New to this site, but happy to be here. After years of PC elitism, I shelled out for the RDR2 PS4 Pro bundle and have been very happy with the purchase.
To the topic at hand, my character is at about level 21, and I have some tips to help y'all along. I shelled out for the seven-person persistent posse (Selena y Los Bandidos Guapos) so I'll drop my PSN handle at the end of this post if anyone wants to be friends. Unfortunately, won't be online for the next week or so thanks to crunch for law school finals.
A big complaint I've heard about Red Dead Online is, aside from a burdensome economy, the needless cruelty of other players. As noted by others in this thread, this behavior, often called "griefing," is absolutely encouraged by the designers of this game. Other players in your session are constantly visible in your mini-map by vaguely threatening pink blips, which turn red once hostilities have commenced. These are just other players, they may be friendly, but you have no way of knowing that. So when a pink blip comes towards your character, it is natural to turn and fire blindly. You don't see a name, you see a gaming handle in pink. And on PSN, that name is usually either vaguely or explicitly murderous and/or narcotics adjacent.
Subvert the design by maybe having your lantern out when you ride by, instead of your gun. I've seen people use the whistle function to indicate friendliness. You could aim in another direction, then press up on the d-pad. This aims your gun at the sky and you can fire a few times to let 'em know you mean business. It is actually way cool when it works, which is more often than not.
When you start a Stranger mission, people will come over and try to screw you over, because the game has let them know that you are trying to deliver a wagon, the mail, whatever, and your goal is now their goal. They get XP for it, it's on their map, and they probably have you muted or don't have a mic themselves. So don't get too sore when that happens, and consider avoiding Stranger missions all-together as a solo endeavor, as they don't do much for you in terms of XP or money.
I've actually made a few friends on Red Dead Online, a new experience coming from PC, and one of these friends has word "Killah" in his handle and named his horse "My Horse." A maniac, in other words. I walked him through some basics and it became clear that he was one of those nightmare players I'd read about on forums. The thing is, he kept telling me about how the game kept giving him awards and XP for "griefing" behavior: killing other players unprovoked, etc... So, again, the game wants to bring out the worst in players.
The lesson I have for solo online folks: keep an eye on the mini-map and try to avoid other players until you have leveled up some/ have a good load-out. For example, only drop off stuff at the butcher when the area around him has quieted down.
Play the online story, it puts you in matchmaking, and this is a good time to talk to the people they set you up with. Odds are you'll find folks on mic replaying story missions, and they might be happy to posse up with you and play more of the story, since everyone benefits. But FYI, there isn't much of a story to the story, and if you see that most of the four folks you are playing with are voting to skip the cutscene...also vote to skip the cutscene. You won't be missing much, I've seen the missions a few times now starting friends off in RDO. It's kind of a nothing story.
Or if you are all voting on an outcome in a particular decision, ask if they've already seen one of the outcomes, and want to see how it turns out if you chose a different way.
Another note on posses, if you are "Posse Leader," the waypoint you set is visible with a blue dot and a blue path to the rest of your posse. It is considerate to keep up with where everyone is going and keeping that waypoint updated. Also there are various awards associated with being Posse Leader or Posse Follower for x# of hours, so ask if anyone else wants a turn for leader on their end.
If you are a PS4 player, Sony has a 30 day exclusive for some free items. You will want to stop at the Stable, Fence, and a General Store/Tailor. There, you can get a red-coat Arabian, high-roller revolver, and the Grizzly Outfit for free.
Re: the Arabian, you will need to sell your old horse or buy a second stable slot for $100. Then you'll have to equip a saddle on it, and go ahead and pick up a brush from Horse Provisions. Only $3.50. Every single person I've shown this to has had trouble, it really is terrible design. But this horse really flies across the map and makes the game much more bearable.
Bonding works the same as single player. When mounted, tap or hold L3 to pet your horse or calm it down in between urging it along. You can actually see your horse's stamina core recover when you are riding it hard and do this. Brush it, and I believe as in single-player, leading your horse is one of the best ways to get the bond up quickly.
While you might want to buy horse insurance in the future for the Arabian, it is cost-prohibitive at 5 (!) Gold bars. However, the insurance is not strictly necessary. When your horse becomes critically injured and you can't revive it, go to: left on d-pad, stables, and heal your horse. A two minute timer will commence. An extremely shitty nag will replace it in the meantime. But you don't need to ride the nag all the way to the stable though, instead: flee the nag, then whistle, and your Arabian will come to you. Horse revives are pretty expensive (10 bucks), but I like having a bunch for my posse...and I can't resist reviving even hostile player horses.
You'll need to eat way more than in single-player, and that goes for your horse as well. Stock up on classic oatcakes from your catalog (you pick up catalog orders from the post office), as they can feed both you and your horse and are good for keeping those cores up.
If you anticipate a hostile player and have pelts on your horse, hitch your horse to a random tree and the pelts won't despawn. Also if you kinda stand your horse over a carcass it skips the skinning animation (by the way, if you down a three star, you can get money for the perfect skin AND a perfect carcass).
Also, buy the Varmint Rifle. It is necessary to get perfect exotic bird feathers/carcasses, and also apparently very overpowered in pvp if you have your "flick headshot" technique down.
Re: the Grizzly Outfit. You can buy it from your catalog (hold left on d-pad), but I would not advise it. It might save you some frustration in the future as there is a bug where the individual pieces of the Grizzly Outfit don't show up in your wardrobe. You would have to equip the outfit and then change the bits so just buy it from the store.
Fishing is probably the most-fun way to make money, along with hunting. It might be worth spending a gold bar on one of the lures, so you can get reliable catches of the more valuable fish. Either river or lake lure works exactly the same. Be careful though as you can still lose the line ..and the lure with it, if you reel a struggling and large fish.
Don't buy bait (worms and crickets) from the catalog as there is a bug currently where you can't use them from the bait wheel if you buy thenmax amount from the catalog.
Also reset those gold buckle awards, you keep the buckle and get a couple easy nuggets.
Remember to keep up with your active and passive cards as you level up. They cost 50 bucks or so.
Happy trails!
PSN: svvagerific
