How to get a free gun in Red Dead Redemption 2

To get a free gun in Red Dead Redemption 2, players can go through a basic quest to help out a local gunsmith, one who will be so grateful for your intervention that he'll provide you with your very own free firearm you can pick from his stock. It's a great little tangent to take in Red Dead Redemption 2, especially early on in the game when you're still trying to build up a decent arsenal. Here's a basic how-to on how you can get a free gun in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Take a look at our video walkthrough for how to get a free gun:

Once you’ve completed the introduction and hit chapter 2, you’ll be let loose in the open world and pretty much left to your own devices. From here you can continue to pick up missions for your camp and the surrounding area, go hunting, do some chores, or pick a direction and ride off into the wilderness. 

However, what you’ll want to do is first make sure you have a health cure on you then, ride just out of camp to the road south of Caliban’s seat. Here, just by the river, you’ll find a stranger who’s been bitten by a snake (if you can’t find him right way listen out for the screaming). Interact with him and give him the health cure to stop the poison killing him. Remember the game won’t wait for you so he will die if you don’t help him. 

After being cured he’ll walk off and carry on with his business, seemingly giving you nothing except some honor points. However, allow a day or so to pass, enough time for him to get home, then head to the town of Valentine. Here, sitting outside the gunsmith you’ll find you guy you helped earlier. He has a tab at the store and will allow you to choose a free weapon from the catalogue. Just head inside and choose what you want. A lot of the weapons are locked due to story progression, but you should be able to get a nice new Rifle or Pistol which you can then customise like any other.  

There are loads of these types of Chance Encounters in the game. Some NPCs will just be grateful for the help, others will give you a reward on the spot and some, like this guy, will reward you later at other locations. Basically it’s worth helping everyone you can in case they have something good… or just shoot them and loot the bodies. That decision is entirely up to you.

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