Advice to anyone new to RDR2

[The Blackangel]

For those Red Dead players, I have a few tidbits of advice.

• If you have 2 horses, your main and your secondary, DO NOT tame a wild horse without stabling your secondary first. You will lose the horse otherwise. I forgot to stable my second Arabian which was the red chestnut Arabian, and when I tamed a Mustang, I lost him. ALWAYS STABLE YOUR SECOND/THIRD/FOURTH HORSE(s)
• In chapter 4 you will find a guy in St Denis named Algernon Wasp. Do not take on his requests for certain materials. If you do you may find yourself screwed later if you want to pick up where Arthur left off with the challenges. Herbalist 9 is to pick one of every plant in the game. Obviously it's not doable until the epilogue unless you're exploiting some kind of glitch. When Algernon asks you for certain orchids, others get locked out and become completely unavailable, until you get to a request that needs said orchid. For example I have 42 of the 43 plants picked. The last one I need is the Clamshell Orchid. It's locked out so until I finish up with the jackass, I can't complete Herbalist 9 and move on to Herbalist 10.
• Many of us will want our honor as high as possible. You can't get perfect honor until Chapter 6. You can get high honor prior to Chapter 6, but not perfect honor. So don't get discouraged trying to figure out why it won't go up from a certain point.
• ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS GET THE LEGEND OF THE EAST SATCHEL ASAP!!!! The satchel is virtually a requirement for the game. Yes, it's optional and you don't have to get it if you don't want to. The reason you should get it is because the satchel you start out with only lets you carry a max of 3 of any given item. The LOTES allows you to carry 99 of everything with a rare exception. You can only carry 10 platinum watches for example.
• If you're short on cash there's a quick way to get some money. Go to Fairvale Shanty in the north part of the map. It's about halfway between Annesburg and the Wapiti Reservation. It's easy to miss as it sits off the road near the edge of the map. If you go inside you'll find a lockbox that has a gold nugget, platinum watch, and some platinum jewelry. Earrings typically. Then ride a bit of a distance away. I use the Witch's Cauldron as a turning point. Then ride back to the shanty. All the stuff you just looted from the box is back again. You can do this as many times as you want and then take your loot to the nearest fence, of which there are 4 in the game. St Denis, Emerald Ranch, Van Horn, and Rhodes. But be careful with the shanty. There's often a grizzly there, so you'll want to take him out. Map image included.
• When you're hunting predators, put on your cover scent, plant your bait, then climb on top of a boulder. Predators can not reach you when you're on top of one. It's what I do when I'm hunting cougars and panthers. Wolves are way too easy, but I still kill them from a boulder.
• When hunting legendary animals, always use explosive ammo. Legendary pelts are always perfect no matter what ammo you use. And explosive ammo can bring them down in one shot easily. Even the largest legendaries like the white buffalo. The only one that I can say without a doubt that it takes more then one is the legendary gator. That thing is lightning fast and obscenely strong. So get some distance between you and it, and start unloading explosives in him.
• There are a few animals that are only available in one specific location. Most are found in several places. The biggest culprit of this is the panther. Now there is one in the swamp, but you will be hard pressed to get it to spawn. The easier one is at the south of Lemoyne. Map image included.

Off the top of my head I can't think of anymore tips to offer at the moment. I can guide you through some treasure hunts of you're stuck. While I don't know everything about the game, I do have an encyclopedic knowledge of it.

Edited November 11, 2023 by The Blackangel

[Rain Dew]

And don’t forget to save Often!!!