In Red Dead Redemption 2, everything you do is judged with the honor meter. Good deeds will give you more honor, while crimes will quickly drain your honor. Surprisingly, there really aren’t any benefits to earning negative (bad) honor. All the special bonus effects only unlock if you’ve been a good cowpoke, and I’m going to list them all below.
While you won’t unlock bonus effects for being bad, there are still plenty of reasons you’ll want to live the life of a scoundrel. Crimes are a great way to earn a steady income, and the more money you have, the more great stuff you can purchase — and there’s a lot of stuff to purchase in RDR2. You need cash for guns, ammo, clothing, and provisions to stay alive. All that costs money, and robbery will keep you flush with dollar bills.
Being kind has benefits, too. It takes a lot of hard work, but you’ll unlock discounts at stores and even unlock unique outfits. You’ll even make life easier with increased odds — the higher your honor, the more potent tonics and other useful items you’ll find when looting enemy bodies. Find all the benefits below.
More Red Dead Redemption 2 guides on Gameranx:
- Red Dead Redemption 2: 36 Tips, Tricks & Hidden Mechanics | What The Game Doesn’t Explain
- Red Dead Redemption 2: 15 Features You Might Not Know About | Beginner’s Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: Get Unlimited Ammo, Super Horses & More | Cheat Codes List
- Red Dead Redemption 2: How To Solve Every Treasure Map | Locations Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: Where To Find A Fairytale Hill House | Easter Egg Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: How To Earn Money Fast | Easy Cash Guide ($3,000+)
- Red Dead Redemption 2: How To Get A (Free!) Elite Horse | Taming Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: How To Unlock Free Fast-Travel | All Fast Travel Methods Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: All Legendary Hunting Locations | Master Hunting Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: Where To Find The Legendary Fishing Map | Fishing Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: How To Get Perfect Pelts | Hunting Guide
- Red Dead Redemption 2: Where To Find Secret Weapons | Unique Gun Locations Guide
All The Benefits Of Good Honor | Morality Bonus Effects Guide
Honor is a fairly straightforward system in Red Dead Redemption 2 — kind acts will improve your honor score, and criminal or cruel acts will lower your honor. Shooting a civilian is dishonorable. Robbing an innocent person or looting a corpse lowers your honor. Completing requests from chance encounters and helping the poor will improve your honor. It’s basically just that simple.
- Important Notes On Honor:
- Killing law enforcement and looting bodies in main story missions will not count against your honor.
- Committing crimes while masked, or committing crimes that are not witnessed, will still lower your honor score.
- If you help an NPC, then immediately kill or rob them, you’ll lose more honor than you gain. This is considered an especially dishonorable act.
- If you disarm a duel opponent instead of killing, you’ll earn honor.
- Give money to the poor or donate to the gang for steady honor boosts.
Now that you’ve got a pretty good idea how honor works, let’s get into the many, many rewards. There are no reward for negative honor.
- Honor – Bonus Effects:
- Honor 0: Looting Bodies Mostly Only Gives: Standard Tonic, Cheap Jewelry, Basic Horse Consumables, and Open Alcohol / Tobacco
- Honor 40: Looting Bodies Give A Higher Chance To Drop: Restoratives, Tonics, Food or Jewelry
- Honor 80: 10% Discount At All Shops.
- Honor 120: New Outfits Unlocked In Stores: McLaughlin, Chevalier, Corson, Valentine, Roscoe, Cowpuncher, Cumberland, Bulldogger
- Honor 200: 25% Discount At All Shops.
- Honor 240: New Outfits Unlocked In Stores: Gambler, Farrier, Scrapper, Deauville, Faulkton, Dewberry Creek, Drifter, and Drover.
- Honor 280: 50% discount at all shops.
