Red Dead Redemption 2 is as chaotic and perhaps uncontrollable a game as they come, from its wild gunfights to multitude of random NPC encounters. Many thought a damage-less playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2 was impossible, but it seems the challenge has finally been conquered.
A pretty common self-imposed challenge is to beat a game without taking any damage. For a game like RDR2, though, it is a pretty big thing to ask. The game already rewards players through Gold Medals by completing a variety of challenges during the game's missions, but there is nothing for not taking damage throughout the entire game. From the litany of gun fights in the main story missions, to the dreaded bounty hunters, beating RDR2 is a challenge not for the faint of heart.
Yesterday, YouTuber KidStain uploaded a video chronicling their journey through their no damage playthrough of RDR2. The rules of the playthrough were simple: if KidStain takes any damage whatsoever, then they would restart from the last checkpoint. Unlike a speedrun that would capture the full gameplay as it happened, KidStain's video does not show all of their gameplay and as such, requires a benefit of the doubt approach to watching it. Just as discoveries in RDR2 are still being made after all these years, it seems that time has also allowed for players to start completing these impossible challenges.
KidStain explains that the most irritating sections of the game comes from those requiring hand-to-hand combat. Where the game's shooting sections can be resolved through a use of cover, aim-assist, and learning enemy spawn locations, the forced hand-to-hand parts become reliant on the player's ability to counter-punch enemy attacks and hoping the enemy AIs play nice. The hardest section, naturally, is the fight with Micah Bell, where he incorporates a variety of grapple attacks that can quickly damage the player if unprepared. As KidStain states about the fight, "You need to have so many things go right just for everything to go straight."
Beating RDR2 without taking damage is a feat not to be taken lightly. Recently, a player was able to complete Grand Theft Auto 5 without taking any damage, and the experience is quite comparable. The player, UnNameD struggled to complete this run for months on end, until finally they completed it in a single attempt that lasted over nine hours. While KidStain was not necessarily speedrunning the game in their video, they can still learn from UnNameD's experience so that maybe someday they will complete an uninterrupted no damage run of RDR2.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.