Red Dead Redemption 2

[Art Blade]

yeah, without upgraded satchels, especially without the legend of the East satchel (99 slots per item) it really is hard to do anything in a leisurely way. I can tell because during my ongoing experiment of doing only main missions during my new (2nd) playthrough I keep hitting every possible limit with ease

[Dweller_Benthos]

I may look into getting that one just for the storage

[Art Blade]

if only it was that easy, Dweller. "Getting that one" requires you to get ALL the others, first. And that requires a LOT of hunting for perfect skins. And if you got all the others just to unlock "that one" you still need to get the ingredients necessary for the last one. As they say, "been there, done that."

Not going to do that during my current new (2nd) playthrough though because I want to find out whether or not I can manage to play through at least until becoming John (or more likely, how difficult it is) without satchel upgrades and all that.

One of my reasons to actually play like that is that I saw during my original playthrough when I had become John that the fence sells all those satchels. What I don't know is: how expensive they are, whether or not they can be simply bought or require the same ingredients as when getting them from Mr Pearson. I want to find that out

The reason why I started a new playthrough is simple: I want to try to "rush" through the whole story without doing side missions just to be able to do all the "real" game stuff with John. I also want to avoid getting weapons that I know I will never use. Unfortunately the game forces me to get for instance a double-barrelled shotgun as part of a mission and I start out with two revolvers I'll never use. Damn.

That means I am not buying any random stuff, not making money apart from what the missions bring (and a gold bar to get started, I also "had to" upgrade the camp for $550 in order to unlock the fast travel option) and not getting any horses apart from when I kind of happen to get a temp horse which already comes with "sold" written across its forehead. Not going to keep anything except literally the first horse that you pick up at Sadie Adler's home right at the start of the game. It's easy for me because it's my favourite horse breed, the same as SPT: a Tennessee Walker. Even though it's of average stats. And I am already amazed at how calm that horse has been like during a really spectacular fight against six head hunters and their three "lawdogs." I stayed on my horse all the time, he didn't even panic when those dogs were snapping at his ankles. Amazing breed.

My plan changed slightly, however.

I realised that I never wanted to do the bandit challenges as it involves a lot of robbing and other stuff that's against my nature and because I was playing a good character role. And the weapons expert challenges at least in part require a lot of killing and other stuff I didn't like. I played Arthur as a good guy and as John it was even worse to think I'd have to do the bandit stuff.

But Arthur.. simply put, he'll die anyway and with him all his sins. Sod honour and do the bandit stuff and the weapons expert stuff with him so John can inherit the benefits without doing anything bad.

That led to thinking about the trapper. He needs a ton of skins and feathers of livestock. Like, killing cows, oxen, chickens, sheep, goats, bulls, rosters.. and that means almost every time a loss of honour and all that. Well.. playing Arthur as a bad guy which, if we're honest, he really is, even if he's got a good heart, is now actually quite a bit of fun. So I'll try to do everything with him that I don't want to do as John but leave all the good stuff that I used to do with Arthur to John.

It has been challenging, interesting, and fun so far.

[Art Blade]

I remembered something I wanted to add to the above:

Since I don't have any satchels to store vast amounts of food and potions and all that, I think it can't be a bad idea to do some of the challenges if and when the opportunity arises in order to increase my health, stamina and most importantly, my dead eye ability. I also bought the upgraded holster, gun belt and bandolier.

Because I'll feel better with some more ammo and weapons that decay a tad slower during certain missions.

And although I said I didn't want to do any side missions, I actually did accept a few "strangers" that I knew what they were: the cig cards guy and the bones lady and the herb collector and one guy who sells you a treasure map before he sails off to exotic places. Except he won't sail off.. I killed and looted him before he could. He had MY money I paid for MY treasure map, after all.

I've got a bad reputation to uphold.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah as we were talking about in chat, that seems to be the way to go, to "finish" the game as fast as possible with the "throw away" character and then get on with it with the "good" character. I'll probably do the same or similar when I get around to it.

Strange thing happened while I was out exploring, Annesburg was the closest town that had a gun shop and I needed ammo so I headed there. I had no idea what the place was, never was there before. I found the mineshaft along the road and went down the ladders to the bottom, finding the cigarette card on the way. I talked to some of the miners and most were pleasant in their responses but a few said something to the effect, "Haven't we had enough trouble from you?" and "You should just leave after all the trouble you caused" which was weird as I said, I'd never been there before, how did they know me and what do they think I did? Which makes me wonder, is there a "bad" mission to be done there where you'll make enemies of them and they just have those canned responses already in place ahead of time? When I walked out of the lower mine entrance, the guards did not like that at all and instantly the whole place was mad at me. I had to reload a save from before entering the mine. The second time I didn't explore the mine as extensively but also still got a few bad responses to my greetings. I then went to the town to visit the gun shop, my original reason for going there, and spent money upgrading my guns and buying ammo, as Art & I were discussing in chat, there's no reason to hold onto money as Arthur as you'll lose it all anyway. I plan to have no money on him when he meets his demise.

[Art Blade]

indeed.

Those "canned responses" (lol) are probably just random. I even get them while at 100% honour with John sometimes.

As to spending money, agree. Having said that, I went to Valentine and bought the Springfield Rifle with upgrades, knocked out a trapper guy at the bar to steal his raccoon mountain hat (coolest albeit warmest hat to get for Arthur without crafting any) and slept over at the hotel. Greeted a few people back towards the gun shop (I just have to do the occasional courtesies not to drift too much into negative honour so the prices won't be too high) and was greeted by a guy whom I couldn't resist helping some time before (sucking snake venom out of his leg) so he offered me a free pick at the gun store. Great, after buying a $120 rifle. However, I decided to "buy" a secondary Schofield Revolver (had robbed the first one from the pharmacist's illicit side business there) for free so that makes sense as it's the best revolver in the game before reaching its end (I like the M1899 semi-automatic Pistol the most) and that gives me some serious fire power when double-wielded.

I too went to Annesburg the first time (this playthrough) but I took the easy if expensive way: Why bother riding around without sufficient storage room for provisions when you can just buy a train or stagecoach ticket? That's the new way, "exploring" by train and coach. I actually only do that to unlock fast travel points quickly without having to roam dangerous parts of the map. Having said that, I wanted to get to Van Horn for the incendiary shotgun ammo pamphlet (needed for a bandit challenge) which can be found not far from there but no train nor coach leads there. Annesburg seems to be the closest to get there. So, on my old faithful Tennessee Walker (from Sadie Adler's home) which is my first and only horse for Arthur (named it Primus for that matter) I rode along the shore headed to Van Horn when I heard a cougar. For reasons unknown, he was busy at the shore so I got the rare opportunity (and funny statistics) of having discovered, tracked, studied, and killed my first cougar without being attacked Primus of course stayed cool all the time.

[BinnZ]

Good stories Art! Keep it coming

Something sprung to mind regarding the 'unnecessary weapons in your wheel'. When being John, you'll get all your old guns back when you do the first shoot-out at that ranch along little creek river. Just don't collect any. You may avoid them that way. The only gun that is forced on John is a Bolt Action Rifle witch is a perfect replacement for the Springfield Rifle if you ask me. Besides that, you'll only need a Varmint and a Rolling Block... and maybe the Carcano, too.

[Art Blade]

thank you, and good point John brings his own Revolver by the way.

I actually had been thinking about that "collect your old weapons" scenario, too, but that's still a bit far from my game position right now, heh.

I actually don't like most of the fancy late weapons. What I've been using the most both as Arthur AND John were just a few:

- Lancaster Repeater (fire power, speed, ammo capacity and accuracy, probably my most-used weapon)

- Springfield (mid-range scoped rifle that can be toggled) with superior accuracy and stopping power combined with the scope toggle, only topped by the

- Rolling Block rifle with long scope and best stats.

- Schofield Revolver (simply the best Revolver and handgun until the M1899 becomes available)

- M1899 (semi-automatic, no cocking back the hammer = enormous speed, quick reloading thanks to magazine swapping, and the fire power is better than the stats suggest)

- Bow (silent, best hunting weapon, lots of different arrow types that can be retrieved, including poison arrows that stay poisonous and fire arrows that are reusable lol)

- Varmint Rifle (well, there's nothing else in that category for hunting)

- Hunting Knife (since ALL knives got the same stats, why bother)

That's it.

[Art Blade]

Oh one more thing, there's ONE item I want to get from the trapper while still being Arthur:

The "snake saddle." I just got my 2nd perfect snake! I really want the snake saddle. It's the only one worth getting because it's both one of just a few fabricable saddles with the highest overall stats and the best balance of those stats.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Where do you get the varmint rifle from? I've seen that as the preferred weapon to get some animals but I don't think I've even seen it. Then again, the way I pay attention in this game I might already have it.

[Art Blade]

get it from the gun shop in Valentine.

get the Lancaster Repeater from the gun shop in Rhodes, but you can't buy it like that when you're early in the game. Instead, check the basement window to the right, the cellar of the gun shop is a prison for a poor sod. After talking to the prisoner through the window, rob the shop with the option for the basement. In there is a gun case with that weapon.

About the same with the Schofield Revolver. In Valentine, walk behind the pharmacy/doctor and knock on the iron door. After talking to the guy behind the door, rob the pharmacist with the back room option. In the room is a gun case on the table with that weapon. Careful: everyone in that room will try to kill you AND the sheriff's office is right next door. If you're fast, you can grab the money from the table and from the safe in the wall which I did this time.

[PZ]

When I read these posts, it is almost like I never played the game! I've not seen many of the things you guys experience, likely because I am not playing in true open world exploration to find the greatest things. I have mostly "plain Jane" items. 

[Art Blade]

well.. maybe this is a kick-starter for you to rethink your gaming style

I am currently enjoying it very much, my new (2nd) and quite different playthrough the way I planned it out

[PZ]

Maybe so. I probably need to do something to get the most out of a game like most of you gents do 

That's probably why I can play a game so many times - each session is like a new game to me.

[Art Blade]

I think games like RDR2 that took 5 (FIVE!) years of development with over 3,000 people (not counting the actors) working on it need more time dedicated to playing it than average corridor shooters. I've seen a lot but man, this game is the best open world experience I've had. As long as I don't count the bugs and ignore a lot of design flaws and geez, forget about the horribly scripted main story line

This free open world is so, SO convincing and immersive, I've racked up over 1,270 hours playing it, MOSTLY in free roam.