Woah, 'Red Dead Redemption 2' Corpses Actually Decompose

We’re going on for four years now since the release of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2, and the level of detail in the game still continues to astound players everywhere. ‘Look at this cool thing people just found in RDR2’ might as well be its own category of news at this point, and even after all this time, that doesn’t seem like it’s set to slow down any time soon.

This time around, fans on Reddit have been discovering (and consequently writing things that are probably going to land them on some kind of watchlist) the wonders of body decomposition. Fun! But really though, it’s a super cool find.

Before we go on, be sure to check out some of the best Red Dead Redemption 2 wins and fails below.

It was first posted on the r/reddeadredemption subreddit by user AllanRosckof, who wrote: “Question about NPC decomposition. How long does it take for a body to turn into a skeleton?” Attached, is a delightful picture of an NPC, going through several stages of highly detailed decay. 

The resounding reaction to this was confusion: “I thought the bodies just disappeared after a while,” responded Zealous1329. Apparently, no. According to AllanRosckof, bodies only disappear if they’re left in a place where other NPCs can see them, so basically, as long as they’re in a secluded area, they’ll be there to stay - just not remain entirely intact. They also added that the whole decomposition process took about two to three days.

Other users in the thread have been understandably impressed: “I recently killed a gang of bounty hunters after me in the middle of Heartlands, some time went by, […] I somehow crossed back over the location of the shootout[,] and found all of their decomposing corpses, they were all in the mummification stage as shown here in the third picture. I never checked back to see them turn into skeletons, but the level of detail in this game never ceases to amaze me,” said MercuryMorrison1971. “This game is too much man. 2018 game and still beats a lot of games when it comes to details. It’s not even funny anymore,” wrote MasterHepburns. 

There’s no doubt that fans will continue to spot more things like this during the wait for Red Dead Redemption 3 (which is going to be a thing, by the way, according to the CEO of Take-Two), but it’s almost certainly going to be quite a wait yet, given the eight years between the first two games. We might end up looking like those decomposed NPCs before we actually get our hands on it.