Paint It Black is one of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s most powerful ability cards, though it takes a little bit of practice and patience to really master it. If you’re looking into using Paint It Black, Butterfly_Emma has created an incredible video about how it works.
Note that this is a beginner-level guide. This is for people who are either new to Red Dead Redemption 2 or want to learn more about Paint It Black before trying it out for themselves.
The Paint It Black skill allows you to mark an X on an enemy while in Dead Eye, then fire your gun directly at that spot. If you can mark a headshot with this, you’ll be popping off enemies like wild.
Note that Dead Eye and Eagle Eye are two different, though similar, things. Eagle Eye is activated by pressing L3 and R3 simultaneously (on PS4), and it allows you to hunt for clues, track animals, search for collectibles, and so on. Dead Eye, however, is activated by pressing L2 to aim your weapon, then R3 to trigger the Dead Eye view (on PS4).
Additionally, upgrading the Paint It Black card to Tier III will prevent other players from using PIB on you. That’s a really powerful upgrade, though Tier II will cost you $350, and Tier III will cost you an additional $500. It’s a hefty cost, but you should definitely pay it up.
There are several other tips in the above video, but I’ll let you discover them for yourself.
In the meantime, I threw together a basic loadout for those who are new to the Paint It Black ability card. This loadout is specifically designed to mitigate your Dead Eye bar drain without having to keep chugging bottles of Snake Oil (Snake Oil will refill your Dead Eye meter to full, while regenerating a little bit of Dead Eye core).
I have Paint It Black (Tier III) equipped to my Dead Eye slot, and Eye for an Eye, Live for the Fight, and The Gift of Focus equipped in the passive slots. Here’s what they do:
- Eye for an Eye – A little bit of your Dead Eye meter will be restored every time you land a headshot.
- Live for the Fight – This card lets you regenerate Dead Eye slowly over time.
- The Gift of Focus – This enhances any abilities and items that restore Dead Eye. That means it makes the other two passive cards stronger.
If you can master Paint It Black in Red Dead Redemption 2, you’ll already be playing the game at an above-average skill level. This is a seriously powerful card that really packs a punch in online gameplay.
Great video. So I’m clear, on the Xbox you hit left trigger, then fire, then immediately hit deadeye? Is that correct?
You’ll want to activate Deadeye first (by pressing L3), then fire.
Where your aim comes in that is largely up to you. You can aim-Deadeye-fire, or Deadeye-aim-fire. I use both, depending on the situation. The benefits to aim-Deadeye-fire is that you won’t accidentally paint an X on something you don’t want to shoot. However, sometimes you actually want to paint multiple targets, in which case Deadeye-aim-fire works. Or, if targets are REALLY far away, you can Deadeye, then aim until you see an X pop up, then fire. That helps you aim at things that would otherwise be tricky to hit.