Red Dead Redemption 2

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I found that setting, I hadn't done anything with it before because it has a weird description, and I wondered what it was for. Now that I was looking for it, it made more sense.

Thing is, I had almost the same problem in the single player game. I was minding my own business riding to a destination to pick up a debt and four guys come riding up and start shooting at me. I had done nothing that I know of, and was mystified. Of course I died, so I reloaded a save game, which was a ways back because I hadn't got in the habit of saving every 30 seconds like this game really needs. Go on the mission again and the same guys kill me at the same place. I was almost ready to rage quit but tried again. This time I took a different route and found the oil drilling operation with the dinosaur bones at the bottom. So that restored me a little bit as it's that sort of thing that I really like about exploring in these type of games. What I don't like is the fact that there's no way to really tell who is going to attack you and who is going to be friendly or neutral. Games like Far Cry mark the enemies clearly and you can fight them or avoid them. In this game, there's no way I've seen to tell if the person riding towards you is going to attack or not. Not a fan of that.

After that, though, I had a decent enough time collecting debts and found a weird easter egg sort of place, look in the screenshots thread, and then headed back to camp. Thing is, I really want to do the mission to open the stables and let me get a frikkin brush for my horse so it stops telling me my horse needs brushing. 

[Art Blade]

 

"save every 30 seconds" and the "frikking brush" cracked me up but man, as always, you nailed it.

if you encounter enemies (humans and predators) they will be marked as red dots on your mini map. Like the hostile O'Driscol gang members or a cougar.

Other people may turn hostile if you don't defuse a situation. Like in my epic brawl vid but they might as well decide to shoot you right on the spot. Meaning, if you bump into someone or block someone's way, always "aim" at them so the greeting dialogue opens. If you somehow offended someone, then instead of greeting there will be "defuse" to choose. I recommend doing that if there is a "defuse" option Of course you can straight away escalate it by agonising them

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I don't recall if these guys were red dots on the map or not. I was too busy being shot and dying lol.

[Art Blade]

yeah, information overload

[Art Blade]

There was a little discussion stated in the screenshot topic about the horse saddle and stable and so on.

The first thing I want to do is "demystify" the main and temp horse:
These are nothing but names for two map markers so you can find those horses.

The second thing I want to do is "demystify" the stable:
It is nothing but a garage so you can park horses for later.

The third thing I want to do is "demystify" the temp horse:
It is as good as any horse and you don't lose it just like that by accident or weird stuff. You don't lose it by reloading a save game nor by dying yourself. It follows commands, carries cargo and you can ride it.

The fourth thing I want to do is "demystify" the (re)move saddle:
It only toggles the map makers from temp to main and "ex" main to temp. Apart from that, obviously your horse inventory is in your saddle. But be careful: turning a horse which got its own stable into a temp horse removes its "stabled" status.


You can actually remove the saddle from a stabled horse to put it on your temp horse and thereby transforming your previously "saddled & stabled" horse into just any temp horse and the temp horse into a main horse which you can stable now instead of the previous main horse which gave up its stable by becoming a temp horse. If you now bond with a new horse, that old horse loses its temp horse map marker and may now vanish forever. Even the DLC horse. So the "stabled" attribute is not permanent and does not prevent you from losing the horse if you do what I described just now.

And since Dweller asked, you cannot have two stabled horses in the open at the same time. But you can have two horses in the open at any time: fetch a temp horse. You can read about temp horses in detail >here< if you want.

[Art Blade]

If you're interested in a permanent 10% speed boost for horse bonding, collect a free trinket here:

Spoiler

That's to the very right of the map near Annesburg. There's a wrecked ship with a loot box. You will have to climb a bit to get there.

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[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, I'm more confused than before. So, I can't take out the horse that's currently in the stable and use it as a second cargo horse (whatever the game calls it)? Basically, here's the rub, I don't really care for all the horse maintenance stuff and just put up with it, but I wish it wasn't there. I don't really want to go buy another horse, I have two now, and I want to ride one and use the other to carry stuff. How do I go about that, or is it impossible?

Oh and thanks for the tip, I'll go look for that eventually lol.

[Art Blade]

if you say that you've got two horses, and regarding your previous questions, I can only assume that both horses are stabled. So the answer is no, not possible.

The solution is: grab one of those stabled horses to ride, then find ANY RANDOM horse. Either a wild one to tame or steal one or take one from a bandit or random encounter.. ANY horse. Then you need to ride it, pat it a lot, until the message pops up "horse bonding level 1" which means you just acquired your temp horse.

That's all.

Just DON'T STABLE that temp horse or you'll have the same problem as before

Simplest way to prevent any confusion once you've got that temp horse, never let it enter the stable. So you tell it to "STAY" somewhere outside the stable.

And welcome

[Art Blade]

COUGARS

I had a hard time getting cougar pelts. Meaning, I spent a few hours until I've perfected a method that I want to share.

First off, a +1 to Binnatics who helped me with general directions and location

Here is the location where you should go to. It is to the top of the general map, there to the north-east. I marked spots where I killed cougars. The best way to orientate yourself is that railroad bridge, south-west of it is the most reliable place where the cougar (one cougar) spawns.

cougars killed
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How to do it:

1) Get there and prepare as follows: LEAVE YOUR HORSE ("stay" or, don't call it) outside the hunting area
2) Equip your sniper rifle (I use the Springfield rifle with high velocity rounds)
or Equip bow with improved arrows (thanks, Binnatics, for confirming perfect skins are possible)
3) preferably toggle from scoped to non-scoped so you can use dead eye better (works with Springfield)
4) fill your dead eye so you can use it when it counts
5) save your game, perhaps spend some time until it is getting dark, save again.
6) start running around in the marked area. I mean it, walk or run, just move around there.
7) keep your eye on the mini map (should be the big-sized one) and look out for a red dot next to you
8 ) listen to that cat sound, mostly you hear that ME-ACK-OW before the cougar gets to you
9) once you hear the cat or see the red dot on the map, use eagle eye and try to see the cat
10) if you see it, enable dead eye and aim for the head, shoot.

It may not always be a perfect skin but however, either reload your save game if you haven't got a perfect one, or if the cat didn't show up.

After stowing the perfect skin on your horse, save the game and immediately reload the save game. The cougar spawns even though there are carcasses of his former self all over the place Get another skin, save, reload the save game. Rinse and repeat.

To me it worked from around 10PM to about 4AM in-game, that's when I successfully got cats spawning there.

Forget bait. You don't need to drop any bait, you don't need to shoot an animal to crate a bait with its carcass, the cougar simply spawns or doesn't spawn, it's random. Running around there will get its attention and you can just kill him, done.

[BinnZ]

Nice description Art! And thanx for the kudo
Now for the Hunter Challenge No. 6, to kill it with the bow (and skin it) you'll need 5 more! With the bow is quite hard. Well, harder than with a rifle because charging the bow comes with the procedure. I used a poisonous arrow, which the compendium (in game advice page on how to kill an animal etc) recommends. However, a poisonous arrow doesn't count because the cougar dies from the poison instead of the bow. It's horrible seeing that beast die from the poison btw, I really found it hard to look at.
You need to use Improved arrows (easily crafted from a normal arrow and flight feathers). I'm going for that challenge now. Found another cougar spawning spot (Thanks to the internet) so I'm hopping from one to the other to make it a tad more diverse 

[Art Blade]

thanks

And yeah, I know the other one, too (around the trapper in the West, Big Valley) good luck

regarding wounded and poisoned animals, normally one should walk up to them for the kill prompt to relieve them of their pain. Wounded animals show as a white paw icon on the map.

[PZ]

Nicely done, AB! 

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah both my horses are in the stable, the original one I left at camp when I went off hunting with Hosea, but it magically appeared in the stable after I sold the draft horse and got the DLC horse. So yeah, I can't use that one I guess. Next time I see a random horse wandering around I'll have to pick it up, I've been ignoring them up until now. Ok, so the next question, preemptively, is once I get the second horse, how do I attach it to my main horse to make it follow, or will it just follow me? Do I put my saddle on it to ride it? Really, all this horse stuff is just a pain in the neck.

Nice info on the cougar, too. It will be quite some time before I get to that point, but I know where to refer back to it. Spawns between 10PM and 4AM, eh? Sounds like something else you tipped me on in another R* game....

[Art Blade]

I'm not sure about the exact spawn times but I was aware enough of the whole situation (like, preparing for the next time) that I decided to quickly tap the ALT key which reveals a few stats like location, temperature and time. I did that every time I killed a cougar that night so that was between 10PM and 4AM. Generally speaking, unlike the movie "From Dusk Till Dawn," it was the time between after dusk and before dawn.

Horses.

Straight answers to your questions:
- You don't attach them, they will indeed follow you.
- DON'T put a saddle on a horse, just ride it as it is.

- Just whistle to make them follow.
- Look at them, then aim at them without a weapon to get a short menu.
- If you are on foot and very close to your horse and aim at it without a weapon you'll get an expanded menu.


***************************


It has worked for me to treat my horses well and frequently, regard them as true companions that are also very sensitive. So patting them frequently while you're riding them or standing next to them as well as frequently brushing them a couple of times in a row not just once keeps them calm, happy and he@lthy. Check that your horses are not hungry (if the heart and flash icon start to grey out) and feed them when they are. Cheapest (free) and best (most energy) horse food is picking Wild Carrots. Brush them frequently to keep their health up (like keeping a battery charged) Hitching to a tree or a post allows them a bit of rest. Hitching them and leading them is also boosting their happiness. All that is also needed for bonding with a horse.

I strongly suggest that you start to convert that pain in the back into the joy of your life because a lot in the game depends on your horse(s) which sometimes includes your own life

I know so much about horses in the game because I quickly realised that they are the core of the game and wanted to know all there is to know for a better gaming experience. I'm still learning And it has paid off.

[PZ]

I have done just about all of that stuff with my horses, but why don't you want to saddle them?

Just for kicks, I started a new play through to see if the gold bar glitch still works in my game. I have not updated the game since first playing, but I do not recall if they fixed the glitch before I did the little updating I did way back then.