Red Dead Redemption 2: New Playthrough, Who Dis?

[Artamo]

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[RealAlHazred]

So, one of the core elements in the game is Challenges. There are different categories (Horseman Challenges, Herbalist Challenges, etc.) and completing all 10 challenges in a category gives you cash and experience towards one of your core stats (Health, Stamina, and Dead Eye). The challenges are tiered, so you have to complete the Herbalist 6 challenge ("Pick 15 different species of herb") before any of your progress on Herbalist 7 challenge ("Craft and use five Special Miracle Tonics") starts.

One of the problems you have is inventory management. Your initial satchel only stores 5 of each item (or 10 for items like herbs). Some of formulas require multiple herbs (Special Miracle Tonic uses 6 Blackcurrant or Golden Currant, 6 Yarrow, and 6 Burdock Root to make one tonic). If you are limited to your starting inventory slots, it takes a very long time to craft these things. You can upgrade your satchel, first to double capacity for various things and finally to hold 99 of each item. It takes a bunch of perfect-quality pelts to do the satchel upgrades, but the quality of life enhancement is palpable.

A lot of my time has been spent accumulating things so that as soon as I unlock the ability to do a thing, I have the ingredients I need to actualize it. It's much smoother than my first playthrough. It's also less immersion-breaking if I just assume my Arthur Morgan is a packrat who keeps everything he comes across that's not nailed down.

 

[RealAlHazred]

One of the Challenges I didn't do at all last time was the Bandit Challenges. Every single one of these requires you to do actions that lower Honor, and I was trying to keep my Arthur's honor "pure". This time around I'm a bit less selective, and it has already shown in variations in some NPC dialogue.

That said, I've found it is generally easy to do Bandit Challenges without actually incurring an expensive bounty. You have to be selective and thoughtful in how you do them, but most of them, there's a way. Some might not be possible to do subtly; for example, the 10th Bandit Challenge requires you to complete 5 train robberies -- I haven't gotten there yet, but it's food for though how to do it.

I'm also finding there to be annoyances with how Challenges unlock. For example, the Survivalist 1 challenge is to catch 3 bluegill. Until you unlock the fishing rod, which is late in Chapter 2, you can't even start this challenge. Similarly, Gambler 1 challenge is to win 5 hands of poker; but until you rescue Reverend Swanson poker games do not unlock anywhere on the map. Meanwhile, I'm already on Herbalist 9 ("Pick one of all 43 species of herbs") and Horseman 9 ("Ride from Van Horn to Blackwater in less than 17 minutes without touching water"). Both of those are tricky to do prior to the Epilogue. Prior to the Epilogue, Arthur Morgan has a "Wanted: Dead or Alive" status in the state of New Austin and parts of West Elizabeth due to events prior to the game, and both 5 species of herbs and the city of Blackwater can be found in this region. So as soon as you enter, Pinkerton agents start to spawn and shoot at you. Gonna be interesting, I don't remember how I finished Horseman 9 previously; Herbalist 9 I never completed in the previous run, deciding to do it in the Epilogue.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Just for tracking purposes for myself, here's where I'm at in the Challenges:

• Bandit 5: Amass a $250 bounty in one State. (Should be easy. The closing mission of Chapter 2 involves breaking gang member Micah Bell out of jail, and it is super-easy to amass a $250 bounty -- or even more! -- during that one.)
• Explorer 2: Find a treasure. (I haven't been doing the treasure hunts, since it's not really feasible to do these passively, unlike a lot of the other challenges which you can do in normal gameplay.)
• Gambler 1: Win five hands of Poker. (Unlocked with the mission "Who is Not Without Sin" which I haven't yet done since I'm hoping to exploit a potential glitch in that mission.)
• Herbalist 9: Pick one of each species of herb. (Blackcurrant, Wild Feverfew, Desert Sage, and Red Sage can be found only in New Austin, which I'll have to exploit a glitch to get.)
• Horseman 9: Ride from Van Horn to Blackwater in less than 17 minutes without touching any water. (Currently working on this one. A first attempt using the route given in this wiki failed to register completion.)
• Master Hunter 7: Use bait to lure and kill both a herbivore and predator. (Since there's no quality level requirement this is easy, I just haven't taken the time to do it.)
• Sharpshooter 3: Kill five flying birds while on a moving train. (I haven't done this one yet because it's tricky to do this without getting a Wanted level, and it's not worth the bounty. However, doing "The Noblest of Men and a Woman" stranger mission, specifically the Billy Midnight portion, apparently allows you to have a gun battle on top of a train without incurring a Wanted level, so I'm probably going to try this during that mission.)
• Survivalist 1: Catch three Bluegill fish. (Can't go fishing until "A Fisher of Men," which is among the last missions in Chapter 2. I'm trying to see if I can steal a fishing pole from a fisherman in the wild during open play.)
• Weapons Expert 3: Kill three birds of prey using only a tomahawk. (I've gotten 2; the third is tricky since they take off when they see you stand up and take aim. My method has been to make a long-range animal kill, and then wait; eventually Western Ravens (which the game counts as birds of prey) land to feast and you can sneak up on them.)

 

[RealAlHazred]

And last night, I popped Horseman 9 (using the route shown in this video) and Weapons Expert 3 shortly thereafter. So, I'm at:

• Horseman 10: Break every wild horse breed. (Should be doable, some of them just spawn fairly rarely.)
• Weapons Expert 4: Kill 10 enemies with a shotgun using crafted ammo. (I found the Incendiary Buckshot Pamphlet, so it'll be that ammunition. Which is really cruel, so I'm hesitant to use it normally against foes. Maybe Night Folk, because they're super-creepy, and Murfree Brood, because they're the worst human beings.)

 

[RealAlHazred]

I've made some progress on the skill challenges.

• Bandit 5: Amass a $250 bounty in one State. (Unchanged. As I said, when you break Micah out of jail, your bounty in West Elizabeth can easily exceed $250. And the sixth challenge isn't completable until chapter 3 when you unlock the Horse Fence, since you have to sell him stolen horses to do it.)
• Explorer Complete. (Once I acquired three treasure maps I spent an evening following them and completed these challenges.)
• Gambler 5: Win three rounds of Dominoes without drawing any tiles against 2 or fewer opponents. (I did "Who is Not Without Sin" just to unlock poker so I could get started on these. I actually love the gaming animations and mechanics, it's just a pleasure to play poker or dominoes or blackjack in this game. This challenge is tricky; I've forgotten quite a bit of Dominoes strategy in the intervening time.)
• Herbalist 9: Pick one of each species of herb. (Blackcurrant, Wild Feverfew, Desert Sage, and Red Sage can be found only in New Austin where a sniper kills you, and Prarie Poppy is only found there and in the parts of West Elizabeth where Pinkertons spawn by the dozens to kill you. Those are the last ones I need.)
• Horseman Complete.
• Master Hunter Complete.
• Sharpshooter 9: Shoot three people's hats off in the same Dead Eye use. (I'm pretty sure this one is impossible to do without getting the second level of Dead Eye targeting.)
• Survivalist 1: Catch three Bluegill fish. (Can't do this challenge until after the mission, "A Fisher of Men," which is among the last missions in Chapter 2. I stole a fishing pole and caught three Bluegill, but it didn't trigger the challenge.)
• Weapons Expert 3: Complete.

Dead Eye is your supernatural power in this game. All video game protagonists have at least one supernatural power to them, even if they claim they don't. In the Hitman franchise, you can detect targets through walls. In Assassins Creed, you can fall from great heights and survive unscathed so long as there is even the slightest pile of leaves or bales of hay to fall on. In Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, it's Dead Eye.

When you enter Dead Eye mode, everything takes on a sepia tone and is drastically slowed down. You can then "paint" little Xs on things, and then when you pull the trigger you target each of those Xs with rapid-fire shots. Dead Eye has five general "levels" of usability. While you, yourself, don't move faster, you get to react to things far faster than anyone around you. It has 5 levels of usability.

Level 1 lets you paint targets' vital spots only, which you do by passing the cursor over those spots. Level 2 lets you manually target spots. Your Dead Eye gets upgraded to this level when you complete the chapter 2 mission, "Pouring Forth Oil IV."

I'm pretty sure you need level 2 Dead Eye to do the 9th Sharpshooter challenge. I'm trying to target vulnerable spots "behind" people's hats to knock the hats off, but it has be in the same Dead Eye use, and that's really proving impossible.