RDO Roles Guide: How To Pick The Best Role For You

Updated:

01 Oct 2022

Specialist Roles are unique paths of progression, each providing their own experiences allowing you to become even more deeply connected to your character and the choices you make as you inhabit the world of Red Dead Online. With each Role, you’ll always have new pursuits to embark upon that lead to unique items and skills as you progress, in addition to cash and gold payouts.

Naturalist

Cost: 25 Gold

The Naturalist role is great if you want to earn some easy money without having to slaughter countless animals. It revolves around sedating critters and selling the samples back to Harriet, an eccentric conservationist and drug maker.
There are a few downsides to this role, however. Trading in a set for extra cash is confusing, you have to do it via your animal field guide. Also, if you kill animals for any reason — which the Trader Role and many daily challenges require — Harriet will grow more and more annoyed with you. This will culminate in her spraying some drugs in your face and refusing to trade with you for a couple of in-game hours.

Why it is great

The role is fun because it makes you stop and search for animals you would normally ignore.
You can also carry five samples from each animal, so you can collect them without having to make trips every now and then.
The missions are cool too, seeing you go on the trail of legendary animals that you have to get samples from

Overall, this Role is fun and quirky, but quite active, a bit too much hassle, and definitely too expensive to start.
Details: https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/The_Naturalist_(Red_Dead_Online)

Collector

Cost: 15 Gold Bars

The Collector Role is great for players who just have to see every single inch of the world Rockstar has created. It’s similar to the Naturalist Role in that it requires you to collect and trade in sets of items. You’ll be looking for antique alcohol, wildflowers, and old arrowheads. It’s more rewarding than it sounds.
The biggest issue with this role is how expensive the additional tools required are. Nearly $600 for a shovel! Also, it is very time-consuming to search far and wide for all the items to maximize your earnings.

Why it is great

The role is very passive
You can accidentally get loads of items just from looting your enemies
As long as you’re looting, you’ll slowly build up your collections and make pretty good amounts of money

This Role is best taken early and then left as a passive pursuit, only actively searching for things when you’ve almost finished a set.
Details: https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/Collector_(Red_Dead_Online)?so=search

Trader

Cost: 15 Gold
The Trader Role is essential for two reasons: camp upgrades and access to the Moonshiner Role. You can get a stewpot to feed you and your posse, and a weapons locker to store all your guns in. You can even get a dog you can train to warn you of thieves in the camp. Obviously, pursuing this Role will make Harriet very angry with you but eventually, it’ll help you make money.

The downside of this Role is how damn tedious it is hunting. Skins honestly aren’t worth your effort as they yield so little when compared to full carcasses, but you can only put one on your horse at a time. It takes ages to get the hunting wagon and large delivery wagons, meaning the early stages of this Role can be very dull. Spending time in this game is great, but not when you're just doing the same thing over and over.

Why it is great

The role itself is the most straightforward in Red Dead Online.
You kill animals and deliver their body to Cripps, then he breaks them down into a sellable product
This is probably the best early-game method for making money and earning experience

Still, it’s a good money maker and it lets you become a Moonshiner.
Details: https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/Trader_(Red_Dead_Online)?so=search

Bounty Hunter

Cost:15 Gold Bars (Plus Another 15 For Prestigious License)

Being a Bounty Hunter feels like Red Dead Online at its most authentic. There are endless bounties to be brought in, alone or with friends, and the legendary bounties add a great level of challenge and uniqueness to the Role. You earn or lose honor depending on how you choose to deal with your targets.
The only downside to this Role is that the total cost in gold is quite high, but you earn so much gold just from doing bounties that you’ll make it all back and then some quite quickly.

Why it is great

This Role is the best for earning gold, so it should be taken early
Each bounty you bring in rewards cash and gold, with greater rewards for harder bounties and bringing people in alive
You can just keep doing jobs for as long as you want, making grinding money and gold very smooth
Once you level up the Role a bit you can even hunt down other players with high bounties

If you love shooting and hunting down ruthless outlaws, this is the Role for you.
Details: https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/Bounty_Hunter_(Red_Dead_Online)

Moonshiner

Cost: 25 Gold (Plus The 15 Gold To Start Trader)

The Moonshiner Role is the closest to an idle moneymaker you can get in RDO. It’s far less active than the Trader Role, but the returns are quite faster. This Role will see you helping Maggie Fike regain her throne as the shining queen of the Wild West. You also get a cool shack, though it’s not quite a house, it'll do.

Moonshine is easy to produce and it’ll require only those items you can buy in a general store. You go to your cook, give him the ingredients, and let him cook for 30-60 minutes, lovely. In that time you can go off and do other missions, pursue other Roles, or do the incredibly fun and challenging Moonshiner story missions. These unlock new flavours of moonshine and are a great addition that really fleshes out the Role but it’s a matter of irony that they don’t all include unique missions.
The only drawback to this Role is how carefully you have to drive to sell the shine without spilling any. Stick to the road, drive slowly, and you’ll be just fine.

Why it is great