Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale of life in America at the dawn of the modern age.

America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs. Those who will not surrender or succumb are killed.

After a robbery goes badly wrong in the western town of Blackwater, Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to flee. With federal agents and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal and fight their way across the rugged heartland of America in order to survive. As deepening internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must make a choice between his own ideals and loyalty to the gang who raised him.

Built from the ground up for the latest hardware, Red Dead Online blends the classic multiplayer of the original Red Dead Redemption with the best of everything we have learned since then about creating deep multiplayer experiences. The result is something completely new and fun, and an experience that will continue to expand and evolve over time as we gain valuable feedback from our community in the Beta period.

Now that everyone has had a chance over the past month to experience the story of Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang in Red Dead Redemption 2, it is time to begin the beta period for Red Dead Online.

Built from the ground up for the latest hardware, Red Dead Online blends the classic multiplayer of the original Red Dead Redemption with the best of everything we have learned since then about creating deep multiplayer experiences. The result is something completely new and fun, and an experience that will continue to expand and evolve over time.

With the gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 as its foundation, Red Dead Online transforms the vast and deeply detailed landscapes, cities, towns and habitats of Red Dead Redemption 2 into a new, living online world ready to be shared by multiple players. Create and customize your character, tailor your abilities to suit your play style and head out into a new frontier full of things to experience.

Explore the world solo or with friends. Form or join a Posse to ride with up to seven players; gather around the fire at your Camp; head out hunting or fishing; visit bustling towns; battle enemy gangs and attack their hideouts; hunt for treasure; take on missions and interact with familiar characters from across the five states; or fight against other outlaws in both spontaneous skirmishes and pitched set-piece battles; compete with other players or whole Posses in open world challenges and much more.

Last week we implemented our first round of significant updates to the Red Dead Online Beta including new gameplay systems, experience balancing and over 300 bug fixes, another step on the road to building out what this world will become. This beta period allows us to shape and improve the fundamentals of that world before the journey of Red Dead Online truly begins. As Red Dead Online evolves, we will keep adding and improving features to give you a deeper connection to the world, your character, your horse and your weapons, as well as adding new gameplay that will help players carve out their own fate across the lawless frontier.

Here’s a look at two new additions launching today, including the return of a powerful weapon from the original Red Dead Redemption, and a frantic new addition to the list of Free Roam Events to experience as you move across the world. In addition, everyone will also get a package of useful items for playing this week.

New Weapon: Evans Repeater

The Evans Repeater is a powerful long-range rifle that’s known for being in John Marston’s arsenal during the events of Red Dead Redemption.The Evans Repeater has a high bullet capacity and is deadly at medium and long distances, with an especially high rate of fire. It also has customization options like Stocks, Sights and Wraps – to make this an essential part of your character’s weapon inventory. You can pick one up now directly from the Rawson, Wheeler & Co catalogue or at any Gunsmith.

You always need to be prepared to go out in a blaze of glory, but a little armor can delay the inevitable. This is the idea behind the Fool’s Gold Free Roam event. Fool’s Gold is the latest addition to the rotating roster of Free Roam Events, a selection of special competitive game types that periodically invite you to participate as you roam across the world of the Red Dead Online Beta. When you opt-into a Free Roam Event you’ll automatically join the event location before it begins. Like all Free Roam events, Fool’s Gold is a quick and easy way to jump into some fun competition and rack up a little extra XP and cash. It’s also a great way to quickly complete weapon, kill or combat-related Daily Challenges without attacking players in an open session.

In Fool’s Gold, you will battle other players to wear the Golden Armor, taking down opponents while wearing it to earn points. You can also score points by taking out a rival player that’s wearing the Golden Armor, which then puts the armor up for grabs to whoever reaches it first.

In addition to Fool’s Gold, there are a range of other Free Roam Events regularly taking place across the five states in the Red Dead Online Beta:

• Cold Dead Hands: Fight for control over a target for the longest amount of time.
• Competitive Challenges: Compete to get the highest score in a given, randomly-selected challenge within a set time limit (currently includes Bow, Headshot, Horseback, Longarm, and Sidearm Kill Challenges).
• Dispatch Rider: Posses compete to be the first to deliver a horse to the assigned destination.
• King of the Castle: Compete to gain and maintain control of the castle area by staying alive inside of it - whoever controls the active area for the highest percentage of the event time wins.
• Master Archer: Compete to score the most points by hitting the most targets as accurately as you can within the time limit.

 Like all Free Roam Events in the Red Dead Online Beta, Fool’s Gold can be played as individual free-for-alls or as skirmishes between Posses. To join Fool’s Gold, look for an alert to pop-up on screen while in Free Roam and then accept the invite. If a Posse leader accepts an invite to Fool’s Gold (or any other Red Dead Online Beta Free Roam Event) then their Posse members will automatically join the event with the posse leader. As the Red Dead Online Beta continues and we gain more data and feedback from players, we will continue to add new Free Roam events and a lot more.

New Care Package

We appreciate all the support you’ve shown thus far during the beta period, and this week all Red Dead Online Beta participants will receive a special care package (redeemed either at your camp’s lockbox or at any post office across the five states) as a show of our appreciation. This includes a host of items to help you survive life on the frontier and tackle any new Daily Challenges in Free Roam or Free Roam Events, on mission or in a Showdown Series:

• 60x High Velocity Pistol Ammo
• 60x High Velocity Repeater Ammo
• 2x Fire Bottles
• 8x Fire Arrows
• 2x Jolly Jack’s
• 2x Potent Horse Medicine
• 1x Lake Lure

As an added bonus, anyone who completes five Daily Challenges at any point between now and March 11 will be gifted one Special Spinner next week. The Special Spinner is a handy lure to catch fish of all sizes that cannot be lost if you ever cut the line.

Please do continue sending us your feedback about all the latest updates to the Red Dead Online Beta by submitting it by category via the official Feedback website – let us know what you think about Free Roam Events including the newly added Fool’s Gold, about the Evans Repeater and weaponry in general, and any or all other aspects of the Red Dead Online Beta.

Stay tuned for a raft of updates big and small including gameplay like the Fishing Challenge, new Showdown Modes, and Target Races – along with new weekly bonuses and a lot more.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is currently available for PS4 and Xbox One.