By Nathan Dawber
Players looking to become successful bounty hunters in Red Dead Online should follow these simple tips and tricks.
Bounty Hunting has always been a staple of Red Dead Redemption 2, whether it be rounding up local degenerates as Arthur Morgan, or helping Sadie bring in dangerous bounties as John Marston. Red Dead Online is no different, with the Bounty Hunter role becoming available to players from the very start.
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While these missions can be lucrative and are available across the entire map, bounty hunting can be a dangerous business, and beginners will need to learn quickly to maximize their profits and ensure a steady stream of cash, experience, and gold. Here are the best tips and tricks to become a successful bounty hunter in Red Dead Online.
8 Buy A Prestigious Bounty Hunter License
A regular Bounty Hunter License will already set players back 15 gold bars, and buying a prestigious License costs another 15. While it may seem like a rip-off, the prestigious License adds another 10 ranks of progression totaling 30 (owners of the regular license can only reach rank 20).
These extra ranks give players access to powerful skills and items, as well as more content, such as infamous bounty hunter missions, which have a far higher payout than many other missions. As a result, players should buy a Prestigious License the first chance they get.
7 Capture Bounties Alive
As in Red Dead’s singleplayer, capturing and bringing bounties back alive earns more cash than simply killing them. This bonus can be up to twice the amount of money and experience as bringing them back dead, so it’s crucial to keep bounties alive and kicking.
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Players should make use of a lasso to hogtie their target. It’s usually a good idea to clear out any non-target enemies first – a bolas can then be used to temporarily disarm the bounty, allowing the player to move in and restrain them. Players should watch out, however, as captured NPCs can and will eventually untie themselves.
6 Purchase Bounty Hunting Equipment
As players progress through the ranks, various pieces of specialist bounty-hunting equipment will be unlocked, which can prove rather handy. For example, a reinforced lasso makes it harder for hogtied NPCs to untie themselves, whereas bolas will demobilize fleeing targets. Both items should help when capturing bounties.
The player can also knock out targets by kicking them with a lasso equipped. This will make targets unconscious but not kill them, which avoids any hassle from attempted escapes while keeping the payout high for bringing in the bounty alive.
5 Complete Daily Challenges
Each role receives its own daily challenge missions, with the Bounty Hunter role having a maximum of three. The first daily challenge will be available from rank 1, while the second and third challenges will be unlocked at ranks 5 and 10.
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Not only do these earn players some gold upon completion, but they are quite flexible, as players can use the same action on the same exact target to complete a challenge. For example, a challenge requiring players to hogtie two targets can be completed by tying the same target twice. Easy money.
4 Bring In Multiple Bounties
Some Bounty Hunter missions will have multiple targets, sometimes as many as six, and it goes without saying that bringing in more bounties equals more rewards. However, such a task can be difficult for solo players or small posses, but fortunately, there are some tools and tricks that can mitigate this.
Players can purchase a bounty hunter wagon, which acts as a prison cart and transports several targets at once. It is rather expensive though, so players might opt for the cheaper option by putting two targets on separate horses, riding one of them and whistling for the other to follow. This allows even solo players to bring in two bounties with ease.
3 Take Your Time
Completing Bounty Hunter missions as fast as possible is not the most efficient use of a player’s time. This is because the longer the time a player spends on a mission, the higher their payout will be. The sweet spot is usually around 9-12 minutes, which provides the maximum payout per minute.
For this reason, it makes sense to delay handing in the bounty or completing the mission, and instead kill some time by hunting or searching for collectibles. This increases the reward from the bounty while letting players pursue other activities at the same time. Just make sure to complete the bounty within the required time (usually 30 mins).
2 Complete Legendary Bounty Hunter Missions
Legendary Bounty Missions are available with the regular License and are more difficult than regular bounties. They provide the same experience and gold but pay much better in terms of cash. The highest paying targets are Etta Doyle, Red Ben Clempson, Tobin Winfield, and ‘Shepherd’ Virgil Edwards (unlocked with the Prestigious License).
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Each legendary bounty has five difficulty levels – completing one will unlock the next. The hardest level gives an extra 50% money upon completion, so it’s worth progressing through. Despite this, legendary bounties have a long cooldown, so they are not ideal for farming experience or money quickly.
1 Complete Infamous Bounty Hunter Missions
Unlocked with a Prestigious Bounty Hunter License, infamous bounties are the highest paying of all bounty activities. They take the form of 3 unique missions for every bounty board in the game and provide a one-time bonus of 75 dollars after completing all three missions.
Like the legendary bounties, these missions do have a cooldown, but only at that particular bounty board. Therefore, a useful strategy is for players to go from one town to the next completing infamous bounties, and by the time they have completed a few, the first town’s cooldown will be back down, and so on. This is the best way to earn as much money, experience, and gold from bounty hunting as possible.
Red Dead Online is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
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