r/RedDeadOnline Jul 08 '19

Player Guide Red Dead Online Player Guide - Hunting and Fishing

If you see misinformation please leave a comment, directly PM me, or my Discord is SmurfInn#4360. Even though changing Third Person Controls and other Settings is suggested, these tips are written as if default controls are used.

Settings

Resources

New Players

Player Attributes

Weight

Horse

Camp

Posse

Clothing and Appearance

Daily Challenges

Hunting and Fishing <-- You are here.

Ranking

Money Making

Farming Methods and Circuits

Crafting

Bounty System

Weapons

PvP

Ability Cards

Roles

Showdowns

One-shot Bodyshot Kills

Captain Balrick's Arsenal

Glitches and Exploits Awareness

XP Bonuses

Benefits and Outlaw Pass

Free Roam Event Map (Community contributions)

_____________________________________________________________

Hunting and Fishing

Best hunting for Butcher and Trader Role: Go to Heartlands or Scarlett Meadows because of the Whitetail Deer and Whitetail Buck. Cougars and Panthers are more valuable but they don't spawn en masse like Whitetail. Both these areas are fairly flat with slopes that a Hunting Wagon can navigate. So just ride your Wagon around and shoot the 3-Star Whitetails in the head with a Rifle. Don't chase them too hard because you might crash the wagon. It's possible to turn around and spawn more. Whitetail hunting is strictly for efficient Material build-up for your Camp. Don't turn down 2-Star Bucks. Don't turn down 3-Star Rabbits and store them on the side of your Horse. Low levels should shoot and skin/pluck everything else besides valuable Whitetails and Rabbits for the XP and Award Gold. Donating Legendary Animal parts to Cripps also quickly fills your Camp Materials. You can donate a Sampled carcass if you physically turn it in or first put it in a Hunting Wagon. If you Fast Travel with the carcass it will skin itself but look unskinned. This may be changed in the future.

  • The Hunting Wagon keeps all cargo when it is destroyed and brought back. Even if you disconnect and return. It can store 5 carcasses and tons of pelts.
  • Legendary animals from Harriet's missions give Cripps the most materials. Free roam Legendary animals are also worth it and can be found with the help of the RDO Map.
    Here
    is a complete chart of animal prices from Cripps, the Butcher/Gus, and Harriet. The three most valuable are the Golden Spirit Bear (62.50), Payta Bison (58.75), and Sapa Cougar (58.75) and the least valuable is the free roam Zizi Beaver (22.50 Materials).
  • Here#Legendary_Animals) is a complete list of Legendary animals and their info.
  • Legendary Animals damaged by fire, explosives, or Toxic Moonshine cannot be skinned or sampled. Using Hangman to kill a Legendary animal will work but you will be constantly pulled and retrying. Free roam legendaries may require more than one choking.
  • The Elephant Rifle ($580.00 through the catalog) is designed for an extremely powerful first shot on a Legendary. Aim for the head and be ready to chase it if it doesn't die. Its ammo can go through wood material and other weak objects.
  • You can load your wagon up with carcasses then dismiss it to call your Horse. Fill up your Horse then Sell/Donate everything and call your wagon to do the same.
  • You can fill your wagon and Fast Travel to Camp with the Wilderness Camp if you achieved Outlaw Pass 4 Rank 97.
  • I have found 6 Bucks in this marsh area back-to-back and always in pairs.
  • While focusing or aiming at an animal hit R1 to view a Description and the last sentence will tell you what weapon to use to get the best quality.
  • Aiming at an animal while on horseback with L2 will make the horse auto-follow the animal.
  • Killing most medium and large animals with the Bolt Action or Springfield helps preserve carcass quality. Use a high damage weapon (Express Ammo helps) and aim for the head. Fewer shots mean a better carcass which means more money. Sniper Rifles will also preserve quality. Normal-sized Birds are Varmint Rifle only. Use the Varmint Rifle or Arrows for rodent-like animals (Rabbits, Racoons, Muskrats, etc) and Small Game Arrows for Rats, Squirrels, and small birds. Use the Elephant Rifle on Legendaries only if you have a good shot. Then use a Rifle or Repeater to finish it off. Don't burn, explode, or poison it. Choking with the Hangman Ability Card will kill Legendary Animals but takes a long time.
  • Big game with thick skin can be killed by Shotgun Slugs and remain perfect.
  • You can either skin/pluck an animal for meat and other parts, or donate the unskinned carcass to Cripps for more money. In most cases, it is more valuable to donate to Cripps for your Trader business than selling animal parts to the Butcher/Gus. Selling animal Samples to Harriet is the least profitable.
  • You can't skin Sampled carcasses but you can donate them if you physically turn the carcass or first put them in your Hunting Wagon. Do this for Legendary Animals. Don't Fast Travel with a sampled carcass. It will skin the animal even though it looks unskinned. Since this is using one Legendary carcass, even a normal carcass, for two profits (Harriet Sample and Cripps donation), this may be an exploit and is subject to change.
  • Small birds put in your Satchel can be broken down and yield feathers worth way more than the carcass.
  • Here is a chart of animal sell prices.
  • Hunting alone is best. Your animal spawns won't be affected by nearby Players.
  • Use stolen or tamed horses to store more carcasses. Ride the new horse and have your personal Horse follow you. Be sure to Hitch the newly tamed horse when you get off so it doesn't run away.
  • Shoot a predator with a poison arrow. Hit it anywhere and it won't degrade the quality. Wait to kill and skin. Doesn't work for Legendaries.
  • You can also lasso and drag another carcass to the Butcher/Cripps. It will not degrade the quality.
  • Small, or "baby", Alligators give you great money and the same 15 XP per kill. They are small enough to stack their pelts on your Horse, unlike the larger Alligators.
  • Use the Improved Bow as it uses less Stamina than the normal Bow.
  • Use the Bow to kill animals without startling others. Aim for the head and use small arrows for small animals.
  • Regular and Small Game Arrow can be picked up for another use.
  • If using a Bow, use damage Ability Cards to add an arrow's impact. Horseman, Landon's Patience, and Peak Condition increase damage output. Focus Fire as well, but you sacrifice Paint It Black.
  • If you place Bait to attract animals you and your Horse need to stay upwind to keep your scent away from the bait. Use Eagle Eye to see which direction the Bait's scent is flowing. Stay on the opposite side. Keep low and still. Even get rid of your Horse.
  • Legendary Animal Pheromones only help show a Legendary Animal after it's been revealed. It doesn't help spawn new Legendaries.
  • Be sure to collect all the arrows you fire to reuse. Poison and Fire Arrows will yield normal Arrows. Dynamite Arrows yield nothing.
  • Cancel a Bow shot after pulling back by hitting Circle / B.
  • A red Stamina or Dead Eye core will affect your aim, accuracy, and aiming sway.
  • Red paws on your minimap are dead or sedated predators. Some deer and elk can be red paws if they were agitated/aggressive. Can happen when a predator is sedated. This means it will wake up aggressive.
  • Getting drunk will disable your auto-aim.
  • Drinking Coffee will sober your character. More than one cup may be needed depending on how drunk they are.
  • You can't fish off boats unless you find are big boat and try to cast while very close to the shoreline. This is very unreliable.
  • Use Eagle Eye when your rod is out and you can see exactly where to cast towards fish.
  • Fish off a high spot like a rock to make reeling in medium to large fish a little easier.
  • Easily kill animals and preserve their pelts by lassoing animals then knifing.
  • You can skip the carcass skinning animation by standing your Horse over the carcass or skin the carcass in awkward terrain.
  • You can Fast Travel with a carcass on your Horse.
  • Carcasses and Pelts will disappear if you change sessions but will stay if you join a friend's session by joining their Posse.
  • The Unblinking Eye increases the length of your Dead Eye and Eagle Eye for tracking
  • At Bounty Hunter Rank 6 you unlock the Eagle Eye+ Perk which allows you to track animals while running on foot or horseback.
  • At Naturalist Rank 16 you learn to track all animals for a longer period of time.
  • At Naturalist Rank 5 you are able to spot Legendary Animal trails and spawns. Naturalist Rank 10 helps you narrow down Legendary search areas and Naturalist Rank 15 increases your chances of spotting Legendaries.
  • The Ability Card Paint It Black is useful for tagging flocks of birds with the Varmint Rifle. Be careful because Paint It Black can also tag the wrong animal or body part, or even tag an animal more than once.
  • Focus Fire or any damage card would work. Horseman, Landon's Patience, Peak Condition, etc...
  • I would use Paint It Black for tagging heads, The Unblinking Eye for longer tracking time, Landon's Patience to build an increase of damage while I track with my weapon out, and Peak Condition for an additional, smaller damage increase.
  • If I were hunting really tough animals like Panthers, Moose, Bears, etc I would replace Paint It Black with Focus Fire and Express ammo to help put them down with one headshot. Legendary Animals have more health so staking damage will also help take them down.
  • The Blending Tonic ($22.50 through Harriet unless crafted from a pamphlet) reduces the range at which you can be detected by animals for a period of time.
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u/Traveler_1898 Jul 11 '19

Haha, that's funny. I prefer to be miserable? What have you that impression? You guys can be happy with your system all you want. But there is no way it's the efficient way of getting resources hunting. Why won't you say how big these herds you're hunting are? Because your know they aren't as large as 9 animals.

I was being polite with you. The fact is, animal spawns aren't large enough on average to support group hunting in a way where you will do better than a solo hunter.

I want to make this distinction again, because I think you are missing it. Your three person group may kill more animals than me, but you need to kill three times as many animals just to match my efficiency solo. That's 9 deer for every 3 of mine. 9 rabbits for every 3 of mine. And since I rarely observe a situation 6 animals escape after I kill three, I can confidently say adding three people to my hunting group will diminish my individual gains.

Group hunting may be fun, but solo hunting is more efficient. If you find group hunting for, that's great. Keep doing it. But competent solo hunters will always out earn you.

1

u/jiujitsy Jul 11 '19

most bigots are miserable,

6

u/Traveler_1898 Jul 11 '19

I'm a bigot now? Do you even know the definition of the words you are throwing around? Or you just throwing words you hear in present discourse? How am I a bigot because RDO animal spawns aren't large enough for your method.

I've been nothing but polite to you but you've taken offense that I've pointed out why solo hunting is more efficient. Instead of defending your method by stating the size of the herds and the number of animals your are downing, you start throwing ad hominems (looks it up) and now straight insults. How old are you?

You are obviously quite young, because you aren't understanding why I don't need to try your method. Basic observations (most animal groupings are far less than 9 animals) reveal why your method is less efficient than solo hunting. You will kill more animals, yes, but not three times as many. And you know it, that's why you are resorting to insults.

Again, not trying to knock your style. I think it's cool that you've come up with creative ways to hunt. I suspect it breaks up the monotony of solo hunting. But make no mistake, solo hunters will bring in more resources on average than each member of your hunting group.

I am, however going to knock your shitty personality that had to throw insults instead of having a proper discussion. Grow up, kid.

1

u/jiujitsy Jul 11 '19

im not explain gin my methods with a hater that isn't willing to try it, there are things you would discover if you tried, but you know everything there is to know, so why even respond to me..... youre so set on proving me wrong that you won't take the actual steps to do so. Me and a couple of other competent men came up with this method. its going to take more than one miserable bigots "opinion" to stop me....

6

u/Traveler_1898 Jul 11 '19

Nobody is hating on your methods, they just don't sound efficient based on basic observations of animal spawns.

1

u/jiujitsy Jul 11 '19

look up the word bigot, now ask yourself were you tolerant or intolerant of my idea... im a 30 year old navy veteran... amongst other things, but this method is tried and tested, you are a bigot bro, you are not convincing me nor anyone thats doing that method to not do it, furthermore, you keep coming at me like you'll gain something, you are absolutely hating on it, i know for a fact that all three involved get more provisions than one solo hunter.

6

u/Traveler_1898 Jul 11 '19

Intolerant of your idea because I disagree with it? Snowflake much? I could make your same argument, you are intolerant to solo hunting as more efficient, so you are a bigot.

30 years old and you respond like a child, embarrassing.

I have nothing to gain and I'm not coming at you. I'm having a discussion on the most efficient hunting methods. You're the one taking offense and getting upset. And again, you could easily make your case if you stated the size of the animal herds and the number of animals you're downing. I'm seeing 3-5 animals in a herd in average and get 3-4 of them with clean kills. There is no room there for a group of three to get three times the number of kills.

1

u/jiujitsy Jul 11 '19

i can go all day about your fallacy, but im not so dumb, you can try it or you can keep responding, im not the miserable bigot here. you are arguing against something you have 0 experience trying... im done responding to you

5

u/Traveler_1898 Jul 11 '19

Did you Google fallacy so you can use it? What fallacy have I committed? You're the one throwing ad hominems.

1

u/jiujitsy Jul 11 '19

you mad bro?

6

u/Traveler_1898 Jul 11 '19

But at all. Why would I be mad because you can't handle a basic discussion? If anything, I'm disappointed that you're so sensitive that you derailed a perfectly civil conversation. Remember, you started throwing the insults because you couldn't handle your idea being criticized. You're obviously not ready to be an adult.

1

u/jiujitsy Jul 12 '19

yea, you mad.