Enter, Pursued by a Memory

Before you start

• Finish the previous story mission, Outlaws From the West. This mission starts automatically afterward (sources 10, 12, 14).
• Keep a sawed-off shotgun in your current save. It is the weapon the mission gives you, and Fandom lists not having one as a failure condition on replays (source 10).
• You do not have Dead Eye yet, so plan on slow, deliberate aiming (source 10).
• Button names below are PlayStation/Xbox labels.

1. Watch the opening scene and set out

Let the opening cutscene play. It establishes that John never returned and that Arthur and Javier will go look for him. Guides differ on how it starts. One says it follows the previous mission immediately, and another says you wake in the gang's house and Abigail greets you (sources 19, 6). Either way the scene runs straight into the ride, so just continue.

Checkpoint: You are on horseback with Javier and the game prompts you to follow him.

2. Follow Javier to the abandoned camp and up the mountain

Ride behind Javier and stay close. Holding the follow input (X on PlayStation, A on Xbox) keeps you at his pace automatically (sources 6, 19). Javier finds John's trail at an abandoned campsite with a fresh fire. Inspecting the fire is optional, and so is talking to Javier along the way. The conversation adds story context about the boat escape from Blackwater (source 8). The route runs along the river, then climbs around a ravine, and near the summit you reach the body of John's horse. The ride also doubles as a horse care tutorial. An unclean horse risks harming its Health Core unless you brush it or take it through water (source 19). Javier fires a shot to see if John can hear, and John calls for help in the distance.

Checkpoint: You reach the dead horse near the summit and hear John shouting from somewhere ahead.

3. Dismount and equip the sawed-off shotgun

The path ahead is too narrow for horses. Stand next to your horse and hold the weapon wheel button (L1 or LB), because weapons are stored on the saddle. Tilt the right stick up for the weapon slot, press L2 or LT to choose the sawed-off shotgun, then release L1 or LB (source 19). You can swap back to the revolver straight away (source 2), but you may prefer to keep the shotgun for the first wolf fight.

Checkpoint: The sawed-off shotgun is in Arthur's hands and you are on foot beside Javier.

4. Climb to John on foot

Walk with Javier up the narrow path, climbing and taking a short breather on the way. Do not run ahead of him, because Fandom says moving past Javier fails the mission (source 10). One guide mentions jumping a ledge and then crouching (source 6). John sits on an easily missed ledge (source 3). Arthur and Javier help him off it.

Checkpoint: John is with you and Arthur starts carrying him back toward the horses.

5. Defend Javier and John from the first wolf pack

A pack of three wolves attacks as Arthur carries John. Javier takes John toward the nearby horses, and you must kill the wolves before they reach anyone. The shotgun fires two single shots before a reload, and ammo is tight, so do not shoot at long range. The safest approach: use the Call button to pull the wolves' attention onto you. Rectify Gaming suggests walking away from Javier while you call (source 8). Fandom suggests sprinting and jumping onto the rock as soon as the distraction begins, then killing the two wolves (source 10). Dive out of the way if one gets close. Controller players can set Lock-on Mode (On Foot/Mount) to Wide for easier targeting (source 10). A riskier alternative is to let the wolves go after Javier and John while you call to slow them. One wolf knocks the pair down and you move in fast. iReddead and Primewikis say they can take some damage, but failing to protect them ends the mission with a unique death scene (sources 5, 6). If the last wolf survives a shot it runs away. I could not confirm whether a fled wolf counts against the kill-all objective, so aim for kills.

Checkpoint: All three wolves are dead, or have fled, and Javier and John are safe at the horses.

6. Mount up and ride down

Once the wolves are dealt with, get on your horse with Triangle or Y and follow Javier down the mountain (source 6). If you want to change weapons away from the shotgun, do it now, before riding. See the troubleshooting notes for why.

Checkpoint: You are riding behind Javier and a second wolf attack begins.

7. Fight the second wolf group from horseback

More wolves chase you on the way down, and sources disagree on how many. RDR2.org says more attack from the right, Guides4Gamers says two come down the hill and a third joins later, and Gamerguides says four attack (sources 24, 2, 19). Expect between two and four and do not rely on a fixed number. Equip the shotgun and kill them from the saddle, engaging at close range (source 3). Take a moment to aim so you do not waste shells. Fandom says your horse sometimes tramples the last wolves coming from the left, and that this does not break the no-damage goal (source 10).

Checkpoint: The wolves are dead or have dropped away, and you can keep riding without being attacked.

8. Ride back to camp

After the last wolf, continue following Javier down through the river to camp. The ending cutscene plays on arrival, as they help John off the horse and it looks like he will survive.

Checkpoint: The final cutscene plays and the mission-complete screen appears.

9. Optional: meet the Gold Medal conditions

Gold needs both objectives in a single run. First, kill all the wolves without taking damage, since a wolf bite voids it. Second, finish with at least 80 percent accuracy. Fandom suggests restarting if you miss more than two shots (source 10). iReddead suggests firing at non-lethal parts such as the torso during the ride down to pad your accuracy (source 5). That conflicts with one-shot-per-wolf advice elsewhere, so test it yourself. Primewikis says only the first fight can hurt Arthur, while Fandom and Gamerguides count bites in either fight (sources 6, 10, 19). Safest is to assume both fights count. Requirements reset on replays, so you must meet all of them in the same run.

Checkpoint: The results screen shows a Gold Medal.

Choices and things you can miss

• There are no story branches and no permanent consequences beyond progression, based on the sources I found.
• Fight style in the first battle is a real choice. Drawing the wolves onto yourself is safer. Letting them go after Javier and John while you call is riskier and can end in a death scene (sources 5, 6, 8).
• Weapon choice after the first fight is a decision. You may swap to another weapon before mounting, which helps with the PC accuracy report below (sources 6, 9), but the shotgun is useful for close-range work on the ride.
• Failure conditions per Fandom: assaulting, killing or abandoning Javier or John, letting either die, killing or abandoning your horse, lacking a sawed-off shotgun, or dying (source 10).
• The mountaintop area is only accessible during this mission (source 10).

Rewards

• Sawed-off shotgun, listed as the unlocked item by GTABase (source 14).
• Just a Scratch trophy or achievement, worth 10 points. It is described as story-related and cannot be missed (sources 10, 12).
• Gold Medal, optional. My sources list no reward beyond progress toward the Gold Rush achievement for 70 Gold Medals in story missions (sources 10, 24).
• No cash or XP reward is listed in the sources I found.
• After the mission, you can walk around camp (though not stray far), and the missions Old Friends and The Aftermath of Genesis become available (source 10).

Troubleshooting

• Replaying without a shotgun: you need a sawed-off in your current save, or you cannot take it off the horse. Quit the mission and change your loadout. You may need to remove other sidearms (source 10).
• Accuracy objective not registering on PC: players report this when using only the sawed-off shotgun. The suggested workaround is to kill the first few wolves with the shotgun, then switch weapons for the rest. Primewikis suggests swapping weapons after the first pack, before mounting (sources 6, 9). This is a single community report, not a confirmed bug.
• Quick restart: Primewikis says you can restart from the checkpoint by letting the wolves kill you, which also skips cutscenes. I could not verify how reliable this is on every platform (source 6).
• Mission fails when you run ahead of Javier on foot. Stay level with or behind him (source 10).
• To replay for Gold, use Pause menu, then Progress, then Story, then Chapter 1 (source 10).

Release and platform notes

The trophy and achievement exist on PS4, Xbox and PC (Steam), and Gamerguides covers all three platforms (sources 12, 19). I found no source describing differences in objectives, enemy placement or rewards between platforms. The only platform-specific item is the PC accuracy report above. Sources disagree on the opening scene, the number of wolves in the second fight, and whether the no-damage objective covers one fight or both, so treat those details as uncertain.