How to not get in a gun fight with the sheriff?????????????

[nai249]

Got into a fist fight and when I tried to "Diffuse" that button didn't actually do anything and I was shot on sight. Are all crimes immediately a death sentence with no way out? I was hoping to just pay a fine or something

[kamikazi21358]

If they begin pointing their gun (and you get a bounty) and you have ‘surrender’ as one of the options, as far as I know the defuse button is useless and it’s pretty much either you must surrender, fight, or run and hope they’re a bad shot. As far as I know, you can never talk them out of not arresting you at that point.

If you legitimately just surrender, it’s the equivalent of a fine mostly if you have a low bounty — you get arrested and spend a little time in jail in the form of a short cutscene, then you get released. I think the fine is always 80% of whatever your bounty was(?) (if you have a 10 dollar bounty, you lose 8 dollars). If you run away and pay the fine at the mail office, you would have to pay the full bounty price, so it is actually worth considering just surrendering for minor crimes.

[XOLiD]

So... I've done a lot of personal testing with the wanted system during my four playthroughs so far, and I've found out a few key things.

If you start a fight by throwing the first punch, you're at fault and people will immediately go to the law for 'unarmed assault' which can't be diffused out of. The 'diffuse' option only works for very minor crimes like 'disturbing the peace'.
If you antagonize them to throw the first punch there's a chance a bystander will go to the cops for 'disturbing the peace'. In this scenario you can still have your fist fight with the person you were antagonizing and as long as you aren't wearing a mask or pull out a weapon the law should just stand and watch and wait for the fight to end, then tell you to leave the area, that's when the 'diffuse' option actually works and your character will say something along the lines of "okay I'll be on my way."
If you just stare at them and make them upset they'll either be the one to attack you first or just walk away scared. In this scenario if you get attacked first and defend yourself, bystanders *usually* won't go to the law for 'disturbing the peace', but if they do it should work the same way as before and you'll be able to 'diffuse' after the fight is over.

If you antagonize someone and make them hostile and they pull a gun on you, you are able to shoot them back and *usually* not get wanted as it's self-defense, but it often depends on the time, place, and witness(es).

Typically the citizens of Saint Denis are more ready to cry to the law instead of fight, than the smaller towns.

If you have a mask on, the law will immediately be suspicious of you and may want to arrest you for anything.

If you're a high honor player your best bet is to 'surrender' if you can't 'diffuse', otherwise if you're low honor you just run and/or shoot.