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7 tips for surviving Red Dead Online’s Battle Royale mode
Red Dead Online’s battle royale mode, Make It Count, is a scaled down take that gets up-close and personal, so here are a few tips to get you started.
Red Dead Online’s approach to Battle Royale is simple: be first. Its take on the genre throws up to 32 players into a single map with the end goal being to survive (and not get brutally memed in the process). Make It Count abandons looting mechanics and supply drops for two variations that encourages players to fight with bows and a limited supply of arrows or make use of six throwing knives and a regular knife. It’s a complete flip from stockpiling traps and scopes that you’ll never get the chance to use (because memes), but it’s a change that implements different environments such as Tall Trees and Strawberry to keep things up-close and personal.
Make It Count has its drawbacks – including unbalanced player counts and it being locked to a randomised Showdown Series playlist – but it’s a pretty good mode that takes the best of GTA Online’s Slasher and Every Bullet Counts and turns the Battle Royale genre into a game of slow deaths. It’ll be interesting to see if Rockstar incorporates predators (i.e. bears, wolves) and other settings in the future as the idea of 100 players attempting to hijack a runaway train that’s on the move from Ambarino to Saint Denis has ‘Speed 3’ written all over it. In the meantime, we put together a few essential tips to help you with the trials and tribulations of Make It Count.
When “keeping it real” goes wrong
© Rockstar Games
1. Always. Be. Crouching.
The ABC’s of Red Dead’s Make It Count are simple: always be crouching. Seriously. Embracing your inner CTRL key allows you to stealth in the mode’s three locations – Tall Trees, Strawberry and Stillwater Creek – and it’s become effective to the point where ‘brushing’ is considered the new ‘camping’. Even though other players won’t appear on the mini map until they’ve killed an enemy, crouching muffles your footsteps and lets you move quickly from point-to-point, and in a way that would bring a single tear to the eyes of both Big Boss and Solid Snake (don’t ask).
Git gud or git dead, pardner
© Rockstar Games
2. Git gud at gunslinging
It’s easier said than done considering Red Dead Redemption 2’s controls are still archaic for the right and wrong reasons, but the mechanics should be relatively easy if you’ve thumbed your way through the likes of Gears Of War and The Division. Practicing your aim on birds and other wild animals (i.e. deer, cougars) will improve your rifle skills while throwing yourself into a playlist of Showdown Series Modes such as Most Wanted and Name Your Weapon will test your range and your accuracy with revolvers and shotguns. Make It Count solely uses bows and knives but any sort of practice will sharpen your reflexes and awareness to a more significant degree.
It’s like Metal Gear, but with more trains
© Rockstar Games
3. Master the dodge roll
The dodge roll was more of an afterthought in single-player due to Miracle Tonics and what you could accomplish with a Springfield and max rifling, but it’s an absolute godsend in multiplayer. Holding L2/LT and pressing square (or X on Xbox) forces your character to jump in the direction you were moving, and it’s perfect for when you need to plunge into a nearby raspberry bush or Lethal Weapon your way behind a storefront in Strawberry. It has its downsides as dodge rolls drain your stamina core and come with an animation that’s twice as annoying, but it’s a peeve that’s worth mastering because it turns every single kill cam sequence into a ‘90s action flick.
All is fair in love and screen cheating
© Rockstar Games
4. Use your mini map tools
As noted before, when someone secures a kill in Make It Count, they will appear on the in-game mini map. Monitoring the exact same map allows you to track those red dots as they appear, but hitting down on the D-pad briefly expands your mini map and provides you with an idea of who’s stalking you and who’s engaged in an entirely different shootout. Being aware of those different encounters gives you more freedom to navigate and keep an eyeball on your surroundings, thus allowing you to preserve ammo and choose your targets. It’s like the manual healing system in Call Of Duty’s Blackout mode but with a ‘SPAM’ button attached to a Google Street View car.
5. Make use of ability cards
Lest we forget, Dead Eye is alive and well in Red Dead Online. It’s just attached to Ability Cards. The first few cards you have access to in the introduction are pretty much temporary buffs as they directly affect gameplay and provide a more significant boost in the later stages of a match. In this case, Focus Fire increases damage dealt, Paint It Black enables painted targets, and A Moment To Recuperate slowly regenerates health. No one knows (yet) if higher tier cards such as The Short Game (Rank 38) and Slippery Bastard (Rank 50) can be used to the same effect, but it opens the door for card loadouts and rebels who just want to lasso someone across town.
6. Avoid fist fights at all costs
It’s a shame that Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t have ‘fight clubs’ as a side activity, but this isn’t a David Fincher film. Throwing fists with a nearby hooligan or two in an open space like Stillwater Creek will only draw the attention of a dozen sweaty palms that are just itching to land their first kill. It stirs up noise and a whole mess of sound effects you would normally find in other Showdowns and until knife fights are a thing in those modes, melee is your own worst enemy.
Because there “ain’t no love in war”
© Rockstar Games
7. Practice. Practice. Practice.
Because if you don’t, a group of 13-year-olds from Lincoln, Nebraska will and you’ll wonder why they keep embarrassing you in front of your Twitch chat as they quote lines from the first season of Cowboy Bebop. It’s a harsh reality but it’s an even harsher truth if you don’t commit to the bip.
