im stuck in the level that i soppuse to kill Hollister and he had neds gun..much powerfull than mine.

how to kill him??

I'm having the same problem. I have tried bombarding him with dynamite, arrow dynamtie, guns, quick draw, shooting him in the head and cannot even phase him. I think you have to get him to use his own dynamite against him. Not sure I gave up after about the 50th retry.

Hollister? I just used the sniper rifle 2 times and shot him in the face. He then circles around on his horse and runs off again. Next time he peeks out, he will be at full life again. Shoot him 3 times with the sniper rifle and it goes to a cut scene.

just pop a few rounds into his head with any gun it dosnt matter then he stuffs himself with tnt and just keep out of range of the tnt and you will beat him easy. if your daring enough and can dodge quickly just get in close with the shotgun and take a few pot shots at his head. its not as accurate as the sniper rifle but then again your using a shotgun you dont have to be accurate.

i'll try..thanks alot to all

same problem as well...on normal difficulty, and I don't know what horse that dude was talking about. Hollister just runs after me shooting and eventually killing me. I've tried shotgun to head, several rounds of the sniper rifle to his head, dynamite, quick draw, you name it. Hollister is too busy chasing and shooting me to "stuff himself with TNT." Sorry for the sarcasm, but this level is pissing me off.

I figured it out: as soon as the the level starts, run to the elevated island in front of you, and there is a double rock on your left (with your back to the water, the rock on the left is about head high, and the rock on your right is about half that) Hollister throws his dynamite, then walks up to the upper "island." Peek out and snipe Hollister's head; he starts running after you. Now if you do this right, you can keep the rocks in between you and Hollister. After you get good at this, you can time when he will come around the rock, and as soon as you shoot, him, he goes back, and this keeps happening until you gat him. Know how do you kill Reed? Horseback?

Ahh. Got the names mixed up there. I thought Hollister was the guy on the horse with Ned's rifle. Guess that was Reed. Again, all I did for him was stay back behind whatever rock or debris on the left hand side. I would shoot him as much as I could with the revolvers, (hitting the horse does NOTHING to him) then he would ride his horse around and back up the hill. As quickly as you can, you the sniper rifle to hit him twice in the head. Now he will charge back down the hill at you. Repeat once more and he is dead. You just have to remember, you can't let him sit still behind the hill or he will start to heal himself.

Ya i was trying on this level for days and never figured it out until tonight...(psyched)
1. Dont run at him....bad idea. He will just waste you quickly, so keep a good stance.
2. Since he is throwing dynamite at first he wont run at you until a) he is done and he sees you. So do this...
•start by strafing right to get a clean shot of him, he might see you but he wont run at you if you are far enough away. (also it helps to not run off to hiding when if he does start shooting from far off or he WILL run at you)
•pull out the snipe and aim high. He will still be shooting at you, but no worries, the health he takes from that rifle wont do much damage from the distance
• Fire off about 5 rounds (i dunno how these other people did it in 2 but...) and he does the whole tnt stuffing and runs at you.
•Keep a good 2 seconds away from him and BOOM smitherines and you get the Ferguson

Can you be a bit more specific about Reed? That would be great! I've been trying to use this technique, but it doesnt really work for me. I'm not a fast enough aimer, I think (I would love a mouse in this game, much faster and more accurate than the thumbsticks). What happens is that I miss, but he keeps hitting me very accurate. Also, his rifle is unbelieavably fast, and all the other riders rifles as well. He just charges at me on the horse, I miss him, he hits me, and then he either takes another turn at me or rides away to heal. And he never has to reload, it seems. Annoying level. The worst thing is that I can't get out of it. If I quit te mission I just get back to the fort, no way out of there that I have found. I'd want to max the skills of my character first, but it's too late once you have entered the mission.

About Hollister: He's no big match. Just keep him at a distance with your guns and rifle, and don't forget to sip some whiskey now and then to keep healthy. And after the cut scene, just run away, he's a lot slower than you.

still having problems, what you guys are saying are for the wussy difficulties. im on Insane, first time through, anyone beat him on insane?

Ive been reading all these replies and Im getting a bit confused with which part (bad guy) in the game everyone is talking about. Is anyone having trouble killing Magruder or can someone help with that? Hes the fat guy with the eye patch and you come up against him right at the end in a cave full of gold. He just walks round slowly and shoots you with his shotgun whenever he sees you (which deals serious damage) and every now and again he starts throwing dynamite at you. He seems to be wearing a metal vest so shooting him with any weapon does no damage, even if you get him in the head ( he just keeps laughing 'your bullets cant hurt me'). Ive tried using dynamite, fire bombs and the bow with the dynamite arrows and even trying to hit him with the melee attack but nothing seems to work. The only time hes taken any damage, and not a lot, is when sometimes he walks into his own dynamite. Not figured out a way of getting him to do this repeatedly tho. Any help would be greatly appreciated as Ive almost finished the game but not quite and its doing my head in! Cheers

I just did an hour ago; and I kinda followed what myxomatis said.
When the fight starts, strafe right and try to hit him in the head with the sniper rifle. When you've done that he will come from behind that rock, in your direction.
Then he'll stop at that rock to throw some bars of dynamite at you. You just make sure that; the moment you've hit him for the first time you strafe left again, and you stay behind that rock. Now you have about one chance in.. 7 or so he will stay at that position; if you do things correctly. (read on)
So at this point you adversary is standing at this rock about 30metres in front of you; and you're standing behind this big rock facing him. He has just thrown some bars of dynamite but they didn't reach you. What you do next is you tap your right "look-behind-the-corner-button" so to him your head will appear for a split second. Not enough time for him to take a shot at it and hit. This is VERY important, because should you just stand there he would get bored after a few seconds and start running towards you. You DO NOT want this.
Like I said, you tap that button and he will see your head and this is a reason for him to stand still and try to shoot it. This is THE chance you've been waiting for. Him standing still in a visible place, and you behind shelter just one button away from a clear shot. If you have created this little situation for yourself you should be very proud but you're not home yet.

I already told you that the tapping was very important. Well, keep doing it. Never look behind the corner and aim, never hold that cornerbutton. Just tap it or you'll get another breathing hole in your skull. You can aim a little from behind the rock and then tap to see if your crosshair is on his head. If it is; tap and simultaneously click. This will make your bullet hit him in the head, while keeping yourself safe behind the rock. (The sniper rifle needs a very long reload time after every bullet, so now you start to see why this is so important.)

I think by now you get the picture. Just keep tap+clicking with the sniper rifle pointing at his head. Should you run out of sniperbullets(like I had); DON'T move your mouse, just go over to the regular rifle and you will be shooting as accurate as before.

when you've nailed him for about 3/4 of his life bar, a cutscene starts to play where he decides to use his dynamite to do a little kamikaze show. Run away from him but have fun shooting the heck out of his ass while doing so. Revenge is extra sweet when you see that hated guy's bodyparts get blown to bits against the sides of the rocks around you.

I got to the same point, but only have a bow with no arrows. (Which makes killing Hollister absoutely impossible). When I got to the fort, he took all my weapons. How did you get them back? Is there someplace I'm supposed to go?

I just got the game cause it was $19.99 (Great Game!!!). I'm playing the game on the hard level and stumbled into an easy way of beating hollister. When the scene starts, go around to the right towards him until he see's you and starts chasing you. Start running back towards the boat and duck behind it right in the middle. Aim your gun sight on his head and move back to where the sight goes red and where he doesn't see you. Shoot him in the head. He steps back behind the boat but then gets back in to your sight, you don't have to move your aim. I used the sniper rifle and It took about 8 shots to the head. I had tried every other way and was not successful (about 20 times). I hope this helps, but if it doesn't and it was a one time fluke then good for me and bad for you! Good Luck!

I found a real easy way to kill Hollister...

Start off by walking right keeping a distance but make sure to get close enough where he will chase you. Get him to come to you, once he gets there get close to him and start using your knife but make sure you are far enough away he can't use his. If you can get it just right you will be cutting him while he is still shooting you, make sure to keep drinking from your canteen. Once you get it low enough it will take you to the last stand where you finish him off.

This might take some time (took me 2 tries to get it) especially if you receive too much damage at the beginning but when it works it is beautiful and very easy.

Best of luck

i found a pretty good way to beat em, find a pretty good sized rock, one u can run around so he'll follow u, then go around it make sure u kno what hes gunna do and stuff, and when he gets close 2 u, run the oposite direction, so if hes running at u and shoots, hes gunna end up shooting at the rock, and while hes reloading try n smack em w/ the shotgun, and when u eventualy run out of ammo on ur shotgun, pull out ur rifle n keep doing the same thing over and over, and eventualy he will blow himself up

for magruder. you have to damage him enough before he goes stands on a platform. to do this, you have to hit ( from a distance) and run. most helpful is using the dynamite arrows. shoot some into the ground right before he enters breaks in the circular stone wall. or lay dyanamite and shoot it when he is close to it.

OH MY GOD THANK YOU ALLIGATE!! finally something worked, i was reading all these replies and i was thinking the same thing as M3ssy.. like five or six snipes to the head and it was over.. on insane