Red Dead Online, like the single-player Red Dead Redemption 2 story mode, features a challenges system called Awards, which gives players some nice bonuses when completing a set task.
Awards in Red Dead Online are divided into different categories: Sharpshooter, Combat, Hunting, Survivalist, Crimes, Travel, Trade, General, Horse, Posse, Free Roam and Competitive - and all challenges belonging to any of these categories reward players with additional XP, which is used to rank up and unlock additional content like weapons, clothing items, horses and more.
You'll also receive a Gold Buckle. This item, which can be worn at any time by accessing the wardrobe at camp, doesn't bring any enhancement to your character's performance, as it's only a way to show other Red Dead Online players that you have managed to complete an Award challenge.
In this guide, we will cover the Trade Awards, providing some tips to complete them as quickly as possible.
Article Contents
Awards Overview
As the name implies, Trade awards see players entering shops and completing tasks related to them. Actions like purchasing items, selling them and so on. Some of these awards are quite easy to complete, so you may consider clearing them if you need to obtain some easy Gold Buckles to unlock the Buckle Up Trophy / Achievement.
Trading is the Main Pillar of Civilization
Most of the Trading Awards involve stores, but not all require players to purchase or sell items. The first award of the category requires players to just visit shops. This is a single-tiered challenge requiring visiting 50 shops to be completed. This is a rather easy challenge to complete, as you just need to be greeted by the shopkeeper once entering a shop to make the visit count toward progression.
The fastest way to complete this challenge is to start by visiting all stores in Saint Denis and then heading out to nearby towns like the Van Horn Trading Post, Rhodes, Annesburg, and Valentine. Attempting to complete this challenge also helps in completing some of the Travel awards requiring players to travel a certain amount of miles: if you really have a lot of time to invest, you may want to travel from one city to another by foot.
While you are visiting stores, you may also want to purchase some items from them. For the next challenge, you need to purchase set amounts of consumable items like food and tonics. This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring players to purchase 10 items 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. While progress for this challenge is going to be made organically by playing the game, purchasing 1,000 consumable items requires a good amount of money, so make sure to purchase the least expensive items, like simple food, as much as possible.
There are no shortcuts, however, to complete the third Trade award, as you need to purchase 100 unique clothing items. This challenge is hard to complete not only for the huge amount of cash needed to make the purchase but also for the fact that you need to be at a high rank to have 100 unique clothing items available to purchase. The last clothing item, the Studded Bandit Holster, is unlocked at rank 99, but you don't need to get to this rank to complete the challenge.
Attempting to complete the previous two awards will also help in completing the next one, as you need to spend set amounts of money in stores. This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring players to spend $10 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.
If you have been playing Red Dead Online for a very long time, you probably have already cleared this challenge. Some of the most expensive weapons can cost even more than $1,000, so purchasing one of them will be more than enough to complete the award and receive the related Gold Buckle.
Give Me Your Money
The remaining Trade awards don't require players spending money, thankfully, so they are definitely easier to complete than the previous ones.
The first of these awards is probably the easiest award to obtain in all of Red Dead Online. To clear this challenge, you need to sell an item to 3 different shop types. The best place to attempt to complete this challenge is Saint Denis, as it's the only city in the whole game to have all of the store types close to one another. Visit three different types, sell one item and you are set to go.
The next award is definitely more time-consuming than the previous one. To complete it, you will need to sell certain amounts of herbs to a Doctor. This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring players to sell 5 herbs for the first tier, 25 for the second, 50 for the third, 75 for the fourth and 100 for the fifth and final tier.
If you have been attempting to complete the Survivalist challenge requiring you to collect herbs, there's a very good chance you already have gathered enough to complete this one. If not, just travel around, activate Eagle Eye every now and then and collect the herbs.
Sadly, there's no way to speed up this process, but you can try to get some progression for some of the Travel awards as well while searching for herbs, killing two birds with one stone. Doctors can be found in Saint Denis and Valentine.
We're done with selling items, for the time being, and we're back at earning money. Or gold, in this case, as the next award requires players to earn 100 Gold Nuggets. Gold Nuggets are obtained in a variety of ways in Red Dead Online, such as completing story missions for the first time, completing stranger missions and winning matches in the Showdown Series multiplayer modes.
As repeated playthroughs of story missions don't award Gold Nuggets, the fastest way to earn them is by playing the multiplayer modes and stranger missions. Playing the competitive multiplayer modes also helps in completing the awards found in the Competitive category, so you will be making good progress for multiple awards at the same time by doing so.
The final two awards see players getting back into trading, as they have to sell certain amounts of items to two specific shop types. The first of these awards needs players to sell animal products to a Butcher. You need to sell 10 items for the first tier, 50 for the second, 100 for the third, 500 for the fourth, and 1,000 for the fifth tier. "Animal products" means items that are harvested from dead animals like pelts, meat, horns and so on.
If you have completed one of the Hunting awards, or if you have been simply been doing a lot of hunting, there's a good chance you have plenty of items that can be sold. Considering that selling animal products is one of the best ways to get money in Red Dead Online, you have likely made very good progress by playing the game as intended, without having to go out of your way.
The final Trade award needs players to sell valuables to a Fence. This is a multi-tiered challenge requiring players to sell 10 items 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. Valuable items are obtained by looting enemies, robbing NPCs and finding treasure with the help of treasure maps, which are obtained either as a reward for clearing gang hideouts or by ranking up.
Like for the previous award, purchasing items in Red Dead Online requires a lot of money, so if you have been playing the game for a long time, there's a very good chance you have been selling a lot of valuables to Fences. Looting corpses is among the best ways to complete this challenge, as it's also a requirement for another award found in the General category.
