RDR2 Bandit Challenges: How to Complete All 10

Red Dead Redemption 2 has ten Bandit Challenges, and they unlock in order. Most of the route fits around Valentine and Emerald Ranch: townsfolk for the first, shops for the third and coaches for the second and fourth. After that come the $250 bounty, the horses at Clemens Cove and the trains.

You can’t do them all right away, though. The wagon fence at Emerald Ranch opens after The Spines of America in Chapter 2, and Bandit 6 waits for the horse fence at Clemens Cove, which arrives with Horse Flesh for Dinner in Chapter 3.

My video guide to all 10 challenges

I made this guide in 2018, and people are still searching for it years later. The video is in Spanish; the written guide below follows the same route, with a few points explained better and a community shortcut for the last challenge.

Bandit 1: hold up five townsfolk

Start in Valentine. The law there isn’t as big or as quick as in Saint Denis or Blackwater, so you can ride out when it shows up and come back once it’s gone.

Walk up to someone, draw your gun and use the rob prompt. Some people hand the money over right away; others need a threat or a warning shot. A bandana can make it harder for a witness to identify you, but it won’t make you invisible to lawmen. Pick your target, too: an unarmed townsperson gives you a lot less trouble than someone with a revolver on their hip.

Five holdups. First challenge down.

Van Horn looks tempting because there’s barely any law, but it has a different problem: pull a gun there and half the town may decide it’s their business too.

Bandit 2: rob two coaches or return two to the fence

This is one of the fastest routes in the whole chain. In the video I called it the Master Roshi technique.

Pay for a coach ride from Valentine to Emerald Ranch. When you arrive, get off and steal the same coach that just dropped you there. If it has a locked chest on the back, open it and take something: shoot the lock or use a lockbreaker, which the fence sells. Then drive the coach the few yards to the Emerald Ranch fence and sell it.

One coach covers both actions the challenge counts: robbing the chest and handing the coach over to the fence.

Two jobs. One coach. Challenge done.

Bandit 3: rob four shop registers in one day

No need to cross half the map. Valentine has the general store, the doctor and the gunsmith close together, so start there in the morning, as soon as they open.

Walk in with your bandana up, point your gun at the clerk and empty the register. Then ride out of Valentine, lose the law and come back for the next one. Once you have three, ride to Strawberry for the fourth. The clock matters because shops close, so start early.

In my playthrough I tried another shortcut, also Master Roshi style: let the law take you down instead of running. You lose a bit of money, but very little in-game time passes and you skip the chase.

Three registers in Valentine. One in Strawberry. Four before the shutters come down.

Bandit 4: rob three coaches or return three to the fence in a day

It’s Bandit 2 on a timer.

Same idea: coach ride from Valentine to Emerald Ranch, steal it on arrival and deliver it straight to the fence. You don’t need to bother with the chest if all you want is three sales. Steal one, deliver it, catch another coach from the Emerald Ranch station back to Valentine and repeat the trip.

Three in the same day. The fence sits right next to the station, and that short distance is what makes the route work.

Bandit 5: amass a $250 bounty in one state

No route needed here. You just need to stop behaving.

Pick a state and build up a $250 bounty there. I did it in Valentine: commit a crime, let the law show up, and from there every lawman you take down pushes the number up. Robbing a train adds a lot in one go, too.

Don’t spread the work across states, because the counter wants $250 in a single one. And it starts from zero: a bounty you already had doesn’t count.

When the number hits, get out. You’ll have plenty of time later to pay for every choice you just made.

Bandit 6: steal five horses and sell them at Clemens Cove

This one is locked behind the story: the horse fence at Clemens Cove, northwest of Rhodes, shows up after Horse Flesh for Dinner in Chapter 3.

Once it’s open, you don’t need to go far. Riders and wagons pass along the roads around the fence all the time. Wait by the road and, when someone comes by, take their horse, ride the few yards to the fence, sell it and head back to the road. You can also unhitch horses from some wagons and sell them one by one.

In the video I show a calmer, slower option too: calming and breaking wild horses in The Heartlands and bringing them to the fence.

Five horses through the same gate. Bandit 6 done.

Bandit 7: rob $50 from townsfolk and travelers

You can do it one person at a time, but I’d rather take a train.

Buy a ticket in Valentine to Riggs Station. When you get there, climb onto the engine from the driver’s side, take control and run the train out onto Bard’s Crossing, the big railroad bridge next to the station. The idea in the video was to stop on the bridge so the law had a harder time reaching you and you had time to work through the cars. Take out the few guards on board and start robbing passengers, car by car. Travelers usually carry a lot more than someone walking out of a Valentine store, so the $50 bar fills up fast.

One caveat after all these years: how the law reacts around the bridge doesn’t seem identical in every playthrough and version. The bridge makes it harder for them to reach you, but I wouldn’t count on it as a guaranteed bounty-free job.

If all you want is the challenge, rob up to $50 and get off the train.

Bandit 8: steal seven wagons and sell them at Emerald Ranch

You already know the buyer. This time the game wants seven wagons sold to the Emerald Ranch fence, and you don’t need to open chests or plan anything fancy.

Repeat the Bandit 2 trip: coach from Valentine to Emerald Ranch, steal it when you get off and hand it straight to the fence. Any wagon you steal on the nearby roads works too. Location does most of the work here: the closer you steal the wagon, the less road you have to cover in a stolen wagon.

Seven in. Seven sold.

Bandit 9: hogtie someone and leave them on the railroad three times

The train doesn’t even have to come. Bandit 9 only asks you to hogtie someone and leave them on the tracks three times.

The Emerald Ranch station works well because there are usually people waiting and the rails are a few steps away. Equip your lasso, aim, rope your target, tie them up, throw them over your shoulder and set them down on the track.

And you don’t need three victims. If you cut them loose or they break free, tie them up again and put them back on the rails: the same person can make the trip three times.

The counter finishes before any train shows up.

Bandit 10: complete five train robberies without dying or being caught

Looks like the worst one. Can be the shortest.

In my video I reuse the Bandit 7 setup: train from Valentine to Riggs Station, take the engine, stop on the bridge, deal with the guards. But for this challenge robbing a single passenger is enough for the robbery to count. You don’t need to clear every car or crack any safes.

Get off. Get away. Lose the law. Next train.

One thing from my playthrough: back-to-back robberies didn’t count for me. I had to let an in-game day pass between them before the counter moved again. If the same happens to you, don’t repeat the robbery right away.

Players on the Steam community forums report another shortcut: when a train stops at a station, opening the chest on one of its open flatcars already bumps the counter, and if you hop off right away you’re unlikely to be wanted. If it doesn’t count, go back to the passenger. One is enough.

Bandit unlocks

Some ranks unlock pieces of the reinforced Bandit gear you can buy from the Trapper: Bandit 1 opens the bandolier, Bandit 3 the holster, Bandit 7 the off-hand holster and Bandit 10 the gun belt. The other ranks give Dead Eye experience.

This chain also counts toward the story mode’s overall challenge system, which has nine categories of ten challenges each.

The short route

If I did all ten again from scratch, I’d keep the map tight. Valentine takes the people and the shops; Emerald Ranch, the coaches and wagons; Clemens Cove, the horses; and the railroad, the passengers’ cash and the five robberies.

Bandit 10 looks like it wants five big train heists, and five passengers can be enough. That’s the pattern for the whole chain: read exactly what the counter asks for and don’t give it any extra work.

Do that. Nothing more.

Sources: Daykyri’s video guide (in Spanish), published November 2018; Red Dead Wiki, single-player challenges for the list of all ten challenges and their rewards, and fences for when Emerald Ranch and Clemens Cove unlock; PowerPyx for each challenge’s wording; the Steam community for the Bandit 10 shortcut.

Last checked: October 1, 2026.