89 Fun Facts About Red Dead Redemption 2

How does Red Dead Redemption 2's story relate to the first game?

It is a prequel set in 1899, twelve years before the first game, and it shows the fall of the gang whose survivors John Marston is later forced to hunt down.

Which widow joins the gang in Red Dead Redemption 2's opening chapter and later becomes a bounty hunter?

Sadie Adler is found hiding in her home after O'Driscolls kill her husband, and by the 1907 epilogue she is the one hiring John Marston for bounty jobs.

Which outlaw gang does Arthur Morgan ride with in Red Dead Redemption 2?

The Van der Linde gang starts the story on the run after a botched ferry robbery in Blackwater, and the game follows it falling apart.

Which actor plays Arthur Morgan, the lead of Red Dead Redemption 2?

Roger Clark said his main model for Arthur was Seven Samurai star Toshiro Mifune rather than Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, who he felt was too quiet.

Which actor returned from the first game to play gang leader Dutch in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Benjamin Byron Davis first played Dutch in 2010 as the last outlaw John Marston is sent to hunt down, then returned to show him as the leader his gang adored.

Who is Dutch's best friend and co-founder of the gang in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Hosea Matthews met Dutch at a campfire on the road to Chicago, where he tried to con and rob him, only to find Dutch had already taken his money.

Which gang member turns out to be the Pinkertons' informant in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Micah Bell had been passing the agents information since the gang's return from the Caribbean, and Dutch refuses to believe it when Arthur tells him.

Which disease is Arthur Morgan diagnosed with in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Tuberculosis reaches him through Thomas Downes, a sick farmer who coughs blood on him while Arthur is beating him over an unpaid loan.

Which oil magnate pays the Pinkertons to hunt the gang in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Leviticus Cornwall turns on the gang after they rob his private train, and Dutch later shoots him dead on the dock at Annesburg.

Which two Pinkerton agents lead the hunt for the gang in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Andrew Milton and Edgar Ross first corner Arthur while he is teaching young Jack to fish, promising he will not hang if he hands over Dutch.

Which two feuding Lemoyne families does the gang play against each other in Red Dead Redemption 2?

The Grays and Braithwaites both see through it: one family ambushes the gang in Rhodes, the other kidnaps young Jack, and the gang burns the Braithwaite manor in reply.

Where does the gang wash up after their escape ship sinks in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Guarma is a sugar-plantation island off Cuba, where the shipwrecked outlaws are dragged into a revolt against its ruler before they can sail home.

Which Red Dead Redemption 2 city is modelled on New Orleans?

Saint Denis is where the gang's last big bank job collapses, leaving two members dead and the leaders fleeing the country by ship.

Which Red Dead Redemption 2 state is the snowy mountain wilderness where the story begins?

Ambarino is where the gang opens the game, holed up without food in the abandoned mining town of Colter after fleeing a botched robbery in Blackwater.

Which New Hanover livestock town hosts the gang's early jobs in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Valentine's livestock auctions draw ranchers, gamblers and outlaws, and a street shootout there with a tycoon's hired guns forces the gang to flee south.

Why is Armadillo nearly a ghost town in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A cholera outbreak has all but emptied a town that bustles in the first game, while Tumbleweed, that game's ghost town, is still lived in here.

Which West Elizabeth mountain town in Red Dead Redemption 2 is being remade as a resort for wealthy tourists?

Strawberry was little more than a logging camp until a new mayor from the East Coast arrived, obsessed with making it a cultural beacon, to the locals' bemusement.

Which actor plays the Native American chief Rains Fall in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Graham Greene, Oscar-nominated for Dances with Wolves, plays a peace-seeking chief who begs his son not to fight the Army, and the son is killed saving Arthur.

What does Dutch do to crime boss Angelo Bronte in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Dutch drowns the mob boss in the swamp, then feeds him to an alligator, a killing that shocks Arthur and John and signals his own unravelling.

What is Red Dead Redemption 2's slow-motion targeting mechanic called?

Dead Eye slows time so the player can mark targets, then fires every marked shot in one rapid burst, and later upgrades pick out enemies' vital organs.

Which Red Dead Redemption 2 system tracks how the world judges the player's moral choices?

Honor rises when the player helps strangers and falls with theft and killing, and at high levels shops cut their prices while low levels bring better loot from bodies.

What can Arthur Morgan do in Red Dead Redemption 2 that John Marston cannot?

Swim is the one thing John cannot do: deep water drains his stamina and he soon drowns, a nod to the first game, where deep water killed him at once.

What do 'cores' govern in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Health and stamina regen slows as each core empties, so Arthur has to eat and sleep, and dressing wrong for snow or desert heat drains the cores faster.

Which knife game can the player bet money on in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Five finger filet means stabbing a knife back and forth between your own spread fingers as fast as you dare, and the betting game returns from the first Red Dead Redemption.

Who is sent after the player once they commit enough crimes in Red Dead Redemption 2?

The U.S. Marshals are the top rung of the ladder: witnesses bring local lawmen first, and a player who escapes them is tracked by bounty hunters until the bounty is paid.

How does a good-hearted Arthur meet his end in Red Dead Redemption 2?

He dies watching the sunrise, finished by illness and his wounds rather than an enemy, whereas an Arthur who has lived cruelly is killed by Micah with a gun or a knife.

What honest job does John Marston take in the epilogue?

Ranch hand is the work John finds in 1907, eight years after Arthur's death, living under the false name Jim Milton until outlaws threatening the ranch drag him back to his guns.

What does John Marston carry off from Micah's mountain camp at the end of Red Dead Redemption 2?

The gang's stolen money, left behind in Blackwater when the story opens, clears the bank loan on John's ranch, but the killing that won it sets federal agents on the trail to his door.

How did Rockstar divide work on Red Dead Redemption 2?

All studios as one team was the plan, because the game had outgrown any single one: some 2,000 people in all worked on it over eight years.

How were most of the cast's performances recorded for Red Dead Redemption 2?

In motion-capture suits, with cameras fixed in front of their faces, the cast played whole scenes together like theatre in the round, so body and face were recorded at once.

Who composed the original score for Red Dead Redemption 2?

Woody Jackson collected guitars and other instruments once played by the Wrecking Crew, the Los Angeles session players heard on classic cowboy films, and wrote his cues on them.

Which country legend sings "Cruel World" on Red Dead Redemption 2's soundtrack?

Willie Nelson had the song written for him by producer Daniel Lanois, whose 1998 Nelson album Teatro was one of the touchstones Rockstar's music team chose for the soundtrack.

What must hunters match to their prey's size to keep a pelt valuable in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Their weapon has to suit the animal, because the wrong calibre or a careless shot damages the hide, and a damaged pelt fetches a lower price from traders.

What can Arthur Morgan do during campfire songs?

Sing along is a button prompt when the gang strikes up a tune, and the music team treated those camp songs as a layer of the soundtrack in their own right.

Who did Dan Houser later clarify had worked 100-hour weeks on Red Dead Redemption 2?

The senior writers, he said, meant only himself and three colleagues, working that way for three weeks, a clarification issued after his magazine quote set off a debate about crunch.

What did Rockstar post to first tease Red Dead Redemption 2?

Its logo in red came first, then an image of cowboys against a red sky, and the pair sent Take-Two's share price jumping before anything was announced.

Why did Rockstar say it delayed Red Dead Redemption 2 to October 2018?

Extra time for polish was the reason Rockstar gave, along with an apology and a batch of screenshots, for the second public slip of a game first promised for autumn 2017.

Which cloud gaming service launched in November 2019 with Red Dead Redemption 2 among its first games?

Stadia opened with Red Dead Redemption 2 among its launch games, two weeks after the Windows version, but Google shut the service down for good in January 2023.

What did Red Dead Redemption 2's companion app for phones and tablets provide?

A second-screen map and journal let players switch off the on-screen display and steer by a live map on their phone, which tracked their position in real time.

What is a group of players called in Red Dead Online?

A posse set up for free breaks up when its leader quits, so keen players pay a fee for a persistent one of up to seven riders that reforms whenever its leader is back online.

Who got into the Red Dead Online beta first in November 2018?

Ultimate Edition owners went in a day ahead of day-one players, with everyone admitted by the Friday, and all were warned that, being a beta, their rank and progress might yet be wiped.

Why did Rockstar stop major Red Dead Online updates in July 2022?

To focus on Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar moved developers off the Western's online mode, and players answered with an in-game funeral a year to the day after its last big update.

How quickly did Red Dead Redemption 2 outsell the first game's eight-year total?

Eight days was all it took to pass what the 2010 original sold in eight years, and with 17 million copies shipped inside two weeks it beat even its publisher's expectations.

Which Nintendo best-seller did Red Dead Redemption 2 overtake in lifetime sales in 2026?

Wii Sports, on nearly 83 million, fell behind as Red Dead Redemption 2 reached 85 million copies, in its best year for sales since its 2018 launch, more than seven years on.

What did critics who loved Red Dead Redemption 2 still fault?

Its controls were called fudgy and clumsy even by critics who loved the game, one of whom told of ordering Arthur into cover only to watch him climb on top of it.

Which game beat Red Dead Redemption 2 to The Game Awards' top prize?

God of War took the top prize even though Red Dead Redemption 2 won more trophies on the night, four to three, including the awards for narrative and score.

Who received the £1 million a website paid over a Red Dead Redemption 2 leak?

Three charities chosen to suit the game shared the money, two serving Native American communities and one restoring prairie, after Trusted Reviews pulled its story and apologised.

What did the real Pinkerton agency demand over Red Dead Redemption 2?

Royalties on every copy, or a lump sum instead, were the price asked, but Take-Two sued first, arguing that trademark law cannot be used to own the past, and the agency dropped its claims within months.

Which Rockstar studio made the first two Red Dead games before Red Dead Redemption 2?

Rockstar San Diego was still Angel Studios when it began the series as a cowboy game for Capcom, which dropped it in 2003 and left the studio's new owner, Rockstar, to finish it.

Which Pacific island does the gang plan to flee to after a city bank job in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Tahiti is the dream that ends at the bank: Pinkertons break up the robbery, and a storm sinks the ship the survivors flee on.

Which Lil Nas X hit had a first music video built entirely from Red Dead Redemption 2 footage?

Old Town Road first appeared in December 2018 set to clips of the game's cowboys, four months before the remix with Billy Ray Cyrus was released.

Which animated comedy name-dropped Red Dead Redemption 2 across two episodes in November 2018?

South Park worked the game into 'Time to Get Cereal' and 'Nobody Got Cereal?', a two-part story that aired within weeks of its release.

What mauls a lost John Marston early in Red Dead Redemption 2, leaving him with facial scars?

Wolves set on him after he scouts ahead of the gang in a blizzard; Arthur and Javier Escuella track him down and carry him to safety.

Which ailment does the gang's idle drunkard Uncle claim is terminal in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Lumbago is an old name for lower-back pain, a complaint Uncle pairs with tales of several wives and a past as a talented gunslinger.

What did an Exeter study find Red Dead Redemption 2 players identify better than other gamers?

Real wildlife is modelled so faithfully that players named three more animals on average than other gamers and showed a better grasp of how they behave.

Which subject does a University of Tennessee professor teach through Red Dead Redemption 2?

US history from the frontier myth to Jim Crow fills Tore Olsson's class 'Red Dead America', which out-enrolled other courses in the department and led to a 2024 book.

Which port town must the gang flee after a botched ferry heist before Red Dead Redemption 2 opens?

Blackwater returns from the first Red Dead Redemption as a prosperous port under development, and the failed job there troubles Arthur throughout.

Where does Arthur Morgan keep his spare guns in Red Dead Redemption 2, a limit set for realism?

On his horse is where the rest of the arsenal stays, a rule Rockstar also used to deepen the bond between rider and animal.

What did some workers use Red Dead Online for in May 2020, praising how immersive the world felt?

Business meetings were held in the game in place of Skype or Zoom, though its technical issues and lengthy tutorial were a hurdle for new employees.

Which parlour game joins poker and blackjack among the pastimes in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Dominoes rounds out the table games, on a list of side activities that also includes duels, bounty hunting and searches for rock carvings.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the third main game in a series that began in 2004 with Red Dead what?

Revolver began at Capcom as a spiritual successor to the arcade shooter Gun.Smoke; Rockstar acquired the rights after the project was cancelled in 2002.

Which parent company of Rockstar saw its shares jump when Red Dead Redemption 2 was first teased?

Take-Two Interactive rose by nearly six percent on the strength of two teaser images, then a further 9% in the week after the game came out.

Which realistic touch affects Arthur Morgan's hair as Red Dead Redemption 2 goes on?

Grows over time, and realistically, in a game that also makes Arthur bathe to stay clean and lets him gain or lose weight by how much he eats.

Which film genre's music did the first game imitate before Red Dead Redemption 2's score broke away?

Spaghetti Westerns shaped the first game's music; for the sequel the composer reworked his score about four times, from extreme experiments to classic sounds.

Which novelist's creation Uriah Heep did Dan Houser cite as an influence on Red Dead Redemption 2?

Charles Dickens sat beside Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James and Émile Zola among Houser's influences; he avoided contemporary works so nobody could accuse him of taking ideas.

Which Nintendo sequel did producer Eiji Aonuma say games like Red Dead Redemption 2 helped inspire?

Tears of the Kingdom arrived in 2023, and Aonuma named Rockstar's cowboy epic alongside Skyrim as open worlds his Zelda team had looked to.

Which rival gang in Red Dead Redemption 2 is led by Colm, a former friend of Dutch turned nemesis?

The O'Driscoll Boys became enemies after Dutch killed Colm's brother and Colm killed Dutch's lover Annabelle in return; Colm ends up on the gallows.

Who kills the lead Pinkerton agent as he holds Arthur at gunpoint in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Abigail Roberts had been kidnapped from camp by the agent himself; she breaks free during his scuffle with a weakened Arthur and fires the shot.

Which biblical name does the gang's stray dog carry in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Cain was performed by Einstein, an animator's own dog, whose service training made him 'perfect' at waiting patiently on set.

Where does the gang make camp once the blizzard clears, early in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Horseshoe Overlook is the spot Dutch's own actor called the character's dream paradise, because there he was constantly looking to the future.

Which plot of land does John Marston buy with a bank loan in Red Dead Redemption 2's epilogue?

Beecher's Hope is where he builds a house with Uncle's help to win back his family, and where he finally marries at the story's close.

Which crop is grown on the island plantations of Colonel Alberto Fussar in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Sugar makes Fussar rich on the backs of enslaved locals, and the shipwrecked outlaws side with the rebels fighting him to earn a ship home.

Which target does crime boss Bronte steer the gang toward as a trap in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A trolley station holds only a little cash and a waiting police force, and Dutch swears revenge on Bronte once the gang escapes.

What is aboard the train that Dutch targets for the gang's final robbery in Red Dead Redemption 2?

An Army payroll is the prize, but the job breaks the gang: Dutch leaves a wounded John for dead and refuses to go after a kidnapped member.

Which tribe in Red Dead Redemption 2, led by Rains Fall, shares its name with a word for elk?

Wapiti comes from a Shawnee word meaning 'white rump'; in the story the tribe's reservation is coveted for oil and its people are forced to flee to Canada.

Which crime is the player's character framed for at the start of Red Dead Online's story?

Murder of Philip LeClerk is the charge; his widow Jessica has the prisoner sprung from a prison transport to help avenge him and clear their name.

Which neo-soul singer recorded 'Unshaken' for Red Dead Redemption 2 after trying the game early?

D'Angelo had released no new music since his 2014 album Black Messiah, and sang the track in his lower register rather than his usual falsetto.

Which producer made all of Red Dead Redemption 2's original vocal tracks to give them one thread?

Daniel Lanois wrote one song for a country star, then had a rock singer record it too when a hurricane threatened the session; both versions made the game.

Which 2016 game's use of the name New Bordeaux made Rockstar rename a city in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Mafia III set its 1968 story in a fictional New Bordeaux, so Rockstar dropped that working name for its former French colony on the bayou.

What on Red Dead Redemption 2's map is named O'Creagh's Run after an actor who died mid-production?

A lake in the mountains honours John O'Creagh, who was cast as Uncle for this game and whose singing lines survive in the finished version.

What did Red Dead Online players dress as in July 2020 to protest a lack of updates?

Clowns gathered to show their displeasure with Rockstar, and a new animal-studying role was added to the game on July 28.

Which Red Dead Online role arrived in December 2019 as an extension of the Trader?

Moonshiner came with the mode's first purchasable property, and Eurogamer's reviewer judged it the best update the game had received to date.

Which premium Red Dead Online currency did early players reckon took eight hours apiece to earn?

Gold bars buy luxury items and can also be bought with real cash; after the complaints Rockstar agreed to rebalance the in-game economy.

What did Red Dead Online players stage in-game in July 2022, a year after its last major update?

Funerals drew players to in-game graveyards and cemeteries, where they took photographs and drank to mourn Rockstar pulling developers off the game.

Which Red Dead Redemption 2 actor drew on tough men from his Indiana hometown to play John Marston?

Rob Wiethoff, from Seymour, Indiana, had also played John in the first game, and Arthur's actor studied that earlier performance for his own.

What are the equippable powers in Red Dead Online called, with one active and three passive slots?

Ability cards are earned by rising in rank or bought outright, then upgraded with in-game currency and experience points.

Which in-house Rockstar engine, first used for a table tennis game, powers Red Dead Redemption 2?

RAGE, the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, debuted in 2006 and was refined for this game with volumetric clouds, fog and pre-calculated global illumination.

Which Red Dead Online option keeps two players who keep killing each other apart for a while?

Parley blocks the pair from interacting for a short period; the alternative, a feud, pits them against each other in a three-minute shootout.

Which famed Los Angeles session players sold instruments used on Red Dead Redemption 2's score?

The Wrecking Crew instruments had been heard on classic cowboy films; the composer also acquired ukuleles used in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.