Red Dead Redemption 2 Hunting Guide

In this Red Dead Redemption 2 Hunting Guide, we will show you how hunting plays a role in the game. In Red Dead Redemption 2, there are a lot of hunting options for you to experience, and you can sell the goods that you harvest from animals. We will also show you what type of meat qualities there are in the game that will help identify its value when you sell it.

It’s not all about guns blazing in Red Dead Redemption 2’s Western-themed open-world setting. There are many other activities, like hunting in the game, that will keep you engaged. Hunting also plays a big role if you are looking for valuable resources to sell or to use for yourself and Dutch’s gang.

Below, we will show you how hunting works in Red Dead Redemption 2 and what you can do to be an effective hunter. We will also guide you in the types of meat you can get from certain animals, followed by how to track animals as you begin your hunt.

Hunting Basics

There are many ways you can hunt animals in the game, from a pure hunter’s perspective, approaching an animal silently or tracking it can be the best way to locate and kill your prey.
Before you begin hunting, you may want to consider what type of weapon you should take with you to hunt. Keep in mind, if you damage the pelt of an animal, it may lose its value, which can limit you to using bows or single-shot rifles.

Tracking an animal can be tough, but it is also effective in locating the type of animal you may find. To track an animal, you can enable your Eagle Eye to highlight all nearby animals. Press L3 + R3 to activate Eagle Eye. You can also look for other signs of animals nearby by looking at footprints and remains of eaten prey.

Luring Prey

If you do not want to look for the animal but want the animal to come to you instead, then you can use the bait option to attract animals nearby. Freshly killed animals are attraction points fr carnivores; leave an animal in the open and hide someplace out of sight. Eventually, an animal will approach, and you will have the chance to kill it.

Different sorts of baits will prompt carious animals to respond to them. Drop the bait on the ground and hide some place nearby. This can take a few minutes, so you will have to wait. Once they are lured to the bait, you can attack.

You can also use cover scent to make yourself more invisible to animals when they approach in an area near you. Animals will be unaware of your presence which can allow you to sneak behind and kill.

Stealth can be very effective in hunting, which will allow you to creep even closer to the animal. Using a bow will not alert nearby animals and you can have a clean shot once you have come up close enough to the prey.

Hunting Resources

Different types of animals and birds that can be found in the game’s open-world setting can be hunted for resources. These resources are divided into meat, hides, and other useful materials. Hunted animal carcasses can be carried whole into a town or brought back into the camp to support the gang, while you can also personally eat the meat of your hunted animal or sell them for money.

Animals not only give you meat, but they also give you pelts that can be used to create customized upgrades to your clothing and accessories. In addition, other animal parts, like teeth and claws, have their own mysterious powers when you wear them as a talisman.

Hunted animal parts can be stored in your satchel or whole animal carcasses can be stored on your horse to be carried around. Carry the animal and go to your horse to stow the carcass by pressing the SQUARE button. This can allow you to carry the animal back to camp or sell it to a butcher shop.

You can also eat the meat that you get from the animals. Cook the meat near a campfire and use herbs to make it more satisfying for your character.

It is worth mentioning that animals that are stored on your horse long enough will decompose and rot. This will decrease the value of the kill so it’s best not to store the carcass that long.

Types of Meat

There are 4 types of meat in Red Dead Redemption 2 that are ranked in quality from Best to Low. The qualities are Best Quality, High Quality, Good Quality, and Low Quality. These different types of qualities provide different benefits and can be used for different types of recipes.

Best Quality

Big Game: The best type of meat you can get is from large predators like Alligators, Wolves, and Bears.

High Quality

In High Quality, there are 6 types of meats:

Exotic Bird meat comes from rare birds like Carolina Parakeets, Parrots, and Pelicans. Tender Pork is soft and succulent meat that can be taken from animals like Pigs and Javelina. Mature Venison is high-quality Deer meat cuts. Prime Beef is a high-quality meat that you can get from Cows and Buffaloes. Game meat comes from Rabbits, Ducks, and, pheasants. Lastly, Succulent Fish gives you fillets from fishes like Trout and Salmon.

Good Quality

There are 4 types of good quality meats you can find:

Crustacean meat comes from various types of Shellfish. Flakey Fish is meat from Perch and Bass that can give you a satisfying fillet. Plump Bird meat is what you can get from Turkeys, Geese, and Chickens. Lastly, Grisly Mutton is meat from cattle like Sheep and Goats.

Low Quality

There are 4 types of Low-Quality Meat:

Gritty Fish is fillet from fishes like Bluegill. Herptile Meat comes from reptiles and amphibians. Gamey Bird is made of low-quality meat from various small birds. Lastly, Stringy Meat is meat from rats and other small vermin.

Additional Red Dead Redemption 2 guides are linked below:

This concludes our Red Dead Redemption 2 Hunting Guide. Feel free to comment below.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Hunting Guide – Tracking, Types of Meat