After seven years of waiting, we finally got our hands on Red Dead Redemption 2, a sequel to Red Dead Redemption. Red Dead Redemption 2 was released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in October 2019, and for PC and Stadia in November 2019. The game, developed by Rockstar Studios and published by Rockstar Games, became the second-highest grossing entertainment product, behind Grand Theft Auto V, and has received several accolades. Red Dead Redemption 2 was highly praised for it’s innovation towards an interactive open-world design, deep narrative, and realistic gunplay mechanics. An online component of the game, known as Red Dead Online, was launched in Beta, a few weeks after Red Dead Redemption 2’s initial release, and was fully launched in May 2019. Red Dead Online, similar to it’s single-player counterpart, featured story missions as well as a number of stranger quests. In September 2019, however, the developers rolled out a massive update titled Frontier Pursuits. The Frontier Pursuits update lets Red Dead Online players take on different roles, viz, Trader role, Bounty Hunter role, Collector role, and a few months later, the Moonshiner role.
It is upto the players to choose from the various roles as each and every role has their own set of objectives and unique rewards. Players can choose any and all of the Frontier Pursuits roles. If you want detailed information about each role, you can check out the guides for the Trader role and the Bounty Hunter role. This guide, however, will explain everything that you need to know about the Collector Role in Red Dead Online.
What exactly is the Collector Role and what is your objective?
The Collector role is one of the four current roles that you can choose in Red Dead Online. This role, along with the rest, was added to the game in September 2019 as part of the Frontier Pursuits update. While this role does not necessarily need teamwork, you can do Collector activities yourself or along with your Posse members.
The Collector role requires you to search the Red Dead Online map for unique items, which then need to be collected, and can be sold for money.
What rewards can you get by completing Collector role activities in Red Dead Online?
Just like other roles in Red Dead Online, when you complete activities as part of the Collector role, you will be rewarded with experience points(XP), and money, and can also earn gold nuggets upon completing Daily Challenges pertaining to this role. Since all Frontier Pursuits roles feature Role Ranks, you will earn both Role XP as well as Red Dead Online XP. The maximum role rank for Collector is 20, like all other roles. The more you rank up your Collector rank, the more role specific cosmetic items you unlock such as clothes, horses, saddles, gun variants, and other essential items which are needed to find collectibles.
How do you unlock Collector Role in Red Dead Online?
Once you have completed the Prologue mission and set up your Camp, you will find the Collector mission icon on the map. Head to the location. This will initiate a cutscene with Madam Nazar, a travelling seer and collector of exotic items. She will ask you to work for her and bring in collectibles. Madam Nazar will demand a fee for the Collector’s Bag, which costs 15 Gold Bars. Once you have made the payment, you will find the Collector’s Bag in your Items wheel and a Miscellaneous item’s map.
Collector Guide and Tips
As part of the Collector role, you will need to bring in exotic items to Madam Nazar and sell them. This role is currently the most adventurous one as you may need to explore the highest peaks of the mountains to the most dense forests in the game. Note that some categories of collectibles can be acquired even before unlocking the Collector role. However, the Collector’s Bag can only be accessed after unlocking the Collector role, after which you can start selling off your collectibles.
Collectibles can be of different types. Prices vary with each type of collectible. These collectibles are further sub-categorized into several variants. As mentioned before, some collectibles are available since the very beginning of the game, even before unlocking the Collector role. Bird Eggs, Antique Alcohol Bottles Tarot Cards, and American Wild Flowers fall into this group. Once you have unlocked the Collector role, you can start buying maps for these collectibles from Madam Nazar. Each map for a particular collectible contains three locations for that respective collectible. The locations are marked in a similar way to the locations of Treasure Chests. You need to head out to the collectible area, search for them, and acquire them. Once you have acquired all the three collectibles from a particular map, you can buy another map for the same collectible from Madam Nazar again. Buying maps for Coins and Family Heirlooms requires you to buy the Metal Detector and the Pennington Field Shovel whereas maps for Arrowheads requires you to buy just the Pennington Field Shovel.
Acquiring some collectibles requires you to buy additional equipment. It is not possible to get those collectibles without the necessary equipment. Here’s some of the equipment that you must buy in order to get access to all collectibles or to find them using an easier approach.
Pennington Field Shovel: This item becomes available to buy as soon as you unlock the Collector role in Red Dead Online. The Pennington Field Shovel can be bought from Madam Nazar for $350. The shovel is used to find collectibles that are buried underneath the ground. There is absolutely no way you can find those collectibles unless you have the shovel.
Refined Binoculars: You need to reach Collector Rank 5 in order to unlock the Refined Binoculars. They can be bought from Madam Nazar for $450. Note that the Refined Binoculars are NOT compulsory for finding collectibles. However, it will make finding collectibles easier. When you look through the Refined Binoculars, dig sites, under which certain collectibles are hidden, will glow. You will automatically enter Eagle Eye mode when you look through the Refined Binoculars.
Metal Detector: It is unlocked after you reach Collector Rank 5. You buy it from Madam Nazar for $700. The Metal Detector is a must if you want to find certain collectibles. The metal detector works in a similar way to the lightning detector, a device you come across for a very brief amount of time during one of Marko Dragic’s Stranger missions in Red Dead Redemption 2. The metal detector will start blinking and vibrating when you are near to certain collectibles. The closer you are to the collectible, the faster the interval between each blink and vibration becomes. The metal detector will eventually guide you towards the collectible. Depending on the collectible, you can directly collect it or may need to dig them up using the Pennington Field Shovel.
Eagle Eye is very useful for finding collectibles. When you’re near a collectible, you will hear the sound of windchimes and wind. If the collectible is within your field of view, they will glow and you will find a visible yellow aura coming out of them. The closer you are, the louder the sound will become. If you find it difficult to acquire a collectible, remember to look inside buildings or hard to reach areas. Collectibles can be hidden almost anywhere.
Collectibles can be sold individually or in sets. Selling them in sets requires you to get all the collectibles belonging to a particular set. Or if you’re looking for easy money, you sell them individually for a lesser price.
Gathering collectibles may not seem like that big of a deal but if you dedicate some time to do that, you will notice a significant rise in XP as each collectible will net you around 100 to 150 XP. And selling those collectibles will earn you money. Therefore if you get around 20 collectibles, that’s a minimum of 2000 XP and quite some money. In my opinion, I wouldn’t put the Collector Role at the top of my list when it comes to roles in Red Dead Online, but if you have enough Gold Bars to unlock this role, you should surely try it out as the rewards in this role when earned at a constant rate can sum up to a lot of money and XP.
You can also take a look at the guides for the Trader Role and the Bounty Hunter Role.
Cover Image Credits: Rockstar Games
