The challenges in Red Dead Redemption 2 aren't required to beat the game's story, but they do provide Arthur and John with some additional goals on the side. There are nine kinds of challenges in the game to complete: bandit, explorer, gambler, herbalist, horseman, master hunter, sharpshooter, survivalist, and weapons expert. Each focuses on a different kind of skill the player uses throughout RDR2, and each has ten steps to complete.

The ten steps must be completed in order for each challenge path, and are generally supposed to get harder as they advance. But there are a few notable cases where the challenge in question feels out of place, proving much more difficult to complete than the steps that follow. These ten challenges stand out as weirdly challenging for where they are on their lists due to requiring immense luck, time, or skill.

10 Picking & Eating Four Berry Species Comes Far Too Early

An Herbalist Challenge That Requires Thorough Exploration

Eating four different kinds of berries may not sound difficult, but it requires more time and energy than you would first think. There are only four species of berries in the game, after all, which means this challenge requires you to find and try them all across the entire map. Seeking out specific plants across the game's states is already a rather tedious exercise, but needing to do so for only the second challenge on the herbalist list is annoying.

The four berries in question are the blackberry, raspberry, huckleberry, and wintergreen berry. Each grows only in specific locations, such as the huckleberries showing up along the Kamassa river in Lemoyne. Luckily, there is a spot in Big Valley where the other three berries can be found in close proximity for players who know where to look. Still, this challenge is certainly more difficult than, say, crafting items using sage, the next challenge on the herbalist list.

9 Stealing $50 From Townsfolk And Travelers Takes Forever

A Challenge That Would Feel At Home At The End Of The Bandit Line

Fifty dollars may not sound like a lot, but players going for the bandit challenges will soon discover that most NPCs in the early- to mid-game only have a couple of bills to their name. In most cases, robbing a townsperson or traveler will yield somewhere between one and two dollars; that is, if they don't decide to pull out their weapon and invalidate the robbery.

These robberies only count if the NPC gives up their money, rather than looting it from their body, meaning robberies can easily become invalid.

Successfully stealing fifty bucks from over twenty different NPCs is a challenge that would feel fitting as the last step in the bandit list, but for some reason, it comes before challenges like putting three hostages on train tracks or stealing seven wagons. Luckily, there is an easier way to go about this challenge by hopping on board a train leaving Saint Denis and robbing its more affluent engers. Still, this challenge will likely hold up newer players for quite some time.

8 Doubling Down In Blackjack Takes A Lot Of Luck

An Element Of Randomness Determines This Gambler Challenge

The gambler challenges involving card games can be among the more annoying ones on this list, simply because they rely almost entirely on luck. As such, there's no way to guarantee a speedy end to them, as players must wait until their cards come up. That is the case for the second challenge on the gambler list, which requires 3 blackjack wins after doubling down.

This challenge is already annoyingly placed, given that players won't encounter any blackjack tables until they reach Rhodes. It slows down completion of the gambler challenges by a good amount of time, and it's still frustrating when attempting the feat, which hinges on waiting for your luck to win out. Later gambler challenges, like winning three rounds of five-finger fillet, are child's play by comparison.

7 Getting 3 Perfect Rabbit Kills Is A Tall Task For Beginning Players

The Second Master Hunter Challenge Will Likely Hold You Up

So many of these challenge lists seem to have a curveball thrown in right at the beginning, with the second challenge being much harder than the ones that follow. That's also the case for the master hunter challenges, the second of which requires the player to kill and skin three perfect rabbits. This not only requires finding three perfect rabbits, which can take some time on its own, but also hinges on having the proper weaponry to kill them without damaging the pelts and possessing the aim to hit them in the head.

This feels like a much more manageable task once you're used to hunting, but it feels odd coming in second on the list, especially since there are many animals that getting perfect pelts from is easier for. The challenges that follow — tracking animals with binoculars and fighting bears — can be much easier to accomplish for new players.

6 Taking Out Two Different Animals With The Same Deadeye Use Is A Little Complex

Luck, Skill, And Experience Are Needed For This Sharpshooter Challenge

Sticking with the theme of difficult second challenges, the second one on the sharpshooter list requires players to kill two different animals within the same deadeye usage. This is difficult toward the beginning of the game for a number of reasons. One, the deadeye ability has a relatively short duration until it's leveled up through hunting, shooting, and completing objectives. Two, the ability to manually aim shots in deadeye isn't even unlocked until towards the end of Chapter Two, meaning some players may be attempting this early challenge before that.

Finding two different species of animal close enough together to take out with one deadeye use is not terribly hard, but does require some luck and a gun that can accomplish the task. All in all, while this challenge is far from impossible, putting it second in line feels odd, especially since it is followed up with easier tasks like shooting birds.

5 Crafting Every Arrow Type Requires A Fair Bit Of Knowledge

There's No Completing This Survivalist Challenge Without The Right Recipes

This survivalist challenge requires the player to craft at least one of each unique arrow type in the game, of which there are five: improved arrows, small game arrows, dynamite arrows, poisoned arrows, and fire arrows. The ingredients for these arrows aren't especially hard to get a hold of, mainly just requiring feathers and a few common materials, but the real challenge comes when actually trying to get the crafting recipes.

The improved arrow recipe is one that you start with, but the rest must be obtained through exploration or bought at the fence. This either requires a fair bit of money or thorough searches of a few disparate areas, including the Wapiti Reservation and a shack near Saint Denis. This challenge will take you across the map searching for these pamphlets and the associated ingredients, which feels harder than catching fish from certain locations, as the next challenge requires.

4 Picking Every Herb Should Be An Herbalist's Last Challenge

The Penultimate Step To This Line Makes The Final Challenge Feel Anticlimactic

For a challenge list called "herbalist," one would think that finding and picking every herb in the game would be last up on the list. But it's only the ninth challenge required, with the last one being to cook each kind of meat with a seasoning. There are 43 different herbs to find, with some locked in the New Austin region, meaning this challenge cannot be completed until the epilogue.

Finding herbs is one of the more tedious and boring mechanics in the game, and requiring the player to venture all over the map to pick each of them is a tall task. It's a fitting challenge for the end of this line, though given how much easier it is to season each type of meat, it would be much more at home at the top of the list.

3 Getting Three Bird Of Prey Tomahawk Kills Will Require Some Searching

A Weirdly Worded Weapons Expert Challenge

The third weapons expert challenge requires players to get "three bird of prey tomahawk kills," an oddly specific challenge for how early it comes on the list. It's also worded strangely, which might leave some players wondering what exactly it is they need to do. The goal of the challenge is to kill three larger hunting birds with a thrown tomahawk, which could be hawks, eagles, owls, and so on.

Taking out these birds with a melee attack from a tomahawk will not count, though attempting to get within melee range would probably be harder than throwing the tomahawk accurately anyway.

Killing birds is already a bit more difficult than killing other animals in RDR2, given how quickly they can fly off. It's even more challenging to do with a slow-thrown weapon like the tomahawk. Players will need to sneak up slowly and take out their prey from mid-range to pull this off successfully. More likely than not, it won't be possible to take out all three birds in one go, as the rest will flee after the first goes down.

2 Killing 5 Scavengers Mid-Feast Requires Good Timing And Aim

The Mid-Way Mark On The Survivalist Challenge List

Another hunting-themed challenge, the sixth task on the survivalist list requires the player to kill five animals while they are scavenging. Scavenging may sound a bit loosely defined, but it counts if the animal in question is eating another animal, picking at a berry bush, looking at bait, and so on. The real challenge here is that each of these events is difficult to trigger or find, and doing so will require a great deal of patience.

Odds are that taking care of this challenge will be more time-consuming than hunting perfect rabbits or birds of prey, given how many times these events must occur. It seems strange that tasks as simple as catching an especially large fish would come after this one.

1 Winning With Three Hits In Blackjack Is Way Too Random

Not An Ounce Of Skill To This Gambler Challenge

Anyone who has tried to complete this challenge knows how frustrating it is. The odds of winning a hand of blackjack after hitting three times is near impossible, and this challenge requires players to do it thrice. The amount of luck required for the first blackjack challenge was annoying enough; this one is borderline unreasonable.

In order to complete this challenge, you'll basically just need to play hands of blackjack over and over again until it works. Unlike the next two challenges, which just require the player to win 3 rounds of dominoes and poker in a row, there's no skill involved. It's pure luck, which perhaps fitting for a challenge list around gambling but nonetheless makes for the most ridiculously difficult challenge in Red Dead Redemption 2.