Cowards Die Many Times
Vincente de Santa
- Mission giver
- Vincente de Santa
- Location
- Chuparosa
- Starts at
- Escalera
- Ends at
- Chuparosa
- Unlocked by
- Must a Saviour Die?
Player notes
At Escalera, Colonel Allende tells John Marston that Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella are being held in Chuparosa. Captain Vincente de Santa offers to take him there, and John rides beside him in the wagon. On the road, De Santa passes the time with shooting challenges. They reach Chuparosa and head into its church, where Mexican Army soldiers strike John down and leave him unconscious.
John wakes bound as De Santa prepares to execute him. Abraham Reyes and his rebels attack the town before the captain can finish the job, disrupting the execution and starting a battle with the Mexican Army. Still tied, John makes his way through the fighting to Reyes, who cuts him free. John then reaches the cantina and recovers the weapons that the soldiers have taken from him.
Armed again, John joins the rebels in clearing Mexican soldiers from Chuparosa. He forces his way into El Alcalde De Chuparosa, fighting up through the building and onto its upper floor. Captain Espinoza waits inside, and John kills him. Outside, Reyes addresses his assembled rebels and calls on them to continue their fight against the regime.
Objectives
6 stepsIn the order the game gives them. The unnumbered steps only appear if you go off script.
- 1Ride shotgun with De Santa to Chuparosa.
- 2Enter the church.
- 3Find Abraham Reyes and have him cut you free.
- 4Retrieve your weapons from the cantina.
- 5Kill all of the soldiers in town.
- 6Kill Captain Espinoza.
Gallery
02Screenshots from Cowards Die Many Times, mirrored from Red Dead Wiki.
Trivia
- โThe mission gets its name from the famous Shakespeare line "Cowards die many times before their actual deaths". This is said by Julius Caesar in the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.
- โIt may also be a reference to Captain De Santa, as he is considered a coward, and is killed twice (maingame and Undead Nightmare).
- โIt could also be a reference to the end of Guns of the Magnificent Seven, in which Chris says "Cowards die many times, the brave only once."
- โCaptain De Santa seems to understand what the Colonel wants with Marston and seems to be unwilling to betray Marston at first.
- โStrangely, when John is almost executed, he is wearing metal handcuffs. However, when he reaches Reyes, it is now rope.
- โWhen John is captured he will be wearing the cowboy outfit, this happens no matter what outfit the player was wearing earlier.
- โIf you manage to knock Espinoza out via fists, and then refrain from killing him, Espinoza will get up and run away from Chuparosa. Since you didn't kill him, the mission is not complete, but it does not end in failure, either. The mission will remain stuck like this until you fail and restart the mission. If you do manage to track him down and kill him after this the mission may proceed.
- โWhen you are supposed to find Reyes and let him untie you, John is invincible until his hands are untied.
- โIf the player wishes to avoid all the gunfight after re-collecting the weapons, they can simply go around to the left side of the building (closest an entrance to Chuparosa) and climb up some crates and jump onto a roof that leads to an awning just outside where Espinoza is hiding. This will cause a guard to come outside and the player can kill Espinoza quite easily without taking much damage from the gunfire.
Mission data from Red Dead Wiki, CC BY-SA. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.
Last verified September 14, 2026