Red Dead Redemption 2 features one of the most expansive and detailed open-worlds in all of gaming. Spanning most of the southern areas in the United States, the map is sprawling and filled to the brim with random encounters, cities, friends and enemies, and a whole mess of rootin' tootin' good times.
That being said, the West isn't as simple as it seems, from the fact that it's in the middle of a steady decline into civilization, to the occasional supernatural creatures and insane humans. It's time to take a look at some of the rarest random encounters the player might come across in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Updated on May 4th, 2023 by Hodey Johns: With a game as large as Red Dead Redemption 2, it should surprise no one that players continue to uncover more secrets as time goes on. Now that it has been years after the release, the most deeply hidden secrets and encounters have largely been uncovered. Still, these are encounters so rare that most players will never find them unless they know exactly where to look. The main plot of the game won't take gamers to any of these areas. Several more encounters have been added to this list after years of exploring the paths less taken in this big, beautiful world. They might never be visited, but just knowing they are out there makes the game a bigger, better place.
18 The Smell Of The Grease Paint
The player initiates this stranger mission by entering the saloon located at the Van Horn Trading Post, where Arthur will meet two members of a theater troupe. After a little bit of a scuffle between the three characters, Miss Marjorie encourages Arthur to see if he can find a missing part of their act, a man named Magnifico.
Thankfully, players don't have to hogtie an entire town to find Magnifico. After retrieving him following a lengthy chase, the player can return to the saloon, watch the magic show Magnifico performs, and get $40 in the process.
17 The Ghost Train
At 3 AM on the tracks that cross the border from New Hanover to Lemoyne, this spooky train will sometimes appear to players who ride their horses. The train is purely spectral, but players who ride into it will find that their horse gets spooked by the affair.
This rare sighting doesn't always appear and doesn't appear consistently after a certain point in the story. It's just a matter of luck and timing. Even if the train doesn't appear, it can be nice to get out on the camp and think about some of Dutch's most memorable quotes.
16 Getting Assaulted
This is a trigger warning for those who have survived a sexual or physical assault.
Not every encounter in the game is wonderful and spectacular. The game has loads of replayability when exploring, but there are also plenty of terrible interactions when going off the beaten path. The worst of them is in the swamps of Lemoyne, when a stranger invites the player character in for food.
The invitation is a trap and he assaults the character while he is unconscious. The type of assault is obscured, but it's heavily implied to be grotesque in nature. Thankfully, gamers can return to the assailant's house and get a measure of their dignity back with some justifiable revenge.
15 The Man In The Mirror
There is plenty to do in New Austin besides finding Dutch's mother's grave. There is a chain of discoveries that has to do with Lucifer, the Strange Man from Red Dead Redemption, and the Moon family. To this day, gamers aren't sure if they've completed the entire chain.
But during one of the most notable steps, players will find the Strange Man, silent and stuck in a mirror. They can "run into him" visually, but he doesn't interrupt movement. Look away from the mirror and he entirely. There are rumors that this is the devil himself, substantiated by some of the writings in the room.
14 The Devil's Imposter
In a secret area called the Devil's Cave, the voice of the devil warns adventurers not to continue trespassing. The lighting is ominous and, when coupled with the last entry, it begins to look like there are two devils in this game. It's scary enough that gamers may long for the hilarious times they have when fishing.
Patient players are rewarded with a confession of a robed man who admits he isn't the devil but wishes that he was. It's one of the more jarring encounters in Red Dead Redemption 2, but it is nice to be able to dispel a long-standing rumor.
13 Drinking The Witch's Brew
In an isolated area, players will come across a makeshift hut, complete with several tonics and a big cauldron. There is also a crow at this location that doesn't fly off when the player advances toward it. The witch is nowhere to be seen.
One time only, players may drink from the cauldron, which restores all cores but also knocks out the player and has them wake up in a faraway place. There are two options, both of which are creepy: either the character moved in there while asleep or somebody else moved them.
12 Aberdeen Pig Farm
The Aberdeen Pig Farm is one of the more disturbing locations in the game, featuring an interesting dinner with a stranger. In Scarlet Meadows, located in the Lemoyne area, players will find a small farmhouse out on the range.
The family who lives inside might be based on the Bloody Benders, a family of wild-west serial killers. Arthur can have dinner with the family, and if he decides to have the drink he's offered, he'll wake up in a ditch full of corpses in the forest. This is a tough NPC to take down, so be sure to get Arthur's weapons back before engaging them the second time around.
11 The Serial Killer
There are a series of corpses littered around the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, and when Arthur decides to look for the man responsible, things get complicated.
After visiting all of the sites, Arthur would have gathered enough information as to the possible whereabouts of the killer, Lucky's Ranch. There, after inspecting a knife, Arthur is confronted by the killer in one of the game's most rarely discovered locations. He can then take the killer to a sheriff for a reward.
10 Bigfoot Returns?
Back in the first Red Dead Redemption game, the player would be able to encounter sasquatches in the northern part of the map. Although there were mostly just rumors abound during the early days of the game, it appears that there are plenty of mythological creatures featured in Rockstar's title.
One of them is more Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) maybe? There's a creature living in a cave near the bones of a giant that the player can't see but can talk to. He's not offering the wise words of Sadie Adler but he's very coherent for a man living in isolation.
9 Meteorite
While the game, unfortunately, doesn't delve into science-fiction too much, there are a couple of places where things that aren't too far off happen. One of the most interesting examples is the fact that the player can come into contact with a meteorite that's landed on Roanoke Ridge.
There's also technically a third meteorite in addition to the two that have been found according to the game files, although so far, it is still undiscovered. Players have spotted some intricate details in the hunting camps but no sign of the final meteorite yet.
8 Pleasance
Pleasance is probably not the most accurate way to describe what occurred in the town. Arthur will come to find out that in the abandoned town lived a population of humans who had been infected by some sort of mysterious plague, the source of which is yet to be determined.
There was also a massacre of ten people that had happened before the plague set in. The village exists now as a ghost town, which Arthur can explore.
7 The Braithwaite Secret
The Braithwaite family definitely isn't without their problems and the Van Der Linde gang has done their fair share to make sure those problems keep accumulating. The story gets even more complicated when Arthur discovers a shed near their manor, in which they're hiding a terrible family secret.
Gertrude Braithwaite is the product of years of incest in the Braithwaite family lineage and has been imprisoned in an outhouse, where she's continued to deteriorate in solitude. The manor makes for a scenic place to eat and pack on the pounds with Arthur.
6 A Bright Bouncing Boy
Even the man who interacts with the player to give out this stranger mission has a rather spooky and old-timey name, going by the title of Marko Dragic. His questline is one of the things that makes this sequel live up to the hype.
While the mission starts out with Arthur merely helping Marko to use his remote-controlled boat to take down a couple of waves of ships, it is later revealed that the man has been building a robot, which ends with his demise. The mission ends when Arthur hunts down the robot which killed his creator.
5 UFO
Although a lot of the science-fiction parts of Red Dead Redemption 2 are understated, there are a few. One of the rare examples of the game delving into the genre in a really strong way is the appearance of an unidentified flying object.
Not only does this UFO exist, but there's also an entire cult devoted to the worship of such objects. Players can see it by going to Hani's Bethel at 2 AM. Stare up at the sky as rain trickles off the sides of the cowboy hat at the right times to catch both encounters.
4 The Vampire
Hidden in the New Orleans-inspired city of Saint-Denis, there is something not quite human. It makes sense, given the real-life counterpart's spooky history, and the bog-like surrounding area. Around the town, players can find messages and graffiti scrawled on walls that need to be viewed.
If someone then goes to the alleyway south of the Saint-Denis Cathedral, they will see a creature there, feeding on a corpse. The creature can only be found, however, between 12 and 1 AM after uncovering several clues first.
3 The Meditating Monk
Out in the Grizzlies East, a figure called the Meditating Monk sometimes appears, perched by the side of a cliff and focusing exclusively on his meditation. If players try to greet or antagonize him, he will break his concentration momentarily, look back at the character, and then go back to focusing.
As Rockstar thinks about what new changes to make in a sequel, it would be interesting to see more of this monk's story. He never says any words, though he will grunt if assaulted. His home and story remain a mystery even after experimenting with him a great deal.
2 The Feral Man
If players are plugging along on their freshly-acquired Missouri Fox Trotter horse and then suddenly hear a wolf howling that sounds too human, that's not the ears playing tricks. There is a completely naked feral man that sometimes appears.
He'll start running away when spotted and the encounter becomes even more rare because we will entirely disappear sometimes when the camera isn't on him for even a single frame. Those who follow him will find a wolf den hideout with him and his "family."
1 Agnes Dowd: The Ghost Of The Swamp
This is a trigger warning to those who have dealt with self-harm.
When traveling through the bayou late at night and during the fog, players will sometimes hear the ghost of Agnes Dowd. They can also see her too, but these appearances are often brief and start from far away, so be very quick about spotting her.
There are a total of sixteen pieces to the story and they will be revealed in random order depending on the player's location when the ghost appears. After finding the ghost fifteen times, the ghost will tell the player to find a tree with a noose still attached to it. The game is getting more beautiful but Dowd's story is full of ugliness that some gamers might be glad they never encountered.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.