Although Red Dead Redemption II is approaching its fifth birthday now, this game still holds up as one of the most endlessly playable around. The team behind this at Rockstar Games spared no expense and left no stone unturned when it came to making sure that this game was filled with detail, side quests, historically accurate snippets, and plenty of Easter eggs too. Of course, with plenty of time to test and retest comes a whole slew of side quests and challenges that can prove pretty tricky. We’ve rounded up some of RDRII’s most memorable, complicated, and enjoyable side quests so that we can all reminisce about them right here.
A Test of Faith
First up is one of those missions that shows what a journey we’ve been on since 2010’s Red Dead Redemption, the original. The first game was certainly well fleshed out, but there wasn’t nearly as much time paid to these almost endless quests with no real pay-off, except an immense sense of satisfaction. A Test of Faith is a Stranger mission that introduces you to an enthusiastic but fairly novice paleontologist, Deborah McGuiness. You’ll encounter her in the Heartlands as she searches for dinosaur bones. The job looks like it’s going to be a little too big for Deborah, so she asks you if you’ll help out. She gives you the coordinates of 30 different dinosaur bones and asks you to collect them for her. You don’t have to complete this mission and the measly cash reward isn’t much incentive. However, if you’re a bit of a ‘completionist’ then you’ll enjoy scouring the furthest corners of the map in search of these relics of a time long since passed. There’s not an ‘easy’ way as such to complete this challenge, but there are endless YouTube guides on the locations of the bones. With that said, the coordinates are easy to follow, so this isn’t so much a fiendishly difficult challenge as a fiendishly long-winded one.
The Master Hunter Challenge
Next up is the Master Hunter challenge. Completing all of the challenges is something that many people aim for and for some of the earlier ones it seems as though you’ll breeze through them. However, some of the later challenges during the hunting one in particular can be fiendishly difficult. Anybody can skin three deer and most will be able to skin three bears, but finding and killing the legendary panther? That’s a tricky one and its one that you have to do to complete this challenge. So, how to catch the ‘Giagurao’ panther? First of all you’ll need to complete the preceding nine challenges and then you’ll be able to find this monstrous panther. He’s usually hiding in the dense woods to the south of Bolger Glade. Once here, use Eagle Eye to scan the area until you come across some panther droppings. Follow the trail all the way through the brush to a pool of blood by the base of a tree. Next the trail will move to a fresh carcass. Try not to panic at this point, but the panther is really close. You’ll find several more carcasses across the trail but what you really need to do is listen out for a low growl. As soon as you hear it, see your Dead Eye to spin around and shoot at the beast before it gets you. You can’t ruin a legendary pelt with too many shots so make sure you get the job done as quickly as possible, or you’ll be panther fodder.
The Gambler Challenges
Another fiendishly difficult challenge is the gambler challenge. There are a lot of challenges on here and almost all of them are pretty tricky. So, for the gambler challenge, the best way to boost your chances of success is either to have plenty of time on your hands for rolling and re-rolling or to practice some of the available games online. Blackjack is a great one to get started with as the rules are simple, but there’s a good deal of strategy to get stuck into as well. This game is available to play at all of the best online casinos, making it accessible for everyone and easy to get good at. Arabian Betting have provided a helpful rundown of the best casinos in their sector, with information on the bonuses that they each offer, which will help your play money stretch further. Once you’ve got all of your practice in then it’s time to unleash your skills at the table. This one is a case of roll, roll and roll again.
