History RedDeadRedemption2 / TropesAToL

[[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2 Main Page]] | '''A-L''' | [[RedDeadRedemption2/TropesMToZ M-Z]] | [[RedDeadRedemption2/OnlineTropes Online]]

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[[folder:# & A]]
* HundredPercentCompletion: Possible, but very challenging and time-consuming. The game helpfully keeps track of your progress in the compendium as well. Doing so unlocks the "Best in the West" achievement/trophy (and the "Legend of the West" [=PS4=] trophy as well). Those feeling particularly brave can go for all trophies/achievements, which requires all of that, plus even more. The fact only 0.1% of players, according to official [=PlayStation=] stats, have done it, should show how time-consuming it is.
* HundredPercentHeroismRating: Maxing out your Honor carries benefits including major discounts at most merchants (up to a whopping ''50%''), access to unique outfits, and a higher RandomDrop rate for more valuable items like jewelry when looting the dead bodies of hostile enemies (such as rival gang members).
* TwentyBearAsses: A number of challenges involve obtaining a certain number of perfect quality pelts from specific animals, to say nothing about getting the various hides and feathers for the items crafted by Pearson and the Trapper.
* TwentyFourHourArmor: While not quite armor, everyone sleeps in their normal attire. This can include heavy leather or fur coats, vests, gun belts (with guns), boots, and spurs. Averted in the Patch 1.21 version, in which almost the entire Van der Linde gang walks around or sleeps in their nightclothes all through the night until early morning.
* AbsurdlyLowLevelCap: It's quite easy to max out your Health, Stamina, and Dead Eye by the second or third chapter as the experience points needed are quite plentiful. In addition to normal play you can gain huge amounts by completing challenges and drinking rare elixirs. However, the ninth and tenth levels of all three meters require you to beat every challenge in the game, which is not an easy feat.
* AbandonedMine: One can be found northwest of Strawberry. You'll need to activate some dynamite to get inside, where you can find a unique knife and a mining helmet. Many others can be found out in the world as well.
* AbsentMindedProfessor: Marko Dragic from the "Bright Bouncing Boy" series of side missions. [[spoiler:It ultimately costs him his life as he is killed by one of his inventions.]]
* AcceptableBreaksFromReality:
** While lauded for having some of the most realistic and fun horse riding mechanics in gaming, there are still quite a few breaks from reality present. It's very damaging for a horse to run on paved roads, run into a full speed gallop immediately after resting, and in general be kept at full speed for long whiles at a time. It also usually takes months to teach one to come at your whistle. Taming a wild horse also takes much more time and effort than is depicted in the game. Feeding and grooming are also much more complex in reality.
** Compared to the first game, the developers went out of their way to force players to pay attention to their horse (they can only be whistled within a certain distance, they need to be brushed and fed to perform optimally, they don't respawn after dying, etc.), but the game still cuts players ''some'' slack to make them easier to use. Most notably: all of your stabled horses can be always be found in ''any'' stable in the game (no matter how far apart they are), you can always saddle up one of your stabled horses (even if you leave your saddle on a horse that got lost or killed), and your horse will eventually reappear at a stable if you get separated from it in the wilderness and can't whistle it.
** Keeping yourself fed and well-rested offers boosts, but isn't required. Outside of a very select few cases where doing so is required to advance a mission, you never need to eat or sleep.
** Cleaning your firearms in-game means wiping them down with some Gun Oil. In real life, it involves taking them apart to carefully clean all of the pieces and mechanisms while using different oils on the metal parts and the wooden parts, which would be incredibly tedious.
** While the game does have some inventory limits, you are still able to carry around far more than would be feasible in real life. Two long guns, two handguns, hundreds of rounds of ammo for each, a knife, a lasso, throwing knives, tomahawks, sticks of dynamite, fire bottles, a fishing rod, a machete, two dozen bottles of booze and medicine, horse supplies, cartons of cigarettes and multiple cigars, a week's worth of groceries... (And that's ''before'' upgrading to the best satchel which allows you to carry ''99'' of ''everything''. It's incredible you can still shoot straight when you're carrying around hundreds of pounds of booze, canned goods and meat in your little bag.)
** You can also hogtie as many people as you want without ever running out of rope.
** Drinking too much and passing out on dangerous areas, such as rivers, snow or desert only results in you waking up nearby like usual, instead of death.
** Most likely due to technical limitations, but animals never climb nor perch on trees; this is especially odd with normally-arboreal creatures, like squirrels, who are always found scurrying on the ground.
** Health items can be consumed even if you're wearing a mask.
* AceCustom: If you know where to look, you can get versions of certain guns with unique appearances: two unique Cattleman Revolvers, two unique Double-Action Revolvers, two unique Schofield Revolvers, one unique Mauser Pistol, one unique Double-Barrel Shotgun, and one unique Rolling Block Rifle. The only drawback is they can't be modified in any way.
* AcousticLicense: It's quite easy to have a conversation with someone while you are both on different horses thundering down a hard dirt road, sometimes even in the midst of gunfire.
* AdaptationOriginConnection: Although with a sequel instead of an adaptation:
** The 1899 Blackwater massacre was a mere background detail and had no ties to Heidi [=McCourt=] or Dutch's gang, and existed mostly to give a reason why Landon Ricketts was in Mexico. This game establishes that the Van der Linde's were behind it and Heidi's murder is what triggered it.
** An inversion also happens: The heist during which John got shot and left to die [[spoiler: was not a ferry job like it was implied in ''I'', but it does happen and Marston gets shot during it. Instead the robbery he got shot and left behind on was an army train.]]
* AdventureFriendlyWorld: Just as one would expect from a Rockstar WideOpenSandbox game. The world is massive and you can explore almost all of it once [[OpeningTheSandbox it opens up]]. The game is dotted with random encounters, rival gang camps and ambushes, Stranger side missions, animals to hunt, and points of interest to explore.
* AerithAndBob: There is a noticeable mix of common names (Arthur, John, Charles, Sean, Karen, Susan, etc.) as well as some rather old-fashioned ones that will seem unusual to modern players (Hosea, Micah, Josiah, Kieran,[[note]]which is still fairly popular in the British Isles[[/note]] etc.). However, given the game's time period, this is rather appropriate.
* AnAesop:
** The main aesop in this game is that people shouldn't be blindly loyal to someone. Several of the Van der Linde gang, especially Arthur, pays dearly for this because their devotion to Dutch causes them to continue to follow his lead despite everyone noticing his SanitySlippage, how Dutch does not return the same loyalty to them and how his schemes continues to lead them into dangerous situations that get members and other civilians needlessly into danger and/or killed when it could have been avoided. [[spoiler:Sadie and Charles]] are the only active members of the gang at this point who survive the first game and [[spoiler:Mary-Beth, Tilly, Rev. Swanson, Trelawny, Pearson, and Jack]] are the only non-active ones who do.
** Revenge is a fool's game. Dutch used to live by this code but by the time of the game, he's been consumed by his need to get back at those he feels have wronged him and destroys his gang in the process. Arthur tells him this pretty much word for word towards the end.
** The game does not at all gloss over just how badly the Native Americans were treated. The ArcVillain of Chapter 6 is a corrupt military official who denies the Wapiti tribe medicine they desperately need, and tries to provoke them into war so the government can wipe them out and seize their land. The man in question is a complete jerk who denies their human rights and considers their real names to be "silly", showing no respect for their traditional culture. Agent Milton talks at length about how as far as he's concerned, the Native Americans are no better than Dutch's motley gang, and like Dutch's gang they should be eradicated for the good of "civilisation".
** This game makes a point not to glamorize or (overly-)romanticize life in the Wild West for most in a modern Western audience. There is no social safety net, and a lack of formal education so very intelligent people like Arthur often get forced into violent crime because there are little-to-no other legitimate opportunities for them. Women have no other option for work other than, to paraphrase Karen, teach, be a prostitute or clean someone else's house. They also can't vote. Racism is rampant, even after the Civil War made some of the worst vitriol slightly less acceptable. Modern medicine doesn't exist and therefore things that would be easily treatable today (like an infected wound) will kill you in an agonizing fashion. Literacy rates are low and childhood mortality rates are high. Even if you live in a poor or middle income country today, your quality of life is probably better than it would be for most of the characters in this game.
* AIBreaker: Cougars and panthers are ambush predators who can deliver a OneHitKill to the player when they pounce. However, if you are first thrown from horseback (which is likely even on a fully bonded horse when a cougar/panther is close), they seem to get confused and do not pounce right away. Instead, they'll circle around you, giving you time to get to your feet, draw a weapon, and potentially kill them. Notably, this does not happen with other predators like wolves and grizzly bears, who can and will attack you immediately after being thrown from your horse.
* AKA47: The game uses a mix of real life gun names and BlandNameProduct names for guns closely modeled on real-life guns. Like ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', the compedium uses fictional companies as stand-ins for real-life firearm manufacters, like "Buck" for Colt and "Lancaster" for Winchester. Consequently, the first game's Winchester and Henry repeaters were renamed "Lancaster" and "Lichfield" for the second installment; it's possible those companies raised trademark issues. (Springfield Armory was a government-run manufacturer[[note]]That has no relation to the modern-day Springfield Armory Inc.[[/note]], and the Volcanic company is long defunct).
* TheAlcatraz: Sisika Penitentiary. It's a heavily fortified prison on an island off the coast of Lemoyne. Should someone attempt escape, they would need a means of transportation back to the mainland where they'd be defenseless in swamps infested by alligators and Night Folk. Naturally, [[spoiler:you need to break John out after he's captured during the failed bank robbery in Saint Denis]].
* TheAlcoholic: The Van der Linde gang sure has some notable alcoholics. Uncle is rarely found without a drink in his hand, Karen is described in the Rockstar Promotionals as being 'able to drink anyone from under the table' before[[spoiler: her drinking spirals out of control in the last chapter, and is presumed by the Epilogue to have drunk herself to death]]. Bill Williamson is almost always seen with a drink in his hand and is quite prone to AlcoholInducedIdiocy. Perhaps the biggest example of an alcoholic is Reverend Swanson who's, almost literally, never seen sober around camp. [[spoiler:He does get better in chapter 6 and quits drinking altogether.]]
** Played For Laughs in one of the most [[invoked]]{{memetic|Mutation}} missions in the game, where Arthur takes Lenny to a bar to calm him down. HilarityEnsues.
* AlignmentBasedEndings: Downplayed example [[spoiler:as Arthur's death warrant is already signed with his tuberculosis]] but your honor slightly changes the final cutscene; [[spoiler:a high honor results in Arthur being left to die somewhat peacefully watching the sunrise, while a low honor results in Micah finishing him off.]]
* AllForNothing:
** Chapter 3 has the crew getting involved with a feud between two families and believe there is gold involved. For the next few weeks, they [[PlayingBothSides play with both sides]] in order to intensify the feud and hoping to steal the gold. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, both families eventually find out about this and had Sean killed and Jack kidnapped. What's worse is that the gang fail to find any gold in this, meaning Sean died for nothing. Possibly averted in "The Course of True Love V" in Chapter 6, when it turns out that the sapphire bracelet that Penelope Braithwaite is handing over to Arthur is actually her family heirloom, and the family "gold" that the gang had wanted all along.]]
** [[spoiler: The gang's bank robbery in Saint Denis at the end of Chapter 4 was meant to be the last job before leaving the U.S. But as soon as the robbery kicks off, the plan quickly goes downhill once it's revealed the Pinkertons were one step ahead of them, capturing Hosea and completely surrounding the bank. The ensuing firefight results in the deaths of Hosea and Lenny as well as the capture of John. Even worse is that during the Guarma arc, Dutch reveals to Arthur that all but one gold bar (which Dutch uses to pay the cave navigator) was lost at sea, subsequently rendering the heist completely pointless.]]
** [[spoiler: The last part of the game involves Arthur doing everything he can with what little time he has left to give John and his family a future. Unfortunately, Edgar Ross will eventually come and utterly destroy that future. Although Arthur does give John, Abigail and Jack several peaceful years that they would not have otherwise gotten.]]
** [[spoiler:If the newspapers in 1907 are to be believed, the Wapiti Indian reserve had no oil under it after all, meaning that all the suffering the natives there went through was entirely pointless.]]
** Charles and Arthur's daring rescue of [[spoiler:Eagle Flies is almost immediately negated after he gets himself killed after launching an attack on Cornwall Kerosene and Tar.]]
** [[spoiler:Eagle Flies' crusade, meant to drive away the Army, does nothing but get himself and several other Indians killed.]]
** [[spoiler:The final mission of Chapter 6 allows the player to choose between covering John's escape or going back to the camp to retrieve the money. If you choose the latter, then Micah will be waiting for Arthur back at the camp, resulting in a fight that ends with either Micah stabbing Arthur to death (if your Honor is low) or leaving him to die after his illness catches up with him (if your Honor is high). Either way, Micah gets away with the money.]]
** [[spoiler: Even if Arthur was to somehow find, and then donate, say, one hundred thousand dollars, which is a very nice amount of money, especially in 1899, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Dutch would still need more money]], despite the fact that the gang had more than enough to leave the country.]] This is {{Justified|Trope}} as Dutch actually [[spoiler: has the money available from the Blackwater Heist but doesn't want to retire.]]
* AllNaturalSnakeOil: Present as a consumable item which actually does something, refill your Dead Eye meter.
* AlternateHistory:
** It's mentioned in some newspapers that the President during the main story is named Alfred [=McAlister=], when in real life, it would have been UsefulNotes/WilliamMcKinley -- although he seems like a close enough match to his real life equivalent, based on the articles. Like [=McKinley=], he presides over the Spanish-American War, fudging the States' casualties for propaganda purposes; he also institutes a deeply unpopular protectionist tariff that inflates duty prices on imported goods, something his counterpart [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McKinley_Tariff did earlier as a Ohio Representative]]. It's mentioned in the epilogue that he, too, was assassinated, and succeeded by...
** [=McAlister=]'s vice president, Thaddeus Waxman, is a stand-in for UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt. Like TR, Waxman is noted to be a crusading reformer and expander of industry, a strong proponent of national defense, and a celebrated Navy veteran (having been a Colonel in the Rough Riders), who almost immediately eclipses his predecessor in public approval; the only difference is that he served as a Senator, not a Governor as Roosevelt had. This is also a {{Retcon}}, as Roosevelt had already been fleetingly mentioned as the President at the time of ''Red Dead Redemption'' [[note]]Unless he was elected in the 1908 election[[/note]].
** The "Prominent Americans" Cigarette Card set features two additional presidents, Fisher and Hardin. No information is given about their terms or time in office, but they seem to be physically modeled on UsefulNotes/MartinVanBuren (combined with the widow's peak and spectacles of an elderly UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson) and UsefulNotes/RutherfordBHayes, respectively.
** The KKK is active throughout the game but had been dismantled by the Grant Administration in the early 1870s in real life and wouldn't be active in large numbers until about fifteen years later when the film ''The Birth of a Nation'' was released.
* AlwaysCheckBehindTheChair: Stashes of items can be found all over the game world. Chimneys are an oddly popular place for storing valuables. Lockboxes can be found tucked under/between all manner of furniture. Stashes of money and items can also be found out in nature, such as in tree stumps and crevasses.
* AmazingFreakingGrace: Aboard a dilapidated houseboat in Bluewater Marsh is a phonograph that plays the harmonica rendition of the song.
* AmbiguousSituation: A bunch of these...
** It's not clear what exactly happened in Blackwater. The gist of it seems to be it was going well until they got into a shootout with the Pinkertons and Dutch killing an innocent civilian named Heidi [=McCourt=]. Dutch was goaded into murdering Heidi by Micah and things quickly went south from there. Javier says it was chaos but tries to downplay Dutch murdering the girl. He could very well just be trying to protect Dutch or Dutch could have needed to do it. It's possible that Dutch murdering Heidi is what caused the Pinkertons to swarm the gang, but it's also just as likely that the whole thing could have been a set up by the Pinkertons. Dutch's speech that can be found in Horseshoe Overlook makes it sound like he knew it was going to be a bloodbath all along but the question is why he would have thought that.
** As related to above, there's never a definitive answer as to how long [[spoiler: Micah has been selling out the gang. Milton says he's been helping since after Guarma but there's other implications he's been doing it for longer than that. You can find Dutch's wanted poster at his camp at Strawberry, suggesting he's been planning to sell Dutch down the river the whole time. If Blackwater was a setup, he'd be the prime suspect and it would mean he's been working with them for months. The campsite he suggests for Chapter 3 is also a prime location for an ambush. He also wears a white hat which is usually saved for the good guys in Westerns; however, this could also be a hint that he's working with the "good guy" Pinkertons who are trying to get Dutch]].
** A lot of Dutch's SanitySlippage is left open to interpretation but it seems like a recent thing. Whether or not he was EvilAllAlong but managed to hide it or genuinely changed once the pressure started mounting is debatable but Hosea and Arthur who know him best say he's changed pretty early on. His behavior also gets notably more erratic after he hits his head in Chapter 4. Micah's influence on him is also ambiguous, he could be taking advantage of Dutch's deteriorating state or he could be the one causing it.
** The specifics of Arthur's love life are also left very vague. It seems like he and Mary were together for quite some time, he tells Mary-Beth that she put a lot of years into him even though she knew they'd probably never be able to get married. The picture of them when they were younger doesn't have a date on it so it's not clear just how long they were together nor how long ago she got married. It's also not clear if she truly was in love with her husband or if it was a MarriageOfConvenience ordered by her dad. [[spoiler: Arthur's other confirmed relationship, with his son's mom Eliza, is similarly left ambiguous. It seems like a fling but he never explicitly says that.]]
*** The life and death of [[spoiler: his son Isaac and lover Eliza is also left vague. All Arthur says is that he was a good kid and that he once taught him to fish. Considering Arthur compares Jack to Isaac, he was likely around Jack's age when he died. He mentions Eliza was nineteen, but it's unknown if he means that that was her age when he met her or that was her age when she died.]] Arthur also calls her "a good kid" which only adds to the ambiguity. It could be that he was significantly older than her or it could mean they were around the same age and it did really happen that long ago. [[spoiler: If it was the latter, Issac would have been roughly the same age as Jack was in the first game, adding to the similarities between the two of them.]] It's also not clear how long ago [[spoiler: Isaac died, as Arthur tells Jack and Rains Falls that it happened a long time ago.]]
** The Strange Man is back and even more ambiguous this time. He seems to have made some sort of DealWithTheDevil with Herbert Moon to survive the cholera outbreak. He knows stuff about Arthur too and you can talk to a guy in New Austin who's met him. Said guy thinks he's the Grim Reaper (which is another one of the main theories). He's left so ambiguous that the BlindSeer, who otherwise gets everything right, says he doesn't know if he's "of this world" nor does he know [[spoiler: what the man wants with John.]]
** Why Dutch is there [[spoiler: at Micah's hideout in the epilogue]] is also not explicitly explained. He says he's there for "The same reason as you" to [[spoiler: John]] but that could mean he thinks [[spoiler: John is there for the money]] or that [[spoiler: he wants to kill Micah]]. WordOfStPaul says it's the latter.
* AnachronismStew: The game, set in 1899, has a mix of culture, technology, and society ranging from all over the latter half of the 19th century through the first few decades of the 20th century. To note specific examples:
** Texas Hold'em being the go-to version of poker. While it's possible that Texas Hold'em was invented by 1899 (the history of the game is rather obscure), it didn't become popular until at least 1925. Five/Seven Card Stud or straight draw poker would have been the go-to card games of the era.
** The available firearms are an odd mix of guns which would have been obsolete for decades and guns not even invented yet in real life. For example, the Volcanic pistol was an obscure museum piece outdated even before the Civil War while the Carbine Repeater (modeled after the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_repeating_rifle#/media/File:Spencer_Carbine.JPG Spencer Carbine]]) is about 30 years past its prime by 1899. Meanwhile, the Semi-Auto Shotgun (modeled on the real life [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browning_Auto-5 Browning Auto-5]]) was patented in 1898 but wouldn't be produced until 1902, with the in-game being a post-1950 example based on the reload animation[[note]]Examples of the Auto-5 produced prior to 1950 required the bolt release button to be held in order to insert rounds into the magazine. An update during the period introduced a two-piece shell lifter, allowing the magazine to be topped up without requiring the bolt release to be held.[[/note]]. The Maxim machine guns are Model 1908s, here appearing nine years too early.
** The Carcano Rifle is based on the Carcano 91/38. The "91" stands for 1891, but the "38" stands for ''19''38. The actual Carcano 91 was a much longer rifle than the in-game model, which is copied directly from the infamous "Lee Harvey Oswald" version. The Oswald connection explains why the Carcano is only available as a sniper rifle, despite the actual Carcano 91 being relatively inaccurate for its type. It is also an Italian weapon, and finding even a period-appropriate Italian rifle (such as the Modello) in the American west would have been extremely unlikely.
** Shotgun ammunition appears in metallic cartridges, which were more expensive, heavier, and fell out of favor following the introduction of paper shotgun cartridges in 1877.
** While pre-rolled cigarettes were available in 1899, hand-rolling cigarettes was by far the more popular method of the era. It wouldn't be until UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (where the easier-to-ship pre-rolled cigarettes were included in solder's rations) and the subsequent advertising boom of the 1920s that pre-rolled cigarettes took over.
** The "Open Range" era quickly came to an end with the invention of barbed wire in the 1870s and was all but completely dead by 1890. Barbed wire is extremely rare in the game and farmers leading herds of sheep through open land is a common random encounter.
** Telegraph (and even some telephone) poles and lines were much more common in real-life 1899 than what is depicted in the game. They would have run along pretty much every railroad track and most major roads.
** Milton and Ross introduce themselves as Pinkerton agents acting as lawmen on behalf of the U.S. government. This arrangement was common in the 1870s and 80s, but had been made illegal by 1899.
** By 1899, bison were reduced to a tiny population while wolves were intentionally hunted to extinction in the real life analogues of the in-game locations where they spawn. Both, especially the wolves, are plentiful in-game. (Conservation and re-introduction efforts have brought both species back in modern times.)
** While wood-burning 1870s-style locomotives could still be found in the West, especially on short and narrow-gauge lines, most locomotives by 1899 were coal-burners of more modern design. Oddly, the locomotives in [=RDR2=] are still more modern than those in the first game, which is set in 1911.
** In Chapter 6, it is possible to overhear Dutch [[TalkingToThemself talking to himself]] at camp where he seems to be running through a game of chess in his mind. He mutters "ah, yes, White to d4", which is the Algebraic Notation of for describing chess moves. However, that system of notation didn't become popular until the 1980s. During the era of the game, Descriptive Notation would have been used instead (Ex. "White Queen's Knight 4"). As a GeniusBonus, the move Dutch describes is the first in a strategy known as the "Dutch Defense".
** The KKK can be encountered, but the original incarnation of the Klan was forcibly disbanded by the Grant administration in the early 1870s, long before the game starts in 1899, and wouldn't be revived until the release of ''Film/TheBirthOfANation1915''.
** During the "Oh Brother" stranger quest, one of the brothers calls the other a gerbil as an insult. Gerbils were largely unknown outside their natural habitats before the [=1950s=].
** The word "moron" is used as an insult several times. Not only was the term first coined by Henry H. Goddard in 1910, but the word's derogatory connotations are even more recent[[note]]To note, "moron" was originally a psychological term used to refer to the mentally disabled, but as time went on it became more commonly used as a stupidity-related insult. The words "idiot" and "imbecile" are in the same boat.[[/note]].
* AnArmAndALeg: Powerful weapons, such as shotguns, can tear limbs and even heads apart.
* AndIMustScream: You can find an outhouse in back of the Braithwaites' estate with their daughter Gertrude locked inside. She is clearly unhinged (implied to be from inbreeding) and has been shut up for what may be ''months'', if not ''years''. And shooting the chains holding the door shut doesn't break the links as usual. '''You can't save her.'''
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: [[spoiler:Like with the original game, after the protagonist dies at the end of the main story, it goes through a TimeSkip to a few years later where the player takes control of a new character - this time the second playable character being none other than John himself.]]
* AndTheAdventureContinues: The main story ends after the second Epilogue. At that point, you are free to explore the entirety of the game world as well as complete any side missions and challenges which remain.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes:
** Your rewards for completing the Legendary Animal hunts are a trinket/talisman made out of part of the animal which grants a passive bonus and an outfit (or piece of an outfit) made from the animal's pelt/skin.
** Getting your Honor rank to either +4 or -4 gives you unique revolver grips: the Cattleman Revolver gets a special pearl grip, while the Double-Action Revolver gets a special ebony grip. High Honor also unlocks certain pre-made outfits in the catalogue.
* AndYourRewardIsEdible: Rewards for minor missions are sometimes food items or tonics. Notably, fulfilling camp requests from your fellow gang members are usually rewarded with items you can consume, such as Jack giving your chocolate or Tilly giving you health tonics.
* AnimalsLackAttributes: {{Averted|Trope}} with horse testicles that react to changes in temperature.
* AnimalMotifs: Arthur has one in the form of either a stag or a coyote (often mistaken for a wolf) depending on his honor level. [[spoiler: It first appears among the cluster of its fellow animals while he is recuperating and dreaming toward the end of "Blessed are the Peacemakers", appears again as he is dreaming while on Guarma at the end of "Welcome to the New World", and reappears when he is diagnosed by the doctor and during important cut scenes as an omen of his own mortality for the rest of the game.]]
* AnimationBump: While the [=PS4=] Pro isn't powerful enough to run the entire game in full 4K, Photo Mode seems to bump the resolution to the max when activated.
** The [=PC=] release plays it completely straight, though.
* AnnoyingArrows: Generally averted. The Bow can be a devastating weapon in the hands of a skilled player. Standard arrows will silently kill a human enemy with a single headshot. Improved arrows, intended for use on large game such as cougars and elk, will silently kill human enemies with a vital shot.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** While Arthur is responsible for feeding the gang, the player is in no way forced to do so. They will never die from the lack of food, although they will complain to Arthur if he returns to the camp. You can freely forget about them and do something entirely different without having to worry about them. However, it's worth mentioning that failing to keep the camp fed will result in poor interpersonal relationships with them, which in turn may lead to Arthur missing out on side missions with other characters.
** As with its predecessor (and ''GTA V''), if you fail a sequence enough times, the game will helpfully allow you to skip it.
** In the ''GTA V'' mission "The Long Stretch", one mandatory objective is to purchase a pump-action shotgun from Ammu-Nation with Franklin's own money. It is possible to '''trigger a Mission Failure''' if Franklin doesn't have enough money for it. During a mission in Chapter 2 involving a bit of livestock rustling, Arthur needs to purchase a Remington Rolling Block rifle from the Valentine gun store, again with his own funds. However, should he not have the funds to pay for the cost of the rifle himself, John will pay for it instead.
** If you lose a legendary animal pelt, it'll be automatically given to the trapper, you just won't get money for it.
** The hunting system is very in-depth - if you want to get a perfect pelt, you have to scout the animal, make sure it's a "perfect" version of the animal and kill it (in one shot) with the appropriate weapon. Use a high-powered rifle to kill a rabbit, for example, and you'll ruin the pelt. Not so with the legendary animals. You can use your most powerful gun, and even if you have to shoot the animal multiple times the pelt will still be impeccable.
** In the final mission [[spoiler: you're ''supposed'' to use dynamite to flush Micah out so Sadie can get the drop on him, but nothing in game tells you to do this, and trying to shoot it out with him gets you killed. However, if you don't think to do that, then Micah will eventually move into position on his own and the cutscene will trigger without you having to do anything.]]
** Unlike in Rockstar's [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas previous attempt at the system]], ignoring Arthur's basic needs isn't fatal. Instead of draining his health, once the cores are empty you'll only suffer from small penalties[[note]]An empty health core lowers your health and health regen, an empty stamina core lowers your accuracy and stamina regen, and an empty dead eye core stops Dead Eye from regenerating by itself and slightly affects accuracy[[/note]]In addition, while in San Andreas you pretty much had to stop whatever you were doing and head to a restaurant when CJ got hungry, Arthur's needs can be satisfied by just purchasing or hunting various consumables and using them from the ever-present inventory.
** While animal corpses left on the ground or on your horse will eventually rot, everything in your satchel is safe, meaning you don't have to worry about that perfect squirrel carcass or that food you cooked but put away, as neither will go bad if you leave them sitting in your inventory.
** Patch 1.15 added in the ability to fast travel from player-made camps like in the previous game. This allows the player to quickly travel to remote locations that no fast travel stations go to (such as Colter). The gang's camp is also listed on this fast travel list, greatly simplifying gathering crafting material for Pearson.
** Prior to update 1.21, cooked meat - which includes some of the best core-restoring items in the game - could only be used through your satchel, unlike all other consumables that could be used much faster through the inventory wheel. The aforementioned patch made all types of cooked meat accessible through the inventory wheel, making them much faster and easier to use.
** When fishing, your bait isn't affected by the stream and will always stay perfectly still. Fishing from a boat also glues the boat in place when normally it would move with the water.
** The "Zoologist" achievement requires you to [[GottaCatchThemAll study every animal in the game]], while "Skin Deep" requires you to kill and skin every animal. Mercifully, neither of these achievements require you to study/kill any animals that can only be found on [[PermanentlyMissableContent Guarma]], and the latter does not require you to kill and skin any domestic animals.
** While your main horse can only be summoned via whistling if it's within a certain distance, you can still saddle up one of your other saved horses if you make it to a stable on foot--even though your saddle should technically still be on the horse that got separated from you. And if you return to the stable, you'll find the other horse safely stabled there.
** Cougars and panthers are among the most dangerous animals in the game, being both incredibly quick and incredibly deadly. As a small consolation, however, nearly all of them are perfect three-star specimens that will yield a perfect pelt if killed cleanly. It's effectively the game's way of acknowledging that if you successfully kill one of the damn things, you ''deserve'' a perfect pelt.
* AntiHero: Played with in different ways regarding Arthur, depending on his Honor level. A high Honor Arthur downplays it, still being an outlaw but one who avoids needless criminal activities and frequently helps those in trouble. A neutral Honor Arthur plays it straight, still caring about the gang above all. A low Honor Arthur plays it up to the point of being a NominalHero, with the only thing separating him from outright evil characters like Colm O'Driscoll and [[spoiler:Micah]] is his being honor-bound to [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Dutch and his gang]].
-->'''Arthur''': Maybe when your mother's finished mourning your father, [[ImpliedDeathThreat I'll keep her in black, on your behalf]].
* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler: Many of your fellow gang members die suddenly and messily. Most of the gang, including Arthur, will be dead or have run away by the conclusion, and even more are DoomedByCanon. By the conclusion of ''Red Dead I'', the only gang members left alive are Jack, Sadie, Charles, Tilly, Mary-Beth, Pearson, Trelawny and Swanson (Karen's fate is unknown).]]
* AppetiteEqualsHealth: Subverted. [[spoiler: When Arthur gets really sick with TB, his health and stamina cores actually empty faster than when he's healthy. This is most likely to imply he gets tired quicker, not that he's hungry, but the cores are replenished when you eat.]]
* AppropriatedTitle: Downplayed example. While this game is technically the third ''Red Dead'' game (after ''VideoGame/RedDeadRevolver'' and ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption''), since ''Redemption'' was much, much more popular than ''Revolver'', the game drops the ''RDR'' naming convention of the first game and just goes straight with calling itself ''Red Dead Redemption II''. [[spoiler: However, it does end up making sense, as by the end Arthur spends what little time he has left trying to help Marston live a peaceful life, thereby redeeming himself]].
* ArbitraryGunPower: Just like its predecessor, two guns which fire the exact same ammunition can deal wildly different amounts of damage, logic be damned. Guns with a higher rate of fire, in most cases, deal less damage than slower-to-fire guns which use the same ammunition as well. To note a few specific examples:
** The Scholfield Revolver (based on the Smith & Wesson Model 1875) would have lower damage than the Cattleman Revolver (based on the Colt Model 1873) and a faster reload speed. They fired a lower velocity and hence lower powered .45 round than the Cattleman. The top break design is a lot faster to reload than a fixed cylinder design.
** The Carbine Repeater (based on the Spencer Repeater) ''should'' be the most powerful of the repeaters, firing by far the largest caliber round. However, it is the weakest.
** The [=C93=] Borchardt semi-auto pistol is depicted as more powerful than the [=C96=] Mauser pistol, even though it should be the other way around. The [=7.65×25mm=] Borchardt and [=7.63mm=] Mauser rounds are both identical dimension-wise, but the Mauser round is an evolution of the earlier Borchardt round and thus carries a more potent powder charge in its case.
** The Volcanic Pistol (based on the pistols of the same name developed by Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson) is the single most powerful sidearm in the game, providing the stopping power of a repeater in a small package. In real life the pistol used a novel [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Ball Rocket Ball bullet]] design - while the caseless ammunition was advanced for the time, the bullet's minuscule charge meant it was woefully underpowered.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Easy to miss, but it's definitely in play, likely due to AI limitations. Most missions have Arthur being assisted by a group of [=NPCs=], but if it moves beyond 2-4 it's almost guaranteed that the group will only be that big for a riding sequence, and when the action kicks off the number will be whittled down for some reason or other, or the period of assistance will be very brief. The mission "My Last Boy" exemplifies it best, since it is enforced twice. [[spoiler:In the beginning, seven members of the gang go to the oil field, but upon arrival Dutch takes John, Bill and Javier to distract the military from another location so that Arthur, Sadie and Charles can save Eagle Flies. The trio are then joined by six braves... most of whom die by the time the group reaches the bottom of the hill and starts fighting; any survivors will likely also perish or disappear in all the chaos. Along the way, the group picks up Eagle Flies and Paytah, and they do regroup with Dutch and the rest, for about a minute while they take out what's left of the soldiers, after which Arthur is aided only by Dutch.]] The most egregious example occurs in "Horsemen, Apocalypses," [[spoiler:where, despite the gang's hideout being attacked, several members (Micah, Bill, Javier, Lenny) are inexplicably missing, and their absence is never addressed afterwards, which is made all the more jarring by the fact that they have camp dialogue concerning the attack.]]
* ArchaicWeaponForAnAdvancedAge: The Pirate Sword, Volcanic Pistol, various Hatchets, and even the Bow are surprisingly effective weapons, even against other armed enemies. With self-crafted arrows, the Bow becomes the most versatile and efficient weapon for hunting.
* ArcWords:
** "What choice do I have?" is a recurring quote throughout the game which reflects the fatalist views of the main characters.
** "That's the way it is." in the similar vein.
** "Revenge is a fool's game", a rule the gang goes by to discourage their members from taking things too personally. [[spoiler: The more the gang unravels, the more they break this rule. This culminates in the final mission in the game, an act of revenge by the surviving members of the gang against Micah for his betrayal and his (possible) murder of Arthur.]]
** To the first game, "Don't look back."
* ArrowsOnFire: A craftable item which naturally set targets on fire. Dynamite arrows take this to another level.
* TheArtfulDodger: Saint-Denis has a whole gang of them. During his initial time in the city, Arthur gets robbed by the children and they even lure him into a back alley and surround him with weapons.
* TheArtifact:
** One of the campfire songs present in the game is the real-life song "Ring Dang Doo", except the mention of "New Orleans" is replaced with "Ol' Bordeaux". "New Bordeaux" was the beta name for Saint Denis, the game's [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed New Orleans stand-in]], before being changed in development.[[note]]This may have something to do with Uncle having 2 voice actors, one of whom died but his singing was kept in. If he died before the change was made, it makes sense why this oddity was kept[[/note]]
** [[spoiler:In the epilogue, most pictures of John in the pause menu depict him with his normal hair, but in gameplay his hair is a PaletteSwap of Arthur's that naturally parts to the opposite direction. The pictures were thus either made before they finished designing 1907 John, or the change was made late in production.]]
** The info card for Wallace Station claims it's in Ambarino, but it's actually in West Elizabeth. A leftover signpost under the map confirms it was originally further to the north, but the card was not updated.
** The Guarma segment is an odd case. The 2016 map shows it was not a late addition, but appears to have been ''heavily'' truncated from what was originally planned. Unused coding suggests it was meant to act as a small second hub -- coding suggests you could return to it in the epilogue and turning off the snipers reveals the area is much larger than it seems, with an entire unseen second bay down an inaccessible path. The mansion seems to also have been plot-relevant. Rewrites turned the location into a linear, limiting, and temporary experience.
** Tempest Rim is a leftover area from before large amounts of Ambarino were redesigned so the story would flow better; glitching there and comparing the area to the 2016 leaked map shows [[https://youtu.be/icutoROHTxU there are several roads and even an opening where Colter used to be]] before the redesign.
** Jeremy Gill noticeably mentions Frontera Bridge -- a railroad bridge from ''I'' which connects New Austin to Nuevo Paraiso in Hennigan's Stead -- but the bridge doesn't actually exist in this game. This line is seen as one of the many hints that suggests Mexico was planned but cut.
* ArtifactTitle: Present on ''two'' levels:
** The "Red" still draws from Red Harlow, the main character of ''Red Dead Revolver'', who does not appear.
** Arthur appears to not be interested in changing his ways, even if he is starting to doubt Dutch. It's initially assumed that the name "Redemption" is because of the game's ties to the previous game, and to make the game more recognizable to general audiences. [[spoiler: This is ultimately subverted come the climax of the game, as Arthur fights doggedly (and gives up any hope of recovery from his tuberculosis) in order to give John and his family a future, which one could argue is his redemption.]]
* ArtificialAtmosphericActions:
** Fish are prone to beaching themselves if you stand near bodies of water for long enough.
** Certain encounters can be broken for silly reasons. For example, during the recurring encounter where you can shoot the leg irons off of an escaped prisoner or the one where you rescue a woman tied to the back of the horse, you are necessarily holding your drawn weapon. When the "encounter" script ends, the person you just rescued may panic and flee from you due to your drawn weapon despite you having just helped them.
* ArtificialBrilliance: What Rockstar is wishing to accomplish. They realized that the next step in open-world games is interacting with the game world and seeing how it reacts to the player in turn, and rebuilt parts of their game engine to support this. A few examples; note that these happened in free-roam, and were not part of any mission.
** Rob a camp while its owner is fishing nearby. A dog left to guard said camp starts barking and alerts the fisherman. You are then presented with several options, such as apologizing, threatening, or insulting the fisherman, and your actions determine what will happen next. You may attack the man, the man may attack you, the fisher may flee to alert law enforcement and put a bounty on you, or you can apologize and give his loot back, for a few examples. Additionally, how the fisherman reacts to those options depends on your Honor rating as well as your personal appearance. He'll be much more likely to accept an apology from a well-dressed and bathed character than an unkempt one in blood-stained and bullet-hole-riddled clothing.
** Ride close to a farm. The owner picks up a shotgun and starts yelling threats to you. Again, the dialogue system allows this situation to be defused peacefully or violently, depending on your actions.
** Animals have realistic dynamic behaviors and interactions with their environment, and frequently interact with one another. In just one example, docile herbivores will bolt if they see another animal near them running away from something, even if they don't sense what caused that other animal to flee. This makes stealth during hunts especially important, as it isn't just your quarry you have to worry about seeing you.
*** In some cases, this is taken even further. You may occasionally happen upon a buck with its antlers entangled with another, with the latter having died some time before (likely from exhaustion), or a wolf pack fighting with a bear over a kill. Both instances are known to happen in real life.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** The whole level of interactivity with [=NPCs=] won't stop enemies from standing right in the open during gunfights. Even if they are in cover, remaining in cover yourself for long enough will cause them to run straight at you where they can be mowed down with ease. Unfortunately, this is also true of your allies during firefights. Many players have failed missions thanks to their allies (who usually must survive) [[LeeroyJenkins charging headfirst into the crossfire of several in-cover enemies]]...
** Enemy [=NPC=]s outside of plot-relevant scenarios can become complete idiots and even shoot their own partner(s)-in-crime. They may even blame you for their own idiocy.
** Horses in real life are very careful with where they run. Even if just a small person or obstacle is on their path, they will veer off to the side rather than run into anything and will (usually) avoid trees and other creatures. Horses in the game, however, will run face-first into trees, rocks, and other horses as soon as you don't pay attention, sending themselves and Arthur tumbling.
** Cougars and Panthers are dangerous creatures who can kill you instantly with a pounce. However, they seem bewildered if you are thrown off by your horse in their presence. They'll actually start to run away from you while you get to your feet before eventually circling back. This gives you plenty of time to shoot them.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** Tuberculosis doesn't quite work in real life the way it works in this game, presumably for the sake of time compression. First of all, only about 10% of people who get infected ever develop the disease and generally speaking if you make it two years without showing symptoms, you're in the clear. Although people [[spoiler: who smoke like Arthur]] do have a higher probability of it becoming active. Even today about 80% of people who live in the developing world carry the disease even though it can now be treated with a course of antibiotics. Second of all, even pre-antibiotics you had about 1/3 chance of being able to survive it so it wasn't an automatic death sentence. It varies how long it takes to start showing symptoms but presuming the game takes place over the course of a few months, [[spoiler: the time it takes for Arthur to start getting sick]] is accurate. What's not accurate is [[spoiler: how quickly it takes him to die]]. It usually takes several years for this to happen,[[note]] The average at the time was about five years [[/note]] not several months. Had it taken that long [[spoiler:for Arthur to die, it likely would have dragged the story out]], especially given that they were already working with pre-existing timeline. [[spoiler: Of course, he does die after receiving a hard beating and sharp blow to the head, so the TB may have simply left him too weak to survive that.]]
** Dutch's horse, The Count, is said to be an Albino Arabian Stallion. In real life, horses cannot carry true albinism due to Lethal White Syndrome. Albino horses are born with non-functioning colons and die within a few days of birth.
** Horses in game have color variants, and some of these have better stats (black arabian has slightly better stats than the white one for example). In reality, horses of the same breed can be more healthy or have more stamina than other members, but it's not determined by coat color, but by different genes that aren't expressed in coat color.
** All Bald eagles have juvenile textures
** Owls in the game have non-zygodactyl feet and have a wing flapping sound when flying.
** Cervidae species seen in the game (deer, elk, moose, etc.) begin to grow antlers each spring which reach full size during mating season in the fall, then fall off in the winter in real life. In the game, which explicitly begins in May 1899 and the first six chapters end after no more than 2-3 months, these species have their full, mating season-sized antlers right away when they should still be small and velvety.
** Of the four snakes found on Guarma, only one, the Fer-de-Lance (a type of pit viper), is venomous. The other three are non-venomous boas, yet Arthur can still be poisoned if bit by them.
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: While Oleander Sage is poisonous in real life, its lethality is greatly exaggerated in game. In reality, it would take a fairly large quantity to kill an adult human. Here, its residue on an arrowhead can kill a grizzly bear.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The unaccessible landmass southeast of Lemoyne causes all kinds of issues. It actually wasn't present on some early map concepts, so no-one's quite sure why it was added. [[note]]The theory that makes the most sense is that it's used to hide Guarma, but even that rises more questions than it answers[[/note]]
** Either the Gulf of Mexico doesn't exist, or the New Orleans stand-in is nowhere near it. In fact, it's been replaced by the Mississippi River, and it's practically impossible to tell where exactly the border is - it can be anywhere from southwest of Flat Iron lake to northeast of Annesburg. Either way, in this universe Mexico and America connect to each other ''east'' of New Orleans, which is a bit excessive even when you take SpaceCompression into account.
** Nobody is sure just what route the big ships anchored at Saint Denis take to reach Cuba. They can't go east since there's a waterfall on the way, so the only other option is north, up the Lannahassee river.
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: In what has become a tradition for Rockstar, some liberties were taken with how the firearms operate:
** The Carcano [=91/38=] is ALWAYS loaded with a full en-bloc clip, regardless of whether or not the existing en-bloc clip is still in the rifle itself, as there's no animation for the removal of the current clip when reloading with rounds still in it, nor an animation for the ejection of it out the bottom of the magazine when it's emptied after chambering the last round.
** The Evans Repeater's reload animation sees the wielder cycling the action every time a round is loaded into the magazine. This is correct as the weapon's helical magazine does not have a spring follower, and feeding/advancing of rounds is done by cycling the action. However, this fails to take into account scenarios where some, but not all, of the rounds in the magazine are fired. Trying to top up the magazine in this instance would result in a live round being ejected from the weapon every time the action is cycled to advance the magazine after loading a round, and would repeat until all of the existing rounds in the magazine ahead of the rounds being added in were emptied out. A visual breakdown of this is available courtesy of WebVideo/ForgottenWeapons' [[https://youtu.be/VSPBIHRLYr4?t=570 video]] covering the Evans.
** Arthur has a tendency to keep his finger on the trigger, even when he's not aiming at anything. Especially when you inspect any of his handguns, his finger is on the trigger. However, his second visit with a side character, Charlotte, has him trying to aim her husband's rifle downwards to the ground while she's holding it.[[note]]You ''have'' to do this if you're not aiming at anything. Rifles ''can'' misfire, hence every gun needs to point to the ground in case of accidental misfire.[[/note]] She actually notices and follows along.
** While trying to find information about Angelo Bronte in Saint Denis, Dutch puts a gun to Arthur's head after catching him off guard outside of a bar, and tells him "Stick 'em up, cowboy." Of course he's just joking and the situation is a comedic one... except he actually pulled the hammer back and had his finger on the trigger. One of the most important rules in firearm safety is that you never put your finger on the trigger unless you're going to shoot.
** The Navy Revolver reuses the reload animations from the Single-Action Army, even though it is clearly a cap-n-ball model rather than one that's been converted to load metallic cartridges. As such, the reload animations shows the player character simply replacing the percussion caps without actually loading in new ball and powder. The ''Grand Theft Auto: Online'' iteration of this weapon makes this simple, wherein its reloads involve replacing the entire cylinder.
** The "best weapons" to use for hunting certain species of game can make a real life hunter cringe. In real life, a .22 caliber like the Varmint Rifle can reasonably used for game up to the size of a fox or even a coyote without much fuss. Here, they can shrug off multiple shots while ruining their pelts. Further, it is perhaps the most popular caliber for small game like squirrels, but here, it will ruin their pelts and small game arrows (which would be incredibly difficult to use in reality for game that small) must be used instead. Finally, shotguns are one of the most versatile firearms for hunting in reality with slugs and buckshot for larger game, and birdshot for smaller species. In-game, using slugs will only result in a perfect kill against very large animals like bears and alligators. Against anything else, any type of shotgun ammo will ruin pelts and carcasses.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
** The KKK was not in operation during 1899. The First Klan was shut down by the U.S. Government in the early 1870s under the Grant administration and wouldn't be recreated until the 1910s (although a number of similarly brutal white supremacist groups remained in operation in the South), and their infamous hood and robes wouldn't be seen until much later. [[ButtMonkey But who doesn't like seeing the KKK make]] [[TooDumbToLive complete fools of themselves?]] Since ''Red Dead'' is set in an alternate version of the United States like the ''GTA'' series[[labelnote: note]]To give an example of how different America in ''GTA'' is from real life, their version of Las Vegas is in their version of '''California''' instead of Nevada[[/labelnote]], it's possible that the KKK persisted in some form later. In one of the random encounters, a KKK leader notes that it's become much harder to operate due to the federal government, so they're probably a remnant.
** When Arthur first meets Agent Milton, Milton claims he's "seconded to the United States Government". This is a legal impossibility in 1899, as the Anti-Pinkerton Act was passed in 1893 which prevented the USA government from hiring agents of the agency.
** One of the side missions in Saint Denis involves helping a professor in the area construct and test out the first electric chair for a public audience. The electric chair was actually conceived in the 1880s, and was tested out for the first time in 1890 before became a common execution method by the end of the century.
* ArtisticLicenseOrnithology:
** The bird referred to in-game as a "California Quail" as actually a Northern Bobwhite. A rather inexplicable misidentification, given that actual California Quails have a rather unique and photogenic appearance compared to the relatively plain-looking Bobwhite.
** Little Egrets can be found in the swamplands of Lemoyne, despite the fact that they are a largely Eurasian species that occasionally wanders into the eastern United States and has only recently established a population in the Caribbean. This was likely an attempt to create a less-fancy counterpart to the Snowy Egret, which in this game is always shown in its fancy breeding plumage (in reality, Snowy Egrets only have this plumage for part of the year, and throughout the rest of the year look almost identical to the Little Egret).
* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Colonel Favours and Captain Monroe wear incorrect ranks. Favours has Brigadier General stars (a rank above him) while Monroe has Second Lieutenant bars (two ranks ''below'' him).
* ArtisticLicensePaleontology: One of the game's points of interest is a compressed human skeleton completely fossilized in an exposed rock wall. Problem is, modern humans have only existed in North America for less than 13,000 years, far too recently for any such thing to actually happen by 1899.
* ArtisticLicenseSpace:
** [[https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadmysteries/comments/e7iy4z/whats_up_with_the_moon_in_this_game_it_rises_in/ The moon is incorrectly placed]] -- it's on the northern skies, which would be correct if the game took place on the Southern Hemisphere. As the game takes place in North America, it should be on the southern skies. It also goes through phases ''much'' faster than the real thing.
** The constellations, while largely correct, are also incorrectly placed in relation to each other.
* AscendedGlitch: While the "Dead Eye-powered Homing Throwables" glitch from the first game has been addressed (it still happens but only in very short range), you can craft homing varieties of the throwing knife and tomahawk in this game.
* AscendedMeme:
** You can find the skeleton of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q7v4F8r9Og Donkey Lady]] in New Austin just south of Armadillo. It even wears the same clothes as the glitched character in the original video.
** A random encounter called "Treehouse Man" (also in New Austin, in Hennigan's Stead) features a man with a very cat-like appearance (he has a cleft lip, broad nose, and cat-like eyes). In the game's files he's called "Cougar Man", which was another glitch [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVVXyKP1FVk&feature=related recorded by the same person as the above one]] wherein a cougar spawned with the appearance of man.
* AssholeVictim: There are arguably so many to count:
** Story mission character villains will actually die [[spoiler:but Arthur doesn't kill them]].
** Ambushers have a frequent case where they demand a toll, pretending to ask for help, or attacking on site and you respond with a bullet to their face.
** Certain [=NPCs=] you find will try to get your attention, but beating up some [=NPCs=] or killing them ''increases'' your honor.
** Most of the gang's targets both during the main mission and companion side missions are these, reinforcing their PragmaticVillainy ways. Strauss' debt collection missions are one of the few exceptions.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph5Dzi0iUhI one camp interaction of the Colter chapter]], Rev. Swanson reads a passage from Isaiah 40:20-31 (KJV) to the women; when Karen asks what this means, Swanson says he's not quite sure anymore, but it still comforts him somehow.[[note]]It's an affirmation of God's power over superficial "false idols" borne of human vanity, thus symbolizing how it's foolish to put complete trust in [[spoiler:Dutch]], who will soon become a "king" and "judge" in his own way, or representing Swanson's own loss of faith, as he traded his religion for the vices of morphine and alcohol.[[/note]]
* AttackAnimal: Numerous groups use dogs in this fashion. Bounty hunters who come to apprehend you if you have a bounty may bring dogs, which are good at forcing you out of cover.
* AttackItsWeakPoint: The highest level of Deadeye now shows a faint image of the target's vital organs, such as the brain.
* AttackOnOneIsAnAttackOnAll: The Van der Linde gang believes this strongly. The loyalty that the gang members show each other is what [[ALighterShadeOfBlack sets them apart]] from the other outlaw gangs like the O'Driscolls who abandon members left and right. [[spoiler: One of the major signs of Dutch's increasing villainy is that he is unconcerned about the possibility of the government executing John Marston.]]
* AttractiveBentGender: PlayedForLaughs when [[TheGadfly French artist Charles Châtenay]] flees town DisguisedInDrag -- ''very'' obvious drag. He gets a fair few admiring comments from people before they [[UnsettlingGenderReveal get close enough to notice]]. Being who he is, he eggs them on, to Arthur's mingled exasperation and amusement. He even kisses Arthur.
* AutomatonHorses: Downplayed compared to most video games, including its predecessor, but still present. Horses can take far more abuse than in real life, bond much quicker with their riders (including freshly tamed wild horses), and the required care they need is significantly simplified from real life.
* {{Autosave}}: Present, including during missions where manual saving is disabled.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** Dynamite arrows are the equivalent of having a RPG launcher in an old west setting. However, like other flammables and explosive weapons, target [=NPCs=] cannot be looted while animals will be "ruined", meaning you can't skin them or get meat from them.
*** Dynamite itself isn't that helpful, either; aside from the unlootable bodies, TNT explosions have a wide area of effect and risk of sudden fire that makes it effective but dangerous to use for crowd control in a close firefight, especially if you're in a building. Its practical open-world application -- cracking safes -- can also be done more accurately and quickly with a single round of craftable explosive ammo, meaning that buying dynamite is more a drain on your finances than gaining a competitive edge.
** If you're willing to trek out to the far north of Ambarino and break it, the White Arabian, as mentioned below, is an extremely fast horse with the highest balanced max stats in the game... which also happens to be one of the most ill-tempered horse breeds (predators and highwaymen will cause it to bolt in fear, and even galloping makes it nervous). Agitated horses are harder to bond with, and it has much higher level requirements than average, so chances are you'll be spending a lot of time trying to tame this beast before you can reap any reward from it; likewise, the faster core drain when Agitated and its pristine snow-white coat mean that you'll also be endlessly feeding and brushing the thing. Since it never completely loses its skittish nature even at full bond, most players tend to pass them over for war or racing horses instead.
** Dual-wielding sawed off shotguns with slug rounds. You'll reduce any man or beast to bloody chunks at close range due to the sheer stopping power of your pair of {{Hand Cannon}}s, but the rate of fire and reload speed is very low, the recoil is utterly insane and the accuracy beyond very close range is poor compared to less powerful sidearms.
** Huge fish, while awesome to catch, aren't necessarily the best size to go for as only one can be stored on a horse at a time. Even if you have a second horse and carry one yourself, you'll be able to carry a maximum of three. As such, it's better to go for several medium size fishes as they can be stored in the satchel and still sell for a good price.
** Robberies tend to be presented as a way to make quick cash in a short amount of time, but in practice you'll usually be identified in the act ([[PaperThinDisguise even with the bandanna]]) which means you'll be spending a good chunk of what you've stolen to pay off a bounty. In some cases it'll be ''more'' than the value which makes the entire robbery pointless in the first place. It's far easier to make money by looting cash and valuables from random gang members you come across or by hunting, and carries a much lower risk.
* AwkwardSilenceEntrance: You expect anything different from a {{Troperrific}} SpaghettiWestern homage? When Arthur enters the Saint Denis saloon in Chapter 4, everyone freezes for a few seconds.
* AxCrazy:
** Bill Williamson is very much the same boorish psychopath he was in ''Red Dead Redemption'', only he's on your side this time. He worries that he'll get the same dementia that got his dad and seems to have PTSD from his time in the army.
** Micah Bell is erratic, explosive, and cannot resist pulling the trigger.
** [[spoiler:Sadie can get kind of Ax-Crazy at times, particularly when looking for revenge.]]
** All the members of the [[RapePillageAndBurn O'Driscolls]], [[CannibalClan Murfree Brood]], and [[ColdBloodedTorture Skinner Brothers]]. ''Especially'' the Skinner Brothers.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:B]]
* {{Backstab}}: Sneaking up on a NPC with a knife drawn will allow you to perform a "Stealth Kill" in this vein.
* BadLuckMitigationMechanic: The Buck Antler Trinket, acquired after hunting the Legendary Deer and crafted at a fence, allows some two-star animal pelts to upgrade to three-star "perfect" pelts upon skinning the animal.
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals:
** If Arthur, [[spoiler:or John]], kills an animal, either by just plain shooting it or running it over, and doesn't bother to skin or collect it, he will lose a small amount of honor.
** Killing domesticated animals, like cattle, oxen, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, dogs or cats, causes the same amount of honor loss as killing an innocent. If he gets caught doing so, the crime is called Animal Cruelty. Too bad that some of the stuff that Pearson and the Trapper make requires the hides/feathers from some of these domesticated animals. On the plus side, aside from some rabid dogs in "Wisdom of the Elders 2", or if being chased by bounty hunters, or trying to rob a certain angry old woman, there is no need for Arthur [[spoiler:or John]] to kill dogs or cats. Not even to complete Pearson or the Trapper's items.
** While honor will still be lost for killing a domesticated animal, the criminal aspect can be reduced by killing those that belong to criminals and other normally hostile types.
** Likewise, when possible, after running them over, or overshooting them, just simply skin or collect and break-down the animal afterwards, to prevent honor loss. Afterwards, just donate the meat and/or carcass, to the camp, for provisions.
** Arthur can lampshade this in a camp companion speech with Mary-Beth or Karen. He'll talk about how he's been "killing animals for no reason" and how he thinks that makes him a bad person.
** And then there's Micah, and whatever it was he did to Cain, Jack's first dog....
** There is an NPC who would challenge you to a horse race. He will beat his horse if he loses, and if he loses a second time, will [[YouHaveFailedMe outright kill it]].
* BadassArmy: Deconstructed with the [[UsefulNotes/YanksWithTanks U.S. Army]] soldiers present in the game. Drawing their attention and wrath is considered a death sentence by most of the Van der Linde gang, including Arthur. However, when they are fought, they turn out to be little more than green recruits handed rifles and sent off into dangerous situations. They are also led by an incompetent Colonel looking for one last grasp of glory before retirement who even tries [[spoiler:to have his actually competent second-in-command court marshaled and hanged for treason when he wants to sue for peace with the Wapiti]]. Discussed at one point by Arthur after fighting some of them when he finds one's ID card (a precursor to dog tags) and learns that he's just a "kid from New Jersey". Except when in overwhelming numbers, they're little match for hardened career outlaws.
* BadassBandolier: Buying one doubles the amount of rifle and repeater ammo you can carry. Once bought it, Arthur will always be wearing it and receive its benefits, even if wearing an outfit/disguise that hides it. In a nice graphical touch, as Arthur burns through his ammo stock, the number of rounds visible on the bandolier goes down.
* BadassCrew: The Van der Linde gang, naturally. Even the women acquit themselves rather nicely with a gun in their hands.
* BadassInANiceSuit:
** Dutch, though he has his flaws, is indeed a certifiably badass gunfighter and perhaps the sharpest dresser in the game.
** Arthur [[spoiler:and John]]. There are a number of very nice outfits to put them in, right up to formalwear. Both are full blown [[OneManArmy One-Man Armies]].
* BadassLongcoat:
** Fitting for the setting, some of the customizable clothing options are coats, ranging from waist length jackets to dusters and tailcoats. One of Arthur's default outfits (the "Gunslinger") features a slightly past-the-waist beige jacket.
** Just like the last game, the [[AndYourRewardIsClothes reward for completing all the challenges]] is the "Legend of the East" outfit which features a red shotgun coat.
* BagOfHolding: Your satchel, even without upgrades, can hold far more than it should be able given its size. The Legend of the East satchel can hold 99 of every item.
* BagOfSpilling:
** During the Guarma Chapter, Arthur loses access to most of his items. Justified as having washed ashore on an island after a botched robbery forced the gang to stowaway onto a ship that gets caught in a storm.
** [[spoiler: Then, during the Epilogue, John will start with very little, but he eventually gains access to the satchel, which might be the Legend of the East satchel, allowing him to use everything Arthur had. The only issue is a distinct lack of provisions, but given it's been eight years, odds are that the food has either spoiled, or John, Jack, and Abigail ate the food during the times that the Pinkertons were looking for them, and John couldn't hunt, and Abigail couldn't go shopping.]]
** [[spoiler: The player gets to play as John during the Epilogue, allowing him to earn a lot of money and acquiring every weapon available. Four years later, he start with little money and only a single revolver.]]
* BaitAndSwitch: The stranger mission "He's British, Of Course" has a circus performer duo (one of them is a "woman animal wrangler" named Margaret, who's a mustached man wearing a dress) missing several animals needed for their tour: a zebra, a tiger, and two lions. Arthur will go out and fetch the animals. The zebra turns out to be a mule painted to look like a zebra. The next animals on the list are the tiger and the lion (one of the performers adding that they sent one of their best lions to hunt down the tiger), and the tiger and lion turn out to be a cougar painted like a tiger and a dog with a wig around its neck to make it look like a lion. Once the cougar and the (dead) dog are locked up, the performers ask you to look for their second lion at Emerald Ranch. Arthur (who's seen the "lion") at first declares that it's just another dog, [[spoiler:but the beast goes wild, and it turns out to be an actual lion after all]].
* BaitAndSwitchComment: Most of the "Greet-Greet-Antagonize" dialogue chains involve these. For example, Arthur may first compliment an NPC for having a "kind face", before clarifiying it's "the kind I'd like to punch!"
* BananaRepublic: Guarma, a Caribbean island belonging to Cuba governed by a brutal slaver. Arthur and the gang spend the first half of Chapter 5 there [[spoiler:after the botched bank heist in Saint-Denis]].
* BarBrawl: One of these occurs as a story mission in Chapter 2. You are, of course, free to start them in every saloon you come across if you so wish. Especially if a person or two happens to be a rival gang member.
* TheBartender: Every saloon has one to serve drinks as well as, depending on the establishment, serve food and provide rooms/bath services.
* BattleAmongstTheFlames: [[spoiler:If you go for Dutch's money, then the knife fight with Micah can become this, as there is a wall of fires in the forest.]]
* BattleInTheRain: The random weather in the game can turn any battle into one of these. The rain can also be accompanied by thunder and lightning. A couple missions, such as the fistfight with Tommy and Micah's rescue, has it rain automatically.
* BavarianFireDrill:
** Mary-Beth mentions infiltrating a house by pretending to be a servant.
** Arthur and Dutch impersonate [[spoiler:police officers at Colm's execution.]]
* BawdySong: Several of the campfire songs sung by the gang, particularly those sung during celebrations such as after the rescues of Sean and [[spoiler:Jack]].
* BearsAreBadNews: Both black and grizzly bears are present in the game. Black bears will usually run away from you, but grizzlies won't hesitate to charge you and are one of the most dangerous animals present. They are {{Lightning Bruiser}}s that can shake off multiple non-rifle shots. Fortunately, one rifle shot to the head will put it down for good.
* {{Beat}}: In one mission, Arthur and John take a moment to have a smoke, only to both realize the cart they're sitting on is full of dynamite they plan to use, and quickly put their cigarettes out.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Dutch's ultimate goal throughout most of the game is to get enough money to escape to Tahiti (or a similar tropical location) with the gang. In one part of the story, he, Arthur, Micah, Javier, and Bill do end up on a tropical island--Guarma--which is suffering from many of the same things that Dutch hates about the U.S., namely workers and nature getting exploited by corporations and the military.
* BeefGate:
** While you can go there at any point in the game, and at one point are required to rescue Sean in Chapter 2, the endless waves of federal agents swarming all around Blackwater will prevent you from getting much accomplished. [[spoiler: Until the Epilogue as John, when you live as a local, unmolested by law enforcement by default.]]
** Until you unlock and acquire the firepower needed to deal with them, venturing too far off the main story path (particularly in the northern areas of the map) early in the game will leave you vulnerable to randomly spawning enemy gang ambushes and predatory animals (wolves, grizzly bears, cougars) who will serve as one of these.
* BellyDancer: At the Théâtre Râleur in Saint Denis, the vaudeville show hosted by Alridge T. Abbington features both Antoinette Sanseverino, a fire breather/dancer who uses props set aflame, as well as The Mysterious Maya, a dancer who changes between dancing with a large python and a sword in her performances.
* BerserkButton:
** The half-black, half-Native American gang member Charles takes bison hunting very seriously. The beasts are a big part of his heritage, and he urges Arthur to respectfully shoot only one and claim every part of the animal for use. So when a pair of poachers massacre an entire herd of them and just leaves the carcasses to rot, he confronts them and guns one of them down without batting an eye.
** Arthur doesn't take too kindly to being called [[PrettyBoy "pretty boy"]] and almost beats Tommy, a large burly guy half to death for it in Chapter 2.
* BestialityIsDepraved:
** One mission brings you in contact with a criminal wanted for, among other things, "immoral animal husbandry."
** There is a barn where you can find a man and a sheep, both dead. The sheep has a ribbon tied around it with a wedding ring lying nearby; the man is positioned behind the sheep with his pants down.
* BettingMiniGame: Poker, FiveFingerFillet, Blackjack and Dominoes.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: A high honor Arthur is downright friendly, but he can gun down an entire enemy posse in the blink of an eye.
* BigBadEnsemble: Agent Andrew Milton, and [[spoiler:Micah Bell]], with Colm O'Driscoll and Leviticus Cornwall as {{Big Bad Wannabe}}s.
* BigBeautifulMan: Arthur can potentially become this if the player fattens him up by eating a lot of high calorie items such as chocolate bars and Big Game Meat. Unlike [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas C.J]]'s obesity which is PlayedForLaughs, Arthur is still undeniably a major {{Hunk}}. [[spoiler:Which makes it worse when he [[YourDaysAreNumbered contracts tuberculosis]] and gradually wastes away, as you'll be unable to eat enough to keep his weight up due to the disease.]]
* TheBigEasy: Saint Denis is a stand-in for New Orleans.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: Both the Grays and the Braithwaites, despite being bitter FeudingFamilies, have this in common. Led by an aging patriarch and matriarch, respectively, both families are well past their antebellum prime. The Braithwaites in particular [[spoiler:keep a mentally disturbed daughter locked up in a shed and stoop to kidnapping Jack when they realize the gang is attempting to [[PlayingBothSides Play Both Sides]]]].
* BilingualBonus: Any time Arthur [[spoiler:and John]] meet foreign people, they will usually speak with a mix between English and their native language. These include Spanish, German, Polish and Norwegian, among others.
** A lot of Javier's campfire songs border on this if you happen to know any Spanish. For example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Fgd7S97ss his rendition of "El Coyotito"]] at Sean's rescue party is about how someone's personality is like a little coyote, which seems to personify about how said animal represents Arthur's Low Honor.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Arthur is eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis, and Micah's betrayal of the gang results in leading each surviving member to their state in the first game. However, Arthur uses what time he has left to either help John escape with his family or get Dutch's loot, expose Micah for the traitor that he is to Dutch, and ultimately dies content in completing his goal. Years later, John, Sadie, and Charles avenge Arthur by hunting down Micah.]]
** If Arthur has high honour, [[spoiler:he succumbs to his disease and the wounds that were inflicted on him by Micah during their last fight, but he dies content that he lived a good life and helped the Marstons escape with his last act, using his final moments to relax and watch the sunrise.]] If Arthur has low honour [[spoiler:but opts to help John instead of going for the money, then he dies knowing he was able to retain some dignity and having one last laugh at Micah's expense before he is [[BoomHeadshot dispatched via headshot]]]].
* BlamedForBeingRailroaded: Arthur catches flak from his fellow gang members several time for botched missions over which the player had no choice but to go along in order to advance the story.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: You can disarm enemies by liberating them of their firearms with some good aim. During duels, you can do this for a bonus in Honor. There's also a sharpshooter challenge that asks you to disarm 3 enemies without reloading. There are also certain instances where you MUST do this to proceed (eg. One particular bounty that you must capture alive, Joshua Brown, will challenge you to a duel in a bid to escape, thus requiring you to disarm him in order to proceed. Similarly, Jamie Gillis will attempt to kill himself when cornered and must be stopped by disarming him in this manner.), and also instances where this won't work (eg. The Legendary Duelists).
* BlahBlahBlah: In "Who the Hell Is Leviticus Cornwall?", when Micah and Lenny find bonds during a train robbery, Lenny looks at them for a bit, while Micah is all like, "Return payments, summer tickets, blah blah blah."
* BlindSeer: Old Man Cassidy, the blind beggar random encounter. Giving him money results in him giving cryptic-but-accurate predictions of Arthur's [[spoiler:(and John's)]] futures.
* BlingBlingBang: Gun upgrades can be purchased with parts made out of gold, silver, ivory, pearl, and ebony. Combined with intricate inlays and carvings, you can create some very blingy guns.
* BloodierAndGorier: Animals are skinned onscreen, while Arthur just tears the skin off rabbits and other small animals with his bare hands. Animals feel pain, and your horse can be crippled. Humans can lose whole limbs or their heads if hit by a powerful enough weapon. And terrifyingly enough sometimes the player may find corpses with their intestines outside their bodies. Despite these levels of gore, it sadly doesn't get any more dynamic than you probably hoped. There's no gutting, bone snapping, exposed bones, nudity, realistic blood dynamics, or realistic burning damage to any organisms in the game.
* BloodIsTheNewBlack:
** Arthur [[spoiler: and John]] can get ''coated'' in blood through the various fights (or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential random cold blooded murders]]) or hunting you do throughout the game, particularly if you do close range executions/attacks or carry a carcass on your shoulder. Also serves as a gameplay mechanic as if you don't wash it off and try to interact with people [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome they'll be creeped out and try to avoid you/be suspicious of you]].
** Sadie also gets herself nice and blood soaked [[spoiler: during her side mission where she and Arthur finish wiping out the O'Driscoll's and she brutally stabs the one ItsPersonal with to death in ''Mrs. Sadie Adler, Widow''.]]
* BodyHorror:
** Mangy animals can be encountered, particularly around the Elysian Pool. They cannot be skinned due to the disease.
** Poor, poor [[spoiler:Kieran. He gets his eyeballs gouged out and head cut off, before the corpse is sent back to Dutch carrying its own head.]] And for the players who aren't used to gore, better grab your trash bins.
* BookEnds:
** The game begins and ends in the snow-capped mountains in the northern section of the map. At no other point are the mountains required to visit in the story outside of the beginning and end.
** The first mission introduces the player to Dutch, Arthur and Micah, three characters who'll be there when [[spoiler:Arthur succumbs to his tuberculosis]]. Additionally, the mission ends with the trio rescuing Sadie from the O'Driscolls, while [[spoiler:the game ends when Dutch and the player (Now John instead of Arthur) save Sadie ''from'' Micah]].
** The first and final robberies the player performs for the Van der Linde gang are train jobs.
** A portion of "Mountain Hymn" (called "Moonlight") plays when the gang travels to Horseshoe Overlook in the beginning of Chapter 2. The full thing, with lyrics, plays again during the credits.
** Early in chapter 2, [[spoiler:Arthur beats up a sick, dying man so badly he dies not too long after. Arthur himself dies to a combination of tuberculosis and injuries created by Micah]] at the end of chapter 6.
** On a meta-level, New Austin the first region visited in the original VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption becomes the last area visited here, being only available in the epilogue.
* BoomHeadshot: Just like in the first game, headshots leave some nasty-looking wounds on the bodies of your enemies. A handful of characters also go out this way during the story.
** [[spoiler: Sean]] is killed by a bullet to the head from a sniper in Chapter 3.
** [[spoiler:Andrew Milton]] is shot in the head by [[spoiler: Abigail]] in Chapter 6.
** [[spoiler: If Arthur has Low Honor and decides to help John's escape in the Chapter 6 finale, the fight between Arthur and Micah will end with Micah shooting Arthur point-blank in the face.]]
* BoozeBasedBuff: Various types of booze are available as consumable items. Each will boost/restore your Health, Stamina, and/or Dead Eye depending on the type in question.
* BorderPatrol: As in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', trying to take a boat off the map will result in the boat sinking leaving Arthur at the mercy of the water and whatever predators lurk in it. Some edges of the game world are unclimbable cliffs and hills that are too steep to climb, causing both Arthur and his horse to slide back down.
** Venturing into New Austin before the epilogue will result in an unseen invincible sniper killing you. [[spoiler: Same with Guarma - venture too far into the red zone and if the hordes of guards won't kill you, the sniper will.]]
* BoringButPractical:
** Hunting:
*** The game features an absolutely massive array of animals to hunt, incredibly detailed and diverse in their size, appearance, and behavior, but most players looking to either make money hunting or provide meat for the camp will probably largely stick to Whitetail Deer. They're plentiful across most of the map, very easy to hunt once the player has a rifle, graze in groups so the player can usually find a pristine specimen, and fetch a fairly good price at the butcher. TruthInTelevision, as this is one of the most commonly hunted species of animal ''in the world'' for a reason.
*** The same applies to Alligators. They are extremely common, spawn on the coast just a bit north from Saint Denis, and barely move. If you have a heavy rifle, you can just look for a perfect specimen, shoot them in the head and bring their skin to Saint Denis for quick cash. Their only downside when compared to the aforementioned deer is that you can only store one alligator skin on your horse while deer skins are stackable (up to 10).
** The game offers a wide variety of old west firearms, but the basic ones handed to you during Chapter 1 (the Cattleman Revolver, SawedOffShotgun, and Carbine Repeater) are more than enough to carry you deep into the game. Ammo is extremely plentiful, upgrades are relatively cheap, and if you're a judicious user of Dead Eye, they'll drop nearly any humanoid enemy in the game with a single headshot.
** You also get an assortment of various types of ammo for your guns to shoot with. For the most part, the regular ammo will do just fine, especially if you're aiming for headshots, and it is the only type of ammo carried by enemies.
*** In the same vein, split point ammo. It has the same damage boost as express ammo, you begin the game knowing how to craft it, and require nothing beyond the basic ammunition being converted and the time needed to craft it.
** Did Arthur [[spoiler: or John]] just engage in a bunch of crimes that now have cost him his honor, possibly while doing the Bandit Challenges or trying to get the Bountiful Achievement? To bring it back up, just engage in a whole lot of catch-and-release fishing, specifically for small kinds of fish - like bluegill and pickerel. Nothing to brag about, but releasing a small fish generates the same honor as releasing a big one, and is easier to catch in the first place. Alternatively, if their bounty in the area is clear, they can go into town, and just greet people, pet dogs and cats, and their honor will gradually increase.
** Speaking of fishing, both small and large fish have their own problems, so focusing on the medium sized ones may be the best option. Small fish are almost worthless, and you can only transport one large fish unless you want to slowly carry a second one on your arms to the closest butcher/trapper. In contrast, medium sized fish are stored in the satchel and sell for a decent amount of money.
** Draft horses are generally slower than most other breeds and have the worst handling, but they have a lot of upsides that the other horses don't have. For one, they are extremely durable, making it much less likely for them to be critically injured or killed. Secondly, they are powerful enough to take out other enemy riders without falling over. Thirdly, they can be often be found towing carriages and wagons and can be easily stolen. And lastly, they are not all that skittish, making them easy to control.
* BorrowingFromTheSisterSeries: Rockstar added an AntiFrustrationFeature in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' that allows the player to skip to the end of a mission once they've failed it several times. This same feature appears here, used in the exact same way.
* BottomlessBladder[=/=]NobodyPoops:
** Averted in Chapter 2: while getting drunk with Lenny, Arthur has to go outside to take a whiz in private. After getting back to the bar, he finds that everyone's faces look like Lenny's, and HilarityEnsues.
** Also averted, as your horse can occasionally seen emptying itself. Of course, being an animal it doesn't care where.
** The guys in camp will also regularly go off to somewhere a bit more private and pee on trees.
* BottomlessMagazines: Everyone ''but'' you-they do have to reload, but they never run out of bullets. When you loot their corpses, however, you will only get a handful of standard rounds of ammunition. On the plus side, if you have a few [[BadassBandolier of those cool bandoliers and gunbelts]], you'll be able to carry hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and that's just the regular stuff. Buy or craft the improved stuff, the expression "Load on Sunday, shoot all week" becomes "When is he going to stop shooting all those flaming bullets? I preferred it when he used regular ones! My buddies didn't burn to death after getting shot then!"
* BountyHunter:
** You can serve as one by taking bounties from law enforcement. Some targets must specifically be brought in alive in order to receive the bounty.
** NPC bounty hunters may come after ''you'' if you linger in regions where you have a high bounty.
** And sometimes, you'll just come across bounty hunters delivering their quarry. You can ignore them, even with a bounty on you they wont do anything, or kill them and let the bounty go. Or steal it for yourself.
** [[spoiler: Sadie becomes a bounty hunter after the Van Der Linde gang falls apart. You even get to accompany her on a mission in the epilogue.]]
* BreakableWeapons: Downplayed. Firearms have a "Condition" value that causes the weapon to be less effective the worse the condition gets. Frequent use and water damage are the main ways that condition goes down. You can restore it by visiting a Gunsmith or by using some Gun Oil. However, they will never break entirely, and it mostly affects the gun's firing & reload speed.
* BribingYourWayToVictory: A few in-game currency examples.
** Every crafting recipe and Satchel can be bought from any fence once you reach the epilogue. However, [[spoiler:If you wish to obtain them as Arthur, you have to craft and find them yourself.]]
** You can obtain cigarette cards by either finding them around the world or just buying/looting premium cigarettes. Any duplicate cards can fortunately be sold to any fence.
** For a real-life example, the Special and Ultimate editions of the game give three guns for free at Gunsmiths (the Varmint Rifle, Pump-Action Shotgun and Volcanic Pistol) as well as 20% slower core reduction and other bonuses/discounts for the camp. All of these make most of the game much easier, but they're optional and the latter can be disabled in the settings if you're inclined.
* BrokenAesop: Despite one of the game's themes being that revenge will get you nowhere and is a just a circle of violence and misery, [[spoiler: Sadie and Charles]] never really got any consequences for getting revenge on [[spoiler: Micah]] while [[spoiler: John]] did.
* BubblegloopSwamp: The bayou around Saint Denis. It's full of stagnant water, deep mud, gators, moonshiners, and more.
* BulletCatch: Benjamin Lazarus, a magician performing at the theater in Saint Denis, can be seen doing this in one of his acts. At first he has his assistant [[WilliamTelling shoot a bottle off his head]] with a revolver to show the bullets are real, then proceeds to catch a second bullet fired from the weapon with his teeth. When a skeptic in the crowd decries the act as a fakery, Lazarus invites anyone from the crowd to participate with their personal firearm to prove otherwise; Arthur himself can accept the invitation, otherwise the skeptic steps up and produces his own gun. In either case, the participant shoots Lazarus square in the face and he catches the bullet once again. As Arthur is carrying live ammunition and is very much ''not'' an audience plant, his participation in the act (assuming he aims for the right place, of course) confirms the magician's abilities to be the real deal.
* BulletDancing:
** If the player chooses to shoot one of the two kidnappers in lieu of beating them up at the campsite during the mission 'Magicians for Sport', a cutscene will play of Arthur coming up to the remaining kidnapper with gun drawn, demanding to know where they took Trelawny, and when the terrified man has trouble finding his words, Arthur decides to help him find his tongue by shooting repeatedly at the man's feet, making him dance around until he finally shouts out where Trelawny was taken.
** Early in the epilogue, the leader of the Laramie Gang threatens Abe, one of the Pronghorn ranch hands, in this manner.
* BulletTime: Dead Eye returns from the last two games, crossing over with SuperReflexes. There's also a kill-cam system that shows certain kills in slow-motion, similarly to Rockstar's ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3''. The focus of the camera changes depending on Arthur's honor level; high honor will have the camera focus more on Arthur, while low honor focuses more on the victim.
* BullyingADragon: You're an armed-to-the-teeth OneManArmy who can literally be wearing the skin of a grizzly bear you killed with a knife, and those random encounter horse thieves and rival gang members will still try to rob/attack you. A CurbStompBattle usually ensues.
* BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie: In an easily missable conversation Arthur states that he wants to be buried facing west, "so [he] can watch the setting sun and remember all the fine times [they] had that way." [[spoiler:While he dies facing, and watching, the rising sun (High Honor), Charles finds his body and buries him facing west, towards the setting sun.]]
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: If Arthur kills enough Non-Player Characters, widows will start spawning in various towns to berate him for killing their husbands and leaving them and her children with nothing. Arthur will say he doesn't remember since he's killed a lot of people that meant nothing to him. The player can either ignore the widow, [[PetTheDog give them money]], or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential kill them as well]].
* ButThouMust:
** Frequently; while the player has a fair degree of control on how Arthur behaves outside of missions, as well as to a limited degree within them, throughout the story Arthur is ''required'' to do many reprehensible things. This reaches Meta levels with the [[spoiler:Thomas Downes debt collection mission; it's the ONLY one of the debtor missions that's mandatory, compared to the all the others being optional, because Arthur MUST beat Mr. Downes to death and contract TB in the process for the back half of the game's story to play out the way it does.]]
** During the final mission of the game, a sniper shoots Charles in the shoulder. You can pretty easily see him and, if you're quick, take a shot with a sniper rifle of your own - only it wont hurt him, even though the reticle will be red. You ''have'' to take him out the way the game tells you to, by playing redlight-greenlight between reloads until you get close enough that he becomes vulnerable.
** In the ending route where Arthur [[spoiler:helps John and stays behind to fend off their pursuers, there's a brief moment where the player can turn around and shoot Micah before he can manage to tackle Arthur. [[ViolationOfCommonSense Do this and the mission will end in failure, citing that "you attacked Micah."]]]]
* ByronicHero:
** Arthur himself. Based on his interactions and the writings in his journal, he is clearly intelligent, introspective, cynical, and is haunted by many things in his past (with more added over the course of the story). Even a high Honor Arthur still participates in the gang's outlaw activities and believes in the philosophy instilled by Dutch.
--->'''[[OldFlame Mary]] (to Arthur):''' There's a good man within you... but he is wrestling with a giant.
** Likewise, [[spoiler: John, taking Arthur's example more than Dutch's, struggles with his out of place philosophy on life while balancing his earnest desire to do right by others even if he has to suppress that philosophy, which - ultimately - he is unable to do completely.]]
** Dutch qualifies. He's intelligent relative to the setting, highly charismatic, is extremely passionate about the gang, and has an intense drive and determination to live out his philosophy. He is, however, extremely self-centered and, while he claims the contrary and even acts on it when it benefits him, won't hesitate to sacrifice anyone or anything (gang members included) to get what he wants. His SanitySlippage over the course of the main story puts these more negative traits into the spotlight.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:C]]
* CallBack: [[spoiler:Some of the epilogue missions are a callback to previous missions. In "Trying Again", for example, Jack tells his father John about how Arthur used to take him fishing before the Pinkertons showed up ("A Fisher of Men"). Also, several aspects of "A New Future Imagined" have similarities with Arthur's experiences: John and Abigail going to the theater (the same way Arthur and Mary decided to do in Saint Denis), John telling her "It would make me very happy" (the same line Arthur used when urging him to go and find his family), and him watching the sunrise at the end of the mission (which is the very last thing Arthur saw if he died with high honor).]]
* CallForward:
** At one point, John makes the exact same pose with a sawed-off shotgun as he does in the cover art of the original game. He's even missing his hat.
** When John thanks Javier for following him and rescuing him from the wolves, he shrugs and says John would do the same for him, which John will eventually do while pursuing Javier in ''I''.
** Edgar Ross is first introduced when he and his partner approach Arthur and Jack while their fishing by the side of a river. [[spoiler:When Jack kills him at the end of the first game, the situation is reversed, with Jack approaching Ross while he's fishing]].
** When John is holding Javier at gunpoint in ''Redemption 1'', he says the following: "Now, I ain't the judge, but as it turns out, it's you or me. The way I see it, it might as well be you". In ''II'', Dutch says nearly the same thing ("It was either us, or him! I figured it might as well be him.") after [[spoiler:a shocked John admonishes him for drowning Angelo Bronte]], changing the context of the original line to John deliberately quoting Dutch.
** [[spoiler: John's signature outfit is a gift to him from Abigail.]]
** [[spoiler: Much of the epilogue is spent on building and acquiring funding for the Marston ranch in Beecher's Hope.]]
** [[spoiler: Arthur's grave has an inscription of either Matthew 5:4 (low honor) or 5:6 (high honor). Years later, John's will have an inscription of Matthew 5:9.]]
** Much of the things [[RecurringExtra the blind beggar]] tells Arthur are cryptic, but often end up becoming true. [[spoiler:This also applies to John, to whom the old man tells about the first game's ending - not that John understands it.]]
** One of the random conversations around camp is a 4 year old Jack wanting to be a gunslinger when he grows up, something both Hosea and Abigail themselves object to. [[spoiler:He becomes this in the epilogue of the first game by his own volition]].
** In response to the above Abigail scolds Jack that he'll be a gunslinger 'over [her] dead body' [[spoiler: Jack starts his quest for revenge shortly after her death in 1914.]]
** In the mission "Favored Sons", Dutch informs the army men that have him and Arthur cornered that they can't fight nature, change, or gravity, before both of them turn around and plunge into the river below. [[spoiler: In ''Red Dead Redemption'', Dutch quotes this almost word for word to John in "Dutch's Last Stand", minutes before he willingly commits suicide by falling off a cliff.]]
--->'''Dutch (Red Dead Redemption II):''' You can't fight nature, captain. You can't fight change. You can't fight...gravity.\\
'''Dutch (Red Dead Redemption I):''' We can't always fight nature, John. We can't fight change. We can't fight...gravity. We can't fight nothing.
** In one random camp event, Dutch tells Susan "There are two ways to argue with a woman. And neither of them works", to which Susan responds that he has a habit of saying that. John says the exact same thing to Bonnie in one of the early missions of the previous game.
** The gang is established to use fake names to stay hidden, and John in particular picks up the name "Jim Milton" as his go-to alias near the end of the game ([[BadLiar even if he can't decide whether or not to use it half the time]]). In the very first mission of ''I'', we have this discussion:
--->'''Jake the Guide''': You must be John Marston.\\
'''John''': Sometimes.
** The ending plays out roughly the same way the first game's ending did. [[spoiler:The hero sacrifices himself to prevent the Marston family from being killed by law enforcement and dies in a LastStand. The epilogue takes place several years after the main story, has you assume control of a new character, and ends with you taking revenge on the villain who killed the main story's protagonist.]]
** The music which plays during John's first cutscene contains several elements from the first cutscene of the first game.
** When playing poker in camp, John can sometimes remark that one day he'd like to play Liar's Dice, which is playable in the first game, but not in this one.
* TheCameo:
** There's a strange painting inside a strange hut in Bayall Edge, Lemoyne. If you visit the place every few days, the painting will eventually be finished; once this happens, you can briefly see the [[spoiler:Strange Man in the mirror. This doesn't work until the epilogue, however]].
** Herbert Moon, still as anti-Semitic as ever, reappears as the Armadillo general store owner.
** Bonnie [=MacFarlane=] is briefly mentioned in a love letter that can be retrieved off a corpse on a beach.
** Harold [=MacDougal=] is mentioned a few times in a newspaper article and a side mission.
** Nigel West Dickens is name dropped in an article praising his wares in the final newspaper.
** Both the sheriff of Valentine and Arthur name drop Landon Rickets.
** The player can stumble on a crashed flying machine in New Austin. Close inspection shows that "Charles Kinnear," the guy who John helped build another flying machine in the first game as part of a side quest, is written on the side of it.
** Archer Fordham makes an appearance during the credits montage, [[spoiler:having tracked the Marstons to Beecher's Hope with Edgar Ross]].
* CameraLockOn: Can be used to talk to [=NPCs=] this time, much like the [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Trope Codifier]]. Using it gives you the option to press different buttons to chose different dialog options.
* CameraPerspectiveSwitch: You can freely switch between third-person and first-person POV, just like the eighth-generation port of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV''.
* CampCook: Pearson for the Van der Linde gang. He was a former U.S. Navy cook before joining the gang. Based on in-game comments, his culinary skills [[LethalChef leave a lot to be desired]].
* CampingACrapper: Combined with NatureTinkling: during "Paying a Social Call" mission. One of the O'Driscolls goes off on his own to take a whiz, giving you the opportunity for a stealth kill. ([[OptionalStealth Or not]].)
* {{Cap}}: One is present for Honor. Once you've reached maximum Honor, any further honorable deeds will not be counted toward it. Unfortunately, this means that a single dishonorable deed, even if unintentional such as accidentally shooting a horse during a shootout, will cause your Honor to drop one level. Somewhat mitigated thanks to the EasilyForgiven nature of the game, as you can make it back up quickly by greeting some [=NPCs=] or by doing some catch-and-release fishing.
* CardCarryingVillain: Colm O'Driscoll. Unlike Dutch, or even the other gang leaders who have clear goals behind their unethical actions, Colm murders, steals, and rapes because he ''enjoys it''. He makes the fact that he's a villain abundantly clear and makes no claims to the contrary.
* CareerEndingInjury: Uncle would have you believe that his lumbago is this. Ultimately subverted in that there are implications of him being something of a lazy drunk even in his youth.
* CashGate: One occurs in Chapter 2 when a main story mission to [[spoiler:rescue Micah from the Strawberry jail]] results in a $300 bounty in West Elizabeth. Paying it off right away can be financially crippling so early in the game, but not doing so leaves you at the mercy of respawning groups of bounty hunters when in West Elizabeth. Ultimately {{Downplayed|Trope}}, as you can continue with the main mission without much trouble if you don't pay it, but hunting and completing Stranger missions set in West Elizabeth become more challenging if you do not. Thankfully, a recent update has reduced the bounty to $80, which is much easier to manage.
* CassandraTruth: Arthur can run into a crazed man in St. Denis that is distributing pamphlets describing the industrial revolution's potential effects on the environment. While he is raving mad, he's not entirely wrong.
** In the 'Wisdom of the Elders' questline [[spoiler: even after Arthur finds proof that the 'darkness' the town is experiencing is from lead and arsenic poisoning caused by runoff from a nearby mine and the MagicalNativeAmerican who's been 'helping' them is a conman sent by the mining company to get the townsfolk to waive their right to sue, the people of Butchers Creek still believe their problems are supernatural in nature.]]
* CatchPhrase: Dutch has two - "I have a plan" and variations of "have faith". [[spoiler: It's a crock of shit.]]
* CaveBehindTheFalls: Several waterfalls have them. A couple have hidden treasures as long as you've found the appropriate Treasure Maps.
* CentralTheme:
** Underestimation. Just about every major character decides something is less of a threat than it actually is, and pays dearly for it every time. Examples include [[spoiler: Catherine Braitwaithe underestimating how violent and skilled Dutch and his men could be, Angelo Bronte underestimating how smart and vengeful they could be, Arthur underestimating how insane Dutch really is,]] and so on. On a larger thematic level, this applies to the entirety of the playable area, as just about everyone underestimates how much civilization will really change things, and in particular how things like outlaws will be wiped out.
** Loyalty. The game is especially concerned with duties that stem from loyalty and how it can be a destructive, paralyzing force. [[spoiler: Arthur aggravates his sickness because of the love and responsibility he feels over his gang, particularly the Marstons and the women; John mans up to retire from gunslinging out of loyalty to his wife and son]]. The various antagonist's underlings have no real attachment to their bosses, but they still follow them to their dooms. Finally, the gang ultimately falls apart because of the members' loyalty to Dutch. [[spoiler: Bill and Javier refuse to entertain the idea that Dutch can be wrong, which feeds his obsessions; Arthur, Hosea and John don't stand up to him out of loyalty until it's too late]].
** [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Redemption]]: Arthur has made some very bad choices in his life that inevitably come crashing down on him. He's been an outlaw for as long as he can remember, he's ruined his relationships with the only people he cares about outside the gang (Mary and his [[spoiler: son]], mostly), and he's got a nasty temper. However, underneath it all he's a guy who's stuck in a life he has no real love for that he can't get out of and wants better for himself. He truly loves people and is loyal to a fault. It's not until Dutch goes off the deep end [[spoiler: and he gets sick]] that he truly realizes he can be better. He does everything in his power to get John, Abigail, and Jack out even though [[spoiler: he's knocking on death's door]]. He ultimately [[spoiler: has to pay for his life with it]] but he gets there. His actions here also are an echo to ''I'' where John similarly finds it [[spoiler: in his own death for Abigail and Jack's sakes. It's implied that Jack was able to live a normal life eventually, which is the crux of what both Arthur and John wanted for him.]]
* CharacterCustomization: The player can combine various pieces of clothing, and you can change the saddle of your horse. Arthur's hair and beard grow in gameplay, and you cut both to specific styles, and even apply pomade. Depending on how much you eat, Arthur will also either lose or gain weight that affects your stamina.
* ChekhovsGun: The plantation house Arthur and Lenny raid in Chapter 3 is used as their next hideout.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** One of the earlier, routine missions ends up having some bigger implications to the story. [[spoiler: Specifically, the mission where Arthur beats Thomas Downes for a loan received from Mr. Strauss results in him contracting tuberculosis, which he doesn't receive an official diagnosis for until late Chapter 5. Mixed with a bit of InterfaceSpoiler as unlike the other missions that Mr. Strauss gives you, the one involving Thomas Downes is a mandatory story mission as opposed to a sidequest.]]
** The [[spoiler:German family Arthur helps while searching for Rhodes camp returns in Chapter 6 and saves Arthur when he collapses for the second time.]]
* CherryTapping: You can intentionally use weak weapons like the Varmint Rifle to torture and humiliate enemies.
* ChildByRape: Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwU4nyCftGM one campfire event]], when Lenny says that his mother's birth in a cotton field was the result of his grandmother being raped by an overseer who would become his grandfather.
* ChunkySalsaRule: As a part of the game being BloodierAndGorier, [[BoomHeadshot headshots]] with powerful weapons can result in kills that fall under this rule. Walking up to someone and firing a SawedOffShotgun in their face, for example, works wonders.
* CircleOfStandingStones: Cotarra Springs has a variant with a circle of stacked stones. [[spoiler:They are involved with one of the Treasure Map missions]].
* CityGuards: The Saint Denis police. They factor into several missions (typically needing to be avoided), are decently well-equipped (even having police wagons), and seem to be infinite in number.
* CitySlicker:
** Albert Mason is a photographer out to capture the beauty of the Old West's wilderness before it is spoiled. As seen in the recurring encounters, he is utterly clueless about the dangers posed...
** Josiah Trelawny is a pseudo member of the Van der Linde gang and is much more at home scamming other city slickers than gunslinging in the untamed west.
* ClairvoyantSecurityForce: No matter how far out into the wilderness you are, witnesses to a crime can report it to the law within a minute. Patrols will then swarm the roads during the search phase seemingly from thin air.
* ClassicCheatCode: Like in the previous game, most cheats are hidden somewhere in the game world -- the rest are hidden in newspapers. The cheats are unlocked by going to the cheats menu in settings, and inputting them there. Unlike in the last game cheats found in newspapers cannot be used until said newspaper is purchased, and the cheat list is no longer universal and they need to be entered again in each playthrough.
* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Micah serves as the final enemy Arthur will have to fight before, depending on his honor, he either succumbs to tuberculosis or gets murdered by him.]]
* ClothingDamage: A decidedly not-for-{{Fanservice}} version is present. Your clothing can become stained with mud or blood. Bullet holes and knife slashes can appear after taking those types of damage. If you survive an attack from a cougar or grizzly bear, claw marks may appear on your back. Switching outfits and then switching back will return your clothes to proper condition.
* CoinsForTheDead: At the very beginning, Davey Callender dies from his injures sustained in the Blackwater Massacre after the Van der Linde gang has reached Colter, and they have to put two coins on his eyes as an assurance that the dead have to pay TheFerryman before they can move onto the afterlife.
* CollectionSidequest: Numerous examples, including dinosaur bone locations, certain perfect animal specimens, certain bird feathers, and more. Many of the Challenges also play out similar to this trope, such as collecting one of every kind of herb/plant in the game and breaking one of every wild horse breed. Finally, those going for HundredPercentCompletion will need to collect hundreds of examples of animal skins, bird feathers, and carcasses to complete every outfit and craft every item.
* CombatPragmatist:
** Excepting cases where it is required by a mission, you are perfectly free to draw a knife or gun during a fist fight and use it. You'll likely lose some Honor depending on the situation and may attract the attention of the law, but it's better than getting overwhelmed. That is, if you don't get it knocked out of your hand.
** The [[ContextSensitiveButton context-sensitive]] nature of close quarters combat can lead to this. If an enemy closes in on you, you may find your character striking them with a gun stock or {{Pistol Whip}}ping them. Other situations may involve you forcing the barrel of a rifle or shotgun into their torso and pulling the trigger. If you are taken down by a grizzly bear, you'll have a brief window where you can draw your knife and stab the beast while it mauls you, potentially getting it to back off or killing it outright.
** During horseback chases, you can choose to shoot and kill your pursuers' horses, at the cost of honor. By the time they get up (assuming they weren't killed by the fall), you and your companions will be long gone.
* CommonLawMarriage: John and Abigail. In the epilogue, they finally tie the knot and become the married couple we see in the first game.
* CommonplaceRare:
** Aside from Moonshine, which can be bought from a fence, nearly every other crafting ingredient needs to be harvested in the wild. This includes things like Animal Fat and the hides of domestic animals that logically should be for sale at a butcher.
** Every single companion request item needs to to be found during gameplay. None of them are items that should be rare or unusual, but you can't even buy a book from the bookstore in Saint Denis.
* CompanionSpecificSidequest: These will pop up around camp for your fellow gang members. Examples including going hunting or fishing with a specific companion, playing games like poker, dominoes, or five-finger fillet, or going on unofficial missions to rob stage coaches, homesteads, or livestock. The better the morale is around camp, the more likely these are to appear. They are also only available temporarily, and if you don't complete them soon enough, they can disappear. Naturally, another factor that can cause them to become unavailable is [[spoiler:if the quest giving companion is killed as part of the story]]. While the robbery-based examples can earn you some money, they exist mostly to flesh out many of your fellow gang members who otherwise don't get much direct interaction with Arthur (and thus the player).
* CompanyCrossReferences: One of Dutch's aliases is Aiden O'Malley, a name shared by an Irish criminal who gets broken out of a prisoner convoy by Niko Bellic in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV''.
* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: In several cases, descriptions of items in your inventory differ from the onscreen "tips" and sometimes both differ from what is stated in the compendium. Fishing bait/lures are a notable example, with the types of fish its good at catching and even ''where to use it'' (crossing over with NonIndicativeName in the case of the lures) changing depending on where you are reading.
* ContextSensitiveButton: Almost all buttons have differing functionality depending on where you are and what you are doing. For example, the same button is used for mounting your horse as for skinning an animal carcass. If your horse is too close while you're trying to skin an animal, a slight change in your positioning can lead to accidentally mounting your horse instead. Similarly, the same button is used for drawing/holstering your weapon as for drawing an additional weapon off of your horse. This can lead to you looking more threatening than intended when approaching a neutral stranger if you go to holster after hopping off of your horse but instead draw ''another'' gun. The button to mount your horse is also the melee button so if you're not facing the right way when trying to get on your horse, you can very easily choke someone and get the law on you. This happens in the towns a lot, especially Saint Denis.
* ContinueYourMissionDammit:
** During missions, if you linger too long by, say, looting bodies, your fellow gang members will tell you to hurry up and repeat what you are supposed to do next.
** In between certain missions, this will happen to you at camp. One of your fellow gang members, often Dutch, will try to get your attention to start the next mission and sometimes resorts to outright yelling "Arthur, get over here!"
** After at least one mission, if you take too long before reporting to Dutch Charles will track you down and ask you when you're coming back to camp.
* ContinuityNod:
** In the original ''Red Dead Redemption'', there are mentions of a massacre that took place in 1899 in Blackwater city, which killed many, lawmen and criminal alike. This event was the reason Landon Ricketts decided to flee to Mexico, and may have killed one of Bonnie [=MacFarlane's=] brothers (who died in 1899 from a head shot). The fact that Dutch's gang is on the run after a botched robbery in Blackwater implies they caused it, accidentally or not.
** Several pre-order and Special Edition bonuses are themed after Nuevo Paraiso, a playable Mexican region from the previous game.
** In the first game, if you have John Marston fight wolves with only a knife, one thing he might shout is, "How do you think I got these scars!?" This game features an early mission where Arthur and Javier go searching for John who it turns out got attacked by wolves, and thus got his scars.
** Similarly to the above, a few lines from the previous game (and the eyepatch on one of his optional outfits) implied John was blind in an eye. After Arthur rescues him, he has a bandage over an eye while recovering, seemingly confirming said blindness.
** You can occasionally hear bits of the leitmotif from the first game when John is around.
** In the first game Dutch gives a speech to John [[spoiler: during Ross' raid on his fort]] about how you can't fight your nature, yet he has dedicated his entire life to fighting against his circumstances; both external and internal. One other thing he mentions is how you can't fight gravity [[spoiler: foreshadowing that he's gonna jump to his death, rather than be shot by John.]] Here in the prequel Dutch makes a similar speech, while he and Arthur are [[spoiler: at gun point by a host of lawmen]] and makes a similar allusion to gravity; [[spoiler: except this time there is water below him, and his submission to gravity actually saves his life rather than ending it.]]
** [[VideoGame/RedDeadRevolver Red Harlow]] gets mentioned by name again by an ex-bounty hunter you can find in the wilderness.
* ContinuitySnarl:
** In the first game, John at several points describes himself as being only "semi-literate", and he and Abigail rely on their better-educated son to read complicated documents. [[spoiler:In the epilogue, his entries in Arthur's journal are, while not as eloquent as Arthur's, well-written and perfectly legible. Although it can be taken as a combination of John still depending on lines to write on (most of his journal entries have self-drawn writing lines), making more mistakes than Arthur, and not being one for leisurely reading.]]
** Also in the first game, John implies that no one in his gang cared about him and left him for dead first chance they got -- in this game [[spoiler: Arthur Morgan uses the last days of his life to ensure the Marston family can have a chance to escape and live a better life]].
** The Strange Man implied that the robbery where John was shot and left for dead was the same ferry job where Dutch shot Heidi [=McCourt=]. In ''II'', said ferry job happens just before the game even starts, and while it's mentioned that John did take a bullet during it, he still manages to escape with the gang.
** John's dead daughter is never seen nor referenced. It's unlikely she was born before Jack since John has issues believing Jack is his kid, and she cannot have been born after the gang breaks up since Javier knows about her[[note]]In ''I'', he taunts John by yelling something along the lines of "I hope your wife and child''ren'' rot in hell!"[[/note]]. It is possible that Javier just assumed that John would have more kids and that she lived and died during [[spoiler:the TimeSkip from 1899 to 1907 or died sometime between 1907 to 1911]], but it's not explained in-game. However, [[spoiler:using the "sleep" function in Beecher's hope may trigger a cutscene of John and Abigail making small talk on the bed, and once the game returns they both are in their underwear regardless of what you were wearing beforehand implying they had sex. Considering that contraceptives weren't really a thing in the Wild West, it's not too farfetched to think of it as a nod to her.]]
** Venturing out to New Austin in the epilogue (which, it should be noted, is completely optional, save for a single story mission that takes place near the state's outskirts in Hennigan's Stead and one side quest in Rio Bravo) makes no real sense, as [[spoiler:John implied in ''Redemption 1'' that he's never been in the area, seemed unfamiliar with the [=MacFarlane=] Ranch and Armadillo, and needed an escort to Fort Mercer]]. It's been speculated that the existence of New Austin in ''II'' at all is mainly for the multiplayer portion.
** Speaking of New Austin, when it becomes available, the barn in [=MacFarlane=]'s farm is absent. It's an error because [[spoiler:Bonnie mentions in ''I'' that Drew built it while she was just a little girl. The epilogue takes place in 1907, meaning that she was at least 26 when it was built.]]
** Some of the character's heights are wildly inconsistent. In the first game, Ross was much shorter than every other male character, but in the second, he's average height. Similarly, Uncle was about half a head shorter than John in the first, but appears to be the same height or perhaps even taller in two. John and Abigail's height difference has also changed from John towering over her to only being a few inches taller.
* ConservationOfNinjutsu: Dutch's gang numbers at nearly two-dozen people, of which only about half are dedicated fighters, including Dutch and Arthur. They're often pitted against overwhelming numbers of government agents and rival gangs like the O'Driscolls. In addition, the gang very rarely sends all of their fighters out at the same time, usually going out in pairs or in groups of four. Dutch attributes their success against such disparity in numbers to their familial bonds, which give them greater motivation to fight over the thugs who are only in it for the money.
* ContinuingIsPainful: Steps are taken to heavily downplay this trope. If you die during a mission or otherwise fail, you get the option of returning to the last "checkpoint" so that you don't have to start from the beginning. If you die during free roam, you'll respawn with a small monetary penalty. In both cases, any corpses in the immediate area despawn, so you won't be able to loot them (if human) or skin them (if animals). If you die during an "encounter", it will no longer be present and you'll have to wait for it to reoccur. Perhaps the most painful thing about continuing is that you lose any pelts and animal carcasses stored on your horse. This includes Legendary animals, however, their pelts will automatically go to the trapper for crafting, you just lose out on the money you would have gotten for selling them.
* ControllableHelplessness: At several points in the story, you'll find yourself bound in some way. In each case, you can look around and struggle against your restraints before getting the opportunity to escape.
* ConvenientQuesting:
** Played straight for most main story missions. They typically take place relatively close to the gang's camp or the nearest town.
** Side missions frequently avert it. For example, one of Strauss' Chapter 2 debt collection missions sends you into the mountains north of Strawberry. Another Chapter 2 side mission, "The Noblest of Men, and a Woman", has you track down four retired duelists who all live far from [[FirstTown Valentine]].
* CoolHelmet: The Viking Helmet, which you can loot from an old Viking tomb.
* CoolHorse: You'll become attached to your horses and start to feel this way about all of them as you bond with them, but a few truly qualify:
** The White Arabian can be found and tamed [[DiscOneNuke as early as Chapter 2]] west of Lake Isabella. She's better than any horse you can buy for several chapters, and comparable horses cost over $1000.
** "The Count" is Dutch's Albino Arabian Stallion. He has elite stats across the board and bucks off anyone who tries to ride him besides Dutch. Fun fact, horses are unable to carry true albinism, making The Count (literally) impossibly cool.
* CoolMask: Several can be acquired or purchased ranging from an executioner's hood to gnarly metal skull looking masks. They obscure your identity while committing crimes.
* CoolOldGuy: Hosea Matthews. He's in his late fifties, but has plenty of cunning and experience as an outlaw during the golden years of The Old West.
* CoolSword: One of the weapons you can acquire is the Pirate Sword. It's an old fashioned cutlass that can slice and dice enemies with ease.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Leviticus Cornwall is a railroad, oil, and sugar baron who didn't get that way by being nice. He thinks nothing of siccing his PrivateMilitaryContractors and {{Pinkerton Detective}}s on anyone who gets in his way. Oil is discovered under the reservation? Bribe the government to move the natives again so you can stake claim.
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Dutch has a pathological compulsion to continue committing crimes when they're already wanted for the Blackwater Heist. This despite the fact that they could probably send someone back for the money and retrieve it after they have established themselves. Especially egregious in Chapter 3 where they only had to ''do nothing'' and they could have escaped the law permanently.
* CowardlyMooks: Some enemies will attempt to flee once you've either wounded them or have killed enough of their comrades.
* {{Cowboy}}: Naturally. You can encounter them all over and even impersonate one on a few occasions.
* CraftedFromAnimals: Camp upgrades, trapper outfits, satchels, saddles, trinkets, and more are all crafted from various animal parts. Hides are the most common ingredient, but teeth, claws, feathers, antlers, horns, fat, and glands are also used for some items.
* CreepySouvenir:
** Letters looted off dead [=NPCs=] can be this.
** The guns of legendary gunslingers Emmet Granger, Flaco Hernández, Billy Midnight and [[spoiler:Jim "Boy" Calloway]] can be stolen after killing them.
* CriticalExistenceFailure:
** Very slightly downplayed for [=NPCs=] in combat. Those hit by a non-fatal shot may limp, slowing their ability to move, but are otherwise still lethal. Fully averted with non-hostile [=NPCs=] and most non-large animals, who tend to collapse and bleed out very shortly after just one, maybe two center-of-mass shots.
** Also downplayed for the player character. Other than some mild InterfaceScrew when you get low on health, you are otherwise every bit as capable with a sliver of health remaining as at full health.
* {{Crossover}}: With ''GTA Online'' of all things.
** As long as you are connected to Social Club, you'll receive an in-game email from "vanderlinde@eyefind.com" with a picture of a location inside. Find this place, and three more locations will be added to your map. Find them all, and one final location is added to your map. From there, you'll find a Golden Double-action Revolver from a chest, and performing 50 headshots unlocks it in ''RDR II''. Fortunately, the quest is entirely free and the headshots can be performed on NPC characters so it can be done solo. (And awards you 250,000 GTA$ as a nice bonus.)
** Pre-ordering the digital version from either Playstation or Xbox Store gives you extra GTA$ in GTA Online on your system. The regular one is worth 500,000$, the Special Edition is worth 1,000,000$ and the Ultimate Edition is worth 2,000,000$.
** August 2018 saw another treasure hunt - this time the treasure was a stone hatchet.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite being TheAlcoholic, suffering from lumbago, and coming across as rather simple, Uncle shows on a few occasions that he can still handle himself in a gunfight.
* CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption: Most of Strauss' debt collection missions are optional. However, the Thomas Downes mission – [[spoiler:the one in which Arthur contracts tuberculosis]] after intimidating, if not beating up, a dying man whose family is utterly broke – is a main quest mission and is thus required to continue.
* CruelMercy: [[spoiler:You are free to [[PayEvilUntoEvil shoot (or do worse to)]] Jeremiah Compson after finding out that he is a former slave-catcher (and actually gain positive karma for doing so), or you can simply walk away and let the weeping old man live out the remainder of his years as a miserable and destitute drunk before he dies as a nobody, unmourned and rightfully seen as a wretch.]]
* CueTheSun: At the end of [[spoiler:the final mission before Arthur dies]], if you have high honor then [[spoiler:regardless of whether you help John escape or go for the gang's loot, Arthur will die peacefully while looking at the rising sun.]]
* {{Cult}}:
** The Chelonians are a religious cult with a particular reverence for turtles. They recruit young, able-bodied men who are then required to give up everything they own to the cult. One side mission has Arthur rescuing the brother of his OldFlame from the cult.
** By a lot of measures, the Van der Linde gang can be considered a cult, with Dutch as their cult leader. Cults are zealous in their beliefs and want to project it to the world. This would be the gang's commitment to "freedom" and their reputation about believing in this above everything. The group will also claim lofty goals but upon closer look, don't follow up with them which definitely applies to Dutch at the very least (especially if you believe he was EvilAllAlong). Even if the gang (mostly) isn't religious,they use a lot of religious rhetoric like about "faith" and how Dutch "saved" them all from their bad situations. Tilly straight-up says Dutch is the closest thing to a perfect person she's ever met. The best way they fit the academic definition of a cult [[note]] Although the word "cult" is outdated in an academic sense. "New religious movement" is now the accepted word.[[/note]] is how Dutch cultivates himself as the authoritarian leader who's the most important person to everyone else in the group. The only member of the gang who has a life outside of it is part-timer Trelawny. He has a wife and two sons who live in Saint Denis. None of the rest of them are married or seemingly have any other family or friends to speak of. Arthur, who previously did have people he cared about outside the gang, doesn't have anyone by the time of the game. As far as he knows, Mary's husband Barry is thought to be alive and [[spoiler: his son, Isaac, is long dead]]. He tells Sister Calderon that he threw his relationship with Mary away because he couldn't get away from Dutch. It's not until Chapter 4 when Dutch starts losing it that he tells her to give him some time to save up some money, tie up some loose ends, and then he'll leave for her. He also wouldn't leave the gang to [[spoiler: be a father to Isaac]]. Dutch doesn't start really having a problem with John until about the mid-point in the story once he and Abigail start getting closer. He tells John at one point that she's "poisoning" him against him. The rest of the gang pay dearly for their blind devotion to Dutch.
* CurbStompBattle:
** The assault on the O'Driscoll camp at the end of Chapter 1. The Van der Linde gang kills three or four times as many O'Driscolls without a single casualty.
** The assault on [[spoiler:Braithwaite Manor]] at the end of Chapter 3. As part of the gang's RoaringRampageOfRescue [[spoiler:of Jack]], they wipe the floor with every person present and then burn the place to the ground, again without a single casualty.
* CutesyNameTown: Valentine, Emerald Ranch and Strawberry. The first two are subversions: Valentine is a livestock-auctioning town with a single main thoroughfare drenched in mud, and its only attractions are two saloons (one with a brothel) where cowboys blow off steam and spend their pay; Emerald Ranch, meanwhile, is a large farm owned by a "ruthless capitalist" who's built up a monopoly foreclosing on smaller ranches [[spoiler:and imprisoned his daughter after killing her lover]], and its only functioning businesses are a post office[=/=]train station and a fence. The mountain town of Strawberry, on the other hand, is a very beautiful and scenic tourist spot, if a little over-preoccupied with being "nice" and "peaceful". [[spoiler:This is because the mayor is a repressed and closeted gay man who had to leave his teaching position in disgrace, and wants to live in as tolerant a place as he can.]]
* CutsceneIncompetence:
** Arthur can gun down armies of men, shrug off bullets, and take down three other men in a fist fight...as long as ''you're'' controlling him. You can't help but to you roll your eyes during the numerous occasions where Arthur is knocked out, strangled, snuck-up on, escaped-from, etc. right before regaining control in a much worse situation than you would have allowed it to reach. The mission "Blessed are the Peacemakers" is the worst example. [[spoiler:Arthur has up to this point killed dozens of O'Driscolls and survived injuries right up to gunshots. However, a trio of O'Driscolls is able to sneak up on him, knock him out with a single gun-butt strike, and then take him down again when he wakes up with a single non-lethal gunshot]].
** It's not even limited to cutscenes, as the game has a few moments where the player can be in complete control of Arthur but the threat is marked as "friendly" (as in, aiming is allowed but reticle is greyed out and you can't shoot) before they complete whatever they were doing. For example, a hunter up in Ambarino gets mauled to death by a bear as your bullets go right through the beast, and [[spoiler:Lenny's killers are on-screen for a brief moment before they shoot him]] yet the player can shoot at anything ''but'' them.
** One random mugging encounter in Saint Denis has tricked players into trying to complete it, as on the surface, it appears like just another robbery you can fight your way out of -- [[SchmuckBait Arthur gets enticed into walking down a dark alley]] by a guy like he's being given a robbery tip, then he's knocked on the back of the head, rolled, and dumped in the cemetery, now missing his cash.
* CuttingTheKnot: An option for opening locked containers, generally performed with the stock of a gun. It's noisy, so it is likely to draw attention in stealthy situations. You can purchase a Lock Breaker from a fence, which allows this to be done relatively silently.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:D]]
* DamnYouMuscleMemory:
** While the controls are similar enough to the first game that this is averted within the series itself, chances are you'll be trying to talk back to [=NPC=] in other games.
** For a different but similar Rockstar title, the default button to enter a car in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is instead the default auto-melee button in this game. You might punch your horse quite a few times. Also, aiming down the sights while in first-person mode is done by pressing Down on the D-pad instead of clicking in the right thumbstick (since clicking on the right thumbstick in this game activates Dead Eye).
* DarkReprise: There are a few different remixes of "Unshaken" that can play during the ending.
** If Arthur [[spoiler:decides to go back for the money and get revenge on Dutch and Micah instead of leave with John]], a threatening, bass-y, hip hop-esque beat, called "Mountain Finale", plays as he makes his way back in High Honor mode. The start of the song contains a snippet of Music/{{Nas}} vocals. Rather than the humble, questioning tone of the original version of "Unshaken", they're far more aggressive and confident:
-->''I rise to the top\\
I cannot be stopped\\
I stand\\
Unshaken''
** Regardless of ending choice, depending on Arthur's honor at the end of the story, a version of "Unshaken", called "Crash of Worlds" by Rocco [=DeLuca=], either with an angelic, harmonic choir (high honor) or an ethereal, spooky instrumentation and a deep, bass-y choir (low honor) plays at the very end of the mission.
* DatedHistory: Invoked deliberately in one camp interaction, where Hosea recounts his very brief stage career and describes himself performing in Theatre/TheRevengersTragedy, by Tourneur. At the time this would've been completely accurate and common knowledge, but more modern assessments beginning in 1923 have called Cyril Tourneur's authorship into question and offered Thomas Middleton as an alternate source.
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: Mary's father despised Arthur and he's a big part of why they broke up. As seen during Mary's mission in Saint Denis, [[spoiler:her father is a broke, drunken lout who doesn't have room to talk. You can find his body with no explanation in New Austin laying in the middle of the road just past the church outside Armadillo in the epilogue.]]
* ADayInTheLimelight: Companion missions allow you to interact one-on-one with your fellow gang mates. You get to learn about their pasts, their motivations, and get a better look at their personalities.
* DeathByIrony: Arthur draws beautiful sketches of places and wildlife in his journal, to the point where his fellow gang member remark upon his artistic ability. [[spoiler:What kills him in the end isn't his violent lifestyle, but tuberculosis.]] How is that ironic? [[spoiler:TB was also historically known as 'The Artist's Disease' due to a widespread belief was that tuberculosis assisted artistic talent, as witness the number of great artists who were affected.]] Wikipedia has an article about it [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuberculosis_in_human_culture here]].
* DeathByRacism:
** Each of the KKK random encounters end in this fashion, even if you don't involve yourself. In one, several members accidentally set themselves on fire trying to light a cross. In another, the cross falls, killing two of them.
** The racist eugenicist in Saint Denis is so hated by the rest of the town that you can kill him in broad daylight without repercussions.
** In the mission ''The Iniquities of Histories'', after recovering the items from the foreclosed home of Jeremiah Compson [[spoiler:who turns out to have been a former slave catcher]], you can kill him on the spot and actually ''gain'' honor.
** The Braithwaite stablehand and riverboat pit boss in ''Horse Flesh for Dinner'' and ''A Fine Night of Debauchery'' both refer to Javier as a "greaser" and are subsequently killed by Arthur. Though [[VideoGameCaringPotential if you wish]], you can subdue the stablehand with a lasso and steal the horses.
* DeathByWomanScorned: When you visit Robard Farm, you can examine the bloodied corpses of a husband-wife couple inside the house, and if you follow the TrailOfBlood outside, it will lead to the corpse of another woman holding a machete and a revolver, with a letter she had on her. When you read it, [[spoiler:it explains that the husband, Claude, was telling the girlfriend, Annette, to leave because his wife Harriet wanted to give him a second chance at life due to his being caught in a LoveTriangle adultery with Annette. It seemed that the latter wouldn't take his advances sitting down and slaughtered them both with the machete in retaliation before heading back outside and [[DrivenToSuicide turning the gun on herself]].]]
* DeathOfAChild: The Old West is a brutal place, and the young are not spared. Jack is the only kid in the whole story [[SavedByCanon who doesn't have even a remote chance of being killed]].
** Two different abandoned cabins can be found with children's bodies inside. Clawson's Rest, northwest of Valentine, tells the story of a mother who set out to recover the family's stolen money and never returned, while her sons, instructed not to leave or let anyone inside, starved to death; Osman's Grove, near Emerald Ranch, has an entire family dead of smoke inhalation from a broken stovepipe, who became trapped inside and suffocated.
** A random encounter in Saint Denis will have Arthur teased by street urchins, then swarmed, mugged, and knocked to the ground if he runs after them. When they approach him, there is an option to whip out your gun and blow them away just like any other robbery, but chances are that Arthur won't catch them all, and [[OhCrap now he's trapped in a narrow back alley with the police investigating the multiple child murders just reported]].
** [[spoiler:Arthur had a young son, Isaac, that was killed in a petty robbery with his mother while he was away riding with the gang. It haunts him, to the point that he never speaks of the two, and only confesses his story to Rains Fall after a long and painful journey of self-reflection.]]
* DeathEqualsRedemption: [[spoiler:Arthur at the end of the main story in High Honor and you help John in Low Honor. Terminally ill from tuberculosis already, he decides to spend his last days making amends and helping the truly deserving, eventually giving his life to help John Marston escape from their vengeful former comrades.]]
* DeathMountain: [[spoiler:The final quarter of the "Red Dead Redemption" mission if you go with John involves Ross and the Pinkertons attacking you on the mountain while you're trying to escort John out to safety. Once the Pinkertons are defeated, [[ClimaxBoss Micah]] launches an attack on you, and you have to fistfight your way to a draw. And in the ending, if he doesn't kill you already as long as you're in High Honor mode, the tuberculosis ''definitely'' will while [[CueTheSun you're watching the sunrise]].]]
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Crossing over with CherryTapping, this can be performed using the Varmint Rifle. It holds 14 rounds and can be fired quickly thanks to its pump action. Unless you're scoring head shots, it will take about half that magazine in order to bring down human opponents.
* DeathSeeker: As revealed in the Epilogue, [[spoiler:Sadie]]. She admits that she no longer cares whether she lives or dies, and keeps throwing herself into dangerous situations as a bounty hunter as a result.
* DecadeDissonance: Larger cities like Saint Denis and Blackwater are much more advanced than more rural towns like Valentine and Rhodes, which seem to be stuck about 20-30 years in the past.
* DecapitationPresentation: Done in Chapter 4 [[spoiler:by the O'Driscolls with Kieran immediately before launching an assault on Shady Bell]].
* DeceptiveDisciple: [[spoiler:Micah]] for Dutch. In the later chapters, his kissing up to Dutch makes him Dutch's new #2. In reality, [[spoiler:he's planning to sell the gang out to the Pinkertons]].
* {{Deconstruction}}: The outlaw life is not as fun and romantic as it seems.
** Dutch's IdiotHero mentality of laying low, making a big score and then leaving only gets the gang deeper and deeper into shit, and due to their destructive nature they chronically draw attention to themselves. All their efforts to lie low fail, pushing them further and further from their destination. [[spoiler: In the end, they fail to get anywhere even remotely close to their goal.]]
*** As mentioned before, Dutch is a terrible leader: he may be charming and charismatic, but his poor decision-making skills combined with his SanitySlippage eventually lead to all gang members either dying or abandoning him.
** Also mentioned above, Dutch's whole [[OneLastJob "one big score"]] mentality is revealed to be woefully unworkable. The gang simply ''cannot'' make make enough money in just one job to provide for twenty-plus people, not to mention seeing their passage out of the country and set up properly in a new one. Dutch seems somewhat aware of this, but his thinking never advances beyond "just keep pulling off heists", none of which make even close to what they need, so they're trapped in the same futile cycle.
** The West doesn't give a damn if you're a main character or not. [[spoiler: One of the gang members, Sean, is unceremoniously sniped in an ambush. By the end Kieran, Lenny, Hosea, and even Arthur have bitten the dust.]] Of course, it's keeping to the themes of the first game, where [[spoiler: John and Dutch bite it.]]
** Many of the gang's members have various amounts of HiddenDepths they could use to live normally or even gain wealth, but are buried by their criminal lifestyle. For a few examples, Javier knows a surprising amount about fishing and can handle a guitar really well, while Arthur and Mary-Beth can do wonders if given a pen and paper.
*** In an extension of that, the game continues its deconstruction of the first one's themes of change and moving on. [[spoiler: John doesn't have any extra skills or hobbies and has no passion for menial work - what's really valuable about him is his gunslinging, which also repeatedly endangers Abigail and Jack. It's made abundantly clear that he abandons his old ways mostly out of love for his family and a sense of debt towards Arthur.]]
** The concept of open-world games is played with in the epilogue and it even ties into the original ''Redemption''. [[spoiler:The gameplay and activities remain mostly unchanged but with one big difference; John has a kid he should be raising. It's established in ''1'' that John hasn't spent that much time with his family and has had a habit of just disappearing for long periods of time. The activities Beecher's Hope offers are menial chores, encouraging the player to explore the world and participate in some of the dozens of available activities. As a result, every time you leave the ranch to do something more interesting than milking cows and shovelling manure, you're accidentally screwing up Jack's psyche by being a DisappearedDad, [[VideoGameCaringPotential unless of course you return to them after completing missions]].]]
** Chapter 3 is a deconstruction of the PlayingBothSides plot. [[spoiler: Hosea and Dutch both write off the Grays and the Braithwaites as dumb hicks who won't catch on to their attempt to play them off against each other to let them get at a rumored fortune of Civil War gold. Unfortunately for them, neither family is that stupid or blinded by their mutual hate for one another, and take notice when the same group of strangers show up to cause trouble for both families.]]
** In the first game, Herbert Moon's bigotry was mostly PlayedForLaughs. However, in this game, it's shown as causing harm to himself and other around him. When [[spoiler:John]] meets with him in the epilogue, he can find a letter showing that Moon ruined his relationship with daughter after she decides to marry a Jewish man. Of course, he doesn't care that he ruined the relationship one single bit.
* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype:
** Sadie becomes one of the typical ActionGirl. Her violent nature is a consequence of some serious emotional trauma (it's heavily implied that the O'Driscolls raped her after killing her husband), with [[spoiler:the terminally-ill]] Arthur outright stating that she and him are "more ghosts than people." It eventually reaches the point that she tells [[spoiler:John in the epilogue]] that she seeks out dangerous situations because she ''[[DeathSeeker wants to die]].'' [[spoiler:She gets a bit better by the final mission and end credits, where she decides to leave for South America and find some measure of peace.]]
** Arthur Morgan of the VillainProtagonist from your typical WideOpenSandbox. Once again, Creator/RockstarGames shows us, as in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' and ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', how depressing the life of our VillainProtagonist could be from their respective context. Sure, he may not have had a choice in the beginning, but his acceptance of being the [[ThenLetMeBeEvil "bad guy"]] leaves him feeling pretty shitty about himself. Reading his journals reveals that he is also under a lot of stress and that he feels that he can't help prevent everything from spiraling out of control. After he finds out [[spoiler:he's dying, then he's wracked with guilt; desperate to make what amends he can, having realized that all he's done has not been worth it. The final nail in the coffin is if the player chooses to help John and has good karma, his last words will be [[RedemptionEqualsDeath "I tried. In the end... I did."]]]] Arthur may be a killing machine with over dozens, perhaps hundreds of kills to his name, but the game goes to great lengths to detail how toxic and harmful living a life of constant conflict is for anybody. Even if you're [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential a particularly nasty player]], not in any way is Arthur's lifestyle treated as something awesome. As a result, he [[spoiler:dies]] as he lived: fighting petty, pathetic criminals who are worse than him.
* DeepSouth:
** Scarlett Meadows, a county of mixed hills and bayous that is run by two inbred clans who hate each other's guts. Still marked by the Civil War, it is a place where lingering traces of the slave trade can be found.
** The state of Lemoyne in general, which takes heavy cues from Louisiana, complete with its own version of New Orleans, the city of Saint Denis.
* DelayedDiagnosis: [[spoiler:Arthur]] contracts tuberculosis during the mission "Money Lending and Other Sins", but isn't officially diagnosed until near the end of the game and ultimately passes away from his illness.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Just like the first game, the setting of ''II'' shows how different people's attitudes in the past were.
** Racism is still prevalent during this time; anyone who is non-white is treated with hatred or seen as a savage that needs to be controlled or put down.
** The Women's Suffrage movement is mocked by most men, who think that giving women the right to vote is absurd.
** An optional series of missions has Arthur assisting an inventor of a prototype electric chair, which he claims is a "humane" method of execution. When it finally comes time to demonstrate the device, it turns out to be anything but.
** As related to the above, the death penalty is very liberally used throughout the game which is in stark contrast to today, especially outside the US. Today, it's legal in 28 states and still practiced in 17 of those. The U.S. is one of the few developed countries that still has it. Executions haven't been done regularly by the federal government since the Johnson administration, although the Trump administration has brought it back.
** Arthur is out of the norm for the time period by unequivocally treating every woman he comes across as an equal and with respect. He can tell the girls at camp that he thinks that men and women are equally awful. He even says in his journal that he doesn't like when men treat the women in their lives as objects without seeing them as their own people (specifically in the context about Mary's dad). He's also disgusted when Micah says in Chapter 4 that the girls owe the guys sex because all they do is sit around at camp all day. Arthur says they help and that they don't owe anyone anything.
** There are obstacles to various romantic relationships in the game that wouldn't really exist today. One of them is Arthur and Mary's [[UptownGirl Inter-Class Romance]]. Since Mary comes from money and would have no way to provide for herself should something happen to him, she doesn't have the luxury of marrying for love and marries someone that's more "suitable". Nowadays a rich woman like Mary would have a college degree and the legal protection to not to have to listen to her dad. Another type of romantic obstacle that wouldn't exist today is the stigma against [[MalignedMixedMarriage interracial relationships]]. No one in the gang really has a problem with Lenny (who's black) having a crush on Jenny (who judging by Arthur's drawing of her was white) but it's implied that Hosea doesn't really mean that it wouldn't have worked out between them because of their similar names. It's more the fact that society wouldn't accept them. They wouldn't have been able to get legally married in a good chunk of the country (or even have sex in some places) as Loving vs Virginia , which repealed all anti-miscegenation laws, wasn't decided until 1967. In Manzanita Post, you can come across a Norwegian settlement group who fled to the U.S. because they brutally killed an interracial couple (Morrocan husband, Norwegian wife) and their child. The picture of said couple has "unclean" scribbled on the back of it. There's also what's implied to be Bill's closeted homosexuality. Arthur says in his journal that he doesn't care what secret Bill is hiding but there was no way for him to be who he was until the 1990s at the very earliest as the Clinton Administration was the first explicitly pro-gay administration. The Supreme Court didn't overrule the state and federal laws prohibiting same-sex sexual relationships until Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.
** This game also pulls no punches in showing how hard women had it in a time in which they were still considered property/second-class citizens. They're dependent on men and have very few opportunities to earn money (and one of them is prostitution). Abigail, in particular, is an absolutely desperate situation at the beginning of the game. She's a young single mom who can't read or write, John doesn't want to take responsibility for her and Jack, and she was a prostitute in the past. This is also a time before reliable birth control and legal, safe abortion so if she were to get pregnant again, she'd be even further up the creek without a paddle. Luckily she's got the rest of the gang to look out for her and Arthur goes out of his way to help her and Jack but if something had happened to them before John got his act together, she'd be in an even worse situation. She'd likely have to go back to being a prostitute or live on the streets. Mrs. Downes is also forced to be a prostitute after Thomas dies and she's got a son that's old enough to work and help out. Mary had to marry a man she didn't love because she couldn't risk marrying Arthur (of whom her dad doesn't approve) because if something happened to him, she couldn't support herself. Women still can't vote and men regularly mock them for wanting to.
* DenserAndWackier: While the story is just as serious as the first game's (if not even more so), the stranger quests are less so. In 1, most of the strangers were relatively normal, with a few exceptions. [[note]]Such as the man who is in love with his horse and the old man who believed his wife's corpse was still alive[[/note]] Here, the bunch you'll meet consists of, for example, a traveling freak show (which is a tweaked version of one cut from ''I''), a MadScientist, a ''very'' camp plant collector, and two brothers who willingly subject themselves to violence and life-threatening acts to win over a girl they both like. The most insane of the missions may just be a male animal tamer who disguises himself as a woman because, he (she?) believes that no-one wants to see a man tame animals. Note that he didn't even bother to ''shave his large mustache''. The animals in question are just normal animals ''painted'' to resemble exotic animals. [[spoiler: Well, except for the lion.]]
* DevelopersForesight: See the [[DevelopersForesight/RedDeadRedemption series' page]].
* DevelopingDoomedCharacters: ForegoneConclusion tells us the gang will fall apart, but the game takes its time before it starts to happen -- out of the [[spoiler:8]] chapters the game has, the PointOfNoReturn happens [[spoiler:at the end of chapter 4]].
* DialogueTree: Arthur can chat with any NPC by aiming at them (with or without a gun on his hand). When locked on to an NPC, the game displays a list of possible interactions, such as "Defuse", which allows you to stop potential fights before they even start, "Antagonize" which can be used to ''start'' fights, and a few others others. The available options and the dialogue itself are affected by various factors, such as the current situation, location, NPC alignment, whether Arthur's gun is holstered or not, and even his appearance. Unlike in most examples, the system is omnipresent and doesn't stop the gameplay. The system is practically identical to the one Rockstar used in their previous game ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}''.
* DiedStandingUp:
** A particular glitch can cause this in both [=NPCs=] and animals. There are a number of ways to trigger it, but the most common seems to happen when making a kill shot from an extreme distance. When you get close to your target, they'll be dead but still standing. In the case of a few animals, such as mountain sheep, they may have a stream of blood pouring out of them continuously until you interact with the carcass.
** In the spirit of the trope, given the game's physics engine, [=NPCs=] can be killed while sitting in chairs or leaning up against objects.
* DifficultButAwesome:
** You can get the game's best saddle (speed-wise, at least. also includes stirrup bonuses) as soon as you unlock free roam in chapter 2... and you only need to find a perfect panther from one of their few spawn points, make a clean kill, take the skin to a trapper before it starts to rot, and pay a small fee.
** The Legend of the East satchel takes about six hours to get all of the skins you need but it's sure worth the work. Getting a perfect panther pelt in particular can be extremely frustrating, they only spawn in two locations in the original map (one southeast of the Braithwaite estate, another east of Lagras) and one spawns only at night. You could be setting up camp to sleep until the evening for a month in the real world before you get a perfect one to spawn but once you get it, you'll be able to carry 99 of everything which is extremely helpful.
* DimeNovel: Several can be found in camp and throughout the world, featuring an expy of Sherlock Holmes (Aldous Filson) and a heavily fictionalized Otis Miller, among others. They are, to put it bluntly, [[BeigeProse not even]] [[SaidBookism close to]] [[ThatMakesMeFeelAngry great literature]], but Jack and Hosea both seem to like them, and it's not like the trashy romance hardcovers or pretentious philosophy tomes that Mary-Beth and Dutch read are any better.
* DireBeast: The Legendary animals are all larger and more powerful versions of their standard brethren. The one that stands out the most in this regard is the Legendary Bull Gator, an alligator that's close to 40 feet long, over three times the size of the game's other, more realistic gators.
* DiscOneNuke:
** You can find an "Arabian", an elite horse with the game's highest stats from a spawn point on the northwestern point of Lake Isabella. It may take a few visits to spawn, but you can obtain one as early as Chapter 2 once the stables unlock in one of the first story missions. It can be recognized from its snow white coat and for being pretty much the only horse that spawns on the freezing climate. Its skittishness is its biggest downside, but you won't find a comparible horse to replace it with for several chapters.
** Several powerful guns can be acquired early in Chapter 2 by performing the right side quests:
*** The Schofield Revolver can be obtained early by robbing the back room of the Valentine Doctor. It has a higher damage than the default Cattleman which, if coupled with a few upgrades at the gunsmith and Express ammo, can turn it into a HandCannon. This mini-mission can completed multiple times, meaning you can [[DualWielding dual wield]] them. There aren't many encounters in the first couple of chapters that will be serious threats with a pair of these.
*** There are three unique handguns acquired during "The Noblest of Men, and a Woman" side-quest available at the Valentine saloon in Chapter 2. While the revolvers are decent upgrades on the default Cattleman, Billy Midnight's pistol in particular is a unique Mauser (normally not available for purchase until Chapter 4) which trades power for a [[MoreDakka superior rate of fire]]. Since headshots with any gun will kill human enemies in a single hit, it makes for a devastating gun to use coupled with Deadeye.
*** In camp during Chapter 2, Javier may offer the optional mission "The First Shall Be Last". Completing it allows you to pick up the Pump Shotgun which is a major upgrade to the basic Double-Barreled Shotgun you start with in terms of ammo capacity and rate of fire. Give it a barrel upgrade to increase its range, load it up with slugs, and few enemies will stand a chance for several chapters. (If the mission doesn't show up, you can simply head north to Chez Porter and kill the small gang living there. Once they're gone, the gun will be in a case in the house's attic.)
*** The Semi-Auto Shotgun, normally only available in Chapter 4, can be acquired as early as Chapter 2 by heading to Watson's Cabin in West Elizabeth and looting it from the basement. It alone makes many enemy encounters ridiculously easy, particularly O'Driscoll ambushes which combined with Dead Eye tend to end in ''seconds''.
*** In similar manner to the Schofield that can be acquired by robbing the Valentine doctor's office, the gunsmith in Rhodes can be robbed for a Lancaster repeater. Unlike Valentine however, there are no criminals hiding out in his basement, so just hogtieing the gunsmith or killing him quietly (which you may want to, given the kidnapped teenager in a sailor suit he keeps there as well) will let you walk out of the gunsmith without a single fear of the law coming after you.
*** By taking advantage of some scripted events, you can acquire firearm upgrades from certain enemies. If you acquire a bounty and then wait in that state, bounty hunters may come after you who carry Rolling Block Rifles, a gun locked at the gunsmith until the end of Chapter 2. If you complete a bounty mission and then attend the subsequent hanging, the police guards present may spawn with Bolt-Action Rifles. If you don't mind the bounty, you can kill one and take the gun, which you otherwise can't acquire until later in Chapter 3.
** The Stage Coach Fence at Emerald Ranch becomes available early in Chapter 2. Once unlocked, it can become an easy source of nuke-level money. Simply steal stage coaches and bring them to the fence for an easy $15-$40 a pop. Emerald Ranch itself is within sight of several crossroads that are traversed frequently by stage coaches. Once you learn the most valuable/least risky wagons to look for (2+ horses, nice looking wagons, single occupant), you can easily haul in $400+ per real life hour. It's more than enough to upgrade every weapon you have available, max out your ammo, spoil your horse(s), and upgrade your camp with ease.
** Hunting is also a very easy source of good money/updating right off the bat if you know how to do it right. In one of the first missions available in Chapter 2, the legendary animals become available. If you hunt the legendary buck just north of Strawberry, you can craft a trinket at the fence (which becomes available a bit later) that turns some two-star animal pelts into three-star upon skinning. The medium and large sized animals can be lassoed and stabbed which guarantees a perfect pelt/carcass. Deer in particular are all over the map and are very easy to find, kill, and sell . A perfect deer carcass will fetch you $10 at the butcher/trapper and you can easily do three or four of them in the span of ten real life minutes. You can also skin them to give to Pearson who can use them to upgrade your satchel. You can get the Legend of the East satchel (which by most accounts takes about six hours of outside work to get) that holds 99 of every item not even halfway through Chapter 2 if you want. Though it costs $225 to get the leatherworking tools to update your satchel which can be hard that early on in the game.
** There's a gold bar, worth a whopping $500, literally just down the hill from the first camp in Horseshoe Overlook. You can get it as soon as the map opens up and while you won't be able to sell it until the fence opens up a bit later, it's still a very healthy sum that early in the story. If you don't feel like waiting to fence it, it can be donated to the camp right away and will cover quite a few camp upgrades including ammo, medicine, and food that is free to take.
** As mentioned above under DifficultButAwesome, you can get the game's most stamina/speed/acceleration efficient saddle very early on if you can pull it off.
** There are three treasure map "chains" in the game, and the third and last one of each gives you a few gold bars. Once you find them all, you have a total of 11 gold bars, each worth 500$. If you know where every map and treasure is, you can complete all three chains as soon as free roam opens up. With the pre-order DLC map chain[[note]]Just one map and a riddle after that[[/note]] you can find 4 more, rising the total to 15 Gold bars, giving you a free 7500 dollars. In addition, finding all 9 treasures in the main game also completes the explorer challenges, allowing you to buy a set of equipment that boosts your max health from any trapper. Memorizing each location makes repeat playthroughs a breeze as far as money is concerned, and even the camp upgrades can be covered with around 4-5 bars.
* DisguisedInDrag: The provocative French artist Charles Châtenay goes undercover in incredibly unconvincing drag -- the chest hair and beard are a bit of a giveaway -- to flee town after making enemies of practically the entire population of Saint Denis.
* DisposingOfABody: You can cover up murders by hiding the body where passers-by will be less likely to see it. Dumping them in the wilderness or [[BurialAtSea into bodies of water]] are good options. See also: FedToPigs.
* DisproportionateRestitution: Arthur may come across an enraged widow in Valentine who curses at him for killing her husband before bursting into tears. He can choose to give her $2, which she will either reject or begrudgingly accept.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Strangers are very quick to resort to violence over mild slights and accidents, such as lingering too long in their wilderness camp or bumping into them.
* DistressedDude: At different points, you'll rescue Sean, Bill, and John from situations like this. You'll need to ''escape'' from such a situation [[spoiler:as Arthur after he's captured by the O'Driscolls and again in Guarma]].
** Arthur isn't exactly above getting rescued himself as Charles, [[spoiler: Eagle Flies, and Abigail]] can attest.
* DoesNotLikeMen: Saint Denis's Suffragette, Dorothea Wicklow. As she says:
--> Once women get the vote, the whole country will stop making such a pig's ear of everything! There'll be no more wars, no hunger, no stupidity! We'll elect a woman president, within the first ten years, of course, men are such judgmental prigs, you need us women to help straighten you out! Okay? With us helping, I'm not saying there won't be trouble, I just think we'll do a better job of things.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:If Arthur is played honorably through and maintains his maximum honor by the final part of Chapter 6 (aptly titled "Red Dead Redemption"), then his final ride, with "That's the Way It Is" playing beautifully in the background, may come across as some kind of college graduation ceremony, with people complimenting on his best behavior as if he were graduating from morality school ''summa cum laude'' ("with highest praise"), even though he has only a short time before he dies from TB anyway.]]
* TheDon: Angelo Bronte is the mafia-esque crime lord of Saint Denis, right up to having the Saint Denis police in his pocket. He doesn't take too kindly to another crime boss, Dutch, setting up shop so close to his town and [[spoiler:tries to have him killed in a set-up train station robbery. Dutch repays in kind later, having Bronte kidnapped before drowning him and feeding him to gators]].
* DoomedByCanon:
** [[spoiler: What's left of]] the Van der Linde gang is destined to fall apart after a failed robbery. A former member, [[VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption John Marston]], will be forced to hunt down other former members afterward.
** Tumbleweed, the sole bright spot in the chaos that is New Austin, is destined to lie in ruins by 1911. By contrast however, plague ridden Armadillo will have recovered and become a relatively stable place to live at.
* DontGoInTheWoods: Tall Trees, the aptly-named coniferous forest west of Blackwater, is an absolute death trap. It's used as a home base by the Skinner Brothers, a sadistic gang of ruthless psychopaths that loves to abduct travelers, strip them naked, torture them horribly and flay them alive before leaving their carcasses in massive, bloody piles by the side of the road. Especially in the early stages of the epilogue, it's nigh-impossible to ride through these woods without stumbling upon such grotesque horrors, or being attacked by the Skinners yourself. By 1911 the Skinners seem to have disbanded or moved away, as in the original game there's nothing particularly dangerous in Tall Trees but the occasional bear or wolf.
* DownerBeginning: The story starts with the gang on the run in the mountains during a blizzard after a botched job in Blackwater. They can't get to their stash of money, several gang members are dead with one captured, they're low on food, and they have the law hot on their tails.
* DramaticGunCock:
** When a gun is aimed for the first time after drawing or reloading it, it is almost always accompanied by the action being cycled to chamber the first round, or the hammer being cocked in the case of revolvers and non-repeating long guns. Some guns may not exhibit this trope in one manner or the other, or rarely, in neither manner.[[labelnote:Exceptions]]All the self-loading pistols don't exhibit this, as does the Browning Auto-5 (which doesn't have chambering animations, ''period''). The Rolling Block and Trapdoor Springfield rifles don't exhibit this after reloading as their both weapons' reload animations begin with the hammer being cocked as to allow the breechblock or trapdoor (respectively) to be opened in order to replace the spent case with a fresh round.[[/labelnote]]
** In addition, you're able to invoke this at will during standard gameplay with said weaponry that allows for it. For example, you can shoot someone through the head, pause for a moment, ''then'' cock your gun. Certain weapons, like pump-action guns and repeater rifles, even let you pause halfway through the motion by holding the trigger button, then releasing it to finish the animation.
** Susan Grimshaw does this [[spoiler: after shooting Molly O-Shea through the stomach with a shotgun for betraying the gang.]] [[spoiler: Even if it turns out she hadn't betrayed them, and was instead just desperate for Dutch's attention.]]
* DramaticIrony: Saint Denis Mayor Lemieux thinks learning will make man "put down his guns, and start living a life of relentless purity" in 50 years. Well, no, the world just used that learning to make [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI bigger]] and [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII better guns]].
* DramatisPersonae: Not present in the game itself, but the game's [[https://www.rockstargames.com/reddeadredemption2/credits credits page]] on its website lists the cast this way, with a classical theatre-style title for every character.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim:
** [[spoiler:Sean]] is unceremoniously killed with a head shot not a minute into a main story mission.
** [[spoiler:Kieran]] is captured off screen and only a single gang member mentions his absence before [[spoiler:his beheaded body rides into camp immediately prior to an O'Driscoll attack]].
** [[spoiler:Lenny]] is simply shot dead during a botched heist. No build up, no sad last words, not even a ''cutscene'', just...shot dead.
* DrugsAreBad: Averted on two levels. In terms of the narrative, DeliberateValuesDissonance is at play. During the time period of the game, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco were extremely common. Harder drugs, like cocaine, were often prescribed medicinally. In-game, all of the drugs are quite useful. Alcohol can refill your bars and cores, with the exact effects depending on the type of alcohol. Moonshine in particular temporarily maxes out and fortifies your health bar, making it a great item to take right before a big fight. Smoked tobacco refills your Deadeye core at the cost of some slight stamina, while chewing tobacco temporarily maxes out and fortifies your Deadeye bar making it extremely useful. Cocaine gum is another consumable which temporarily maxes out and fortifies your stamina bar.
* DualWielding:
** Once you get the off-hand pistol holder, you can do this with handguns. It potentially doubles the amount of shots you can fire before reloading, but reloading is then slower as a result.
** Dutch and Micah are both notable dual-wielders. Dutch uses a custom pair of Schofield Revolvers while Micah uses a custom pair of Double-Action Revolvers.
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Arthur is the self-described "workhorse" of the Van der Linde gang, and it comes with the lack of respect one would expect. He is apparently the only gang member contributing to the camp food supply, and missing even a single day draws negative comments from Pearson and Ms. Grimshaw. Want to upgrade the camp? Arthur will be providing 90% of the necessary funds. Someone owes the gang money? Arthur collects. Another gang member needs some extra muscle on a mission? Yep, Arthur. Something goes wrong on that mission? Must be Arthur's fault.
* DuelToTheDeath:
** A possible encounter, most often in saloons, involves bumping into an ornery, drunken patron who will then challenge you to a duel. If you accept, you can meet them outside for the duel.
** With one exception, all of the [[spoiler:legendary gunslingers]] in the related side mission meet their fate with you in this fashion.
* DumpStat: Stamina. It really only drains when sprinting or swimming, and given the amount of time you'll spend on horseback, you won't be draining it often. Most players don't think twice when using consumables such as alcohol or tobacco products which lower your stamina while increasing your health or Dead Eye. Additionally, many players will fatten up the player character which increases health at the cost of stamina, since being able to take a couple more bullets is significantly more valuable than being able to sprint or swim for a longer distance.
* DwindlingParty:
** The Van der Linde gang. Four are mentioned as dead or dying as a result of the Blackwater fiasco and subsequent escape before the game even starts. By the end of the game, [[spoiler:Sean, Kieran, Hosea, Lenny, Molly, Susan, Micah, and even [[TheHeroDies Arthur himself]]]] lie dead. Additionally, the epilogue confirms that [[spoiler: Strauss was captured by the Pinkertons shortly after Arthur kicked him out of camp and died in custody offscreen]] while [[spoiler: Karen disappeared from the public eye and her status is officially unknown, with Tilly speculating that she probably drank herself to death]].
** In a mission specific example, the gang members who set out to rob the Saint Denis bank experience this during that mission and those immediately after. [[spoiler:Hosea and Lenny are killed, Abigail flees, John is captured, and Charles leaves the group in order to draw off some Pinkertons. Of the five who escape on the ship to Guarma, Javier is wounded and captured there, leaving the foursome of Dutch, Bill, Micah, and Arthur.]]
* DyingTown: Tumbleweed was crippled when the railroad was rerouted through nearby Armadillo instead, then suffered bandit raids and a cholera outbreak. As seen in ''I'', it would become completely abandoned a few years later.
* DysfunctionJunction: Pretty much the entire Van der Linde gang. There isn't a single member who hasn't been subjected to some sort of terrible loss or abuse before falling in with the gang.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E]]
* EagerRookie: Lenny has elements of this. He's only 19 and one of the most junior members of the gang, but seeks to prove himself. He initiates dangerous missions including the assault on the Lemoyne Raiders HQ to steal a weapons shipment and a stagecoach robbery which [[spoiler:is actually a trap set by federal marshals]]. Arthur seems to take Lenny under his wing and he is really coming along, having greatly assisted during [[spoiler:the botched trolley station robbery]] before [[spoiler:he is gunned down without warning during the failed Saint Denis bank robbery]].
* EarlyGameHell: If you're looking to do things outside of the main mission, Chapter 2 becomes this. Unless you play at least some of the main mission to unlock things, you're stuck with a very limited selection of weapons (not ideal for forays into areas with predators or possible rival gang ambushes), certain items are locked (like the Fishing Rod), and certain vendors (like the wagon and horse fences) are not available. It is also before the game's MoneyForNothing comes into play, so you're often perpetually broke unless you really go out of your way. Many guides recommend playing up to the end of Chapter 2 or even into Chapter 3 before venturing deeply into the game's side content as it will be much easier once you've unlocked a greater variety of weapons and items.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Due to the {{Prequel}} nature of the game, it is a ForegoneConclusion that the Van der Linde gang will break up through both internal strife and the constant pursuit of the authorities. However the epilogue reveals that [[spoiler:Charles, Mary-Beth, Tilly, Pearson, Swanson, and Sadie were able to settle down and have satisfying lives afterwards. Charles moved to Canada and raised a family, Mary-Beth became a prolific author, Tilly married a successful lawyer in Saint Denis, Pearson got married to a woman named Edith and took over the General Store in Rhodes, Swanson moved to New York and became a preacher, and Sadie became a Bounty Hunter and eventually decided to move to South America to pursue a more peaceful life. Also, Edith and Archie Downes if [[TheAtoner Arthur chooses to help them]] in the final chapters; they take his money and invest it to become the owners of a successful golf course]].
* EasilyForgiven:
** At several points during the main story, you'll shoot up entire towns and gun down dozens of lawmen. You will be wanted "Dead or Alive" afterward, but you can simply pay off your bounty at any post office with no consequences once you do. Stroll right back into any of those towns and it's as if nothing happened at all.
** The "Honor" system. Naturally, robbing and murdering outside of where it is required for main missions causes your Honor to drop. However, you can regain Honor, right up to maxing it out, with simple activities such as greeting townsfolk or doing some catch-and-release fishing.
** InUniverse: Bill at one point complains how any time he screws up, he gets chewed out while Arthur's fuckups are "One of them things" and he faces very little criticism. Being Dutch's first protégé clearly has ''some'' benefits.
* EasterEgg: One of the random gamblers in Valentine is named [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII Claude]].
* EdibleCollectible: There are two main categories of consumables - tonics and provisions. The former consists of a variety of items that [[HealingPotion restore health]], [[ManaPotion stamina, or Dead Eye]] and are either store-bought or [[PotionBrewingMechanic brewed by the player]] at a campfire. The latter consists mostly of actual food and drink, falling squarely into this trope, and consuming them increases one or two Cores, which govern the regeneration of the meter they're tied to. Fruits, vegetables and snacks restore the Health Core, coffee, chocolate and other stimulants restore the Stamina Core, and [[SmokingIsCool cigarettes, cigars]] and [[TheAlcoholic various types of alcohol]] restore the Dead Eye Core. Lastly, campfire-cooked [[RealMenEatMeat meat]] restores all three Cores at once - the bigger the game, the bigger the recovery. Cores are always constantly draining, and while the player can't starve to death, having completely empty Cores often puts the player at a disadvantage.
* EmergencyWeapon: Even if you expend every round of ammo and toss every throwable weapon, you will still have your trusty knife and lasso. The knife is the default melee weapon, and several unique knives can be acquired as well. It is quite useful for making stealth kills, and is used in cut scenes to skin animals and cut free hostages. Throwing knives are another option, and can be used in melee or, as the name implies, thrown to give you an option for ranged stealth kills if you don't want to take up a long gun slot with the bow.
* EncounterBait: Somewhat literally with Predator and Herbivore Bait. Spread them on the ground, retreat to a a spot with a good view of the bait site, and wait as they attract animals.
* EndOfAnAge: As with the first game, a major theme running through this prequel is how the outlaws of the "Old West" come to terms with the encroachment of law and order from the East making their way of life increasingly impossible. This theme is even more emphasized here than in the first game as it takes place during the Van Der Linde Gang's final months, being forced further and further eastward towards civilization.
* EnemyChatter: If you remain undetected near groups of enemies, you can listen in on their conversations, which are fully scripted.
* EnemyDetectingRadar: Detected hostiles show up as red dots on your radar.
* TheEnemyWeaponsAreBetter: Averted in most cases, as enemies will use lesser "worn" versions of guns you already have. However, in a select few cases, it is possible to acquire better weapons before they would normally unlock by getting them off of certain dead enemies. For example, one can acquire the Rolling Block Rifle from some bounty hunters who will come after you if you have a bounty. Another is that it is possible to acquire a Bolt Action Rifle early by completing bounty missions, attending the subsequent hanging of the outlaw, and then gunning down one of the police guards at the gallows who may be carrying one.
* EpicFail: Several Stranger encounters end in this fashion. To note:
** One such encounter involves two thieves attempting to open a stolen safe with dynamite. It goes off before they can get back, blowing them both up. (The door to the safe does come off, so you can help yourself to its contents.)
** Another encounter is a group of KKK members attempting to set up a burning cross. However, the cross falls onto them, crushing and burning them to death.
* EqualOpportunityEvil: The Van der Linde gang is easily the most diverse in the game, including several minorities and women. This is in a setting with plenty of period appropriate racism and sexism portrayed.
* EscortMission: A number of Stranger missions involve rescuing someone from hostiles (a rival gang, wild animals, etc.) during which they must survive in order to succeed. In a few cases, you may also need to give the rescuee a ride back to town.
* EternallyPearlyWhiteTeeth: Averted. While it varies from character to character, most have realistically yellow or brown teeth.
* EtherealChoir: [[spoiler:A reprise of "Unshaken" called "Crash of Worlds" plays in the background during Arthur's final moments leading up to his death; depending on his honor level, it can be either angelic or sinister.]]
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Arthur keeps a picture of his deceased mother next to his bed. A low-honor Arthur plays this completely straight, while a high-honor Arthur downplays it (he is still an outlaw bandit after all).
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** The Van der Linde gang will gladly rob anything they can make a dollar on and isn't above killing anyone who gets in their way. But they take ''great offense'' to [[spoiler:the Braithewaites kidnapping Jack]]. Cue the RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
** As mentioned, the gang will kill if needed as part of their robberies, but Dutch frowns upon outright murder and claims (when confronted by Angelo Bronte) that they aren't murderers for hire. Arthur too gets several moments of this during some side missions, such as the one [[spoiler:where the Saint Denis mayor asks Arthur to kill his former assistant]].
** Arthur writes in his journal after he and Hosea rob Seamus's cousin-in-law that robbing family is low even for him.
* EverybodySmokes: Standard for an "Old West" work. Countless characters throughout the game can be seen smoking. This even includes Arthur in some cutscenes.
* EveryScarHasAStory: John Marston gets his scars from being mauled by a pack of wolves during a scouting mission gone awry.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: [[spoiler:Bronte is accustomed to using his wealth to get what he wants. When he is captured by Dutch's gang, he tries to get out by offering money to anyone who kills Dutch and sets him free, He's stunned when none of them take up his offer, as he can't understand why anyone would pass up a chance to earn some dollars. Sadly, the events in the following two chapters show that they might have been better off taking the money.]]
* EvilDebtCollector: One of Arthur's roles in the gang. No matter how honorable you play Arthur as, the loan shark missions tend to be KickTheDog moments for him. The biggest and most tragic example is when [[spoiler:Arthur accidentally kills a sick debtor, forcing the victim's widow to pay off the debt in his stead. Eventually Arthur cannot stand the misery such predatory usury is causing, and forcibly ejects the gang's loan shark from the camp, threatening to kill him if he returns. Said debtor ends up giving Arthur fatal tuberculosis as a result of the incident, and Arthur is so disgusted with what he did that he views it as a KarmicDeath]].
* EvilPaysBetter: If not better, then faster. Looting items from corpses often results in valuable junk, and robbing stores can give you more than many of the bounty hunting missions do. Stealing wagons, looting and robbing random civilians and/or robbing stores and trains for an entire day can get you a lot of cash for little work. However, you only get discounts if your honor is high enough, and getting caught means you'll be constantly harassed by bounty hunters until you A) spend some of your ill-gotten gains to pay off the bounty or B) surrender to the law and lose some of your money anyway.
* ExactWords:
** Downplayed. Before release, Rockstar mentioned that the game world is open from the start. This is technically true; ''you can go'' to West Elizabeth before the game allows it, but you'll be faced by unlimited waves of Pinkertons that will hunt and gun you down. However, if you try to go to New Austin, you'll be killed by an invisible sniper. Every new area can be visited as soon as the prologue is over, though.
** Several challenges can be completed much more easily if you take the wording literally. For example, some challenges require you to kill an enemy in a specific way, meaning you can't just kill some random NPC to fulfill it. However, it does not say that the enemy has to be a threat. You can tie up a rival gang member, drop them somewhere that makes it easy to complete the challenge, and then kill them while they are totally helpless. Bandit 10, which requires robbing five trains without getting caught, is a ''lot'' easier when you realize that "robbing" includes stealing a single item from the baggage car.
* ExperiencedProtagonist: Arthur is a veteran outlaw of the Wild West, third most senior in the gang behind only Dutch and Hosea, and is seen as a big brother/mentor figure by the more junior members, particularly Lenny and John.
* ExplodingBarrels: Boxes of dynamite and barrels of moonshine will explode if shot.
* ExposedToTheElements: A new gameplay mechanic involves your cores draining if you aren't dressed appropriately for the various environments and weather conditions. Going into the snowy peaks of the West Grizzlies without heavy winter clothing is a bad idea, as is wearing said heavy clothes in the humid bayous of Lemoyne. It's advised to always keep an outfit each for cold and hot conditions on your horse.
* ExtendedGameplay: Aside from the requisites of the Open World Sandbox genre like sidequests and other activities, the game features a rather extensive Epilogue sequence [[spoiler: focusing on John Marston, who gets PromotedToPlayable. Said Epilogue is a series of missions focusing around John and his family trying to go straight, and it ends with them building Beecher's Hope and paying it off with the money lifted from the Blackwater job. Of note is the sheer length of this part, as it technically accounts for 1/4th of ''the entire game''. After the main storyline has been completed, the player is allowed to wander the world as John, or help take care of Beecher's Hope by doing chores.]]
* ExtremelyShortTimespan:
** The main story of the game takes place over a few months in 1899. You can, of course, take quite a bit more time than that to actually complete the story in-game, with potentially hundreds of days passing.
** [[spoiler:Arthur contracts tuberculosis and dies of it in a matter of weeks.]] Although there was no effective treatment for TB in 1899 other than rest in a dry climate, "consumption" nonetheless was a disease which typically, in its latency period, took years slowly to consume its victims. Although it's possible that [[spoiler:Arthur unwittingly chose to hasten the TB progression with his smoking, drinking beer, and getting beaten by physical trauma and malnutrition, all of which are risk factors for TB]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F]]
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Arthur in a high Honor ending, whether he stays with John or goes back for the money, is completely at peace as he passes away watching the rising sun.]]
* FakeDifficulty:
** The ambient challenges, as many of them also fall under LuckBasedMission. While the gambler challenges are the most infamous as some are ''entirely'' luck-based, there are some in the other challenge branches as well. Hunting perfect pelts also relies on this way too much, as you not only have to find the animal, there's a chance they are already damaged once you do, and ''then'' you have to hope you hit the hitbox of the animal's weak spot and get a one hit kill. All of these are affected by luck to at least some degree.
** Several missions impose limits on the players that aren't readily apparent. Missions in which you must catch up to someone on a horse are particularly blatant, especially if you've gone out of your way to acquire a particularly fast horse. "The New South", the first mission of Chapter 3, requires Arthur to chase down some escaped convicts on a train. It is very apparent that your horse is not moving at maximum speed throughout most of the mission, allowing the convicts' scripted actions to take place. When chasing someone on a horse, theirs will be much faster during the mission than in free roam gameplay. It's groan-inducing when you can't catch someone on a basic Tennessee Walker while riding your fully upgraded, fully bonded Arabian with an enhanced saddle.
* FamilyOfChoice:
** The Van der Linde Gang is this for Arthur, John and rest of the members, under the charismatic Dutch and CoolOldGuy Hosea. The gang has varied members from all areas and even from various backgrounds, Native American, African-American, Irish, homosexual, even AxCrazy members, you name it, as Dutch didn't tolerate ''any'' form of discrimination or racism against his 'family'. It was also why many people willingly followed Dutch in the game.
** That said, the Van der Linde gang also is a massive {{Deconstruction}}. [[spoiler: As civilization begins to spread through America, Dutch undergoes a slow DespairEventHorizon as well as his upcoming FaceHeelTurn realizing all the good they did won't matter in the long run. This led him to control all aspects of the gang, and as the gang had UndyingLoyalty, they foolishly obeyed his every words, including Arthur. But, as he begins to notice Dutch slip, he tries to warn his friends and allies, but to no avail, as Dutch's schemes get some of them killed. It ends in a massive betrayal as the gang leaves John for dead on Dutch's orders.]]
* {{Fanservice}}: You have to take a bath at a hotel. You can choose to have a "Deluxe Bath" to up the cost, and a revealing, attractive woman will help you bathe. You can give inputs on body parts to wash and make small talk, as long as you keep her happy.
* FanDisservice: While a heavily intoxicated Arthur is looking for Lenny in Smithfield's Saloon in "A Quiet Time", he can barge in on a man and woman having sex. The woman is nude, but Arthur is so drunk he hallucinates Lenny's head on her body as she screams bloody murder at him.
* FantasyLandmarkEquivalent: The state of New Austin, which covers the southwest from Texas to Arizona, includes the massive canyon Pike's Basin, clearly based on the Grand Canyon (located in Arizona in real life).
* FantasyKitchenSink: Both games in the series suggest many more sinister, mysterious narratives brewing just beneath the surface of what is primarily a tale on Old Western bandits, and some of these oddities even have far-reaching implications for the world of the story far beyond the scope of what the main characters are able to perceive. Encounters with certain strangers, side quests, and Easter eggs directly allude to the existence of many fantastical things: a captured European princess; a town said to be cursed with a demonic presence, where a pentagram burns red beneath a dilapidated farmhouse at 4 in the morning, and a mentally ill woman locked away by her own family rambles numbers that lead to the town's coordinates; a vampire directly based off the bat-like Count Orlok from the 1922 German silent film "Nosferatu", who terrorizes the city of Saint Denis; witches (and their familiars); ghosts; a time traveler; a forest of whispering voices; a Gypsy seller of antique goods with the gift of clairvoyance, whose cryptic fortunes always come true; a marionette doll in the abandoned caravan of a traveling freak show who gives ominous warnings; an inventor similar to Nicola Tesla who dies creating a sentient robot; unnaturally pale, silent murderers known as the Night Folk who ritualistically kill unfortunate travelers (one of which cries in a white dress until she is approached and grows hostile, who bares a striking resemblance to the Mexican folktale of La Larona); the skeletal remains of giants; ancient Greek and Nordic gods; unidentified flying objects said to belong to enigmatic alien beings by cults who sacrifice themselves in worship of them; the strung-up animal hybrid creation of a Dr. Frankenstein-like mad scientist who sought to bring his monster to life, and a Strange Man who is very likely God, the Devil, or the Grim Reaper himself. The DLC "Undead Nightmare" further adds to this, including a zombie curse from an ancient temple mask, the steeds of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Bigfoot.
* FastForwardMechanic: You can skip ahead to Morning, Noon, or Night by sleeping in a bed, at the gang campsite, or by setting up your personal campsite from your main horse.
* AFatherToHisMen: Subverted by Dutch. He certainly ''seems'' to play it straight through the first half of the game, and will play it up when it suits him (such as leading the rescue of [[spoiler:Jack]]). He calls his fellow gang members things like "brother" and "son", and preaches the virtues of the gang being like a family. However, the moment it no longer suits him, he drops this charade in a hurry, such as [[spoiler:being willing to let a captured John hang if not for Arthur and Sadie rescuing him, then berating Arthur for doing it]].
* {{Fauxshadow}}:
** Kieran is a captured O'Driscoll who sticks with the Van der Linde gang because leaving the protection they offer is basically a death sentence. In short order, he takes the gang to wipe out an O'Driscoll hideout, saves Arthur's life, offers a fun fishing companion mission, and seems to be earning the respect most of the gang. He really seems like a character who will become important down the line and who you will be rewarded for fostering a positive relationship with. [[spoiler:Instead, he is captured by the O'Driscolls offscreen in Chapter 4, killed, beheaded, and sent into camp as an example/distraction immediately prior to an O'Driscoll attack]].
** When Arthur visits the Downes ranch again in Chapter 3, Archie is not even trying to cover up his hatred of Arthur for [[spoiler:causing his father's death]], and the concept of revenge even comes up in their discussion. Those familiar with westerns might assume that he'll pop up later as an antagonist, [[spoiler:but instead Arthur ends up helping the family when they need it, burying any potential revenge scheme Archie may have had. If anything, Archie is more easily able to forgive Arthur (or at least acknowledge his atonement) than his mother is, as Archie even thanks him in their final encounter when Arthur provides money to help start a new life.]]
* FedToPigs: Pigs will chew through any corpse in their vicinity. This is a handy way for you to dispose of bodies, and there is a scenario where you can help a prostitute by disposing of a dead customer in this manner, though you will lose your Honor if you decide to help her.
* FelonyMisdemeanor:
** Mark Johnson is one of the bounty mission targets. He is wanted for stage coach and train robberies from years in the past and carries a bounty of $25. No mention is made of him having killed or even seriously harmed anyone beyond robbing them. However, should you apprehend him, you can witness him being hanged in Rhodes. For a ''$25'' bounty. The same happens with Joshua Brown, who did actually kill someone, but has also been a career bounty hunter and worked extensively with the very sherriff you get his bounty from. And it's somewhat implied to have been an accident. Notably Arthur never hangs no matter how bad his crimes.
** Law enforcement is very quick to deliver an armed response, even for non-violent or accidental offenses, such as vandalism or clipping someone with your horse. Unlike most games, however, you do usually get a chance to settle it peacefully, either talking them down or letting them arrest you.
* FeudingFamilies: The Grays and the Braithwaites. Dutch and the gang hope to exploit the feud by PlayingBothSides in Chapter 3, but [[spoiler:the feud doesn't make the families ''that'' blind and they catch on, leading to one gang member's death and forcing the gang to move once again]].
* FictionalCounterpart: The Wheeler, Rawson, & Co. Consumer Guide catalogues found in every shop is one to the Sears, Roebuck, & Co. mail order catalogues from the era, complete with the "Cheapest Supply House on Earth" and "Our Trade Reaches Around the World" taglines.
* FictionalDocument: The game contains hundreds of notes, letters, and even some full blown short stories in book form. You can collect them and they are neatly organized in your inventory by category.
* FictionalProvince: The game takes place in the fictional U.S. states of New Austin, West Elizabeth, New Hanover, Ambarino, and Lemoyne. Guarma is a fictional Caribbean island visited as well.
* FightingForAHomeland: The Wapiti have already been moved to a new reservation once with great difficulty, and now the government wants to move them again because they believe there is oil beneath their reservation. Their leaders are fighting it, both literally and metaphorically, with the local army colonel goading them into attack with actions like stealing their horses and burning their sacred sites in hopes of wiping them out for glory.
* FireForgedFriends: Notable in its complete aversion. Members of the Van der Linde gang fight side by side and save each other's lives on quite a few occasions throughout the story, but this by itself never leads to deep bonds of brotherhood and camaraderie. Arthur and the other gang members often finish a fight together only to immediately begin angrily bickering and accusing each other, especially when [[TokenEvilTeammate Micah]] is around, and even when friends save each other's life, there's rarely any fanfare or sentimentality beyond a quick "Thanks."
* FirePurifies: The third trailer has a heavy emphasis on fire and its destructive nature. In the final game, it's one of the things that Reverend Swanson talks about at night around the gang's campfire.
* FiringOneHanded: Just like John in the first game [[spoiler:and epilogue]], Arthur fires all sidearms one-handed, even the SawedOffShotgun.
* FirstPersonGhost: The first-person mode averts this: you can see Arthur's body when you look down, and there are first-person animations for various contextual actions.
* FirstPersonShooter: Just like the eighth-generation port of ''GTA V'', there's an option to play the game from a first-person perspective.
* FirstTown: Valentine, a fairly unremarkable livestock town, is not far from the gang's first hideout at Horseshoe Overlook. Unless you really go out of your way, it will have the first gun store, general store, stables, and more that you visit. It also almost perfectly resembles Armadillo, the first game's FirstTown, in layout.
* FishingMinigame: You can fish in most bodies of water, with different types of fish appearing in different areas of the map as well as depending on the body of water (lake or river). Different baits and lures also influence the type and quality of the fish you catch. You can also toss in a stick of dynamite, though this causes you to lose honor. On the flip side, catch and release fishing causes you to gain honor. Finally, just like the "legendary" animals to hunt, there are legendary fish to catch.
* AFistfulOfRehashes: Two rival families with ties to crime, one of whom includes the town sheriff. A third party looking to benefit by playing them off of each other. The protagonist helps a couple of StarCrossedLovers escape the situation. A (supposedly) hidden stash of gold. Are we referring to Chapter 3 or ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars''?
* FisticuffsBoss: Several missions in the game involve Arthur defeating enemies while unarmed in order to continue the mission. Notable ones are the fight in Valentine's saloon shown in trailers, and [[spoiler:the final confrontation against Micah Bell]].
* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
** [[spoiler:At the start of the "security" mission in Rhodes, the town is near completely deserted, all the shops are closed and the townsmen glare menacingly at the gang as they walk down the street, which hints towards a nasty surprise on the Grays' part.]]
** [[spoiler:If the player hasn't already realized where Arthur's disease came from or that it's a contagious one, they might be clued in by Dr. Barnes immediately and nervously washing his hands after inspecting Arthur.]]
** [[spoiler:In the final mission of the game, as John confronts Micah, the latter makes an offhand remark about how it's a good day for renewing old acquaintances. A few minutes later, Dutch himself marches out of the cabin and joins the fray.]]
* ForegoneConclusion: As would be expected from a prequel:
** At the very least, Dutch Van der Linde and part of his gang (John Marston, Bill, Javier) will survive the events of the prequel, as they appear in the events of the first game set years later.
** Arthur obviously wasn't seen in the original ''Red Dead Redemption'' or even mentioned as one of the men John needed to hunt down. So, regardless of whatever became of him, it can already be pieced together that he didn't exactly have a big presence in New Austin by 1911.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[Foreshadowing/RedDeadRedemption2 Has its own page.]]
* ForgivenButNotForgotten: Prior to the events of the game, John left the gang for a year and then returns, welcomed with open arms by most. Arthur is not one of them, disgusted that John had left the entire gang as well as Jack (whom at first John doesn't believe to be his son). Eventually, Arthur starts warming up to John again after [[spoiler:the latter is determined to get Jack back from Angelo Bronte]].
* FreeRotatingCamera: Present in 3rd person, like most Rockstar games. Pressing the left trigger will cause it to lock on. If you have a gun drawn, this will also point the gun using auto-aim, which also locks it onto the target.
* FriendlyFireproof: Zig-zagged in that you cannot fire your weapon while pointing at companions during missions, and you cannot even draw your weapons under normal circumstances while in camp. However, any SplashDamage you cause, for example using fire bottles, dynamite, or by shooting explosive containers, can still harm and kill your companions.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Micah. The rest of the Van der Linde gang are a group of outlaws who nonetheless view each other as a sort of family unit. All with the exception of Micah, a violent psychopath who often goes out of his way to antagonize other members of the gang and otherwise act like a massive asshole. The only reason he's able to stick around is because he's a competent gunman and he's really good at sucking up to Dutch, who goes through a steady decline as the game goes on. [[spoiler:Eventually, by the end, he sells the gang out to the Pinkertons to save his own skin.]]
* FriendsWithBenefits: Sean and Karen have a bit of a relationship like this.
* FromBadToWorse:
** The [[DownerBeginning beginning of the game]] sees the gang in a bad spot - lost in a blizzard, two people are dead, one was captured, and the rest are hunted by the Pinkertons and other bounty hunters after a botched ferry job forces them to run off east (the opposite direction of where they wanted) without money and low on supplies.
** The end of Chapter 4 through the beginning of Chapter 6 is basically a TraumaCongaLine of things getting worse for the gang. [[spoiler:A bank heist in Saint Denis goes awry, resulting in the death of two gang members and the capture of a third. In order to escape, the survivors from the heist group stow aboard a ship bound for Cuba which wrecks along the way. They end up on the island of Guarma, a nightmare of a corporate police state run by a corrupt sugar baron. They are captured, one is wounded, and then the survivors must aid the local resistance in order to secure passage back to America. Finally, when they arrive and regroup with the rest of the gang, they are almost immediately beset by Pinkertons who bring a veritable army to take the gang down]].
* FullBoarAction: Wild boars can be hunted in the southern areas of the map. They are quite hardy and can take several rifle shots to the body before going down.
* {{Futureshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Edgar Ross meets Jack Marston for the first time at a river bank while Jack is fishing. Jack Marston meets Edgar Ross for the last time at a river bank, although Ross is duck hunting instead of fishing.]]
-->[[spoiler:'''Ross''']]: Enjoy your fishing, [[spoiler:kid]]... while you still can.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G]]
* TheGadfly: This is the ''raison d'être'' of the avant-garde French artist Charles Châtenay, who strives "to provoke, to ''challenge''" his audience -- primarily through nude paintings of people they'd prefer not to see nude. Even while fleeing town, he claims that there's no difference between being loved and being hated, as long as he makes an impact.
* GainaxEnding: PlayedWith. The player probably understands the ending of the "Geography for Beginners" stranger mission, but it's clear that poor Arthur is very, ''very'' confused about the whole thing. To recap:[[spoiler:Francis, the guy who gives you the mission, is gone by the time you return to his cabin. Instead, inside you find a mural depicting skyscrapers and him walking through a circle. Seconds later, a woman walks in and reveals that the only Francis in their household is the 1-year old she's holding in her hands. Arthur notices that the baby really appears to be the man they interacted with earlier, and leaves the cabin confused about the whole thing. Francis also spoke in mid 20th century slang that Arthur just doesn't get but someone today would be able to spot as being out of place. Most players have enough knowledge about TimeTravel to understand the implications, while Arthur doesn't.]]
* GameBreakingBug: Multiple:
** There are reports of a few items (camera, lantern, fishing rod, throwing knives) disappearing from the player's inventory once you enter the epilogue. While throwing knives can be forced back into your inventory by crafting a special variant (you still have them, but just can't equip them), the lantern, camera, and fishing rod cannot. Unfortunately, the camera is required on the legendary duelists side mission, while the fishing rod is required to catch all of the legendary fish (some of which can only be caught in the epilogue without exploits) so these become outright impossible to complete. What triggers this is a total unknown as it doesn't affect everybody, but one possible trigger may be [[spoiler:dying and restarting a checkpoint after Arthur gives his satchel to John.]]
** Ammo will sometimes disappear from your inventory. Sometimes its just for one gun (most commonly the Varmint Rifle) and other times it is for an entire "class" of weapons (those which share the same ammo type, so repeaters, rifles, and shotguns). Exactly what causes it is unknown, but players have seemingly traced it to the upgraded bandolier which doubles your "long gun" ammo capacity. Even then, what triggers it is unknown as some players with the upgraded bandolier never experience while others experience it several times in a single play through.
** Sometimes in rare cases, when your honor meter starts getting higher than usual before players get to "A Fork in the Road", it will quickly take a nosedive down to negative honor and bad flashbacks happen. In fact, when players try to complete a mission, their honor meter goes higher then quickly takes a nosedive back down to negative honor. If that happens, then they are better off starting the whole game over from scratch and hope they don't get the (very rare) honor meter glitch again with backup copies of their save files at hand to avoid getting a bad ending.
** Sometimes Giaguaro, the Legendary Panther you need to kill for Master Hunter Challenge 10, will never spawn. Unfortunately, this means it would be impossible to have 100% completion, since all the challenges are a prerequisite to it.
* GameHuntingMechanic: Hunting has been made even more realistic here, with the values of the catches being dependent on the freshness of the meat and the cleanliness of the kill.
* GameplayAllyImmortality: Averted. Your allies can be killed when involved with missions which results in mission failure. The game prevents you from shooting them directly, but they can still be killed by explosions you instigate.
* GameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** [[spoiler:Once you switch to John, your ability to swim is gone. You can still save yourself if you're close to the shore, but John will go into a complete panic and his stamina, core included, will be depleted instantly.]]
** It's known that Arthur has a way with words and art, as shown in his journal, [[spoiler: while John is... Just compare his sketching and Arthur's in the epilogue.]]
** Once you reach chapter 6 (or you're in the middle of Chapter 5) and Arthur [[spoiler:is diagnosed with TB, he starts thinking about making amends, even at low honor. In turn, the game begins to nudge the player [[TookALevelInKindness to redeem him]] by allowing them to reach max honor. In addition, the side quests and debt collection missions in the chapters allow forgoing rewards and absolve the debts. So to say, you unlock Arthur's conscience.]]
** Also once you get to Chapter 6, [[spoiler: Arthur's journal gets increasingly illegible due to his handwriting deteriorating as his disease progresses. The entry about the DearJohnLetter he gets from Mary in particular is pretty much impossible to read unless you use the text function]].
** During "Favored Sons" in Chapter 6, Dutch and Arthur are running away [[spoiler:from the US army]] and end up jumping off of a cliff into water. Undoubtedly, you'll think that everywhere else in the game a fall like that would kill you, or at least deal a lot of damage, but if you go back to that particular spot and jump off of it outside of the mission, you'll be just as unharmed as in the mission.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** [[spoiler:John starts off with whichever level of Dead Eye Arthur had, while in ''1'' he had to learn abilities already available here.]]
** [[spoiler:Several of the collection missions can be started as Arthur but can only be completed as John, since a few of the items needed to be collected (fossil locations, legendary fish, etc.) are only available once the rest of the map opens up in the epilogue. Despite the 8-year gap, all of the quest items are still available, with none having been found by the quest-giver themselves or any other agents the quest-giver may have. Furthermore, the quest-givers seem to have patiently waited all those years for the protagonist to get them what they want, without trying to get the items some other way.]]
** It's kind of a given, but it counts; you can put in 2,000... 5,000... 10,000... hell, ''50,000''+ dollars into the contribution box if you're willing and able. Doesn't matter. The story will truck on with Dutch and the gang insisting that they just don't have enough money to escape the outlaw life.
*** [[spoiler: Similarly, the epilogue treats John as completely broke, even if you collected many thousands of dollars of valuables as Arthur and never sold them, thus having them carry over to John via Arthur's satchel. With the amount of money you can make from selling things at the beginning of the epilogue, John could have outright bought Beecher's Hope and not had to go on all the bounty hunt story missions with Sadie just to make the mortgage payments.]]
** Wearing a kerchief or some other kind of mask [[spoiler:before going after Thomas Downes]] removes it in the cutscene; taking a bath after you visit does absolutely nothing. This is the mission that triggers [[spoiler:Arthur contracting tuberculosis]], and it is ''mandatory''.
** [[spoiler: Between 1899 and 1907, the Marston family is constantly relocating thanks to John's inability to keep his revolver in his holster. Once you start playing as him, nothing stops you from committing crimes in public, as canon dictates that John and Abigail live the rest of their lives in Beecher's Hope. John could massacre the entirety of Blackwater without getting his family in trouble.]]
** Health Tonics can be used to bring you back from brutal injuries, however no one seems to think of them when it comes to the story. For example, John spends weeks recovering from his injuries in Chapter 1 and no one thinks to give one to [[spoiler:Dutch after his traumatic head injury in Chapter 4]]. Making this one more flagrant than most health item/story injury examples is that you ''can'' offer them injured Strangers during numerous random encounters.
** The whole of Chapter 3 involves the gang working the [[FeudingFamilies Braithwaites and the Grays]] in order to find and steal a stash of gold each family claims the other has. But as early as Chapter 2 [[spoiler: Arthur can find a letter from 1806 in the swamp near Saint Denis from [[StarCrossedLovers Lucille Braithwaite to Douglas Gray]], the two had fallen in love and ran away to elope, stealing the gold in the process. Finding this letter has no effect on the story or Dutch and Hosea's quest for the 'hillbilly gold']].
** Sometime after Arthur collects the debt from Thomas Downes, Edith may visit the camp as a random encounter and tell Strauss Thomas [[spoiler:is dead]]. Arthur even expresses regret about how things turned out. However, Arthur is also told this little fact in a story mission cutscene later in the game, and the game treats like it's the first time he hears about it.
** You can start certain sidequests as Arthur and [[spoiler:finish them as John]]. Picking up some of these sidequest lines such as "Oh, Brother" [[spoiler: as John will resulting in them starting with dialogue that implies that John has been involved with their quest before, even if you started the questlines as Arthur]].
** Certain collectibles don't spawn until you start their related stranger quest, so you can't have found them all by the time you first meet whoever needs them. Cigarette Cards, however, have no such limitation and the player can have all 144 in their inventory before starting their sidequest. No matter how many you have, Phineas will always be disappointed that you have nothing he hasn't got and asks you to send any full sets you may find to him through mail.
** Every bounty target you bring in can later be seen being hanged, even at bounties as low as $25 or entirely non-violent crimes. Arthur never will, no matter how high his bounty, how many lawmen he kills, or how much chaos he causes, the only punishment is a bit of jail time and bounty payment, or just jail time if he doesn't have the money to cover the bounty. [[spoiler: This gets to absurdity when John gets captured during a bank heist, put in a maximum security prison, and almost hanged himself. On top of the fact that Arthur will still get the usual jail and bail treatment if you surrender to Saint Denis lawmen immediately after getting back from Guarma or after the jailbreak mission, during which you are permanently considered Wanted Dead or Alive across the eastern edge of the map, you later ''play'' as John, who from then on gets those same privileges.]]
** A few conversations have Arthur mention that he isn't particularly good at fishing, such as two side missions that become available near the start of chapter 3 when he gets invited on 2 fishing trips by Javier and Kieran. If the player is diligent enough, it's entirely possible for these dialogues to occur after completing the Survivalist 10 challenge (catch 1 of every species of fish that can be found in the game) and caught more than half of the legendary fish.
** An example that combines this with GameplayAndStoryIntegration, interestingly: During the course of Chapter 5 and especially by the beginning of Chapter 6, Arthur will automatically [[spoiler: lose a large amount of weight and gain a diseased, sickly apppearance to signal the increasing aggresiveness of his tuberculosis, becoming very thin and weak-looking. The Integration part comes from the treatment of his cores; for the rest of the game, Arthur's cores will drain faster and it becomes impossible to fatten him up again by overeating. However, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures mercifully]], his stats and general performance will remain mostly the same, so you can still sprint halfway across the map and beat up a whole bar's worth of outlaws in an afternoon despite looking like you're one foot and half in the grave.]]
** [[spoiler:In the Epilogue, John will be surprised to see the Mauser Pistol being used by the Italian Mobsters as a sign of advancing technology despite said pistol being available in shops since 1899 and John could have one in his inventory. Hilariously, Angelo Bronte owns a Mauser Pistol and threw it at John in "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten".]]
* GangOfHats: Much like the previous installment, most of the gangs are identifiable by some physical aspects and all by unique behavior.
** The Van der Linde gang revolves around EqualOpportunityEvil (they are the most diverse of all gangs, be it in ethnicity, background or gender) and Dutch's idiosyncratic anarchist ideology.
** The O'Driscolls are [[TheIrishMob all Irish immigrants and Irish Americans]], who all wear green accessories (possibly as a tribute to their heritage). Men in Colm's employ also overwhelmingly favor black overcoats; Kieran's stays on even when he's semi-accepted into the Van Der Linde Gang, marking him as an outsider, and stays with him until Rhodes.
** The Lemoyne Raiders are a neo-Confederate militia that relies on robbery, moonshining, and gunrunning to finance their ongoing war; the senior members wear their old uniforms, while the ones too young to have served wear yellow bandanas and clothing that mimics Confederate grays. Some favor red shirts, in reference to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waving_the_bloody_shirt the "bloody shirt" myth]] that many Reconstruction-era hate groups mocked and took as a badge of pride.
** Angelo Bronte's mob are all Italians, almost certainly an early Mafia family (though never named) or possibly Camora. They carry top-of-the-line weapons and custom gear, and are decked out in [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/reddeadredemption/images/7/7c/Guido_Martelli%27s_Men.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200715171039 very expensive, very dark clothing]] unsuited for the climate of Saint Denis, suggesting a desire to look intimidating over being practical.
** The Murfree Brood are severely inbred [[HillbillyHorrors yokels]] who torture and cannibalize their victims; they rarely wear shirts.
** The Night Folk wear primitive clothes and only use bows and melee weapons, they never talk and many [[AmbiguouslyHuman wonder if they are fully human]].
** The Del Lobos are stereotypical Mexican banditos.
** The Laramie Gang serves as hired thugs for wealthy ranchers to bully poor homesteaders, they all wear fine clothes and red neckerchiefs.
** The Skinner Brothers are a [[EqualOpportunityEvil multiethnic]] gang of sadists who torture their victims much like the Murfree Brood.
* GangUpOnTheHuman: Outside of scripted events, bandits completely ignore wandering civilians and are only interested in harassing the player. Likewise, if someone attacks the player without provocation, law enforcement will not step in to stop them and may even attempt to arrest the player for defending themselves.
* GargleBlaster:
** Moonshine, much like in the real world. It is extremely flammable, meaning it is a very high proof. You can still drink it for a temporary health boost.
** Aged Pirate Rum. Though the game takes place in the past, it is still some 200 years after the golden age of piracy. Booze that old would not be pleasant to drink.
* GatlingGood: Mounted M1908 Maxim machine guns are used in this role. They'll be used against you in several missions, and you can sometimes take control of them. Oddly, the first game, set 12 years later, is more technologically backwards, featuring things like Gatling guns and wood-burning locomotives more appropriate to the 1870s. Of course, this was a function of RDR 1's troperific homages to Hollywood westerns, anachronisms be damned. The appearance of 1908 Maxims in 1899 is equally anachronistic, in the other direction (the U.S. Army's MG at the time was the Colt M1895 "potato digger.")
* GenericEthnicCrimeGang:
** The O'Driscolls are the primary rival of the Van der Linde gang and are almost entirely Irish in terms of ethnicity.
** The Lemoyne Raiders are made up of ex-Confederate soldiers and other southerners they've drawn to their cause.
** Angelo Bronte is TheDon of an Italian proto-mafia gang in Saint Denis.
* GentleGiant: Large game including Elk, Moose, Buffalo, and even Black Bears are entirely non-hostile. It is possible for them to trample you if you get in their way, but they won't intentionally attack you.
* GenreShift: The first half of Chapter 5 turns the game from a western sandbox to a [[spoiler:''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}''-esque jungle adventure.]]
* GetItOverWith: After turning in a bounty alive, you may witness them being publicly executed next time you're in town. Most are hardened career criminals who have an attitude like this.
* GhibliHills: West Elizabeth to the north and west of Strawberry. It's a hilly forested area with mountain streams, peaceful lakes, plentiful wildlife, and is relatively untouched by man.
* GhostTown:
** Colter is an abandoned mining town that briefly serves as the gang's hideout during Chapter 1. Once the gang leaves the place, nobody else is seen there.
** Limpany is a small town devastated by a fire and then abandoned.
** Pleasance is a small community that was hit with the double whammy of a mass murder followed by a plague outbreak. Its few buildings are boarded up as a result.
** Unlike in the first game, Armadillo is almost completely deserted when the player visits it in the epilogue, with only a few sickly men and women, a local town crier, the Saloon owner and Herbert Moon occupying the place. The Del Lobos occasionally come in to terrorize the place, which prompted the town's single sheriff [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere to get the hell out of dodge.]]
* GhostTrain: A spectral train can appear on railroad tracks at the border of Lemoyne and New Hanover. It only appears at around 3 AM or so, and it can never be encountered again once seen.
* GiveMeYourInventoryItem: Several Stranger encounters involve giving items like Health Tonics to [=NPCs=] who are sick after eating poisonous plants or who have been bitten by a snake. While you can simply ignore them or choose not to give them the item, you'll generally take a hit to your honor.
* GoldenEnding: While still rather {{bittersweet|Ending}}, the ending you get with high Honor, a fully bonded horse, making TheAtoner[=-style=] choices in Chapter 6, and [[spoiler:choosing to hold the line to allow the Marston family to escape]] is generally considered the best possible ending.
* GoodGunsBadGuns:
** While the guns Arthur uses throughout the game are up to what the player acquires and chooses to use, he starts off with a Cattleman Revolver (based on the Colt Single Action Army revolver) and the Carbine Repeater (based on the Spencer repeating rifle), which lean "good" as classic Old West weapons. These hint at Arthur's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold good heart beneath his rough exterior]] and his possible [[spoiler: "redemption" at the end of the game]].
** Foreshadowing his status as [[spoiler:TheMole]], Micah [[GunsAkimbo dual-wields]] (a typical "bad" trait) a pair of double-action revolvers (advanced for the age, another typically "bad" gun trait).
** Saint Denis [[TheMafia Mafia boss]] Angelo Bronte uses a Mauser pistol, obvious to modern players as a "bad" gun due to its associate with Germany in the World Wars. For the time period, it counts as an "advanced" gun, typically a "bad" trait as well.
* GoodOldFisticuffs: A combat option. You'll get into quite a few brawls over the course of the game where you'll fight in this fashion.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: It is a game set in the Old West, so [[EverybodySmokes characters of all moralities]] can be seen throughout the game smoking like chimneys. This even includes Arthur, who will be smoking in a number of cut scenes even if you try to actively avoid doing so in gameplay (smoking recharges your Dead Eye core at the cost of some Stamina). A high Honor Arthur gets several of the "Good Smoking" exemptions, including being a badass and (depending on who you ask) being sexy.
* GoryDiscretionShot: Rockstar seems to be actively trying to invert this.
** Some kills activate a kill cam, which shows off the gun's moving parts and the bullet hitting the target in all its gory detail.
** The majority of animals are skinned onscreen. For larger animals, this means plunging a knife into its stomach and peeling the skin off. For birds and small game, you pick them up and rip their skin/feathers off with your bare hands.
** Also PlayedStraight in one instance; one mission requires you to help give birth to a foal, and Rockstar thankfully realized that showing it on-screen would be a bit much. It happens just off-screen as the camera focuses on you instead.
* GottaCatchThemAll:
** Several Stranger missions involve locating/collecting large numbers of items like dinosaur bones, rock carvings, specific perfect condition animal specimens, legendary fish, etc.
** Several Challenges have requirements in this vein, such as taming one of every kind of horse or picking one of every type of plant.
* GoWaitOutside: Numerous side missions only advance to the next stage 24 in-game hours after completing the previous mission in the chain. However, nothing is stopping you from simply setting up camp and sleeping for that time to quickly advance them. Conversely, you'll be chastised at the start of some main missions with characters making statements along the lines of "what took you so long" even if you immediately begin that mission at the conclusion of the previous.
* GratuitousGerman: A mild example with the disappeared Luxembourgian princess Isabeau Katharina Zinsmeister's surname. As an occupational surname (freely translating to taxmaster), it would a perfectly acceptable German name... for ''commoners'' and ''lower'' nobility (and even in the latter case, TheVonTropeFamily is in full effect). Like in the rest of mainland Europe, higher nobility in the Germanosphere traditionally style themselves after places over which they reign or once reigned, such as von Wittelsbach (a castle in Swabia) or von Hessen (a former landgraviate). The RealLife princely family of Luxembourg does, appropriately enough, style itself as the House of Luxembourg.
* GraveMarkingScene: [[spoiler:In the end credits, Mary visits Arthur's grave (which has a Celtic cross headstone signifying his Welsh heritage), and demonstrates that despite everything that happened between them, she still cares for him. If he was played honorably through to the very end, then his grave is also adorned with a bunch of flowers to add a bit of cheerfulness to this otherwise bittersweet scene. John Marston can also visit the graves of his fallen comrades, including Arthur, for the "Paying Respects" achievement. If the player reaches HundredPercentCompletion, John also visits said grave and writes on Arthur's journal as "Crash of Worlds" plays in the background, and says, "Guess we're just about done, my friend."]]
* GravityBarrier: Used in several areas on the edges of the map. Slopes less steep than what you've climbed to get to them suddenly send you sliding back down when you try to climb them.
* GreatEscape: An early Chapter 2 mission has you breaking [[spoiler:Micah]] out of the Strawberry jail. Naturally, it gets...noisy...and attracts the attention of the law.
* GreatWhiteFeline: One of Strauss's debt collection missions has you aid the debtor in hunting a white cougar, whose valuable pelt will cover the debt. [[spoiler:The debtor...doesn't make it, leaving you one-on-one with an animal capable of killing you with a single pounce in a dark cave. Happy hunting!]]
* GreenAesop: Killing too many animals in quick succession results in honor loss. Most easily seen by shooting down a flock of birds in a single deadeye use and/or by dynamite fishing.
* GreenHillZone: The gang's first two camps at Horseshoe Overlook and Clemens' Point qualify. Both are in green wilderness areas surrounded by plentiful non-hostile wildlife and have relatively peaceful [[spoiler:(until the actions of the gang itself disrupt the peace)]] nearby towns.
* GrievousHarmWithABody: [[spoiler:When he's prone on the floor and at the mercy of depraved serial killer Edmund Lowry Jr., Arthur improvises by picking up a severed head from Lowry's collection and throwing it at him; once Lowry is disoriented, Arthur takes the opportunity to move in and clobber the weaker man with a single punch.]]
* GrimUpNorth: The northern areas of the map are covered in deep snow bounded by tall mountain ranges. They're home to dangerous creatures including Grizzly Bears and packs of Wolves. Naturally, the DownerBeginning Chapter 1 and [[spoiler:the BittersweetEnding final epilogue mission]] take place up here, [[BookEnds book-ending]] the story.
* GroinAttack: One sidequest features a pair of brothers trying to prove their manliness to a woman by having Arthur punch them to see who has the higher pain tolerance. You start with their faces, go down to their stomachs, and end the section by kicking them in the crotch, which causes both of them to collapse.
* GuideDangIt:
** The only advice the game gives you in regards to disguising yourself to avoid gaining a bounty while committing crimes is to wear a mask, neglecting to mention that depending on the situation there are several other steps involved. This can bite players in the ass hard during the story and land you with at least one pretty hefty bounty. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/reddeadredemption/comments/9shb26/important_details_about_the_bounty_system/ This Reddit post covers some of the finer details]] that even the official guide doesn't mention, but the general gist is this: disguises and masks help keep '''witnesses''' from giving a good positive ID, as lawmen that witness you will ID you no matter what, and the time it takes a witness to report to the law giving you the time to either run, hide, or change your appearance in any way before they show up to investigate. Changing your appearance can equate to getting a haircut and shave or just changing clothes to an outfit you have stored on your horse, be it a custom outfit or one of the many presets. Hanging around an investigation site makes the lawmen suspicious of you, with a good chance of them [=IDing=] you as the culprit and likely either firing on you or trying to arrest you.
** The game doesn't tell you all of the bonuses of crafted saddles, particularly that they also include the bonuses of stirrups (which can't be changed while using a crafted saddle). For example, the best purchasable saddle has the bonuses of 16/14/16 and the best stirrups have the bonuses of +2 to top speed and acceleration and a 50% slower stamina drain rate. In comparison, the stable menu tells you that the craftable alligator saddle has the stats of 20/24/22 and a 50% slower stamina drain, with no mention of the +2 bonuses that would come with the stirrups. However, the +2 bonus is actually still present, but it can only be seen on the horse section of the pause menu.
** Finding specific animals for hunting and fishing. The game thankfully hands you a map early on of Legendary animal spawns and reinforces these with a pop up letting you know that you've entered their territory. However, for rare standard animals, finding them can be a real challenge. Need that Perfect Panther pelt to upgrade your satchel? They only spawn in ''two'' locations, and there are numerous circumstances which may cause them to not spawn. Some of the smaller animals can be an even greater challenge due to a combination of their size and infrequent spawns, such as the badger.
** When it comes to collecting perfect pelts, the only advice that the game gives to players is to use the correct ammo, aim carefully, and try to take the animal down with just one shot. It glosses over the fact that not all animals ''can'' yield a perfect pelt, even if you kill them perfectly: when you get close enough to an animal to study it, a star rating (which many players miss) will appear beside their name. Only animals with three stars can yield perfect pelts (two-star animals can only yield a good pelt at best, and one-star animals can only yield poor pelts).
** There's a 100% effective method of getting perfect pelts from certain three-star animals, but the game never tells you about it: you can use your lasso to capture almost all mid-sized animals (e.g. deer, pronghorns, rams, etc.), which will bring up a prompt to kill the animal with your knife once you're close enough. Since this allows you to cleanly kill the animal without firing a single shot, it yields perfect pelts ''every'' time. (Even taking down an animal with a single headshot isn't effective 100% of the time, since you can still inadvertently damage the pelt if your angle is off)
** Contrary to what its item description implies, the Varmint Rifle isn't a foolproof method of cleanly killing small game, as it can still damage the pelts of particularly small animals (like squirrels and chipmunks). To cleanly kill those animals, you need to use a bow loaded with Small Game Arrows.
** If you carry animal pelts or carcasses to Pearson at camp, there's no way to just ''hand'' them to him manually. Meat and pelts (if they're small enough) have to be selected from your satchel to be donated--and the only way to donate an entire carcass (or a larger pelt) is to leave it stowed on the back of your horse, allowing you to select it at the "donate" screen--since items stowed on the player's horse are treated as a separate inventory from the player's satchel. Considering how much detail is otherwise put into realistic interaction with [=NPCs=], most players find this very counterintuitive.
** Want to keep [[spoiler:John's white gambler hat? You need to have someone punch it off and have John pick it up during the first half of the epilogue.]]
** Want to keep Arthur's money [[spoiler:into the epilogue]]? There's actually a way to do it, but it's incredibly obscure. You have to [[spoiler:go to the Aberdeen farm and drink until you pass out, which results in the Aberdeens taking all of Arthur's money and putting it in their secret stash. Then you just leave and complete the rest of the main game, reach the epilogue, and then complete enough missions to unlock the free-roam portion of the epilogue. Then you can go back to the Aberdeen farm, kill everyone there, and take the money out of the safe.]]
** Want to obtain the unique outfits from stores not accessible until the epilogue? Log in to the Rockstar Social Club, and open the "Wheeler, Rawson & co." page, which includes every purchaseable item in the general store catalogue and uses Arthur's money as currency. Unlike weapons, the outfits are not tied to story progression and the only reason they are normally unaccessible is that the player cannot physically enter these stores [[spoiler:as Arthur]]. If bought through the webpage, the game adds them to your inventory the next time the game loads up.
** The game prevents you from obtaining certain collectibles until you activate the mission related to them, so you won't have them all the first time you meet the person who wants them. While this makes sense with the main collectible such as rock carvings or bones[[note]]Certain rewards for these sidequests are tied to the post office system[[/note]], this also extends to ''plants''. This can lead to a situation where the player seeks a certain orchid (say, the ghost orchid) for the 9th herbalist challenge, but has already collected 4 before starting the challenge -- the game stops spawning any more ghost orchids until you complete the first 2 stages of "Duchesses and other animals", because Algernon wants 5 of them.
** You can restore your horse's stamina by clicking the left analog stick, although with a ~20 second cooldown. It's an entire mechanic that levels up with your horse, but it's never mentioned anywhere. Not helped by the fact that it actually ''wasn't'' there on release.
** During one mission, the protagonist has to fight a wildcat in a pitch-black cave. The only apparent options are for the player to either have Arthur hold a lantern in one hand (which prevents him from using a rifle on the cougar, since those guns require two hands, and restricts him to weaker, one-handed guns), or standing in one specific spot where there's a lantern on the ground (and thus being a sitting target). Unless, of course, the player already went to the one location in the game where a [[HandsFreeHandlamp Miner's Hat]] can be found lying around. The hat produces light by itself and allows the player to move around and wield a rifle while still being able to see what's going on. It makes the fight much easier, but absolutely nothing indicates where the hat is (or that it even exists), meaning the only ways to find it are by using a guide or just stumbling across it.
* GunsAkimbo: Borrowing from Rockstar's earlier work on ''VideoGame/MaxPayne3'', you can dual-wield pistols for extra firepower.
* GunsInChurch: You can carry firearms with you almost everywhere. When entering camp, your long guns will typically be left on your horse, but you still keep your sidearms and knife on your person. A few story missions will require you to turn in your guns as well, averting the trope.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H]]
* HairTriggerTemper:
** [=NPCs=] can be rather irascible and don't appreciate it if the player (almost) bumps into them or, if they're even grouchier, stands too close to them for more than a moment. Those of a generally violent disposition are definitely this trope, being more than willing to start an (armed) fight over the smallest things.
** Arthur, also, with a dedicated conversation option. Even if you never antagonize a single person, he still has moments throughout the game (especially with Kieran) where he comes off disprapportionately angry.
* {{Hammerspace}}: Averted in some respects, unlike in ''I''.
** You can carry up to two sidearms and two longarms on your person, period. Switching which weapons you're carrying requires either going into a town with a gunsmith and switching them out there if you're somehow without your main horse, or switching them out from your main horse's saddlebags.
** You're limited with the number of animal carcasses you can strap to your horse: two moderate animals and one medium/large animal. Small animals are put in Arthur's satchel, while massive animals can only be carved on the spot. Pelts and feathers work differently: feathers and small/moderate pelts go into your satchel, medium/large pelts are draped over your horse's back and can be stacked, while massive pelts take up the medium/large carcass spot.
** Zig-zagged with Arthur's satchel, gun belt, bandoleer, and saddlebag, which each act more like a BagOfHolding.
*** Satchel: You can carry a limited number of each item, but there appears to be no limit as to the sheer ''variety'' of stuff you can carry in each of the six categories. The carry capacity can be increased by upgrading your satchel, with the Legend of the East satchel boosting your capacity for ''everything'' to 99.
*** Saddlebags: You can initially carry only three outfits/hats/masks in them, but buying upgraded saddlebags from any of the stables will boost that limit to five. All while looking like they'd be lucky enough to store ''one'' outfit. They can also carry all of your weapons, with guns just appearing and disappearing when you take them out and put them back.
*** Ammunition: Each weapon type has a certain limit for how much ammo you can carry for each type (for example: revolvers and repeaters have caps of 200 for regular/express/high velocity ammo, 100 for split point, and 10 for explosive). Buying the upgraded gun belt (revolvers and pistols) and bandoleer (repeaters, rifles, shotguns) will upgrade your max ammo by 50%, while buying any of the reinforced gun belts and bandoleers from the Saint Denis trapper will upgrade your ammo max by 100%. Note that once you buy an upgrade to your satchnel, gun belt or bandolier, their effects are permanent, even if you don't actually wear them.
* HammerspacePoliceForce:
** On certain missions, the lawmen sent after you will continue to spawn infinitely. Kill as many as you want, the game will keep sending more after you. In cases like this, the objective becomes escape.
** In free roam, killing enough of the lawmen sent after you following a crime will stop them from coming after you. However, this typically results in a high bounty, after which bounty hunters will continue to spawn if you stay in the state in which you have the bounty. Played straight in and around Blackwater until the Epilogue, where federal agents will spawn infinitely if you're spotted.
* HandicappedBadass: [[spoiler: Despite being terminally-ill with tuberculosis, Arthur still manages to hold off a large number of Pinkerton agents and later fights the healthy Micah to a draw. Things may have turned out very differently indeed if Arthur had been in fit condition during the ending.]]
* HandsFreeHandlamp: The Miner's Hat can be found in an abandoned mine and lights up a small area when worn. It will [[InfiniteFlashlight burn indefinitely]] and, unlike the handheld lantern Arthur comes with by default, still allows two-handed weapons to be used. The only downside is that it isn't quite as bright as the lantern.
* HappilyAdopted: Arthur, along with a dash of FamilyOfChoice and PlatonicCoParenting, when it comes to Dutch and Hosea. After the deaths of his biological parents, Arthur was a street urchin scooped up by Dutch and Hosea who raised him together before they started their gang. Even twenty years on, Arthur still [[ParentalSubstitute sees them as his family]], and writes in his journal that he loves both of them dearly. They are explicitly referred to as his parents a couple times in the game.
* HardCodedHostility: Rival gangs will be immediately hostile if you enter their camps or hideouts. A possible random encounter in their territories are ambushes set to take you out. Downplayed in towns and in some random events where they might just insult or try to rob you instead.
* HardWorkMontage: An interactive montage, complete with music, features in [[spoiler:the Epilogue as John builds his ranch house at Beecher's Hope]].
* HatDamage: It is possible to remove people's hats with a well placed shot. They can also be knocked off in a melee fight. This can also happen ''to'' you as well.
* HateSink:
** The kids in Saint Denis involved in robbing Arthur's satchel. Further cementing this is the fact that it's something that can happen to anyone in real life if they're a little too trusting. The experience is probably more personal than getting shot.
** All of the rival gangs have their negative attributes played up to instill player hatred and make the Van der Linde gang look much more reasonable by comparison. Colm O'Driscoll is a SmugSnake who believes in [[AMillionIsAStatistic quantity over quality]] when it comes to his gang members. The Lemoyne Raiders are TheRemnant of the Confederacy, complete with anti-Federalist ideals and loads of racism. The Night Folk are barely human [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] monsters. The Murfree Brood are inbred HillbillyHorrors who torture their victims and launch sneak attacks. The Skinner Brothers are a loose collection of criminals who engage in ColdBloodedTorture for its own sake.
* HealingPotion: Health Tonics and some alcoholic beverages work in this fashion.
* HelloInsertNameHere: Horses can be named and renamed at stables. For some reason, in a game where it's possible to decapitate someone with a shotgun, profane names are not permitted [[FridgeLogic in spite of the game's dialogue being profanity ridden]].
* HenpeckedHusband: After finding Pearson running the General Store in Rhodes, his wife can be heard from upstairs barking orders at him.
* HerdingMission: In the mission "The Sheep and The Goats", John and Arthur rustle a flock of sheep from Emerald Ranch and must herd them to the animal market in Valentine without letting the sheep injure themselves or wander away from the flock.
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Arthur, already terminally ill with tuberculosis, performs a HeroicSacrifice at the end.]]
* HeroicRROD: [[spoiler:Arthur is told that he can slow the progression of his illness by going someplace warm and dry, but he chooses to stay with the gang. If the player finishes the final mission with high Honor, he dies from overexerting his disease-weakened body.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Two examples from Arthur.
** [[spoiler: The first example is when Arthur gets diagnosed with tuberculosis - he is told that he may survive longer if he retires somewhere warm and dry, but he chooses to stick with the gang anyway. He continues to help others in this condition despite knowing that it will lead to his inevitable death.]]
** [[spoiler:The second example is when Arthur decides to stay and hold back the Pinkertons while John escapes with his family. Unlike John in the original ''RDR'', Arthur manages to successfully hold off the attackers without losing his life in the process, only dying when Micah intervenes.]]
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Arthur is very hard on himself in this regard, whether he's played at high or low Honor. He never misses a chance to voice his self-loathing. He constantly brushes off people whenever they compliment him or tell him how he's a good person and that they like him, and he even calls himself an "ugly bastard" when he looks at himself in a mirror.
* HesBack: The Epilogue opens with [[spoiler:John, now going by the name Jim Milton, working at Pronghorn Ranch for David Geddes, who's being hassled by the Laramie Gang. One night, the gang attacks the ranch and John, having had enough of them, suits up for a shootout in the mission "Jim Milton Rides Again" to show that John Marston is back!]]
* HeWasRightThereAllAlong: Cougars and Panthers are ambush predators who can pull this on you. Perhaps you're sneaking through a wooded area hunting when, suddenly, you hear a growl and see a red dot appear on your mini-map. From that point, you have about one second to active Dead Eye, lock onto the creature, and fire a kill shot before it pounces, killing you.
* HiddenDepths: Arthur engages in some surprisingly deep and interesting philosophical discussions with various characters over the course of the story, quite an accomplishment for a gunslinging outlaw with no formal education. His journal entries also provide insight into his thoughts, and are more eloquently written than how he speaks. He will get called out on this by a couple of people, most notably Dutch.
* HideYourChildren:
** Downplayed, as there are children present throughout the game, but not in the "open world" portions. They can only be interacted with in cut scenes, preventing you from harming them.
** Played straight with animals, as you will only encounter adult animals.
* HighPressureBlood: Shooting a person in the neck causes that person to start bleeding to death as well leaving puddles of blood.
* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Each rival gang wears something that makes them identifiable, ranging from Downplayed with the O'Driscolls wearing bits of green to the Lemoyne Raiders playing it straight with old Confederate uniforms. Each of these groups are outlaws who shouldn't logically want to call attention to this fact.
* HillbillyHorrors: There are a lot of creepy folks hanging around the woods and swamps in various areas of the map. More than one gang also have this as a theme, most notably the inbred CannibalClan known as the Murfree Brood.
* HillbillyIncest
** The Murfree Brood are a CannibalClan living in the caves of Roanoke Ridge (an area inspired by the Ozark Mountains) who terrorize travelers in the area. They're alleged to practice extensive inbreeding--many of them have visible deformities, and in-game dialogue shows family members referring to being incestuous with one another.
** Bray and Tammy Aberdeen are rural pig farmers. They invite Arthur into their house for a meal with the intent of poisoning and looting him. Midway through the dinner, Arthur realizes they're [[BrotherSisterIncest brother and sister]] and becomes increasingly disturbed by them flirting with one another. It's also implied that they may have been sexually abused by their parents as children, inspiring them to [[SelfMadeOrphan murder them]] and take over the farm.
* HistoryRepeats:
** A subtle one, but noteworthy nonetheless. [[spoiler: John gives his life so Jack can have a normal life in the first game, only for the boy to throw it all away years later in pursuit of vengeance. In this game, Arthur does the same so that John can leave his outlaw days behind, only for the latter to ruin it by attacking Micah's gang to avenge the former and putting himself back on the law's radar.]]
** In the final mission before the Epilogue of the first and second game, Edgar Ross leads an army of government men to kill members of the Van der Linde gang at their respective home/hideout. In the first game, its the U.S. Army attacking Beecher's Hope to kill John with Uncle being an added collateral casualty. In the second game, its the Pinkerton Detective Agency attacking Beaver Hollow to kill any gang members that haven't already fled or haven't been executed already.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** [[spoiler:Thomas Downes coughs on Arthur while the latter is beating him to recover a debt. There's even a particular moment where he coughs right in Arthur's face and Arthur wipes it in disgust. Downes' wife comes out and reveals that Downes is sick as he lies there coughing and struggling for breath. This is how Arthur caught TB. The music that plays in the ride back to camp clues the player into something major having just happened.]]
** There is a professor in "The Mercies of Knowledge" mission series who wants to use a criminal as a guinea pig for the test of the electric chair that he has invented. [[spoiler:By the end of the mission series, however, the professor gets killed by his own electric chair he was trying to use on the criminal, who is already in pain from getting tortured by it.]]
* HollywoodDarkness: Night is always brightly lit by the full moon, so it's never more than a little dim, and shadows are still strongly apparent.
* HollywoodDensity: The gold bars found throughout the game are easily handled with one hand.
* HollywoodHistory: Rockstar took great paints to Avert, Subvert, or at least Downplay, many classic-but-inaccurate "[[TheWildWest Wild West]]" tropes. For example, the game is realistically diverse in terms of races. Blacks, Mexicans, Asians, Native Americans, and many European nationalities (Irish, Scots, Poles, Germans, Italians, and even an instance of Scandinavians) are represented. The law, while still corrupt in places, is portrayed as more well-meaning and competent than in most media centered around outlaw main characters.
* HolyGround: The Native American Burial Ground is considered such a site. Shooting animals on or near it causes you to lose honor.
* HomeBase:
** The camp. While in the gang's camp, Arthur can sleep, play minigames, change clothes, shave his beard and socialize with the other members. This base's location changes several times throughout the story. In the epilogue, [[spoiler:as the gang has disbanded and John replaces Arthur, the camp is replaced by first the Pronghorn ranch and later Beecher's Hope.]]
** Camping is still a game mechanic, but while you can sleep, cook food and craft at them, they lack the character customization aspects of the main camp. They're more akin to temporary bases.
** As many of the enterable houses in the wilderness have beds on them yet their owners never appear, it's possible to take over any of them and treat them as one. However, as the game doesn't treat them as camps, they don't offer anything else than the ability to sleep inside them.
* HonoraryUncle:
** Uncle isn't a blood relative of anyone in the gang, yet everyone still refers to him as such.
** Jack refers to the adult male gang members as "Uncle" including Arthur, Bill and Hosea.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Several of the female members of the Van der Linde gang contribute in this fashion. Abigail is retired from this life since having Jack, but a few others still actively engage and, based on the conversations you can have with them, are quite lovely people. Part of an early Chapter 2 mission has you rescue Karen when one of her Johns reacts angrily to her attempting to rob him.
* HopelessBossFight: One of the vaudeville shows in Saint Denis features a strongwomen named Hortensia, who claims that no man can beat her in a fist fight and challenges anyone from the audience to do so. Climbing on stage and taking the challenge will inevitably result in you getting your ass beaten unconscious and thrown out the back door of the show. Even if you are skilled enough to knock her down it makes no difference; once you've done that, her next attack on you is guaranteed to be a OneHitKO. The game will also not let you shoot her either.
* HorseArcher: You've got a bow and you'll be spending a lot of time on horseback. While this can be an effective way to hunt, going after human enemies armed with actual firearms requires some real skill.
* HospitalityForHeroes: Having a high Honor gets you discounts of up to 50% at stores. It also makes it easier to Defuse situations which may escalate to violence.
* HotCoffeeMinigame: Downplayed but present when bathing in most hotels. You have the option for a deluxe bath in which an attractive woman helps you bathe. You can give inputs on body parts to wash and make small talk.
* HouseSquatting:
** The Lemoyne Raiders have taken over Shady Belle, an abandoned plantation mansion in the bayou, to use as a headquarters for their arms dealing. Arthur and Lenny attack it during Chapter 3 to steal a shipment to sell, then Arthur and John return to clear it out so the gang can take it over and use it as their base during Chapter 4, making them the squatters.
** Van Horn is a failing trading post full of dilapidated buildings and irritable citizenry. Several of the buildings are home to squatters. To the south is the "Van Horn Mansion", which a gang is using as a trap to rob anyone who comes in to loot the place.
* HubCity: Saint Denis is the largest and most populous city in the game. It has one of every kind of merchant, including a Trapper, and has a high volume of missions available. Its only downside is that it isn't centrally located, being at the far southern end of the map which can make trekking there tedious.
* HumanPincushion: Arrows will stick in targets and show until you collect them. If you intentionally aim for non-vital shots with standard or small-game arrows on a human opponent, they can limp around still alive with numerous arrows stuck in them.
* HumanTrafficking: Brother Dorkins' first sidequest, "Help a Brother Out", has him enlist Arthur to investigate claims that human traffickers are operating out of the Saint Denis pawnbrokers. He turns out to be right, as the pawnbroker has a couple of victims chained up down in the basement waiting to be sold.
* {{Hunk}}: Arthur is a very handsome and charming cowboy with rugged features. Other characters even compliment him on his good looks, depending on how well-groomed his appearance is. He starts the game off as a "bad man" and continues to believe that of himself, but other people tell him otherwise. He gets some "attractiveness points" for being polite and courteous towards women, compared to others who are dismissive and speaks to them in a condescending or derogatory way.
** Dutch is also this. He is a manly, badass AFatherToHisMen leader who is ''very'' handsome, in contrast to his later shabby and pathetic appearance in ''l''.
* TheHunterBecomesTheHunted: Hunting any predatory animal can become this if they detect you first. However, the Legendary Panther takes the cake. Every other legendary animal has you follow a series of clues before the animal will spawn. When hunting the Legendary Panther, [[spoiler:it spawns to ambush you after finding the third clue. You'll need to dodge its OneHitKO pounce before you can kill it]].
* HunterTrapper:
** Plenty are found as [=NPCs=]. Trappers are merchants who buy hides and can craft items for you. Many are found as random encounters, such as trappers with their leg caught in their own traps and hunters in the wilderness with their fresh kills on a horse in tow.
** This is perhaps the most lucrative ''honorable'' way to make money in the game. Find perfect animal specimens, kill them in the least damaging way possible (typically a varmint rifle or bow/arrow), skin them, and then sell their hides.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: Consumables take effect instantly, and you can chow down hundreds of pounds of edibles or gallons of liquid at once if you choose. [[spoiler:Subverted in Chapter 6 once Arthur's tuberculosis symptoms take full effect. You'll only gain benefit from eating a small quantity of food. You can still continue to consume more, but it won't have any beneficial effect]].
* HypercompetentSidekick: Arthur to Dutch. Arthur even refers to himself as the "workhorse" of the gang. Virtually all of the gang's successes occur thanks to Arthur's presence, while he also helps to minimize the failures including saving the lives of nearly every other gang member at least once during the main story. Arthur is also apparently the only gang member providing food and, if you choose to do so, will contribute by far the majority of funds to the camp.
* HyperspaceArsenal: All of the guns not currently equipped to your person are stored on your horse, though only two (plus the bow) will be visible at once.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I]]
* IconicOutfit: Like in most Rockstar games, Arthur's default outfit has become this. John's default look from the first game also makes it's reappearance around 3/4 into the story.
* IFoughtTheLawAndTheLawWon: Sleepy towns with a Sheriff and maybe a few deputies will suddenly be throwing dozens of heavily armed lawmen at you during major heists. Additionally, if you commit crimes in the countryside, witnesses will be able to report it in less than a minute and the surrounding roads will be swarmed with lawmen on horseback shortly after.
* IHaveYourWife: In Chapter 3, [[spoiler:the Braithwaites attempt to pull this on the gang by kidnapping Jack. Cue a RoaringRampageOfRescue by the gang which results in the deaths of all the Braithwaite sons and their mansion burned to the ground]].
* ImAHumanitarian:
** The Night Folk and the Murfree Brood are cannibalistic.
** The gang occasionally jokes about it, such as Arthur suggesting they eat Pearson, Karen suggesting that they eat Grimshaw or [[spoiler:John suggesting that Charles and Jack will eat Uncle at Beecher's Hope.]]
* ISurrenderSuckers: You can pretend to surrender to Lawmen or {{Bounty Hunter}}s, and then cancel it mid-way by pulling out your gun. They won't see it coming, and it'll give you some time to think of a strategy.
* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin:
** Just before [[spoiler:his HeroicSacrifice at the end of the main story, Arthur passes his hat and satchel on to John]].
** [[spoiler:Hamish the hunter will also ask Arthur/John to take Buell before he bleeds out from a gut wound.]]
* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: The U.S. Army, just like in the first game, are seen wielding a different weapon than the actual standard service rifle at the time. In the first game, it was the Krag-Jørgensen in place of the Springfield 1903. Here, it's the Winchester Model 1866 instead of the Krag-Jørgensen. The first game got a pass simply because the Springfield isn't in the game, but they get no such excuse here, where the correct service rifle is a usable weapon.
* ImprovisedWeapon:
** Arthur's horse can be used to run over and kill bandits or witnesses. He can also deliberately crash into other horses so their riders will fall and either die from the impact or be stunned enough to be finished off. He can do the same with hijacked wagons or stagecoaches.
** Arthur can use a moonshine bottle to knock out a moonshiner in a mission.
* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: As usual, with "Rockstar Games Presents" on the cover.
* IncrediblyConspicuousDrag:
** Charles Châtenay dresses up as a woman to escape Saint Denis in his final mission. He does not shave his facial hair and wears a low-cut dress which shows off his chest hair.
** "Margaret" the animal tamer is a buff, mustachioed man in a dress who thinks a female animal wrangler will attract a bigger audience. Making matters worse, he has an actual woman as his assistant.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Near the end of the game, [[spoiler:Arthur]] is diagnosed with tuberculosis and may very well succumb to it [[spoiler:should the player have a high enough honor to earn a relatively peaceful death]]. Justified, as there was no real treatment for [[spoiler:tuberculosis]] at that time.
* IndyPloy:
** In terms of the narrative, despite all of his reassurances that he "has a plan", it becomes more obvious over time that Dutch has devolved into this. By Chapter 6, several gang members including John and even Arthur himself begin to call Dutch out on this.
** You can count on one hand the number of missions which actually go according to plan in the main story. When they do go off the rails, Arthur steps up in this regard. Most often, the new plan becomes "shoot your way out".
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Arthur[[spoiler:/John]] will have this reaction when he learns that the Aberdeens are, um, inappropriately close.
* InelegantBlubbering: Milliken, a Sisika Penitentiary guard, is reduced to this when he's used as a hostage in order to bust [[spoiler:John]] out of prison.
* InexplicablyPreservedDungeonMeat: You can come upon campsites and homesteads which have been explicitly abandoned for several ''years'' in some cases, yet still contain consumable items. This is arguably Justified in the case of canned goods and alcohol, but is not for items like bread, crackers, and cheese.
* InfiniteFlashlight:
** The latern can be used indefinitely to illuminate areas and will never burn out. However, it limits you to one-handed weapons and cannot be used in water higher than the waist.
** The Miner's Hat is a HandsFreeHandlamp that will also last indefinitely and still allows for two-handed weapons. The downside is that it doesn't light up quite as much as the lantern.
* InfiniteStockForSale: All merchants carry enough stock in non-unique items to fill your inventory to the max. When you've bought up to your limit, the item will be marked as "sold out" in the catalogue. You can then immediately turn around, use or discard one of the items, re-enter the purchase screen, and the item will be available once again.
* InformedEquipment:
** Only two trinkets/talismans can be equipped to your character at a time, however, the effects from all of them are applied regardless of which two you are wearing.
** Several outfits and disguises are not compatible with the bandolier, so it will not show on your character. However, its effects (doubling rifle and shotgun ammunition) are still applied.
* InformedFlaw:
** Arthur states on several occasions that he is a lousy fisherman. However, you can catch every fish species in the game and even all of the legendary fish without issue.
** Wearing crafted clothing will get you funny looks and people joking about Arthur's choice of clothes (and not entirely without reason) yet some of the supposedly weird clothing looks completely normal but still causes these comments. For example, the coyote scout jacket looks almost identical to those found in stores, yet talking to people while wearing it will still cause amusement in [=NPC=]s.
* InGameTV: Like its predecessor, you can go to theaters and watch short projected films with narration.
* InjuredPlayerCharacterStage:
** During a Chapter 3 mission, [[spoiler:Arthur is captured and tortured by O'Driscolls. Beaten and shot through the shoulder, you'll need to escape their camp]].
** During the opening of Chapter 5, [[spoiler:Arthur washes up on Guarma following a ship wreck. He's exhausted, sunburned, and dehydrated. You'll control him as he stumbles to find the rest of the surviving gang members]].
** Toward the end of Chapter 6, [[spoiler:Arthur gets ambushed and injured by Micah while in his final stages of TB. You have to fight off Micah for as long as you can, and if you went with John, you'll have to crawl over to Micah's revolver in the final part of the fight ''[[AdvancingBossOfDoom while he's chasing after you]]''; if you went for the loot, you'll have to dodge his {{Finishing Move}}s via knife attack (though, depending on your honor, Arthur will either get a few more cuts and stab wounds (low) or none at all (high))]].
* InnSecurity: The first time you make camp in Murfree Brood territory, you'll be interrupted as you sit by the fire by two members of the brood who try to threaten you into leaving their land. Should you make camp in their territory again, it's possible that they will attack.
* InsistentTerminology: Whenever Seamus' cousins are brought up, he always refers to them as cousins by marriage.
* InstakillMook: Cougars and Panthers have a pounce attack which, if it lands, will instantly kill the player character regardless of health.
* InstantDeathBullet: A headshot with most weapons on a human enemy will kill them instantly. This is also true for most animals, however, larger animals like bears and buffalo can shrug off single headshots from weaker weapons. The Varmint Rifle averts this; shooting a human with it can cause them to bleed out slowly until they eventually die unless you shoot them in the head.
* InstantExpert: Slightly downplayed when it comes to weapons. As soon as you obtain a new gun, Arthur knows exactly how it operates and how it's reloaded. However, there's a half-hidden[[note]]It only shows up in the Compendium, not in the normal weapon-select screen.[[/note]] familiarity mechanic, which slightly improves the gun's stats the more you use it, reflecting how Arthur is getting used to the gun.
* InstantFishKill: Tossing dynamite into a body of water with fish will instantly kill them and cause them to float to the surface for easy collection. However, it does cause karma loss.
* InsultToRocks: One of the "Antagonize" conversations with Sadie:
-->'''Arthur''': I'd call you a fishwife, but I'd be insulting the fish.
* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Frequent in northern parts of the map - a very aggressive GravityBarrier kicks in at map edges even if the hill isn't as steep as those you climbed to get there, and many otherwise easily-climbable ledges cannot be grabbed for no explained reason. In fact, some map edges in Ambarino are literally just ''a pile of large rocks'' blocking entire pathways of cut areas which can still be seen on the in-game map topography. For a few examples:
** The most western point of Grizzlies West has a pile of rocks blocking a path to an avalanche (that can even be seen with photo mode), a road/dried riverbed that goes near "Mt. Marston[[note]]The one that John is saved from in the 2nd mission[[/note]] and even some unused valleys that follow the same rules as other playable areas and may or may not have been intented to be part of the map.
** The cliffs directly to the east from Fairwhale Shanty likewise are just a thin wall of rocks hiding some unfinished-yet-detailed map.
* InterfaceScrew:
** Drinking several alcoholic beverages in a short time during free roam will cause the screen to blur and your movements to become slower and more clumsy.
** During the "A Quiet Time" mission where Arthur and Lenny get drunk, elements of the HUD become more and more distored the drunker Arthur gets. Even the prompt for calling out Lenny is affected, with the letters rearranging and even being spelled backwards.
* InterfaceSpoiler: Zig-zagged.
** Until the story is actually completed, the number of total story missions (the grand total being [[spoiler:a whopping 109]]) on the progress tab is listed as "???".
** The screen that shows how far you are in the story in the "Progress" tab? [[spoiler:In an aversion, Arthur dies at 79%. The rest of the game is about John building Beecher's Hope.]]
** If one is playing with subtitles on, this can be zig-zagged in regards to [[spoiler: Sean's death. On one hand, the subtitles cut off, implying that Sean will die. On the other, the subtitles go a bit ''further'' than what he actually says[[note]]Specifically, the subtitles read "I could'a told you that-", but all Sean ''actually'' says is "I could'a tol-"[[/note]], lulling the player into thinking he will die later than he does, which makes the actual death scene have all the punch it needs.]]
** Those with keen eyes may notice that [[spoiler:John's equipment is stored in the exact same places as Arthur's. This is to reuse the existing character animations once you switch to John. Some people actually figured out the twist from mere screenshots because of this.]]
** There's also a bizarre zig-zag of this. Wait, why does Arthur have the option to upgrade [[spoiler: John's tent? What good does that do me? We're not playing as John.... yet. However, the camp upgrades become unavailable once you actually switch to John.]]
** If you browse the items that a Fence can craft, [[spoiler: you will see that a '''lion paw''' trinket is available, which gives away a huge surprise in the "He's British, Of Course" side mission.]]
** The more dishonorable players of ''I'' may recognize Micah's horse, Baylock, as being the spitting image of the "[[https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Horse Dark Horse]]", which was only available in ''I'' to a low-honor John. It may come as little surprise then, that [[spoiler:Micah is a rat and tries to sell the gang out to the Pinkertons in the end]].
** From a dialogue tree in Chapter 6: ARTHUR'S [[spoiler: SON???]] which reveals an aspect of his life he'd almost never brought up before that point.
** There's a 'Wellbeing' stat on the Player info screen that doesn't seem to change early in the game. [[spoiler: Once Arthur starts succumbing to tuberculosis mid-Chapter 5, it changes to 'Unwell', and once he's officially diagnosed, it reads 'Tuberculosis'. Both statuses have little effect on the game, decreasing the max Cores a bit.]]
** The "Own All Outfits" cheat [[spoiler: will not give the player any of John Marston's outfits, as the cheat becomes available before the epilogue.]]
** As mentioned under CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption above, most of Strauss' debt collection missions are optional, except for the one involving Thomas Downes, which is a main quest mission and is thus required to continue the story. [[spoiler: During the mission, Arthur ends up catching the same disease that afflicted Mr. Downes: tuberculosis.]]
* InterruptedIntimacy: a few of these...
** In the Chapter 2 mission "A Quiet Time", you can walk in on a couple having sex twice while looking for Lenny. The first time he'll just close the door and walk away with a chuckle, but the second time he's so drunk that he sees both of them as having Lenny's face and screams.
** There's a random event in Valentine where you can stumble into being a [[ThePeepingTom peeping Tom]]. There's a man laying on the bed being spanked by a woman. If he sees you, he'll tell you he'll kill you if he sees you.
** A variant on the above is a couple laying in bed in their underwear but high as a kite. They try to have sex but are too stoned to do it. The husband just ends up passing out on his wife.
** Downplayed during Sean's return party, where he'll steal away to have sex with Karen in a tent. You can eavesdrop and, while it wont stop them much, comment on it mid-act.
* InvisibleWall: While Rockstar is known for avoiding them, if the player tries to swim across the rivers that serve as map borders, they will eventually hit one of these.
* InvulnerableCivilians: Averted, like all Rockstar sandbox games. You can gun down every single person in a given town if you are so obliged. Played straight with most signficant characters and strangers, even after their related quests are over.
* TheIrishMob: The O'Driscolls are a rare Western example.
* IronicName: The Elysian Pool is named after the Elysian Fields of Greek Mythology, where the souls of the heroic and virtuous found their final resting place. The pool is poisoned by heavy metals from mining runoff and surrounded by unique "mangy" animals.
* IrrelevantSidequest: Most Stranger missions, but in a positive way since it's up to the player to decide which quests they want to complete. The game even justifies it by having it explicitly recommended to you to go do things outside the main missions in order to earn money for yourself and the gang.
* IShouldHaveDoneThisYearsAgo: Twice in Chapter 6.
** Partway through the chapter, [[spoiler:when Arthur kicks Herr Strauss out of the gang]], the latter asks, "What are you doing?!" and the former replies, "Something I shoulda done a long time ago."
** During the climax, [[spoiler:when John hears of Micah's treachery from Arthur while they are fleeing from the Pinkertons, John's furious reaction is, "We should have killed him months ago!"]]
* ItCanThink: A Downplayed example with the "she-wolf" in the third "The Veteran" mission with Hamish. [[spoiler:She leads him and Arthur into an ambush launched by the rest of her pack.]] Downplayed because there is no implication of human-level intelligence, but as Arthur notes, this is behavior even beyond what an intelligent animal species like wolves can normally display.
* ItemCrafting: You can craft special weapons and ammunition out of the base items by applying other items at any campfire. For example, you can create various kinds of arrow including poisoned and ''dynamite'' varieties. You can also, very simply, create "split point" ammo with no additional ingredients (as you are simply cutting the bullets with a knife to make them act as quasi-hollow point ammunition).
* ItsAlwaysSpring: No matter how much time actually passes in-game, it will always be May of 1899 until the main mission is complete. While the northern areas of the map are covered in snow, it's specifically stated to be from a late-season storm. The rest of the world is quite green and very spring-like.
* ItsQuietTooQuiet: A certain mission in Rhodes has the town surprisingly quiet with all the stores closed. [[spoiler:Then Sean's head is blown off.]]
* ItsUpToYou: It's almost as if [[QuestGiver mission givers]] outside of the main missions are just waiting for you to come along to solve their problems.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn:
** You can hear in on a conversation between the women of the gang basically saying Women's Suffrage won't ever be a thing. Little do they know, women would gain the right to vote twenty years after the main story of this game.
** Rejection letters from "Scruffers & Co. Publishers" can be looted as random drops from wealthy [=NPCs=] in Rhodes and Saint Denis. Apparently, editor Abner Scruffer has rejected manuscripts about "[[Literature/TheCallOfTheWild a dog lost in the snow]]", "[[Literature/GoneWithTheWind a woman's love affairs during the Civil War]]", and "[[Franchise/HarryPotter a girl learning about witchcraft at a boarding school]]", believing they won't be popular, and in the latter case outright ''says'' it's an idea that won't catch on.
* IWantThemAlive: In a non-villainous example, the majority of the bounty missions require that you bring the target in alive.
* IWasQuiteTheLooker: Hosea. While he in the present is good looking for a guy his age, you can find a picture of his younger self in Arthur's camp, with both Dutch and Arthur who are also in their younger days...And boy is he so goddamn ''fine''.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:J]]
* JackOfAllStats: The bow is designed to be the Swiss Army knife of hunting; it has the most variants of special ammunition, all designed to take down different animals with minimal damage to the pelt. Its downsides are its slow speed, stamina drain, and the requirement that most of said special ammunition has to be crafted.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Arthur. He is still a good man underneath his rough exterior.
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The game tells the story of how the Van der Linde gang began its decline and how Dutch became the madman seen in the first game.
* JustJokingJustification: If you choose to defuse after antagonizing someone, Arthur [[spoiler:or John]] would usually claim that they were just joking. It usually works.
* JustTakeThePoster:
** When accepting bounty missions, Arthur will take the poster with him. Justified in that he wouldn't want others to know about the bounty.
** There is a side mission where Arthur can perform several tasks to aid two escaped convicts, the first of which is to remove bounty posters placed up around town.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:K]]
* KarmaHoudini: Margaret from the side mission "He's British, Of Course". [[spoiler:His escaped "tiger" (a painted cougar) kills his dog while his escaped lion kills two people and multiple farm animals at Emerald Ranch.]] The worst thing that happens to him is that he loses those animals mentioned and has to give up a $50 reward.
* KarmaMeter: The Honor system of the last game returns. High Honor brings rewards like increased payments for hunting, cleaner killcams, and discounts at merchants. Low Honor players get more money from robberies and gorier killcams, though even at maximum honor they're quite bloody.
* {{Kevlard}}: Being overweight increases your damage resistance.
* KickTheDog:
** Plenty of opportunity for this, from sticking up townsfolk to antagonizing homeless veterans to literally hitting dogs. For a particularly twisted example, a number of random Stranger encounters on the road have the local criminal gang robbing passers-by, a stage coach, or a stopped train. You can kill the rival gang members, which will earn you thanks from the townsfolk, then immediately turn around and rob them yourself.
** Thanks to the DialogueTree, you can verbally abuse almost every character in the game, from John, to Lenny, to Sadie, to even ''Jack''.
* KillItWithFire: The Fire Bottle returns and still makes for a particularly gruesome way to dispatch enemies. Self-crafted incendiary ammo and fire arrows are also options.
* KleptomaniacHero: Low-honor players can lean into this heavily, but even maximum-honor players can take anything with no repercussions as long as it's not owned by anyone living or [[RobbingTheDead on the corpse of an innocent]]. [=NPCs=] who notice you take their things may take offense, at which point they may run off to alert the law or just take matters into their own hands by fighting you. Unlike most games, you have several options for dealing with them, such as threatening them into not turning you in or tying them up.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:L]]
* LandInTheSaddle: It is possible to jump from up to about two stories on a horse safely. Don't try this in real life...for the horse's sake and yours.
* LaserGuidedKarma / TragicMistake: The game's sense of morality, about the strength of making amends, is strong - and swings both ways. In the game's final chapters, particularly [[spoiler: the epilogue, John struggles with the choice Arthur gave him: to live peacefully with his wife, or fall into the life he left behind. He nearly loses Abigail and Jack to it, and has to work hard to build his life back up again... but when the choice to finally kill Micah in Arthur's name comes back into his life, he can't help but take it, even as his wife is sobbing, trying to prevent him from possibly throwing their new lives away. She turns out to be right: this choice to become the gunslinger one last time, get bloody retribution and steal the windfall Micah took from the gang, despite not needing it, is then what leads Ross directly to him, spurring the plot of [=RDR1=] to happen and ultimately destroying his family. Much like how Jack killing Ross was not what John wanted for him, Charles points out that high-honor Arthur would not want John to do this, [[LikeFatherLikeSon but like Jack, John can't help himself, and so dooms himself.]]]]
* TheLastDance: [[spoiler:Arthur]] if you decide to help [[spoiler:the Marston family escape]] at the end of the main story. [[spoiler:After holding off waves of Pinkertons, Arthur will either be killed by Micah or succumb to his tuberculosis depending on your honor level]].
* TheLeader: Downplayed. Arthur, the player protagonist, is essentially the third-in-command of Dutch's gang. [[spoiler: As Dutch is slowly losing his marbles and Hosea is killed, the more reasonable members of the gang begin to look to Arthur for orders instead of Dutch.]]
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The mission "Jim Milton Rides, Again?" [[spoiler:Sure, John Marston breaks his retirement to help his boss, but we all know the [[HesBack real]] [[AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent meaning]] of the title.]]
* LeaveNoWitnesses:
** It is possible to get away with crimes by killing or threatening all witnesses to it. You'll still need to leave the scene rather quickly, as any other [=NPCs=] who stumble upon it become witnesses as well.
** In some gang hideouts, once you kill most enemies, a few survivors try [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere to run away]]. If they are not killed, you'll be shot on sight once the hideout repopulates even if you show no hostile intent.
* LeeroyJenkins: Your allies during missions often fall into this category, ''especially'' Micah. In most cases, when the missions include your fellow gang members, they must survive or else the mission fails. Unfortunately, they often fall into some of the same ArtificialStupidity behaviors as your enemies, such as running head first toward groups of enemies entrenched in cover.
* LethalChef:
** Pearson, the Van der Linde CampCook, is one per comments made by other gang members. You can choose to reinforce it by bringing him things like rat and crow meat to put into the stew, or help avert it bringing him quality ingredients. ([[GameplayAndStorySegregation Regardless of what you bring him]], the stew still restores your cores just fine when you eat it.)
** A comment from the bartender when purchasing meals at saloons is "I hope you keep it down". TruthInTelevision, as the game takes place before the US made sweeping food safety reforms in the early 20th century, meaning you could never be quite sure what you what you were getting if you didn't cook it yourself.
* LetsGetDangerous: [[spoiler: After Agent Milton is killed, Edgar Ross descends upon Beaver Hollow and the surrounding mountainside with the full force of the Pinkertons to eradicate the Van Der Linde gang once and for all.]]
* LightningBruiser:
** While toned down a bit from the first game, cougars are still fast moving, hard-hitting killing machines that can also survive multiple shots to anywhere but their heads.
** Bears trade a little of the cougar's speed for more raw power, but are still (realistically) quite fast moving. They too can shrug off multiple shots and can even survive headshots from weaker weapons.
* LimitedLoadout: Downplayed but present in terms of the amount of firearms you can carry on your person. You're limited to two long guns (with the bow counting as a long gun) and two sidearms. There is also a limit on the amount of ammo you can carry for each gun type, which can be increased by purchasing upgraded gear. Averted for other types of weapons, you are free to carry a lasso, throwing knives, tomahawks, sticks of dynamite, fire bottles, etc. all at once, and in any location you can have your horse, who carries every weapon you own at once.
* LitteringIsNoBigDeal: When consuming items from cans and bottles, Arthur just drops them wherever he is.
* LittleUselessGun: The Varmint Rifle is a deliberate example. As a small calibre weapon, it's not much good for combat, a shooting a person with it can result in a slow death as they bleed out. What it is useful for is for shooting small game in order to obtain perfect pelts and carcasses from animals that would be obliterated by larger guns, something Hosea notes that Arthur once did because he hunted rabbits using a shotgun.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: Downplayed. It takes about a minute to launch the game, and then another one to load up your save file, but then you don't have to look at another loading screen ever again unless you reload a save. However, you pay for it up front if you bought a physical copy, as the game has to be installed off of a separate disc before it can be played, a process that takes a few ''hours''.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfSidequests: There are some 34 Stranger and Companion missions available, many of which are broken into 3-5 parts, totaling well over 100. There are also at least 25 "encounters" which pop up randomly as you travel, almost all of which can spawn repeatedly even if you've already completed them.
* LockpickingMinigame: Certain robbery missions have you cracking safes. Its fairly simple in that you slowly rotate a joystick in the given direction until you hear a "click", and then repeat until the safe is cracked.
* LodgedBladeRemoval: It happens twice, both times to major characters.
** [[spoiler: During the mission [[TitleDrop Red Dead Redemption]], this can happen to [[TheAtoner High Honor Arthur Morgan]], if he decides to part ways with John [[RevengeOverReason and head on a suicide mission to steal the gang's money, despite being half-dead to Tuberculosis, just to get revenge on Dutch and Micah.]] [[TheMole Micah]] ends up ambushing him and stabbing him in the side with a knife, inflicting a mortal wound. Arthur pulls the blade out and engages in a [[KnifeFight final duel]] with Micah, managing to [[EyeScream slice his eye out]] before [[TheHeroDies dying from the combination of his knife wound and his tuberculosis.]]]]
** [[spoiler: During the final mission, [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge American Venom]], [[ActionGirl Sadie]] ends up being ambushed and stabbed in the gut by one of Micah's men. After Charles shoots her assailant, she pulls the blade out and promptly collapses on a nearby rock. [[IWillOnlySlowYouDown Sadie stays behind with injured Charles]], [[InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn leaving John to face Micah alone.]] [[SubvertedTrope Or not]] - [[MadeOfIron unlike Arthur, Sadie survives her wound, makes her way up the rest of the mountain and arrives in the middle of the final shootout to get a drop on Micah.]]]]
* LogoJoke: The game shows gunsmoke and two shotgun shells being loaded upon launch. The shells, marked with "ROCKSTAR GAMES EST. MCMXCVIII", are briefly seen before being fired, creating the Rockstar logo as a red silhouette.
* LongList: If you buy one more newspaper after completing the Epilogue, you come across an article called "President Signs 1907 Immigration Act":
-->President Waxman signed an immigration act in order to prevent unsavory persons from entering the United States.\\
The new law, which went into effect immediately, excludes "All idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons, and persons who have been insane within five years previous; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously; paupers; persons likely to become a public charge; professional beggars; persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease; persons not comprehended within any of the foregoing excluded classes who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living; persons who have been convicted of or admit having committed a felony or other crime or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; polygamists, or persons who admit their belief in the practice of polygamy, anarchists," from entering the United States.
* LoopholeAbuse:
** If you incur a large bounty, you'll need to pay it off in order to stop waves of bounty hunters from coming after you. Another option is to allow yourself to be arrested by lawmen instead. You'll go to jail and be released a short while later, with your bounty normally deducted from your cash. However, if you don't have the money to cover the bounty, you'll still be set free without having to pay.
** Several Challenges can be completed in a significantly easier fashion than how they read. For example, one of the Marksman challenges requires killing an enemy with a tomahawk from over 80 feet away. By "enemy", it means someone automatically hostile to you, such as a rival gang member. This means no killing a random stranger camped in the wilderness. However, you can render that enemy completely helpless first by, say, tying him him up first. While he struggles helplessly, you can walk to the required distance and toss tomahawks until you hit. Similarly, the final Bandit challenge requires robbing five trains without dying or being caught. What it doesn't say is that stealthily stealing items from the baggage car qualities as a train robbery. Simply steal something, hop off, return to the train station, repeat five times.
* LootCommand: An option to "Loot" appears when you're next to dead bodies and incapacitated individuals (either knocked out or tied up). Unlike most games, there actually is an animation of you rooting through their pockets.
* LovableRogue: Sean. He makes no effort to hide the fact that he's a drinkin', shootin', robbin' outlaw, whose introduction to the gang was attempting to ''rob Dutch'', but he's just so charming. Arthur even compares him to his "little brother" [[spoiler:after Sean is killed]].
** Arthur Morgan counts. While he's an outlaw who has killed many people in the past over money, with several negative flaws such as being prone to anger quickly, starting fights, maybe even shooting or knocking out someone at the drop of a hat, he's still rather very likable and can be a genuine NiceGuy when he wants to be, coming off as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold at best who's loyal to the people in his camp and friends, showing kindness and being compassionate to innocent townsfolk while often lending a hand to those he comes across, even willing to suck some venom out of a man's leg! Many women find him charming and men think he's a gentleman, although he'll often deny this and tell him he's really a bad man. He highly respects women, talks to them in a respectful manner, and agrees with their rights to be able to vote (speaking the game takes place in a time period where women were treated in disregard and seen as the property of their husbands) and thinks nothing bad of women who can hold her own and often encourages and supports them. He even shows one of them how to shoot a gun properly and being patient with her. He'll even bust doors down and throw up all Hell if he finds out about a woman is being raped or threatened somewhere. He doesn't support racism and is courteous to people of all races. One of his best friends is a black man. Not to mention that he's really affectionate with his horses and dotes on them, and also the stray dogs he meets, and has a low tolerance of animal abuse. He also enjoys literature and can often be seen writing in his journal to reflect on his thoughts and feelings throughout the game, with aesthetically pleasing handwriting and reveals a very eloquent and even sensitive side you'd never guess he'd have, even self-doubting himself at times. He tries his darndest towards redeeming himself towards the end of the game, doing everything he can to help others before [[spoiler:his sickness takes over.]]
** Dutch is a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]]. He describes his philosophy as "we shoot fellers as need shooting, save fellers as need saving, and feed 'em as need feeding." This attitude has garnered immense loyalty from his gang, who view themselves as an entire group of lovable rogues. However, as the gang's fortunes worsen, Dutch becomes increasingly violent and obsessed with vengeance against people who have wronged him (or possibly wronged him). A frequent topic of discussion in the later half of the game is whether Dutch used to be a genuine lovable rogue or if he was just FauxAffablyEvil all along.
* LuckBasedMission:
** The Gambler Challenges. Already based on games of chance, successfully completing the challenges means not just winning, but winning in specific ways which can take a lot of time and effort. Challenge 8 in particular is frustrating for many players. It requires hitting 3 times and winning a hand of blackjack. You have to do this 3 times. Even if you get five cards, the dealer could win or tie. There are players who got it in 20 minutes, and others that have spent hours with nothing to show for it. The other challenges have some degree of skill involved, but this one is entirely luck based.
** Hunting. Each animal's (sans legendary) condition is measured in 3 star levels, and trappers and Pearson require "Perfect" condition pelts/carcasses (3 stars). However, animals spawn in all 3 conditions, and it can take a good while before the animal spawns and even longer to find a perfect specimen. After this, you need to get a one-hit kill with a weapon that fits the animal (small caliber for small animals, rifles/bow for predators, for example), and hope the shot hits the vitals you were aiming for. And even after this, if you die or a stray bullet hits the carcass on your horse, it'll be lost or damaged respectively. Your odds can be improved with a few tricks and a trinket, [[note]]The legendary deer trinket gives a roughly 10% chance of the pelt going up a star level upon skinning, although it will never go above the one the animal spawned with and excessive damage won't be fixed, and unlike carcasses, skins cannot be damaged after they're put on the horse[[/note]] but the spawnrates cannot be affected.
* LuredIntoATrap:
** Happens during a Chapter 3 mission where [[spoiler:the O'Driscolls invite Dutch to discuss peace. While Colm and Dutch speak, Arthur covers them from a hill with a sniper rifle. However, several O'Driscolls sneak up on Arthur and capture him. Knowing that Dutch will go crazy trying to get Arthur back, they plan to draw him to their hideout while at the same time informing the Pinkertons of Dutch's location. Arthur is able to escape before the plan plays out]].
** Later in Chapter 3, [[spoiler:several members of the gang are drawn into Rhodes to discuss a hot robbery lead. However, they are ambushed by the Grays and must fight their way out]].
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* JustTakeThePoster: When accepting bounty missions, Arthur will take the poster with him. Justified in that he wouldn't want others to know about the bounty.

** In the Chapter 2 mission "A Quiet Time", you can walk in on a couple having sex twice while looking for Lenny.

* InSpiteOfANail: Had the Greys [[spoiler:shot ''anyone'' but Sean, the first game wouldn't have happened. He was accompanied by Arthur, Bill and Micah, all of whom are important to the events of the first game.]]

* InnSecurity: The first time you make camp in Murfree Brood territory, you'll be interrupted as you sit by the fire by two members of the brood who threaten you to leave their land. Should make camp in their territory again, it is possible that they will attack.

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: The U.S. Army, just like in the first game, are seen wielding a different weapon instead of what should be the standard service rifle at the time. In the first game, it was the Krag-Jørgensen in place of the Springfield 1903. Here, it's the Winchester Model 1866 instead of the Krag-Jørgensen. The first game got a pass simply because the Springfield isn't in the game, but they get no such excuse here, where the correct service rifle is a usable weapon.

** All of the rival gangs have their negative attributes played up to instill player hatred and make the Van der Linde gang look much more reasonable by comparison. Colm O'Driscoll is a SmugSnake who believes in [[AMillionIsAStatistic quantity over quality]] when it comes to his gang members. The Lemoyne Raiders are TheRemnant of the Confederacy, complete with anti-Federalist ideals and loads of racism. The Night Folk are barely human [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalistic]] monsters. The Murfree Brood are inbred HillbillyHorrors who torture their victims and launch sneak attacks. The Skinner Brothers are a loose collection of criminals who engage ColdBloodedTorture for its own sake.

** [[spoiler:In the Epilogue, John will be surprised to see Mauser Pistol being used by the Italian Mobsters as a sign of advancing technology despite said pistol being available in shops since 1899 and John could have one in his inventory. Hilariously, Angelo Bronte owns a Mauser Pistol and threw it at John in "Revenge is a Dish Best Eaten".]]

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Arthur in a high Honor ending, choosing to stay behind to hold off pursuers while the Marston family escapes.]]

** Several missions impose limits on the players that aren't readily apparent. Missions in which you must catch up to someone on a horse are particularly blatant, especially if you've gone out of your way to acquire a particularly fast horse. "The New South", the first mission of Chapter 3, requires Arthur to chase down some escaped convicts on a train. It is very apparent that your horse is not moving at maximum speed throughout most of the mission, allowing the convicts scripted actions to take place. When chasing someone on a horse, theirs will be much faster during the mission than in free roam gameplay. It's groan-inducing when you can't catch someone on a basic Tennessee Walker while riding your fully upgraded, fully bonded Arabian with an enhanced saddle.

* DistressedDude: At different points, you'll rescue Sean, Bill, and John for situations like this. You'll need to ''escape'' from such a situation [[spoiler:as Arthur after he's captured by the O'Driscolls and again in Guarma]].

* DisproportionateRestitution: Arthur may come across an enraged widow in Valentine who curses at him for killing her husband before bursting into tears. He can choose to give her $2, which she would either reject or begrudgingly accept.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Just like the first game, the setting of ''II'' shows how different peoples attitude in the past were.
** Racism is still prevalent during this time where anyone who is non-white is treated with hatred or seen as a savage that needs to be controlled or put down.

** Arthur can gun down armies of men, shrug off bullets, and take down three other men in a fist fight...as long as ''you're'' controlling him. You can't help but to you roll your eyes during the numerous occasions where Arthur is knocked out, strangled, snuck-up on, escaped-from, etc. right before regaining control in a much worse situation than you would have allowed it to reach.

* CutscenePowerToTheMax: The mission "Blessed are the Peacemakers". [[spoiler:Arthur has up to this point killed dozens of O'Driscolls and survived injuries right up to gunshots. However, a trio of O'Driscolls is able to sneak up on him, knock him out with a single gun-butt strike, and then take him down again when he wakes up with a single non-lethal gunshot]].

** For a different but similar Rockstar title, the default button to enter a car in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' is instead the default auto-melee button in this game. You might punch your horse quite a few times. Also, aiming down the sights while in first-person mode is done by pressing Down on the D-pad instead of clicking in the right thumbstick.

* CardCarryingVillain: Colm O'Driscoll. Unlike Dutch, or even the other gang leaders who have clear goals behind their disposable actions, Colm murders, steals, and rapes because he ''enjoys it''. He makes the fact that he's a villain abundantly clear and makes no claims to the contrary.