Manifest Destiny



 is a secret achievement and trophy in Red Dead Redemption.

Description
Kill the last buffalo in the Great Plains in Single Player.

Tips and Tricks

 * It is tactical to approach the herd by horse, take Evans Repeater, then take some Moonshine and use Dead-Eye to aim on all the outside buffalo. After this, go straight in Dead Eye again (weapons get automatically reloaded), and shoot the rest. Do this another time and then chase the rest of the buffaloes.
 * Another approach would be to have some Moonshine, and other Dead-Eye restoring items, a full set of throwing knives, and to try and "herd" them in one direction (as they will more than likely run from you). Try and pick off likely stragglers first, then work the aim inward. Be close, and aim right. Using Dead-Eye with the knives will kill them all in one shot each time. Once finished, this may have lost a good amount of the bodies, so if wanting to skin them all, reload and then proceed as normal.
 * This achievement is difficult, especially since the Buffalo scatter and run when attacked, thus disappearing if they get out of Marston's sights. The best method to use is to throw dynamite into the herd, and finish the rest off using Dead Eye.
 * However, if the herd scatters out of Marston's sight, come back at a later date and continue to kill the buffalo with each kill still counting towards the achievement.
 * It should be worth mentioning that there are a total of 20 buffaloes, so in case some got away and if not sure how many are left, go to Pause>Stats>misc and see how many Buffalo left.
 * It is a good idea to shoot the buffalo with the Bolt-action Rifle while on horse back. It would be smart to skin the buffalo because everything is very high valued. These skins and meat will pay for the bullets and Dead-Eye needed to kill all of the buffalo.
 * If the player wishes for the Buffalo to remain in the game after gaining this achievement/trophy, and doesn't mind not earning money from Buffalo's resources, then, they can simply save the game before killing the Buffalo. Go and kill them and gain the achievement, and then reset the game; the achievement will still be present as will the Buffalo. Players can also use this method to skin the Buffalo after gaining the achievement so that they don't have to worry about skinning them all while trying to stay on the herd at the same time.
 * This is a good achievement to take on over time. It's smart to use a Carcano Rifle and dead eye from a long distance. The rest may scatter but will regroup with time. Then as you're passing by the next time repeat the process. It's possible to dead-eye almost all of them at once with an Evans repeater, but it has to be headshots.
 * It is also possible to get this trophy/achievement while playing online free roam by killing 20 Buffalo, all need to do is to have either unlocked the Buffalo as a mount or have someone else who has already unlocked the Buffalo.
 * Don't rush to kill 20 buffalos, just kill some you can reach. Let the living go and skin the dead.

Problems

 * Some players have experienced failure of this achievement due to the buffalo supposedly "committing suicide". This means that, instead of the kills counting towards the achievement, one or more of the buffalo have run into a river/fallen off a cliff. If this happens then the achievement will be impossible to get, and the only way to claim your 5g/bronze award will be to start the game again. So it is recommended to save before hunting, to avoid this.

Trivia

 * "Manifest Destiny" is a reference to the belief during the 19th century that the United States was destined to, and had the God-given right to, expand across the North American continent and take everything as their own. The reference is to the allegation that the US military tried to hunt the Buffalo to extinction to starve out Native Americans and allow for westward expansion. The idea of a coast to coast country was called Manifest Destiny and used to support the war with Mexico in which the US annexed from Mexico parts of Texas along disputed Republic of Texas border (south and west Texas and the panhandle), part of present day Colorado and Wyoming, and all of New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and California. Although the term went out of use in the 1850's, those who believe the US government intentionally hunted Buffaloes to starve and demoralize the Native Americans picked the term back up and claimed the plan was part of the idea of Manifest Destiny.
 * Nastas also claims that the Buffalo will soon be wiped out by hunters, to which Harold MacDougal says is preposterous.

Glitches

 * It is possible to kill 21 buffalo. After completing the trophy challenge. One may encounter another hunter chasing a buffalo, kill this buffalo before the hunter does and skin it. The hunter gets rather irritated but it counts as another kill in the buffalo tally.
 * It is possible to MOD the Buffalo back into the game after all have been killed. If copying Game Save to a memory stick and then use "Modio" on a computer. Under the main menu select "Game Mod Tools" > "Red Dead Redemption". Select load from device and scroll down to "Buffalo Killed" change this to 1 (0 will corrupt the game file). Change "Buffalo Skinned" to 1 also. Select "Save to Device" and then copy the save back to the hard drive. The Buffalo will now spawn again on the plains. This can be used to get the Achievement when as stated in the article a Buffalo "Commits Suicide".
 * Laying a "trap" in Tall Trees can summon a small herd of buffalo (5) after already received this Achievement, so player can get 20 buffalo kills and above in this glitch.
 * Sometimes re-doing certain story missions will have hunters killing buffalo, allowing you to kill as many as you want be repeating the mission.