Zed's Dead, Baby - The Most Challenging Achievement in Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2's hardest achievement is a nightmare. Sure, you can knock off most of the Rockstar Games Western's challenges in a few hours, but the Undead Nightmare DLC's Zed's Dead, Baby achievement is a grueling feat that requires an inordinate amount of time and effort. It's easily one of the most demanding 100 percent completion achievements in all of gaming, and it's a perfect example of why Red Dead Redemption 2's challenges are so special.
We've touched on this before, but Red Dead Redemption 2's multiplayer achievements are some of the most difficult and time-consuming in gaming. While you can knock out a sizable chunk of them in a single evening, many of the rewards require hours of grinding, and the ones that don't are subject to unforeseeable bugs and glitches.
For example, the Heading South on a White Bronco achievement requires evading US Marshals while riding a Hungarian Half-Bred horse. You can do this in a single session, but you have to be lucky enough to encounter the lawmen, then have your horse with the unique trait nearby, and finally, have the horse itself not die within a minute or two of evading the Marshals. It's a lot of factors that need to line up for it to pop.
The Unnatural Selection achievement is no less difficult, tasking you with killing every animal in the game. This one can be a grind, but at least you can just hop on a horse, head out into the wilds, and get to work.
Mowing Them Down is another grind that's among the most difficult multiplayer achievements in any game, requiring you to kill 500 enemies using a mounted weapon. While you can get this by grinding matches in the free Red Dead Redemption 2 Online beta, you'll likely need to grind it out in the full game as well.
Then there's Spinning Plates, which requires you to parry or dodge enemy attacks 500 times. While this isn't as difficult as some of Red Dead Redemption 2's other parry achievements, the Game of the Year physical edition, which is the only version you can buy now, has a bug with the counter system that makes it virtually impossible without boosting.
Finally, there's Zed's Dead, Baby, the achievement you're here for. The 100 percent completion achievement for Undead Nightmare is a daunting task due to how long it takes to complete the DLC's main story missions, as well as the grind involved with helping the undead to finish their journey.
The multiplayer grinds are particularly challenging because many require you to reach max level, which takes a significant amount of time. The max-level achievement is a notable grind in itself, but it's made harder by the fact that you earn experience slower as you progress through the ranks.
Finally, Red Dead Redemption 2's Poker Ace achievement is virtually impossible without boosting due to the aggressive AI players. You need to win ten straight hands of poker against the notoriously difficult NPCs, but they're so adept at reading your tells that it's virtually impossible to beat them without communicating with a friend or coworker.
So what's the hardest achievement in Red Dead Redemption? It's undoubtedly Kingpin, requiring you to kill eight players in Land Grab mode. The achievement is made even harder by the challenges of organizing boosting sessions, but even without that caveat, it's a nightmare. The mode's maps are huge, and you have to travel long distances across dangerous terrain. Worse still, if you draw the attention of the law, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a lengthy chase.
If you're looking for a break from the grind, check out our Red Dead Redemption 2 review.
