An American Pastoral Scene is the 23rd main story mission in Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2). This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives of An American Pastoral Scene Main Quest including all Gold Medals for 100% completion.
An American Pastoral Scene is unlocked after completing Blessed are the Meek?
Quest Giver: Micah
Chapter: 2
Region: West Elizabeth
Gold Medal Requirements:
- Headshot each of the mounted guards protecting the wagon
- Get 10 kills in Dead Eye
- Complete within 6 minutes
- Complete the mission without taking any health items
Starting Location: Monto’s Rest, West Elizabeth
Talk to Micah
To thank Arthur for rescuing him, Micah would like to cut him in on job robbing a bank coach. Apparently Micah heard one of the O’Driscolls bragging about it while they were in jail together, and now he’s going to get there first.
- GOLD MEDAL: Complete within 6 minutes
Get on your horse and quickly ride to the overlook to wait for the stage. There will be a cinematic of Micah saying it should be along shortly, which you should skip.
Attack the Guards and Stop the Stagecoach
- GOLD MEDAL: Headshot each of the mounted guards protecting the wagon
- GOLD MEDAL: Get 10 kills in Dead Eye
- GOLD MEDAL: Complete the mission without taking any health items
There are a total of three guards riding with the stagecoach. Use Dead Eye to headshot all three to fulfill the first gold medal requirement, and get a head start on the Dead Eye requirement.
Also use Dead Eye to headshot the driver to get the coach to stop.
Once all of them are dead, Micah will hop into the driver’s seat, leaving you to ride shotgun.
Just when everything seems to be going smoothly, Arthur remembers what Micah had said about the O’Driscolls hitting the stage regularly, the one that they are currently riding…
Ouch.
Keep going with the Dead Eye kills. It should be very easy to clean up any remaining ones you need, as there are a gaggle of O’Driscolls swarming you from all angles. Just remember to keep your head down, because they will try to flank you.
Midway through the fight, a wagonload of O’Driscolls will reinforce them from the east shore of the river.
Once you’ve eliminated all of the O’Driscolls, Micah will call you over to the wrecked stage to strip it of its valuables. Shoot the lock off of the lockbox and reap your rewards. Looks like working with Micah was worth it after all. Mission complete!
This finishes An American Pastoral Scene main mission in Red Dead Redemption 2. Now the next quest A Strange Kindness starts.
Next Up: A Strange Kindness
For more Walkthroughs with all gold medals, check out the complete Red Dead Redemption 2 Story Walkthrough.
6 Minutes is not enough it takes about 2 minutes to get there and 2 minutes for the AI to drive the carriage. Should have been 8 minutes because that’s my average everytime I do this mission even when skipping all cutscenes. If you have Gold on this mission my hats off to you because you are a god of time.
The trick I found to getting the time requirement is to not shoot the wagon driver early, let him drive at least half the way there since he drives faster than Micha.
I’ve retried this mission countless times. I’ve shot the coach as late as i possibly could. Why did they decide that 6 minutes was a suitable requirement for this gold. I hate this medal system so god damn much. Actually ruining the game for me. I’m not even joking. I don’t know whether to make a save and just finish the game not caring about medals because i know that if at some point i do want to get the golds i’ll need to load that save to avoid being severely gimped by the terrible replay system that gives you basic equipment and no tonics despite whatever you may have had at the time.
This isn’t fun and is ruining the enjoyment of this completion. I can’t imagine how many people had no idea that the replay system would hamstring them so much when they thought “ah, its fine i’ll just replay for golds at the end like i did with DTA5”.
As for this mission, the timer is so unreasonably tight that if you use Deadeye for more than the required 10 kills, you will most likely end up failing the 6 minute timer because i have a strong suspicion that timer doesn’t slow down with your dead eye usage.
Same here, who ever pitch this medal system should kill himself.
RE: Timer vs Dead Eye
I have no proof for this, but experience tells me that you’re right. I think that the timer measures real time, rather than subjective time for the character while in Dead Eye. However getting four or five easy kills in a row usually results in a net savings of time.
micah doesnt even show up on my map
My first playthrough of this mission was better than the replays… Its ridiculous how stupid this mission’s requirements are! I’m currently in replay mode and all my stats are down! My dead eye is level 3 rather than 8… By the time I kill that first batch my dead eye is gone and my core is about full ish. This replay save doesn’t give me anything to replenish my dead eye… All my tonics are just gone… 6 minutes isnt enough! Was barely enough when I wasnt in replay mode, screw replay mode it’s dumb!!
I managed to get it! Just abandon the mission, then restart from last checkpoint and the games saves you like 2 minutes, it’s up to you to save dead eyed to the last part! Took me a few retries but I got it
Don’t even bother trying to get a gold on this mission. The time requirement is virtually impossible and is absolutely 100% impossible using the replay system.
Several things seem to be really important for getting gold in this one, and helped me a lot.
#1 like the post farther up said, wait until the last possible moment to kill the wagon driver. I waited until just after passing under the railroad bridge. Replayed the mission 5 times killing the driver right away after the other 5 enemies and failed the time limit, first try letting him get that far and I got the gold medal.
#2 During the big shootout at the end you need to trigger the wagon and have all but maybe one or two enemies left before Micah decides to start crossing the river. He will mention crossing right before he starts moving up and across.
#3 Try to only use dead eye to get the kills you need for the dead eye objective and the headshots on the mounted guards/wagon enemies because it may waste time. (uncomfirmed, the video I captured of my sucessful gold medat run was over 7min after editing out all the sruff at the start and end) I needed 4 kills in dead eye at the river (got the other 6 on the wagon sequence) and got maybe 6 to 8 in that last shootout, killed everyone else in real time.
Easy gold if you skip cut scenes and wait until the wagon is between two lines of trees to take out the driver. I fended off the O’Driscolls in less than a minute.
Just got gold on my fifth attempt with a reload to previous save keeping all my high end gear. Some tips would be to watch the Gold Mission play through on Youtube. Shows a good shortcut to save time on the beginning. Also shoot driver later. On the river shootout stay behind the rock that you are stationed at I used Deadeye on each individual person pulled trigger adjusted then reactivated Deadeye to meet the ten, which was only four to five more kills. Then used the auto lock on anyone in the open in medium to long ranges which is faster than Deadeye. Trigger the wagon and use Deadeye from distance to take out if out of range. Shoot the lock off before he who shall be named Douchebag get’s to the wagon. Skip scene and take shot.
Got it in under 6 minutes with ease. Shitvthe driver pretty early too. Can’t get the headshot the guards requirement though.
Took about 5 tries but i
I got it done in the mission replay. Hardest part was trying not to waste the dead eye.
I actually did this mission in under the time limit, including shooting the lock off the carriage… except for the 9 seconds it takes Micah to slowly walk back across the river after the fight ends before it triggers the cutscene.
I’m honestly starting to hate this game a little bit now that I’m actually going for medals on the missions.