Red Dead Online comes, like the Red Dead Redemption 2 story mode, with multiple challenges called Awards, which require players to complete a variety of tasks to receive additional XP.
The Awards are divided into different categories - Sharpshooter, Combat, Hunting, Survivalist, Crimes, Travel, Trade, General, Horse, Posse, Free Roam and Competitive - and most challenges in each category come with multiple tiers, so a single Award can only be considered complete if all tiers have been unlocked.
Upon completing any award, players will receive a Gold Buckle, which can be equipped on characters by accessing the wardrobe. These buckles don't bring any improvement to the character's performance, but they are a way to show the level of mastery a player has achieved, similar to the gold variants weapons in the online experience of the original Red Dead Online.
Getting 5 Gold Buckles unlocks the Buckle Up Trophy / Achievement, so completing at least 5 awards is needed to fully complete Red Dead Redemption 2.
In this guide, we will take a good look at all the Hunting Awards and the fastest way to complete each of them.
Article Contents
Awards Overview
The Hunting Awards are mostly related to hunting, which you will be doing quite a lot in Red Dead Online, as harvested items from dead animals can be sold for good money. Like the Sharpshooter Awards, the hunting challenges are quite time-consuming to consuming, with only a few exceptions, so don't expect to complete most of them in a short time.
Shoot And Kill Anything That Moves
The first Hunting Award requires players to simply kill animals in any way they prefer. This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring 10 kills for the first tier, 50 for the second, 100 for the third, 500 for the fourth, and 1,000 for the fifth and final tier. As you will be doing plenty of hunting during your time in Red Dead Online, you may end up unlocking up to the third tier without even trying. Past that, you will have to put an effort, unless you have been playing the game for a very long time.
The second hunting award requires players to kill flying birds, so turkeys and other similar animals don't count. This multi-tiered challenge requires 10 kills to unlock the first tier, 50 for the second, 100 for the third, 500 for the fourth and 1,000 for the fifth and final. Unlike the previous award, this is a bit harder to complete by playing the game regularly.
If you want to make some progress for both this award and the one requiring you to kill animals, just focus on this one as progress is shared between the two. Make sure to kill at least one flying bird with the bow to unlock the single tier award kill 1 flying bird with an arrow. This is one of the fastest awards to complete.
For the next Hunting Award, you will need to kill 2 animals at the same time in a single explosion 1, 5, 10, 25 and 20 times respectively to unlock all tiers. The fastest way to complete this challenge is by using Herbivore and Predator Baits, possibly the Potent versions, and dynamite. Just place the dynamite and the bait on the ground in any forested area, place the bait and wait for at least two animals to arrive. Once they do, shoot the dynamite and watch the poor beasts die. This method can be used once reaching rank 16, as dynamite is unlocked at this rank.
Trying to complete these challenges will lead to the completion of another Hunting Award that requires players to collect animal parts. As you need 1,000 collected parts to complete this multi-tiered award, always make sure to harvest items from any animal you kill while attempting to complete any of the challenges described above.
Master Hunter
The next few Hunting Awards are a bit trickier to obtain, as they are not only time-consuming but also require players to kill enemies using specific weapons and under specific conditions.
The first of these awards need players to kill small animals with the bow. This is a multi-tiered award, and it requires 10 kills for the first tier, 50 for the second, 100 for the third, 500 for the fourth, 1,000 for the fifth and final tier. Small animals are all the varmint animals found in the game, like rats, squirrels, and rabbits, as well as other animals like frogs, which can be easily found in the swamps to the north of Saint Denis. Since small animals still count as animals, progress for this award also counts for the kill animals award.
The second award requires players to kill medium animals with a knife. To complete this challenge, you need to kill 100 animals, divided into 5, 25, 50, 75, and 100 kills for each of the five tiers. The best medium sized animals to kill are bucks, which can be found pretty much all over the world. Killing these animals by just using the knife is extremely difficult, so just use the bow to shoot at the animals' legs to make it stop moving, and then get close to them to finish them off with the knife.
The third and final of these tricky to complete awards can also the most difficult to complete of the three, depending on your shooting skills, as you have to kill animals from a moving train. This award comes in multiple tiers: you need to kill 10 animals to unlock the first, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 hundred for the fifth and final tier. As the trains tracks run far from most forested areas, the best way to complete this challenge is by hopping on any train, climb on the roof of a carriage and start shooting birds. A weapon with good range like rifles will make completing this challenge a little less frustrating.
Kill Them All... Or Almost
The first to last Hunting Award is one of the most annoying to complete, as you will have to kill 100 types of animals. To make completing this challenge a bit easier, you need to kill as many birds as possible, since there are a lot of different types, and they count toward this challenge's completion.
More uncommon type of animals include bears, which can be attracted with bait in most forested areas found in the northern part of the map, alligators, which can be found in the swamps in the Bayou Nwa to the north of Saint Denis, and cougars, which usually appear in the New Austin region with the help of a Predator Bait.
The final Hunting Award requires the help of your Posse, as you need to kill animals who incapacitated or killed a Posse Member. This is a multi-tiered award requiring players to kill 5 animals for the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 for the fifth and final award.
To complete this challenge easily, locate an alligator in the swamps in Bayou Nwa, let it go after any member of your Posse and then kill it. As they are among the most resilient animals around, you want to keep your distance and use any sniper rifle, as they are incredibly vicious and will kill you in a single attack.
