Red Dead Online
Specialist roles
Roles are Red Dead Online's main way to progress. Each has its own ranks, skills, items and payouts, and each starts with a different person. This page follows Rockstar's own role page, with our advice marked as ours.
Checked Sep 30, 2026 · Sources: OfficialCGN
How roles work
- Role XP comes automatically from a role's activities and counts toward its 20 role ranks.
- A tier every five ranks: Novice, Promising, Established and Distinguished.
- Role Tokens come from unlocking role ranks. Each tier has a kit of role items that you unlock with tokens and then buy. Some ranks unlock a skill, such as the Bounty Hunter's ability to duck on horseback.
- Progress shows on your Rockstar account. Rockstar's page lets you sign in to track it.
Source: Official, Rockstar's Specialist Roles page (opens in a new tab) ↗, read September 30, 2026.
The five at a glance
| Role | Start with | The idea |
|---|---|---|
| Bounty Hunter | The Legendary Bounty Hunter in Rhodes, and the license | Bring in wanted people, alive for more money. |
| Trader | Cripps, and a Butcher's Table for 15 Gold Bars | Gather animal materials, turn them into goods and sell them. |
| Collector | Madam Nazar and the Collector's Bag | Find and sell sets of buried and hidden treasures. |
| Moonshiner | A Trader with a completed sale or Rank 5 | Brew and sell illegal liquor from your own shack. |
| Naturalist | Harriet Davenport and Gus Macmillan | Study wildlife, or hunt it for pelts. |
CGN advice If Moonshiner is your goal, begin with Trader. Moonshining needs a Trader sale or Trader Rank 5, and Rockstar calls it an ideal fit for players progressing along the Trader path. Collector has the lowest barrier to try, since it starts with a single talk and a bag.
Role one
Bounty Hunter
Meet the Legendary Bounty Hunter in Rhodes and buy the Bounty Hunter License. Bounty boards stand near law offices, post offices and train stations across the states. Targets range from lone petty criminals to notorious outlaws with armed guards. A posse makes gang targets easier and every member earns a cut. Bringing a target in alive pays more. Official
The Prestigious license
The Prestigious Bounty Hunter License adds 10 more ranks on top of the 20 role ranks, with high-level items and skills, new weapon variants and horses, and Infamous Bounty targets on the boards. Official
Skills and items Rockstar lists
- Focus: targets glow red in Eagle Eye
- Reinforced Lasso, Bolas and a Bounty Wagon
- Perception: bounty notifications from farther away
- Eagle Eye+: track enemies while sprinting or galloping
- Ducking on horseback
- Gun-spinning tricks: Reverse Spin, Spin Up, Alternating Flips and Dual Gun Spinning
- Tonics and Kit Satchel upgrades, and a Tracking Arrow Pamphlet
Role two
Trader
Cripps, the camp companion with more talents than the harmonica, runs Cripps Trading Company. You source materials from animal carcasses and pelts, he produces sellable goods, and your camp becomes a business. An investment of 15 Gold Bars for a Butcher's Table gets it going. Official
Skills and items Rockstar lists
- Stew Pot: a camp upgrade with stew recipes that boost cores
- Medium Delivery Wagon (2 barrels) and Large Delivery Wagon (4 barrels)
- Hunting Wagon for carrying carcasses, hides and pelts
- Weapons Locker, Lance Knife and Satchel upgrades
- Awareness: spot rival Trader Wagons at a distance
- Protection: fewer camp raids, and Canine Warning against thieves
- Efficiency: more raw materials from perfect carcasses
Role three
Collector
Find the traveling saleswoman Madam Nazar to buy the Collector's Bag. She guides you to valuable treasures: discarded tarot cards in abandoned camps, buried items you dig up, hidden heirlooms and more. Official
Skills and items Rockstar lists
- Metal Detector, Pennington Field Shovel and Refined Binoculars that make dig sites glow
- Divination, Intuition and Potential: sense collectibles, narrow your search and see disturbed earth in Eagle Eye
- Equine Assistance: collect items from horseback
- Collector Saddle Bag, Horse Lantern and Valuables Satchel upgrade
- Aguila Machete and Witford Compass
Role four
Moonshiner
Start as an active Trader who has completed a sale or reached Trader Rank 5, and Cripps makes the introductions. You buy a Moonshining Shack: the main floor looks like an ordinary homestead, and the basement is where you do business. With luck, you can survive long enough to open your own speakeasy. Official
Skills and items Rockstar lists
- Bar Expansion and Band Expansion for your moonshine property
- Still Upgrade for stronger moonshine, and Master Distiller to cut batch time
- Recipes for different flavors, and Flammable and Toxic Moonshine
- Sabotage: identify Moonshine Hideouts
- A Sawed-Off Shotgun variant, the Levens Gun Belt, Nevin Hipflask and Darrow Buckle
Role five
Naturalist
Conservationist Harriet Davenport wants animals tracked, sedated, sampled or photographed from a safe distance. Retired hunter Gus Macmillan will pay well for the same animals' pelts and hides. You choose which side to help. Legendary Animals appear in the wild and through Harriet's Animal Sighting Missions. At Naturalist Rank 5, you can buy the Wilderness Camp from Harriet's shop. Official
Skills and items Rockstar lists
- Legendary Eagle Eye: tell Legendary Animal trails apart
- Animal Attraction and Animal Focus: improve your chances of spotting legendary animals, and narrow the search area
- Mercy: mercy-kill fatally wounded animals
- Pamphlets for Sedative Varmint Cartridges, Legendary Animal Pheromones, Blending Tonics and Animal Reviver
- A variant Varmint Rifle, a Tonics Satchel upgrade and The Kennewick outfit