How to Unlock Red Dead Redemption 2's Bonus Ending (and What It Means) (2024)

With its dynamic honor system, there are numerous Red Dead Redemption II endings to Arthur Morgan's portion of the story depending on the choices players made throughout the game. Regardless of whether they chose to wear the black hat or the white, gamers still have to watch the powerful death of Arthur before playing out the game's epilogue as John Marston.

However, what many players don't know is that Red Dead Redemption II also contains a short bonus ending that can only be discovered with 100% completion of the game. In it, John visits Arthur's grave to wrap up the epic Western in an emotional bow. Here's a look at what players need to do to unlock RDR2's secret ending.

Updated on June 24, 2024 by Katie Doll: Arthur Morgan's legacy will forever live on in Red Dead Redemption 2, especially in the game's secret bonus ending the players can unlock. This article has been updated to expand on the requirements necessary to unlock both the original ending and the bonus ending.

How to Unlock Red Dead Redemption 2's Original Ending

Before players can even think about achieving a bonus ending, they need to first reach the original ending of the story for both Arthur Morgan and John Marston. By the end of the main story, players should have a solid understanding of the Arthur they've been playing with for several hours. There's the honorable Arthur who helps strangers on the streets and donates to his camp, and there's the dishonorable Arthur who kills innocent people and puts no effort into the camp. In the final mission as Arthur, players will be left at a fork in the road. They can either choose to go back for the money in the cave, or help John escape.

No matter the amount of honor Arthur has or what he decides to do in his final moments, he has to fight Micah and will fail. So don't be alarmed if it seems like Micah has the upper hand at any point, because Arthur is destined to die in the story. If Arthur has high honor, Micah will walk away from Arthur, who is able to watch the sunrise as he succumbs to his injuries. If he has low honor, Micah will kill Arthur by either shooting him in the head or stabbing him in the back.

Depending on how high his honor is, Arthur's grave will look differently in the bonus ending. Low honor will grant Arthur a weathered tombstone guarded by a black coyote that reads "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted." If Arthur had high honor before he died, his well-kept tombstone will be covered in flowers and reads "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness."

But Arthur's death isn't the end of Red Dead Redemption 2. There's still an extensive epilogue where players get to play as John Marston as he builds a new life for his wife and son, trying to leave his past as a gang member behind. The final mission sees John, Sadie and Charles confronting Dutch and Micah, who have been in hiding for years. Unlike Arthur's ending, this one is pretty straightforward. John kills Micah as Dutch silently walks away from his former surrogate son.

How to Unlock the Bonus Red Dead Redemption 2 Ending

After players have finished both the main story and the epilogue, there's plenty of time to complete the story 100% to unlock the bonus ending. It should be noted that 100% completion doesn’t actually mean doing absolutely everything there is to do in the game, as that would take an obscene amount of time. Completionists aiming for this ending should keep track of their progress in the pause menu, but by and large, players will need to get almost everything done -- that includes stranger missions, finding collectibles, hunting (including Legendary Animals), fishing, finding most weapons and points of interest.

Players also need to take interest in maxing out John's stats (health, stamina and dead eye), in addition to maxing out horse bonding and completing all nine challenges. On the miscellaneous side of things, there are several tasks players must complete to get 100% completion: discover five shacks, play all parlor games like dominoes; interact with five ranters, ravers and campaigners; take one bath, see one show and visit the theater in Saint Denis.

What Is Included in RDR2's Secret Ending?

As soon as that 100% milestone is hit, a short cutscene begins with John standing in front of Arthur's hillside grave in Beecher's Hope. John says "Guess we're just about done, my friend," talking as much to the player as he is to Arthur. He also makes a note in his journal of these same words, with the addition of "It's been quite a journey." The scene is made more resonant by the inclusion of "Unshaken," the moving song widely regarded as Arthur's theme. Though understated, the short moment is the perfect end to a sprawling narrative that introduces one of the most iconic characters in recent memory.

Arthur had (reluctantly at first) taken John under his wing, but he started to treat him like a brother or a son as the story progressed. From saving John's son to busting him out of a maximum security prison, Arthur did all he could to make sure the Marston family were not caught in the same cruel trap as him.

For those who finished his story with high honor and chose to help John, Arthur uses his final moments to allow Marston to escape and start a new life with his wife and child. As his life force leaves him, he says to an unhinged Dutch van der Linde, "John made it. He's the only one. Rest of us…? No. I tried. In the end... I did." It's only right that, once players have done all there is to do in the world of Red Dead Redemption II, John visits the grave of the man who saved his life countless times and, ultimately, sacrificed himself so that he and his family could escape the implosion of the van der Linde gang.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Played from afirst-orthird-personperspective, the game is set in anopen-worldenvironment featuring a fictionalized version ofthe United States in 1899.

Platform(s)

PS4 , Xbox One , PC , Stadia

Released

October 26, 2018

Developer(s)

Rockstar Games

Publisher(s)

Rockstar Games

Genre(s)

Action , Adventure

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Engine

RAGE

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

How Long To Beat

50 Hours

Metascore

97

PS Plus Availability

Extra & Premium