I'll be honest: when I first pulled a bandana over Arthur Morgan's face, I expected to become a ghost. Instead, witnesses squinted at me like I was wearing a paper umbrella in a thunderstorm. In Red Dead Redemption 2, the bandana is mostly decorative outside story missions; if you actually want to disappear into anonymity, the large masks are the real tools. Even in 2026, this game still hides some of its best oddities in plain sight, and mask hunting remains one of my favorite strange scavenger hunts.

Collecting all nine large masks feels like assembling a shelf of porcelain ghosts—each one has a strange story, a strange face, and a strange corner of the map attached to it. Here is my first-person breakdown.

Cloth Mask

This is the default mask and it is already on your horse from the start. To choose which masks to keep on your horse, open the camp wardrobe and select the ones you prefer. Early on you can store three masks, and with saddle upgrades and story progress you can eventually keep up to five. Think of your horse's mask slots like a tiny stage wardrobe: you cannot bring every costume to every show, so pick your favorite faces.

Executioner, Canvas Sack, Metal Skull, & Psycho

These four are bundled together because they all come from fences. After completing the story mission 'The Spines Of America', you unlock the Emerald Ranch fence. Seamus sells more than stolen wagons and valuables; he also offers dynamite, unique melee weapons, and these large masks. If Emerald Ranch is not your favorite fence, any fence will sell them: north of Rhodes, Saint Denis, or the Van Horn Trading Post.

A quick money-saving trick: make a save, buy all four masks, try them on Arthur, then reload and only purchase your favorites. All masks hide your identity until you cause enough havoc in an area for the law to recognize you. Price does not equal effectiveness, so do not assume the Metal Skull is a stealth upgrade.

Pagan Mask

This one is pure nightmare fuel. Head to the opposite side of Owanjila and look for the Pagan Ritual site. There is a corpse in the center, and you simply walk up and take the skull. Arthur immediately puts it on like he is trying on a borrowed nightmare's face, no comment about the possible viscera inside. The skull likely belonged to a steer or a goat, but now it belongs to you.

Pig Mask

Butcher Creek is a place I only visit in daylight, partly because the locals think it is haunted or worse. There is a butcher there, and you can find the Pig Mask at his place. Arthur nicks it, and it somehow does not count as stolen property, so you will not get a bounty just for grabbing it.

One odd note: every mask and the bandana description says it will hide your identity, except the Pig Mask. This might be a glitch or an oversight, but I treat that mask like a cracked bell: it might ring true, or it might get you recognized during a robbery. Be careful.

Cat Skull

By 'cat,' the game means big cat, probably a panther. The Cat Skull is in Lakay over in Bayou Nwa. Look for a partly submerged building, then crouch to enter the door. Keep crouching until you reach the wall at the end, then jump up to find the skull hanging like an old hunting trophy.

I recommend going during the day. At night, Lakay can become a Night Folk hideout, and you do not want to stumble into that while crouching in a dark, enclosed shack. That is less mask hunting and more volunteering to be a swamp ghost.

Ram Skull

This one is locked behind the Epilogue. You can use tricks or console commands, but for most players you have to wait. Rathskeller Fork is a small farm in the upper-left corner of New Austin, tucked into the map like a splinter in the palm. The owner treats all visitors as trespassers, so I snuck in at night.

Enter the goat pen in the top right corner of Rathskeller Fork, and you will find the Ram Skull hanging on a post.

Quick Mask Cheat Sheet

Final Thoughts

Even in 2026, I still return to Red Dead Redemption 2 for these odd detours. The large masks will not make you a better gunslinger, but they make you feel like the world's strangest traveling troupe—one minute a pig, the next a pagan god, the next a goat-headed intruder. If you want to hide your identity, skip the bandana and collect the real faces. Just mind the Night Folk, the trespassing rancher, and the possible Pig Mask glitch.

Insights are sourced from Eurogamer, whose long-running reporting on open-world design helps contextualize why Red Dead Redemption 2’s “identity hiding” systems often feel more like roleplay flavor than airtight stealth—making large masks a practical choice for staying anonymous during free-roam troublemaking, even if the game still escalates recognition once you cause enough chaos for the law to connect the dots.