Master Hunter Challenges

You might also be looking for the multiplayer Master Hunter Challenges.

Master Hunter Challenges are gameplay challenges which involve Hunting and Skinning specific animals in the single player of Red Dead Redemption.

Initiating

This challenge will be initiated simply by finding a Coyote, killing and then skinning it.

Ranks

• Rank 1: Kill and skin five Coyotes
• Rank 2: Kill and skin five Deer
• Rank 3: Kill five wolves with your melee knife
• Rank 4: Skin five Boars and skin three Armadillos
• Rank 5: Kill 2 Cougars with your melee knife and skin 2 Cougars.
• Rank 6: Kill and skin 5 Raccoons, 5 Skunks and 5 Foxes
• Rank 7: Skin five Elk and five Bighorn
• Rank 8: Kill a Bear with your melee knife and collect a bear pelt
• Rank 9: Search Ojo del Diablo for "Khan" the legendary jaguar and kill him, then collect his pelt
• Rank 10: Search Aurora Basin, Stillwater Creek, and Nekoti Rock for "Lobo" the legendary wolf, "Gordo" the legendary boar and "Brumas" the legendary bear and collect their pelts.

Rewards

Successful completion of Master Hunter: Rank 5 will unlock the Buffalo Rifle for purchase from a Gunsmith.

Successful completion of Master Hunter: Rank 10 allows creation of Vittles after skinning an animal.

Tips

General

• Visit the individual animal pages for tips on where to find each species and for specific hunting tips.

Rank 1

• This cannot be done in the Bonnie MacFarlane mission "New Friends, Old Problems".
• It can be done right after the quest ends, if quick enough.

Rank 2

• Bucks do not count as deer. They can be distinguished by antlers and body size; the latter having no antlers and a smaller build.

Rank 3

• Utilize the roll or Dead Eye when attempting to take on an entire wolf pack.
• Shooting an animal first, then knifing it, helps.
• Be careful; five wolves can take a while to skin and more wolf packs may spawn while the skinning is in progress. Quick skinning methods are invaluable.
• It is helpful to work on this challenge while riding a horse. This way, a wolf can be killed by one slice of the knife while the player is safe from attack.

Rank 4

• Do not shoot Armadillos with a high-powered weapon, or it will not be possible to skin them.
• A great boar spawn is on the Hennigan's Stead side of Tanner's Span railroad bridge. Be careful: it is also a cougar, wolf, and fox spawn. Use Bait and an effective close-range gun like the Semi-auto Shotgun. Boars tend to only appear in the early morning and the mid-afternoon. It is very rare to have them appear at night.
• Note that while the in-game description says five tusks are required, in reality kill and skinning five boars is sufficient, even if five tusks aren't collected.

Rank 5

The Cougars skinned do not need to be the Cougars killed with the knife, and can be skinned before. This helps prevent the possibility of killing a Cougar, and being killed by another animal and negating credit for the knife kill. Cougars have the nasty ability to knock players over when they attack, which can be very troublesome as the cougar only needs two strikes to kill a player. After knocking you down, the cougar can quickly position itself for the second attack and because the challenge requires players to use the knife to make the kills, the problem presented by the knockdown is greatly increased. An effective way to deal with the cougars is to use the roll when "aiming" with the knife, jumping, or sprinting out of the way to dodge the cougar's initial attack. After dodging the first attack, the cougar tends to be facing in the wrong direction for it to attack again — this is when the cougar is vulnerable and players will have a few seconds to run up behind it and slash at it with a knife. It only takes around two knife swings to kill the cougar, so players should only need to do this once. Players can also use the knife on horseback, so the horse dies first allowing players to kill the cougar.

Although the knife attack is slow, the cougar health is relatively low. It only takes two knife slashes to kill the cougar, so trying to use the "weaken the animal with a gun" technique might cause players to accidentally kill the cougar and search for another one. Just remember to roll to dodge the cougar's attacks.

Another way to complete this is to take out a repeater and shoot it in the rear end. Doing this will still make it attack (if it runs away that means you will have limited time to kill it before it dies from blood loss). After this, run in circles and time knife slashes carefully. If players do not have a 3 star horse, the cougar might catch up to them and kill the horse, leaving them vulnerable to it attacking them.

Another way to complete this challenge is in New Austin. Just ride around in the west part near Silent Stead and wait for the random event where a person is being chased by wild animals; in that area, the animals are often two cougars. Note, however, that players will probably fail to save the hapless person and also that it is a fairly dangerous area; wolf packs often do spawn there. Repeated encounters with wolves can result in the death of horses and, on occassion, players after the horse. Players may also have luck finding them on the hill in Hennigan's Stead. Drop some bait and start running, always checking your back, running in circles and rolling. By doing this and dodging the cougar attacks, players should have the most luck.

In a random encounter east of Solomon's Folly, southeast of Benedict Point, the player may encounter a man with a cougar skinning challenge. Often only one cougar shows up, making it easy to get a jump on it.

Another tactic players might want to use is to hunt from horseback, as they are able to use the knife while riding. One good way to do this is to take one shot with a pistol then switch to the knife and finish it off while running it down on horseback.

After completing the Master Hunter 5 challenge, the Buffalo Rifle becomes available for purchase from any Gunsmith.

Rank 6

Just north/northeast of Thieves' Landing and north/northwest of the Wreck of the Serendipity is an area bordered by roads on three sides and the river on the fourth. On the map, this area is drawn under a picture of the fox. By nightfall, there is an abundance of foxes, a raccoon here and there, and quite a few skunks. Be careful, though, because this is also a prime spawning point for wolves, cougars and boars, all of which will attack players. The best place to find raccoons is at Beecher's Hope during the early morning hours before daybreak.

These animals can also be found at Beecher's Hope and north of MacFarlane's Ranch after 6 PM. At Beecher's Hope, players can find all 15 animals during the course of one night to the east of the house inside the fence. Walk around and players will probably see them all walking in a northerly direction. Be careful though, on top of the hill north of MacFarlane's Ranch and the railroad tracks is constantly spawning cougars and wolves.

Rank 7

For this challenge you must hunt 5 Elk, and 5 Bighorns. Just North of the first 'e' in Tall Trees, there is a clearing where both elk and bighorn respawn. Be careful, as Boar also come through here.

Rank 8

Use the same technique used to kill the Cougar, though it takes three or four body shots to weaken a Grizzly. Then, Lasso the bear after several body shots. When letting it go, the bear will run. This will give the opportunity to knife it without being attacked, though the bears are fast, making it difficult to chase them on foot. Try to use a horse for extra speed. When bears run, they can run through other animal spawn points, bringing even more bears, wolves, boars, or other dangerous animals.

A bear can be taken head-on in a risky maneuver that involves the player walking towards a charging bear and striking out with the knife at the right moment. If done correctly, the knife will connect with the bear's head, causing instant death.

Players can hang out outside Beecher's Hope and set Bait for a Bear. Once it arrives, shoot it once in the head with the Henry Repeater and jump the fence. Walk along side the fence and it will follow. Eventually, players will reach a gap in the fence, where its' side will be vulnerable.

In the mission "For Purely Scientific Purposes", the party will be attacked by a bear. If knowing when to hang back, the others will be firing at it and it will be distracted, offering a perfect opportunity to kill it from behind.

Once the bear has been weakened, it's still no easy job to knife it. However, the most popular way is when it is charging towards you — target it with a knife and then roll out of the way once it gets too close. This is also a good way to kill other animals with a knife. Also, if possible when trying to knife the bear, hang back a bit and it will soon go onto its rear legs and stand up. This means that it cannot turn around as fast, which then gives the opportunity to go behind it and slash it. Shoot the grizzly once in the body with the Buffalo Rifle, then wait for it to come. Slash it once more with the knife and it should start running away, knife it a couple more times and it's dead.

Eight shots in the leg with the Evans Repeater and one hit with the knife will drop a bear.

If players are lucky enough to encounter only one bear at a time, lasso it when it is near. The bear will be temporarily stunned, allowing time to switch to a knife via the start menu and slash its' side a few times. Rinse and repeat until the beast is felled.

This is the safest and probably easiest method. Get inside a cabin at Bearclaw Camp when a bear is chasing you. The bear cannot come in, and you should be able to kill it without it being able to kill you. (For sure on multiplayer untested on single player.)

• If a Random Stranger encounter happens where a bear is chasing a fellow and you kill the bear with a Melee Knife it may count towards the Challenge. Normally, however, it will not, but there are confirmed cases of this working. This would be an easy way to earn this as the bear will not attack, but keeps chasing the stranger allowing the player to ride up next to the bear and slash away with a Melee Knife. One way to ensure you get the kill is to hack away until its health drops slightly, then wait for it to kill the stranger and then kill it.
• If the player is having difficulty killing a bear with a melee knife, it may be helpful to try to bring the bear's health down by putting a couple rounds from a Cattleman Revolver into it. After the bear has been shot, the player, preferably on horseback, should then ride in with the knife equipped and slash the bear to death.

Rank 9

Khan is the first legendary you encounter so be very cautious while hunting him, and remember to stock up on ammo, medicine, Moonshine, and bait. Go to the Ojo del Diablo area and use a bottle of bait while searching for Khan. If you don't have any bait, you should kill some of the local wildlife to draw him out, or just wait for a while. A lot of motion may also draw khan out. Once you have drawn him out, you should use Dead Eye to finish him. Nothing fancy is needed, just a few shots to the head. Aim for the eyes if possible as this does a large amount of damage.

When you have found Khan (or Khan finds you) he will appear as a red mark on your Heads-Up Display. So watch the Heads-Up Display for a specific location.

It is quite easy to kill the legendaries using the LeMat Revolver and Dead Eye. When it is running directly at you, take aim and mark it in the head area with all nine rounds and fire away. Another option is to use one precise Throwing Knife to the head, again Dead Eye may be helpful.

Rank 10

As you approach any of the Legendary Animals, they will appear as a red mark on your minimap. So don't worry about missing them; as long as you are searching the right area their specific location will be shown eventually.

A single tomahawk to the head kills all of them. Using Dead Eye will help with the accuracy. 3 shots to the head with the Bolt Action Rifle will also kill all 3 Legendary Animals.

Lobo is easy, there will be little problem killing him if staying on a horse. Gordo is the easiest — once again, stay on horseback and keep shooting the waves of boars that come. Brumas is the hardest. This time get off the horse, then shoot him in the head in Dead Eye. Another good tactic (especially for Brumas) is to try and stay on a stagecoach or wagon while killing the waves of animals as they can't attack you.

The easiest way to kill these animals is to wait until they appear on the minimap. Advance slowly until having them in sight, then go into Dead-Eye using a weapon with high ammo capacity/rate of fire and empty most of a magazine into them. Single-shot weapons, even very powerful ones, may not do fatal damage, as all of them have an abnormally large amount of health.

Another way to kill all of them is using the Pump-Action Shotgun, using 3-4 shots on Lobo and Gordo to the head and almost all the shots to Brumas to the head.

If using fast travel to a waypoint near their location, make sure set the waypoint outside the animal's actual zone. Otherwise the player may have to ride out of their zone and then back to get them to appear. (Or use bait, which is somewhat riskier since they can appear very close to you.)

Another strategic way of killing Brumas is to hide inside the cave on Nekoti Rock. Brumas has difficulty getting inside the cave, giving the player a short period of time to shoot the trapped Brumas. However, should Brumas get through into the cave, the player is trapped and it is extremely difficult to avoid getting killed.

Sometimes Lobo is stuck in the water, but you can still shoot him and get in the shallow water to skin him.

If you had an unsuccessful search for Lobo the Wolf, go and search for Brumas on Nekoti Rock, then come back at midnight. Lobo should now be present when you enter the area. If you are thinking of using bait, be aware that it will attract bears and not the Legendary Wolf. Brumas requires one shot to the head with the Buffalo Rifle, so if you have a clear shot on him, try to get a headshot.

Gordo the Boar is found (in Single Player) near Thieves' Landing in the Stillwater Creek area. Players should take caution when Gordo is in water; if he is killed in water, he can't be skinned, however some people have had him skinned automatically.

A very easy way to locate and kill the legendary animals of Rank 10 is to use fast travel (from a campsite) from another location on the map to the area the animal is located in, you can succsessfully locate and kill Brumas, Lobo and Gordo in under 15 mins for all three, whilst using almost no ammo. From just wandering around in the area after spawing there from fast travel, within 30 seconds the animals appeared on the map, and were easily killed with no waves of animals appearing.

When using the Mauser Pistol firing a full magazine into the head or body of the legendary animals is usually enough to kill them.

Videos

<videogallery> Video:Red_Dead_Wiki_Tips_Episode_1_Killing_2_Cougars_With_a_Knife|Tips for Master Hunter Rank 5 </videogallery>

Trophies/Achievements

	FRONTIERSMAN 20 gamerscore Bronze bronze Obtain Legendary rank in any Single Player Ambient Challenge.

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	REDEEMED 100 gamerscore Gold gold Attain 100% List in the singleplayer game completion list.