Red Dead Online is adding new Crime and Opportunity missions this month
You won't have to spend gold bars to unlock them either
There's no shortage of unlawful mischief to commit in cowboys online, from hogtying strangers to unprompted shootouts, but Red Dead Online is adding Crimes with a capital "C" this month. A new type of mission will send you off to commit holdups, train robberies, kidnappings, and more. Better yet, you won't have to fork over premium currency to take part in these jobs, Rockstar Games have announced. Red Dead Online's Blood Money update arrives on July 13th for your life of crime to finally begin properly.
The major new bits of wild westing in the Blood Money update are those Crimes and the even larger Opportunities. Crimes are doled out by fancy Saint Denis fella Guido Martelli who needs you to go chase down and retrieve his Capitale notes. That'll be those robberies and kidnappings and the like, which Rockstar say you can solo or bring your posse along for. Bring home enough of the Capitale and Martelli will let you take on an Opportunity.
"Each Opportunity can reveal various approaches to the task at hand—listen into nearby conversations or look out for important targets to uncover new paths to completion," Rockstar say. The first of three different Opportunities will arrive on July 13th, with the other two coming at a later date.
Rockstar don't refer to this as a new Role, mind, but it all sounds generally similar to the missions you'd recognise as a Bounty Hunter or Moonshiner. I reckon you'll be sent off to a location to snatch or kill an NPC, or sneak in to a building to steal from a chest, or take out all the enemies on a train. At a guess, it will probably be a decent mix of mission types we've seen in other jobs. They do also mention free roam crimes like robbing homesteads or camps.
What's different is that Rockstar aren't asking you to pay for this one. Proper Roles, such as the Naturalist job from last summer's update, are unlocked with RDO's premium currency gold bars. More free to play missions are definitely a nice win for new players, or those who've just never saved up (or paid) to unlock the major pursuits.
I always dislike attempting to rope new pals into playing and then having to admit "so, there's honestly more to do if you just fork over a bit of cash up front to unlock a Role or two." I do hope that taking new posse mates on Crimes will help bridge the gap until they earn enough gold bars to take on a bigger Role.
The Blood Money update also means new Outlaw Passes are on the way—yes, pural. Instead of one, long battle pass this summer, Rockstar have split it into four "rapid-fire passes" called the Quick Draw Club. Each one costs a hefty 25 gold bars to unlock, though you can at least recoup the entirety of that cost by completing them unlike Outlaw Pass 4 which only let you earn back 30 of the 40 bars you'd spent on it.
Last up, Rockstar say that Red Dead Online's Nvidia DLSS update is coming on July 13th too, boosting frame rates for those of us with RTX graphics cards.
Here's the rest of today's newswire post with a bit more info on Martelli and his Crimes. Oh, and they've just dropped the Quick Draw Club details as well.