Bounty Hunting

Bounty Hunting is an activity which the player can take part in during the game Red Dead Redemption. To unlock Bounty Hunting, players must complete the "Political Realities in Armadillo" mission.

Outlaws with bounties on their head can be found throughout the land in various locations. These bounty hunting opportunities can be accepted from wanted posters that are usually found in towns near a local telegraph office or train station. Available wanted posters will appear as a white skull icon on the players map. If the player accepts the bounty from the poster, the location of the target will appear as a red skull icon on the map. An active bounty does not have to be completed within any sort of time period, players can continue free roaming until they decide to go after the criminal.

Players may find taking up bounty hunting as a highly profitable activity. The bounty reward varies, depending on whether the player has chosen to capture or kill the outlaw. Capturing the bounty alive awards the player twice the amount of money compared to killing the bounty.

Marston can also have a bounty placed on himself, if he is observed committing crimes. The bounty for Marston depends on his actions. If Marston has a bounty himself when turning in a bounty target, his own bounty will be deducted from the reward.

Along with the law, bounty hunter gangs will also go after Marston to collect on his bounty.

Bounty Hunter Gangs

There are three different nameless bounty hunter gangs, one in each region.


 * New Austin: The gang that uses Tumbleweed for a hideout is also the same bounty hunter gang that goes after Marston.


 * Nuevo Paraiso: Los Banditos chase after Marston.


 * West Elizabeth: An African-American posse hunt for Marston.

All three gang are a part of the Unaffiliated Criminals group under stats in the game menu.

List of Bounties
This is a list of all bounties in the game. The towns are not the wanted poster locations, but where you need to bring the bounty to. Wanted posters with a question mark are of targets already completed. However, the bounty location may be different (which is what the game counts for completion). There are 8 Mexican locations, 8 Western American locations and 4 Eastern American locations. Game completion progress is determined by the location of the bounty, not the bounties themselves, hence you do not need to kill all of the bounties in the game to achieve 100% completion.

Multiplayer
In Red Dead Redemption multiplayer, bounty hunting is a challenge system than earns players experience. A player who decides to fight the NPC lawmen in Free Roam mode, or break the laws, will have a bounty posted on their head, similar to single player mode. Any player who reaches a bounty of $1000 will be shown on the minimap as a public enemy and an experience bonus will be awarded to any player who kills him. Players who gain bounties and survive bounty hunter attacks will complete Outlaw Challenges.

Members of another posse can locate these players and kill them to collect on the bounty, as well as earning themselves experience.

Tips

 * In order for a bounty to become available in a town you have to be there long enough for the sheriff to come out of his office and post it. If there is not one available, try waiting outside the building for a minute or two. If that doesn't help try staying the night and saving. That usually resets everything.
 * To capture a live bounty, its usually a good idea to disarm him first in dead-eye mode, you could also shoot him in the leg to make it easier to lasso him. Before hogtying him call your horse near so that its at hand, sometimes reinforcements show up as soon as the bounty is hogtied. Also don't be squeamish about shooting his horse out from under him if he is trying to make an escape.
 * You cannot camp when you have a live bounty on your horse, and the only way is to travel back to the town to hand the criminal over to the authorities. Throughout the way back, accomplices of the bounty will approach you to try and kill you. It is possible to just ride faster and evade them without shooting them. When you near a town the accomplices will turn in the other direction and ride off. Also if a gang of accomplices come after you, kill all of them except one and just out run him. If he falls back far behind, wait a bit for him to catch up.This will avoid another gang of accomplices coming after you and will make the journey back much easier.
 * You can save after the bounty is accepted. If autosave is turned on the game will do this for you.
 * Be careful, as bounties who are trying to escape you will attempt to get on any nearby horses, including your own. A bounty on a horse can easily escape, and killing your own horse will cause you to lose honor. If a bounty does make it to your horse, attempt to lasso him before he rides off, or take a non-lethal shot with Dead-Eye. Whistling for your horse will cause it to buck off anybody that tries to steal it.
 * Most bounties will attempt to escape after being shot once, however some may pull out a gun at attempt to shoot Marston. Always have medicine ready just in case.
 * It is fairly easy to sneak up on a bounty's last known location by crouching. You will not attract attention unless you are very close or until you shoot. This can easily allow you to pick off the first enemy or multiple enemies using dead eye.
 * Try your best to survey the area around your targets hideout. When out in the wilderness anything can and will happen so be on your guard for things such as snakes and cougar attacks.
 * The enemies that pursue you after the bounty is killed or captured do not get off their horses unless they're shot off or their horses die.
 * Even with a bounty on his head Marston can still do bounty hunting missions.
 * Bounties are posted from appoximately 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Saving and continuing will advance the game time 6 hours and as long as you are in the time range(7-9), a new bounty should be posted. (It takes about a minute for the sheriff to actually post the bounty so the bounty will not automatically show up as soon as you continue)
 * When going after bounties who are affiliated with a certain gang (which you can find out easily from looking at the wanted poster for that bounty), you can dress in their gang attire (such as the mexican "Bandito" outfit or the "Bollard Twins" outfit) and this will make the bounty target and his fellow men not attack you so that you can go in for a close kill/capture. However, make notice that after you've given yourself away by firing your weapon or killing/hogtieing the bounty, reinforcements will still come to try and stop you when you are on your way back to the jail to turn the bounty in/show evidence of his death.
 * In order for a bounty to count towards your 100% Completion, you must not be wearing a bandana or it will not count (only if you are capturing the bounty alive; if he is dead, you can be wearing the bandana).

Achievements
Two trophy/achievement are associated with completing bounty hunting missions: