Learn how Red Dead Redemption 2 honor system works, honor actions you can take to increase honor level, understand fame system and unlock fame titles.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Honor system sways along with your decisions to either be a ruthless bandit or an honest outlaw who sticks by a moral code. This is Rockstar’s way of integrating honor and fame mechanics in the game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 honor system is based around different activities and choices that you will be making in the game as you progress through the main storyline and interact with the NPCs in the open world.
In general, doing good gets you honor points and doing bad earns you dishonor points. Activities that work constructively to increase the honor points include ones like helping a stranger with his troubles or succeed in completing a bounty for the state.
Activities that result in dishonor include killing innocent civilians, lawmen, stealing etc. These contribute towards a reduction in the overall honor points.
Each action will have varying contributions to the honor points system and the amount they add or deduct is dynamic and different. Let’s take a more detailed look on what activities fall in the two categories: honorable or a complete a-hole.
Whenever an action has the potential of changing your honor level, be it even marginally, a visual indicator comes up on your screen ranging from a white hat (honorable) to a red one (dishonorable).
Most of these morality actions will revolve around open-world interactions including the ones with strangers and even animals. Of course, there are countless actions your character is capable of performing and it’s impossible to list them all here, but the ones that are more prominent are given below.
I mean, you’re a sensible and morally sound person too, right? That’s your excuse of knowing instinctively which actions will put Arthur in trouble and which ones will paint him as a saint among the masses.
The good side: For remaining a honorable and just cowboy who kills by a definite code, you need to invest more of your time and energy in activities falling under this category.
The bad side: This is when you want the kind of gratification from the world around you that’s only fueled by violence and cruelty. Ok, we’re not judging you, it’s a game after all.
Anyways, most of these dishonorable actions are complete opposites of the honorable ones mentioned above. However, there are some additional ones you can carry out as well. For example:
In order to maintain a particular honor level, you can wear a bandana for the purpose of hiding your face and thus your identity. This will keep the honor level static.
Additionally, you can also ignore stranger quests as these will definitely raise or lower your honor level. Strangers are indicated by a white dot on the mini-map so whenever you’re close to encountering one, turn the other way.
Each honor level will result in different consequences including drastic changes in the interactions with NPCs, emergence of new side quests and in-game events, and bounties from lawmen. There are rewards and punishments, even tangible ones, attached to the honor system.
An example is how being a very dishonorable person can prevent you from displaying having an impact on the NPCs and thus being unable to intimidate or pay off a witness.
The people after you will be more in number as well because of a higher bounty on your head. Furthermore, the killcams become more brutal. The soundtrack also receives a change depending on how honorable you are.
The scale goes from -8 to +8 but significant items are only awarded at specific levels:
Red Dead Redemption 2 fame system doesn’t judge you morally. You get fame points for participation and involvement in activities in general regardless of how cruel or kind those actions or activities are.
There are certain unlocks and perks for each fame level, though unspecified as of now. The Fame levels along with their respective titles are listed below:
This concludes our Red Dead Redemption 2 Honor and Fame guide with tips to help you earn honor points and maximize your fame in the game!
