Unlike Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2 features a rating system for Story Missions, which awards players with a Bronze, Silver or Gold Medal depending on the player's performance in each mission.
In this guide, we will cover the Gold Medals that can be obtained in the game's first chapter. There are only 6 Story Missions, so getting all of the Gold Medals shouldn't be too time-consuming.
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To earn a Gold Medal, players have to complete a series of different, varying objectives like being extremely accurate, receive no damage, not use any items and so on. This new system adds replay value to Story Missions, giving players a new reason to play through Story Missions again.
The total number of Gold Metals in Red Dead Redemption 2 is 104, so you can choose to get those that feel the easiest to get for you.
The first time you're playing a Story Mission, you have no way of checking the objectives required for a Gold Medal, so it's extremely difficult to get one on the first try. Thankfully, it's possible to replay any Story Mission at any time. To do so, you just need to access the game's main menu, go to to the Progress menu, then Story. From the Story menu, you can choose to replay any completed Story Mission.
Getting a Gold Medal in a replay of a mission, however, is slightly more difficult. During the replays, you won't have any tonic at your disposal and a smaller selection of weapons. While an additional challenge may be fun for some, the increased difficulty may turn some off.
As such, it's better to get the Gold Medal during the first playthrough of each Story Mission: just make sure to create a manual save before each Story Mission, complete it to learn about its Gold Medal objectives, then replay it again to get them.
Outlaws from the West
The Outlaws from the West is the very first mission of Red Dead Redemption 2 and serves as an introduction to the game's most basic mechanics.
The game starts in the middle of a blizzard, with Arthur Morgan and the Van Der Linde Gang trying to find shelter. Arthur is asking questions about events that happened aboard a boat, but the details are unclear at this point. Upon finding an abandoned shelter, Dutch van der Linde and Arthur get everyone inside so they can start warming up from the cold. A few members of the party are missing, and Dutch and Arthur go out into the blizzard to try to find supplies and the other members of the party.
After a few minutes, Dutch and Arthur encounter Micah Bell, a member of the Van Der Linde gang that is out in the blizzard as well. Micah leads them to a cabin, telling them that it sounded like there was a party going on there, and they might be able to get help or supplies there. Upon reaching the house, the three hitch their horses and approach the house. Micah instructs Dutch and Arthur to conceal themselves, so as not to scare the property owners, Dutch hiding behind a wagon and Arthur crouching in a cattle shed to watch the proceedings.
Micah knocks on the door, the music stops, and a man comes out. Acting the part of a gentleman, Micah politely asks for help, but is refused by the man. While Micah is attempting to coax aid from the man, Dutch discovers that there is a dead body in the wagon and Arthur and Dutch realize that these men are members of the O'Driscoll Gang, who have attacked the cabin and made it their own.
Dutch and Arthur open fire on the men, causing a brief firefight. One of the O'Driscolls attempts to run, giving the player a choice to either shoot him or let him go. After these members of the O'Driscoll gang are down, the three van der Linde gang members enter the house to collect supplies.
After collecting food and medicine from the house, Arthur goes to check if there is anything in the barn. He draws his weapon and opens the barn door, only to be jumped on by one of the remaining O'Driscolls. The player fights and interrogates O'Driscoll, and discovers that there are more O'Driscolls nearby, after which the player is given the option to either spare or kill the man.
If spared, the man runs off into the blizzard.
Arthur finds and calms a well-bred horse in the barn and leads it back to the other horses, but then hears a woman screaming. Dutch and Arthur rush into the house to find Micah facing off against the woman in a nightgown who is brandishing a knife. She throws objects at Micah, and he overturns a table in the chaos, shattering a lamp and starting a fire in the cabin. Dutch is able to calm her down and they escape from the burning house. They decide to bring the woman with them to their camp. As they ride away, it is revealed that the woman is Sadie Adler, the now-widow of the dead man in the wagon outside.
To obtain the Gold Medal in the Outlaws from the West mission, players have to take no damage during the shootout, loot 6 or more items from Adler Ranch and complete the mission with at least 80% accuracy. All the three objectives can be cleared once the ranch is reached.
At the start of the mission, you'll take control of Arthur, on horseback, in the middle of a snowstorm. Steer yourself behind Dutch and follow the on-screen prompts to match your speed to his. Head out of the camp and into the surrounding wilderness. Don't worry about wandering too far off the path; Dutch will wait for you if you get off course.
After a few minutes, you'll encounter Micah, who will lead you uphill until you are overlooking a house. Follow Micah and Dutch down the ridge and hitch your horse next to the other two. Follow them as they approach the house, after which Micah will tell you to get out of sight so you don't scare the inhabitants. Find the cattle shed (pictured), not the outhouse and get to cover either inside the shed itself or on the far side of it. This will trigger the next event.
After the dialogue, pop out of cover and shoot all the enemies. Be sure to take your time and focus your shots so you can get the 80% accuracy gold medal requirement for this mission. If you are focused on someone while in cover, when you come out of cover, your target reticule should autofocus onto that enemy to make this easier. Also be sure to avoid taking any damage during this shootout to meet the no damage gold medal requirement. There are six enemies: four on the ground, one up in the second-story window, and one that comes out of the outhouse to your left.
After all the enemies are down, enter the house and loot it. Be sure to check cupboards, nightstands, and drawers to get all of the objects. There is also some ammunition if you climb up to the loft. Don't leave the cabin until you've picked up at least 6 items so that you can meet the gold medal requirements.
Meet Dutch outside and enter the barn to start searching it. You're about to be ambushed, so after the man jumps on you, follow the prompts to fight the O'Driscoll. Switch off between punching and interrogating the man and you'll get the information you need to further the mission. You are then given a choice to either kill the man (by choking or beating him to death) or to let him go.
Lead the horse out of the barn toward the others until you hear a scream from inside the house. Head inside to enter a cinematic, during which your group is joined by Sadie Adler. This cutscene finishes off the mission.
Enter, Pursued By a Memory
The Enter, Pursued By a Memory mission is the second story mission of Chapter 1 and of the whole game, and it begins right after the previous has been completed. Abigail is worried about John Marston, who hasn't been seen for a good while, and she asks Arthur to find him.
Abigail Marston pleads with Arthur Morgan to go find John Marston, who hasn't been seen in two days. Abigail also recruits Javier Escuella, and Arthur and Javier go out looking for John on horseback and, spotting a column of smoke, track down an abandoned campsite. Javier and Arthur follow the tracks up the mountain, where Javier tells Arthur more about what happened on the boat from Blackwater. Javier reveals that they had the money, but were swarmed by Pinkertons, and then there was some kind of firefight. It is also revealed that Dutch killed a girl during the event.
Along the way, Javier and Arthur lose the trail, but pick it up again near the summit of the mountain after finding John's dead horse. Javier fires a few shots into the air to get John's attention, and John responds. Javier and Arthur follow the sound of John's voice until they find him along a ledge, face bloodied and bruised. Arthur throws John over his shoulder and saddles him on one of the horses before being attacked by a pack of wolves. Arthur fends off the wolves with a shotgun, and John is brought back into camp alive, but wounded. After Abigail takes John inside, Hosea tells Arthur that the group is going to need to head east into civilization instead of west.
After the mission, Arthur leaves his room to find Hosea Mathews and Dutch van der Linde talking about getting money and heading east.
To obtain the Gold Medal in this mission, you will have to kill all the wolves without taking any damage and complete the mission with at least 80% accuracy.
The mission starts with Javier and Arthur on horseback at an abandoned campsite. Follow Javier up the mountain and around the ravine, continuing up the mountain until you find the corpse of John's horse.
Follow Javier until he dismounts, and dismount too, trading out your pistol for your shotgun before continuing after Javier. Duck under the rock overhang, and climb up the rock faces that are too tall to get over. Drink the bottle that Javier tosses to you to refill your stamina core. At this point, you'll find John and throw him over your shoulder to carry him back to the horses. Along the way, wolves attack. During this sequence, you'll need to defend Javier and John as they make their way to the horses. Follow the prompts to learn the controls for attracting attention and locking onto the wolves. You'll need to kill all the wolves without taking any damage and complete this part of the mission with at least 80% shooting accuracy to get the gold medals.
Attract the wolves to your location, and shoot them with your shotgun. If the wolves get too close to you, you can run away or climb up on the nearby rocks to get some distance between you. After killing the three wolves, jump on your horse and follow Javier back down the mountain. As you continue to ride, more wolves will attack from the right. Use your auto-aim feature to shoot them as you ride, being sure to keep your shots accurate.
After killing all of the wolves, ride down through the river and back to camp. Abigail Marston and a few other women from the camp will come out to bring John inside.
After the mission and the cutscene of Arthur writing in his journal, be sure to check the nightstand for some miracle tonic and two oatcakes. Enter the adjoining room to hear the dialogue between Dutch and Hosea about getting some money. Head out the front door of the cabin, turn left, and go into the first house on the right and talk to John on the bed at the far end. Exit this house and head left, to the second house on the right and head inside to start the next mission.
