How to make money fast in Red Dead Redemption 2
Need some extra dollars for camp or your arsenal of weapons? Here's our guide to making money in RDR2.
Prosperity is at the heart of the Wild West, so we've come up with a few ways to make a quick buck. Money makes the world go round, and you'll need a fair bit of it to upgrade your camp, buy supplies, and upgrade your gear in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Dutch's obsession with money often leaves him wanting more, even if you've deposited 10 gold bars into the camp kitty. Of course, upgrading your camp early on unlocks fast travel and other side missions, so being the camp's breadwinner isn't a completely thankless job.
If you're more concerned about achieving a high honor rank as opposed to living a life of crime, you'll need to find a stable and legal source of income, or at least find some treasure maps that lead to some good loot. Of course, you could just rob everyone and everything in sight. Outlaw Country! Without further ado, here's how to make money fast in Red Dead Redemption 2.
How to make money fast in Red Dead Redemption 2
There are a few different ways in which you can make money in Red Dead Redemption 2; hunting, bounty contracts, committing crime, and helping strangers are just a handful of methods for reaping financial rewards. We explain below some different ways of making money fast in RDR2.
Sell horses, coaches, and valuables
You can sell horses, stagecoaches, and other valuables to make money, such as high-quality items like pocket watches and jewelry. You can, of course, donate these valuables to the camp kitty too, if that's where your money is going anyway.
Selling horses means going out and taming them. You'll find wild horses all over the wild west, and while it requires a bit of patience to sneak over and calm them, it's well worth collecting horses in your spare time and selling them off. You never know, you might find your new favourite stallion to roam around on, too.
If you fancy stealing stagecoaches or valuables from local folk, you can sell these at Fence locations. They'll buy any coaches or valuables that you've acquired by illicit means, so you can turn a profit.
Go hunting
Whether you fancy hunting deer, moose, and other wildlife, or want to wind down with some fishing, you can sell whatever you successfully wind up with. Spending some time hunting can reap plenty of rewards, and not all of them are monetary.
Perfect pelts can turn a pretty profit, but pelts can also be used for crafting camp decor and satchel upgrades. You can also use any game or fish you succesfully acquire as food for Arthur and the camp, or if money is more valuable to you right now, you can simply sell things off. Just be sure to do it sooner rather than later, as the fresher the meat, the higher it'll sell for.
Play minigames
Whether it's Five Finger Fillet, Dominoes or Poker, you can play for high stakes in Red Dead Redemption 2's minigames. You can practice in camp before taking on the big leagues elsewhere, and if you fancy making your money via minigames rather than hunting or crime, this is your best - and most fun - bet when it comes to lining your pockets with cash.
Helping strangers
If you find a snake bite or bear trap victim, it's worth helping them to get a few unexpected rewards a couple of days later should you find the person again. They'll buy a sweet something for you, like a shiny new gun or a hat, and you can either keep this nice reward or sell it. You'll often find strangers asking for a lift due to a lame horse, and they usually gift you a pocketwatch or earrings for your troubles.
Some people will also give you information if you help them, sometimes about trains or homesteads you can rob so there's always that. These small, helpful actions often don't take too long and will raise your honor rank as well.
Complete Bounty contracts
Fulfilling a Wanted Bounty contract is a reliable and semi-repeatable way of earning cash in Red Dead Redemption 2. You can find Wanted posters hanging in the sheriff's office - just make sure there isn't one for you!
Once you've picked up a Bounty, it will appear on your map and you can travel to the location to complete it. Sometimes you need to hunt people and bring them back alive, which means hogtying someone up and riding back to the sheriff's office with them protesting on the back of your horse.
They usually pay around $25 which isn't bad considering a lot of the menial tasks you can complete that don't pay as well, but they can pay significantly higher in some instances.
Collect and sell gold bars
Gold bars were a lucrative source of income back in the old West, and there are quite a few to be found in Red Dead Redemption 2. You'll usually find them at the end of a treasure map and a few other quest lines.
You can check out our guide on how to easily find three gold bars near the strange statues here, as well as our Poisonous Trail treasure map guide, Jack Hall Gang treasure map guide and Le Tresor Des Morts treasure map to find some more.
If you still don't think you've made enough money after all that, then check out our guide on where to find and sell gold bars in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Each gold bar is worth $500, so there's a lot of money to be made here which will help you upgrade your entire camp very quickly, as well as get some stylish new gear. Like other valuables and stagecoaches, you can sell gold bars to a Fence.
Seek out hidden treasure
There's a derailed train in the North of the map that has some valuable loot on board as well as two gold bars. You'll need to do a bit of climbing to find them but we promise it's worth it.
There's also a Whisky Tree with dozens of bottles swinging from its branches which a little gold nugget hidden inside.
Exploring can often be quite rewarding in and of itself, but of course, this is not the most reliable source of income.
Turn to a life of crime
As you're part of a gang of outlaws, you can, of course, choose to go on a crime spree. You can rob stores, stagecoaches and even trains should you wish. The only downside is that you might get caught and have a massive bounty on your head which can limit some of the quests you can pick up and may cost you more money in the long term, as well as ruining your honor rank.
Bandit camps are also worth robbing. You can identify them by campfires and smoke on the map, and they almost always have a strong box with some valuable loot inside. These camps can be pretty large so there will be a load of bodies to loot, too.
On that note, you should always loot every person you kill because, let's be honest, it's no good to them now.
If you're new to Red Dead Redemption 2, then check out our guides on how to upgrade your bows and arrows, how to level up and use Dead Eye and where to find the best horse.
You can also check out our guide to the best weapons in Red Dead Redemption 2, and check out our complete Red Dead Redemption 2 walkthrough full of tips, tricks, and guides.