Red Dead Online Beta Rollout Begins Today

Written by Brandon Hofer on November 27, 2018

News: Ultimate Edition owners should be able to log in and test out the beta with others joining in as the week goes on.

The beta for Red Dead Online is beginning to roll out slowly. If you bought the Ultimate Edition you should be able to play with others able to join as the week progresses. This will (theoretically) help ensure that Rockstar’s servers can handle a steadily growing volume of concurrent players in the early hours and first days of the Beta and hopefully reduce the likelihood of any server crashes during the launch week. Here are the rollout specifics:

Tuesday, November 27th: All Red Dead Redemption 2: Ultimate Edition owners. Please note, players who purchased the physical Ultimate Edition must redeem the Ultimate Edition code in the packaging to be eligible.

Wednesday, November 28th: All players who played Red Dead Redemption 2 on October 26th according to our data.

Thursday, November 29th: All players who played Red Dead Redemption 2 between October 26th to October 29th according to our data.

Friday, November 30th: All players who own Red Dead Redemption 2.

Rockstar is aiming to deliver a stable and fun experience while collecting as much crucial information and feedback as possible to help them continually improve Red Dead Online. As with any Beta period, they plan to take the time necessary throughout to make Red Dead Online a complete, fun and fully-functional experience, which may take several weeks or months as they continually work to fix bugs, improve systems and implement player feedback into current or future plans.

If you encounter technical issues of any sort, please visit the dedicated Rockstar Support site to find help or report these issues. Rockstar strongly encourages everyone to send feedback on your experience, from ways to improve gameplay to suggestions for future content – they want to know what you like, love or dislike and what you’d like to see added, changed or implemented into Red Dead Online. You can visit reddeadonline.com/feedback to share your experiences and input with them.

The world of Red Dead Online will be a continually expanding experience. There will also be some additions and updates throughout the Beta period. Starting this week, you can ride with friends in a Posse, set up your Camp, embark on cooperative story-based missions or go head-to-head in competitive series, find strangers throughout the world to help (or hurt), tackle spontaneous Free Roam challenges, go hunting, fishing, bond with your horse, explore with friends or on your own (but look out for ambushes), and much more.

All the while, you’ll accumulate XP through your explorations and encounters that counts towards your rank and provides added bonuses. Unlock items and improve your attributes while you progress. You can also take on Award challenges throughout your open-world experiences to earn Awards in 12 categories like combat, hunting, sharpshooter and survivalist.

Red Dead Online begins with creating your character. Detail your appearance and attributes before you set out on your journey from Sisika Penitentiary where you’ll acquire a horse, set up a Camp, hunt down a treasure, equip your first Ability Card and meet some fateful characters with a larger story to tell; one that involves chasing truth, revenge, and honor.

In Red Dead Online, your honor will shift high and low based on your decisions and behavior. You’ll shape your honor through your choices: from life or death decisions to natural interactions such as caring for your horse.

In addition to the world responding to you in subtly different ways, you’ll also notice the nature of certain missions will reveal themselves to you based on your current honor state.

Free Roam Missions

Head over to the Stranger icons throughout the map alone or with your Posse to embark on Free Roam Missions. You’ll see some familiar faces along the way, and these missions can vary based on how noble or nefarious you are – for example, an honorable gunslinger may be asked to help escort a convoy, defending it from attacking gangs or even other players’ Posses, whereas a dishonorable outlaw may be asked to help spring a felon from the law.

A Land of Opportunities

Honor also plays into this deeper cooperative strand for two to four players that they will continually build upon. In A Land of Opportunities, you’ll be faced with a multi-part series of missions, with some parts changing as your honor changes on a larger journey to seek truth and justice, or revenge.

Of course, Red Dead Online comes packed with all-new competitive gameplay. The Beta includes 5 new modes at launch that are part of a larger series of Showdowns, and you can also enter your trusted steed into races including point-to-point, lap and open races strewn across the map.

Enter one of the Showdown Series Markers for fast matchmaking into a variety of modes:

Shootout & Team Shootout

Classic gunfight modes with unlimited lives. Compete to rack up the most kills before the timer runs out. Sudden death will trigger in the event of a tie: whoever gets the first kill wins.

Make it Count

A true test of resourcefulness in two game modes: use nothing but a bow and a handful of arrows or throwing knives to be the last one standing. With a gradually shrinking player area, there’s nowhere to run.

Most Wanted

A tactical race to the top. Every kill pushes you up the scoreboard, but watch out: the closer to the top you are, the more points everyone else gets for killing you.

Hostile Territory

Work in teams to control the land. Capture a territory to start racking up points: the team with most points wins - or you can win outright by capturing every territory.

Name your Weapon

Demonstrate your personal specialty in this free-for-all or team-based match: the trickier the weapon you use to land the killing blow, the more points you get.

**PLEASE NOTE**

Rockstar has stated that they hope all player progress during this early period of the beta will be able to remain intact long-term , however, as with many betas for large-scale online experiences, there is always the chance that they may need to implement rank or other stat resets in case of issues. Please keep this mind.