Pack your silver bullets and keep your head on a swivel. There’s a bad moon rising over the wild west in Red Dead Online, as four new cryptid-themed missions just released in the game.
You’ll have to take on these quests on behalf of author Theodore Levin, who is investigating outlandish claims from around the country. Strange cases of fearsome monsters, cults and viral outbreaks are exactly the type of pulpy content that could inspire a good story.
The first new telegram mission, Strange Tales of Modern Science, sees players contending with killer robots. But these aren’t exactly Terminators. You’ll be fighting off a tiny tinman army as it stalks the grounds of the Braithwaite Manor.
Another mission, Strange Tales of the Bayou, will have you contending with both human and nonhuman threats as you wade through Lagras. The Swamp Folk like to ambush hunters who enter their territory — but it’s up to you to bring back the creature from the deep so that Levin can see it for himself.
The Strange Tales of the Wilderness mission is the closest thing to a standard bounty hunt included in the new update. You’ll need to hunt down a gang of murdering bandits in Tall Trees, but rumor has it that a missing scientist might just be experimenting on your foes. Brave the wilderness to take on an evolving manmade threat and bring the gang to justice.
The final mission in the latest batch of content, Strange Tales of the Plague, is an ode to fan-favorite spinoff Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare. A mysterious infection is spreading through Armadillo, and the dead are rising yet again. It’s up to you and your friends to put down the shambling horde and bring back their bodies for scientific examination.
The new Red Dead Online update might be the closest thing we’ll get to an Undead Nightmare sequel.
If you want to take on these new missions, you’ll need to pick up a letter Levin left for you at the nearest in-game post office or your camp’s mailbox. Afterwards, these cryptid challenges will become repeatable telegram missions.
To celebrate the launch of the Strange Tales of the West update, all telegram missions (including the new batch of pulp fiction content) will have their rewards boosted until Aug. 4. You’ll be able to earn three times as much gold, Red Dead dollars and experience points during this time.
Red Dead Online’s Strange Tales of the West update is available for free now on PlayStation, Xbox and PC. Get ready to lock and load to take down the new telegram missions next time you log in.
This update is a rare treat for Red Dead Redemption 2 fans, as the game’s online mode has been largely neglected in recent years. The previous patch in March 2024 squashed some bugs — and the last update that added any amount of playable content came out in September 2022.
The content drought was so extreme that it spawned a movement with the stated goal of saving Red Dead Online. The change.org petition currently has more than 10,000 signatures.
The Strange Tales of the West update is being marketed as volume 1 of a broader update, which implies that even more pulp fiction content could be coming down the pipeline for the Red Dead Redemption 2 multiplayer mode sometime soon. The wild west is about to get a whole lot weirder.
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