You are an outlaw in Red Dead Redemption II. So you need to make money to buy supplies, weapons, ammunition, improvements to your horse and camp, and of course help fund the “perfect plans” of Dutch gang leader Van der Linde. There are several activities that can be done to get some change (or get rich).
It is worth saying that the kind of approach you will use to get this money will depend directly on the karma you want to achieve in the game (more positive or negative). Regardless if you want to be a bad boy or a bad guy, you can follow some of the paths below.
1. Steal, kill, sack
This first option is quite straightforward. You are an outlaw, and if having positive karma is not important, being incarnate is a quick way to get cash (from victims), or even valuable items to resell. An alternative is to invade real estate and shops and clean up everything you can.
One of the problems with this approach is to have the world behind you and the reward, in your head, to go on high. With this, you will hardly have the peace to walk the cities without some authority throwing you. Also bid farewell to that special discount some merchants give if they have a good reputation.
Stolen or looted items can only be sold on the black market of the game, ie the Fence. Oh, it’s worth stealing carriages with supplies and selling them to the Emerald Ranch Receiver as well.
Sell stolen items in Fence
Tip: In your camp, time and time again, missions will appear to loot houses or collect money from debtors. In either case, some of the pay is with you and another goes to the “box” of the gang.
2. Sell the best skins you hunt or legendary fish
Hunting is an important parallel activity in Red Dead Redemption II. Getting fur in perfect condition requires as little damage as possible to slaughter an animal, plus luck. Also focus on hunting legendary animals, located at specific points on the map. The game will warn you when you are in the territory of one of them.
Skins in perfect condition can guarantee good coins at some butcher (represented on the map with knife icon). The leathers of legendary animals can only be sold to a Trapper (represented on the map with a feline paw icon). The rarer or better state, the more money you will get for your hunt.
Do not forget to sell a little bit of fish as well, especially if it is some rare fish (the game will also warn you when approaching some suitable place to fish it).
3. Treasure Hunt and Lost Chests
The treasures are more deductible to find, compared to the safes. Every time you enter a house, go through ruins, or find enemy camps, look for small boxes in those places.
Usually, they are underneath some furniture (no one will want you to find it easily). In the boxes, among tones and rare figurines, you can find clips with money and even gold bars.
Finding safes will depend on your good fortune to bump into strangers, on the map, trying to open one of them. Use dynamite to explode the lid and sack the contents.
4. Capture (or steal) and sell horses
If you do not want another horse, you can sell it in some stable. The better treated the animal is, the more it will count. Wild or stolen horses will have a very low sale price in stables. In that case, you can take these animals (of dubious origin) to a “Horse Fence”, which will buy them via the black market for a higher price.
5. Work as a bounty hunter
Later in the campaign, about the end of Chapter 3, you can get contracts to hunt down lawlessness (which irony). Depending on the target, you’ll get more or less as a reward.
Go to a city and keep an eye on poles, murals in the police station, bars, shops or post office. You can identify the poster icons by the game map as well.
6. Participate in minigames and help people
Yes, help people. At some point someone will ask for help on the road or in some city. Of course it can be a trap, but it can also be someone in need who can reward you (or not) with money, some valuable item, or a free purchase at some store. Here, exercise your luck too.
There are some championships, it may be said, being played in some places on the map. It is possible to make money playing poker, dominoes or even that game of stabbing a quick knife between your fingers. You can practice the “modalities” in your camp.