Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2

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How to Level Up Ability Cards Fast (UPDATED)
By ♥ZERO K%♥
This guide tells you how to level up ability cards while gaining EXP and MONEY at the same time, fast and without being weak in PVP.

Also, this guide is always effective, no matter if you are playing in broken empty lobbies or if you are playing in a lobby of 25+ players. Since Legendary Bounties are solo lobby always and Van Horn and Thief's Landing always have enemy NPCs
   
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Weather Warning - Bad Visibility
Come Holidays event when it will be snowing everywhere this guide will become extremely painful to do because of low visibility due to blizzard

Triggering Hunter Vision helps highlight darker areas, I usually trigger it a lot, especially since I can use it while sprinting or galloping. Default mouse button is middle mouse button i.e. scroll wheel.

You can use Dead Eye cards to high light enemies during fog or blizzard, best card for this is paint it black. I use it with sniper rifle scope even though I can't mark targets. Highlight is useful. Additionally, paint it black has a hidden spread buff which makes your crosshair ready to fire on point instantly.
Requirements
- Bounty Hunter role for 10-15 gold bars
- Any Sniper rifle
- Pump shotgun or any other shotgun
2 Sniper Rifles
It makes sense to own and use both Carcano and Rolling Block. Since during Legendary Missions all your stored weapons are on your horse you can make use of this. I normally don't have Rolling Block out but during Legendaries I get it out since it does more damage and timing is not as important for PvE. It usually 1 shots NPCs with express bullets at maximum condition even without Focus Fire etc. on 5 star difficulty missions.

I also modded my Carcano with Medium Scope so it gives me better reaction time in PvP but for PvE Long Scope Rolling Block is golden.

So what I do is I get it out when I am hiding far behind the tree snipe everyone and then I can get my Carcano for the close quarter combat at the shack or I keep running with Rolling Block until the mission end.
Upgrade Costs
1st Level Cards cost $50, 2nd Level $350, 3d $500 making it a total of $900 to upgrade a card

1st Level Cards cost 0 EXP, 2nd Level Cards cost 10.000 EXP and 3d 15.000 EXP
Best Combo: Yukon Nik + Thief's Landing - High Risk/High Reward
If you don't combine Yukon Nik and Thief's Landing than doing them separately is easy for new players

Note: this method is better suited for experienced players, with some unlocked abilities and gear, as well as tonics and lots of ammo.

You can read about each part of this method further down but here I will describe the difference between doing them separately and together.

!When doing a Legendary Bounty you try to maximize the payout and xp by waiting 30 minutes from the mission start. Doing Yukon Nik on hard should take you around 10-15 minutes if you take your time, loot everyone etc. !

You still have around 20-15 minutes left to wait. How to spend this time with most effect? Just go to Thief's Landing. It will be so full of enemies you will be in a perpetual fight with ENDLESS EXP gains.

Since Legendary Missions are essentially happening in single player mode the enemy re-spawns are extremely fast (that also includes animals) so if you visit any of the enemy spawning locations I mention in this guide, they will keep re-spawning very very fast. Sometimes too fast that, especially in places like Van Horn and Thief's Landing because they tend to re-spawn behind the scenes when you turn a corner and no player sees them. And these places have many corners, alleys and enemy spawns.

So you will keep getting 20 exp for free aim (if you play with that, I highly suggest you turning it on in settings if you use mouse and keyboard because there really isn't any aim assist for those peripherals but you do not get any extra exp). You get 5 exp per kill, 5 for hip fire kills, 5 for special ammo, 5 for dead eye kills. 5 for head and hat shots.

You could potentially get around 20+5+5+5+5=40 EXP per KILL with ENDLESS supply of enemies who have almost instant re-spawn rate. But most often you will just get 30 EXP with free aim.

There are some downsides to this method, it is high risk - high reward:

First, if you die on 5 star bounty mission (which this is going to be), you will fail the mission and the timer will re-set so you will have to re-do the entire thing and wait from the start. And it is possible to die in Thief's Landing with so many re-spawning enemies.

My advise to you is to use level 2 tonics to fortify your health at all times (so it has a yellow circle around your health core) in order not to be killed. Once the yellow circle is gone pop another level 2 health tonic immediately. And it will be gone with so many enemies around you.
Level 2 tonics are less annoying to get for me, as I don't have to spend time crafting and buy herbs from Nazar. But if you have level 3 tonics, go for it. But I suggest level 2 over level 1 tonics. Though this can be done with level 1 tonics too. And you can also equip health regaining cards if you have very few tonics and not enough cash to buy them. But be warned, without fortified health you can end up dying.

Another thing is that you will run out of ammo eventually and quite fast too, even if you go there with full stacks of all ammo types, which is why you really must start this bounty with full ammo of all types you can have (except maybe the one split point because it is annoying to craft). You can of course access your entire weapon inventory during story missions like this one so you can use up all the guns like repeaters, elephant rifle, pistols you have stored in your gun locker and not on your person in free roam, so that you don't have to go for a re-fill or turn in the bounty sooner. (this can slightly prologue your farm) so make sure you prepare to stop fighting before you do run out of ammo because if you run out of ammo mid combat and enemies keep spawning you will also die. It takes a minute for you to kill all agro'ed re-spawning enemies. It is not really possible to exit the combat the minute you want. So you need to start looking for this opportunity in advance. It will require you to either hide from enemies and make them de-agro or swiftly kill them all without turning a corner and agroing new spawns with existing combat. If new enemies see you fighting old ones, they will join the fray.

Free Roam enemies have no loot during Legendary Bounties. so you won't be able to loot collectibles and any other things from them but they will drop regular ammo from their guns. You can also pick up their worn guns but I suggest not to as they can most likely glitch and get stuck in your inventory somehow, without the ability to store them.

You can't clean your guns during these missions, so the wear they receive will stay. I advice you to start them with fully cleaned guns

And finally, Nik can die. So before you begin the fight take him off your horse and put him in the shack in Thief's Landing it is the one next to the Fence's shack. Shown on the pictures below. Nik can be killed by stray bullets so best not to fight around him. And obviously, do not pick up Nik and move him back to the horse during combat. You will only have 1 hand and if you re-load he can fall into the water and drown. And he is obviously a human shield so you don't want him to die.



This method is really good, spawn rates are much higher than if you visit the area during Free Roam even if you are the only person in the area, or in the lobby, with social matchmaking disabled. That means more EXP faster.
Yukon Nik Legendary Bounty


Equip all the cards that you want to level, after you've purchased them for initial $50. If you want to level 4 cards at the same time, I say do it. The faster the better, but you might not have enough cash to level them all up once you get the EXP so it is good to have other ways of income, like Condor's Egg I mentioned in my other guide, Moonshiner, or Trader.

If you got any leveled cards and you are leveling less than 4 cards, then equip any damage boost/recovery cards or healing cards (healing cards can be very useful during PVE fights like these as enemies have good aim and hit rough). Don't forget to bring a few healing tonics just in case.



So you want to do this bounty mission every time it cools down after 48 minutes of you having completed it. You should start a timer of 30 minutes from the start of the mission to know when to turn it in for maximum gold and cash rewards.

This mission is my favorite because it is the easiest and it is the best for EXP because it has a lot of goons to kill and loot. Besides, you get additional EXP load after beating a legendary bounty. But the reason I advise you to do this, is because it gives you EXP and MONEY and at the same time, letting you level cards that much faster than by just grinding either. Especially if you do not have any money making strategies.

If playing on KB+M, I suggest you go into controller settings and set aiming to Free Aim both on Horse and Foot for extra EXP per kill.

First, go on the cliff overlooking the Yukon's fort and hide behind this tree. It is the largest tree up there, perfect elevation to snipe everyone down. The cliff is on the way towards Great Plains.
Like this:



After most enemies are down, make your way to the fort and kill remaining enemies, beware of dogs in front of the shack. Do not let bears out of the cages or "You're tearing me apart, Lisa" is going to happen.

Once all enemies are down a cutscene will play and Nik



will come out of his hut with a hostage. You gotta shoot Nik several times in the sawed off shotgun. If you hit the hostage, do not worry, who cares if he lives. Anyway, shoot him around 3 times with a navy revolver in the sawed off and he will drop his gun and lie wounded on the ground. Tie him up and bring him inside the shack. If you can't wound him and end up killing Nik instead just use lasso to tie him up, either tackle with it or throw, but be quick or he will kill you with shotgun.A good idea is to use a strong level 2 or level 3 health tonic here, so you don't die.



There is a total of 3 waves of goons during this mission. You've already cleared 1 wave. The 2nd wave will arrive soon after you tie Nik up. I like to put him in the hut so I do not accidentally target him with right click like you would target a horse for interaction sometimes, during a firefight, which is very annoying.

So you gotta do everything fairly quick, not to be ambushed by those guys.

Anyway, hide in the shack, it will be your outpost of defense against 2 final waves of poachers. Go in 1st person mode as it is easier to shoot in that mode when you are in confined spaces. You can use both shotgun and sniper rifle from inside the shack. It is a perfect defense spot. It has 2 doorways and doors close. When doors are closed enemies usually do not attack you or even come inside. So try having only 1 door open at a time. You can shoot through windows, and holes in the shack, enemies won't usually do that or will miss horribly. Proceed to clear the enemies. Do not let bears out as they will steal your kills and XP.



Once you've dealt with this 2nd wave of enemies you probably think you are safe. Well you're not. Leave Nik inside the shack and venture outside the red borders I've shown on the pic below. And run back to the shack very very fast as more enemies will come to fight you in the same fashion as during wave 2. Wave 3 is likely to catch people leaving with Nik off guard on their horse in a field without the protection of the shack.



Picture with me standing shows approximately how far you have to go before turning back, and running as fast as you can inside the shack. Do not waste time, once you reach the red border the enemies are already coming for you with aimbot aim and numbers. That is especially deadly on final difficulties. But this bounty is still the easiest and best to play.

They do not immediately show up so that may deceive you into thinking you did not go far enough but I suggest you venture out and run back inside. Overtime you will get an idea of how far you have to go before returning to the shack.

Once all enemies are dead and looted, pick up Nik and go to Great Plains, there I suggest you hunt animals for EXP and Meat, especially good if you find an entire herd of Bison which I find there very often. By the way, legendary missions are always in a complete solo session so animal spawns are always good. Your aim is to make sure you spend a total of 30 minutes in the mission from the start to get maximum rewards and then turn in the bounty in Blackwater.

Once bounty is turned in there is 48 minutes cooldown before you can do any legendary bounty again. I suggest you just do this over and over.
Grinding Thief's Landing or Van Horn
I always liked grinding those 2 locations because they have non-police enemies that give you actual EXP for killing them. Even more EXP with Free Aim targeting. And the great thing about those 2 is that they respawn very fast, practically when you turn a corner and lose sight of their spawn points. They also give you good loot from jewelry, ammo to opened tonics that you can't buy via catalogue. So just shoot everyone up and while you are roaming the area, patrolling, looting more will spawn. So you are able to endlessly kill enemy NPCs for EXP and loot. And it works in sessions which have 25+ players too.

However, if you are playing without anyone around you, in a solo lobby, then the speed of NPCs respawn is almost instant, while it is quick even with 25+ players, and the swarms of enemies that can flock to you are truly big sometimes, as at times they are able to respawn before you finish off the entire group.

My favorite is Thief's Landing.

In Thief's Landing, Del Lobo's never call the police. Only occasional rare strangers can call police so kill them fast and enjoy shootouts without police interference. There are higher chances of police in Van Horn.





Just do that until you can start another Yukon Nik mission.
Other places where Thief's Landing method works
Decided to name all the other places with constantly spawning enemy npcs and little law presence in Online. There will be occasional witnesses and I haven't really used these places for leveling my cards but it is possible. For when you get tired of shooting up Thief's Landing and Van Horn.

Cornwall's Oil Rigs (to the right of Valentine) and Murfree's Brood Town (to the left of Van Horn)


Braithwaite Estate (below Rhodes) and Gray's Caliga Hall (to the right of Rhodes)


Fort Wallace DOESN'T WORK SOLDIERS DO NOT GIVE EXP, it is sometimes closed, sometimes it is open and populated with Soldiers. Located right of Valentine above the Oil Rig.

Final Advice
Make sure you always have the cards you are trying to level equipped when you are turning in Collector's Set, or Completing Dailies for large EXP gains, finding treasure, picking up collectibles, resetting awards for gold. Or whenever you know you are about to get a lot of EXP, maybe completing a trader delivery, just have those cards equipped in your loadout.

And to finish, I'd like to say RDO in itself is a great game. If you like winning (possibly in PvP) or grinding i.e restocking the trader, moonshiner to sell different moonshine, you enjoy collecting, doing various daily challenges, have fun with horses, or you enjoy showing off your abilities as bounty hunter, or even like tracking animals as naturalist. Over time you may accumulate a lot of wealth and despite occasional cheaters and connection issues, it is a really really amazing experience.

Please, have fun and enjoy and be well!
2 Comments
Eren 19 Sep, 2020 @ 4:42am 
6
臭GamePlayer 13 Sep, 2020 @ 12:02am 
棒!:steamhappy: