Red Dead Redemption 2 features many different activities designed to ensure that you never feel bored playing the game. Among them are the Challenges, which reward players if they manage to perform a very specific set of actions. This guide focuses on the Bandit Challenges.
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Bandit Challenges Overview
Bandit Challenges involve Arthur breaking the law in several different ways, like holding up townsfolk, performing robberies and so on. There’s a very good chance that you may end up performing these deeds anyway during the course of the game, but to make them count for challenge completion they need to be performed when the challenge is unlocked. Completing a later deed while the challenge is still unknown will not count towards completion.
Hold Up 5 Townsfolk
To complete this challenge, you need to hold up five townsfolk. To do so, you need to point your weapon at them and keep them in place at your complete mercy. Not all townsfolk will wok, however, as those that are armed will usually fight back.
An easy way to complete this challenge is to hold up shopkeeper. Enter any shop, point your weapon at the shopkeeper and wait for the rob action to become available. Do this 5 times and the challenge will be complete.
If you are following this method, make sure to hold up shopkeepers at night, as this will reduce the chance of being seen and reported to the authorities, something that can considerably slow down the process.
The reward for completing this challenge is the Bandit Bandolier. Once you have the full set of Bandolier equipment, you will receive a Stamina Bonus.
Rob Two Coaches
This Bandit Challenge is pretty self-explanatory, as you simply need to rob two different coaches at any time during the game. If the challenge is unlocked, you will be able to complete it while playing through the Story, as there are more than a few different missions where coaches are robbed. But if you have already completed these missions, you can simply rob any random coach you encounter.
To rob coaches, you need to get the loot found inside the box, which is always placed in the back of the coach. To get to it, you can either choose to jump on it from your horse to steal it from the driver, or kill the driver directly. The box is always locked, and you can either use the Lock Breaker if you have it, or just shoot the lock to open the box.
If wandering aimlessly in search of coaches isn’t your thing, you can also get tips from the postmasters in Rhodes and Strawberry after completing the Friends in Very Low Places Story Mission. If you want to make completing this challenge even more profitable, you can loot the box and then bring the coach to any Fence to sell it. Fences are unlocked after completing The Spines of America Story Mission.
The reward for completing this mission is $5. You will also get extra Dead Eye XP.
Rob the Cash Register in Any Four Shops in One Day
Things start to get very serious for this Bandit Challenge as you will need to rob four different stores in a single day. There are two ways you can complete this mission: rob stores in small towns like Strawberry and Valentine or rob stores in Saint Denis. The main difference is that the small towns have much fewer lawmen, while you will have a hard time escaping justice if you choose to rob the Saint Denis stores.
No matter your preferred method, always try to do this when the sun has set and there are fewer NPCs around, as it will reduce the chance of the law getting alerted by any witness.
To rob stores, you need to actually steal everything that is found in the store’s cash register. To do so, you need to enter any store, aim the weapon at the shopkeeper, get close to them and wait for the rob register option to appear on the screen. Always make sure to get as close as possible to the shopkeepers, as they may fight back. Being close allows Arthur to attack them directly without having to fire a weapon, which would alert the law immediately.
In case doing this at night is not an option for you, there is a way to make robbing stores in the morning less dangerous. Just make sure to leave your horse directly in front of the store’s entrance, as this will prevent NPCs from entering and give you quick access to your trusty steed in case something has gone wrong during the robbery.
Once you have robbed four stores in a single day, the challenge will be complete. You will be rewarded with the Bandit Holster, a part of the Bandit equipment set which gives you a Stamina Bonus once complete.
Rob Three Coaches in One Day
This Bandit Challenge is a more difficult variant of the second challenge which involved robbing two coaches at any time. To complete this challenge, not only you will need to rob three coaches, but you will need to do so in a single day.
Wandering aimlessly in search of coaches may make completing the mission a bit more difficult, so it’s better to just wait at a single point where there’s some traffic passing through to assault them and loot their box. One of the best places to do so is by Emerald Ranch, as there are a lot of coaches leaving from it during the morning hours.
Like for the second Bandit Challenge, you can make completing this mission even more profitable by selling the stolen coaches to Fences. As the first Fence you unlock after completing The Spines of America Story Mission is located in Emerald Ranch, waiting in the area for coaches leaving the ranch is definitely the best and most profitable way to complete the challenge.
The reward for completing this challenge is $10. You will also get additional Dead Eye XP.
Amass a $250 Bounty in One State
To complete this challenge, you will have to be the most ruthless outlaw possible to amass a $250 bounty on your head. This isn’t particularly difficult to do, as you can choose any town or city and commit as many crimes as possible.
Among the crimes you can commit are stealing horses, killing, hogtie and beating people, robbing stores, mistreating or killing animals and so on. The worse the crime, the higher the bounty will rise.
As committing crimes will make the law come after you, we suggest you avoid doing this in cities like Saint Denis, as there are a lot of lawmen who won’t let you off the hook easily. Small towns like Strawberry and Valentine are much better, as the law won’t be as aggressive as it is in Saint Denis.
Once you have completed the challenge, we also suggest that you pay the bounty by a nearby post office, as you may need to come back to the town or city for Story Missions and you definitely don’t want to deal with the law.
The reward for completing this challenge is $10. You will also get some Dead Eye experience.
Steal Five Horses and Sell Them to the Horse Fence
This Bandit Challenge is pretty straightforward, as you simply need to steal five horses and sell them to the Horse Fence in Lemoyne. The Horse Fence is unlocked automatically after completing the Horse Flesh for Dinner mission in Chapter 3, so you won’t be able to complete this challenge until you have progressed past this point in the story.
Other than having to get to Chapter 3, there aren’t many difficulties in completing this challenge. You can steal horses either in cities, towns, and ranches or on the road, and then bring them to the Fence and sell them. Stealing horse on the road is preferred, as this will limit the potential witnesses to your crime.
There are two ways to speed up the process as well. You can either steal multiple horses and make them follow you, tether them to your main horse or even steal wagons or coaches. Then bring them close to the Fence and free the horses to sell them.
The reward for completing this challenge is $15. You will also get extra Dead Eye XP.
Rob $50 Worth of Cash and Valuables from Townfolk or Travelers
To complete this mission, you need to rob $50 worth of cash and valuables from NPCs. Rob is the key word here, as looting corpses or the box at the back of coaches doesn’t count.
The most straightforward way to complete this challenge is to just head into town and start robbing NPCs. This method, however, requires some careful planning, as doing this in the streets in broad daylight will alert the law immediately. Some armed NPCs will also try to kill you for your crime.
The best way to complete this mission with minimal resistance from NPCs is by robbing people on trains. Just get to a station, wait for a train to arrive and board it. Move from carriage to carriage making passengers give you their possessions. There’s a good chance that robbing passengers on a single train will be enough. If not, wait for another train and repeat the process.
You will receive the Bandit Off-Holster for completing the mission. This item is part of the Bandit equipment set which grants a Stamina Bonus once complete.
Steal Seven Wagons and Sell Them to the Fence
To complete this Bandit Challenge, you have to steal seven wagons and then sell them to any fence. Fences are unlocked after The Spines of America mission has been completed, but you don’t have to worry about that here, as previous challenges also required Fences and you will likely have unlocked them already at this point.
The challenge name makes it pretty clear that you have to steal wagons, so don’t waste your time with coaches, as they will not count. Finding wagons on the road isn’t particularly difficult, but you may want to speed up the process by staying in a particular area.
The best way to find wagons is by going into oil rigs and farms. Oil rigs are better guarded, as seen in the Pouring Forth Oil Story Mission, so farms and ranches are preferred. If you want to stay in the Valentine area to reach the Emerald Ranch Fence as quickly as possible, you may want to take a look at the Cornwall facility to the east of town.
The reward for completing this challenge is $15. You will also get additional Dead Eye experience for your trouble.
Hogtie Someone and Leave Them on the Railroad Three Times
For this challenge, we are heading straight into Western movies villain territory, as you will have to hogtie any NPC and leave them on train tracks three times. To hogtie NPCs, equip your Lasso, use it on any character and then get close to them to make the Hogtie option appear on the screen. Once a character is hogtied, they are at your mercy. Now you just need to bring them to any train track and drop them there.
While the mission is pretty straightforward, there’s a way to speed up the process. Locate a train track not too far from a road, wait for lone travelers to pass through, use the lasso, hogtie them and bring them on the track. Make sure to get far enough from the road as possible, otherwise, other characters may alert the law. Doing the whole process at night reduces the potential for witnesses, so wait for the sun to set if you don’t want your bounty in the area to rise.
Completing this challenge will reward you with $20 and additional Dead Eye XP.
Complete Five Train Robberies Without Dying or Being Caught
With the final Bandit Challenge, Arthur needs to go into full ruthless outlaw mode, as you need to complete five train robberies without dying or getting caught by the law.
On paper, this challenge is incredibly difficult, as the law will be alerted almost immediately as a robbery is begun. If you aren’t strapped for cash, and you just want to complete the challenge, however, there’s a very easy way to do so.
Head over to any station and purchase the cheapest ticket to make a train appear. Board it and rob the first passenger you encounter. Once this is done, get off the train: robbing from a single NPCs actually counts as a train robbery. You can now head back to the nearby station and repeat the process.
Completing the final Bandit Challenge will reward you with the Bandit Gun Belt, the final item of the Bandit equipment set.
