Once Red Dead Redemption 2 opens up in Chapter 2, the amount of freedom can feel overwhelming. You suddenly have towns to explore, weapons to find, horses to manage, money to earn, camp upgrades to buy, and random encounters happening all over the map.

Here are 8 things you should do first in Red Dead Redemption 2 to make the early game much easier.

1. Loot Every Enemy During the Opening Missions

During the opening chapter at Colter, don’t worry about trying to explore too far away from camp.

The weather outside the sheltered area is extremely harsh, and these first missions are mainly designed to introduce:

• Characters
• Combat
• Hunting
• Horse riding
• Basic game mechanics

Instead, focus on building up some early money.

The easiest way is to:

Loot every enemy you kill.

Money is extremely useful once the full world opens, so take everything you can during those first missions.

2. Store Warm Clothes on Your Horse

Once Chapter 2 begins, you’re free to explore almost anywhere.

That means you may eventually return to cold mountainous regions.

Before leaving camp, make sure your horse carries some:

Warm clothing

At camp, interact with the:

Foot Locker in Arthur’s tent

Choose an appropriate outfit and select:

Store Outfit on Horse

You can keep multiple outfits in your saddlebag.

When you’re traveling, you can then change clothes through the horse menu.

This is especially useful when moving between warmer regions and snowy mountain areas.

Keep a Second Horse

Once you’ve developed some bonding with your first horse, consider placing it in a Stable and acquiring another horse.

Having at least:

2 horses

gives you some protection if something happens to your current mount.

Otherwise, losing a bonded horse means starting the bonding process again from scratch.

3. Get Powerful Weapons Early

When you first visit Gunsmiths, you’ll notice that many weapons aren’t immediately available to purchase.

Instead of waiting for everything to unlock naturally, you can acquire powerful weapons through:

• Homestead robberies
• Hidden businesses
• Gang locations
• Exploration

Get the Schofield Revolver in Valentine

One of your first opportunities is at the:

Doctor’s Office in Valentine

Look through the back window or listen at the rear door to discover the illegal backroom business.

Once you’ve unlocked the activity, enter the back room and grab the:

Schofield Revolver

from the table.

Try to finish quickly before law enforcement arrives.

Get the Pump-Action Shotgun

You can also find useful weapons through Homestead robberies.

The source points to a location:

Across the river north of Valentine

where you can obtain a:

Pump-Action Shotgun

This gives you an extremely useful close-range weapon early in the game.

4. Hunt the Legendary Buck

After you’ve unlocked the Fence through Hosea’s progression, head northwest from the Valentine area toward:

Strawberry

At the western foot of:

Mount Shann

you can find the territory of the:

Legendary Buck

Hunt it and take its Antler to a Fence.

You can then craft the:

Buck Antler Trinket

The source recommends getting this early because it improves the quality of pelts you skin while hunting.

That can make it much easier to collect the Pelts needed for:

• Crafting
• Camp improvements
• Equipment
• Other upgrades

If you’re planning to spend a lot of time hunting, getting the Buck Antler Trinket early can save you considerable effort later.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Beginner Guide: Essential Tips for New Players

5. Grab the Free $500 Gold Bar in Limpany

One of the easiest early-game money boosts is extremely close to your Chapter 2 camp.

Travel to the burned-out settlement of:

Limpany

It is located southeast of:

Horseshoe Overlook

Find the ruined:

Sheriff’s Office

Go inside and look underneath the desk.

Pull out the Lockbox and you’ll find:

1 Gold Bar

The source values this at:

$500

You won’t be able to sell the Gold Bar until you’ve unlocked a Fence, so keep it until then.

For such a short trip, it’s an excellent early source of money.

6. Unlock Fast Travel Through Camp Upgrades

Once you have the Gold Bar money available, use some of it to improve your camp.

The important progression is:

1. Upgrade Dutch’s tent.
2. Upgrade Arthur’s tent.

Upgrading Dutch’s lodging first allows you to purchase the upgrade for Arthur’s lodging.

The Arthur upgrade unlocks:

Fast Travel

from your main camp.

You can then fast travel to towns and locations you’ve already visited.

This becomes extremely useful later because the RDR2 map is enormous.

If you prefer riding everywhere and discovering random encounters naturally, you don’t have to rely heavily on Fast Travel—but it’s still useful to have it unlocked.

7. Help Strangers You Meet While Traveling

Don’t ignore random travelers calling for help.

Some seemingly minor encounters can reward you later.

One example from the source is a traveler suffering from a:

Snake bite

Helping strangers like this may eventually lead to rewards such as:

• Information about Homesteads
• Information about illegal backroom businesses
• Free items from local stores

You may later encounter the same person in town, where they offer to pay for an item of your choice from a nearby shop.

These encounters are another reason not to rush between missions.

Pay attention to what’s happening around you while riding.

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8. Explore Before Rushing the Story

The opening chapter is relatively restricted, but Chapter 2 gives you much more freedom.

Use that opportunity to prepare Arthur before pushing too far through the main missions.

Good early priorities include:

• Exploring Valentine
• Finding free weapons
• Robbing Homesteads
• Discovering hidden businesses
• Hunting the Legendary Buck
• Collecting the Limpany Gold Bar
• Upgrading the camp
• Helping strangers
• Building bonds with multiple horses

Many useful weapons, upgrades, and opportunities aren’t handed directly to you.

You find them by exploring.

Best Early-Game Order

If you want a simple route to follow, try this:

1. Loot every enemy during Chapter 1.
2. Reach Chapter 2 and Horseshoe Overlook.
3. Store warm clothing on your horse.
4. Begin bonding with your horse.
5. Explore Valentine.
6. Discover the Doctor’s backroom business.
7. Get the Schofield Revolver.
8. Find the Pump-Action Shotgun from the Homestead.
9. Visit Limpany and collect the $500 Gold Bar.
10. Unlock the Fence through Hosea.
11. Sell the Gold Bar.
12. Hunt the Legendary Buck.
13. Craft the Buck Antler Trinket.
14. Upgrade Dutch’s lodging.
15. Upgrade Arthur’s lodging to unlock Fast Travel.
16. Continue exploring and helping random travelers.

Why These Early Upgrades Matter

These first few objectives give you improvements in several major areas at once.

Better Weapons

The Schofield Revolver and Pump-Action Shotgun improve your early combat options.

More Money

The Limpany Gold Bar gives you a large amount of early cash once you can sell it.

Better Hunting

The Buck Antler Trinket makes hunting for useful Pelts easier.

Faster Travel

Camp upgrades unlock Fast Travel for longer journeys.

Better Preparation

Keeping warm clothing and extra horses available makes exploration safer and more convenient.

Final Tips

Once Chapter 2 begins, don’t feel pressured to immediately follow every main story marker.

Red Dead Redemption 2 rewards exploration.

Search unusual buildings, watch for suspicious businesses, help people along the road, hunt Legendary Animals, and investigate Homesteads.

A small amount of preparation early in the game can give you better weapons, more money, improved hunting, Fast Travel, and useful resources that make the rest of your journey much easier.