The latest Red Dead Online update, released on July 28, is highly anticipated and big, with new modes, tweaks, and gameplay. The last large patch was added in December when Rockstar introduced the casino update. Here’s everything you need to know.
The biggest piece of the update is a new Frontier Pursuit called The Naturalist. The pursuit lets players track, hunt, and study different animals, including new legendary cougars, foxes, boars, beavers, wolves, elk, and bison. It allows for two approaches to hunting, either a fatal pelt taking approach, or a non-lethal method.
In The Naturalist, the player meets Harriet Davenport, a character that gives the player a mission to find the animals and collect blood samples, but not kill the creatures. Alternatively, a game hunter named Gus McMillan offers new clothes if the player brings back pelts. Davenport “will take notice of your poaching activities if you try to play both sides of this quarrel,” Rockstar said.
On Davenport’s side, players get animal tonics, a varmint rifle, and sedative cartridges. McMillan provides an elephant rifle and a better bow. The pursuit provides unlocks like mercy kills, a new advanced camera, and a new exclusive horse called the Gypsy Cob. There’s also a tonic to let the player bulk up or slim down.
Players can visit the welcome center in Strawberry to meet up with Davenport and McMillan, who will give them the sample kit, animal field guide, and legendary animal map as well.
The Naturalist update also has more than 800 new clothing items, and two free roam events were added: Protect Legendary Animals and Animal Tagging. A new Wilderness Camp has been added too.
In the protect event, players can works in teams of two through 12 to stop enemy poachers. Animal tagging is the same concept with the poachers but players need to collect samples while fending them off. If players meet tagging quotas, a legendary animal will appear.
A few other miscellaneous additions include faster load times for matchmaking, a better threat indicator, and updated daily challenge rewards.
A new outlaw pass was also added and lasts until October 19. It provides players with new items and bonuses to get through 80 ranks of progression. Players who link their Red Dead Redemption 2 social club accounts to Twitch Prime are also eligible for exclusive rewards.
