Red Dead Online Naturalist Guide

Tame the animal kingdom with this Red Dead Online Naturalist guide

(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Need a paw becoming a Red Expressionless Online Naturalist? When you get tired of lassoing outlaws and brewing booze in your Red Dead Online Moonshine shack (opens in new tab) for your rowdy bar guests, it might exist time to try out the Naturalist role, ane of the several Frontier Pursuits—jobs, in other words—in Red Dead Redemption 2 Online.

Being a Naturalist is all about tracking, cataloguing, and sometimes killing animals all over the map. Equally with other careers, you tin earn feel, buy some new tools, and clothing new role-specific dress. You'll start out your career as a Naturalist documenting animals y'all're probably already familiar with, but at level 5 you'll begin accepting missions to rail Red Expressionless Online legendary animals (opens in new tab).

There are a lot of animals in RDR2, so the job can be a flake of a grind if y'all're a completionist. It'south not a particularly lucrative function for earning money either. But if you lot're in the mood to slow down and pay attention to all the dazzler in the online Wild West—this Ruddy Dead Online Naturalist guide is for you.

How practise you get the Red Dead Online Naturalist role?

Cost: 25 golden confined
Location: Strawberry

Condign a Naturalist is simple, so long as you take the gold saved up to buy it—check out our handy Ruby Dead Online gold confined guide (opens in new tab)for coin-making tips if y'all find yourself short.

With the cash in mitt, head to the Welcome Center in Strawberry, the building with that giant deport statue inside. A cutscene triggers when you go in introducing you to Harriet the conservationist and Gus the hunter. At the end, Harriet offers to sell you a Sample Kit for 25 gold. Fork over the bars and you'll become a Naturalist.

red dead online gus harriet — (Image credit: Rockstar )

Red Dead Online Gus and Harriet: Who should you lot cull?

Fortunately you lot don't need to choose between helping Harriet and Gus, fifty-fifty though they don't see heart to heart. Gus can sell y'all habiliment items if you bring him the required pelts, which is important for the mode conscious. He as well sells a few trinket items that give benefits like increased horse bonding or more herb yield. His camps are marked with a paw print on the map.

Harriet is your chief source of Naturalist XP and gives you access to Legendary Animal missions after yous accomplish level 5, then you'll likely be visiting her most often. She as well sells Sedative Ammo, Blending Tonics for getting close to animals without being detected, and a few other handy Naturalist tonics. You can find her camps at the magnifying glass symbols on the map.

Beware, Harriet doesn't like when you lot kill animals and volition spray yous with her hallucinogenic perfume (opens in new tab) if yous've killed too many recently earlier talking to her. Wait about 10 minutes and she'll cool off.

How to sedate animals, collect samples, and complete your Animal Guide Volume

Your Animal Guide Book is where you'll proceed rails of all the animals you've studied. Y'all tin can pull it out in the items tab of your radial menu in the far right slot. Animals each fall into a category by habitat: desert, mountain, forest, etc. Legendary animals have their own categories based on pelt colour. Every fauna starts greyed out but can exist clicked after you lot've studied it in some mode.

You can sell samples to Harriet, which volition give you a stamp on that animal's portrait. After yous've stamped an entire category, you lot can plow in the completed category to Harriet for XP. This will reset the category'due south stamps (simply not other progress on those animals similar skinning or photographing) and then that you can brainstorm a new stamp set.

How to track, kill, and skin an brute

You've likely done all of these things enough in the past, but every bit a refresher, you lot can track animals afterwards inbound Eagle Eye mode by pressing Mouse 3 or R3 + L3 on a controller. Use any weapon you cull to kill your prey. Arroyo the carcass and press the relevant push to skin information technology.

Killing and skinning an beast will satisfy your studying requirement. If you're looking for a non-lethal option, you can besides do that by aiming either your binoculars or a gun at an animal and holding down the indicated key.

How to sedate an animate being

You can buy .22 caliber allaying ammo from Harriet at whatever of her camps. Pull out your varmint rifle and switch to the sedative ammo while in your radial menu. The larger the creature, the more shots information technology will take to put it to slumber, so don't get panic if information technology isn't working right away. Even smaller animals sometimes take multiple shots to sedate.

You'll hear an audio cue when a shot successfully sedates an animate being, though it may continue fleeing for a few seconds before it falls comatose. Its Hawkeye Middle trail will likewise turn red. One time the animal is sleeping, you'll take a couple of minutes to arroyo before it wakes upward.

In one case an animal is sedated, yous can arroyo and printing the shown key to take a sample.

How to photograph an fauna

You lot can apply the default camera in the items tab of your radial menu to have photos or buy the Advanced Camera for $540 in the Hunting & Fishing section of your catalogue. With your camera out, press the shown key to hold it up so aim and zoom before snapping a photo.

red dead naturalist guide — (Paradigm credit: Rockstar)

More Red Dead Naturalist tips

Yous cannot sample and pare the aforementioned animal.
You can hear an audio cue when a nearby role player sedates an animal and you can take a sample from it likewise.
Employ Jeanropke'southward interactive RDO map (opens in new tab) if you lot're struggling to find a particular animal.
Studying animals and selling samples will exist your master way to earn Naturalist XP until you attain role rank v and unlock legendary animate being hunts.
You tin can bring together a friend'southward legendary animal hunt to earn XP fifty-fifty if y'all haven't unlocked them nonetheless.

Lauren started writing for PC Gamer as a freelancer in 2017 while chasing the Dark Souls fashion police force and accustomed her function as Associate Editor and Chief Minecraft Liker in 2021. She originally started her career in game development and is still fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long books, longer RPGs, multiplayer cryptids, and tin't terminate playing co-op crafting games.