Red Dead Redemption 2 Guide: How To Customize and Get New Guns

There are lots of guns in Red Dead Redemption 2. In the first few hours you’ll spend much of your time with revolvers, bows, and basic repeater rifles, but you eventually come across pistols, long-range rifles with roughly attached scopes, and all-powerful shotguns.

All together there are close to 60 guns in Red Dead Redemption 2 and each of them can be tweaked, customized, and upgraded to your heart’s content.

Gun Customization

To customize your weapons all you have to do is head to a nearby Gunsmith. The first one you find in the game is in Valentine, but most proper cities have stores as well. Just walk up to the shopkeeper and you’ll be able to browse the weapons you have already and purchase upgrades.

For example, on a shotgun that could include improving the barrel or stock, adding iron sights, and on rifles even adding scopes. You can also do things like engrave your weapons and change colors.

We’d advise focusing on high accuracy over high damage because a lot of the deadliest firefights you find yourself in tend to be on horseback. Well, that and ammo capacity. Buy upgraded bandoliers and upgraded gunbelts as soon as you can.

Gun Maintenance and Favorites

Gunsmiths also let you clean weapons, but we’d actually advise just buying oil and cleaning them yourself out in the field. Weapons can get dirty and worn over time and that can lead to things like jammed guns or lower accuracy because of wear and tear. Just like real life, maintaining your guns is crucial.

And the more you use a weapon, the more Arthur grows accustomed to it. If you use a specific gun enough, it can be assigned as one of his “favorites” which unlocks better accuracy and other perks with that specific weapon.

The Best Guns

If you’re aching for a bump in your firepower and effectiveness in combat, it could be wise to purchase some new guns from a gunsmith. We recommend the Schofield Revolver, Volcanic Pistol, or Lichefield Rifle as good, relatively inexpensive options. But you can actually loot weapons in the world and find rare and unique guns — these are always the best options.

For example, if you do the Gunslinger side quests you can track down Billy Midnight and kill him for his high-fire rate and high-accuracy Mauser Pistol. Other weapons are tied to specific missions and challenges in the world.

Check out our other Red Dead Redemption 2 guides here on GameSkinny.