Red Dead Online Trader role: the best unlocks by rank

Trader is the Red Dead Online role that turns your camp into a small business: you hunt, Cripps produces, you deliver. It is also a role whose profitability depends almost entirely on three wagons, while the rest of the catalogue mostly improves your comfort. This guide breaks down what each role rank gives you, what is worth your tokens and your cash, and what you can leave for last. For the farming routine itself, keep our roles farming guide close at hand.

How to become a Trader

It all starts with a letter from Cripps, picked up at a post office: your camp companion offers to start a business with you, the Cripps Trading Company. To launch it, buy the Butcher's Table from Wilderness Outfitters, the shop on Cripps's wagon: 15 gold bars at the standard price. Role prices are regularly discounted, so check the catalogue before you pay.

The principle comes down to three steps:

• Materials: you donate carcasses and pelts at the Butcher's Table. The cleaner the kill, the more it fills the bar.
• Supplies: Cripps asks for them every 25 goods produced. You run the resupply mission or order them for $20.
• Delivery: local, which is safer, or distant, which pays more. The starting wagon only carries 25 goods, and that is the whole problem.

Your camp has to be pitched for the business to run.

Role ranks and Role Tokens: how they work

The role has 20 ranks, separate from your player rank, which only go up with Trader XP. Every five ranks you earn a new title: Novice, Promising, Established, then Distinguished.

Each rank pays out Role Tokens, two per rank according to the published progression tables. A token doesn't give you anything: it unlocks the right to buy an item, which you then pay for in cash (or in gold bars for a few cosmetics). Skills and satchel upgrades, on the other hand, come with the rank at no cost.

Three practical points:

• The total number of tokens you earn is exactly enough to unlock everything. No choice is permanent, only the order matters.
• Items are sorted into kits by tier, but the wagons open early: the Medium Delivery Wagon from rank 5, the Large Wagon and the Hunting Wagon from rank 10.
• Trader opens the door to Moonshiner. According to Rockstar's announcement, you need to have reached Trader rank 5 or completed one sell mission before Cripps introduces you to Maggie Fike.

The unlock table, rank by rank

The kits also include a Trader variant of the Pump-Action Shotgun ($450), a camp theme ($700), the Fletcher Saddle ($525), the Goodman gun belt and holster, four outfits, the Hat Tipping emote and a few accessories priced in gold bars. When a token cost or a price is missing here, it is because sources disagree: trust the in-game role menu.

Must-haves

Ranked from most to least important.

1. The Medium Delivery Wagon (rank 5, $500). It takes your capacity from 25 to 50 goods: every delivery carries twice as much, for a comparable trip. It is also the required step towards the Large Wagon.

2. The Large Delivery Wagon (rank 10). 100 goods per delivery, provided you already own the Medium Wagon. A full load is worth around $500 on a local delivery, and more on a distant one. It is the purchase that makes Trader a real background income. Its exact price varies between sources, so check it in the catalogue.

3. The Hunting Wagon (rank 10, 2 tokens + $875). Bought at a Stable, it carries several carcasses, hides and pelts at once. Without it, you bring back one carcass on your horse and a second dragged by lasso. With it, a single hunting trip can be enough to fill the materials bar.

4. Efficiency (rank 11, free). Every perfect carcass donated to Cripps contributes more materials. Rockstar doesn't put a number on the gain, but it applies to all your hunts: it is the best skill in the role.

5. The satchels (ranks 6 and 13, free). The Ingredients Satchel at rank 6, the Materials Satchel at rank 13: the capacity of certain items in them goes up by ten. It is automatic, and the first one helps well beyond the role.

6. The Stew Pot (rank 1, 1 token + $650). This camp pot unlocks stews that refill your cores, and your posse's. The best recipes give gold cores. A real comfort before a long session, but not one extra dollar at the sale.

7. Protection (rank 16) and Canine Warning (rank 8), free. Your business can be raided by thieves. Protection reduces the risk, with nothing asked of you. Canine Warning trains your dog to warn you of an incoming raid, but you first have to buy a dog from Wilderness Outfitters.

8. The Weapons Locker (rank 5). A locker at camp to store the weapons you don't use. Your weapon wheel gets lighter, which is pleasant, nothing more.

What to skip or buy last

• The Hammer ($75): a hammer as a melee weapon. Fun, not useful.
• The Lance Knife: a knife style reserved for Traders, priced at 5 gold bars. Your gold goes to roles first.
• The Trader variant of the Pump-Action Shotgun: a visual skin applied at the Gunsmith to a shotgun you already own. No extra power.
• Outfits, the Fletcher Saddle, the camp theme: they mark your progress without improving your earnings. Keep your tokens for the wagons until you own all of them.
• Kladruber coats: this breed is reserved for Traders, in three tiers (ranks 1, 10 and 20). If your current mount suits you, there is no rush.
• Awareness (rank 7): it increases the distance at which you spot rival Traders out selling goods. It is free, but only useful if you plan to go after other players.

The order to spend your first tokens

With two tokens per rank, tokens almost never run short for the wagons. The real brake is cash.

1. Ranks 1 to 4: buy nothing urgent. The Stew Pot can wait. Put $500 aside and run the resupply missions rather than paying for supplies: they give Role XP.
2. Rank 5: the Medium Delivery Wagon, the same day. From then on, only sell full wagons.
3. Ranks 6 to 9: save up for rank 10, where two big purchases are waiting.
4. Rank 10: the Large Delivery Wagon first, because it doubles the capacity of every sale, then the Hunting Wagon (2 tokens, $875) to fill the bar faster.
5. After that: the Stew Pot, the Weapons Locker, a camp dog, as you see fit.
6. Everything else (Kladruber, outfits, style weapons, camp theme) once you have tokens with nothing left to do.

How these items help outside the role

• An income that runs by itself. While Cripps produces, you are free to hunt bounties or look for collectibles. The bigger the wagon, the more that wait pays off.
• The Stew Pot prepares any activity: a stew before a Legendary Bounty or a long hunt, and your cores are at their best.
• The larger Ingredients Satchel follows you in everything you do.
• The Weapons Locker lightens your weapon wheel in every activity.
• Access to Moonshiner, the second role that produces in the background.
• Kladrubers, which Rockstar describes as strong and steady horses, remain mounts you can ride anywhere.

The wagons only serve the role. But watching the camp fill out, the pot on the fire and the wagon parked by the tent, really does feel like building something. And the catalogue sells its Hunting Wagon with the flourish of a genuine period advertisement: a writing detail that raises a smile with every purchase.

The routine reminder

Hunt perfect carcasses near camp, without skinning them, keep an eye on Cripps's supplies, and only deliver full wagons, ideally on a distant delivery. The full routine, the best prey and how to stack it with the other roles are in our Red Dead Online roles farming guide.

Go further

• Red Dead Online roles farming guide: routines and payouts
• What to buy first, rank by rank
• Red Dead Online beginner guide: role prices and buying order
• Bounty Hunter: the best unlocks by rank
• Collector: the best unlocks by rank
• Moonshiner: the best unlocks by rank
• Naturalist: the best unlocks by rank
• The best weapons in Red Dead Online
• Red Dead Online bonuses for October 2026
• All our Red Dead Redemption 2 guides

FAQ

At what rank do you unlock the Large Delivery Wagon?

At role rank 10, provided you own the Medium Delivery Wagon (rank 5, $500). It carries 100 goods: a full load is worth around $500 on a local delivery, more on a distant one.

Which Trader items should you buy first?

The Medium Delivery Wagon at rank 5 ($500), then at rank 10 the Large Delivery Wagon and the Hunting Wagon (2 tokens and $875). The Stew Pot, the Weapons Locker and the camp dog come after.

Is the Stew Pot worth its $650?

For comfort, yes; for money, no. Its stews refill your cores, with the best recipes giving gold cores, but it earns you nothing directly. Buy it after the wagons.