Red Dead Redemption 2 guide: finding Gold Bars

Money is a strange thing in Red Dead Redemption 2. You won’t have much during the beginning of the game, but then you’ll end Chapter 3 with thousands of dollars. But as soon as you start buying yourself fancy hats and prettying up your guns, it can evaporate quickly.

We’ve written about several ways to make money already, but the single most efficient way is to pick up Gold Bars. These sell for $500 each at a Fence, so they’re always worth seeking out. This guide will tell you where to find six of them — that’s $3,000 right there — then tell you how to exploit the Gold Bar duplication glitch (until Rockstar fixes it). Along the way, we’ll also walk you through solving the Strange Statues puzzle.

Where to find Gold Bars

The first three Gold Bars we’ll point you to are just found around the world. You won’t have to do any work to pick them up. You’ll just have to get to them.

Limpany

Grid View

• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon

The burned-out town of Limpany is located along the Dakota River just to the north of Flatneck Station and straight south of Valentine in New Hanover. You’re looking for the Sheriff’s Station which is the southernmost building. Head inside and loop around to the left (or just climb through the left window) and find the Lockbox under the desk.

This lockbox is the only one we’ve successfully recreated the duplication glitch on, so check out that section below before you pick up this Gold Bar.

Braithwaite Manor

Grid View

• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon

You won’t be able to find this Gold Bar until Chapter 4. Return to the Braithwaite Manor house to the southwest of Rhodes in Lemoyne and look for [SPOILER]’s body on the floor. Turn to the east and look behind the ruined wall along the floor for this Lockbox.

Train wreck

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• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon

This Gold Bar is a little difficult to get to, but, c’mon, $500. You’re looking for a huge train trestle right at the dividing line between the Grizzlies West and Grizzlies East. You have to approach from the south, so use the narrow trails along the Dakota River on the north side of the Cumberland Forest region of New Hanover. The trestle you’re looking for is just a little west of Fort Wallace and north-northeast of Valentine.

As you follow the valley to the north from the river — along the dividing line between the two Grizzlies — you’ll come to an old train wreck. (There’s a chest in the intact car ahead of you with some cash inside.) On the right (east) side, there’s a train car standing on end — that’s the one with the Gold Bar.

Climb up the rocks until you’re standing next to the upright car, then continue past it to the south-southeast. Look for a gap in the rocks on your left. Scramble up and through that gap, then loop around to the right. Jump across the gap toward the train car, then jump into it. Drop all the way to the other end to find the Gold Bar on the ground. (You can climb out through the door on the side.)

This wreck is located right next to Window Rock, which is a convenient place to start the Strange Statues puzzle.

Strange Statues puzzle

There are two seemingly disconnected parts to this puzzle, but the first is a big clue to the second. The payoff is three Gold Bars (worth $1,500), so it’s worth the confusion and time.

Strange Painting

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• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon

Head to Window Rock on the north bank of the Dakota River. It’s to the west of Fort Wallace and to the north of Valentine. You’ll need to approach from the south and climb up the rocks to get into the window part — the natural stone arch.

Look at the stone wall on the north side of the window to find the Strange Painting. Interact with it to have Arthur draw it in his journal, then take a minute to look at it closer (and take a screenshot or write down some things).

Rockstar Games via Polygon

The stylized eagles next to each human figure have different numbers of tail feathers. Starting at the top and working around clockwise, it goes: seven, six, three, four, five, eight, and two.

This is your hint for the next section.

Strange Statues

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• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon

The next part of this puzzle lies a little to the east-northeast from the painting. You’re looking for a spot just south of the I in in Abarino and just east of Donner Falls. It’s a bit northeast of Fort Wallace and southeast of the Wapiti Indian Reservation.

As you’re riding along the only road through this section of the northern Grizzlies East, watch along the northern edge for some rocks. Ride up the hill to the north along the western edge of these rocks and look for a lone tree standing next to a gap in the rocks. Head into that gap and you’ll find a narrow entrance to a cave.

Inside the cave, there are seven human statues in a ring around a winged figure. Head into the middle of the ring and interact with the statues to get Arthur to record this in his journal as well.

There are two buttons on each of the human statues — one on the front and one on the back. These are basically on/off switches. Your job is to turn on the correct statues.

These statues correspond to the figures in the pictograph above — the numbers match the number of fingers the statue has. (The missing arm of the statue with only one arm is lying on the floor of the cave nearby.)

You have to push the button on the front of the statues with a prime number of fingers — two, three, five, and seven.

If you’ve done it correctly, a small panel will open on the front of the winged statue’s plinth. Head there to pick up your three Gold Bars.

Other Gold Bars

There are a few other points during Red Dead Redemption 2 where you’ll get Gold Bars that we’re not going to cover here. You’ll get one as a reward at the end of Chapter 2 and find several as rewards for completing Treasure Map hunts.

Infinite Gold Bar glitch

If you want even more money, there’s a way you can end up with more money than you could spend.

Grid View

• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon
• Rockstar Games via Polygon

1. First, pause the game and go to Settings > General and turn off Autosave. Back out, then create a couple of new saves — one in case the glitch doesn’t work (so you can back up and try again) and one to exploit the … exploit.
2. Head to Limpany. It’s the burned-out town located along the Dakota River just to the north of Flatneck Station and straight south of Valentine in New Hanover. You’re looking for the Sheriff’s Station which is the southernmost building. Head inside and loop around to the left (or just climb through the left window) and find the lockbox under the desk.
3. Interact with the lockbox to open it, but do not pick anything up.
4. Look at the Gold Bar inside so that the prompt in the lower right corner of your screen changes to “Gold Bar.”
5. Pause the game and create a new save over one of the ones you created in Step 1. Back out one menu, then load the game you just saved.
6. You’ll pop back into the game some distance away from Limpany, so make your way back to the Sheriff’s Office.
7. Inside, you’ll find the lockbox open with the Gold Bar inside. Hold down Square/X and don’t let go until your satchel is full.

The only limit to this is how many Gold Bars you can carry. If you’ve got the starting satchel, you’ll be able to pick up 30 — which you can then sell to a Fence for $15,000. If you’ve got the Legend of the East Satchel, you can pick up 99 of them for a profit of nearly $50,000. (But, seriously, what do you even do with that much money in Red Dead Redemption 2?)