If you’re knee deep in Red Dead Redemption 2, you know that some aspects of Rockstar’s latest open-world opus can feel like work. Between unwieldy controls and purposefully drawn out segments, most players probably have a phone at the ready while traversing toward Valentine. Still, this is nothing compared to the prospective grind that could be in place for players of Red Dead Online. According to some makeshift mathematicians over on Reddit, it could take over eight hours to get a single Red Dead Online gold bar.
As you might have already assumed, gold bars are Red Dead Online’s alternate currency of choice. They’ll buy you cosmetic items which don’t affect gameplay but serve as a makeshift progression for the online service. You’ll be able to pick up the currency for real-world money eventually. Since this is a still a beta, that functionality hasn’t rolled out as of now. What you can do now is grind it out by completing events.
According to user UnavailableIDs, you currently need to play deathmatch or race events to get the best output. After eight hours and 20 minutes of 10-minute events, you’ll receive a single gold bar. This is all subject to change since the online mode is currently in beta. However, it does match with the style of grinding found in GTA Online, Rockstar’s other online service.
To give an example of pricing of some of the in-game items, changing the color of your gun barrel costs five gold bars on its own. More significant upgrades such as different horses require much more investment. Some users on Reddit even joke that they’d need to put in 40-hour work weeks to get these items.
More players will join the beta at the end of the week. We also don’t know exactly how much the Red Dead Online gold bar will cost in real-world cash. We’ll have to see how the general playerbase responds to this seemingly endless grind.
