Red Dead Redemption Guide by Colin Moriarty (with help from M.R. Sallee and Kristine Steimer) In the late 18th century, the reach of the infant United States went about as far westward as the Mississippi River, with the vast expanse sitting beyond it an unknown quantity. After foreign empires essentially abandoned their claims to North America, one after another, during the course of the 19th century, the United States ventured ever westward, until it touched the Pacific Ocean in the west, the Rio Grande in the south, and the 49th parallel in the north. During the course of such expansion, one notion of the westward traveler replaced another, from the hardened explorers like Lewis and Clark to the 49ers that ventured to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in search of gold. But then, there was the southwest. The land of deserts, cacti, cowboys and lawlessness. And just like the lives of explorers and miners in those years past, the lives of those brave souls that pressed into the southwest in the last half of the 19th century and into the early 20th century were fraught with danger. And it's that environment that Red Dead Redemption places you into, as the mysterious character named John Marston. The year? 1910. The location? The Western Border States. Red Dead Redemption is, in many ways, a Grand Theft Auto game. And that means missions, side quests and collectibles galore. Our expansive guide covers everything for you, from the game's main storyline to the most obscure, out of the way collectibles and encounters. Our goal? To net you a 100% completion rating. © 2010, IGN Entertainment, Inc. May not be sold, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast, in whole or part, without IGN’s express permission. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. All rights reserved. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 1 of 315 Red Dead Redemption Basics A Primer Combat, Gunplay, Dueling Horses, Missions, Side Quests, The Law Ten Tips Introduction to Red Dead Redemption Basics Red Dead Redemption truly is the Grand Theft Auto of the west. Built on identical architecture as Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption is going to feel very familiar to veterans of Rockstar's most popular series. The controls are basically the same, from shooting to driving (or in this case, riding), making Red Dead Redemption a welcome, easy-to- comprehend experience for millions of gamers. If the game is anything, it's accessible. But whether or not you're comfortable or not with game's overarching control scheme, there's still a lot to learn with Red Dead Redemption. The game's a sandbox title with myriad options, minigames, side quests, choices, and ancillary encounters. Seeing and doing everything there is in Red Dead Redemption will take dozens upon dozens of hours, a little patience, and a whole lot of knowhow. And naturally, the latter is where we come in. The Premise of Red Dead Redemption In Red Dead Redemption, you play as a shadowy, mysterious character named John Marston. As the game begins, you'll find Marston feverishly chasing after a man from his past known as Bill Williamson. Seemingly-mortally wounded at the outset of your adventure, Marston recovers quickly from his wound and goes about solving the mystery of the whereabouts of Williamson, as well as the men who are helping him, both north and south of the United States -Mexican border. On the way, Marston will meet a great many characters, many of them unique, and some of them hostile. As he helps these random persons with tasks important only to them, Marston hopes to inch closer and closer to capturing his mark, and putting a period on the end of this chapter in his life. In other words, Marston is doing a lot of people favors in hopes that they in turn help him. Of course, Marston's adventure quickly turns into a misadventure of the first magnitude. After all, Red Dead Redemption isn't only about completing missions and quests to progress through the story. It's also about exploring every nook and cranny of the wild, wild west. There are horses to capture and ride. There are herbs and flowers to collect, and animals to kill and skin. There are challenges to complete, and plenty of gambling to be done. And then, there are duels, bounties, gangs and other dangers to deal with. In other words, Red Dead Redemption is rife with activity. This basics section will attempt to answer some of your more basic questions (naturally), keeping a keen eye on not getting into too much detail. After all, there are specific sections of this guide covering every aspect of the game in -depth. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 2 of 315 Red Dead Redemption Basics A Primer Combat, Gunplay, Dueling Horses, Missions, Side Quests, The Law Ten Tips How to Duel in Red Dead Redemption Dueling in Red Dead Redemption is a complicated, but necessary, skill to master. When engaged in a duel with your opponent, there are three possible outcomes: 1) You disarm the opponent, 2) You kill the opponent, or 3) The opponent kills you. We'll teach you about the first two situations. Our guess is you won't have any problem with the third. Step 1: The Draw A duel starts with a quick staredown as the camera slowly moves into the action. At this moment, you don't need to do anything, though you can hold DOWN on the Right Analog Stick to ready your hand by the gun for a quicker draw. When the screen flashes "DRAW!" push UP on the Right Analog Stick to pull out your gun. (Side note: You can actually be quick on the draw and pull out the gun well before the screen flashes the "DRAW!" message. But doing this prevents the camera from zooming in fully, and could decrease the accuracy of your shots.) Step 2: Targeting Move the reticule over a part of the opponent's body and pull the Right Trigger / R2 button to set a target point. Each successful target will fill up your blue meter in the lower-right corner of the screen. Fill your meter before the opponent fills his and you'll win the duel. If you want to disarm the opponent instead of killing him, make sure you only target his hand. However, if you unload too many shots, even into the opponent's arm, you'll still kill him. Step 3: Winning Notice that your aiming reticule flashes red and white. If you pull the Right Trigger / R2 button to set a target just as the reticule turns white, you'll fill up a larger portion of your blue meter. In fact, usually one or two perfect shots are enough to fill the meter entirely and win the duel. If you want a successful disarm without going overboard and killing the opponent, you need these perfect targets to end the fight in a single shot. © 2010 IGN Entertainment, Inc. Page 3 of 315 Combat Primer Critics of Grand Theft Auto IV's combat system rejoice; Red Dead Redemption's combat is unequivocally tighter, more usable and more effective than its cousin's. There's no questioning that. So you won't feel as frustrated with Red Dead Redemption as you were with Grand Theft Auto IV's seemingly-random and inconsistent combat. There are still a few important fundamentals to keep in mind, however. Doing so will make your life a whole lot easier, since Red Dead Redemption arguably relies more on straight-forward combat than its modern-day, city-dwelling cousin did. And you'll be fighting far more often, too. John Marston has a lot of weapons at his disposal, and there are several important categories to keep in mind. You can have a single sniper rifle, standard rifle, shotgun, pistol, blade and more equipped at one time, and they can be called up and equipped at-will with the weapons wheel. Keep in mind that the weapons wheel exists in realtime, so action around you won't be frozen around you while you choose your firearm. You have to be quick! You can add and remove weapons to certain types on the active weapon wheel from your main menu. And that's all well and good. But what about actually fighting? What should you keep in mind during the heat of battle that will help you survive the fray? The first thing you're going to want to keep in mind is that you can use the Dead Eye combat option in most situations, which will make your life easier. Dead Eye is activated with the R1/Right Bumper, and effectively slows down time during combat... at least for your enemies. While your enemies are struggling to move (or apparently so -- time really is just frozen), you can react in near-realtime, marking your enemies with shots and getting off quick-fire rounds before your mark knows what hit him. The best part of Dead Eye, though? It has to be the fact that you can hit multiple targets if you're quick enough. Seal a few headshots at once, and suddenly, the enemy lines are much thinner than they were. Keep a keen eye on your Dead Eye meter, however, as you won't be able to spam it endlessly. You'll need to give the meter time to regenerate as it's used. Of course, you can easily get through the game without using Dead Eye at all, except in situations where the game forces you to use it.