Our best advice for Red Dead Redemption 2\u2019s multiplayer mode<\/b>
\nRed Dead Online is here, and it\u2019s as huge and ambitious as Red Dead Redemption 2. It also requires learning some new things, even if you\u2019ve invested dozens of hours into the campaign. In this guide, we\u2019ll help you get started, give some detail that Red Dead Online doesn\u2019t and offer some advice about the best things to do to get ahead.
In a game called Red Dead Online, you should play together. Others are already doing that, and a Posse of three or four will beat a lone wolf pretty much every time. (We speak from experience. We just wanted our wolf pelt, but those jerks stole it and killed us. A lot.)
If you want the kind of solitary bliss that Red Dead Redemption 2 can offer, single-player is your mode. It\u2019s best to treat Red Dead Online as the multiplayer game that it is. And we\u2019ll get into how you can do that below.
What can\u2019t you do? Just about everything you can do in regular offline Red Dead Redemption 2 is available in Red Dead Online. You can still hunt, get a haircut, hunt for treasure and play story missions. The main difference here is you\u2019ll be doing this while inhabiting the same world as other players (some of whom really want to kill you just for fun).
There are plenty of missions, events, and distractions that are unique to Red Dead Online as well. Those include:
Pause the game. Because it\u2019s, you know, online.
Showdown Series events are team-based, competitive matches where you play with matchmade strangers, your Posse (more on Posses below) or some combination thereof.
At launch, there are several Showdown Series modes:
Posses are a way to join forces with other players. They always include a Posse Leader who sets up the Posse, but one is more, well, hardcore than the other.
There are two types:
To create a Posse, press left on the D-pad and select Form Posse from the menu. You can use the Player section of the same menu to add Posse Members.
Solo players have a Player Camp, which is like a hybrid between the gang\u2019s Camp in the Red Dead Redemption 2 campaign than the ad hoc Camp you can create in the wilderness during the campaign. If you\u2019re in a Posse, you\u2019ll have a Posse Camp.
Camps offer a safe place to rest \u2014 as long as you find and raise the white flag \u2014 access to your Wardrobe, a place to craft and cook \u2014 and, after upgrading, even fast travel.
If you buy certain items like ammunition from the Handheld Catalog (it\u2019s in your Weapon Wheel or you can press and hold left on the D-pad), they\u2019ll appear in a Delivery Box in your Camp. (You can also pick up those deliveries up at a Post Office.)
It\u2019s worth noting that other items like weapons appear in your inventory or saddlebags instead of being routed through the mail.
Just like in Red Dead Redemption 2, your actions will affect your Honor in Red Dead Online. Some of these actions will be obvious \u2014 like whether or not to leave someone tied up on the train tracks \u2014 while others are more subtle (but still intuitive) \u2014 like bonding with your horse(s).
Honor can affect the missions you\u2019re asked to complete. If you\u2019ve maintained a high Honor, you\u2019ll get more white hat missions like protecting wagons, but if you trend toward the outlaw end of the spectrum, you\u2019ll get missions like breaking fellow outlaws out of jail.
After you\u2019ve completed the intro mission, hit left on the D-pad to open up the Free Roam menu. Scroll down to Quick Join and select Story Mission On-Call. You are welcome to do this with our without friends in your Posse (aka Fireteam). These missions seem to cap out at four, so a full, four-person Posse won\u2019t be able to join.
We\u2019ve expanded this process, which allows you to join others and play story missions, in our guide to making money in Red Dead Online, and you get more detail there. The upshot: You\u2019ll earn good money for helping others, but there are limits.
Also, don\u2019t think getting rich is going to get you everything you want \u2014 almost all of the items in the Handheld Catalog are gated behind your level. And to earn levels, you\u2019ll need XP.
The short answer here is the same as above: Keep doing Story Missions and making yourself available to matchmake into others\u2019 Story Missions. You might not make a ton of money every time, but that XP will add up.
The world of Red Dead lends itself to a certain degree of lawlessness. You\u2019re going to get shot for no apparent reason. You\u2019ll get ridden down in the street. It happens.
But if it keeps happening, there\u2019s a system in place to help you work it out and bring a little law to the lawlessness. If you and another player end up in a cycle of murder and revenge (or murder and spite), you\u2019ll trigger one of two options.
The option to Parley or Feud appears after you\u2019ve been killed by someone four times. After either has concluded, you and your tormentor (or the person you\u2019re tormenting and you) can go right back to killing one another. But you\u2019ll get the Parley and Feud options sooner.
Red Dead Online Ability Cards grant you, well, abilities \u2014 effects, technically. Put a card in a slot, and you\u2019ll gain that effect.
You can purchase Ability Cards from the Abilities menu (which is in the main menu). You\u2019ll get your first Ability Card for free during the introductory mission, and the next couple cost $50 each from within the menu. You can equip (or unequip) them from this menu, too.
The first Ability Card slot you unlock is for (and called) Dead Eye. It\u2019s active, meaning that you have to invoke Dead Eye to use it. (Later, you\u2019ll unlock slots for passive Ability Cards, whose effects are always active.)
Unlike the campaign, Dead Eye doesn\u2019t slow down time in Red Dead Online (because this is game is online and that wouldn\u2019t work). Instead, you get something like the Dead Eye you\u2019re probably used to, but with a twist. For example:
You an also level up ability cards as you gain XP. (You can see the XP you\u2019ve gained when you\u2019re hovering over the card in the Ability Cards menu.) Every card has three levels (or tiers), and each enhances the ability.
You\u2019ll unlock more slots for cards at Rank 10 (1st Passive), 20 (2nd Passive) and 40 (3rd Passive). You\u2019ll also unlock more Ability Cards as you rank up. You can purchase new Dead Eye Ability Cards at Ranks 24,44 and 50, for example.
It feels like basically everything you do in Red Dead Online will eventually lead to an Award. Picking plants earns you an Award. Eating plants earns you an Award. Shooting people earns you an Award. And awards become Belt Buckles (which are cosmetic, but oh-so fancy).
You\u2019ll have to buy Horse Insurance during the introductory mission. Technically, insurance lets your horse \u201cautomatically recover over time if it\u2019s critically injured.\u201d Practically, the horse you buy it for won\u2019t die and disappear forever. It\u2019ll heal in time.
If an uninsured horse you own \u201cdies,\u201d you have to pay to heal them at a stable. If you have insurance, there\u2019s no fee.
It\u2019s a great policy. But you have to purchase it for each horse, and the cost appears to be based on the horse\u2019s quality. If you\u2019ve got a really good horse, it\u2019ll cost you a ton in gold bars.
Keep in mind that Rockstar is launching Red Dead Online as a beta. That means things can and will go wrong. We\u2019ve seen it happen, from connectivity problems to missing loot and XP from missions and even a disappearing minimap.
Red Dead Redemption 2 guide<\/p>\n