Multiplayer Challenges/Weapon Challenges

Weapon Challenges are a category of multiplayer challenges in Red Dead Redemption that involve using specific Weapons to kill opponents in PVP or gang Shootouts and Bag Games. Although not mentioned specifically in the challenge details, Stronghold matches also count. Player kills in Free Roam do not count.

The majority of the challenges are available with the main game, though some (such as the Tomahawk challenges) do require a DLC. The DLCs also add more locations in which to work on these challenges. Most, but not all, available weapons have associated challenges.

Note that this page only concerns challenges listed within the Weapon challenges section. Various weapons also factor in to challenges in the Free Roam, PVP, and Co-op challenge sections. Those challenges are covered on the appropriate pages.

Challenge Format Overview
Each weapon has two sets of associated challenges, with three ranks per set. Most follow the same challenge format, as detailed in the Standard Weapon Challenges section, below. A couple of weapons, namely the Fire Bottle and Dynamite, follow a different challenge format and are covered under the Special Weapon Challenges section, below.

Rewards
Completion of each rank of a challenge earns the player XP as noted in the charts that follow. Completion of all three ranks of both sets of challenges for a given weapon earns the player a title and a golden version of that weapon. Titles are noted for each weapon in the sections below.

Standard Weapon Challenges
All of the weapons in this section follow the same standard challenge structure noted below. There are two sets of challenges for each weapon, one involving total player kills and one involving headshots. The challenges unlock at the same multiplayer rank at which the weapon itself is unlocked. Kills scored prior to unlocking the challenge do not count.

As noted above, although the text specifies "Shootouts or Bag Games," kills and headshots in Stronghold qualify as well.

Standard Challenge - Headshots
Note: The Rockstar Social Club website incorrectly lists the XP values for the following challenges. The values listed in the charts above are correct and confirmed in-game for each weapon as of April 2011.
 * Repeated Killer headshots
 * Double Death Dealer headshots

Standard Challenge Weapons
The table below lists the weapons that follow the standard challenge formats listed above, along with the associated challenge name and the multiplayer rank at which the challenge is unlocked. In each case, the name of the challenge is equivalent to the title that the player receives upon completing all three ranks of both the kills and headshots challenges for that weapon.

Footnotes:


 * (1) Buffalo Rifle - Although the standard XP values are listed for the Buffalo Butcher challenges, since the challenges are only unlocked at Level 50 (maximum XP), no XP are actually earned for completing the challenge ranks.


 * (2) Explosive Rifle - Requires Liars and Cheats DLC. Challenge wording differs from standard, replacing "Shootouts or Bag Games" with "Stronghold" since that is the only mode in which the challenge can be completed. Challenge is available from the beginning, assuming the DLC is installed (does not need to be unlocked).


 * (3) Tomahawk - Requires Legends and Killers DLC. XP for rank 1 of the headshots challenge is listed in-game as 50, which differs from the standard 100. It has not been confirmed if this is just a typo or if 50 xp is actually awarded. Challenge is available from the beginning, assuming the DLC is installed (does not need to be unlocked).

Special Weapon Challenges
Two of the thrown weapons follow a different challenge format than the standard noted in the previous section. These are covered below.

Note: The Rockstar Social Club website incorrectly lists the XP values and kill requirements for the DYN-O-MITE! and Pyro challenges, listing them as identical to the standard kills challenge. The values listed in the charts below are correct and confirmed in-game as of April 2011.

DYN-O-MITE!
The DYN-O-MITE! and DYN-O-MITE! DEM-O-LI-TION! challenges apply to the thrown weapon Dynamite. The DYN-O-MITE! challenge follows a similar format to the standard kills challenge, but with lower kill requirements. The DYN-O-MITE! DEM-O-LI-TION! challenge takes the place of the standard headshots challenge (which wouldn't make sense for Dynamite). Completion of all three ranks of the two challenges earns the player the title "DYN-O-MITE!" and golden Dynamite. These challenges are unlocked at multiplayer rank 15.

Pyro
The Pyro and Pyro Arson challenges apply to the Fire Bottle and follow a similar format to the DYN-O-MITE! challenges. Completion of all three ranks of the Pyro and Pyro Arson challenges earns the player the title "Pyro" and a golden Fire Bottle. These challenges are unlocked at multiplayer rank 22.

Weapons without challenges
The following weapons do not have challenges in the Weapon challenges section. Some of them do factor in to challenges in the Free Roam, PVP, and Co-op challenge sections, however.
 * Cattleman Revolver
 * Hunting Knife
 * Mounted Weapons (Cannon, etc.)
 * Throwing Knives
 * Undead Nightmare/Undead Overrun weapons (Blunderbuss, etc.)

Tips
Tips for completing the Weapon challenges are divided into General tips that apply to all weapons and tips that apply only to a specific weapon or weapon class.

General

 * Maybe a little obvious, but try for headshots as often as possible since they are the limiting factor in each of these challenges (every headshot might be a kill, but every kill doesn't require a headshot). Getting good at headshots also helps with gameplay in general and, therefore, many PVP challenges.

Fire Bottle

 * One fire bottle is not enough to kill a player with full health, so either damage the player with another weapon first or be prepared to use multiple fire bottles.

Trivia

 * One glitch that was observed with DYN-O-MITE! DEM-O-LI-TION! (running with Title Update 1.06 at the time) was that all players on the defending team in Stronghold were awarded rank 1 of the challenge when a player on the attacking team apparently blew up two teammates with dynamite.