Tips for Free Roam and Showdown challenges

[Big TIme McGill]

I've played RDO for quite some time (rank 251) but rarely participate in shootout series or free roam events.  Most of the time I do the role dailies and the non-showdown or free roam event related challenges.  However I've recently started to try these challenges and finding myself extremely frustrated. I'd appreciate some advice.

First, what exactly counts as a free roam event when this appears as a challenge?  The other day there was a challenge that was "3 player kills with a repeater in free roam events".  I tried every showdown and also participated in those invite challenges, killing at least three players with a repeater and not a single one counted towards the challenge.  What am I doing wrong?  Is this a glitch or am I missing something?

 

Also, what counts as a showdown?  Again, tried several events and none of my challenges seem to register.

 

Finally, I am frequently frustrated by how quickly I'm getting killed in these events.  Most of the time I spawn somewhere far away, spend 20 seconds running into the action and as soon as I encounter an opponent I get sniped within three seconds.  It's almost always a one shot kill and then I have to re-spawn.  I'm not even getting taken out by sniper rifles but regular weapons such as the carbine repeater.  Yesterday I got taken out with one shot by a Navy revolver!  Conversely, when I shoot after someone, it seems that regardless of the type of ammo I'm using it takes three or four shots, which largely just serves to reveal my position and 3 out of 4 times leads to a quick death at the hands of whoever I'm shooting at. 

 

Would really appreciate if someone could offer me some tips here.

[Krommer]

3 hours ago, Big TIme McGill said:

"3 player kills with a repeater in free roam events".  I tried every showdown and also participated in those invite challenges, killing at least three players with a repeater and not a single one counted towards the challenge.  What am I doing wrong?  Is this a glitch or am I missing something?

 

That is specifically the "free roam events", rather than showdowns.

 

A "free roam event", or the type you want for that, is one where you can PVP and it announces it globally while you are just doing stuff in "Free roam" (like killing animals, whatever.)

 

You will see:

 

"Invite to Railroad Baron.../invite to Master Archer.. invite to Cold Dead Hands... invite to Fools Gold " . etc.

 

This is a good page:

 

https://jeanropke.github.io/RDR2CollectorsMap/

 

I have it open on my Amazon Fire 10 (bought on Black Friday, for $90 whatever, partially for Red Dead Online, for that purpose    )

while playing RDO on Xbox One. The nice thing is that map, or the regular non-collector's version, will show what is upcoming as  a "free roam event"

 

Like right now, it shows

 

Wildlife Photographer 25 minutes

Condor egg 2 minutes

 

Meanwhile, the "Showdown" is specifically a PVP event YOU join from the menu in game, such as the "quick menu"

and you see "Quick Join", when you look at quick join you see things like

 

Hostile Takeover - showdown

 

It usually specifically says it is a showdown mode, next to it.

These are DIFFERENT from the free roam event, in that you usually have to be in them from the start for the stupid

daily to "kill 3 people with a repeater in showdowns" to count  =/

 

I always used to skip these, for the daily list, not liking PVP. Then, for some glorious weeks before the

horrible "gold streak nerf", I REALLY got into them.

The more I did them, the better I got at PVP; I'm still "the bad", but I'm way better than I was and usually

able to do the challenge (unless, as I say above, the showdown one doesn't count because I wasn't there the

whole time/something else.)

 

Some stuff I picked up is:

 

I now always have minty big game meat, which is a "gold core" buff food.

I also always have plenty of potent health tonics (a good health buff.)

I do both of those, each time after I resummon after death.

Then I watch the red dots of players on the mini map, trying to not be

where lots are attacking me immediately and then getting behind them

for the upper hand.

 

I also ALWAYS have explosive ammo, going in, specifically for the daily especially.

Like "3 kills with a repeater", is ONLY going to happen (for me at least) with

10 rounds of explosive ammo in the Lancaster repeater.

Then you try to get a headshot, I'm not even usually using Paint it Black 3, to get it

(though I have that) not being that good at it evidently (usually I'm just getting it to count

lock aiming and them moving the red target dot up to their head as I would a deer I was

trying to kill.) Besides all of the explosive ammo I was mailed, from the Outlaw Pass or something,

I realized I had to finally break down and buy all the recipes from the Fence vendor;these

are expensive but worth it. Then you can make the expensive ammo yourself, with the animal

fat from pheasants, pig types, ducks, geese etc.

 

Explosive ammo will get even a scrub like me a kill, even if the daily is

"3 kills with a pistol in free roam events", which I'll get with explosive rounds in the

volcanic pistol. I have volcanic pistol/Schofield revolver so I can dual wield them, but was

noticing I was wasting explosive ammo using BOTH when the daily might only be

"3 kills with a revolver in free roam events" then I just used whichever one singly that it was,

still very easily getting the kill if making a headshot especially.

 

If I notice, in something like a showdown, that the kills are not counting for the daily

then I will stop wasting the explosive ammo. Often I'll "quit to free roam", from the quick

menu, then try to get in a showdown again where I might get in at the start for it to count.

Sometimes I might fast travel to my camp to make more explosive ammo first.

 

As I said, something like that collector's map shows the free roam event coming so I'll

see it tick down:

 

"railroad baron, 2 minutes", etc.

 

then I'll be already for "3 player kills with a bow in free roam events."

 

For example, for that one in the recent daily list I used a bow and dynamite arrows;

had the daily completed a few seconds after Railroad Baron started 

 

Then I "practiced" some, the remainder of Railroad Baron, getting kills with the bow/fire arrows

and "Paint it black"/headshots. The more you do this stuff, the better you get.

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Krommer