It takes around 8 hours to earn a gold bar in the Red Dead Online beta
People have been crunching the numbers and it takes approximately eight hours and 20 minutes to unlock a gold bar in Red Dead Online.
On top of dollars, gold bars are a secondary currency in Red Dead Online. You can use them to unlock some of the coolest cosmetic options. You will also be able to purchase gold bars for money once the microtransaction shop opens up.
Players on Reddit have been looking at the time it takes to earn gold nuggets, which turn into gold bars once you have 100 of them, and converting that into time spent to earn a single gold bar.
Currently, online activities such as Deathmatches take around ten minutes and award between 0.02 and 0.04 nuggets. So, if you get the worst reward each time, you’re looking at around 50 games.
If you want to unlock all the best stuff, it’s fair to say there’s a bit of a grind ahead. Even the story missions don’t pay out much in the way of dollars. Matt and I took part in a multi-layered mission which took around 20 minutes and it rewarded me with $11 and Matt with $17.
Of course, this is a beta. Rockstar has already said it is looking for feedback on everything from bugs to features, and even the economy. No doubt this will evolve over time so this is all subject to change.
Here's everything you need to know about Red Dead Online, and here's when you can play it.