Red Dead Online has been out as a stand-alone game for a few months now, so players should already be familiar with a lot of the Wild West. While you may have mastered the beginner tips and strategies, the game is deep, and there’s always more to learn.

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Do you know what the best food is? Or where to hunt for Trader material? The tips here really separate the wheat from the chaff, so take them and share them with your fellow outlaws.

You Probably Don’t Need Horse Insurance

red dead redemption 2 horse silhouette

Your first horse comes with free insurance, which is great. When you’re new to the game you may not realise the kind of heights your horse can handle, deaths are inevitable. But, for $125, horse insurance is expensive, especially when some horses already cost upwards of $800. Forgo the insurance, buy some horse revivers and heal your horse yourself. Even if it does become critically injured it only costs $4 to have it revived by the stable. Get the insurance for your final horse, the best one you’ll ever want, but for your second or third, it shouldn’t get hurt enough to make the cost worth it.

You Have To Set Which Horse You Use For Each Event

the speciality menu highlighted in red dead online

Have you ever started a mission or free roam event on your trusted, number one steed, only to be suddenly placed on your beginner filly? You may go into the stable menu and double-check what horse you’ve set as active, but that won’t fix the issue. You have to go into the specialty menu and manually select what horse you want to call for each type of event, race, story mission, free roam. Now you should always have the right horse for each occasion.

The Stranger Missions Tie Into The Single-Player Story

sadie adler wearing a scarf

You get introduced to the train clerk missions pretty early on in Red Dead Online. They don’t pay much, so once you’ve gotten your first Role going you probably ignored them unless you needed an honour boost. Well, the stranger missions, which have the same symbols, often contain fun mission strands that tie into the main story. You can find Sadie Adler’s husband up at their homestead and do some work for them before the tragedy of the single-player campaign befalls them. Get to know the strangers, they’re worth it.

Hideouts Have Set Locations

a map showing where all the hideouts in red dead online are

Hideouts are good sources of lootable NPCs and XP. Clearing one or two often appears as a daily challenge, too. Well, luckily for everyone, hideouts have set spawn locations. This doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to spawn, however. You can either hit every location on the map above in the hopes of finding one that will spawn, or you can server hop until one spawns in with you. Just ride around for a couple of minutes at each spot to give them a chance to appear.

Collectibles Reset Every Real World Day

madam nazar smoking a cigarette in red dead online

The collectible locations may seem to be somewhat random at first, but don’t worry, they actually appear based on a cycle. Fortunately, this website charts where each collectible will be every day and even allows you to plan a convenient route to hit each one in the most efficient way possible. Trading full sets with Madam Nazar can be pretty profitable, but searching with her maps takes far too long, so this tool will help you make some truly fast cash.

Special Ammo Gives You Extra XP

Red Dead Online shooting gun with purple jacket
Red Dead Online shooting gun with purple jacket

You don’t unlock additional ammo types to purchase until you hit level 31, which seems insane. The standard ammo gets the job done, but it lacks the punch of the fancier stuff. Well, once you unlock this ammo, stock up on it. Not only does it increase, range, damage, and accuracy, but you also get an additional 5 XP per kill when using special ammo. This may not seem like a lot, but considering how many NPCs you kill when clearing a hideout or doing certain story missions it quickly adds up, making ranking up further a breeze.

Honour Is Easy To Gain But Hard To Lose

the high honour stag next to the low honour wolf

Honour only really seems necessary for the two trophies/achievements associated with having max and minimum honour and the two strands of story missions. It costs three gold to have your honour level artificially changed. We already have some handy tips on how to raise and lower your honour, but if you haven’t started the story for whatever reason, it’s advisable to do the dishonourable choices and strand first. Simple things like feeding your horse and skinning animals will raise your honour, and killing people to lower it often leads to a large bounty, so start bad and work yourself good.

Rio Bravo Is The Best Place To Hunt Trader Goods

a map of rio bravo in new austin

If you’re sick of players griefing you or stealing your kills when you’re trying to hunt near camp, pack it up and move down south. Rio Bravo is far enough away from any towns that players shouldn’t really frequent the area, leaving you all the time and space you need to hunt. The area also has some great animals available to hunt, pronghorns and condors, even a few cougar spawns nearby.

Revenue Agents Have A High Chance Of Having Antique Alcohol Bottles On Them

revenue agents preparing to shoot

By now, you’ve definitely looted an enemy and been surprised with some Collector XP and a new tarot card or antique alcohol bottle. It seems like it would be possible to complete these sets by looting alone. Well, if you’re after the antique alcohol sets, you’ll finish them much faster by targeting revenue agents. These pesky tax collectors set up roadblocks to stop honest, hardworking moonshiners. They’re more likely to have alcohol on them, fitting really. So go out there and give them hell.

Alligators Make The Best Food

Red Dead Redemption 2 Posing In Front Of Dead Bull Gator

While the menacing hiss of Bayou alligators is a, rightfully, fear-inducing sound, you should learn to love it. Gators are big, don’t run, and they’re plentiful. There will always be a load in the swamps just north of Saint-Denis, so you know where to find them. Why would you want to find them? To eat them, obviously. They provide players with an abundant source of big game meat, which, when seasoned, will fill all cores and fortify one. It can also be added to camp stew pots to make the best stews. Hunt gators and never go hungry again. Just know that they’re hungry too, however, so shoot them from afar and always watch your back.

Next: Every Role In Red Dead Online, Ranked