Explosive Rifle

The  is a powerful, experimental, single-shot rifle added to Red Dead Redemption by the Liars and Cheats DLC pack. Once this DLC is installed, the weapon can be unlocked in single player, Undead Nightmare, and multiplayer under certain conditions, as detailed below. The Explosive Rifle is listed as a Sniper rifle, and fires off a bullet that explodes on impact.

Single-Player

 * The Explosive Rifle can be purchased from the Gunsmith in Blackwater. The weapon costs $10,000 ($5,000 with Honor level "Peacemaker", and as low as $2,500 if the Savvy Merchant Outfit is also equipped; conversely, the rifle will cost $15,000 with lowest possible honor).
 * The weapon cannot be unlocked by a cheat code.
 * The Explosive Rifle is not made golden by the Golden Guns DLC pack.

Multiplayer

 * In Free Roam, the Explosive Rifle can not be unlocked into the player's regular inventory. Instead, it is earned by the player who completes any of the Liars and Cheats Gang Hideouts with the highest score. It will be available to the player in a weapons crate, marked with a green dot on the radar.
 * There is no way to gain additional ammo for the weapon besides completing another hideout.
 * If a player holding an Explosive Rifle dies in Free Roam, enters the Outfitter, or transfers to another session, the weapon is lost.


 * In Stronghold matches, the Explosive Rifle is given to the player who cracks the safe. One or two safes are available on many of the Stronghold maps. The rifle comes with 3 rounds. If the player is killed, the rifle can be picked up from the corpse, though with only one shot remaining.
 * The Myths and Mavericks DLC adds the Explosive Rifle to chests on several Free For All and Gang maps.

Undead Nightmare

 * The player can obtain it after saving Rathskeller Fork from being overrun by undead.

Characteristics
The Explosive Rifle is not like any other type of rifle found in the game. However, its design does bear some similarities to a cross between a Bolt Action Rifle and a Buffalo Rifle. It uses a special type of ammunition called Explosive Rounds, which are only sold at gunsmiths, not general stores. These rounds when fired travel just as quickly as bullets, and detonate directly on impact with a target. A direct hit on a person will cause the person to explode in a shower of blood and body parts. A direct hit on an animal such as a horse or cow will cause the animal to burst into a spectacular display of red mist and guts. An indirect hit, in which an enemy is caught in the blast area, kills an enemy and sends them flying much like Dynamite. The force of the blast can even knock down nearby enemies outside of the "kill zone" in the process.

The weapon is added to the sniper rifle area of the weapon wheel, alongside the Rolling Block Rifle and Carcano Rifle.

The weapon comes with limited ammunition. The maximum limit on ammo is 15 rounds, 30 with the bandolier. The Explosive Rifle also has a rather slow rate of fire considering it can only fire one round at a time before being reloaded, like the Buffalo Rifle.

Challenges
A set of Explosive Rifle challenges is added to both single player and Undead Nightmare. In each game there are five ranks to complete, after which the player earns the Master Exploder achievement/trophy. After completion in single player, all gunsmiths will sell Explosive Rounds at half price.

Single Player Challenges:
 * Rank 1: Purchase an Explosive Rifle from the Gunsmith in Blackwater
 * Undead Nightmare: Obtain the Explosive Rifle by saving Rathskeller Fork from the undead hordes.


 * Rank 2: Kill 5 people hiding behind cover.
 * Undead Nightmare: Kill one of each type of undead.


 * Rank 3: Kill 3 enemies\undead in one shot.


 * Rank 4: Kill 2 wild\undead animals in one shot.


 * Rank 5: Obtain the US Army Uniform and kill one enemy\undead with the Explosive Rifle.

In Multiplayer, the Explosive Rifle has a set of weapon challenges that grant the player XP, a title and turn the weapon golden.

Tips

 * Due to the blast radius of the weapon, the player must be careful when aiming to avoid killing or hurting teammates, or themselves.
 * In Undead Nightmare, the Explosive Rifle can be very effective against undead hordes since the player can rifle butt the undead by tapping R2 or RT without losing ammo.
 * In Undead Nightmare single-player mode, ammo can occasionally be found on some corpses. The alternate way to find more ammo is to find the Unicorn. After this, and upon putting on the Army of the Undead outfit, the player is given a "holy relic" which will refill all weapons once per day.

Trivia

 * The is loosely based in appearance on the Mauser 1918 T-Gewehr, a German anti-tank rifle that was first used in World War I. This weapon would have been produced in 1918; four years after the last playable time period in Red Dead Redemption.
 * Unless using Dead-Eye, the player cannot automatically lock on to enemies with this weapon. This is the same as for other sniper rifles.
 * When firing directly to any NPC, animal or player, an impressive amount of blood will show and the victim will disappear, making them unable to loot and skin.
 * While it does not possess a scope like other sniper weapons, it does allow for the use of standard Dead-Eye where the player marks targets and body parts.
 * If shot at a window, despite the explosion it will only leave a bullet size hole in the glass.
 * Before the weapon had an official model, it used the Buffalo Rifle as a placeholder.
 * If there is a direct hit on a legendary animals, they can never be skinned ruining the Master Hunter Challenges forever, because it requires you to skin them, unless loading a different file.
 * It is the most powerful rifle in the game, being able to kill anything with a hit to any part of the body.
 * It is also the only weapon able to obliterate a Rattlesnake.
 * If the player uses a trick to get into Blackwater early in the game, it is possible to acquire the explosive rifle early in the game. However, one should note that rifle will be lost after Cowards Die Many Times, as it will not be in the chest with the rest of the player's weapons.