Dinosaur Bones Rdr2

Hunting down dinosaur bones in 'Red Dead Redemption 2' felt like a scavenger-hunt obsession for me, and I loved every minute. The bones are scattered all over the map (there are thirty in total), so don't expect them to cluster in one tiny area. They tend to show up along riverbanks, rocky ledges, beaches, and tucked into little caves — places where a fossil might realistically be exposed by erosion. I usually cruise along rivers and the coastline at a slow trot and scan the shorelines; the bones often sit out in the open as small white fragments, so binoculars help.

If you want a more systematic approach, grab a screenshot of an online interactive map and tick off each find as you go. Community maps are lifesavers when you’re going for completion. Once you find a bone, it’ll be added to your collection and you can hand the whole set in to the NPC who handles that questline. That final meet-up is worth it, but the best part for me was the ride between finds — perfect for taking in scenery and stopping for photogenic moments. It’s relaxing and oddly rewarding, like piecing together a prehistoric jigsaw, and I still smile whenever I stumble onto one unexpectedly.

I get really into the lore for stuff like this, so here's the short and sweet: in 'Red Dead Redemption 2' you have to collect all 30 dinosaur bones scattered across the map and then bring them to the paleontologist stranger who wants them. Once you hand in the full set, you'll receive an in‑game cash payment and a unique collectible reward for completing the set. It’s mostly a completionist payoff rather than a gameplay power-up—more flavor and bragging rights than combat advantage.

Beyond the cash and collectible, finishing the bones lights up that chunk of your completion percentage and contributes to the game’s completion list and trophy/achievement progress. I love that it sends you traipsing through weird corners of the map, too—hunting those bones turned several strolls into mini-adventures, and that moment when I found the last one felt satisfying in a very nerdy way.

No joke, hunting dinosaur bones in 'Red Dead Redemption 2' feels like a tiny archaeological road trip — and there are 30 bones to collect in total. They’re scattered all over the map as individual bone pieces (not full skeletons), and finding them is part of a collectible/stanger-style side activity that contributes to your game completion. Each time you pick one up it gets added to your tally, and when you’ve collected them all you’ll have the satisfaction of finishing that little mystery thread.

I usually break my searches up by region: cliffs, caves, riverbanks, and rocky outcrops are good bets. Riding slow with a scope of vision on the terrain helps; I’ve found bones tucked into crevices or half-buried near shorelines. It’s not just about the count — the hunt sends you to cool, out-of-the-way places that feel worth exploring for their own sake.

If you’re chasing 100% completion, keep a checklist or a map handy (community maps are a lifesaver) and savor the small moments when you dig one out. I still grin at finding a piece in a tiny alcove I almost rode past.

I get a kick out of hunting down little mysteries in games, and the thing about dinosaur bones in 'Red Dead Redemption 2' is that the game doesn’t hand them to you with a big glowing UI marker. In the single-player story you don’t get any special gadget that automatically reveals bones; you have to rely on your eyes, patience, and a few practical in-game tools. Binoculars are the MVP here — they let you scan ledges, riverbanks, and rocky outcrops from a safe distance without trampling past a bone and never noticing it. I also use the camera/photo mode when I stumble across suspicious shapes; taking a picture helps me confirm if that pale shape is actually a bone or just a bleached rock.

Another practical trick is just to change the time of day and lighting. Midday bright light or the long shadows of late afternoon make white bones pop out more, and turning HUD elements off for a minute helps me see small details. In contrast, if you’re playing 'Red Dead Online', the Collector role unlocks a metal detector that can really speed things up for buried collectibles — but in solo story mode, there’s no magic detector. Ultimately it’s about environment reads: check caves, cliff bases, river shelves, and the edges of old camps. I love the low-key treasure-hunt feeling when one of those white edges finally reveals itself to me.

If you're hunting down every little thing in 'Red Dead Redemption 2', here's the short, no-nonsense scoop I live by: dinosaur bones are a single-player collectible and they don't just pop back into the world once you pick them up. I collected the full set during one playthrough and watched my completion tracker tick up — those bones get recorded to your save, so they vanish for good from the map in that save file.

That said, you can always recover them if you load an earlier manual save from before you picked a specific bone. I've used that trick when I wanted to photograph a spot or grab a bone for a screenshot. Also, a heads-up: if the bone feels like it vanished or fell through terrain, reloading an earlier save or restarting the game often fixes the glitch. I usually consult a community map if I miss one, but I treat them like rare trophies now — once they're in my collection, they're mine, permanent and satisfying.

Quick heads-up: you can't just wheel up to a fence and sell dinosaur bones in 'Red Dead Redemption 2'. Those bone pieces are part of a collectible stranger mission — they’re treated as a unique quest item rather than generic stolen loot. Fences in the game buy things like jewelry, pocket watches, stagecoach loot and other clearly marked stolen goods, but dinosaur bones sit outside that category.

In my playthrough I loved that distinction because it made finding bones feel like a real side-story, not just a quick source of cash. Once you pick up enough pieces the game flags the collection and points you toward the paleontologist stranger who wants them. Handing the set over gives you the proper reward the quest promises, which felt way more satisfying than a few coins from a fence would have. I kind of prefer it that way — it turns scavenging into a mystery instead of a grind, and it’s one of those small touches that made 'Red Dead Redemption 2' feel alive to me.

Yeah — that little pale rock that makes you stop and turn your horse around shows up in all the crunchy, jagged places in 'Red Dead Redemption 2'. I tend to find quartz chunks on cliff faces, in caves and abandoned mine entrances, and along rocky riverbanks where erosion has exposed veins of lighter stone. If you ride the mountain ridgelines (think the Grizzlies and the high country near Roanoke Ridge) and slow your pace, you’ll spot the faint white glints against darker rock. Mining camps and prospectors’ camps are good bets too—search around smashed barrels, rock piles, and near old campfires; prospectors often leave little deposits around their dig sites.

For actually grabbing them, walk slowly and use the camera view to pan around vertical faces and outcrops; those pale stones will catch the light. They’re handy as crafting material or for selling to the fence if you don’t need them, so I usually keep a small satchel space reserved. If you want to farm them, make a loop through a couple of high-elevation areas and some nearby cave systems, checking every nook—you’ll be surprised how many spawn in clusters. I always come away richer in both goods and a few extra memories of sketchy mountain chases when I go on a quartz-hunting run.

I get a real kick out of the little scavenger hunts in 'Red Dead Redemption 2' — hunting for niche gear like small game arrows feels like a mini-quest. If you want to find them out in the wild, I’d start by treating camps and outposts as treasure maps. Abandoned hunter camps, poacher hideouts, and the scattered supply wagons you find along trails are all good places to loot: small ammo piles, crates, and overturned saddlebags sometimes hold specialty arrows. I’ve also found them on the bodies of NPC hunters and trappers after a skirmish — if a gang of hunters or a lone trapper is nearby, finish the fight and comb the camp.

Another route I use is the towns bordering good small-game country. General stores and fences in settlements often stock specialty ammo more reliably than random spawns in the wilderness. If you’re running low mid-hunt, swing by a towns’ shop in Valentine, Rhodes, or Saint Denis — I’ve restocked there plenty of times. There’s also crafting and satchel upgrades to consider; collecting feathers and small animal parts will let you craft or improvise replacements in some cases, which is great when you’re deep in the brush and don’t want to run back to town.

Finally, think about where the small animals congregate: riverbanks, thickets, and fields near woods. If you camp near those hotspots and clear the area of hunters and NPCs, your chances of finding small game arrows from looted camps go up. I usually combine a quick sweep of cabins and hunting blinds with a shop run, and that combo keeps me well supplied — it’s satisfying when a quiet morning yields both rabbit pelts and a fresh bundle of arrows.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has a vast open world that is just waiting to be sold off. The answer to where you can sell those precious jewels scavenged from throughout your journey. Meet Fences—your one-stop shop for anything black market-related. So how do you find these fences? There is one at the Emerald Ranch. From there on, both Rhodes and Saint Denis also have Fences – you'll see them marked on your map with the sack symbol once you are close enough to them. The further into the game you are, the more of these you find. If You've got your hands on a stagecoach, Seamus at Emerald Ranch will buy it off of you. But it doesn't stop there; they also offer crafting services. Talismans and trinkets can be made from legendary animal parts with these fences. So start exploring, and turn your loot into money!

If you're on the quartz-chunk hunt in 'Red Dead Redemption 2', here's how I think about it: quartz chunks aren't the rarest collectible in the game, but they do sit in that uncomfortable middle ground where you don't see them every five minutes. They tend to show up as part of rock and mineral spawns — think outcrops, mine shafts and rocky riverbeds — so if you park yourself in the right terrain you'll start seeing them with some consistency. They’re more common in mountainous and mining-heavy regions, and less likely to pop up in flat prairie stretches.

My go-to farming loop is pretty simple: pick a compact zone with a few mines or cliff faces, circle it, and actively break or inspect mineral seams. I’ll use a shotgun or dynamite to collapse stubborn outcrops (watch for AI or wanted levels), loot miner camps and keep an eye on cave entrances. Fast travel back to a waypoint and reset spawns if the area feels dry. Community maps and threads also list reliable nodes if you’d rather not wander blind.

One tip that saved me time was to combine quartz runs with other chores — say skinning in the same mountain range, or hitting a trading post — so the grind feels less grindy. You can also sell extras to a fence or stash them for crafting or trading later. All in all, not ultra-rare, but worth a little route planning; I always feel a tiny thrill when a nice chunk clinks into my satchel.