Make money fast in Red Dead Online

Whether you’re striving to be one of the richest out there, or just trying to make it by, knowing how to make money fast in Red Dead Online is going to be important. Because you’ll need to buy new clothes, horses, weapons, or other gear, knowing the best things you can do to increase your cash flow will be key to your success. Thankfully, we’ve spent a good deal of time with the online portion of Red Dead Redemption 2 and we’re going to outline everything you need to know to make money fast in Red Dead Online.

Make money fast in Red Dead Online

The key to making money fast in Red Dead Online is going to be micromanaging the activities that you take part in. While completing things like the Story Missions can possibly net you upwards of $500 in two hours, there are far better ways to maximize your influx of cash in Red Dead Redemption 2’s online multiplayer mode.

Make sure you keep your Butcher's Table filled up so you can take on deliveries.

Preparations

Instead of simply listing off every way that you can make money in Red Dead Online, we’re going to instead focus on a proven method that will allow you to maximize how much money you make during each play session. Before we get started, there are a couple of things you’ll need to use this method.

First, you’re going to want to pick up a Butcher’s Table for 15 Gold. This kicks off the Trader Frontier Pursuit, allowing you to stock up goods and then sale them for Cripps.
You’ll also want to go ahead and grab the Collector’s Bag from Madam Nazar. This will also cost you 15 Gold.
If possible, you can also pick up a Bounty Hunter’s License, which will cost you an additional 15 Gold on top of the 30 you have already spent.

When you’re ready, go ahead and invite some friends along for the ride. This will help ensure your trading goods stay protected in the open lobby area and will also just make for a more enjoyable grind as you can talk with your friends while you work.

How to make money fast

Once you’re prepared, go ahead and stock up your Butcher’s Table with goods. Increasing the size of the wagon that you have available will also make for much larger sale amounts, which can really help you make more cash in large amounts. This will take longer to fill up, though, so be aware of that.

Once you unlock the Metal Detector and Shovel, you can find even more collectible items to turn in.

Basically, you’ll want to make sure your Butcher’s Table is stocked on both Materials and Supplies. Supplies can be purchased for $20, or you can complete a Resupply Mission with your Posse to steal the supplies you need. To gather Materials, simply go hunting and return any unskinned corpses to Cripps at the Butcher’s Table.

When your Butcher’s Table is fully stocked, it’s time to head out on a collecting run.

What you need to know about the Collector role:

Each day is broken down into a series of sequences. For help figuring out what the sequence is, you can check this handy calendar from YouTuber and Reddit user DirtyTyler.
Find out which sequence you are in and then head over to this Collector’s Map. We also have a guide breaking down the locations of all Antique Alcohol Bottles, which might be easier for some to follow.
Select your sequence and any items that you want to collect in the collapsible sidebar on the left-hand portion of the screen. This will populate the map with several icons, allowing you to see where various collectible items are.
For collectors just getting started, we’d recommend going for items like the Bird Eggs, American Wildflowers, Antique Alcohol Bottles, and the four Tarot Card sets. Together this can net you well over $1500, and depending on which items you choose to collect, will only take you a few hours to complete.
Turning in full collections will reward you with large sums of cash and experience, allowing you to level up more quickly at the same time.

Now, the idea here is that while you do your collecting run, your trading stuff will slowly build up. The Butcher’s Table takes roughly 3-4 hours to fill up to 100 units, which is the maximum you can sale at one time with a large wagon. Of course, the large wagon will cost you some cash, so keep that in mind. If you can’t afford to upgrade your wagon yet, then you’ll just need to make more shipments throughout your playtime, which will still allow you to make a pretty good sum of cash over time.

Bounty Hunting is a good way to break up the routine and make a little spare cash and Gold while you're at it.

If you really want to break things up, then you can also take on some Bounties while you’re doing all of this. We’d suggest not breaking up your collector run too much, as it can get confusing quickly if you aren’t careful. Doing things like Bounties and Stranger Missions will also cause your trading buildup to pause for the duration of those events as well, which is why we’ve only listed Bounty Hunting here as an optional way to break up the monotony of collecting, gathering materials, and resupplying your Butcher’s Table.

We have used the method above to make money fast in Red Dead Online quite a bit. If you’re looking for more help in the online mode, or just looking for tips in general, then be sure to head back over to our Red Dead Redemption 2 guide and check out the rest of our content.