Red Dead Redemption 2 Tips: How-To Guide
The practical side of Red Dead Redemption 2, step by step: how to unlock fast travel, how Dead Eye levels up, how to save, how to get perfect pelts, how to tame and bond with a horse and how to replay a mission, plus the controller layout on PlayStation and Xbox.
Or jump straight to one of the full guides below.
How to Unlock Fast Travel in RDR2
Fast travel opens in Chapter 2, once the camp ledger is available after Leopold Strauss's mission Money Lending and Other Sins. The ledger and the donation box sit behind Dutch's tent. Put money in the box first: the ledger spends camp funds, not the cash Arthur carries.
Two upgrades are needed, in this order: Dutch's lodging, First Things First, for about $220, then Arthur's lodging, Next in Line, for about $325. The second one adds the fast travel map in Arthur's corner of the camp, near his bed. Guides give slightly different prices for both upgrades, so keep a little more than $545.
The map works one way: from the camp to the towns and landmarks you have already visited, never back to the camp. Elsewhere, trains and stagecoaches take you across the map for a fare. Holding the touchpad on PlayStation or View on Xbox switches to the cinematic camera, and your horse follows the route to your waypoint on its own; the ride is not any shorter.
How to Use and Level Up Dead Eye
Aim with L2 or LT, then click the right stick to slow time. Dead Eye gets new abilities as the story goes on, one level per mission:
| Level | Unlocked by | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
Level 1 | Old Friends (Chapter 1) | Targets are marked for you automatically |
Level 2 | Pouring Forth Oil (Chapter 2) | You mark several targets yourself before firing |
Level 3 | Banking, The Old American Art (Chapter 4) | Dead Eye stays on after a shot when nothing is marked |
Level 4 | Fleeting Joy (Chapter 5) | Fatal areas such as the head and chest are highlighted |
Level 5 | Goodbye, Dear Friend (Chapter 6) | Critical areas are highlighted |
The Dead Eye bar refills on its own over time. Cigars and cigarettes refill it faster, and sleeping or taking a bath restores all of Arthur's cores, the Dead Eye core included.
How to Save in Red Dead Redemption 2
Pause, open the Story tab and choose Save Game; Load Game sits in the same tab. The game keeps 15 manual slots. It also saves by itself around missions, but guides agree the autosave is too irregular to trust: save by hand before a long ride or a big choice.
How to Get Perfect Pelts in RDR2
Only a three-star animal gives a perfect pelt. Check its quality before you shoot, with binoculars, a scope or simply by aiming at it. Then kill it with one clean shot: a second shot, or a weapon too strong for the animal, ruins the pelt. A headshot is the safest choice.
| Animal size | Weapon for a perfect pelt |
|---|---|
Small game | Bow with Small Game Arrows |
Moderate (rabbits, turkeys, birds of prey) | Varmint Rifle |
Medium (coyotes, foxes, beavers) | Bow or Repeater |
Large (deer, wolves, boars, cougars) | Rifle, bow or scoped rifle |
Massive (bears, bison, elk) | Rifle or scoped rifle, improved or poison arrows |
Perfect pelts are what the Trapper wants. His main shop is in Saint Denis, with four other locations on the map, and he turns them, plus some cash, into clothing and saddles. Where to buy the Varmint Rifle, the bow and the rest is in the RDR2 weapons guide.
How to Tame and Bond With a Horse
To tame a wild horse, put your weapon away, approach slowly, aim at the horse with L2 or LT to calm it, then climb on. When it bucks, push the left stick in the opposite direction until it settles. Register it at a stable right away, Strawberry's for example, so you do not lose it.
There are four bond levels. A bought horse starts at level 1. The bond grows as you ride, feed, brush, pat and calm your horse, L3 or LS while riding. A stronger bond extends the whistle range, D-pad up, raises your horse's health and stamina and unlocks moves: rearing at level 2, a skid turn or stop at level 3, and a drift or piaffe at level 4.
The best free horse is the White Arabian, wild north-west of Lake Isabella, reachable at the start of Chapter 2. More in our best horse guide.
How to Replay a Mission
Pause, open Progress, then Story, pick the chapter and press Triangle or Y on the mission. Square or X shows the gold medal objectives. Only missions you have finished can be replayed. The full order is in the list of all 104 story missions.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Controls on PS4, PS5 and Xbox
The default controller layout. PlayStation buttons work the same on PS4 and PS5, and Xbox buttons the same on Xbox One and Series X|S.
| Action | PlayStation | Xbox |
|---|---|---|
Aim | L2 | LT |
Shoot | R2 | RT |
Dead Eye | L2, then click R3 | LT, then click RS |
Run, sprint | Hold X, tap to sprint | Hold A, tap to sprint |
Whistle for your horse | D-pad up | D-pad up |
Calm your horse while riding | L3 | LS |
Pick up, loot | Hold Square | Hold X |
Skin an animal, interact | Triangle | Y |
Weapon wheel | Hold L1 | Hold LB |
Map | Hold Options | Hold Menu |
Crouch | L3 | LS |
Reload | Circle | B |
Take cover | R1 | RB |
Jump, climb | Square | X |
Cinematic camera | Hold the touchpad | Hold View |
How to Raise Honor Fast
Honor goes up when you help strangers in trouble, let the fish you catch go and give to the camp. It goes down when you rob people, loot the bodies of innocents, kill someone you could have spared or break into houses. High honor pays off in shops, with discounts.
How to Make Money Early in RDR2
The two steady earners from the start are looting bandit camps, then selling the valuables to a fence, and hunting, then selling pelts and meat. The bigger payouts come from gold bars: the treasure maps guide lists every hunt in order and the 16 gold bars they hold.
Cheat Codes
Red Dead Redemption 2 has 37 cheat codes, entered from the Settings menu rather than during play. All of them, with the nine that need a newspaper first, are on the RDR2 cheat codes page.