2018 witnessed one of the biggest video game launches ever with the release of Red Dead Redemption 2. The game was developed by Rockstar Studios and published by Rockstar Games. It was first released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2018, and for PC and Stadia in November 2019. The game was met with positive reviews with praise directed towards it’s vast interactive open-world and the the narrative. In addition to it’s single-player gameplay, the game also has an open-world multiplayer mode called Red Dead Online which was released in Beta, weeks after the game’s single-player launch. Red Dead Online’s full release was in May 2019. Red Dead Online too had a number of story missions and stranger quests, but the game somewhat felt incomplete, especially to those who quickly completed all the missions. However, the developers rolled out a massive update in September 2019 titled Frontier Pursuits which impressed a lot of players. The Frontier Pursuits update added different roles in Red Dead Online such as Trader role, Collector role, Bounty Hunter role, and later, Moonshiner role.
Every role has their own set of objectives and requirements. Players can opt to take on any and all of the roles that were added with this update. The previous article in this series of Red Dead Online Role Guides explained the Trader Role in detail. This guide will explain everything you need to know about the Bounty Hunter Role in Red Dead Online.
What exactly is the Bounty Hunter Role and what is your objective?
The Bounty Hunter Role is one of the four current roles that you can take on in Red Dead Online. This role, along with the others, was added as part of the Frontier Pursuits update in September, 2019. Activities which are a part of the Bounty Hunter role can be completed solo or with a Posse.
As the name clearly suggests, Bounty Hunting involves tracking down wanted criminals and bringing them to the law, dead or alive, for money and other rewards.
What rewards can you get by completing Bounty Hunter role activities in Red Dead Online?
Completing missions as part of the Bounty Hunter role in Red Dead Online will reward you money, experience points(XP), and gold nuggets. Just like all other roles, experience points include both Red Dead Online XP as well as Bounty Hunter XP since the game also has a role specific rank up system. The maximum role rank for Bounty Hunter is 20, similar to all other roles. As you rank up, you will unlock role specific equipment which will help bounty hunting easier, along with other cosmetic items such as weapon variants, clothes, horses, and saddles.
How do you unlock Bounty Hunter Role in Red Dead Online?
After completing the Prologue and setting up your camp, you’ll notice that a mission icon appears at the Rhodes Sheriff’s Station. Head to the location and initiate the cutscene. After some small talk with a bounty hunter, Sheriff Gray will offer you a bounty hunting license. Acquiring this license, however, will require a fee. You will need to pay up 15 Gold Bars. This amount may be reduced by the developers on special occasions.
Assuming that you have paid the amount, you will be officially registered as a bounty hunter of the Southern United States. You now have access to bounty hunting missions in the bounty boards. You can open up your Satchel and look for your Bounty Hunter’s license in the Documents section, if you want to.
Bounty Hunting Guide and Tips
After you have successfully acquired the bounty hunter’s license, you will find various icons that’ll pop up in your maps. These are the icons for Bounty Boards, which will be next to all Sheriff’s Stations and Post Offices. As part of the Bounty Hunter role in Red Dead Online, you now have access to all the Bounty Boards.
In the Bounty Boards, you will find three posters, each with the names of the criminals you need to hunt down, along with their location. Choose any one and head towards your bounty. Bounty Hunting missions will be of two types. The first one is a typical shootout where you have to fight an entire gang and then go for the bounty. The second scenario is where you will have to investigate various clues to track down the bounty in an area. Either way, once you kill or hogtie a bounty, you will need to bring them to the mentioned Sheriff’s office or prison wagon. Keep in mind that you will most probably get attacked on your way back while trying to deliver the bounty target.
As you rank up higher in the Bounty Hunter role, you will notice that you have access to higher difficulty bounties. The “$”, “$$”, and the “$$$” indicates the difficulty for the bounty. The higher the difficulty, the higher the price on their heads. Some bounties may require you to bring in more than one target. In that case, you will either need to play with teammates as part of a Posse, or if you can, you will need to bring them in alone in a bounty wagon, a vehicle you will unlock later as you rank up. Once you complete a bounty, you’ll notice that the poster for that bounty is no longer there. After sometime, it will be replaced with another. However, each bounty board will have three bounty posters so you can do all three of them one after another if you want to complete bounties in quick succession. You might come across the same bounty after a few days.
In addition to all these normal bounties, you also have access to a list of Legendary Bounties, which are unlocked from the very beginning. Legendary bounties offer you more XP and money than the normal ones. These types of bounties also have their own difficulty levels indicated with stars. Each time you complete a legendary bounty, their difficulty will be increased. The next time you go for the same bounty, you will notice that the number of stars have increased. Higher stars means higher risk, which means higher rewards. I would suggest doing higher difficulty legendary bounties with a Posse since those can be overwhelmingly difficult when attempted alone.
As I’ve mentioned before, in addition to several cosmetic items, you will also unlock some equipment, when you rank up, which will make bounty hunting easier.
Reinforced Lasso: This item is unlocked from the beginning. The Reinforced Lasso can be bought for $350. Unlike the normal Lasso, tying up a bounty or any other enemy NPC or player, will keep them tied up for a much longer period of time. I would suggest buying this item as quickly as possible.
Bolas: The Bolas is unlocked once you reach Rank 10 in the Bounty Hunter role in Red Dead Online. The Bolas is a throwable weapon that can be bought for $30 each. The Bolas can be thrown at a fleeing enemy to temporarily tie their legs and get them down on the ground, allowing you to approach and hogtie them. Lucky for you, the Bolas can be retrieved just like Arrows and Throwing Knives. However, you cannot retrieve a Bolas if you take too long to reach your enemy, as a result of which, they’ll cut the Bolas restraint and attempt to escape again.
Bounty Wagon: The Bounty Wagon is unlocked once you reach Bounty Hunter Rank 10. It can be purchased for $875. This wagon allows you to carry multiple bounties at once. Just capture the bounties, put them inside the wagon, and deliver them all to the required location. Bounty targets once put inside the wagon cannot escape. So it’s a pretty secure way to transport bounties. However, this wagon can be difficult to drive in hilly areas as you may end up crashing it. Crashing the wagon will allow all bounties inside of it to escape. The bounty wagon, therefore, is suggested only in cases where the number of bounty targets are more than the number of players in the team.
The Bounty Hunter Role in Red Dead Online is pretty interesting if you enjoy shootouts and risks. Keep in mind that killing enemies rewards you with XP so taking on bounty hunting missions and shooting an entire gang will net you some XP, in addition to the XP received for delivering the bounty target. Looting dead bodies of enemies can sometimes be beneficial so that is also something to be considered. Therefore, you should definitely go for the Bounty Hunter Role if you’re looking for some action.
You can also check out the guide for the Trader Role.
Cover Image Credits: Rockstar Games
