Awards in Red Dead Online are challenges that players can complete to get additional XP and rank up. You can also then unlock additional items such as weapons, tonics and for purchase at any of the in-game stores. In this guide, we will be taking a look at the Competitive Awards and give you some tips on how to complete them in the fastest way possible.
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Awards Overview
The Competitive Awards are related to all of the Red Dead Online activities where players compete with one another. Unusually, though, very few of these awards are related to the Showdown Series competitive multiplayer modes, and the only mode-specific awards are related to the Shootout mode.
The Best Way To Settle Disputes
Two of the Competitive Awards are related to the game's unique Parley and Feud system. This system, which is meant to prevent griefing, becomes active the moment a single player has been killed by the same other player either four or five times consecutively (it seems to vary based on the time between kills).
If they try going after the same player again, it will be possible for the victim to initiate Parley, which starts a 10-minute countdown wherein the two players have to reach an agreement. If words are not enough to placate anger, however, it will be possible to start a Feud, which allows the two players to go at one another for three minutes with infinite respawns. There's no reward for winning a Feud, but it's a good way let off some steam and engage in some good, old-fashioned shooting action.
The first Competitive Award involves winning Feuds, not regular ones, but Posse Feuds. This is a multi-tiered award requiring players to win one feud for the first tier, 5 for the second, 10 for the third, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the third. Posse Feuds are initiated in the same way as regular ones, only that players belonging to different Posses are involved. This award is actually rather simple to complete if you have friends playing the game with Posses of their own. Just agree on a spot on the map, get on with the killing and then choose to settle things with your guns.
Another Competitive Award also involves Feuds. For this one, you need to win specific numbers of regular Feuds. You must win one feud to unlock the first tier, 5 for the second, 10 for the third, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the fifth and final tier. Like for the previous award, if you can co-ordinate with a friend, completing this challenge is extremely easy, and not even all that time consuming, so you may want to consider clearing this award to obtain a relatively quick Gold Buckle.
More Than Competitive
The next few Competitive Awards require players to take part in the game's competitive multiplayer modes.
The first of these awards is related to Horse Races. To unlock it, you need to actually win Horse Races. This is a multi-tiered award requiring you to win one race for the first tier, 5 for the second, 10 for the third, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the fifth and final tier.
Accessing Horse Races is pretty straightforward: while in Free Roam, just access the menu and select the Race series. Winning these races, however, is a whole other thing: there are two different types of races - Standard and Open - and both require different strategies to win. While it's possible to do well with an average horse if you know what you are doing, having the best possible horse will help you win races more consistently. The best horse to get for the Race series is the Missouri Fox Trotter, as it comes with excellent speed and great overall stats. The horse is unlocked at a high rank (rank 58), but the effort to unlock it is well worth it.
A slight variation of this challenge requires players to win Posse Races. This is a multi-tiered award requiring players to win one for the first tier, 5 for the second, 10 for the third, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the fifth and final. Like for regular races, having a good horse is extremely important to increase chances of victory.
The next of these awards requires players to do something that's maybe even more difficult to do than win horse races, as you need to win Showdowns. This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring players to win 5 showdowns for the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 for the fifth and final.
Like Horse Races, the Showdown multiplayer modes can be easily accessed from the Free Roam mode menu. Players have the choice between either the regular playlist or the large playlist, which allows more players to join in the competitive modes. There are 5 different play modes in the playlist - Make It Count, Name Your Weapon, Shootout, Hostile Territory and Most Wanted - and, as of now, there is no way to choose which mode to play.
They all require very different strategies to win, so the only way to complete this challenge is to become good at all of the possible play modes. If you have been playing them for a while, however, there's a good chance you have made some progress for this award.
Like for the races, there's an award that requires players to win competitive matches, but as part of a Posse, as you need to win a set number of Posse Versus. This is a multi-tiered award which requires players to win one for the first tier, 5 for the second, 10 for the third, 15 for the fourth and 20 for the fifth and final tier. As there is no way to shortcut yourself to completion, the only way to obtain this award is to become good at competitive modes and get some other very good players into your Posse. If you have no intention of playing with these other skilled players past obtaining this award, you can create a temporary Posse just for this purpose.
Running in the Free World
The next few Competitive awards are related to the events that happen randomly while in Free Roam mode, as well as stranger missions.
The first of these awards requires players to be good at completing Free Roam Events, as you need to place either first, second, or third in a Free Roam Event. This is a multi-tiered award requiring players to achieve this in 5 events for the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth, and 100 for the fifth and final tier. Free Roam Events happen randomly when playing the game in the Free Roam mode, and all players are notified as soon as it begins. As these events are quite varied, there is no set strategy to do well in them, just play them as often as you can to get used to them and get good enough to get at least third place.
The next few awards are also related to Free Roam Events with the first of these awards requiring you to win Free Roam Events a set number of times. You need to win 5 times to unlock the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 for the fifth and final tier. There is no shortcut to complete this award, so, like for the previous one, you need to become good at completing them. As the final tier requires 100 victories, and you have no control over the frequency of these events, it may take a long time to obtain completion.
The following award is probably one of the easiest and quickest to obtain, not only among the Competitive awards but among all of the awards found in Red Dead Online, as you just need to win 5 different types of Free Roam Events. If you're taking part in these events as much as possible, you will probably complete this challenge and unlock the related Gold Buckle without even trying.
The next award is actually one of the most fun to complete in the Competitive category, as you need to stop a rival Posse or player from completing their Free Roam mission, which, in this instance, is referring to Red Dead Online's stranger missions.
This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring players to stop 5 missions for the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth, and 100 for the fifth and final tier.
Every time a Posse or single player starts a mission, all players are notified, so it's easy to locate them and get in their way. If you want to make things a bit more consistent, you may want to coordinate with a friend who will willingly fail the missions for you. As Free Roam missions are available in limited quantities in a single in-game day, however, it will take some time to fully complete the award.
The First and the Last
The final two Competitive awards are among the most difficult to complete in all of Red Dead Online, as they are luck based and there is no way to increase the chances of these conditions being met.
The first of these awards requires players to get the first kill in a Shootout. This is a multi-tiered award requiring 5 kills for the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 for the fifth and final tier. Shootout is one of the competitive multiplayer modes included in the Showdown Series playlist: it's a basic deathmatch mode where the player with the highest kill count wins.
For this challenge, you need to make the first kill in a match, which is very luck based, as Shootout features a few different maps and spawn points. Playing the mode over and over helps to memorize spawn positions for each map, but another player may be faster than you, rendering any effort pointless. As there is also no way to choose which mode to play in the Showdown series, completing this challenge will require an enormous amount of time.
The final Competitive challenge is slightly better than the previous, as you must get the last kill in a Shootout for a set amount of times. You need to get the last kill 5 times for the first tier, 25 times for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 for the fifth and final tier. Unlike the previous award, this one is a little less luck based, as you can try to hold off killing an opponent until the very last few seconds of a match. As another player may kill you while you wait for the clock to get down to the last seconds, completing this challenge will be tricky.
