Red Dead Online features multiple activities players that can complete, ranging from story and stranger missions, gang hideout clearing and more.
As more and more activities are completed, however, it's very likely that you'll end up spending more time playing the Showdown series, a playlist of competitive multiplayer modes. Among these modes, there's a free for all mode that's extremely fun to play: the Name Your Weapon mode.
Unlike Make It Count, which requires a different set of skills that are hardly required in the story mode or to complete other activities, succeeding in Name Your Weapon requires players to be extremely good at something they have done over and over in the main story mode: using a variety of weapon types.
In this guide, we will cover everything there is to know about the Name Your Weapon mode, including some useful tips that will help you become a master at it.
Article Contents
Mode Overview
Name Your Weapon is a free for all mode that can be played solo or as a team. Unlike other multiplayer modes in Red Dead Online, players do have the ability to choose if they want to go at the mode by themselves or with others. We suggest playing in team mode the first few times to get a better feel of things, as playing solo the first few times will end up in you getting overwhelmed, which is likely going to prevent you from learning anything useful about the mode and its nuances.
In Name Your Weapon, all kills are scored, and the harder the weapon is to use, the higher the points. All weapon types are available in this mode - repeater, revolver, shotgun, machine gun, rifle, tomahawk, melee. The only exception is explosive arrows, which are only available when playing as a team.
No matter the way Name Your Weapon is played, the objective remains the same: score as many points as possible before the timer reaches zero. At the end of the match, the player, or the team, with the highest score wins.
Kill Values
As already mentioned, each weapon type in Name Your Weapon allows players to earn a set number of points per kill.
- Repeater - 1 point
- Revolver - 2 points
- Shotgun - 3 points
- Machine Gun - 5 points
- Rifle - 6 points
- Tomahawk - 6 points
- Melee - 7 points
- Explosive Arrows - 9 points (Teams only)
Choose Your Weapon Accordingly
According to the above values, you should always go for a melee kill, but things are actually a lot more complicated. For starters, getting a melee kill in the Name Your Weapon mode is extremely difficult, as your position is always indicated on other players' maps, so you will hardly be able to get close enough to an opponent to kill them, especially if you are in an open area.
The maps available are varied, though, so there may be times when you are in a narrow space: in this case, you may want to risk going for a melee kill.
As a general rule, the best weapon to use at all times is the tomahawk, as you can get 6 points per kill. Rifles award the same amount of points, but they are not the best choice in Name Your Weapon, as they limit your visibility and movement too much to be of real use. As already mentioned, your position is always known to other players, and the maps aren't big enough to provide a good sniping point.
Tomahawks, on the other hand, don't have any of these issues, as they don't limit your visibility nor your movement. Unfortunately, they are more difficult to use than guns, as you need to get used to the throwing arc. For this reason, you may want to practice with them a bit while playing in Free Roam to get used to their unique traits.
If you're still not particularly comfortable using tomahawks, you can use two other weapon types: the machine gun and shotguns. The former, while allowing you to score 5 points per kill, isn't recommended as a whole, as you will be completely static while firing it, making you an incredibly easy target. If you're at the end of the match and need to rack up some points quickly, however, it may be a good choice, as it's extremely powerful and it can take down opponents with a few well-placed shots.
Not counting machine guns, shotguns are generally the best weapons to use for players who don't feel confident in their tomahawk throwing skills. Shotguns only award 3 points per kill, but they are extremely versatile, allowing players to get rid of opponents in a few shots while giving them the freedom of movement needed in mid-range combat.
Tomahawks, machine guns and shotguns are good weapon choices while playing Name Your Weapon as a team. Explosive arrows, however, are much better, as they have good range and extremely wide area of effect. For this reason, you should make finding them as soon as a match starts a priority: getting them will make it much easier to bring your team to victory.
