In Red Dead Redemption 2, there is a system that has changed a lot from the previous game, and that is the honor system. This time around, honor changes a lot about the story instead of just the free roam aspect of the game.
From reputation to discounts, honor changes almost every aspect of the game and if you play the game twice and play with different honor levels each time, you will have a much different experience then you did before.
SPOILER WARNING for anyone who has not played through the entire game because I will mention ending content in this article. Here is what honor changes and why it is important.
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Honor is your reputation
Depending on your honor in the game, NPCs will either avoid you with low honor or will not turn a blind eye with high honor. If you are going to have a bad reputation, then people are going to treat you like a criminal and will report you to the authorities a lot quicker than normal. If you have a good reputation, it is a lot harder to get in trouble and have a wanted level. In this game, it is easier and generally more fun to have a bad reputation, but it is more helpful to have a good reputation.
If you want to, you should try to play through the game a couple of times and try different honor levels. It might make your gaming experience just a little bit more fun. Also, there is a lot you probably did not do the first time you played through so your second playthrough is probably going to be longer than your first.
Honor affects how Arthur Morgan acts
Your honor determines how Arthur Morgan talks and how he acts around other people. If you have lower honor, then you will be more selfish and self- centered, and all you will care about is money. People will also look down on you because you don’t care about others very much. If you have higher honor, then you will care about others and your gang, and you will have a lot of problems doing bad things like killing and stealing.
People will also be kind and they will have good things to say about you. It all depends on what choices you take in the game as you play and the acts that you do. Some are unavoidable, but most are up to whatever you want to do as a player.
If you have high honor, then the Stores will give discounts
The good thing about having high honor is the fact that all the stores you go to give you discounts for your honor level. The higher your level, the better the discounts you get. At the max level, everything has a 50% discount and that can really help if you wanted something and can’t afford it. There are a lot of things in the stores and sometimes it feels like you can’t get them all, but you will eventually get every single thing since you will be drowning in cash.
Buying items at the beginning of the game can be difficult because of all the things you need to put money into like the camp and upgrades for you and your horse, but if you have higher honor, it would be much easier to purchase items just because they are easier to afford. If you are going for high honor, make sure you get the highest level that you can get.
If you have low honor, you get better deals at the Fence
The good thing about having low honor is that you get better deals for items at the Fence, and you unlock exclusive items for your guns that help with accuracy. Depending on your level, you also get a better chance of looting higher tiered items from dead bodies, which means more money for you when you sell them to the Fence. Remember that every item you pick up that is valuable can be sold to the Fence for some extra cash.
You also get access to sell carriages to the Fence as well so make sure you take advantage of that. Stealing carriages can make you some decent cash along with going treasure hunting, so make sure you are doing as much as you can to make yourself richer. Also, if you get into a huge shootout and you have access to all the dead bodies afterward, make sure you loot every single one of them because they can have some good loot on them.
You get different endings depending on your honor level
There are a total of 4 endings you can get in the game and depending on your honor level, each honor level has 2 endings that go along with them. In the last mission, you are given a choice to either help John get to his family or you can go back to the cave for Dutch’s money. If you choose to helpJohn, you will be taken to the top of a cliff and you fight it out with Micah. In the end, if you had low honor, then Micah will just shoot you in the face. If you had high honor, then you will die peacefully looking at the sunset.
If you go get the money, you will then have a fight with Micah, and if you had low honor, then Micah will stab you in the back with a knife. If you had high honor, then you will watch Micah leave with the money and you finally die from Tuberculosis. None of the endings are very happy, but basically, if you had high honor, you will get the good endings, and vice versa.
Honor changes how people think of you in the game
As I said before, honor is your reputation and how people think of you in the game. If you have high honor, the gang will think of you very highly and say good things about you after Arthur’s death, but if you have lower honor, then the gang will not be sure how you were and say some down putting things about you. Either way, they still respected you even though you only really cared bout yourself or helped others.
It all depends on how you played with Arthur and what choices and acts that you did. Make sure you are making the choices you need to make to play the way you want to. When I played, I stayed more toward the low honor spectrum while still keeping my level close to the middle. I got the bad ending but was close to getting the good one. It all depends on how you play.
Conclusion
In conclusion, honor in Red Dead Redemption 2 is very important because it changes the game up a lot. How Arthur acts and talks, what discounts you will get, what weapon customizations you will get, everything depends on your choices. Make sure you make the right choice that you think is the one to choose because it is your playthrough and no one else’s. Also, when you are playing, make sure you do as many side quests as you can because once you get past a certain point, the game changes drastically. Make sure you do everything you can as early as you can.