Naturalist Role

The Naturalist is the latest Specialist Roles that you can take on and progress through in Red Dead Online.

The Naturalist role opens a new path around tracking, studying, and hunting animals. Naturalists get access to a new role progression, gameplay, and several items.

To gain access to the Role, visit the Welcome Center in the town of Strawberry to purchase the Sample Kit from Harriet Davenport to get started.

Help conservationist Harriet Davenport by tracking down specimens, sedating them, and gathering blood samples, or by photographing the wild animals from a safe distance.

Retired hunter Gus Macmillan, on the other hand, will reward you handsomely for hunting those very same animals down and bringing their pelts and hides back to his shop.

Both Harriet Davenport and Gus Macmillan have set up stores in several locations across the world of Red Dead Online. Visit Harriet’s Naturalist Store to progress the Naturalist Role, purchase special tonics, and hear about new unique missions to participate in. Alternatively, drop by Gus’ Store with animal provisions to craft new clothing items, trinkets, and more.

Animal Field Guide & Categories

After becoming a Naturalist, the player is given an Animal Field Guide, a compendium featuring the abundant species found across all of the frontier’s distinct habitats.

Tracking, photographing, and sampling animals will add their information to the Animal Field Guide and help the player progress along in the Naturalist role. For the player to achieve 100% progress on an animal, they must track, kill, skin, study, sedate, sample and photograph said animal at least once.

There are 6 animal categories to be completed as part of the Naturalist Role, each with a varying number of animals:

• Farmland Habitats (11)
• Desert Habitats (14)
• Wetland Habitats (13)
• Mountain and Grassland Habitats (14)
• Forest & River Habitats (13)
• Common Critters (11)

As your Naturalist activities progress, you’ll also start to encounter Legendary Animals: these distinctive creatures can be discovered both in Free Roam and through Animal Sighting assignments commissioned by Harriet. These are different from the Legendary Animals encountered in the RDR2 Story Mode.

Using the Legendary Animal Map as a guide, you’ll learn the locations of their native habitats and then follow the information in the Animal Field Guide to locate each one - ultimately deciding whether to obtain samples for Harriet and earn precious rewards, or poach them and have Gus turn their hides into ostentatious apparel for your wardrobe.

There are 4 categories of Legendary Animals in Red Dead Online as part of the Naturalist Role:

• Legendary Animals: Dark
• Legendary Animals: Light
• Legendary Animals: Red & Blond
• Legendary Animals: Patterned

Naturalist Role Rank Unlocks & Rewards

Earning XP and progressing through the Naturalist Role will improve your tracking abilities, and give you access to new skills, like the ability to craft Sedative Cartridges or perform Mercy Kills on wounded animals.

Once you reach Naturalist Rank 5, you can purchase the Wilderness Camp from Harriet’s Shop. Set up shelter and rest by the fire there to restore your cores, craft, or cook yourself a hot meal, alone or with friends.

Unique Naturalist Skills and Items include:

• Naturalist Variant Varmint Rifle: A visual variant of the Varmint Rifle. Can be applied to an owned Varmint Rifle.
• Wilderness Camp: A temporary camp where you can rest, craft and cook.
• Legendary Eagle Eye: Learn to distinguish Legendary Animal trails.
• Animal Attraction: Learn to increase the chances of spotting Legendary Animals.
• Sedative Varmint Cartridge Pamphlet: A pamphlet recipe on how to craft Sedative Varmint Ammunition.
• Mercy: Learn to Mercy Kill fatally wounded animals.
• Animal Focus: Learn to narrow your search area when looking for Legendary Animals.
• Legendary Animal Pheromones Pamphlet: A pamphlet on how to craft Legendary Animal Pheromones.
• Blending Tonic Pamphlet: A pamphlet recipe on how to craft Blending Tonics.
• Animal Reviver Pamphlet: A pamphlet recipe on how to craft Animal Reviver.
• Tonics Satchel Upgrade: You can now store more items in your Tonics Pouch.
• The Kennewick: A rugged outfit for committed Naturalists.

Below you find the full list of Rank Unlocks & Rewards for the Naturalist Role across all Tiers:

Novice Tier Unlocks (Ranks 1-5)

Promising Tier Unlocks (Ranks 6-10)

Established Tier Unlocks (Ranks 11-15)

Distinguished Tier Unlocks (Ranks 16-20)

Naturalist Role Progression Rewards

For everything on the Red Dead Online Roles, check out the Complete Specialist Roles Guide for Red Dead Online, including details on how each works, how to start them, and all items unlocked by progressing through Role Ranks.

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