Some non-RDR content:
Super Mario Wonder on the Switch is pretty fun. It’s a side scroller so not as impressive as Odyssey, but still good.
Most of the levels are pretty easy and the final thing with Bowser comes around quickly.
Then the shit gets real. Post game special level with butt-kicking challenges to open up a ‘Final Test’
But wait, there’s more. If you top out certain achievements in every level of the game there’s a “Final Final Test” and it’s pretty damn sadistic.
Finally on to the last hunting request for Mrs Hobbs (have completed the Algernon Wasp shopping lists). Need a bat and yet another beaver. I wonder if spending so much time in this game hunting beaver is some kind of meta commentary by the writers.
Any future play through will involve me loading up on a lot of this shit earlier on. Which means prioritizing the Legendary satchel. Of course, the best place I found for hunting small birds is in New Austin, so that’s only available in the Epilogue.
There’s a spot just down from Horseshoe Overlook that’s good for birds.
Come down the trail to the river, turn right. There’s rocks on both sides that are spawn sites.
But of course as soon as you need one …
What was so amazing about the site I went to, was that I needed robins, and there was a fucking squadron of robins. There are three just sitting on the ground every morning that fly up when you approach so, if you’re quick on the draw, you can bag almost all the feathers and carcasses you need in one dead eye.
It’s the creek across the road from Beecher’s Hope, where you take Jack fishing and the dog gets bitten by a snake. Where the trail crosses the creek, it’s a veritable turkey shoot with robins, orioles, cardinals, songbirds, blue jays, sparrows, woodpeckers, ducks, loons, crows, ravens and vultures.
There’s a rock on a sand bank in the creek where a small bird will spawn every minute or so. Just harvest whatever is perched there, reset and wait for the next one. Rinse, repeat. A robin is maybe every tenth bird.
Re-thinking things, it might be worth leaving the Mrs Hobbs hunting requests until the Epilogue, because all the birds can be had right here. It’s “John-friendly”, in that the water is at worst waist deep.
I was looking up places in NM after the convo in the Travel thread. I came across this place.
I really want to go. However, the chances of me having a few drinks then deciding to give people shit before shooting them in the face is not zero.
That place looks really cool/ fun.
To complete the Trapper items I need two Moose, one Bear, one Black Bear and a veritable Hamlin of Rats.
Really struggling to find any of it, but I did find the white Arabian horse on my travels. Oh, and I have broken 6 of the 9 horse breeds, so I almost have the last remaining challenge completed.
I have two Del Lobos’ camps to clean out, but I’m saving those for a spectacular ending.
There are rats that run out from the wharf in Van Horn toward the street.
There’s also a side mission in St Denis that involves clearing a bunch of rats. Small game arrows.
Many rats in the cave behind the Elysium Pool falls but most are mangy. Bats galore there too.
Moose: near the lake where the white Arabian is/was (on the same side, approach from the SW (from the hanging dog ranch path).
The cattail pond above valentine too. There’s a spawn point high in Ambarino sort of near the witches brew cabin.
And if you are desperate enough: Lake Owanjilla, on the shore near the dam, spam 6-8 potent herbivore baits. Run back up the hill (looking away) and turn around to see what spawns. I’ve gotten horses, Bison, and moose there.
ETA:
There’s also a rat that runs out in front of the cabin just before that shit stain Micah steps out in American Venom. Doesn’t help you in your quest but it’s a delicious detail. Fuck Micah.
Thanks for the tips.
On the rat front (actual, not Micah), I did the Saint Denis saloon clearing ages ago, but didn’t keep the pelts, or even try for perfect kills, because I never imagined that they would be needed. I need 14 of the little fuckers now, and 3-star rats are hard to find let alone kill with a bow.
It’s one of the myriad of “mistakes” I’ve made while playing, because you don’t get a lot of help from the game itself. E.g. I am two talismans (talismen?) short because I need one gold and one silver earring. I have “acquired” dozens of each earring during my play through, but selling them to the Fence just means they’re gone. You have to save them for crafting the talismans, which is the complete opposite of how the Trapper works.
I sold everything as I acquired it because that is what I thought I was supposed to do. Next time I’m going to prioritize - as everyone says - the legendary satchel and then harvest the shit out of anything I find…and keep it!
Also, taking on the challenges and hunting requests much earlier should make life easier. As long as it doesn’t require a sojourn into New Austin, there’s no reason not to get the majority of it done as Arthur.
Funny how you donate some things, sell others, but can’t sell other things get what you want.
I never did find much of a use for those butchers either.
Enjoy roaming around finishing those quests.
I guess the butchers work if you are brand new to the game and need 60¢ for some ammo.
Horseman challenges complete, so Legend status earned. All Dreamcatchers found. Edmund Lowry Jr. stranger mission complete.
Still need one each of a moose and black bear.
Also, I’m missing 2 O’Driscoll hideouts and the Stringer Bros hideout. I’ve looked them up and can’t find them. Maybe they’re an Arthur thing.
Fuck the rats; if I don’t get 100% because of them this run through I’ll live with it.
Indeed.
All dinosaur bones found and now I’m at 98.5%. The only craftable items left to get are the rat pelts and a silver earring.
I’m just now realizing that I never got the squirrel statue for completing the collection of animals for the wildlife exhibition. I hope I haven’t blown the chance to complete that mission… 
The wildlife exhibit is meant to be completed by John so you should be good.
Does the To Do list still appear on the D pad list thingamadoodle?
I will, of course, keep you apprised.
Yes, and I couldn’t understand why the wildlife mission stayed on there. I am not getting any prompt to visit Mrs Hobbs, but I now know where she lives…
I think she mails an invitation to you after you mail the last set of skins.
Check your post.
Have collected mail since. Might be in my man-bag…
Its a European carry-all.
Got my squirrel statue and got 100%. Turned out I was missing the show with Miss Marjorie.
Good timing, because I plan to start another play through this weekend, correcting my rookie mistakes.