Alongside the Collector and Trader, Bounty Hunter was one of the original three Roles added to Red Dead Online. Moonshiner was added later, and more roles are expected to arrive.
Frontier Pursuits was Rockstar Games’ way of adding deeper roleplaying mechanics to the game. The list of roles has since been expanded, and will grow further in Red Dead Online’s future – each role is different with unique activities and mechanics.
This guide will focus on the Bounty Hunter Role.
Article Contents
Becoming a Bounty Hunter
In order to step onto the path of the Bounty Hunter in Red Dead Online, you need to travel to Rhodes and speak to the local sheriff.
A cutscene will trigger where your character witnesses another Bounty Hunter delivering members of the Twin Rocks Gang to the sheriff. This Bounty Hunter then calls on you to join the trade, since all you need is a license.
The license can be purchased from the Sheriff immediately for 15 Gold Bars, or later on at any bounty board for the same price. Bounty Boards are usually located outside the sheriff’s offices or post offices in most settlements. These Bounty Boards are where you’ll pick up new missions later on, so you should familiarize yourself with them.
Once you have your license, you are free to explore the Bounty Hunter Role and all its Activities on your own, at your own pace. Bounty Boards will be marked on your map henceforth, allowing you to easily seek out new assignments.
Hunting Bounties
Your career as a Bounty Hunter will consist of accepting a bounty mission, clearing out hostile NPCs and taking in the target, then repeating this process. All bounty missions follow roughly the same gameplay loop and variety is instead achieved through unique targets and enemy combinations.
You’ll quickly get a feel for the mission types as you gain experience with the Role.
The typical bounty mission loops consists as follows:
Step 1: Accept the bounty at the bounty board and go to the marked area on your map.
Step 2: Take out all of the superfluous hostile NPCs guarding your target while leaving the target alive. Capture the target using your lasso.
Step 3: Deliver the target and claim your reward.
The rule of thumb is that bringing in your target will yield greater rewards. Some Legendary Bounties will only be considered successful if the target is brought in alive – in these cases, killing them doesn’t merely reduce the reward, but causes the mission to fail.
Legendary Bounties are more challenging than regular bounties, but provide greater rewards for compensation. They also have wider variety in terms of gameplay than the usual missions, though sometimes you’ll been to bring your Posse along to face the higher difficulty. If you are well enough equipped and of high enough rank, farming Legendary Bounties is a fantastic strategy to climb the ranks.
Tips and Tricks
As a Bounty Hunter, your Lasso is your best friend. It is key to bringing in targets alive, as you’ll need to hogtie them to prevent them from escaping.
Even once you hogtie your target, they have the ability to break loose, leading to a chase wherein you might lose the target – or the target may meet their grisly end due to some unforeseen circ*mstances, robbing you of the higher reward.
Reinforced Lassoes (available from any gunsmith for one role token and $350 after you reach Bounty Hunter rank 1) will make it harder for your targets to escape, but the best tactic is to knock them out before hogtieing them with non-lethal melee attacks. This way you can be sure that they won’t attempt any escapes.
The Bounty Wagon is even more effective, as it is impossible to escape from and can carry multiple targets.
Depending on whether money or Role XP is your main goal, there are different ways to play for maximum efficiency. The Role XP reward of each mission is fixed, meaning you’ll get the same amount for completing the mission regardless of circ*mstance. If that is your main objective, try and complete missions as quickly as possible so you can move on to the next in the least time possible. You can gain 90 Role XP per dead target and 210 Role XP per live target.
If you want to earn cash as a Bounty Hunter, you’ll need to do the exact opposite. The payout increases alongside the time it takes to complete the mission. Each 3 minutes spent in the mission will increase the reward up until the 30 minute mark is reached, after which the reward does not increase.
The best tactic when dealing with tough bounty missions is bringing along some friends and approaching the target area from multiple directions, cutting off potential escape routes. When there is a firefight near the target, make sure to be very conscious of who you are shooting, lest you lower your reward.
At Rank 4, you unlock Bounty Hunter events, which are minor, short but fun events exclusive to your role.
Bounty Hunter Payouts
Regular bounty missions yield RDO$30 when the target is brought in alive and the mission runs over 30 minutes. The in-game timer doesn’t actually reflect reality, nor does the payout calculation take it into account. A good way to go over the 30 minute mark is opening the catalogue, as this prevents the game from booting you for inactivity. Keep in mind that restarting a checkpoint restarts the “real” timer which the payout takes into account.
The Legendary Bounties have varying payouts, which we collated below:
- Philip Carlier: $125
- Red Ben Clemson: $150
- The Wolf Man: $100
- Tobin Winfield: $150
- Cecil C. Tucker: $100
- Sergio Vincenza: $125
- “Yukon” Nick: $125
- Barbarella Alcazar: $100
- Etta Doyle: $150
- Owlhoot Family: $125
- Gene “Beau” Finley: $125
- Carmela “La Muñeca” Montez: $150
- Virgil “The Shepherd” Edwards: $150
At Rank 12, you unlock the ability to bring in other Player Characters who have accumulated a bounty of over $20. Naturally, your reward will be the amount of bounty they have racked up.
Overall, the Bounty Hunter role is the least lucrative role in terms of RDO$ and Gold.
Bounty Hunter Role Unlocks
The Bounty Hunter has several unique abilities and tools at their disposal. You will unlock these as you advance through the ranks and many of them will make your life much easier. The reinforced lasso, bolas and Bounty Wagon are the most useful.
| Focus | Targets glow red when viewed with Eagle Eye – unlocked at Rank 3 |
| Reverse Spin | Perform a reverse spin with a single one-hand weapon – unlocked at Rank 5 |
| Tonics Satchel Upgrade | The capacity of your Tonics Satchel is incrased – unlocked at Rank 6 |
| Eagle Eye+ | Upgraded Eagle Eye allowing you to track targets when sprinting and galloping – unlocked at Rank 7 |
| Spin Up | Perform a spin up with a single one-hand weapon – unlocked at Rank 8 |
| Kit Satchel Upgrade | The capacity of your Kit Satchel is incrased – unlocked at Rank 9 |
| Reverse Spin Up | Perform a reverse spin up with a single one-hand weapon – unlocked at Rank 13 |
| Ducking | Allows you to duck while on horseback for increased cover – unlocked at Rank 14 |
| Perception | Increases range of Eagle Eye tracking – unlocked at Rank 16 |
| Alternating Flips | Perform alternating flips with a single one-hand weapon – unlocked at Rank 17 |
| Dual Spin | Perform a spin with two one-hand weapons – unlocked at Rank 20 |
| Reinforced Lasso | Improved Lasso, lowering chance of target from escaping |
| Tracking Arrow | Tracking Arrow crafting recipe |
| Bolas | Non-lethal thrown weapon to stop fleeing target | Bounty Wagon | Vehicle equipped with cages allowing for the capture and transport of multiple targets. Targets cannot escape from the wagon |
| Breton Horses | Unique breed of horse |
