Legend of the West¶

This is the platinum trophy and requires you to get the rest of the trophies before unlocking it. Red Dead Redemption 2 is definitely not a short platinum, with a lot of time spent on the single player alone. Achieving the in-game 100% completion, obtaining 70 Gold Medals, and the Zoologist and Skin Deep trophies are probably the biggest roadblocks for the single player. In addition to that, there are a good number of online trophies, although only the Rank 50 one seems to be the biggest grind, with the rest of the online trophies likely coming on the way there.

 

Story-Related Trophies¶

The following are the trophies that will unlock as you complete the main story missions. This not only includes the regular story, but the Epilogue as well.

 

Lending a Hand¶

You need to complete all optional Honor story missions to get this trophy, which is definitely missable, depending on how you go about things. Honor missions can appear with both the typical golden marker, as well as a white one; just make sure you complete all missions available before moving onto the next chapter. It’s also important that you keep doing honorable things during the game, as some missions might not show up if your honor isn’t positive. There are a myriad of options that will help boost your honor, such as: doing chores around camp (black dots), catching fish and letting them go, greeting as many people as possible around towns or when exploring, being a general good guy and helping people when they are in trouble, and more. Keep a lookout for the little cowboy icon with a “+” sign on the right side of the screen, as this indicates your honor going up. You can check on your honor anytime by pressing down on the D-Pad.

To be on the safe side, here is a list of all optional Honor story missions that should be done to get this trophy:

– Money Lending and Other Sins I & II
– Money Lending and Other Sins III
– Good, Honest, Snake Oil
– We Loved Once and True
– Pouring Forth Oil

– The Course of True Love I & II
– The Course of True Love III
– Money Lending and Other Sins IV

– Help a Brother Out
– Brothers and Sisters, One and All
– Fatherhood and Other Dreams
– Money Lending and Other Sins V

– Do Not Seek Absolution (Requires a sufficient amount of Honor to begin)
– Of Men and Angels
– The Course of True Love IV & V
– Archeology for Beginners
– Honor, Amongst Thieves
– Money Lending and Other Sins VI & VII
– Mrs. Sadie Adler, Widow

It should be noted that some of the above missions are not added to the replay menu. Also, those that are will automatically be added upon missing them. However, replaying them in this fashion will not have them count towards the trophy, as you need to play them during the actual story, when they are available.

 

Gold Rush¶

Welcome to another time-consuming trophy for the game, as you need to earn a Gold Medal in at least 70 story missions. Luckily, there’s a total of 104 missions that yield a Gold Medal, so it’s possible to skip the harder ones without having to worry about missing this trophy. At the end of each story mission, you will be awarded a medal based on the number of optional objectives you completed. In order to earn a Gold Medal, you will need to finish all objectives in one go. Unfortunately, on your first time through a mission, you won’t know what these objectives are until the end of the mission.

Luckily, you can replay any story mission by heading to Progress in the pause menu, then selecting Story and whichever mission you wish to redo. However, there is a big problem with replaying missions from the menu, as your character is nerfed during replays. You tend to have a crappy horse, as well as guns and limited items, if any at all. This makes it difficult on those missions where you might have to use Dead Eye quite often. This makes it a royal pain to do on replays sometimes, so some missions are better on your first play of it, provided you look up the objectives prior to doing it, since you will have everything in your inventory to help.

Should you not decide to do them on your first playthrough of a mission, then look at the objectives upon completing a mission, as it will be fresh in your mind. Missions with time limits tend to be annoying, even moreso on replaying it. Likewise, some missions have kill/headshot requirements that are tight, even moreso on replays, so it might be better to ignore those, too. Missions that have an objective to not take any health items will have that objective negated if you restart from a checkpoint, so be wary of those. Save for one or two of them, the Epilogue missions tend to be very easy golds.

 

Friends With Benefits¶

This trophy is MISSABLE.As you complete story missions, you will sometimes see that your companions at camp will want to do an activity. You have to complete at least one activity in each of the three camps in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 to get this trophy. It might be a good idea to keep a save at the beginning of each of the above chapters, in case you have to go back to redo anything and won’t have to restart the entire game. The activities usually involve going hunting or fishing with a fellow gang member, or doing a robbery of some kind. You’ll know an activity is available, as there’s usually a white icon shown on your map.

– Chapter 2 - Home Robbery (Javier)
– Chapter 2 - Hunting (Charles)
– Chapter 3 - Coach Robbery (Sean)
– Chapter 3 - Coach Robbery (Bill)
– Chapter 3 - Fishing (Javier)
– Chapter 3 - Fishing (Kieran)
– Chapter 4 - Coach Robbery (Micah)
– Chapter 4 - Coach Robbery (Lenny)
– Chapter 4 - Hunting (Pearson)
– Chapter 4 - Robbery (Uncle)

 

Hobby Horse¶

Throughout the world of Red Dead 2, there are minigames you can play, of which there are four in total: Poker, Blackjack, Dominoes, and Five Finger Fillet. In order to get this trophy, you simply need to play all of the above at least once. It doesn’t even have to be a full game, as the game will register once you’ve sat down to play. So, you could play for 10 seconds, then quit, get up and walk away. There are a number of locations where you can play these games, all of which have their own icons on the map. You may also see them available to play within your own camp from time to time.

– Poker - Valentine, Flatneck Station
– Five Finger Fillet - Valentine, Strawberry, Van Horn
– Blackjack - Rhodes, Van Horn
– Dominoes - Saint Denis, Emerald Ranch

 

Breaking and Entering¶

To obtain this trophy, you will need to recover the stash from four homesteads, which are special places that can be robbed. Despite only needing four, there is a total of seven across the entire game, although one doesn’t open up until Chapter 6. This can be a little bit glitchy, as just looting the stash in the locations might not trigger it as complete, so it might be better to loot everything. If you have the max of an item, then use it and loot the item in the homestead. Note that some of the homesteads have something special for you to do in order to have it count, like Catfish Jacksons requiring you to interrogate the son.

– Chez Porter - In barn, on upper floor
– Aberdeen Pig Farm - Must go inside in order to get stash
– Lonnie’s Shack - Keep one person alive and threaten to find stash
– Van Horn Mansion - Must steal money on table when people are there
– Catfish Jacksons - Interrogate the son
– Watson’s Cabin - Shotgun in basement should count
– Willard’s Rest/Rocky Seven - Help lady there

 

Artificial Intelligence¶

Once you reach Chapter 4 of the main story, you will find a new Stranger mission available towards the southwestern end of Saint Denis. This is A Bright Bouncing Boy and in order to earn this trophy, you will simply need to complete the mission. Note that the mission is only initially available during the day.

 

Take From the Rich¶

As you kill enemies and people in the game, you can go up to their bodies and loot them with the Triangle/Y button. You can receive money or items from the dead bodies you loot and for this trophy, you need to get $250 total across the entire game. Alternatively, you can also rob people by holding L2/LT, then pressing Triangle/Y to rob them if the option is available. Note that some of the major targets during missions have a lot of cash on them, so make sure you loot them.

 

Give to the Poor¶

This trophy is MISSABLE. Once your gang sets up camp in Chapter 2, you should see a money icon next to Dutch’s tent. This is the donation box for the camp and not only can you contribute with money, but you can also add valuables to it, which are converted to their worth. Note that you only have access to the donation box in Chapters 2-4, so if you don’t donate the required $250 for this trophy before finishing Chapter 4, then you will need to begin a new save or revert back to a previous one before the end of Chapter 4. Your other gang members can also donate, but their money doesn’t count towards the total. The quickest way to do this trophy is complete All That Glitters in Chapter 2 and donate one of the gold bars to the box, which is worth $500 (or sell them to a Fence and donate the exact amount to get the trophy).

 

Pony Up¶

There are various shops around the game’s world, where you can buy/upgrade guns, purchase horses, buy food and other restorative items, as well as even get new outfits for your character. Spending a total of $5000 across all shops is what’s needed for this trophy. Note that this is cumulative and doesn’t need to be done all at once, so you can gradually work on this as you play through the story. Doing the treasure maps will give you a lot of money, as well as a few missions, with the biggest payout being $20,000 for completing the story. The biggest places to spend money at are the stables, gunsmith (buying and customizing weapons), and the trapper/fence. To avoid having to actually forgo the money, you can make a manual save prior to spending it and reloading after you pop the trophy.

 

Extreme Personality¶

Red Dead 2 features an Honor system, where your actions determine how people react to you, as well as shop prices. Being good will unlock some necessary missions later on in the game, which are needed for the Lending a Hand trophy, so it’s best to focus on being honorable from the outset. You can check on your honor level by pressing down on the D-Pad during free roam, with a bar appearing on the bottom of the screen. The white part to the right is positive honor and the red part to the left is negative honor. To get this trophy, you will need to have the bar reach the far right end or the far left end.

Helping people, such as those in Chance Encounters, will boost your honor, as will greeting strangers in towns, completing chores in camp and even donating to the tithing box in camp. Another action that increases honor is catching a fish and then letting it go. It should be noted that it can be a chore sometimes to increase your honor, plus you can’t max it out until Chapter 5. If you plan on getting the other trophies, then start working on increasing your honor as soon as possible, as it saves you from having to grind it out later.

Should you want to live up to the true bandit and gang mentality, then killing innocent people is one way to decrease your honor. Likewise, if an innocent person hasn’t been murdered by your hands, then looting their bodies will also make your evil. Also, not helping out strangers during Chance Encounters can sometimes make you lose honor.

 

Western Stranger¶

As you explore the game’s world, you will undoubtedly come across strangers that are marked on the map with a white circle and “?”. These are side missions that usually have multiple parts and for this trophy, you will have to complete at least 10 of the entire line of missions for these strangers. Luckily, there are around 20 or so of these throughout the game, so you should have plenty of chances to get the required amount for this trophy.

 

Bountiful¶

In the world of Red Dead 2, there are five states, which are Ambarino, New Hanover, Lemoyne, West Elizabeth, and New Austin. In order to get this trophy, you need to have a bounty of $250 in all five states and survive for three in-game days with the bounties. It is easier to do this prior to completing Chapter 6, as you are wanted dead or alive in New Austin from the beginning of the game until completing that chapter, which eliminates the need to do an extra state. Three of the remaining states aren’t too tough to rack up a bounty, as there are towns in them, so finding people to kill and being around the law is simple (lawmen rack up your bounty quick).

However, the state of Ambarino is a bit more challenging, as there isn’t a town there and it’s fairly barren, as far as people go. Northeast of Valentine is a prohibited area called Fort Wallace and just next to it is a river. On the northern side of this river is a cliff that kind of overlooks the fort, and it’s actually the southern edge of Ambarino. While standing on this cliff, preferably with a scoped weapon, shoot one of the soldiers on the fort’s wall. If you get the “Witness - Investigating” in the upper right, then you’re on the right track. If not, keep trying.

If successful, then you should have some lawmen coming after you, likely from the north. Kill them to rack up your bounty some, then wait for more to appear, knowing you might need to do the above again. Other alternatives to attracting the law in Ambarino is to put a dead body on your horse, ride on a main road in the state and hope someone sees you, reporting your crime. You could also wait for a train to pass through, hop on it and perform a robbery, bringing the law to you.

Should you be doing this during Chapters 2, 3 or 4, then after getting a $250 bounty in the remaining four states, you can return to your camp and sleep through the three required days to get the trophy. You won’t be able to sleep right through, though, as the game doesn’t let you sleep more than two times consecutively (for the long lengths). So, sleep twice, then wait around in camp for like 10 minutes or so, then try to sleep again. Once 72 hours have passed in-game with a $250 bounty in all states, you will receive the trophy.

 

Collector’s Item¶

As with any open-world game, you are going to find items that count as collectibles. In order to obtain this trophy, you will need to complete one of four specific collectibles, which are Cigarette Cards, Dinosaur Bones, Rock Carvings, and Exotic Flora/Fauna. Out of those four, the easiest one to do are the Rock Carvings, as there’s only ten of them and you can get them as soon as you are in Chapter 2. Doing the trick for Cigarette Cards is easy enough, but you will need some money to back it up, while Dinosaur Bones require you to be in the Epilogue and the Exotics aren’t available until Chapter 4.

 

Paying Respects¶

There are nine grave locations in the game, which are needed for 100% completion, and you can’t find them until you’ve completed the main story. All you have to do is head up to each grave, interact with them and they’ll be counted. You can find all of the locations on the Graves Locations page.

 

Errand Boy¶

This trophy is MISSABLE. As you play through the game and sit in your camp, your fellow gang members will sometimes ask you for a specific item. In most cases, the item asked for is something specific, and in a few instances, it’s a random item from a certain pool of them. You need to deliver five items in order to receive this trophy. Note that after Chapter 4 is completed, then you will no longer be able to complete this trophy, so make sure you try and trigger the item requests during Chapters 2 through 4. You can generally get the item requests from your fellow members from around 08:00 to 20:00, so make sure you visit your camp often at those times.

 

It’s Art¶

The squirrel statue needed for this trophy is a part of a side mission that isn’t able to be completed until you finish the main story. You need to do a series of Hunting Requests, of which there are five in total. These can be started as soon as Chapter 2, as long as you find one of the posters at/near a post office in the game’s world (click the above link for more info). The side mission entails you finding the listed animals, killing them where their carcasses remain in perfect condition, then sending them through the mail to Ms. Hobbs. You can complete four of the five requests before the Epilogue, but won’t be able to finish the fifth until then.

Once you do all five requests, visit the post office again to receive an invitation. Read this in your satchel to place a marker on your map, which will be northeast of Strawberry. You’ll know the place, as there are stuffed animals sitting outside of the cabin. Head inside and you’ll be awarded with the Squirrel Statue. Bring this back to your home, Beecher’s Hope, in New Austin and place the statue on the mantle above the fireplace. After 24 hours has passed, visit your home again to find the statue is missing. You’ll have to find the statue, place it on the mantle again, then advance time 24 hours (away from the house) and find the statue once more. After finding the statue for the sixth time, you will receive the trophy.

– Inside a chest in John’s bedroom
– Inside the chimney in John’s bedroom
– In a chest in the attic accessible from the kitchen
– In a cart by the sheep’s pen next to the barn
– In a chest on the second level of the barn
– On top of Mount Shann, just southeast of the name on the map

 

Self Sufficient¶

One of the things you can do in Red Dead 2 is craft your own items, which can typically be done at a bonfire, whether in your camp (there’s a secondary fire for this) or when you make your own camp in the wild. As you progress in the game, you will gain access to all sorts of recipes, and can get more from finding them in the wild or purchasing them from a Fence. To get this trophy, you will need to craft 30 unique items in single-player mode. One of the easier ways to get this trophy is via making seasoned meat, as you can use Oregano or Thyme to cook meat and have each of those count as a unique item. Ammo is another thing you can craft a lot of once you have the materials.

 

Skin Deep and Zoologist¶

There are a lot of animals in Red Dead 2, ranging from tiny little birds, all the way to big, bad grizzly bears. For these two trophies, you will need to study almost every single animal in the game, as well as kill and skin the ones you can. Whenever you focus on a new animal, whether it’s through binoculars or up close, you see an option to Study it with the R1/RB button; hold this down to learn the animal and add it to your Compendium. There’s a total of 178 animals in the game, but thankfully, you won’t need to study and/or skin every single one, as some are excluded. Unfortunately, of the 178 animals, you will need to study 168 of them, making Zoologist one of the more annoying trophies in the game. On the plus side, for Skin Deep, the list is a lot smaller, narrowing it down to 73 animals that need to be skinned.

Legendary Animals are not included for these trophies, of which there are 16 in total (one is a part of the Master Hunter Challenge). You will need to hunt five of the legendary animals, though, for 100%, and their trinkets can be very useful, so it might be a good idea to grab them anyway. During Chapter 5 of the main story, you will visit a place that you can’t revisit once you’re finished in that location. There are some animals in this location that you won’t be able to find anywhere else, but luckily, they do not count toward either trophy.

You can find the locations of every single animal in the game in the Animals section.

 

It was THIS Big!¶

You will unlock fishing after completing the story mission, A Fisher of Men in Chapter 2. For this trophy, you will need to catch a fish that weighs at least 16 pounds (or 7.3kg). Thankfully, after completing the above mission, you unlock the ability to do the Stranger mission, A Fisher of Fish, which allows you to go hunting after the Legendary Fish. A few of these fish are a lot larger than the required weight needed for the trophy, so you will unlock it while going for those.

 

Locked and Loaded¶

For this trophy, you need to upgrade each component of a firearm at any gunsmith location in the game. Head to a gunsmith, lock on to the clerk there and choose the Customize option. From here, you choose a weapon and will have a few options, but you want to concentrate on Components. Pick this and there will be even more options here. You want to upgrade one thing from each choice under Components, which are Grip, Barrel (Length and Rifling), and Iron Sights. Pistols/Revolvers are the best for this, as their upgrades tend to be cheaper than the others.

 

Grin and Bear It¶

If you’ve ever run across a Grizzly Bear, then you likely know that they are very aggressive and will chase after you once you’re in their range. One of their moves is to pin you against the ground, mauling you for a few seconds, then give you a brief moment where you can break free. This is signified as mashing the Circle/B button, where your character will stab the bear with his knife. As soon as you do this, there will be a few seconds where you have the opportunity to shoot the bear to shake it off of you. It is during this brief moment, while on the ground after breaking free, that you’ll need to kill the bear.

You’ll have to do this a total of 18 times, so let’s talk about the specifics of the trophy. First and foremost, having a shotgun is ideal, as it doesn’t matter about the bear’s pelt. The second place is choosing the right spot, as most players won’t randomly encounter that many bears in their play time. This is a reminder that American Black Bears will usually run away from you, so you’re stuck with finding a great spot for Grizzly Bears. West and a little south of Valentine is Wallace Station on the map and northwest of that is Watson’s Cabin, just north-northeast of the “River” of Little Creek River.

In between Wallace Station and Watson’s Cabin is where you’ll be searching for the bears. Once you’ve killed one in the area, the bear icon will be placed on your map there, so you’ll have an easier time finding them after the fact. To do this method, head a little northwest of Wallace Station and set up camp there, as this will come in handy in a little bit. Once you do this, sleep twice, then go ahead and search the area designated above to look for a Grizzly Bear. Let it pin you, break free, then shoot it when you have the chance. If done right, the bear should die and you should have a notch on the wall for this trophy. Return to your camp, save and load your game, sleep two more times, then head back to where you found the bear to hopefully find another. Rinse and repeat until the trophy pops.

 

Trusty Steed¶

Horses will be your main mode of transportation during the course of the game, with the ability to switch them at any time by removing your saddle and placing it on the new horse. As you continually use the same horse, your bonding with that horse will level up, with the maximum bond being level 4. You will need to reach Level 4 Bonding with a single horse in order to get this trophy. As previously mentioned, using the same horse will increase its bond with you, but you can also increase it by feeding it, brushing its fur and even patting it. One little trick you can do is alternate between brushing and patting your horse, switching over to the other whenever you see the bond increase icon on the right side of the screen.