Immersive Duels V1.7.1

Turn antagonizing into an immersive showdown. Challenge eligible armed tough guys wherever you stand, with no fixed duel spots or positioning requirements. Native quickdraw stances, Arthur and John dialogue, vanilla music and skill-based opponents bring deadly duels into everyday encounters. Victories attract tougher challengers.

An argument outside the saloon. A bandit who refuses to be intimidated. A lawman with something to prove. Immersive Duels turns antagonizing into a proper quickdraw showdown.

Provoke an eligible NPC, let the exchange finish, and choose Duel. Your character challenges them, they answer, and the confrontation becomes a tense showdown with voiced dialogue, duel stances, quickdraw animations and the game’s own music.

Duels grow out of heated confrontations. The mod gives you room for that second antagonize, even with tough characters who would otherwise jump straight into a fight. By then, your opponent has been thoroughly provoked and is angry enough for a showdown. Challenge them, or keep the argument going and let it escalate naturally.

Duel wherever the argument happens. No fixed duel spots or positioning requirements. Challenge eligible tough guys, armed strangers, bandits and lawmen across free roam.

WAIT FOR THEIR DRAW
Let them make the first move. Lightly hold RT, wait for your opponent to commit to drawing, then fully draw your own gun. A well-timed response rewards patience with a powerful first shot.

The reward defaults to 10x opening-shot damage, with an adjustable multiplier. Drawing first does not earn it, and a miss spends the opportunity. Later shots deal normal damage. You can also adjust ordinary first-shot damage separately; it defaults to 1.00x.

THE TOWN CAN CHALLENGE YOU
Sometimes the argument comes looking for you. Armed challengers can appear in towns, walk up, stop at a respectful distance and deliver a threat or insult. Accept their duel, walk away or answer through the usual interactions.

Tough Guy. Sharpshooter. Duelist. Each challenger carries a reputation that tells you what you are up against. Tough Guys are the least experienced of the three, Sharpshooters react faster, and Duelists are the most dangerous. Their response timing is configurable.

Challengers call out from a distance. If you are busy, indoors or in a shop, they wait nearby for their chance to confront you.

Encounter chance, frequency, cooldown and spawning distance are adjustable. The default cooldown between town challenges is two minutes.

BUILD A REPUTATION
The more duels you win, the tougher the challengers who come looking for you. Early on, Tough Guys are more common. As your victories build, Sharpshooters and Duelists become more likely to seek a showdown.

The default mix begins at 75% Tough Guy / 20% Sharpshooter / 5% Duelist. It shifts gradually, reaching 20% / 35% / 45% after 30 victories.

Victories are saved between sessions, so your reputation continues to grow as you play. Reputation is shared across your game saves.

Adjust each challenger’s starting chance, choose how many victories it takes to reach the highest reputation, or disable progression and keep your preferred mix throughout your playthrough.

TROUBLE AT THE SALOON
Even a quiet visit can turn into a showdown. Sober and drunk patrons may challenge you when you arrive or after you cause trouble inside. They can be smoking, drinking or moving around the saloon before approaching you. Drunk opponents bring their own unsteady duel style.

Doorway confrontations. A drunk can bump into you at the entrance, trade words and challenge you to settle things outside.

These encounters are available at nine saloons: Smithfield’s and Keane’s in Valentine; Rhodes, Van Horn, Armadillo, Tumbleweed and Blackwater; and Bastille and Doyle’s in Saint Denis.

TAKE IT OUTSIDE
An argument in a saloon, shop or other interior can become a gun duel outside. Accept the challenge, step onto suitable open ground and stand where you want the showdown to happen. Your opponent finds a clear position around you, with 4–8 metre spacing by default, adjustable in the INI.

There are no required ground markers or exact saved standing spots. Leave the doorway behind and let the confrontation unfold outside.

THAT CLASSIC DUEL VIEW
A smooth transition brings the camera down beside your gun as the standoff begins, recreating the low, right-side view from the game’s gunslinger duels. Commit to drawing or enter Dead Eye, and the view returns to normal aiming.

The duel camera is enabled by default and optional. Separate cinematic-camera chances can add dramatic moments when a shot kills, seriously wounds or disarms an opponent.

HOW TO START A DUEL

• Focus on an eligible NPC and antagonize them once.
• If your opponent requires two antagonizes, antagonize the same NPC again. Let the spoken exchange finish.
• Choose Duel — RB on controller / Q on keyboard.
• Let the challenge and reply play out, then use the game’s normal draw controls. Lightly press RT to prepare, or fully commit to your draw and Dead Eye.

Choose one or two antagonizes. Ordinary opponents normally require two; eligible criminals require one by default. This includes gang members, outlaws and Gray or Braithwaite militia. The INI lets you disable that exception or enable one-antagonize invitations for every eligible opponent.

Opponents will not wait forever. Hesitate too long, and they may draw first.

A PROPER WESTERN SHOWDOWN
Over 1,500 Arthur and John voice lines. The mod includes 1,584 distinct player lines: 839 for Arthur and 745 for John. Dialogue covers challenges, refusals, backing out, taking an argument outside and reacting to duel outcomes, with subtitles when enabled in your game settings. Opponents answer in their own voice with acceptance, threats or insults; their replies and scripted saloon conversations are additional.

Preparation that fits the scene. Your opponent turns to face you and answers your challenge. If they already have a handgun out, they holster it after your line before preparing for the duel. A brief pause lets the exchange breathe before the stance and music begin.

Horseback and wagon duels. Challenge eligible riders and wagon occupants. They dismount or leave their wagon before facing you on foot for the showdown.

Quickdraw stances and shooting. Both you and your opponent take part in the showdown, using the game’s duel animations and shooting behavior. The optional Even Stance Blend LML add-on makes Slow and Fast stance entrances blend as smoothly as Normal.

Vanilla duel music. Tense standoff music builds the anticipation, changes as the shooting begins and gives way to an ending cue when your opponent is defeated.

CHOOSE YOUR OPPONENT CAREFULLY
A townsman, a bandit and an experienced gunslinger should not feel the same. Six difficulty profiles give different opponents their own response timing and patience. More experienced shooters react sooner; fully drawing or entering Dead Eye prompts an urgent response.

Slow, Normal or Fast draws. Opponents differ in how quickly they physically draw their gun, as well as how long they wait to reach for it. Set the percentage chance of each draw speed for ordinary NPC skill categories and separately for Tough Guys, Sharpshooters and Duelists.

Reaction delays and actual draw speeds have separate INI sections, so you can tune both parts of the showdown. Standing still is a decision, too.

DUEL WITHOUT DEADEYE
Want a more demanding showdown? Set NoDeadEyeDueling=1 in the INI to disable automatic Dead Eye when you draw and face your opponent in real time.

Mouse and keyboard preparation. Optional timing assistance lets the opponent’s reaction timer begin after your preparation reaches an adjustable threshold, giving you time to charge your draw. Opponents still respond when you commit to drawing and can make the first move if you hesitate. Controller timing remains unchanged.

SETTLE IT WITH KNIVES
Hold a knife and an eligible Duel prompt becomes Knife Duel. Your character delivers the challenge, the opponent replies and draws a knife, and the confrontation becomes a knife fight with duel music, law protection and additional protection against outside interference.

Knife duels end when one of you dies or you separate beyond the configured escape distance—50 metres by default. Knife duels are enabled by default and can be disabled in the INI.

Thanks to beniguess1899 for the idea.

DECLINE — OR TRY TO BACK OUT
Before accepting: use Defuse to turn down an approaching challenger. Arthur or John delivers a refusal from a dedicated dialogue pool and declines the challenge. Default controls are X on controller / R on keyboard.

After accepting: you can still try to talk your way out of a gun duel.
Before either participant draws, choose Back Out — B on controller / F on keyboard. Your character tries to defuse the confrontation, and your opponent can accept or refuse.

Acceptance defaults to 50% and is adjustable. You get one attempt per duel. A refusal leaves the showdown in progress.

THE LAST WORD
Arthur and John can have something to say after a victory, a disarm or an opponent’s retreat. The remark fits the outcome, with dialogue for both gun and knife duels where appropriate. A two-second pause lets the result settle before they speak; adjust the delay in the INI.

THE WORLD REACTS
After your challenge, nearby civilians react to the confrontation. People caught close to either duelist or in the line of fire try to move clear, including eligible armed or unfriendly bystanders and horse riders. Others watch the showdown.

Nearby recognised ambient gang members, armed guards and locals in rough towns such as Van Horn are covered by duel protection, including Gray and Braithwaite militia, helping keep the confrontation between you and your opponent.

Surviving opponents keep their natural injury reactions. A wounded or disarmed opponent may flee, surrender, cower or keep fighting, depending on the game and your installed behavior mods.

Death, backing out and unexpected interruptions end the duel and release its camera, music and stance.

DUELS AND THE LAW
Accepted duels use the Exempt crime policy by default, protecting the duel opponent and their corpse from assault and murder reports.

Prefer legal consequences? Choose Reduced for limited protection or Vanilla for the normal crime system. Unrelated crimes and existing bounties remain subject to the law.

MAKE IT YOUR KIND OF DUEL
The INI lets you tailor the experience:

• Duel availability: invitation chance and whether eligible opponents require one or two antagonizes.
• Approach distance: a randomized 5–7 metre preference by default.
• Reaction delays: opponent response timing and patience, including individual skill profiles.
• Draw speeds: Slow, Normal and Fast draw chances for each NPC category and challenger type.
• Player controls: optional duels without Dead Eye and mouse preparation timing assistance.
• Backing out: enable it and set the acceptance chance.
• Opening-shot damage: ordinary first-shot damage and the wait-for-the-draw reward.
• Town challengers: encounter frequency, role chances and reputation progression.
• Presentation: dialogue, preparation pause, duel camera, music and cinematic chances.
• Crowds and eligibility: spectator range and which NPCs can be challenged.
• Crime policy: Exempt, Reduced or Vanilla.

Restart the game after changing your settings.

ENRAGE & ENHANCED BRAWLING COMPATIBILITY
enRAGE compatibility activates automatically when enRAGE is installed. One antagonize is enough for eligible opponents, and their reaction determines how likely they are to accept your challenge:

• Standing their ground — 100%: Hothead, Proud and Loyal.
• Walking away — 60%: Cold and Greedy.
• Shrugging it off — 20%: Drifter.
• Fleeing — 0%: Coward.

Adjust these chances independently in the INI’s enRAGECompatibility section. A walking-away response can still leave you an opportunity to challenge them.

Enhanced Brawling is supported too. Spectators can watch and clear the duel space without the mod’s spectator cue being treated as a bar fight.

RECOMMENDED: PED DAMAGE OVERHAUL RELOADED
I recommend Ped Damage Overhaul Reloaded for richer injury and disarm reactions. PDO compatibility is enabled by default. PDO is optional; Immersive Duels also works without it.

The recommended PDO disarm reaction weights are:

• Surrender: 40
• Flee: 30
• Cower: 20
• Attack: 10

For opponents breaking surrender, I recommend 0% rearming for cowardly and neutral NPCs, and 15% for tough NPCs — enough for a dangerous opponent to occasionally try again.

INSTALLATION

• Install Script Hook RDR2 and its ASI loader.
• With the game closed, copy ImmersiveDuels.asi and ImmersiveDuels.ini into the main game folder beside RDR2.exe.
• Optional: to use Even Stance Blend, install Lenny’s Mod Loader and copy the included Immersive Duels Even Stance Blend folder into your game’s lml folder.
• Launch Story Mode and start an argument.

Install only one version of Immersive Duels. The main ASI works without Rampage or Lenny’s Mod Loader; LML is needed only for the optional stance-blend add-on.

CONTROLS & QUICK ANSWERS
Duel: RB / Q. Back Out: B / F. Prompts follow your game bindings. The mod works automatically while installed.

Why is there no Duel prompt? Challenge the same eligible NPC twice and let the exchange finish; some criminals need only one antagonize with the default settings. An opponent’s temperament, injuries, involvement in missions or active combat can prevent a duel. An opponent threatening you with a drawn gun can still be challenged before combat starts. Eligible horse riders and wagon occupants can be challenged too.

Does everyone need a handgun? You need a pistol or revolver in your holster for a gun duel; a sawn-off shotgun does not qualify. A message will tell you if you are missing one. By default, an accepted opponent without a handgun can receive a revolver. You can restrict duels to NPCs who already carry one.

How deadly are duels? Losing a showdown can mean death. Your opening-shot bonus ends with that shot; subsequent combat uses normal damage.

Can I use it online? Immersive Duels is for single-player Story Mode.

Credits:

Rassermand