This section of Red Dead Redemption 2 punishes improvisation, so it is worth knowing the shape of it before you start.

Short answer

The critical decision comes early and is easy to miss. Everything after it is straightforward.

A save immediately before the decision point costs nothing and occasionally saves hours. Some outcomes are locked behind an earlier conversation rather than behind performance. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep.

If it goes wrong

A failed attempt usually leaves the world in a state you can still recover from. Reading ahead spoils some of it; going in blind costs some of it. Pick which you mind less. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Optional preparation is what separates a ten-minute attempt from a two-hour one.

Difficulty settings change numbers here, not the sequence. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. The game signals the requirement once, quietly, and never mentions it again.

Working through it

Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing.

  • Note which choice you made, for later sections that reference it.
  • Complete the optional preparation — it is the actual difficulty setting.
  • Keep a save or backup from before you start — it costs nothing and occasionally saves an evening.
  • Talk to everyone once before triggering the sequence.
  • Save manually before the first irreversible step.

Before you start

Everything below is framed around the current state of Red Dead Redemption 2 rather than a launch-week impression. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

Choices that matter later

Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

The part people get stuck on

Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

Where people go wrong

  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Changing five things at once and then not knowing which one helped.
  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.

RDR2 FAQ

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

How long does it take?

Under an hour prepared, considerably more improvising. That gap is the whole argument for preparing.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Is this still accurate after the latest Red Dead Redemption 2 update?

The method is; individual numbers may not be. If a value on your screen differs, trust the screen and keep the sequence.

Come back to the caveats list if it does not work first time — the answer is almost always in there.