Red Dead Redemption 2: How to Intimidate a Witness

How to Intimidate a Witness in Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2 takes players back to the Old West once again, this time putting you in the shoes of the outlaw Arthur Morgan. Being a prequel to the first game, Morgan is part of the Dutch van der Linde Gang, the same band of outlaws John Marston was a part of. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to pull train heists, steal horses, and plenty of other crimes. Of course, any crime you commit in Red Dead Redemption 2 can be witnessed by NPCs. This will create witnesses, which can lead to a host of negative outcomes for you. Here’s how to intimidate a witness in Red Dead Redemption 2.

How Witnesses Happen

Being an outlaw in the Old West, you aren’t always going to do the nicest of things. Basically, whenever a crime is committed (by you) anyone that was nearby will be a witness. If you don’t stop a witness, they will eventually report your crime to the lawman, and in turn, you’ll get a bounty put on your head. Bounties make it much more difficult to get around the area, as you’ll be pursued by lawmen and if high enough, even bounty hunters.

How to Intimidate a Witness

There are a few different ways to intimidate a witness if they bear witness to your atrocious crimes. First you can attempt to stop them by using the dialogue menu. Hold L2 to focus on the witness and you’ll have a number of options. Select the intimidate options and, sometimes, they’ll be scared into keeping quiet. This won’t work for everyone, however, so another option you have is firing a warning shot. For that make sure you’re gun is out then hit up on the D-pad, then use R2 to fire. Blasting a bullet right near them might be enough to scare stiff certain NPCs.

What That Does

Successfully intimidating a witness will have them concede and say something along the lines of “I didn’t see anything.” This’ll stop them from reporting your crime to the lawmen, and you’re free to carry on your merry way and commit all the crimes your heart desires. At least until the next witness shows up.

Of course, if intimidating the witness didn’t work your last option is to kill them. You have to be very careful with this, though, as if another person sees you kill a witness you’ll only have more trouble on your hands. Especially if you’re graduating from something like assault to murder. Killing a witness can easily lead to even more problems for you, so you’ll need to make sure no one can see your killing.

Once you’re in the hot water, you might need a bit of help figuring out how your wanted level works. Luckily we’ve got a wanted level guide just for that, and we can also help walk you through how bounties work. But in general, you want to avoid bounties to avoid bounty hunters and lawmen breathing down your neck. Pay them off as soon as possible.

That’s everything you need to know for how to intimidate a witness in Red Dead Redemption 2. For even more tips and guides on the game, make sure to check out our extensive Red Dead Redemption 2 wiki. Feel free to ask any other questions down in the comments as well, and we’ll do our best to get them answered.