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.

Today’s update to Red Dead Online brings a host of new gameplay including new cooperative story missions, Free Roam activities and the addition of Poker alongside a range of updates and improvements that strengthen and stabilize the foundational world of the Red Dead Online experience.

A massive thank you to everyone who participated during the beta period. Your feedback has been instrumental in helping us fine tune the game so far with many of your suggestions implemented in today’s update, and we will continue to implement more of your feedback in future updates to come.

This is just the beginning. The future of Red Dead Online not only includes continued improvements to the core elements of the world to make every aspect of the game fun for all kinds of players, but also brand-new experiences that establish a deeper, more immersive connection to the world and your character.

See below for details on today’s update and what’s coming in the weeks and months ahead.

A Land Of Opportunities: New Co-op Missions

The revenge saga of Jessica LeClerk expands today with new missions in A Land of Opportunities for both honorable and dishonorable players. After the epic showdown in Fort Mercer that concluded the last series of missions, players will help Mrs LeClerk get closer to the truth behind the murder of her husband. In the more honorable Gunslinger path, battle the Del Lobos gang and help Marshall Tom Davies save Valentine – and his own neck.

In the Outlaw strand, outwit lawmen to assist Samson Finch in highway robbery, and pull off a daring high-stakes theft at the Saint Denis Bank. Both paths lead to a rendezvous in Blackwater with a dangerous adversary.

Free Roam Missions

Free Roam Missions also expand today with new characters from the story of Red Dead Redemption 2 and a variety of new and diverse mission types. Bring your Posse to meet with Thomas the Skiff Captain down in Bayou Nwa for some honest work or visit the disconcertingly hospitable Aberdeen Pig Farmers to get your hands extremely dirty, and look out for more characters to appear soon.

Posse Versus Challenges

Competitive fishing is now available on-demand in one of three new Posse Versus Challenges. Posse leaders can simply use the Player Menu to trigger intra-Posse competitions to reel in the biggest catch before the timer runs out in the Biggest Fish Contest, down the most flying birds in the Bird Shooting Contest, or gather the most plants in the Herb Picking Contest.

Poker

Visit poker tables at towns and outposts across the map to challenge your friends to a private, invite-only game of Hold ’Em. Or, raise the stakes and take a seat at a public table, where the buy-ins and rewards are even higher. All poker tables seat up to 6 players, available in 5 locations: Blackwater, Saint Denis, Tumbleweed, Valentine and Flatneck Station.

Overrun Showdown Mode

Mark your territory and lay claim to as much land as you can, working your way behind enemy lines to capture territory from your opponents while defending what’s yours. Whoever holds the most land at the end of this new Showdown Mode wins.

LeMat Revolver, Clothing And More

Boasting a 9-round revolving chamber and a secondary barrel for a single buckshot round, switch between rapid-fire bullets and a devastating shotgun shell on the fly with the LeMat Revolver – now available for purchase from the Wheeler, Rawson and Co. Catalogue.

More clothing items and emotes are also available, featuring some highly-requested clothing options including Ponchos, patterned Bandanas and more – as well as new emotes such as Throat Slit and Flip Off. New inventory will be coming and going often so check the Catalogue frequently to see what’s in stock week-to-week.

 In addition, all players who jump into Red Dead Online this week will get a gift of 15 Gold Bars and see a 25% increase of XP on A Land of Opportunities, Free Roam Missions, Showdown Modes, Races and Free Roam Events. Treasure hunters will also find 25% extra Cash and Gold in chests containing them. All Ultimate Edition owners will also get a gift of RDO$100 and the Throat Slit emote for free.

Playing Styles

As outlined in an earlier post previewing some of today’s additions, this update brings the option to choose how you interact with players inside the world of Red Dead Online, via Offensive and Defensive playing styles in the Player Menu.

The Offensive playing style is set as the default and is how most players traditionally interact in Free Roam – free to engage in hostile contact with other players if you are prepared to accept the potential consequences.

The Defensive play style is for those players who would rather explore the world in Free Roam than engage in conflict with others – and it’s designed to let other players know that you don’t want to tangle with them, as well as minimize opportunities for griefing. At the same time, Defensive players will not be alerted to PvP Free Roam missions and can not be pulled into them while in Defensive mode, allowing them to go about their business as freely as possible.

Players in Defensive mode will be indicated by a shield icon, will take reduced damage from enemy players, cannot be lassoed, melee attacked, executed or targeted with auto-aim. Defensive players will also be excluded from being targeted in PvP-related missions such as Player Assassination. Those who attack Defensive players receive hefty penalties via the Hostility system, while players who initiate conflict while in Defensive mode will be instantly pulled out of Defensive mode and also receive similar Hostility penalties.

The Hostility System

Today’s updates also build on the player radar and visibility improvements introduced in February to create a smarter and more responsive approach to mitigating griefing behavior. The Hostility System tracks aggressive behavior across both Playing Styles, making hostile players visible to others and helping to balance the needs of players who want to get away from others who habitually attack or kill during unstructured Free Roam gameplay.

As before, player blips change color - beginning dark blue and transitioning to red as their hostile play persists. A bright red blip indicates an enemy. With today’s update, players will never receive Hostility or Bounty increases for defending themselves against a player who is blipped as an enemy, or for killing high Hostility players. If a player attacks another player, they will not be marked as an enemy to everyone - but rather to the attacked player only, who will not receive a penalty for firing back.

You can view your current Hostility level through the Player Menu. As you become more hostile, you become more visible on other player’s radars at longer distances and will respawn further and further away from your point of death – at the highest level of Hostility, you will respawn in a different region.

Hostility increases do not apply within structured events such as Free Roam Events, Free Roam Missions, Showdowns and Races. Engaging in PvP behaviors related to Free Roam missions will not incur Hostility increases while in the Offensive playing style, however attacking other players not engaged in the activity will cause your Hostility level to rise.

Balancing And Imporvements

In order to improve the overall gameplay experience, we have made some significant changes to Red Dead Online:

• Removed Auto-Aim Headshot Tracking (Enemy Players Only): This subtle but important change affects the way players can earn headshots against rival players. While auto-aim still tracks to the center mass of an enemy player, you will no longer be able to simply flick up on the Right Stick to gain a headshot. This makes earning headshots slightly more challenging, which in turn makes competitive gameplay such as Showdown series more rewarding and balanced.
• Faster Weapon Swaps/Instant Projectile Lighting: We have increased the speed of weapon swaps across the board, including instant projectile lighting to make throwing fire bottles and dynamite faster.
• New Control Scheme – “FPS2”: In response to community feedback we’ve added a new control scheme FPS2 (+variants). This follows our ‘FPS’ layout but moves sprint to [R1] and crouch to [X]. (This option is available in both Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online).
• Daily Challenge Updates: In response to your feedback, we’ve removed all PvP-related Daily Challenges from Free Roam and added a number of new Daily Challenges and Rewards, including Challenge Streaks with progressively increasing Gold rewards.
• New Awards: Several new awards in Free Roam have been added including awards associated with the latest gameplay.
• Global Signal Timers: Players tackling Free Roam Missions will have a bit more flexibility to operate with an increased global signal timer and a reduced range at which players are signaled.
• Press Charges: When a lower Hostility player is killed without retaliating they will have an option to “Press Charges” during the respawn period, which will enforce an increase on their attacker’s Hostility and Bounty value. Press Charges is not available if you are a high Hostility player or marked as an enemy to the player who killed you.
• Horse Specialty Selection: You can now use the Player Menu to preset which of your owned horses you would like to use in Free Roam, Races, Showdown Modes and on missions.
• Increased Gold Payouts: We have adjusted the economy to increase Gold payouts across the board, with most Gold-earning activities now awarding up to double the previous amount. Starting today for a limited time, players will also receive 1 Gold Bar per rank they progress.

To see a comprehensive list of fixes as part of today’s update including a new HDR cinematic mode for both Story Mode and Red Dead Online, visit the dedicated Rockstar Support page. And check out the new Red Dead Online official site which includes resources for new players including details on existing game modes and features, plus integrated tracking via Social Club and more.

Exclusive Playstation Plus Offers

For PS4 players without a PlayStation Plus subscription, you'll be able to play Red Dead Online as part of a special bonus period from now until May 27th. All PS4 players will see new Early Access content coming soon, keep an eye on the PlayStation Blog for more details.

What's Next?

In the weeks ahead, more additions to Red Dead Online include new Free Roam characters, as well as new Showdown modes and lots more. This includes new Free Roam Missions and Clothing for both PS4 and Xbox One next week on May 21st, along with new PS4 Early Access content (keep an eye on the PlayStation Blog for more details soon).

Then on May 28th, look for the new Head for the Hills Showdown Mode, the Wild Animal Kills Competitive Free Roam Challenge and more. Followed by the Public Enemy Showdown Mode and Railroad Baron Free Roam Event, where players capture cars on a moving train, on June 4th. June 11th's update includes the Sport of Kings Showdown Mode, plus new limited-time and permanent clothing additions to the Wheeler, Rawson and Co. Catalogue.

Also keep an eye out for weekly bonuses like RDO$ and Gold gifts, increased payouts, care packages, exclusive gifts and more.

Coming This Summer to Red Dead Online

With the foundation of Red Dead Online now established, future updates will offer new ways to fully inhabit your character as you progress in multiple roles and carve out your own place on the frontier.

Starting this summer, players will be able to take on the first three of a series of new roles: track down wanted criminals as a bounty hunter; search the world for treasure, and other exotic items to sell as a collector; or build a business at camp as a trader and more.

Each new role will come with a range of unique gameplay along with a host of new outfits, weapons and other rewards to earn. Players will have the option to focus on a specific role to advance quickly and unlock each role’s unique attributes, or simultaneously progress across multiple roles as you play naturally to create your own unique character and path through the frontier.

Experience Red Dead Online now to familiarize yourself with the world and prepare for the launch of these new roles this summer. Stay tuned for more information soon.

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