How to Get Small Game Arrows in Red Dead Online
We go over how to get the smallest arrows as quickly as possible.
Red Dead Online doesn't always suggest using maximum firepower. For those who find themselves hunting wabbits, you'll want something small and clean, guaranteed not to shred whatever animal you're hunting into pulled pork. For many animals, small game arrows are what's needed, and we'll be going over where to get them and how.
What Are Small Game Arrows?
Small game arrows are essentially a kind of ammo for your bow, designed to do minimal damage both to a creature's health bar and to the integrity of a carcass. Some animals don't need them - you won't hurt an alligator or a grizzly bear with one - but for many small birds and forest critters, a headshot with a small game arrow is the only way to get a kill without ruining the body in the process.
Where To Get Small Game Arrows
You have to make them yourself, but you can't do that without a recipe pamphlet. In the single player this helpful guide is given to you by Charles, but you'll have to earn and buy the manual for that in the Online mode. This is obtained from the Fence in Saint Denis, who sells all the recipe pamphlets in the game, but it won't come cheap or easy: you'll have to be Rank 22 simply to unlock the option to purchase it, and once you do it'll cost a staggering $350.00.
How to Craft Small Game Arrows
Once you have the pamphlet, select it in your satchel to read it and learn the recipe forever. Then you head somewhere quiet and open your crafting mortar and pestle in the items menu. Crafting small game arrows costs no money from this point on, but you'll need a regular arrow, a shotgun shell and a flight feather to assemble one. The first two can be bought at any store (and you've probably already got them). The third one can be found on most flying birds, so keep your eyes pointed upwards and shoot anything that squawks.
What to Use Small Game Arrows On
Small Game Arrows are, appropriately enough, best suited to very small animals who can be killed by what's effectively a pin on a stick. If you see any of these animals, try and get a headshot with a small game arrow for a perfect pelt.
- Bats
- Blue Jays
- Bullfrogs
- Cardinals
- Chickens
- Chipmunk
- Crows
- Ducks
- Loons
- Orioles
- Parakeets
- Parrots
- Pheasants
- Pigeons
- Quails
- Rats
- Ravens
- Red-Footed Boobys
- Robins
- Roosters
- Snakes
- Songbirds
- Sparrows
- Squirrels
- Toads
- Waxwings
- Woodpecker
Now that you have the pamphlet, you'll probably want to go out earning again. Why not check out our guide to making gold fast, or on collecting all the coins in the game to sell to Madam Nazar? And of course, any two-bit hunter who wants to become a steely-eyed gunslinger should have our Red Dead Guides Hub holstered and ready to use at all times.