission “Money Lending and Other Sins” in Chapter 2, a camp ledger appears in Dutch’s tent; that is where you buy upgrades.

1. Dutch’s lodging. The first upgrade costs $220, the second $325, $545 in total. After the second one, a fast travel map appears in Arthur’s tent. Travel is one-way only: from camp to a location, and back on your own.
2. Pearson’s supplies. Provisions, medicine and ammunition upgrades give better cores and more supplies at camp.
3. Satchels. Pearson crafts bigger satchels from perfect pelts. The best one, Legend of the East, unlocks only after all the others. Legendary animal pelts are not used for satchels.

Donating to the camp tithing box raises Honor. But gold bars and jewelry are worth more sold to a Fence; details in our guide on how to make money in RDR2.

Until you have fast travel, trains and stagecoaches from towns help, and so does a campsite: you can pitch it almost anywhere to eat, sleep and call your horse.

Your horse is transport, inventory and armory in one: rifles, pelts and part of your supplies hang off the saddle. Losing it in Chapter 3 hurts.

• Bonding has 4 levels. It grows as you ride, brush, pat and feed your horse. Level 2 unlocks rearing, level 3 a skid turn and sliding stop, level 4 the piaffe and drifting. Level 4 is required for the Trusty Steed trophy.
• A Horse Reviver costs under $10. When your horse goes down injured, you have a few seconds to revive it. Keep 1–2 in your satchel at all times.
• Pick your weapons from the saddle before you dismount: swapping later takes time.
• The first strong horse you can get for free is the white Arabian near Lake Isabella, from Chapter 2. Everything about breeds is on the RDR2 horses page.

The quickest way to max out bonding is the “My kingdom is a horse” cheat, but it disables saving; see RDR2 cheats.

Honor tracks how Arthur behaves. High Honor gives up to 50% off in stores and new outfits, while low Honor changes how people react to you. Honor also decides which version of the ending you get. How to move it is covered in our RDR2 Honor guide.

Wanted. If someone sees you commit a crime, a red zone appears and Arthur gets a bounty. Escaping the zone doesn’t clear the bounty: you pay it at any post office, and the amount grows the longer you wait. A bandana (from the item wheel) stops witnesses from recognizing Arthur, so no new bounty is added. Honor still drops.

Don’t gallop through the streets of Valentine, Strawberry or Saint Denis: knocking over a passerby counts as a crime.

1. Study the animal through binoculars or Eagle Eye: the game shows which weapon gives a “perfect” kill.
2. Small game: a bow with regular arrows or the Varmint Rifle with small game ammo; deer: a rifle; bears, bison, alligators: a high-powered rifle.
3. Aim for the head or heart with Dead Eye. Two shots lower the quality.
4. Pelt straight onto the horse, carcass to the butcher. Perfect pelts go to Pearson for satchels or to the Trapper.

Hunting the 16 legendary animals starts with the mission “Exit Pursued by a Bruised Ego” in Chapter 2; map and tips are on the RDR2 legendary animals page.

• Manual save: Pause → Story → Save Game; there are 15 slots. Save before big missions: many of them have a choice, and replaying a mission from the Progress menu doesn’t change earlier decisions.
• Cheats disable both manual saves and autosaves while they are active. Save first, then turn them on.
• Gun cleaning. The game tells you when a weapon is dirty. Gun Oil drops from bodies and is sold in stores; a dirty gun performs slightly worse.
• Ammo. Gunsmiths sell improved types, such as Express rounds, which you select on the weapon wheel. Prices and locations are on the RDR2 weapons page.
• Dress for the weather. In the mountains Arthur gets cold and drains his Health core faster. Keep a warm outfit and a light one; you can switch at your horse.
• Loot everything. Searchable items are marked with crosses on the minimap.

RDR2 is an open-world game, but some content closes along with its chapter. The main ones:

Bounties are unavailable in Chapters 5 and 6 and return in the epilogue. Everything else (collectibles, legendary animals, gang hideouts) waits for you after the story: free roam continues after the ending. An overview of each chapter is in the RDR2 walkthrough, and the checklist is on the RDR2 100% page.