If the bow is your weapon of choice, you know how fast your stamina drains when you hold your bow drawn while aiming. Indeed, it fully drains 8 stamina bars in about 22 sec (with perfect weight), and you have even less time if you haven't leveled up your stamina yet or when your character is overweight.
But there are two powerful trinkets you can obtain very early in Chapter 2, that significantly slow stamina drain rate when drawing a bow:



Hawk Talon Trinket alone increases the time you can hold the bow drawn from 22 to 32 sec, and Ancient Arrowhead - up to 45 sec, but if you have both you can hold the bow while aiming for 1 min 52 sec, which is 5 times longer!

Hawk Talon Trinket is very easy to obtain - you will find it at the source of Deadboot Creek
north of Lake Isabella in the snow-covered mountains where you spent Chapter 1 (look at the upper left corner of the map below):


(click to expand)
* Note: I used this map[rdr2map.com] as a source.

Ancient Arrowhead is another story - you will have to find all 20 dreamcatcher trees, but you can absolutely do it in relatively short time from the start of Chapter 2, since now you have the map with all the locations and the trees can be easily spotted from a distance with eagle eye. In addition, all dreamcatchers are grouped in one limited area of the map, the vast majority in New Hanover.

When you find the last tree, you will get the map where all the locations are connected with lines, which creates a drawing of a bison with an X where its eye should be, and it points somewhere a bit north of Elysian Pool:



If after that you go to Elysian Pool, you will discover a big cave behind the waterfall. Inside the cave you can find wall painting of a bison, and Ancient Arrowhead is hidden in the eye of the bison.
⚠ Don't try to check the bison's eye in the cave before you find all dreamcatchers - the arrowhead won't be there until you find the last dreamcatcher tree and receive the drawing!

⚠ Be aware that Ancient Arrowhead will be among your valuables that can be sold to the fence! Be careful not to sell it by accident, since if you do it will be gone forever and so will its perk!

During your trip to the mountains and while exploring the map you can also collect ingredients for 2 talismans and find another two useful trinkets.

On my map above I marked the location of Cobalt Petrified Wood under the cliff just north of Lake Isabella. You will need it for Boar Tusk Talisman, which will help you with your horse and can be used as a cool tie:



You can find and hunt Legendary Boar in Bluewater Marsh (its location is also marked on the map above - look in the bottom-right corner). It will give you the 2nd ingredient needed for the talisman - Legendary Boar Tusk.
⚠ You must complete "Exit Pursued by a Bruised Ego" mission (bear hunt with Hosea) to unlock legendary animals!

The 3rd ingredient is a Gold Earring you will find in Watson's Cabin near Little Creek River northwest of Wallace Station (you can visit there on your way to the mountains). The jewelry box with a pair of gold earrings is in the drawer of a nightstand with Watson family photograph, at the foot of the bed.


(click to expand)

There's other good loot in the cabin, including Silver chain bracelet on the nightstand to the left of the head of the bed (you will need it for another talisman) and most importantly, semi-auto shotgun in the basement. And if you return to the cabin the next day or later you'll also find a lockbox with $73.

Emerald Ranch fence will be unavailable until you complete "The Spines of America" mission (stagecoach robbery with Hosea), but you can craft trinkets and talismans and sell valuables to fences in Rhodes, Saint Denis and Van Horn from the beginning of Chapter 2.

The habitat of Legendary White Bison is on Lake Isabella north shore (it's marked on my first map at the beginning of the previous section of the guide). While you're there, hunt him down and get his horn, which is the 1st ingredient for the talisman.

There's another important encounter near Lake Isabella - with a very good chance you will find White Arabian horse roaming around the southwest shore or near the NW end of the lake. This is hands down the best horse you can get at this stage of the game, and it's free of charge.

The 2nd ingredient is Abalone shell fragment, which you will find on the bench inside a workshop/pantry of a house just north of Sheriff's office in Rhodes:


(click to expand)

The 3rd ingredient is a Silver earring. It's pretty common, so most probably you already have it in your bag if you loot NPCs and places. Bur even if you don't (or you sold it), you have a very good chance to steal it from Radley's House just west of Rhodes (it's marked on the map above). The jewelry box is on a bookcase shelf inside the NE bedroom (the first room on the left if you enter the house from the north).

There's a certain chance there will be some other jewelry instead of 2 silver earrings (it's somewhat randomized), but you can use a simple trick to ensure finding the earrings eventually. Before entering the house, set up a camp nearby and make a manual save. Then loot the house, and if some other jewelry drops, load this save and repeat this until you get the earrings (usually you find them right away of need to reload once).

If you go south of Rhodes to the Flat Iron Lake shore near Braithwaite Manor, you can cross the narrow strait to a small island where you will find Cat Eye Trinket, which gives unique perk of increasing the length of fortifying tonic effects by 20% (look at the map above).

Before crossing to the small island with the trinket, don't forget to take Naval Compass from the boathouse nearby (you will give it to Pearson after he mentions his old compass while playing poker at some point in Chapter 2).

While you're there, I strongly suggest swimming/rowing to the largest island to the NW to collect some perfect iguana skins for Materials Satchel upgrade and trapper's clothes (you'll need to have Varmint rifle with you), and also harvest some Cuban Land Crabs. This island is the only place to find those animals until much later in the game.
And you will find Tricorn pirate Hat and Aged Pirate Rum in the shipwreck there (see the mark on my map above).

You can find another very useful trinket to the west of Annesburg, near the shipwreck on the river bank:

During "Landmarks of Riches" treasure hunt you get a piece of jewelry along with every map you discover, so if you find all 4 you will have all jewelry items needed for all talismans:

This is one of the most useful trinkets especially early in the game, when you need a lot of perfect pelts and carcasses for upgrades, crafting, quests etc., and just to get more money from selling parts you gather from hunted animals.
Unlike talismans, the only ingredient needed for crafting a trinket is the part you get from legendary animal.

You should make a short trip west of Strawberry to hunt Legendary Buck, you can sell the pelt right away to the trapper nearby, and then craft the trinket at the fence next time you visit Rhodes (or Emerald Ranch, if you unlocked this fence already). Here's Legendary buck location on the map:

On the way from Strawberry to Legendary Buck location don't forget to visit Francis Sinclair to initiate "Geology for Beginners" quest so you could start locating Rock Carvings, there's a big reward when you find all 10 of them (Old Compass to craft Raven Claw Talisman that slows degradation for all weapons by 20%).

Take a short detour to get the 1st Landmark of Reaches treasure map (and Gold earring) from the obelisk NW of Owanjila lake (see the map above). As I explained before, Landmark of Reaches treasure hunt is the simplest and most reliable way to acquire all jewelry items needed for all talismans, and at the end you'll get the biggest treasure in the game (6 gold bars worth $3,000), and will also advance 5 ranks of Explorer challenges.

This trip is maybe your first opportunity to hunt cougars, so mind your surrounding and watch your back so you won't turn from a hunter into a prey. ;)

Thank you for your attention, I will greatly appreciate your thoughts, questions, notes and suggestions.

If you liked my guide, please, don't forget to hit the thumbs up button to keep the guide on the first page, so it will be easier to find for others. Thanks!



Here you can see all my other guides:

Akunamatata's Guides