Can you steal from stores in RDR2 without getting caught?

Money isn’t always easy to come by in Red Dead Redemption 2, but if you’re not bothered about having a high moral compass, robberies are a great way to earn money.

Stealing from your average Joe can get you a few dollars, but trains and banks are highly rewarding, although robbing them is riskier. If you want to know the best ways to steal heaps of cash without massive repercussions, we’ve got you covered. We’ve put some tips together to help you get lots of money to spend on weapons, provisions, and more.

Cover your face with a bandana

The most vital piece of information when carrying out any type of robbery is to wear your bandana. Hold L1/LB to open your items and select the bandana to cover up your face. This means that any robbery you commit won’t lead them to hunting Arthur Morgan down if it all goes wrong, as well as no bounty being placed on your head. It imbues you with anonymity and provides a small cover of safety for you. Just make sure you do this before you approach anyone as the AI of NPCs is excellent, and they will recognise, and quite often remember you.

Avoid witnesses when conducting a robbery

All crimes can be reported by anyone in the vicinity who sees what you’ve done, so make sure that if you’re planning on robbing a stagecoach or a random passer-by, there’s nobody around to witness you taking their wares. If someone spots you, they’ll run off to the nearest law enforcer and let them know what they’ve seen, so just be wary of anyone snooping around, because the last thing you want is having to run after a grass. You can intercept them and try to stop them, but it’s an inconvenience you don’t need.

3. Never miss an opportunity

Whether you’re robbing a homestead or a train, it can be easy to miss a hidden cupboard or chest. By pressing down both analogue sticks you’ll activate Eagle Eye and any pieces of furniture that can be searched will start glowing a pale red. This helps when looking around a house because you can often miss something, like a nice coin purse or a pearl necklace.

Look around a home to see if there's anything you can steal

Homesteads are a great source of valuables, and you get plenty of opportunities to rob them. Campmates like Sean McGuire and Javier will take you to homesteads where there’s a haul to be seized as part of a side mission, but you can also randomly stumble across a variety of different homes, which contain lots of money and items to rob. So, if you see a house or a farm it’s always worth prying around to see if there’s an entrance, and more importantly, a load of goodies for the taking.

Strangers can give you robbery tips

One thing that you should be doing is interacting with strangers you come across because they will give you tips on certain locations to rob, and Arthur will keep track of any robbery tips, eventually leading to certain locations where you’ll be able to get some decent items and cash.

6. The best way to rob a train

Trains are a great source of cash, especially passenger trains because of the wealthy folk riding on them. You’ll be able to start robbing trains early on in Chapter 2 after completing the ‘Pouring Forth Oil’ mission, and once you’ve had a taste, you’ll want to keep doing it.

Never rob a stationary train at a station because you'll alert nearby lawmen and an arrest or shootout will be sure to follow. Lurking around train tracks that fall in the middle of two stations out in the wilderness means the robbery will be more secluded, and there’ll be less chance of alerting anyone.

Riding along a train whilst on your horse is the best way to board, as an option to press Square/X will pop up and you’ll jump on a carriage or freight.

Once on board, you can start opening chests or robbing passengers, but if you want to take your time and find every bit of treasure or cash on board, head to the front of the train and get the driver to force stop or kill him and do it yourself. Once the train stopped, you can go from carriage to carriage and rob the passengers. Just make sure to keep an eye out for anyone trying to escape, as witnesses can alert the law and your efforts will have been for nothing; the last thing you want is a shootout.

Some trains also have guards on board, so you may need to ready your pistol if they begin to attack you. Once you’re happy with your wares, get on your horse and disappear.

Make sure there are no witnesses

Shop robberies a bit trickier and will almost always result in a full-on shootout at the end, but they can be very lucrative if you know which stores to rob first. Before you wander into a shop and pull a gun out on the owner, make sure nobody else is inside. It's always a good plan to hold up a store at night as there are fewer people around. Scope out the shop first as some have hidden doors and mission opportunities that may hold even more valuables, such as the doctors in Valentine.

Pulling out a gun on a stagecoach driver isn't always the best option

Robbing random NPCs and stagecoaches isn’t that profitable, so sticking with homesteads and trains is the way to go. However, there’s a mission in Chapter 2 called The Spines of America, and once completed, it’ll allow you to sell stolen stagecoaches to a Fence in Emerald Ranch. Therefore, robbing the actual stagecoach and selling it here will give you much more money than robbing a few dollars from a crate in the back of it.

In Chapter 3, there’s also a range of stagecoach robbery missions that become available, and they’ll offer quite a range of goodies to steal.

Holding up a stagecoach isn’t particularly difficult, but not all drivers will stop. Try talking to them before violence even becomes an option. Pulling a gun out on them can sometimes result in them getting violent, too, so use it as a last option. If they do try to shoot you, use Dead Eye to stop them riding off or spooking the horses too much. Then explore the back of the stagecoaches for lockboxes or chests.

Is it worth robbing stores in rdr2?

How do you rob people in Red Dead Redemption without getting caught?

Can you rob any store in rdr2?

Do you lose honor for robbing stores rdr2?