You’re riding through the Heartlands, minding your own business, when you see a woman fussing over a hole in the dirt. This is Deborah MacGuiness. She’s an "amateur paleontologist," which is basically a polite way of saying she’s obsessed with digging up old rocks and putting them together in ways nature never intended. This encounter kicks off RDR2 A Test of Faith, one of the most time-consuming and bizarre stranger missions in Red Dead Redemption 2.
Most players grab the mission in Chapter 2 and then forget about it for forty hours. That’s a mistake. Honestly, if you want that 100% completion trophy, you’ve got to start thinking about these bones early. There are 30 of them. Some are perched on cliffs that’ll kill your horse if you breathe wrong, and others are tucked away in deserts you can’t even visit until the story is basically over.
Why You Can’t Finish A Test of Faith Early
Here is the big kicker. You literally cannot finish this mission as Arthur Morgan. Well, not without using some seriously sketchy glitches to get into New Austin. Out of the 30 dinosaur bones required, eight of them are located in the restricted New Austin territory. If you try to ride down there as Arthur, the "Invisible Sniper" or a swarm of lawmen will end your paleontological career pretty fast.
Basically, you’re playing the long game here. You’ll find the first 22 bones as Arthur, mail them off at a post office, and then wait until the Epilogue to grab the final eight as John Marston. It’s a bit of a bummer if you wanted Arthur to see the "masterpiece" Deborah is building, but that’s just how Rockstar designed it.
The Rewards (And Why They Actually Matter)
Don't think this is just a scavenger hunt for a pat on the back. The rewards are actually useful, especially the first one.
- 1 Bone Location Mailed: You get a Quartz Chunk. This is huge. You need this specific item to craft the Bear Claw Talisman at a Fence. That talisman permanently slows your Health Core drain by 10%.
- 15 Bone Locations Mailed: She sends you a Skull Statue. It’s cool, but mostly just something to sell for cash.
- 30 Bone Locations Mailed: After you mail the final batch, you wait a bit, get an invitation, and head to her ranch in Cumberland Forest. Your prize? The Jawbone Knife. It’s a unique melee weapon made from a fossilized jaw. It looks wicked.
Tracking Down the Trickiest Bones
You’ve probably seen the maps online with 30 dots scattered around. They make it look easy. It isn't. Some of these bones are tiny, and even with Eagle Eye (press those thumbsticks!), they barely glow.
Take the bone at Bacchus Station. You have to navigate a narrow ledge on a cliffside that feels like a platforming nightmare. Or the one in the Oil Derrick. You actually have to climb down the ladder inside the derrick to find it at the bottom of a dark pit. It's easy to walk right over it if you aren't looking down.
Then there's the "Totalisaurus." Once you finally meet Deborah at her house (Firwood Rise) after collecting all 30, she shows you what she's been working on. It’s... a mess. She’s basically bolted different species together into a Frankenstein monster of a dinosaur. It’s hilarious and a little sad. It actually parodies the real-life "Bone Wars" of the late 1800s where rival paleontologists like Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope were so desperate to find new species they sometimes reconstructed them completely wrong.
Pro-Tips for the Hunt
- Use Your Binoculars: If you’re at a high vantage point, scan the ground. Sometimes the "shimmer" of a collectible is visible from further away than you’d think.
- Mail in Batches: Don’t wait until you have 30. Mail one immediately to get that Quartz Chunk. The Bear Claw Talisman is a lifesaver in gunfights.
- The New Austin Slog: When you finally reach the Epilogue, head to Gaptooth Ridge and Rio Bravo first. The bones there are in some of the most desolate spots on the map, so bring extra horse stimulant.
Making Sense of the Madness
Is it worth it? If you're just looking for a quick thrill, probably not. But RDR2 A Test of Faith is part of the "Best in the West" requirement for a reason. It forces you to see parts of the map—like the deep canyons of Hennigan's Stead or the peaks of Ambarino—that you’d otherwise skip during the main story.
The ending cutscene is the perfect capstone. Watching Deborah proudly display her scientific abomination while your character stares in confused silence is peak Red Dead humor.
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To get moving on this today, open your map and head to the northeast of Flatneck Station. Look for the "Stranger" question mark in the Heartlands. Talk to Deborah, help her load that first bone into her wagon, and then keep your eyes peeled for anything that looks like a ribcage sticking out of a cliffside. Just remember to grab that first reward from the post office as soon as you find your first fossil; that Health Core buff is too good to leave sitting in a mailbox.