Red Dead Redemption 2 Should I Play Online?

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a very large game that is probably one of the best looking games of all time. With its beautiful landscapes and amazing realistic mechanics, it is a masterpiece that not a lot of games can compare to. As there are pros of the game, there came a lot of cons too, but you are going to get that with basically any game you play. The best part is that Red Dead 2 did not have very many cons at all. After the game’s release, Red Dead Online was brought into the spectrum and officially released out of beta. There is a lot of people wondering if they should get into it or not because of all the time you need to put in. Here are the things you can do in Red Dead Online.

If you are thinking about buying the game, here is a link to the game on Amazon.

Upgrade your camp

When you first start playing, you get a starting camp that you can use basically whenever you want and you can also move it to any location that you want also. You have the ability to upgrade it however you want by making all the parts of the camp look a lot better. At first, you start with a run down camp, but you can eventually make it look like a camp that looks amazing. When it is upgraded, it reminds me of the upgraded camp from the story mode. The camp is just one aspect of the online mode and there are many more things coming in the future as well.

Play with friends

If a game allows you to play with friends I anyway, it always makes the experience better just because you can hang out with your friends and play a game you enjoy. Yes, the singleplayer is fun, but there is just something about mounting your horse with your friends and completing missions with them. Just exploring the world with them is also really fun because the world is the same as the singleplayer. You can also have them help you in any missions you need completing, but if they do, make sure you return the favor. As you progress, you will constantly unlock new content for you to use and it makes the experience a lot better if you have someone to play with.

Choose your role

With each role, the player gains unique items and skills as they progress. Each Role automatically earns Role XP as he completes the Role’s activities. Role XP counts towards the progression through 20 Role Ranks. Every 5 ranks the player will earn a new tag: Novice, Promising, Established and Distinguished. Unlocking a Role Rank earns Role Tokens and new skills or items, which can be unlocked by the Tokens. There are a total of 4 roles and here are the roles you can choose from.

Bounty Hunter – Eclipsing Bounty Hunter Rank 12 will open up the opportunity to take down other players with high bounties of $20 or more. Bounty Hunters will be notified through an invite about the opportunity to hunt down the wanted player when they’re nearby in a structured pursuit. The wanted player must escape (or surrender) within the allotted time and if captured, they’ll also have opportunities to escape and flee. If the Bounty Hunter brings the target in alive, they’ll receive an award while the criminal serves time.

Trader – To get started as a Trader the player must obtain the Trader License. The standard cost is 15 Gold Bars, and licensed Traders can pick up work in various places across the world. It is usually on a billboard. In this role, you go hunting and trade the skins for money.

Collector – To get started as a Collector the player must obtain the Collector License. The standard cost is 15 Gold Bars, while players who have collected the 54 playing cards on GTA Online will get the Collector License for free. Licensed Collectors can pick up work by visiting various places across the world. In this class, you collect rare items to sell for high prices.

Moonshiner – This class is not yet added to the game but will be added very soon.

Complete single-player and co-op missions

Story missions are done completely in private sessions only including the 2-4 players involved. It is possible to play with only a player’s posse or use matchmaking to play with other players.  The narrative of Red Dead Online depends on the player’s choices and their honor. There are a total of 13 missions you can play in Red Dead Online and some of them require you to complete with 3 other people, for a total of 4. Each mission is a part of the story in Red Dead Online and whatever choice you make determines what the Honor level of your character is.

Go hunting

The key to preserving the quality of the pelts is killing an animal in one shot because shooting the same animal multiple times will decrease the quality of the pelts. Besides selecting the appropriate weapons, players should aim for weak spots of animals which will kill them instantly. Unless they are hunting a massive size animal, players should avoid using shotguns due to its devastating power at close range. Just make sure you don’t damage the pelt because the more a pelt is damaged, the less money you get from it.

Complete bounties

There are Legendary bounties, 11 to be exact, that if you complete can give you some decent cash to spend on whatever your heart desires. They are difficult, but it is ultimately worth it in the end just because of the good amount of cash you get from them. They are also quite fun to complete. It is like a treasure hunt but for a person. You also get to tie them up and bring them to jail. If you have the Bounty Hunter License, make sure you take advantage of that.

Find and complete stranger missions

Stranger missions are done completely in Free Roam and can be done alone or with a posse. They reward cash, gold, and XP. Other players can interfere with these missions for cash, gold, and XP rewards of their own. Nearby players are even prompted to do interfere and the player(s) doing that started the mission automatically become enemies with them. There are 19 people that you can receive missions from and it is done on a volunteer basis. You can basically do the missions whenever you want to. You just have to make sure that there are not too many people in the world so they don’t steal your stuff.

Customize your own character

Just like GTA Online, there is a massive character creation system that lets you make your character look however you want. Ther is no look-alikes in this game because everyone does something different. Because of this mechanic, people can be very creative in the way they create their own character and it makes for a unique experience. There are also many different clothing options to buy in the shops as well as weapons to customize. There are honestly soo many different ways to be unique in the game and the customizations are amazing.


In conclusion, Red Dead Online is a great addition to the already huge game. There are countless hours of content that were added because of it and you will enjoy every second of it if you played through the main story. I would say it is definitely worth it to play Online if you already own the game so you can at least get your money’s worth out of the game if you did not have it already. If you beat the story, you would have played the game for at least 50 hours so why not spend another absurd amount of time in a different mode of the game.

Caleb Simmons


Recent Posts