red dead redemption 2 fortify health stamina dead eye

What does fortifying your health, stamina, and dead eye do in Red Dead Redemption 2? 'Fortifying' is an effect that tonics and other consumable items have on your health, stamina, and dead eye bars and cores. In this guide, we'll explain what fortifying actually does.

What does fortifying your health, stamina, and dead eye do in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Fortifying your health, stamina, and dead eye in Red Dead Redemption 2 basically means that they won't drain for a set period of time. If a bar or core is fortified, it'll be highlighted in yellow. The easiest way to fortify one of your bars or cores is to drink tonics, which are essentially the game's healing items.

When you drink a health tonic, for example, your health bar will be fortified. This maximises your health bar for a set period of time, meaning that it won't drop, even when you're taking damage. However, if you take too much damage at once, it'll still decrease, so it doesn't quite make you invincible.

Because of how fortification works, you can view items like health tonics as Red Dead Redemption 2's equivalent of a healing potion. If you're in a tough fight, drink a health tonic and you'll immediately have a better chance of survival. Even drinking one before a fight can be a huge help.

Likewise, drinking a stamina tonic or a dead eye tonic can really improve your chances. Having near infinite stamina for a set amount of time allows you to run long distances without stopping, and having near infinite dead eye means you can fire off a crazy number of shots before your slow motion ends.

The bottom line is that if you're in danger during a fight, or if you know that the next fight is going to be tough, down some tonics and fortify your health, stamina, dead eye, or any combination of the three. Tonics for health, stamina, and dead eye can be looted from most bodies, can be bought from medicine stores, and can be crafted with common ingredients, so don't worry about using them when you need to.