Red Dead Redemption 2 Honor system sways along with your decisions to either be a ruthless bandit or an honest outlaw who sticks by a moral code. This is Rockstar’s way of integrating honor and fame mechanics in the game.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Honor System
Red Dead Redemption 2 honor system is based around different activities and choices that you will be making in the game as you progress through the main storyline and interact with the NPCs in the open world.
How The System Works
In general, doing good gets you honor points and doing bad earns you dishonor points. Activities that work constructively to increase the honor points include ones like helping a stranger with his troubles or succeed in completing a bounty for the state.
Activities that result in dishonor include killing innocent civilians, lawmen, stealing etc. These contribute towards a reduction in the overall honor points.
Each action will have varying contributions to the honor points system and the amount they add or deduct is dynamic and different. Let’s take a more detailed look on what activities fall in the two categories: honorable or a complete a-hole.
How to Increase / Gain Honor
Whenever an action has the potential of changing your honor level, be it even marginally, a visual indicator comes up on your screen ranging from a white hat (honorable) to a red one (dishonorable).
Most of these morality actions will revolve around open-world interactions including the ones with strangers and even animals. Of course, there are countless actions your character is capable of performing and it’s impossible to list them all here, but the ones that are more prominent are given below.
I mean, you’re a sensible and morally sound person too, right? That’s your excuse of knowing instinctively which actions will put Arthur in trouble and which ones will paint him as a saint among the masses.
For remaining a honorable and just cowboy who kills by a definite code, you need to invest more of your time and energy in activities falling under this category.
- Help a stranger with his or her query. This could be related to fetching a valuable, escorting them to a certain place or ensuring their safety in dangerous situations.
- Spare lives when you have the option to do so.
- Even when hunting animals, go for a mercy kill, quick one, instead of eliminating a creature in multiple shots.
- Release small, baby fish back into the water because … c’mon dude, they’re infants.
- Pet or tame domestic animals.
- Give back to the camp by any methods. These include donations and help the members out with their everyday tasks.
- Disarm the opponent in a duel instead of straight-up killing them.
- Don’t start a fight when you’re surrounded by lawmen thanks to your Wanted level.
- Remove your bounties by paying the lawmen at the offices.
Actions That Decrease Honor Level
This is when you want the kind of gratification from the world around you that’s only fueled by violence and cruelty. Ok, we’re not judging you, it’s a game after all.
Anyways, most of these dishonorable actions are complete opposites of the honorable ones mentioned above. However, there are some additional ones you can carry out as well. For example:
- Steal or rob basically anything or anyone. This also includes holding a shopkeeper at gunpoint and asking him to empty out the cash register.
- Kill basically anyone or anything innocent. Note predators and bandits are allowed.
- Loot corpse of innocent beings even if killed by someone else.
- Don’t bathe.
In order to maintain a particular honor level, you can wear a bandana for the purpose of hiding your face and thus your identity. This will keep the honor level static.
Additionally, you can also ignore stranger quests as these will definitely raise or lower your honor level. Strangers are indicated by a white dot on the mini-map so whenever you’re close to encountering one, turn the other way.
Level Ranks and Consequences
Each honor level will result in different consequences including drastic changes in the interactions with NPCs, emergence of new side quests and in-game events, and bounties from lawmen. There are rewards and punishments, even tangible ones, attached to the honor system.
An example is how being a very dishonorable person can prevent you from displaying having an impact on the NPCs and thus being unable to intimidate or pay off a witness.
The people after you will be more in number as well because of a higher bounty on your head. Furthermore, the killcams become more brutal. The soundtrack also receives a change depending on how honorable you are.
The honor level scale goes from -8 to +8 but significant items are only awarded at specific levels:
- Level+7: A discount of 50% in shops.
- Level +6: Unlocks these outfits: the Deuville, the Dewberry Creek, the Drifter, the Faulkton, the Gambler and the Farrier.
- Level+5: A discount of 25% in shops.
- Level+3: Unlocks these outfits: the Bulldogger, the Corson, the Chevalier, the Cowpuncher, the Cumberland the McLaughlin, the Roscoe, and the Valentine.
- Level +2: A discount of 10% in shops.
- Level 1: Your chances of getting these loot items from corpses increases: tonics, jewelry and consumables.
- Level -1: Your chances of getting these loot items from corpses increases: Dead-Eye tonic, thrown weapons, alcohol and tobacco.
Honor Ranks
| Honor Rank | Honor Points | Effects |
| -1 | -40 | Higher drop rate of dead eye tonics, alcohol and tobacco. Lawmen also pay you more money. |
| 0 | 0 | You get used alcohol and tobacco along with basic consumables and cheap jewellery. |
| 1 | 40 | Drop rate of tonics, restoration items, food and jewellery increases. |
| 2 | 80 | 10% discount in shops. |
| 3 | 120 | New outfits are available in select shops such as the Bulldogger, Chevalier and the Corson. |
| 4 | 160 | No additional effects. |
| 5 | 200 | 25% discount in shops. |
| 6 | 240 | New outfits are available in select shops such as the Scrapper, Deauville, and the Drifter. |
| 7 | 280 | No additional effects. |
Actions influencing Honor
| Actions | Effects on Honor |
| Kill a civilian or lawmen | Decreases exponentially |
| Kill an animal without skinning or stowing | Decreases exponentially |
| Not helping your horse when it is in pain | Decreases exponentially |
| Intimidating and antagonizing random people | Decreases exponentially |
| Steal from safes and registers | -20 |
| Desecrate the dead | -10 |
| Kill domesticated animals | 50 |
| Intimidate or beat someone up during robberies | -5 |
| Trample people with horse | 1 |
| Loot someone by knocking them out | -1 |
| Steal a hitched horse | -1 |
| Scare a civilian by shooting near them | -1 |
| Pay off your debts from crimes | 5 |
| Kill rats | 5 |
| Serve time in jail or surrender to lawmen | 5 |
| Disarm someone while duelling | 10 |
| Donate to the gang | 10 |
Story Mode Honor Opportunities
| Chapter | Honor | Action |
| 1 | -5 | Kill the train staff |
| -20 | Let Lenny die | |
| 2 | 10 | Rescue the horse |
| 5 | Return the horse | |
| 10 | Pull the witness who is hanging from the cliff | |
| -5 | Do not pull the witness | |
| 10 | Spare the witness | |
| -10 | Kill the witness | |
| 10 | Return the stolen horse | |
| -5 | Keep the stolen horse | |
| 10 | Agree to help Jamie | |
| 3 | 10 | Crack the safe |
| -5 | Blow the safe open | |
| -5 | Sell the gift | |
| 4 | 10 | Help return the family heirloom |
| 5 | Pay for the brooch | |
| 20 | Return the crucifix | |
| 5 | 10 | Agree to help Rains Fall |
| -10 | Refuse to help Rains Fall | |
| 20 | Agree to help Monroe | |
| -20 | Refuse to help Monroe | |
| -5 | Kill the soldiers | |
| 20 | Agree to help Sadie | |
| -20 | Refuse to help Sadie | |
| 10 | Help Archie | |
| 10 | Rescue Edith | |
| 20 | Donate | |
| 10 | Refuse Penelope’s payment | |
| -5 | Kill the wagon drivers | |
| Epilogue 1 | 5 | Pay the squatters |
| Epilogue 2 | 5 | Save Cleet |
| Others | 5 | Return a bounty target alive |
| 1 | Allow a bounty target to say last words | |
| -5 | Kill Algie’s son | |
| -5 | Recover Debt | |
| 10 | Absolve Debt | |
| 10 | Give the convicts their medicine |
