Red Dead Online, or RDO, is the massively online role playing game based a couple of years before the events that happened in the award winning single player story of Red Dead Redemption II!
The Wild West was named so because it was wild…and in the west. Wild because the land was untamed. There was no real law. The only justice sometimes was frontier justice. It was a time when striking out on your own meant toiling the earth and doing whatever you could to survive and make an honest living. Working hard everyday hoping you don’t get a splinter or the black shits, both were certain death in the west. Life was not easy.
In RDO, the west is your playground and you don’t have to worry about dying from consumption. When the game first launched there was much buzz about what players wanted to be able to do. Robbing stage coaches, trains, homesteads. A lot of players were looking forward to the idea of being an outlaw in the west! Sadly, none of those things were present in the game when it launched online. Players have been eagerly waiting ever since.
The first update to online play was the offerings of careers and the chance to make real money. The Trader role focused on gathering skins for your camps “Mr. Belvedere”, Cripps, to craft into materials that can be sold to a buyer. The Collector was a role that allowed players to detect collectible items using an array of tools like a shovel, metal detector, and a special skill that allows the player to spot collectible items from a distance. The Bounty Hunter role was the most difficult of the three roles to reach max level on. As a bounty hunter, players can take on missions given by wanted posters as well as Legendary bounties and the occasional free roam mission to hunt down high level bounty’s on players in Free Roam. Legendary bounties are instanced missions with harder goals and targets but with larger payouts.
The next update gave another career path known as the Moonshiner. Players are able to purchase a shack and craft different types of illegal spirits to sell to NPC buyers all over the map.
Later, two NPCs were added in the next update, Gus and Harriet. These opposing NPCs offered a deeper dive into the exploration of the world. For Harriet the Naturalist, Players take tissue samples .and photograph the various wild life across the map. Players can turn in their findings to the passive and very likely vegan Harriet for cash rewards. If you’re a meat eater and enjoy strutting around wearing the finest furs in the West, than Gus is your man! Players can turn in the pelts of legendary animals to Gus to have him craft them into unique clothing items. Beware of Harriet while wearing one of these fine coats though, she’s very likely to mace you for killing her woodland pals.
With all of these updates, Red Dead Online has no shortage of ways to legally earn money, however, there’s been no wild in the Wild West…until now. The latest, and one of the most anticipated, updates to the Red Dead Redemption Online Saga is called “Blood Money.”
Blood money is a series of missions that revolve around crime and political corruption. Nefarious politicians have created a new kind of currency called Capitale, Cap-eat-tall-ley, to share amongst the “well-to-do”. Unfortunately, they’ve lost physical control of the notes and that’s not good for their value. Think of it as an 1890’s NFT. The players are tasked with tracking down and killing anyone who might be holding a piece of Capitale, these missions are known as “Crimes.” These missions are set on timer and can be repeated after a 20-minute cool down. 3 of these crime missions are three part missions that have more of a backstory and cutscenes. Longtime fans of the supernatural storyline that has been underlying the Red Dead saga will get chills at the small visual hints of what may come, especially in the Bluewater Man mission! Chills!!!
Once players have collected enough Capitale they can exchange it for the “opportunity” to steal one of the “Jewels of the West.” These three rare jewels are on their way to the state fair in Sacramento under police protection. The players are tasked with intercepting them before they arrive. These missions will be “drip fed” in the coming weeks. So far the first two jewel heists have been released, The Covington Emerald and the Ember of the East have been released. These opportunity missions are longer than the crime missions and have several objectives to complete before you can find the jewel.There is no upfront gold cost to start the life of crime.
With the latest update Rockstar got rid of the popular “Outlaw pass” and replaced it with the “Quick Draw Club”. The QDC is a smaller 25 level version of the outlaw pass. Players earn unique items and clothing with every level they unlock. Players earn back the 25 gold bars by reaching the max level. Rockstar has incentivized joining the Quick Draw Club by offering the upcoming Halloween Pass 2 for free if players subscribe to the next two Quick Draw Club passes that are set to release.
Rockstar has made it so past skill unlocks that were no longer available via the Outlaw pass, like ammo capacity and the ability to fast travel from a wilderness camp, can now be purchased from Madam Nazar by players who were unable to unlock them originally.
Life is hard in the west. It’s even harder when there are people who are looking to take advantage of regular folks. Don’t be left out, there are suckers everywhere and Capitale to be found! Go get those suckers!
