RDR2 Stranger missions: where to find every strand and which ones you can lose

Strangers in RDR2 are the people Arthur meets outside the main story: a legend hunter, a lady with a greenhouse, an inventor, an old veteran. On the minimap they show up as a white circle with a question mark, and after the first meeting the game swaps the "Stranger" label for their name.

Sources disagree on the exact number of strands:

• 26 in the GTABase and PowerPyx guides;
• 31 on Red Dead Wiki: 26 separate strands plus 5 that the game also counts as Honor missions (Money Lending and Other Sins, Help a Brother Out, Brothers and Sisters, One and All, Of Men and Angels, Do Not Seek Absolution).

On top of that, the two lists of 26 are not the same. The guides include "The Widow of Willard’s Rest" but not "To the Ends of the Earth". The wiki does the opposite. "To the Ends of the Earth" (William, plant gathering) was added later: first to the PC version in November 2019, then, according to the wiki, on 13 December 2019 on PS4 and 21 January 2020 on Xbox One, together with Photo Mode. So there are really 27 separate strands, and all of them are in the table below. The honest answer to "how many" is about 30, depending on how you count.

The numbering in the table is ours, by the chapter in which a strand appears. Other guides use a different order and different numbers.

Chapter means when a strand becomes available, per Red Dead Wiki. PowerPyx lists all early strands under "Chapter 1", even though the open world only opens up in Chapter 2. Most strands can be done by both Arthur and John; the exceptions are noted in the table. Rewards follow the wiki, main items only, small extras left out.

The final choice in "Idealism and Pragmatism for Beginners" has consequences: spare the mayor and Arthur gains Honor; kill him and Arthur loses Honor, and according to the wiki, prices in Saint Denis shops go up by 10% (this stacks with the Honor discounts).

Most strands carry over into the epilogue: whatever Arthur didn’t finish, John can. But a few disappear for good.

There are partial losses too. In "Arcadia for Amateurs", part III is skipped if John does the strand in the epilogue. Ms. Hobbs’s letter in "A Better World, A New Friend" only arrives if the 4th hunting request is handed in during Chapters 2–6.

The American Inferno, Burnt Out (Evelyn Miller, 5 parts) only appears in the epilogue: the first meeting is west of Blackwater, the finale is in Tanner’s Reach. The reward is the book "America".

Two more strands start with Arthur but can only be completed in the epilogue:

• A Better World, A New Friend: the 5th hunting request only unlocks in the epilogue.
• A Fisher of Fish: some of the legendary fish live in New Austin, which Arthur can’t reach. Where to catch them is on our RDR2 legendary fish page.

The wiki also suggests saving part 4 of The Veteran for the epilogue: the reward is the Buell horse, and Arthur’s horses don’t carry over to John. Part 2 of "A Bright Bouncing Boy" is available to John as well.

The game counts five strands as both Stranger missions and optional Honor missions. They are tied to specific chapters and count towards the Lending a Hand trophy, "complete all optional Honor missions".

Players often mix up other timed Honor missions with Strangers too: We Loved Once and True, The Course of True Love, Fatherhood and Other Dreams, Archeology for Beginners, Honor, Amongst Thieves, Mrs. Sadie Adler, Widow, Good, Honest, Snake Oil. How Honor affects which missions you get is covered in our RDR2 Honor guide; the chapter order is on the RDR2 missions page.

For 100% you need any 10 Stranger strands under "Missions and events", each one played through to the last part. Strands you started but didn’t finish don’t count.

Separately, the "Collectibles" section requires the collection strands: A Test of Faith (bones), A Fisher of Fish (fish), Duchesses and other Animals (exotics), Geology for Beginners (rock carvings) and A Better World, A New Friend (hunting requests). The cigarette card sets for Phineas T. Ramsbottom count there as well.

The full list with checkboxes is in our RDR2 100% checklist, and every collectible is on the RDR2 collectibles page.

Western Stranger (bronze, 30 G) reads "Complete 10 Stranger mission strands". Sources disagree here. GTABase says only multi-part strands count towards the trophy, not one-off encounters (Fundraiser, A Fine Night For It, American Dreams and so on). Red Dead Wiki lists "Western Stranger" on the page of every strand, one-offs included. The safe bet is to finish multi-part strands.

Other Stranger-related achievements: Collector’s Item for finishing one collection strand, Artificial Intelligence for "A Bright Bouncing Boy", Lending a Hand for all Honor missions. The requirements are on our RDR2 achievements page.

A few tips:

• The next part of a strand usually unlocks after 2–3 in-game days, so run several strands in parallel.
• Do Fundraiser and The Mercies of Knowledge as Arthur: they won’t be there in the epilogue.
• Make a manual save before "Our Best Selves": after it there is no more free roam as Arthur. What happens next is in our RDR2 endings guide.
• The Buell horse from "The Veteran" is better collected as John. The rest of the game’s horses are on the RDR2 horses page.