Tutorial Walkthrough

When you start out in RDO, you'll begin in a cutscene in the Blackwater Police Department (because, guess what, you've been arrested! Welcome to RDO).

You can choose either a male or female character to edit - but keep in mind that (unlike in GTA V) you can only have one character affiliated with your Rockstar account at a time, so if you wish to make another character, you will need to delete the one you currently have.

You can edit your character's appearance, whistle and starting attributes.

• Your whistle is what you will hear whenever your character whistles for their horse. You can not edit this after you leave the character creator.

• Your starting attributes determine your character's health, stamina and dead-eye levels. You can not edit this after you leave the character creator. You can commit only 2 points to any of these 3 attributes; I highly recommend committing them both to dead-eye, as it is the most difficult to level up.

Once you have finished all of these steps, you can leave the character creator and have your mug shot taken. This will trigger the RDO Introduction cutscene.

If you chose not to skip the tutorial, you will be pulled into a cutscene that jumps forward "some months later" to your character working in the yard of Sisika Penitentiary (the prison off the shore of Saint Denis), serving time until you are to be hung for an unknown crime.

You will be selected to join a work detail in a random city (Blackwater, Valentine, etc) and will be loaded up with 3 other inmates into a prison wagon driven by 2 guards.

While en route to your destination, the transport will come across a stagecoach suspiciously parked in the middle of the road. A man by the name of Horley and 2 hired guns have set up this roadblock to free you. After negotiating with the prison guards to surrender, freeing the other 3 prisoners and paying his men, Horley will ask you to come with him to meet his boss.

He will provide you with 2 guns and a horse (Scrawny Nag); follow him to his camp that's set up nearby (this location is random). Once you reach the camp, you will see 3 people: Mr. Cripps (the old man sleeping on the ground), Marcel (the French man sitting at the table) and Madam Jessica LeClerk.

Before she tells you anything though, she wants you to change out of your prison clothes. Horley will point you towards a tent in camp and tell you to choose some new clothing. You'll be able to pick from a selection of random clothing items; I strongly recommend choosing as many clothing items as you can fit on your character, especially gloves and a coat so you will be ready for cold weather. You can create new outfits and change clothes at your camp later, but buying new clothing will be expensive. Make sure you choose well because these are the only clothes you'll get for a little while.

You are also given 3 more items free of charge: a lasso, a hunting knife, and a lantern.

Once you've changed, she will explain that you were framed and wrongly arrested for the murder of her husband in Blackwater and she needs your help to find out who did it. She will give you a list of suspects:

• Jeremiah Shaw

  • "Banker, real estate speculator, crook"

• Amos Lancing

  • "Ranch owner, speculator, crook"

• Grace Lancing

  • "Society patroness, lover of the arts, crook, former best friend"

• Teddy Brown

  • "Disgraced outlaw, wanted man"

In exchange for freeing you from prison, you agree to help her track these people down to avenge her husband and clear your name.

To help get you set up, Mrs. LeClerk has employed Mr. Cripps to work for you. Horley introduces you to him and you are asked to set up your camp for the first time. Only 1 option will be available (in the random area of the map your intro mission is taking place) and the "set up fee" is covered by Mrs. LeClerk. Once you've set up camp, Horley will give you 2 jobs to do: go see the clerk at the post office/train station, and go meet with Clay Davies, a horse thief looking for someone to run a job for him.

After you tell Cripps where to set up camp, Horley will direct you to speak to the clerk at the nearest train station or post office. There you'll find a man named Alden Carruthers.

Alden represents a covert group of "discouraged" men; he and his associates in this group will help you by providing you with tips on U.S. Postal service deliveries that you might find "interesting". The first of which is to rob some men that have been robbing USPS stage coaches.

He will point you in the general direction of their camp and asks that you "make them go away". Your reward will be whatever you find there. But before you go, he will also give you a catalogue that you can use (after the tutorial) to purchase items and have them sent to your camp or a post office.

Now you'll need to find the campsite. The map will show you a large yellow search area in a random location nearby, finding the camp is easily done, just look up for the smoke coming from their camp fires.

Once you get close, the map will update and the objective will change from "search for the hideout" to "take out the outlaws". There will be about 5-6 enemies in the hideout and you'll need to either kill or knockout each of them to complete the quest. There is no way to stealth kill these enemies yet.

After all his gang members have been neutralized, the gang leader will emerge from a tent in camp and will offer a treasure map in exchange for his life. This is your first morality choice. Letting the gang leader live will increase your character's honor level, killing him will decrease it. This is your introduction to the RDO honor system.

Once you get the treasure map from the gang leader, follow the on-screen prompts to open your satchel and read the map. It will highlight a yellow search area in a random location near-by. Use your eagle-eye to find the treasure, it will glow and give off a yellow mist when you look at it. Loot the chest, you will find some random valuables that you can sell at the fence, some ammo, gold nuggets, a small amount of money and a free ability card coupon. The quest to meet Clay Davies will trigger once you've looted the chest.

The 2nd instruction that Horley gave you was to meet up with Clay Davies, a horse thief looking to hire someone for a job. He will be waiting for you with his brother Clive in a random location nearby. As you approach him, you will be pulled into a matchmaking lobby for the quest 'Honor Among Horse Thieves'; you will be matched with 3 other players and a cutscene will start.

Mr. Davies will point you in the direction of a ranch nearby and asks you to steal one of the horses there. Simply follow the waypoint on your map to the ranch to find the horses; there will be 4 of them hidden in the barn.

If you managed to start the mission alone, or your teammates are willing to take your lead, you can sneak into the barn and steal a horse without killing anyone first. I highly recommend getting into the barn as quickly as possible so you have 1st pick of the horses there. Whatever horse you choose will end up being your new horse (and only horse for a while), so choose well.

There is normally a mix of Kentucky Saddlers, Tennessee Walkers and Morgans in the barn. Of these 3 breeds, the Tennessee Walker has the highest stamina and health, refer to our horse guide for more information on the breeds.

Once you've stolen your horse, run to the meeting location with Clay and Clive to sell them the horse.

At first Clay will accept the horse, but he will change his mind at the last minute and allow you to keep it as a "sign of good faith". He will then instruct you to enter the stable and outfit your horse. Before you can leave you will need to:

• Name your horse

• Buy insurance (it's free this time)

• Equip your saddle

When you leave the stable, you will exit on your new horse and you will get a notification on the left side of your screen reading "Horse Bonding Achieved". After this a new objective will trigger telling you to meet up with Cripps.

Once you've gotten set up with your new horse, you'll need to go see Cripps. He's finished setting up your camp in the area you chose earlier; just follow the waypoint on your map (look for the dual flags and smoke from the fire).

Once you get there, Cripps will pull you into a cutscene introducing you to your new life as a tent person. That will trigger a title screen and promo video to start. When you see this, you've completed the tutorial and can now join friends in their online sessions and begin your real journey in RDO.
When the tutorial is complete, you will receive an achievement called "Breakout"; you should also be around level 4 now.

If you choose to skip the tutorial and introduction to RDO, you will be dropped into a random location in a Free-Roam session and you will completely bypass meeting the post office clerk, Alden Carruthers, and the horse thief, Clay Davies (Honor Among Horse Thieves). This means you will not start with any of the extra in-game items or content that are earned in these missions (i.e. loot, gold, ammo and horses).

However, you will be given vouchers and coupons for these items so you may purchase them; you can find these vouchers in the 'Benefits' tab in the 'Escape Menu'. You will begin with the following benefits:

• Free Change of Appearance

• Free Ability Card Purchase

• Free Horse Insurance Purchase

• Free Saddle Purchase*

• Free Horse Purchase*

Your character will spawn at their camp and will be equipped with a random set of clothing and the following equipment items:

• Wheeler Rawson Co. Handheld Catalogue

• Hunting Knife

• Lantern

• Lasso

• Camera

• Cattleman Revolver

• Carbine Repeater

• Assorted food items

• Assorted "loot" items (valuables)

You can redeem your ability card from the 'Ability Loadout' option at the bottom of the screen while in your weapon wheel, or by accessing the 'Abilities' tab from the 'Escape Menu'.

You can redeem your 'Free Horse' and 'Free Saddle' benefits at the sable, it can be used on only specific horses or saddles (these coupons do not expire, so you can save them and use them later if you like). These benefits will unlock a Kentucky Saddler horse and the Lumley Ranch saddle for free.

You will also have access to Scrawny Nag as your default mount.