Red Dead Online has come a long way since its tumultuous beginnings. The economy is fixed, the world is alive and vibrant, and there’s plenty to do. With so much to do, however, it’s hard to know where to start and what to prioritize. Since the online released as a standalone game, many players might be finding their feet without the benefit of having played through Red Dead Redemption 2.
Of course, the game has many stranger missions and free roam events for you to dive into, but the meat of the game is in the five Roles: Trader, Naturalist, Moonshiner, Bounty Hunter, and Collector. These provide five core gameplay loops that are designed to earn you the cash you need to buy guns, clothes, and horses. But, which one is the best? Well, read on to find out.
Updated April 10, 2023 by Amanda Hurych: The world of Red Dead Online is still one that is waiting to be explored. And the best way to traverse the land is through the lens of one of the major roles offered to players. We've updated this ranking to highlight important information pertinent to each role within their entries. Find the one that best suits your Red Dead playstyle and happy cowboying!
5 Naturalist
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Cost 25 Gold |
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The Naturalist role is great if you want to earn some easy money without having to slaughter countless animals. It revolves around sedating critters and selling the samples back to Harriet, an eccentric conservationist and drug maker.
The role is fun because it makes you stop and search for animals you would normally ignore. You can also carry five samples from each animal, so you can collect them without having to make trips to Harriet every few animals like you do with the Trader Role. Her missions are cool too, seeing you go on the trail of legendary animals that you have to get samples from.
There are a few downsides to this role, however. Trading in a set for extra cash is confusing, you have to do it via your animal field guide. Also, if you kill animals for any reason — which the Trader Role and many daily challenges require — Harriet will grow more and more annoyed with you. This will culminate in her spraying some drugs in your face and refusing to trade with you for a couple of in-game hours.
Overall, this Role is fun and quirky, but quite active, a bit too much hassle, and definitely too expensive to start.
4 Collector
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Cost 15 Gold Bars |
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The Collector Role is great for players who just have to see every single inch of the world Rockstar has created. It’s similar to the Naturalist Role in that it requires you to collect and trade in sets of items. You’ll be looking for antique alcohol, wildflowers, and old arrowheads. It’s more rewarding than it sounds.
The best thing about this role is how passive it is. You can accidentally get loads of items just from looting enemies, so as long as you’re doing that, you’ll slowly build up your collections and make pretty good amounts of money.
One big issue with this role is how expensive the additional tools required are. Nearly $600 for a shovel? No thank you. Also, it is very time-consuming having to search far and wide for all the items to maximize your earnings.
This Role is best taken early and then left as a passive pursuit, only actively search for things when you’ve almost finished a set.
3 Trader
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Cost 15 Gold |
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The Trader Role is essential for two reasons: camp upgrades and access to the Moonshiner Role. You can get a stewpot to feed you and your posse, and a weapons locker to store all your guns in. You can even get a dog you can train to warn you of thieves in the camp.
The role itself is the most straightforward in Red Dead Online. You kill animals and deliver their body to Cripps, then he breaks them down into a sellable product. Obviously, pursuing this Role will make Harriet very angry with you, but this is probably the best early-game method for making money and earning experience.
The downside of this Role is how damn tedious it is hunting. Skins honestly aren’t worth your effort as they yield so little when compared to full carcasses, but you can only put one on your horse at a time. It takes ages to get the hunting wagon and large delivery wagons, meaning the early stages of this Role can be very dull. Spending time in this game is great, but not when you're just doing the same thing over and over.
Still, it’s a good moneymaker, and it lets you become a Moonshiner.
2 Bounty Hunter
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Cost 15 Gold Bars (Plus Another 15 For Prestigious License) |
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Being a Bounty Hunter feels like Red Dead Online at its most authentic. There are endless bounties to be brought in, alone or with friends, and the legendary bounties add a great level of challenge and uniqueness to the Role. You also earn or lose honor depending on how you choose to deal with your targets.
This Role is the best for earning gold, so it should be taken early to ensure you can afford all the others. Each bounty you bring in rewards cash and gold, with greater rewards for harder bounties and bringing people in alive. What’s great about this role is the fact you can just keep doing jobs for as long as you want, making grinding money and gold very smooth. Once you level up the Role a bit you can even hunt down other players with high bounties.
The only downside to this Role is that the total cost in gold is quite high, but you earn so much gold just from doing bounties that you’ll make it all back and then some quite quickly.
If you love shooting and hunting down ruthless outlaws, this is the Role for you.
1 Moonshiner
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Cost 25 Gold (Plus The 15 Gold To Start Trader) |
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The Moonshiner Role is the closest to an idle moneymaker you can get in Red Dead Online. It’s far less active than the Trader Role, but the returns are greater and faster. This Role will see you helping Maggie Fike regain her throne as the shine queen of the Wild West. You also get a cool shack, not quite a house, but it'll do.
Moonshine is easy to produce, requiring only items you can buy in a general store and some common berries. You go to your cook, give him the ingredients, and let him cook for 30-60 minutes, lovely. In that time you can go off and do other missions, pursue other Roles, or do the incredibly fun and challenging Moonshiner story missions. These unlock new flavors of moonshine and are a great addition that really flesh out the Role, it’s a shame they don’t all include unique missions.
The only drawback to this Role is how carefully you have to drive to sell the shine without spilling any. Just stick to the road, drive slow, and you’ll be fine.
This is by far the best Role in terms of both fun and profit. You can play it actively, replaying the story missions to your heart’s content, or just let the still bubble away as you deal with other things. This is definitely the best Role available at the moment.