Bounty Hunter

Chapter 2

"Little outposts like this crop up all over the West, to the disadvantage of many honest travelers."

You're now taken into a "Shop" menu where you can browse and purchase a variety of items. Some of the items you can buy are useful, such as new weapons, ammo or upgrades, however most of the items have no effect in game besides unlocking journal pages or characters for use in Showdown (multiplayer mode).

If you want to complete the journal, you'll need to purchase every item in the game. You earn money by shooting and killing enemies. If you combo enemy kills together - by killing enemies within a few seconds of each other - you'll multiply your cash reward. You'll also receive a reward at the end of each chapter for defeating the bounty and the rewards increase as you get further through the story.

You should be aware that some items are only available for purchase once, or only until a set point in the game, so if you miss them or can't afford them, you'll need to wait until your next full playthrough to get them. Luckily additional playthroughs will allow you to keep your unlocks and your cash making it easier to buy things the second time through.

Don't worry about collecting all of the journal items on your first playthrough as it's pretty much impossible anyway. Just focus on getting through the game and you can collect everything on your next run through, although try to purchase any weapons or upgrades whenever you can afford them to make the game a bit easier.

As soon as you're in control of Red, you'll be in a close quarters gun fight against the two men from the cutscene, Twiggy Phelps and Smitty. Immediately pull out your pistol and try to aim for headshots while strafing left and right to make yourself harder to hit. Because your pistol is fairly weak, it might take multiple headshots before you take the enemies down.

Once they're both dead, the game will explain you can change weapons using the Left or Right D-Pad buttons.

Back in control of Red, you're offered another training section as you stand near the trader's cart. You can press Square to begin, or Triangle to skip. If it's your first playthrough, I recommend you complete it.

Cover Training

The game explains that you can press the Square button when next to cover objects to "attach". This makes Red take cover against the object, keeping him safe from enemy fire. You're told "Move to the edge of the cover object to continue" so move the left analog stick to the left or right to move to the end of the cart.

The game then explains that you can target while taking cover by holding L1 and aim by moving the right analog stick. Pressing R1 will allow you to fire shots from cover. To return to cover, release L1 and R1. Press Square to detatch from cover.

The first thing you'll probably want to do is switch to a rifle if you have one. When aiming rifles, you can press the R3 button to zoom in which makes it easier to target enemies in the distance. If you don't, you can still shoot the rifle enemies on top of the rocks, but you'll need to aim slightly above their heads as the bullets will drop as they travel long distances.

Kill the two rifle enemies on top of the large rocks, then a pistol enemy to the left who will be taking cover behind a boulder. Two more enemies will pop in and out of cover further down the road so wait for them to pop out and fire away.

You're not forced to stay in cover, however, if you do exit the cover while on the tutorial, the game will try to get you to start it again. Doing this doesn't cause the enemies to respawn however, it'll just walk you through how you can get in and out of cover, move and aim again. Don't feel obliged to do it again as it's not mandatory, you can exit cover and run towards the enemies if you're having trouble hitting them.

If you do continue the tutorial, eventually you'll be told "Try taking cover on the next boulder". You can now exit the cover and run towards the boulder on the left where the enemy was. As you reach it, you're told "Press towards objects that will provide cover and press Square to take cover".

Once you've killed all 5 of the enemies, you're taken into another tutorial as the game says "Time to learn the art of the "Deadeye"! You can press Square to begin or Triangle to skip it.

Deadeye Training

You're told to draw your gun by holding the L1 button. "When you have one or more deadeye bars... Paint targets with the right analog stick". The screen will go into black and white, slow motion, and you're able to aim your gun towards the enemy. As you move the crosshair over parts of their body, the target will be marked with a red target circle. You can mark as many targets as you have bullets in your gun, so at this point you'll be able to mark 6. You can only mark each body part once however, so unfortunately you can't just lock in 6 headshots.

The game will then tell you "Press the R1 button to fire at your acquired locks". Doing so will see Red automatically fire off 6 shots that will hit the enemy exactly where you locked the targets.

"Congratulations, you've learned to use deadeye!" says the game. Deadeye will be very useful throughout the story to help stun, if not kill enemies, particularly if you're being surrounded. The slow motion is also useful to help you dodge enemy fire.

You'll be given the option to replay the tutorial but once you understand how it all works, you can press Triangle to continue the mission.

Back in control of Red, you'll notice there are three health bars displayed at the top right of the screen. "Tom", "Oaf" and "George". These guys are mini-bosses and you'll encounter something similar at the final part of each level.

Backtrack down the street while continuing to aim towards the enemies. As always, try to go for headshots as it'll knock out larger chunks of their health bar. Most bosses will take very little damage from shots to the arms or legs, but headshots are the quickest way to take them down and they'll also temporarily stun the enemies when they land. Don't be afraid to press the R2 button while aiming to enter Deadeye mode so you can paint the targets and take out a decent chunk of damage at once.

Oaf will generally charge towards you and fire away with his pistol, Tom will stay at a distance and fire off shots but will swing away with a knife if you get too close and George only seems to appear once the first two are dead.

Remember, getting headshots on the enemies will stun them as well as taking away their health, so ensure you've got your aim spot on and shoot George in the head repeatedly to stop him from getting too close to you. Keep moving and firing away and eventually you'll take him down and the game will show him fall to the ground in slow motion.

Next Mission

Ugly Streetfight

Red avenges the murder of his dog in the town of Widow's Patch.