Gamers often talk about how long it takes them to beat their favorite games from start to finish, but a Red Dead Redemption 2 player was wondering how long the story of the game is for the characters living it. Those who are curious about how many months it takes for Red Dead Redemption 2's plot to unfold should read on, but it should be noted that major story spoilers are ahead.
There are many different story threads and mysteries in Red Dead Redemption 2, and it can be hard to keep track of how much time passes in the game world, but the aptly named Reddit user knowledgeseeker1899 has discovered a clever way of doing just that. Basically, they plotted out the in-game passage of time by following Arthur's illness.
As fans of the game will know, the rough, but ultimately redeemable character known as Arthur catches tuberculosis when he fights with Thomas Downes early on. Knowledgeseeker1899 researched and discovered that it takes approximately three months for tuberculosis symptoms to appear, so by the time Arthur is coughing in chapter 5, it can be deduced that three months have gone by.
As knowledgeseeker1899 explains, once tuberculosis symptoms appear, it takes a patient roughly one month to finally pass away from the illness, which means the span of time between chapters 5 and 6 would be approximately one month. Red Dead Redemption 2 isn't without its continuity errors, however, the tuberculosis timeline seems to work perfectly with all the stories and plot points in the cowboy game.
At the end of their post, knowledgeseeker1899 theorizes that the main story spanning Arthur's moral journey in Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place from May 1899 to November of the same year. All in all, it's not a very long span of time, but proper treatments for TB were not discovered for another fifty years, so the timeframe is accurate to what someone with the disease would have experienced in the pioneer days.
Now that timeline questions can be safely put to bed, fans can focus on the plethora of other Red Dead Redemption 2 mysteries that haven't yet been explained, like the identity of the Strange Man, for instance. Unfortunately, there likely aren't any real-world ties that will help solve that mystery, but figuring out how many months go by in the game world by tracking Arthur's illness will remain one of the smartest fan explanations ever.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: Reddit/knowledgeseeker1899