How to get rid of a bounty

Fought The Law and The Law won? Here’s how to get rid of your bounty in Red Dead Redemption 2.

How to get rid of your bounty in Red Dead Redemption 2

The age of outlaws might be coming to an end as the west is tamed in Red Dead Redemption 2, but Arthur Morgan and the rest of the van der Linde gang are still rough and tough enough to tangle with the strong arm of the law when push comes to shove.

The thing with being a wanted bank robber though, is that a fat price on your head can make day-to-day life a bit of a chore. Commit enough crimes and lawmen will start to try and track you down, which – if you resist – just snowballs into a higher and higher reward for your capture.
In the early game when money’s tight, it’s quite easy to run up a big bounty that’s tough to pay off, especially considering the bounties you can collect for murderers at the Valentine Sheriff’s office are less than $100.

Removing your own bounty is quite simple though, if not very well communicated. All you need to do is visit a Post Office and speak to the Clerk behind the counter. Here you’ll have the option to pay off your bounties. They’re divided by county, so if you go on rampages across the country, then you’re going to have to get rid of each one off individually.

In the early game, the easiest place to find a Post Office is in the southeast of Valentine.

Something to remember though, is that you can receive a bounty by completing story missions – often quite large ones – so it’s often not efficient to keep paying your bounties off as they appear, because you’ll just get more as you progress naturally through the game.

How to surrender in Red Dead Redemption 2

Alternatively when the Sheriffs come a-knocking, you can give yourself up and surrender to serve your time in the cells.

To do this, you need to initiate a conversation with the pursuing lawman like you would with any other character, by pressing the left trigger to target them. You should then get a button prompt that lets you surrender. 

Make sure you’ve not got any weapons drawn when you try and do this, or the situation might get messy. You can check out our guide to see what happens if that bounty suddenly turns into a Wanted: Dead or alive matter and how it can affect the honour system in Red Dead Redemption 2.