Red Dead Online shares many of its features with the Red Dead Redemption 2 story mode, but a few others are completely exclusive to the online component, such as character creation. Thanks to the powerful editor included in the game, players can create a variety of unique characters that will contribute to making the world of Red Dead Online even more varied.
Making a good looking character in Red Dead Online is difficult, however, as the editor comes with a lot of features that can feel overwhelming to most. In this guide, we look at how character creation in Red Dead Online works. You should also know that, for a price, it’s possible to create more than a single character in RDO – more below.
Character Creation
As soon as you start Red Dead Online, you will be presented with a cutscene, introducing two unidentified characters who are soon going to be imprisoned. Once the cutscene has played out, you will have the option of creating either a male or female character.
The character editor in Red Dead Online is not among the most in-depth editors ever created, but it gets the job done, allowing players to customize pretty much every aspect of their characters. Once you have made your selection between male and female, you will be able to name your character and alter his or her appearance.
You can choose skin color, age and body build, so if you’re looking to be the fattest or the slimmest outlaw in Red Dead Online, you have the option to be as ridiculous as you wish.
Once these have been selected, you will get the chance to change the shape of your face. Here, things go rather in-depth, as you can alter the shape of your nose, mouth, jaw and ears, with the editor presenting you several different options. Funnily enough, you can also choose your teeth, but don’t expect them to look pristine: most outlaws in the late 1800s weren’t exactly focused on keeping healthy teeth.
Once the face of your character has been edited, you can change the character’s hairstyle and beard, if male. While the physical appearance of your character cannot be changed currently once it’s finalized, you can alter the hairstyle and beard by accessing any barber while in Free Roam mode, so the choices made in the editor regarding them are the only ones that can be radically changed after they have been finalized.
After choosing hairstyle and beard, you’re almost ready to unleash your character into the wild world of Red Dead Online. Continue by selecting the complexion, birthmarks and scars, and then the sound of your whistle when calling your horse.
Once the physical appearance of your character has been decided, it’s time to focus on something that’s slightly more important on a gameplay perspective: your starting stats.
During character creation, you have the chance to assign points to Health, Stamina and Dead Eye. While choices made here are not all that important, as they will only determine your starting stats, and not the cap until which they can be improved, it’s also important to create a balanced character, otherwise, the beginning of the game will be a nightmare for you.
Since Dead Eye is not as useful as it is in the story mode, due to the obvious removal of the slow down effect, we suggest you invest slightly more points in Health first, and Stamina second.
Remember that once you finalize your character, you will be stuck with him or her for the remainder of the game, so don’t exit the editor until you are absolutely satisfied with your creation. You can still make another character, however, but there will be a price to pay.
Creating & Deleting Multiple Characters
Unlike Grand Theft Auto V’s online mode, Red Dead Online doesn’t allow players to have more than one character. Once it has been created, the character will be loaded automatically every time Red Dead Online is started. This, however, doesn’t mean that you will be stuck with it for the rest of your life, as there is a way to create another character, at the cost of all progression with the exception of money and Gold Bars, which are permanently tied to your account, and not your character.
To create a new character, you must delete your current one. To do so, enter the main menu while in Free Roam mode and select the Player menu. Once in the menu, you can delete your character by pressing the button prompted at the bottom right of the screen.
Once again, just be absolutely sure of what you are doing, as you will lose all progression, including rank, unlocked and purchased items and so on. Changing your hairstyle, beard and make-up can go a long way in making a character look different, so head over to any barber first before taking such drastic action.
