Red Dead Redemption 2: New Playthrough, Who Dis?

[RealAlHazred]

So, several years ago, my wife and I got Red Dead Redemption 2, from Rockstar Games (the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series). As a historical nerd, I was really taken with the level of immersion it achieves of the turn-of-the-twentieth-century US. And it's extremely open, which I like in games (similar favorite games for me include Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, Assassins Creed: Odyssey, and Cyberpunk 2077). It is slightly more linear than many of those games, having very defined chapters; certain equipment and such unlocks in various chapters, meant to show how your gang develops and the world reacts to your actions.

I started a playthrough, but got bogged down by the heaviness (Important Spoiler: your character develops Tuberculosis and dies before the end of the game; in the Epilogue, you play a different character). And then my daughter was born, and I pretty much had to put any violent video games aside for a while.

We've gotten into a pattern after she goes to bed either my wife or I has time to play games. I've started a new playthrough of the game, and, this time around, I'd like to try to use various exploits to open things up more. I'm not talking about cheat codes -- I'm talking about things the game lets you do, that give you certain items and such before the part of the game where they usually unlock.

I'm not sure if there's anybody who plays the game here, but I thought I'd document things I want to do, or have already done on this playthrough, and see if anybody has any ideas on other things I haven't thought of.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Chapter 1: Colter

So, the game starts you in what is effectively a "tutorial area" which is extremely limited compared to the rest of the game. You're in an abandoned mining town (Colter) in the Grizzlies (basically the Rocky Mountains) and there's a blizzard going on so if you wander too far from camp you just... die.

Nevertheless, there are things that I'd like to try.

For one, in the mission "Old Friends," you can disarm one of the O'Driscolls (a rival gang), and then kite them toward Micah Bell (easily my most-hated NPC in the game). He and Micah fight, and Micah gets disarmed; you can then take his revolver, which is slightly better than the one you start with. Besides, it's just... satisfying... watching that snake get a drubbing. Though, you have to stop him from killing Micah or the mission fails and you have to restart. Sad.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I can now report, while you do get the pistol for Chapter 1, and it is unlocked in your Compendium, the pistol disappears from your inventory in Chapter 2. Ah, well. Would have been nice to shoot at that snake with his own gun while he was in jail!

You can explore quite a bit of the map in Chapter 1 before "Old Friends" completes. Once Kieran Duffy is on your horse, you don't have to go straight back to camp. You can amble on toward Cairn Lake. I wasn't able to do anything cool there, but it's considerably free-roam.

Anyway, on to Chapter 2.

 

[Artamo]

Chapter 1: Colter

So, the game starts you in what is effectively a "tutorial area" which is extremely limited compared to the rest of the game. You're in an abandoned mining town (Colter) in the Grizzlies (basically the Rocky Mountains) and there's a blizzard going on so if you wander too far from camp you just... die.

Nevertheless, there are things that I'd like to try.

For one, in the mission "Old Friends," you can disarm one of the O'Driscolls (a rival gang), and then kite them toward Micah Bell (easily my most-hated NPC in the game). He and Micah fight, and Micah gets disarmed; you can then take his revolver, which is slightly better than the one you start with. Besides, it's just... satisfying... watching that snake get a drubbing. Though, you have to stop him from killing Micah or the mission fails and you have to restart. Sad.

One of the things you can do is spare the guy who jumps you in the barn in the first mission. Later, during “Old Friends”, as you sneak up on the O’Driscolls, you can hear this same character talking to his buddies about how he got the drop on you.

 

[RealAlHazred]

One of the things you can do is spare the guy who jumps you in the barn in the first mission. Later, during “Old Friends”, as you sneak up on the O’Driscolls, you can hear this same character talking to his buddies about how he got the drop on you.

Oh, yeah, I do a High Honor run, so I always spare him. And then he ends up getting killed anyway during "Old Friends," so... I blame that on bad decisions on his part. I gave him his second chance!

 

[RealAlHazred]

As a note for people who start this game: during various missions you'll loot bodies and end up with various individual pieces of jewelry. The urge is to sell them all as soon as you reach a Fence who'll take them. But you have to check -- some of them say, "Can be sold," while others say, "Can be sold or used in crafting." Save those second ones, as finding specific pieces of jewelry to craft certain items can be a real pain as the drops are mostly random.

 

[Artamo]

Oh, yeah, I do a High Honor run, so I always spare him. And then he ends up getting killed anyway during "Old Friends," so... I blame that on bad decisions on his part. I gave him his second chance!

Ahh, I always killed him at the beginning because I liked to play Arthur as a bad guy at first who turns good towards the end.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Ahh, I always killed him at the beginning because I liked to play Arthur as a bad guy at first who turns good towards the end.

Perfectly valid. Redemption is in the name of the game!

 

[RealAlHazred]

Chapter 2: Horseshoe Overlook

This is the first free-roam chapter of the game, but a lot of the things you want to do are locked behind main-story missions.

• The mission "Exit, Pursued by a Bruised Ego" is required to unlock stables and legendary animals.
• You must do at least one "Money Lending and Other Sins" mission to unlock the ledger, and buy things for the camp and leather-working tools for Pearson. Without the tools, he can't upgrade your Satchel, and you're stuck with a small amount of carrying capacity.
• You have to do at least one Bounty Hunter mission before you can drop off people at the sherriff's office. If you don't do at least one, you'll get a Kidnapping charge even if the person you're transporting in is in a prison uniform and obviously escaped.
• The mission "The Spines of America" is required to unlock the Wagon Fence; before you do this mission, you can't sell wagons and coaches you steal.
• The mission "A Fisher of Men" is required to unlock fishing.

There's a lot of this kind of thing.

Last playthrough I powered through the main story missions and ended up missing a bunch of the side content: random encounters, Stranger Missions (where randos give you tasks) and even just regular interactions the NPCs have with one another.

This time, I'm being more circumspect. I did the first three "Money-Lending and Other Sins" missions, the "Exit, Pursued by a Bruised Ego" and "The Spines of America" missions, and have otherwise spent a lot of time doing other things.

Exploring means by the time I unlocked leather-working for Pearson, I already had the vast majority of perfect pelts for him to upgrade my Satchel. The quality-of-life improvement is vast. Similarly, I made sure the legendary animals were available, because you can have a Fence make a trinket from their parts, and the Legendary Buck trinket makes getting perfect pelts easier; that's another quality-of-life improvement I got very late-game previously that I wanted to make sure to get early this time.

I'm also being a little less goody-two-shoes this time. A guy needs a load of lumber, I'm stealing a cart! Hey, I can redeem myself later! Also, that lumber company guy was a jerk, making his dudes work despite wolf attacks...

 

[RealAlHazred]

Oh, you can unlock stables early, as I discovered when my horse was killed. Your horse is a key gameplay element, as his horse is Arthur Morgan's closest, dearest friend during the game, and it's where you store all of your gear and how you get around. So, if your horse dies, stables unlock.

You can store one temporary horse at camp. However, at the beginning of "Exit, Pursued by a Bruised Ego," any temporary horse you have at camp despawns so that you can use the horse given to you in that mission as a temporary horse. So, if you get a horse early that you want to keep, you need to kill your horse yourself. And that feels worse than all of the other robbin' and murderin' and kidnappin' you do during the course of the game, let me tell you...