Red Dead Online: Ember of the East Guide (Ruthless Mode)

Image: Rockstar Games via HGG / Koby Gibson Ross

Human Made

Penned by Gibson Vasela

My name is Gibson Vasela. I am a freelance writer who has been playing video games for almost 20 years now. I play all kinds of games, but I especially love immersive sims and RPGs.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

On the American frontier, there are plenty of ways to make money. From trading valuable animal parts to collecting and selling rare items to turning in bounties for the law, there is no shortage of opportunities for getting rich. One such opportunity in RDR2 Online is the Ember of The East mission.

This is a high-stakes robbery on a frontier mining town holding one of the rarest and most valuable rubies, the Ember of The East. There’s a lot you’ll need to understand to pull off the heist successfully, both before and during the mission. That’s why in this guide, we’ll be giving you a rundown of everything you need to know to steal the Ember of the East in RDR2 Online, even on Ruthless mode!

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Ember of The East – RDR2 Opportunity Mission Guide

So with that introduction out of the way, let’s dive into this guide covering everything you need to know in the Red Dead Online: Ember of The East Opportunity Mission.

What You’ll Need Before Starting

Before you begin the mission, it is a good idea to make sure you are properly prepared for the robbery. While you don’t technically NEED any of these things to do the mission, having them with you will make completing the robbery much easier.

The first item I recommend you bring with you is “Health Cure” tonics. These are drinkable healing items that will quickly replenish–and even fortify–your health. This is incredibly useful if you are planning on going guns blazing. You can find Potent Health Cures at doctor’s offices. There is one in the town of Valentine, right across from the gun store there. You can also find a weaker variant of them at General Stores, in case you are on a budget.

Another item I recommend you bring is a bow and some arrows. If you are playing on Ruthless difficulty for the heist, being stealthy is a must. Since you can’t put suppressors on any of your guns, a bow is a must for any stealth missions. You can find one at any gun store on the map. They are pretty cheap compared to most firearms, so don’t fret about breaking the bank.

How to Start The Mission

If you’re new to the game, then chances are good that you don’t know how to start the Ember of The East Opportunity Mission… let alone ANY of the opportunity missions. While we’ve covered how Blood Money and Opportunity missions work in depth, we’ll give a quicker run down below.

If you pull out the map in Red Dead Online, you will find these orange dots scattered around the map. Some of them will contain a black icon of a person, while others will have a black icon of a drop of blood.

You are going to want to go to the locations that have the drop of blood for an icon. Here at these spots, you can find low-honor NPCs that will give you special missions called “Crimes.” Completing crimes is the only way to gain Capitale, which is a special currency needed to launch an Opportunity mission. You have a small chance of getting Capitale every time you loot the body of an NPC killed during one of these crime missions. You can also get the stuff by opening lock boxes.

Once you have at least 15 Capitale, you can return to any of the NPCs on the map that assigns you Crime missions. While talking to one of them, can see a button prompt on the screen that will move you to another tab of missions. Press the button shown to bring up Opportunity missions. From here, you can select the difficulty and then pay Capitale to start the mission.

Launching harder missions will cost more Capitale. The difficulties and prices for starting them are as follows:

• Standard: 15 Capitale
• Hard: 20 Capitale
• Ruthless: 25 Capitale

The harder the difficulty, the more money you will be paid upon completion. I recommend you do not attempt the Ruthless difficulty unless you’re specifically following a walkthrough for it, such as the one we have right below.

How to Complete on Ruthless Mode

Now that we’ve covered all the basic necessities you’ll need before starting the mission, let’s discuss how to actually complete it. You can do it just about any way you’d like on Standard and Hard modes. You can go guns blazing or be stealthy, and just about any route or method will work.

But if you’re trying to do the Ember of the East on Ruthless mode, you are going to want to use a specific route in order to get in and out alive. Let me explain what exactly you need to do.

Upon starting this mission, you will spawn on the outskirts of the town of Annesberg. The location of the eponymous Ember of the Eat we’re after is inside is inside the Sheriff’s office, tucked away in a chest. This can be found on the eastern side of the town, across the street from the gun store.

Get off of your horse and sneak over to the eastern part of Annesberg, close to where the water is. Go to the exact spot shown in the image above. Once there, you should see an area full of crates guarded by some NPCs.

Sneak into the area but don’t attack anyone just yet. Across the street are two NPCs who will be having a conversation together. Wait for them to leave.

Then once that is done, you can use your bow to silently kill the enemy closest to you (see image above). Once he is killed, kill the other enemy to your right.

Now sneak across the street and interact with the door to break inside. Keep in mind, this will alert any nearby enemies (and that is okay, don’t worry about them now).

Once inside, grab what’s in the lockbox on the desk and then open the big chest in the back of the room. Inside this chest is the ruby. Once you’ve grabbed it, drink a Potent Health Tonic to fortify your health.

Now go outside and call for your horse. Get on your horse and follow the train tracks on the street to the north. Ignore all the NPCs shooting at you, as you shouldn’t die thanks to the tonic. Follow the yellow GPS marker until you reach the drop-off point. Once you get there, the mission will end.

Tips & Tricks For Maximizing Payout

If you want to grind this opportunity mission regularly, we’ve got a few tips and tricks for how exactly you can do that. Allow us to share them with you in case you decide you want to complete this heist regularly.

• Tip #1: You can buy Capitale from a Fence. Throughout the map, there are NPCs that operate Fences. These are illegal stores that sell illicitly-obtained goods. Here, you can spend three gold bars to purchase 10 Capitale. While this is pretty overpriced, it is a good way to speed up the time it takes you to earn Capitale. And if you already own all the roles and don’t need any more gold, it’s a good way to convert it into something that can make you cash.
• Tip #2: Only ever play on the Ruthless difficulty. As previously mentioned, you will earn more money if you happen to be playing on a harder difficulty. Even though it costs more Capitale, Ruthless is definitely worth doing if you know how to do it right. And if you follow our specific strategy consistently, you’ll get better at it and will be able to do it faster and faster.
• Tip #3: Take your time when completing the mission for the biggest reward. Strangely, in Red Dead Online, the longer it takes you to do a mission the bigger your payout will be. This means that if you wait at least a few minutes before turning in the ruby, you can earn some extra cash.

Join the High Ground

And with that, this guide for everything you need to know to complete the Ember of The East Opportunity Mission in Red Dead Online. Did you find this guide helpful? Be sure to let us know if you did down in the comments section! And make sure to subscribe to our weekly newsletters for more.

Happy gaming!