Top 32 Best Red Dead Redemption 2 Mods [2024]

It’s been nearly two years since the release of Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.

Being a prequel to Red Dead Redemption, it takes place to the north of Red Dead Redemption’s map and sees you as Arthur Morgan, a Van der Linde gang member.

Beyond the story, Rockstar also doubled down on making the game world as immersive as possible.

Well, since the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, fans have made mods to help elevate this immersion, or in some cases, strip it back a bit.

Here is our list of the top 15 best mods for Red Dead Redemption 2.

Best RDR2 Mods

32. Buyable Properties

The Buyable Properties mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 is a godsend for players who love to customize their homes to their exact tastes.

With this mod, you can purchase hotel rooms and various houses, which can be customized in a variety of ways.

You can change the wallpaper, the flooring, the furniture, and more! You can even add new rooms to your house or change the exterior appearance.

If you’re looking to add a little extra flair to your Red Dead Redemption 2 experience, then the Buyable Properties mod is definitely for you.

31. Dog Companion

This mod for Red Dead Redemption 2, called Dog Companion, allows players to have a dog by their side throughout the game.

The dog will follow the player and can be told to sit and wait. If the player enters a building, the dog will stand to watch dutifully outside.

The player can whistle to call their dog back to them, and if the dog is too far away, it won’t respond to the call.

If the dog is lost, the player can retrieve it by interacting with their main horse and activating the correct prompt.

On top of all that, your dog can help you out in a fight, too!

30. Dynamic Seasons

RDR2 has a gripping, living, open world that brings the wild west back to life. Players with a taste for immersion and variety will love this mod.

Dynamic Seasons for Red Dead Redemption 2 adds all four seasons to the game, each with its own unique color palette, temperatures, sunrise and sunset times, and more.

This mod really makes the game feel alive and adds a whole new level of depth to the experience.

Whether you’re a long-time fan of the game or just getting started, we highly recommend installing the Dynamic Seasons mod and enjoying all that it has to offer.

We wish we could experience our first play-through again with this mod installed.

29. Horse Holster

More of quality of life improvement than anything else, Horse Holster is a subtle change to Red Dead Redemption 2. You probably didn’t notice you needed it.

This mod adds a holster to your horse. Now when you store weaponry on them, it won’t be magically suspended in the air.

We know video games don’t need to be true to life and that Rockstar Games is known to take some swings, but floating horse weapons is a bridge too far.

28. Stagecoach Robberies

The Stagecoach Robberies mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 brings infinite, randomly generated stagecoach robbery missions available across the entire world.

Many players love the stagecoach robberies in the base game; this mod is just more of that!

The missions are completely random, so you’ll never know what you’re going to get into when you start one.

You could be heading out on a peaceful ride through the countryside and suddenly find yourself in the middle of a gunfight with bandits!

27. Companion System

Not many mods accomplish game-changing systems on a scale quite like this.

With this mod, players gain an immersive and freeform new method to entice other NPCs to join your gang.

Gain unexpected allies with Van Der Linde gang members as your companion. Companions are there to help in battle, on horseback, and more.

You can also give them orders in combat, such as telling them to attack or stay back. Your companion will also react to the world around them.

At the end of the day, this Red Dead Redemption 2 mod changes the gameplay model in a really fun way.

26. Selling Guns

Why should Arthur Morgan have to lug around weapons he doesn’t even use? He should be able to turn those unused guns into cash!

With Selling Guns, players can sell their unneeded weapons.

New weapon dealers can be found all over the game world. There is one in Saint Denis, Emerald Ranch, Rhodes, and Van Horn.

This new stream of in-game income will let you buy more camp equipment and upgrade your gear more efficiently while trimming the dead weight from your inventory.

All you need to do is walk up to the blip on the map with the weapon you want to sell drawn and follow the prompt.

25. More Persistent Weather

Nothing makes a game world feel less real than the weather that comes and goes at unrealistic rates.

This mod alters the in-game weather so that it lasts longer before switching to the next type.

This can create a more immersive experience, as you may encounter a particular type of weather more often and be able to enjoy it for a longer period of time.

Additionally, bad weather can now randomly occur when you load the game or wake up, which can really add to the feeling of unpredictability and danger in the world.

Now you can have dynamic weather that changes while you’re asleep!

24. Take Npcs Hostage

Finally, a mod that makes the lawless landscape of RDR2 just a little more lawless.

Take NPCs Hostage allows you to take NPCs hostage, like the prison guard from the John prison rescue mission.

With your pistol drawn, press T or the right stick to take any random pedestrian hostage.

This can be used for many different purposes, such as getting someone to talk or as a diversion. It never hurts to have a human shield in a stick-up.

We think this is one of the best Red Dead Redemption 2 mods simply because of the fun role-play aspect it brings.

23. Camp Anywhere

Camp Anywhere is a mod that allows players to set up their camp in any location they want.

As you are free roaming the game world, pick any spot you like and claim it as your own. These permanent custom camps heal wounds, clear snow, and more.

Camp Anywhere is a great mod for the game because it allows players more flexibility in where they want to set up camp.

This can be helpful for players who want to make their camp closer to major settlements or those who want to have a more private camp away from prying eyes and risky patrols.

22. Playable Guitar

If you’re looking for a way to liven up your camp life in Red Dead Redemption 2, then look no further than the Playable Guitar mod.

This mod allows you to play the guitar right in any of the main camps of the game using your keyboard, adding a touch of musicality to the proceedings 

Not only is it a fun addition that can keep you entertained for hours on end, but it’s also a great way to show off your skills to other players.

So if you’re looking for a way to add a bit of extra flair to your game, be sure to check out the Playable Guitar mod.

21. Bigger Blood Pools

Sometimes all you want is a little more blood. Gamers don’t enjoy gritty and violent games to feel warm and fuzzy inside, after all.

Bigger Blood Pools make the blood pools around NPCs and enemies that die in the game much bigger.

The larger blood pools are a gruesome and satisfying sight, and they really make the violence in the game feel more impactful.

Modded pools come in randomly increased sizes. Sometimes a pool will be normal-sized; other times, it will be massive.

20. Red Dead Radio

This mod is great for RDR2 because it lets you listen to your favorite songs while you’re playing.

It’s simple to install and use, and it makes the game more fun and enjoyable.

It’s a great way to pass the time while you’re riding your horse or driving a wagon, and it’s a great way to relax after a long day of hunting or robbing people.

Upload your own custom playlists of MP3 files and bring modern music into Arthur Morgan’s world.

19. On Screen Clock

On Screen Clock is a nice utility mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 that displays the current in-game time on screen.

The clock is easily toggled on and off with a hotkey. Keeping track of time in games with a flow of time different than the real world.

With mods like On Screen Clock, you’ll never be caught out in the dark or accidentally miss a time-dependent event again.

18. Longer Days

Many video games lose a few points for their immersion factor based on how long or short their days and nights are. If you are looking for a mod to increase the immersion and realism, the Longer Days mod is one mod for you.

The Longer Days mod does as the name states. When you download this mod, you are able to modify the length of time of an in-game day.

It’s easy to download this mod, and once you do, you need to extract the files into the Red Dead Redemption 2 directory.

After that, in the config file, you’ll notice that you can change the number of in-game minutes daytime and night time last for.

17. No Auto Reload

This is another mod for players who want to increase Red Dead Redemption 2’s realism but also want to increase the challenge of the game.

The No Auto Reload mod implements a feature that stops non-equipped weapons from auto-reloading. Obviously, real-life weapons don’t reload themselves, so why should they in-game?

Once you’ve downloaded the mod file, you will need to put the scripts folder in your game’s install location. Then, you and your new mod are ready to play!

Although this is a simple mod to have, it does help to increase the realism, and you can enjoy the slight stress of having to remember to reload in times of danger.

16. Quick Toggle Hud and Minimap

This is a mod for players who want a richer graphical experience when playing. The Quick Toggle HUD and Minimap mod is a simple mod that provides a script to toggle HUD elements.

With this mod, you can enjoy the in-game scenery without the meters and button cues for ultimate immersion.

Once you’ve downloaded the mod, you only need to press the “page up” key and toggle both the HUD elements and the mini-map.

This is a great, simple mod to have to capture amazing screenshots, too.

15. Unlimited Horse Whistling Distance

A simple quality of life mod that removes the distance limit of your horse whistle.

Unlimited Horse Whistling Distance may be a bit un-immersive but brings with it a lot of conveniences that other players may want.

Previously gamers had to be in a whistling distance to be able to summon their four-legged friend.

However, with this mod, you can have your horse come to your wherever you are, no matter the distance. It does make things a lot easier in this open-world game.

14. Duels

This mod simply allows you to duel anybody with a gun in the game. Normally throughout Red Dead Redemption 2, dueling is limited to scripted moments or random events.

This can be a bit of a bother for GTA-type gamers like us who have a bone to pick up even with bystanders.

This modlets you experience that minigame with anybody with a gun. The extent of who or how exactly can be customized yourself, so if you want to pick people out at random, this is your go-to mod.

Now you can stare anybody in the eyes and clutch your weapon to create a tense environment of domination and also fun.

13. Instant Fast Travel

Wild West can get a bit slow and repetitive if you start to travel by foot. Instant Fast Travel gets you as close to the meat of the gameplay as possible.

This, of course, is done in a relatively immersive way as you can only do it while out of combat or standing beside your horse.

All you have to do is grab your horse’s lead then you can select where you want to instantly travel using the map. After which, your cores will be drained by the amount of time it would take to get there.

This way, you don’t have to find a stagecoach every time you want to get to the other side of the map.

12. Ride With Gang

There are only a handful of missions in Red Dead Redemption 2 that sees you and the Van der Linde gang riding out altogether, and to be honest, it feels like one of the best moments in the game.

Of course, this is with good reason as depending when in the story, you’re all wanted men.

If you really want to Ride With Gang to keep yourself entertained throughout your travels, this mod lets you do that.

Allowing you to pick any member of the Van Der Linde gang to accompany you, you can carry on with your usual daily shenanigans with one or all of the available gang members.

11. Red Dead Trainer

A trainer is a cheat menu, and there is nothing wrong with a cheat menu. Rockstar had it in GTA series, and we expect it in this western game as well.

Red Dead Trainer allows you to adjust all the stats you want. This can be your core levels, honor level, infinite weapon condition, and more. You can also spawn any civilian, animal, or vehicle or and their slight variants.

Changing the weather, getting or discarding guns, pretty much any option you might want with the current version can also be done.

You can also rebind the shortcut keys for these commands within the ini file. So whether it be because you want to cheat or test something out, you can. Hey, no one’s judging!

10. Open All Interiors

Open All Interiors simply allows you to access all of the locked interiors in free roam, this was not possible before.

However, places like Angelo Bronte’s manor and the BraithWaite manor house can only be accessed during story missions.

The ultimate goal of this mod is to allow you to enter any interior cell that is modeled but cannot be accessed during free roam. Now you can enjoy how wild west people would decorate their homes.

A simple mod that creates the immersion needed in an open-world game.

9. Basic Needs

With Red Dead Redemption 2’s health, stamina, and dead eye cores, you have some basic survival stats to help you survive.

However, you can make things a bit more challenging with Basic Needs that expand upon these existing stats.

The mods make it necessary to eat, drink and urinate, aiming to further reinforce the survival elements, this, of course, means you can’t sleep through everything.

The penalties of these new effects are that they further increase the drainage of your main core needs. And on top of that, if they get too bad, it can directly damage your stats and not just the cores.

8. Banking the Old American Art

The goal of this mod is to make banks a little bit more than a place for a mission to be had or as set dressing for the town. The first thing Banking, The Old American Art, does is make it so that all of your money is not lost when you die.

For this to happen, you need to deposit your money into the bank just like you would in real life. Unlike in GTA V online, where you can access your money anywhere, here you need to withdraw your money from the bank to use it.

Now, of course, by nature, this mod is for the kind of player that wants more to their daily routine as Arthur. Having to walk up to the bank, speak to the teller, and hand the money over after a profitable haul.

Accompanying this is proper animations for any kind of transaction. This makes you think a bit more about how much money you actually need on hand and if it’s worth depositing or not.

7. Bounties Expansion

There are a lot of bounties to do throughout the single-player, but they do run out eventually.

Bounties Expansion adds new unique bounties that have special information, and these bounties can be found on a different bounty bulletin in all the towns except Armadillo.

They will work much like the base game bounties but can be repeated.  So if you wanted to make this gameplay loop your main source of income or just enjoy doing bounties, this lets you keep on doing them.

Beware though, there might be other bounty hunters, and you may encounter a duel or two in your quest to make some gold.

6. Reshade Natural Vision V.1.5

Reshade Natural Vision V1.5 does exactly what it says, making the colors pop out a little bit more and makes the shadows more defined.

It also allows you to pick from a few reshade presets or make your own.

With the default version, you can have the colors brighter and a little less washed out by the lighting effects.

With the customizability, though, you can tweak around to your heart’s content until the game looks good for you.

5. Bank Robberies

If you found it odd that you could only do Bank Robberies during main missions, then this mod remedies that.

Although it doesn’t make sense for Arthur to suddenly rob a bank, it doesn’t mean a gamer doesn’t want to do it. Let’s admit it, we’ve all done weird things in a game.

The mod you to stick up a bank much like in the main missions for a large haul, it of course also has a lot of risks as the law might catch up with your shenanigans.

If you can get away with it, though, it’s a lot of money to be made during the free roam mode, which is usually only found in treasure hunts.

4. Ped Damage Overhaul

PED Damage Overhaul pretty much changes the entire combat system making things more interesting.

From the simple things like increasing enemy damage and player health to making NPCs act all weird and different, this damage overhaul mod is perfect for those looking for a bit more violence. NPCs now have reactionary damage where they start to limp after getting shot in the leg or dropping their guns when shot in the hand.

This makes combat more interesting. The mod also has more hardcore features like cores draining faster, losing all of your cores on death, and losing 25% more money on death.

So overall, if you want more rapid, dangerous, and violent combat encounters, this is the mod for you.

3. Hunting Wagon

If you’ve played Red Dead Online, you’ll know that there are wagons for sale, one of which is the Hunting Wagon.

This wagon is one of the best rewards of the trader role as it lets you hunt all you want, allowing you to store multiple hides, large hides, and animal carcasses.

You will also know that this is limited to the online mode of Red Dead Redemption; however, with this mod, you can rejoice in the fact that the hunting wagon is there with you offline in the game.

2. Red Dead Redemption 2 Mod Manager

Red Dead Redemption 2 Mod Manager is a port of the GTA V mod manager.

Its main function, of course, is to sort your downloaded mods and add new ones easily, so they can be turned on or off or uninstalled.

This mod manager is simple and a great way to manage our top mods for the game without creating clutter and confusion.

Everything can be seen from the dashboard, and deactivating mods have become easier and more convenient.

1. Rdr 2 Save Editor

If you’ve saved the game at a point and are not confident in your ability to survive further due to weakened stats, this RDR 2 Save Editor mod is perfect for you.

The mod allows gamers to finish the game quickly by editing their save files.

Players can now change their character’s stats by using this mod and editing the stats according to their liking. Increase your health, stamina, and more in single-player and even multiplayer mode.

Even though you may feel that the mod doesn’t do much as compared to the other mods on the list, it is no doubt a lifesaver, though. Continue from your saves feeling mighty and rejuvenated to plow through the game.

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