16 Best Red Dead Redemption 2 Mods

Red Dead Redemption 2 is already a masterpiece of storytelling and open-world design, but mods can take the experience to a whole new level. Whether you’re looking to improve graphics, add realism, tweak gameplay mechanics, or just have a bit more fun in the Wild West, the modding community has something for everyone. In this guide, we’ve rounded up the 16 best Red Dead Redemption 2 mods that every outlaw should try. Basic Needs: Final Cut The Basic Needs mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 expands Rockstar's survival foundation with a selection of new cores to contend with. In addition to stamina and health, you also have to manage hunger, exhaustion, equipment weight, thirst, and, in a twist that makes it a bit like The Sims, urination. Thankfully, Arthur won't die from embarrassment if he has an accident, though. Exhaustion functions like an add-on to stamina and fluctuates depending on what you're doing at a given time of day. Thirst lets you drink from water sources, bathe, or refill your canteen, with a toggle that makes alcohol contribute to Arthur's dehydration, and urination is, well, urination. Hunger, as the mod maker says, is the least developed of the new cores. Failing to eat gives Arthur penalties, but that's about it. The mod lets you toggle any of these cores, so if you only want to impose an equipment weight limit on Arthur, you can ignore the rest. Buyable Properties Buyable Properties lets you purchase a home, as the name suggests, though there are a few caveats. Mod creators Bolmin and Dick_Hertz made home buying and decorating an endgame activity, something to keep you busy after you reach the epilogue and (theoretically) have excess cash on hand. It's for John by default, but if you toggle a setting in the mod's files, you can play as Arthur instead. Whatever the case, once you reach the epilogue, you can shop for one of three homes outside of Red Dead Redemption 2's major settlements or even buy a hotel room in one of the three major hotels or the Rhodes Saloon. Red Dead Redemption 2's Buyable Properties mod lets you customize the interior and exterior as you see fit, and the most recent update adds a weapon locker to every property you own. Bounty Hunting Expanded and Enhanced Bounty Hunting Expanded and Enhanced takes the base game's comparatively tame bounty hunting and turns it into something rather more exciting. For one thing, the mod gives Arthur some bounty hunter rivals who are just as capable as himself and liable to take the reward if you don't act fast enough. You can steal their bounties if you happen upon them in the wilderness and even order a custom bounty wagon for hauling and turning in several criminals at once. Enemy behavior is also smarter and more aggressive, so even regular bounties will pose more of a challenge, and the mod adds dozens of new mission locations, including Annesburg. Contracts Remastered Contracts Remastered adds a stealth game touch to the old west with a special type of bounty. Once you install this mod, Arthur can pick up unique bounties that act almost like puzzles. He gets a photograph of his target and a small amount of information about them--and that's it. Your job is remaining observant and picking out the target from the throng of normal NPCs, before deciding how to approach the hit. You can take them out quietly, make a scene by turning them into a hostage, or do whatever else you think might work. The mod even comes with an in-game tutorial to help get you started. Crime and Law Rebalance and Enhancement Crime and Law Rebalance is a sweeping overhaul of Red Dead Redemption 2's crime system, one that makes it simultaneously easier to get away with a crime and harder to survive once you're hunted. The mod disables minor crimes in all settlements, makes everything legal in the wilderness, and slows down how long it takes for you to earn a wanted status after robbing a train. Lawmen are also less likely to hunt you with dogs. On the other hand, Pinkertons and law enforcement are more cunning and dangerous thanks to improved behavior, and more competent agents are likely to join the hunt when your wanted level is higher. There's a lot more to it, even down to giving Pinkerton agents better horses, but one of the other standout features is that every gang has unique behavior. They'll all fight differently and pose specific challenges that force you to adapt your strategies when you take them on. Duels Rockstar went to impressive lengths to make Red Dead Redemption 2 historically accurate to the real Wild West, and that includes not having people whip out their revolvers anytime someone gives them a sideways glance. As chaotic as the Old West could be, shootouts weren't a daily occurrence in every frontier town, and they aren't in Red Dead Redemption 2, either. At least, until you install this mod. Duels lets you challenge any NPC to a gunfight--literally any NPC you come across--with unique animations, cinematics, conversations, and customizable settings. You have to instigate the duel yourself, too, so you won't just be getting ambushed by anyone who walks by. Dynamic Seasons Dynamic Seasons is another Red Dead Redemption 2 mod that's perfect for photo mode or for those who just want Arthur's world to feel a little more alive. Normally, seasons don't progress in Red Dead 2. Once you finish the prologue, that's it for the snow for a long time unless you explore certain areas. Dynamic Seasons adds a rotation that sees the seasons cycle, with weather effects and color palettes for each. Autumn, for instance, has a higher chance of more-extreme weather, while winter forces you to manage Arthur's temperature more carefully. The mod's latest version adds a widget that shows the current season and how long it'll last, and you can edit the default season length in the mod's files, too. Enhanced Brawling Enhanced Brawling is a collection of several mods that improve fistfighting in an impressive variety of ways, to the point where Arthur is practically a character from a fighting game. The headline addition is a set of six brawling styles, each with unique grapple moves and animations, and new knife attacks and animations. Enhanced Brawling also adds light and heavy attacks, counter moves, grapple escapes, and the option to chuck your opponent over rails or a wall if such a construction happens to be near when you're grappling. It's a refreshing and deep overhaul of what often feels like Red Dead Redemption 2's weakest system, and having more ways to negotiate with your hands means you can save on ammo, too. Immersive Scenarios Immersive Scenarios is one of the quieter Red Dead Redemption 2 gameplay mods--one that adds a little extra to Arthur's moment-to-moment actions. These are the little, normal, everyday things that other characters can do, such as playing an instrument or leaning against a wall, but that Arthur usually can't. It's perfect for photo mode--and Red Dead 2 has one of the best photo modes around–or if you just want it to seem more like Arthur belongs in the world, instead of him being a passive observer. Bear in mind that the Immersive Scenarios mod only works if an NPC isn't already performing that action. You can't shove someone off a piano bench and take up their song, for example. You'll have to wait until they finish. Jobs Expanded and Enhanced Jobs Expanded and Enhanced is an excellent way to earn quite a lot of cash. The mod adds a job board in every major town with a selection of period-appropriate tasks for Arthur to take on. These range from being a carriage driver--Arthur magically gets his own carriage, so you don't have to buy one for the job--to helping out on a ranch and keeping watch over flocks by night. The pay is high, too. The dock hand job, for example, pays $26, so if you're not keen on treasure hunts or just want to stuff some extra money away, this is the mod for you. You'll need the mod tool Scripthook for Jobs Expanded and Enhanced to work, and Scripthook only functions in single-player mode. If you boot up Red Dead Online with Scripthook running, the program shuts Red Dead Redemption 2 down. No Bounty When Asked Red Dead Redemption 2's No Bounties When Masked mod makes a small but important change to how the game's bounty system works. Normally, Arthur has a bounty placed on him when he commits a robbery or serious crime, even if no one can see his face--an impressive, nearly impossible feat of identification on the part of his witnesses. No Bounty When Masked lives up to its name and keeps Arthur from having a bounty placed on him if he commits a crime when masked, though he'll still be a wanted criminal. The mask has to be up before he does the deed, and if you take it off before his wanted level drops, then the bounty will appear as usual. Perfect Pelts Perfect Pelts is another Red Dead Redemption 2 mod that makes a finicky, often-irritating system easier to deal with. Normally, Arthur has a chance of damaging pelts when he hunts an animal, which means you have to go back out into the wild, hunt another beast, and repeat the process again with the right weapon and method. It makes sense, as hunting a small animal with a large shotgun will, of course, damage their skin. Perfect Pelts gives you two new ways to deal with this situation and save time, though. The first makes it so every animal that spawns does so in perfect condition, which means you still have a chance to damage it if you hunt it in a careless manner. The second is completely accident-proof, which means you can use any weapon against any animal and still get a perfect pelt. Rampage Trainer The Rampage Trainer mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the most popular on NexusMods, and it's not hard to see why. It essentially gives you access that's normally restricted to a debug menu. Rampage Trainer lets you alter character stats and attributes, switch Arthur's model for any other character, generate a companion, or revisit out-of-bounds areas--and that's just the start. However, it's probably not something you'd want to do for your first, or maybe even second, playthrough, since it lets you completely alter any part of the game and experience it in a way you're not really meant to. Stagecoach Robberies Stagecoach Robberies were rather more common in the 19th and early 20th centuries than Red Dead Redemption 2's scant few stagecoach missions would suggest, and this mod aims to fix that imbalance. It generates random stagecoach missions for Arthur to accept in any part of the map, including Tumbleweed, and there's no limit to how many you can tackle. The missions come in two varieties--merchandise that your client wants from the coach and lockboxes for you to empty. Post offices caught up in the robberies will be closed for a time after the mission ends, and like with the game's other robbery missions, if you don't reach the ambush point in time, you fail the mission. Stash That Lantern Juliet G's Stash That Lantern mod seems like a simple thing on the surface, but it fixes one of Red Dead Redemption 2's most persistent minor annoyances. Normally, the game treats the lantern as a held object, which means Arthur can't hold anything else in the hand with the lantern. That'd make sense--if Arthur were actually holding the lantern. Red Dead Redemption 2 lets you clip the lantern to Arthur's satchel, but still acts like he's holding it, which leaves you with just one free hand and makes it impossible to use two-handed weapons, among other things. Stash That Lantern resolves the issue. When you clip the lantern to Arthur's satchel with this mod installed, he's free to use both hands. WhyEm's DLC WhyEm's DLC has nothing to do with Red Dead Redemption 2's gameplay and everything to do with making Arthur look even more stylish. It adds more than 2,000 new cosmetics, including beard styles and hairdos for Arthur at the barber shop, new clothes from the trapper, more saddles, and even carvings and grips, the latter of which you can collect and customize at any gun store. WhyEm's DLC even lets you customize how clothing looks, with options to remove suspenders, belts, and holsters, and separate menus for customizing other accessories. It's massive, but also a little finicky at first. Among other requirements, you need to make sure Arthur has every main item equipped, including a satchel, when you install the mod, or it won't work.

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