Red Dead Online Ability Cards

Ability Cards are special cards in Red Dead Online that provide the Red Dead Online protagonist with attributes that affect the damage they deal, and how its dealt.

Description

There are four slots available for abilities: 1 slot for Dead Eye, granting an ability activated during Dead Eye, and 3 slots for Passive Abilities, which affect the player persistently. There are one Active slot, and three Passive slots to fill.   

The Dead Eye slot unlocks at Rank 2. The three passives unlock at ranks 10, 20 and 40.    

Abilities can be found in the Abilities section of the Pause menu or accessed via the Weapon Wheel.

While ranking up, Ability Cards will unlock and become available to buy with cash. Similarly, upgrade the cards already own by unlocking upgrades from gain XP. Each card has three tiers to unlock, greatly enhancing the abilities. The 3rd tier gives the best stats for the card.

For all cards, except the player's first Dead Eye card, it costs $50 to buy, $350 to upgrade to Level 2 and $500 to upgrade to level 3.

Dead Eye Abilities

Ability	Unlocks	Description	Card
A Moment To Recuperate	Rank 2	While Dead Eye is active you regenerate health. Taking any damage will cancel Dead Eye.
Focus Fire I	Rank 2	While Dead Eye is active you can paint targets onto enemies. Fire your weapon to shoot all marked targets Each shot drains Dead Eye.
Paint it Black	Rank 2	While Dead Eye is active you can paint targets onto enemies. Fire your weapon to shoot all marked targets. Each shot drains Dead Eye.
Slow and Steady I	Rank 24	While Dead Eye is active you take a little less damage and headshots do not kill you outright. You cannot run or sprint.
Quite An Inspiration I	Rank 44	While Dead Eye is active you and your allies regenerate health. If more than one member of your team has this ability active, the effects do not stack.
Slippery Bastard I	Rank 50	While Dead Eye is active enemy players cannot lock onto you, and you cannot lock onto them. Other enemies are a little less accurate when shooting at you. The rate at which your Dead Eye drains is dramatically increased.

Passive Ability Cards

There are three different types of Passive Ability Cards: Combat Abilities, Recover Abilities, and Defense Abilities. Passive Card effects are always working while in the player's loadout.

• The 1st Passive Ability Card slot unlocks at Rank 10
• The 2nd Passive Ability Card slot unlocks at Rank 20
• The 3rd Passive Ability Card slot unlocks at Rank 40

Combat Abilities

Ability	Unlocks	Description	Card
Gunslinger’s Choice	Rank 10	While dual-wielding, you deal more damage and are more accurate.
Horseman	Rank 10	You deal a little more damage while on horseback.
Sharpshooter	Rank 10	While using a scope, you deal more damage and take less damage.
Necessity Breeds	Rank 16	As you get closer to death, you start to do a little more damage.
Landon’s Patience	Rank 18	Waiting for up to 15 seconds between shots slightly increases your damage.
The Short Game	Rank 38	You deal more damage to targets closer to you, but less to far away targets.
Hangman	Rank 42	Lasso chokes enemies dealing damage for every second they are lassoed.
Winning Streak	Rank 48	Each consecutive shot on the same target does a little more damage.

Recovery Abilities

Ability	Unlocks	Description	Card
Iron Lung	Rank 10	Your Stamina regenerates faster, and you take less damage depending on your current Stamina level.
Kick in the Butt	Rank 10	Whenever you take damage, a proportion of it is added to your Dead Eye.
Live for the Fight	Rank 10	You regenerate Dead Eye slowly over time.
Ride Like the Wind	Rank 10	Whenever you take or deal damage while mounted, a proportion of it is added to your horse's Health and Stamina.
Come Back Stronger	Rank 10	Health begins regenerating a little sooner after you take damage.
Peak Condition	Rank 14	You inflict a little more damage if your Stamina is at least 75% full.
Eye for an Eye	Rank 28	Headshots restore a little Dead Eye.
The Gift of Focus	Rank 40	Items and Abilities which restore Dead Eye have their effects slightly improved. You deal a little less damage.
Strange Medicine	Rank 32	You regain a little health whenever you inflict damage. Your health will otherwise regenerate at half the normal rate.
Cold Blooded	Rank 36	After killing an enemy you will get back a little health over the next five seconds.

Defense Abilities

Ability	Unlocks	Description	Card
Fool Me Once	Rank 10	You take less damage each consecutive time you are shot. This effect ends if you are not shot for 10 seconds.
Friends for Life	Rank 10	While mounted, you and your horse take less damage.
Strength in Numbers	Rank 10	You take less damage for every nearby ally, up to a maximum of three allies.
Hunker Down	Rank 20	Take less damage while in cover.
To Fight Another Day	Rank 22	Take less damage from bullets while sprinting.
The Unblinking Eye	Rank 26	Dead Eye and Eagle Eye drain slower.
Take the Pain Away	Rank 34	Reviving someone gives you and that person less damage taken for 8 seconds.
Of Single Purpose	Rank 40	Take less damage from bullets while unarmed or using a melee weapon.
Never without One	Rank 46	Your hat will block one headshot and then fall off. If you are not wearing a hat you take more damage.