Marston Free Roam Deluxe
John Marston and Agent Ross shared a bottle of whiskey in the parlour at Beecher’s Hope.
Marston said, “Agent Ross, I implore you. All I want is my freedom so I can raise my boy and take care of my wife,.”
Ross asked, “And what are you prepared to do for me in return?”
Marston replied, “I have money. A lot of it.”
DETAILS
Earlier this month I uploaded a series of epilogue save files advertised as minimum completion. That file can be found here: RDR2 Post-Game Save Bundle
However, it was actually 77.9% completion. Since then I’ve played the entire game from scratch and finished with 69.1% completion. The only other save file that I know of which comes close to that is Maximum Marston, with 69.9% completion, found here. However I had some problems with the wardrobe in that save file (your mileage may vary I guess) so I wanted to do it myself.
To the best of my knowledge, and unless forced to do so by the game, with this save file I did not:
-Study a single animal
-Examine a single plant
-Collect a single dinosaur bone
-Purchase a single recipe
-Collect a single cigarette card.*
*There are currently 4 cigarette cards in his inventory, most likely from looting bodies which had premium cigarettes. I only looted bodies when I was in need of chewing tobacco to fuel my dead-eye. No cards were collected from the world.
-Additionally, I didn’t do a single side quest, bounty, honor quest, stranger mission or anything else that I can think of.
-I purchased exactly TWO clothing items: a black vest and black spurs.
-I purchased exactly one weapon: a varmint rifle, and added a scope to it.
-I made NO OTHER CUSTOMIZATIONS.
-In fact, using this mod I sold all the guns collected during quests in the campaign.
-I sold Rachel the thoroughbred and replaced her with a morgan named Willie.
-Finally, using this mod I removed all but $100 from John’s wallet.
WHAT THIS ALL MEANS
This save is very similar to the one I uploaded previously (especially the “pauper version”), but it’s an entirely new play-through of my own with MUCH LESS COMPLETION. That means more things to do and more things to collect. In essence, you’re starting free roam as John Marston in much the same way you started Chapter Two with Arthur: dirt poor with an entire game world to enjoy and explore (minus the gang and all of Dutch’s insidious plans which did nothing but destroy lives).
NOTE: I DID purchase the Legend of the East Satchel prior to finalizing this save file.
NOTE: (LIGHT SPOILER) I DID pick up ONE GOLD BAR located in a certain burned out place not far from Horseshoe Overlook. I did this to give myself enough money to build up the camp and purchase the map for Arthur so I could finish the main quest as quickly as possible. It’s too bad when I started I didn’t know about this mod.
HEADCANON
Feel free to use this save any way you wish (including re-uploading with your own changes). However, I like to play with the following things in mind….
This is a different timeline than the one leading to the events of the first Red Dead Redemption. In this timeline, Edgar Ross isn’t the squeaky clean federal agent he wants you to believe. After intense negotiations, John offered Ross the entire $20,000 to let him go, and Ross agreed. But even that wasn’t enough for the greedy ex-Pinkerton. Basically he cleaned the Marstons out. He took John’s fine collection of guns and his fine thoroughbred horse (John had cunningly hidden a Reutlinger pocket watch worth $155 which he can sell to a fence for some extra cash). With his newfound wealth, Ross retires early and moves to a small house near Lake Don Julio. John has his freedom.
After months trying to earn a living as ranchers, Mr. and Mrs. Marston realize it’s simply not working out. A few dollars a day isn’t nearly enough to cover their expenses. After all, John was an outlaw and gunslinger. It’s all he knew. He soon realized he could make more money hunting a couple pronghorns and selling them down in Blackwater than he could through an entire day of back-breaking labor at the ranch. So while the ranch is still minimally operational with Abigail, Jack and Uncle keeping it afloat, they realized the only way to get back on their feet was for John to work out on the open range which was quite clearly a hunter’s paradise. As for bounty hunting, Abigail offered her tacit blessings: “Whatever you do, I don’t wanna know about it.” She knew what he was when she married him. She knew he was a wanderer. Her only hope was that he wouldn’t become too feral as he explored the world in search of opportunities to keep the ranch afloat. She exclaimed, “If I see your face on a wanted poster John Marston I’ll find you and turn you in myself!”
And so begins your free roam adventure.
KNOWN ISSUES
I was excited to return to Valentine and pick up the bounty on Benedict Allbright, but it seems that bounty and cut-scene was exclusive to Arthur. When you visit Valentine and walk into the sheriff’s office, you’ll be presented with the bounty on Ellie Anne Swan only. I was disappointed by this but oh well.
BONUS CONTENT
The file actually contains seven saves. I kept a save from the beginning of each chapter starting with Chapter 3 and up through the two epilogues. This is in case someone wants to start the game as Arthur in the middle to late chapters, or play through the epilogues, with minimum completion. I wasn’t checking Arthur’s honor very closely but it was somewhere to the right of the middle (not maxed because I simply wasn’t doing enough quests to max it out).
