Red Dead Redemption 2 beginner tips to progress the right way

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that rewards patience: a world where NPCs greet you, remember you and go about their day, where the light shifts hour by hour and every one of Arthur's movements is animated with rare care. All that detail has a flip side: the game takes its time explaining things, and plenty of important mechanics are never really spelled out. Here are the tips that actually matter for a smooth story-mode run, ranked by importance.

1. Play the Chapter 2 missions before you explore

Once you reach the Horseshoe Overlook camp, it's tempting to ride off into the sunset. Bad idea: several key services only open up as the story moves forward. The missions not to skip:

Bonus: from Chapter 2, trains and stagecoaches take you between the main towns. And if you set a waypoint and switch to the cinematic camera, your horse follows the road on its own. Make the most of it: the cinematic camera turns every ride into a movie shot, and it's where you really see the work that went into the landscapes and lighting.

2. Unlock fast travel as soon as possible

Fast travel does not unlock by itself. Here's how:

1. Play the first part of Money Lending and Other Sins and drop a collected debt in the camp donation box: the ledger appears right next to it.
2. In the ledger, buy the Dutch's tent upgrade ($220).
3. Then buy Arthur's tent upgrade ($325): it adds a map to his tent that unlocks fast travel.

Bonus: upgrading Dutch's tent encourages the rest of the gang to donate more to the box. Prices listed are for the standard edition.

3. Understand cores and stats

Arthur has three meters: Health, Stamina and Dead Eye. Each has two parts:

• the outer bar, which drains first (damage, sprinting, aiming) and refills on its own;
• the core in the middle, which drains slowly over time and sets how fast the bar recovers.

Cores refill by eating, sleeping and drinking tonics. An empty core is a real handicap: a bar that won't recover, no stamina, worse aim. The stats themselves level up through activity: sprinting and swimming for Stamina, rowing, fishing or winning fistfights for Health, long-range headshots and skinning for Dead Eye. Challenges (Progress menu) also give a lot of experience.

One last trick: buy the chicken coop in the ledger. Pearson's stew then also refills your Dead Eye core.

4. Eat to stay at a healthy weight

Your weight changes with what you eat. Underweight, Arthur takes more damage but tires more slowly. Overweight, it's the other way around: tougher, but stamina drains faster. The easy fix: eat a proper meal (meat, camp stew, a saloon dinner) regularly, and eat before you sleep.

5. Look after your horse

Your horse isn't just a vehicle:

• Bonding grows as you ride, feed, brush and calm it. It goes up to level 4 and unlocks moves (rearing, skid turns, piaffe and drift) plus a longer whistle range.
• A dirty horse recovers health and stamina more slowly: brush it or ride it through water.
• Always keep a Horse Reviver (sold at stables) in your satchel. A badly injured horse can be revived, and the stronger the bond, the more time you have to do it. A dead horse is gone for good.
• Stables sell horses, tack and care items, and let you keep several mounts. To pick yours, see our guide to the best horses in RDR2.

6. Manage your honor

Honor goes up when you help strangers or do camp chores, and down when you steal or kill innocents. High honor gets you store discounts, in tiers, up to 50% at the very top of the meter. More importantly, it changes some scenes and how Arthur's story ends: play it however you like, just know what's at stake.

7. Invest in camp and Pearson's satchels

Camp runs on a shared donation box: ledger upgrades are paid from it. Priorities:

1. Lodging (Dutch's, then Arthur's) for fast travel.
2. Leather Working Tools: without them, Pearson can't craft satchels.
3. The horse station, to retrieve your horses from camp.

With the tools, Pearson crafts satchels from perfect pelts you donate (each also has a small camp requirement). Each satchel raises the capacity of one category: provisions, tonics, ingredients, materials, kit, valuables. Getting all of them unlocks the Legend of the East satchel, which raises most items to 99.

8. Maintain your guns and pick the right rifle

• Clean your guns: they get dirty with use, which lowers their stats. Use gun oil from the weapon wheel or visit a gunsmith.
• The Lancaster Repeater, which Micah hands you in An American Pastoral Scene, is a great all-round rifle to start with.
• The Varmint Rifle is the gun for small game: it's what gets you perfect pelts on rabbits and other small animals.
• Study animals with your binoculars: the compendium then tells you the ideal weapon and ammo for a clean kill.

9. Avoid pointless bounties

A crime spotted by a witness who reports it earns you a bounty. A few habits:

• Wear a bandana or mask: witnesses can't identify you.
• To clear a bounty, pay it at a post office, or surrender to a lawman before you open fire: a short stay in a cell, and the amount is deducted.
• Change outfits after a crime: lawmen have a harder time recognizing you.

10. Small details that save the day

• Lost your hat? It's marked on the map. Otherwise, get it back from your horse's menu or a wardrobe at camp.
• Save manually from the pause menu, Story tab. Keep a save at the start of every chapter.
• The Wheeler, Rawson & Co. catalogue, found in stores, lets you browse items and order them.
• Cheat codes exist (some unlock by buying newspapers) and are entered in Settings. But activating one disables saving and trophies for the session: keep them for a separate playthrough.

Go further

• Find all our Red Dead Redemption 2 guides in one place
• How to make money fast in RDR2 to fund camp, guns and horses
• Legendary animal locations, huntable from Chapter 2
• Treasure map solutions and their gold bars
• The best horses in RDR2 to pick your mount
• Red Dead Online beginner guide if you're moving to multiplayer
• RDR2's incredible details

FAQ

How do you unlock fast travel in RDR2?

Finish Money Lending and Other Sins to unlock the ledger, then buy the upgrade for Dutch's tent ($220) followed by Arthur's ($325). A map appears in Arthur's tent and unlocks fast travel.

How do you level up Health, Stamina and Dead Eye?

Each stat has its own activities: rowing, fishing or winning fistfights for Health, sprinting and swimming for Stamina, long-range headshots and skinning for Dead Eye. Challenges also give a lot of progress. Cores refill by eating, sleeping and using tonics.

Do cheats disable saving?

Yes. Activating a cheat disables saving and trophies or achievements for the session. Save first and use them on a separate playthrough.