How to make money in RDR2, from gold bars to the epilogue payout

How to make money in RDR2 becomes a real question in Chapter 2, when stores, stables and gunsmiths open up. Cash is not scarce in the story overall, but it is tight early on: the Arabian at the Saint Denis stable costs $1,050, and a good rifle is over $100. Below are the methods that actually work, from the most profitable to small change.

The gold bar is the most valuable regular item in the story: a Fence pays $500 for each one. General stores won't buy them, so without a Fence they just sit in your satchel. The main source is the three treasure maps; each one is a starting map plus two more clues, and the last clue leads to the stash.

That adds up to 9 gold bars, about $4,500, a solid sum before the halfway point. Owners of the Special and Ultimate Edition get one more map, Le Trésor des Morts, which also ends with gold bars.

Loose gold bars, no map needed:

• Limpany (north of Flatneck Station): in the burned-out sheriff’s office, a box under the desk holds a gold bar. Available as early as Chapter 2.
• Braithwaite Manor (south of Rhodes): a box in the ruins of the main house. It appears after the mission “Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern”; guides list it as Chapter 3 or 4.

The Strange Statues puzzle. In the Ambarino mountains, not far from Bacchus Station, there is a cave with stone statues. Press them in the right order and a pedestal opens with 3 gold bars ($1,500). The clue to the order is a cave painting in a nearby cave by Window Rock; guides describe the order itself differently, so go by the painting rather than someone else's list. Gamepressure suggests going there in the epilogue. The number of bars follows rdr2.org and Gamepressure.

Where the Fences, newsboys and stables are is shown on the RDR2 map page.

A “glitch” for respawning the Limpany gold bar has been discussed since 2018, but it depends on the game version and is not reliable. We don’t recommend it.

The Fence buys stolen goods. Bring them your gold bars, rings, pocket watches, chains, gold nuggets and jewelry looted from bodies. If the stranger Maximo is gone, the Fence also sells the Jack Hall Gang map.

Guides disagree on exactly when each Fence unlocks: Emerald Ranch is tied to Chapter 2, and the rest become available once Arthur reaches their towns. One tip: if you need the cash yourself, don’t drop jewelry into the camp tithing box. A Fence will pay you for it.

Two vendors buy pelts and carcasses. Butchers are found in many towns and take both carcasses and pelts. The Trapper has a shop in Saint Denis and a few tents out in the wild; he buys pelts too and turns them into clothing.

• Quality is everything. Every pelt comes in three grades: poor, good and perfect. A perfect pelt requires a clean kill with the right weapon: a bow or the Varmint Rifle for small game, a rifle for deer, heavier guns for bears.
• Dead Eye while hunting highlights an animal’s vital organs, which makes one-shot kills much easier.
• Legendary animal pelts are always perfect. If you lose one, the game sends it to the Trapper for you. Keep them for clothing and talismans rather than selling. More on the RDR2 legendary animals page.
• Your horse can carry one large carcass and several pelts. Deliver the haul quickly: carcasses spoil.

Ms. L. Hobbs hunting requests. From Chapter 2, letters show up at train stations and post offices asking for perfect carcasses of specific animals. Don’t skin them: the carcass is mailed whole. There are five requests, each paying $50 to $150, and the last one unlocks in the epilogue. At the end you get an invitation to a cabin near Strawberry. This line is required for 100%.

Horses. You can sell a horse at any stable, and from Chapter 3 also to the horse fence: brothers Clay and Clive Davies in Lemoyne, near the Clemens Point camp. He opens up after the mission "Horse Flesh for Dinner". The rule is simple: bought horses are better sold at a stable, stolen and wild ones to the horse fence, who pays more for them. A cheap stolen horse, according to rdr2.org, fetches only a few dollars (from $3), while expensive breeds bring noticeably more. Bond level matters too: the longer you have ridden a horse, the more you get for it. Which breeds are valuable and where to catch them is on the RDR2 horses page.

Wagons. The Fence at Emerald Ranch buys stolen wagons: ride up to the doors of his barn.

Gang camps. You can spot them from afar by the campfire and smoke. After the fight, search the bodies and the chest in the camp: there is usually money and valuables, which you then sell to a Fence. That is the advice from rdr2.org and High Ground Gaming. The big gang hideouts you need for 100% are covered on the RDR2 gangs page.

Helping strangers. On the roads you will meet people bitten by a snake or caught in a trap. GameSpot and rdr2.org recommend helping them: it raises your Honor and brings a reward. The sources do not give exact amounts, so treat it as a bonus rather than income.

Robberies. You can rob stores, stagecoaches, trains and homesteads. The payout is usually small, and Honor drops even when nobody sees you. A bandana keeps a new bounty off your head if you aren’t recognized, but it doesn’t stop the Honor loss. Four robberies (stagecoach, house, store, train) are needed for 100%, so do each type at least once.

Strauss debts. The “Money Lending and Other Sins” missions have you collecting debts for Leopold Strauss from Chapter 2 through Chapter 6. After the first one, the camp ledger appears, and through it you eventually unlock fast travel from camp. These are Honor missions: your choices in them decide how Arthur’s Honor moves.

Bounties. Wanted posters hang in the sheriff’s offices in Valentine, Rhodes, Saint Denis, Strawberry, Blackwater and Tumbleweed. They pay little, but they raise Honor, and five of them count toward 100%. They are unavailable in Chapters 5 and 6 and come back in the epilogue.

Gambling. Poker, blackjack and dominoes matter for 100%, but as an income source they are weak: losing is easier than winning.

The biggest sum in the story arrives on its own: once the main story is over, about $20,000 lands in your pocket, according to PowerPyx and Gamepressure. We won’t say where it comes from, so the ending stays unspoiled.

What that means in practice:

• Don’t save your cash for later. Guns, horses and upgrades in Chapters 2–4 are worth more than money sitting idle until the epilogue.
• In the epilogue, bounties return, the Fence and the Trapper keep trading, and New Austin opens new stores and gang hideouts.
• The “torn” treasure map (Mended Map) pays no cash: the stash in New Austin holds Otis Miller’s Revolver. Weapon details are on the RDR2 weapons page.

A spoiler-free chapter-by-chapter overview is in the RDR2 walkthrough, and the full mission list is on the RDR2 missions page.

RDR2 has a money cheat, “Greed is now a virtue”: it adds $500 and can be entered again and again. But as soon as any cheat is active, the game stops saving and trophies and achievements are disabled. So the advice is simple: save first, then turn it on, and treat anything after that as a sandbox. The full list is on the RDR2 cheats page.

Story cheats don’t work in Red Dead Online. For online money, see our separate guide on how to make money in Red Dead Online.

1. In Chapter 2, do the Jack Hall Gang and Poisonous Trail maps: that is $3,000 before you even reach Rhodes.
2. Grab the gold bar in Limpany, and the one at Braithwaite Manor after “Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern”.
3. Sell everything to the Fence at Emerald Ranch or Rhodes.
4. In Chapter 3, do High Stakes once you meet the treasure hunter.
5. Hunt as you travel: perfect pelts to the Trapper, the rest to the butcher.
6. Spend on things that help you progress: a better horse, weapons, camp upgrades.

General advice for new players is in our RDR2 beginner tips guide, and everything about the game is on the Red Dead Redemption 2 page.