Red Dead Online patch notes: Everything new in the Red Dead Online Summer Update
The Red Dead Online Summer Update is live and there's more new stuff than you can hogtie with a lasso. Here's a round-up of everything you'll find through this next chapter of your western adventure.
Red Dead Online Summer Update Patch Notes
One thing that we'll gloss over a little bit here are the headline addition: Frontier Pursuits. You can now take on the role of a Bounty Hunter, Trader, or Collector, but we have a full page on how you to get started with each one here.
Free Roam Events
On top of that there are four new Free Roam Events to enjoy:
- Manhunt
Fan out and work together to capture as many escaped prisoners as possible.
- Day of Reckoning
Compete against other players to collect the most bounty points within a time limit.
- Salvage
Collaborate with other players to pick up as much loot as possible from a wreck.
- Trade Route
Another collaborative event where you defend a train from waves of bandits.
New Weapons and Skill Cards
As well as newly expanded Daily Challenges, there are more personalisation options to play with. These include 9 new skill cards (three of which are PlayStation exclusive):
- Sharpshooter
- Kick in the Butt
- Live for the Fight
- Friends for Life
- Fool Me Once
- Iron Lung
- Gunslinger’s Choice (PS4 Exclusive)
- Strength In Numbers (PS4 Exclusive)
- Ride Like The Wind (PS4 Exclusive)
Players now also have access to a "large swathe" of new weapons and "several powerful breeds" of horses - just in case you were feeling underpowered. And Photo Studios have been updated so you can share your picture with other players and take group photos.
Quality of Life updates
Although new content is nice, it can be just as sweet when nitpicks that have been bugging you get squished. With the Summer Update you can now have 7 saved outfits in your wardrobe and give them names too.
You can also now change your character's base appearance once for free, then for a fee thereafter.
The changes don't stop there though. While Rockstar felt that weighty movement was right for RDR2's story, it didn't quite transfer to Online. To address this, it's made a few tweaks to the way your character handles in Red Dead Online. You now have:
- Quicker hogtying, looting, and revival animations
- Quicker projectile equipping, aiming and throwing of knives and tomahawks
- Faster combat dives, climbing and swimming speed
- "Enhanced" on-foot movement
- "More Agile" crouch movement
- Smoother strafing
- Improved weapon handling
- Enhanced camera reframing
- New hit markers
- And a new shove mechanic to tackle enemies to the ground
Weapon Rebalance
To keep the combat on a par with these changes, weapons have been rebalanced to speed up gameplay and reduce the emphasis on scoring perfect headshots. All bullet damage has been increased and it now takes fewer body shots to down a target.
Long-range headshots have been nerfed slightly, while High-Velocity rounds will now give a greater chance of a critical headshot at range to compensate.
This, coupled with the addition of a damage resistance buff when you switch to the defensive combat style, should shake up how the game is played in a pretty significant way.