• enhance immersion and realism,
• improve vanilla gameplay and mechanics,
• maintain game stability and avoid bugs.
  

The goal is to create a better version of this fantastic game by using mods that work well together, improving gameplay, upgrading graphics and adding new features. This is a community project and it will evolve with your input.

Please report any issues in the BUGS section. You can also suggest new mods for inclusion in the dedicated FORUM section.


Modding RDR2 is safe and straightforward as long as you follow the steps carefully. There are four types of mods:

• Green mods are script mods (.asi files) that requires Script Hook RDR2 to work. These .asi (joined sometimes with an .ini and/or a .dat file) must always be put at the root of your game folder where the RDR2.exe is located.
• Purple mods are files replacement mods needing Lenny's Mod Loader. You have to put the files provided by these mods inside the LML folder located in the game's root folder.
• Orange mods are hybrids requiring both Script Hook RDR2 and Lenny's Mod Loader.
• Blue mods have specific installation method.
• Mods with 🕹 must only be installed if you play with a controller.
• Mods with ⌨️ must only be installed if you play with a mouse & keyboard.
  

Important notes:

• This list is subjective and open to changes.
• Download each mod manually, don't use Vortex!
• Mods with a # symbol have special installation instructions.
• The "game root folder" refers to where RDR2.exe is located (e.g., for Steam: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Red Dead Redemption 2).
  
• Mods can be installed in any order.
• The list is meant for use with the Vulkan API. Modded game doesn't works with DX12.
• Always check the readme files for proper installation.
• Mods outside of this list won't receive support.
• Check the Changelogs regularly for updates.
• Track your mods in Nexus, ensuring they're always up-to-date.
• Lastly, endorse the mods you install to support the creators who make the game better!
  

Ultimate ASI Loader
Allows the injection of custom DLLs into the game.
# Copy dinput8.dll (Win64 version) to the game's root folder.

ScriptHookRDR2 V2
Enables running custom scripts.
# Copy ScriptHookRDR2.dll to the game's root folder.

Lenny's Mod Loader
Allows to replace any file in the game such as models, data files, etc.
# Copy the contents of the ModLoader folder to the game's root folder and the ModManager folder wherever you want.

Online Content Unlocker LITE
Allows other mods to use Red Dead Online's resources without breaking the story mode.
# Online Content Unlocker EXTRA LITE


Blackwater Police Officers Voice Lines Fix
Fixes a bug that caused Blackwater police officers to have no voice lines.

Blackwater Worker Fix and Bonus Fixes
Fixes the train station workers at the Blackwater post office who are white but use the voice of a black guy.
# 1907 Workers Fix

Chapter 6 Police Uniform Fix
Fixes an inconsistency in the cutscene police uniform in the mission 'Goodbye, Dear Friend'.

Compson's Pistol
Fixes a weapon prop inconsistency in the mission 'The Iniquities of History'.

Corn Sack Fix
Fixes the broken physics when carrying around corn sacks.

Duplicate Valentine Doctor Bug Fix
Fixes the duplicate Valentine Doctor bug in "Sodom, Back to Gomorrah".

Fixed Prison Scars
Fixes John's face texture in "Visiting Hours" in order to keep his scars consistent across the story.

Floating Horseshoe Fix and Placeholder Poster Fix
Fixes the floating horseshoe at Macfarlane's Ranch and replaces some placeholder posters.

Graphical issues fixes
Injects a numerous of graphical bug fixes and tweaks.
# Install only Graphical issue fixes folder and delete eri_01__strm_0.ymap and skiff.yft.

Hovering gun fix
Fixes the bug of Police Chief Lambert's gun hovering in the air.
# Hovering gun fix

Jailbreak Ped Fix
Fixes the duplicate and incorrect peds used in some of the Jailbreak cutscenes.

Javier Poster Consistency Fix
Changes the mugshot on Javier's bounty poster in Shady Belle to match his vanilla appearance.

Micah's Hair Fix
Fixes Micah's expired spaghetti hair by reverting it back to its 1.00 version.
# Install only Micah's Hair Fix and Micah's Coat Fix folders.

QoL - Artie and Johnny
Fixes the main characters and bring them to acceptable states.
# QoL - Artie and Johnny v1.02 + Tucked in hair begone

Saint Denis Police Uniform and John's Coat Physics Fix
Fixes the physics on the Saint Denis Police uniforms and John's coat.

Serving Spoon Fix
Fixes an issue where player drops the spoon after serving themselves some stew.

Stutter fix
Increases memory pools related to texture streaming to combat stuttering.
# 6000

The Cowhand Fix
Fixes a bug in the epilogue where The Cowhand outfit would not appear when stored on your horse.

Timer 'Message' Bug Fix
Fixes the timer message bug R* caused during the last Blood Money DLC.

Vomit Fix
Restores unused vomiting sound effects for both Arthur and John.
# Vomit Fix

Wickiup POI - Working Minimap Drawing
Makes the Wickiup appears on the minimap.

Wrong Angus Bull Fix
Stops the black and only variant of the 'Angus Bull' from spawning into the wrong identical copy of the brown white-headed 'Hereford Bull'.


AI Upscaled Videos
Upscales interludes videos to 4K.
# ChapterVideos + SkyVideos

Fast Map Zoom and Pan
Speeds up the annoying slow zoom in/out speed on scroll wheel in the map.
# Fast Map Zoom

Higher Res Ui
Applies unused higher res textures for UI and upscales icons.

Ingame world sounds only
Removes most of the UI sounds for improved immersion.
# Ingame sounds only

Interaction Target Marker
Displays a marker above who you're targeting.

Map Redesign (Plus Dark Version)
Improves the appearance and usage of the map and minimap.
# MapRedesignLight

No More Medals in Notifications
Replaces the bronze, silver and gold medal icons after missions and inside the progress window with a white version.
# No More Medals in Notifications (White)

NoPostFX
Removes some layered images and annoying flashes on top of dead-eye and eagle-eye.
# NoPostFX

Online Button Remover
Removes the online button from the pause menu.
# Online Button Remover - Hide Social Club Button

🕹 PlayStation Icons Replacement
Replaces the Xbox button prompts with PlayStation prompts.
# Install only if you play with a Dualsense or Dualshock controller.

Real Guns
Removes all fake gun brands and fake ammunition brands.

Remove Online Options for In-Game Menus
Removes many game options linked to online mode.
# Install all files

Remove Screen Effect
Removes all screen effects that occur with dead eye, eagle eye, tonic consumption, drunk character...
# Install only Patch (animpostfx.ymt) and Patch (cameras.ymt) in FILES section.

Snappy UI (QoL)
Makes navigation in menus, enter & exit faster.


A.E.M (Authentic Euphoria Motions)
Makes the NPC bodies a bit heavier and softer.
# Heavier Bodies

A.R.E.P (AnymYo's Reworked Euphoria Physics)
Adds completely recreated shot reactions, inspired by Max Payne 3 but tuned for a western setting.
# A.R.E.P 1.1A

Detach
Makes carriage tack detached instead of destroyed.

Equine Ducking
Ports the horse ducking/dodging mechanism, animation and pamphlet from Red Dead Online over to single player.
# Install only EquineDucking.asi

Extended Player Animations
Brings fixes and improvements to a variety of in-game animations for Arthur/John and NPCs.
# Install Extended Player Animations then Extended Weapon Animations.

Faster Holstering Unholstering
Makes weapons holster/unholster 25% faster.
# Ten Percent Faster Holstering Unholstering

Flo
Makes reactions and ground animations slower.

Gun Tricks
Brings the gun spinning tricks from Red Dead Online to story mode.

Horse Animation Fix
Fixes animation for elite horses.

Locomotive Power
Adjusts the trains top speed, acceleration and deacceleration to real life.

Non-Sticky Hats
Makes player hat is no longer sticky and will fall off when he get shotted.

Roleplayer's Dream
Enables NPC action for roleplaying.

Row Boat Animations
Fixes incorrect rowboat animations and reduced stamina while rowing.

Smoking Complete
Allows to smoke for way longer and keep the cigarette/cigar in your mouth.


Ambient Gang - RDR Gang Addon
Adds gangs and outlaws that roam the world and attack other gang that cross their path.
# Ambient Gang Main File + Story-Compatible

Bounty Hunting Dialogues (Arthur)
Enhances interactions with sheriffs through dynamic dialogue exchanges.

Clean Horse (slower dirt accumulation)
Reduces the dirtrate for horses to about half of its original value.
# Install only Patch (visualsettings.dat) in FILES section.

Cut Content Dogs Unlocked for SP
Restores two cut content variants of the SP Catahoula Cur dog, plus three MP mission collared versions of the same dogs.

Cut Dialogue Enhanced
Restores unused voice lines, combat taunts, and vocalizations that were cut from the final game.

Higher Resolution Hair Textures
Adds the unused 2048x1024 hair textures.

Horse Overhaul Mod
Adds over a hundred ambient horse coats to the game and features various quality of life improvements.
# Horse Overhaul Mod 1.03.2348 + Compendium and Challenge Fix

Horse Speed Variety
Makes NPC horses galloping at various speed.

Improvements In Blood
# Brighter + Realism no entry blood mist and reduced splatters + Smaller Body Wounds + Smaller Pools and Splatters

Just Bleed Already
Bypasses the limitations on arterial bleeding and makes vital organs a 100% bleed chance for all human NPCs.

Just Quit Trolling Already
Disables all NPC troll behaviors when riding a horse.

Just Shut Up Already
Fixes the "broken" ambient NPC behaviors regarding negative player activity.

Legendary Channel Catfish Restored
# Legendary Channel Catfish Restored

No more outfit comments
Makes the gang no longer comment on Arthurs outfits from the trapper.
# No Gang Comments

Online Bears Unlocked for SP
Adds the online variants of bears to spawn with the SP grizzly bears.
# Online Bears Unlocked for SP

Persistent and Natural Dirt
Fixes the auto cleaning of players character that happens during gameplay.
# Install only Patch (visualsettings.dat) in FILES section.

Prison Guard Uniform Reimagined
Makes penitentiary guards not wearing Saint Denis police uniforms anymore.
# New Sisika Penitentiary Guard Uniform

Realistic Army Uniforms V2 - Blue
Changes the current army peds to ones that appear much more realistic.
# Realistic Blue Army Uniforms V2

Realistic St Denis Schedule
Adds a revised scheduling approach for Saint Denis.

Restored Ped Dialogue
Restores some unused ped dialogue and adds a flirt greet for female NPCs
# Flirt only and merge

Shopkeepers Stay Dead (And Get Replaced)
Makes it so when shopkeepers, sheriffs, and essential npc's die they get completely replaced with different people.
# Delete u_m_m_sdpolicechief_01.ymt

Visual Damage For Kids
Makes them bleed out and using the damage values of males.
# Install only Patch (metapeds.ymt) in FILES section.

West World Experience - Bountyhunter
Adds new appearances to the bounty hunters.


Accurate Chinese Traveler Letter
Reworks the Chinese letter to make it more relevant to the period.

Actually Long Long Barrels - Shotguns
Edits the long barrel variants to be as long as they were sold.
# Actually Long Long barrels

Better Forearm for the Pump-Action and Varmint Rifle
Adds better and more accurate foregrips for the Pump-action, Varmint Rifle, and Semi-Auto Shotgun.

Carcano M91 Long Rifle
Period accurate M91 Carcano instead of the 1930s version the base game had.

GuarmaDream
Restores cigarette cards and consumable placements in Guarma that were cut from the final build of the game.

GunFX
Increased muzzle smoke and flash and makes gun decals persist.
# GunFX

Horse Lantern
Adds the horse lantern from online into story mode.

Less Bulky Double Barrel Shotgun
Scales down the base game's double barrel shotgun using real world measurements.

Longer Girthier Springfield Rifle
Resizes and reshapes the springfield rifle to be close to an 1880s variant.

M1899 Krag Jorgensen Carbine Redux
Remades the M1899 Krag Carbine to look more like a proper representation of one of the many carbine variants of the Krag.

No Bullet Trail Mod
Removes the bullet trail when firing weapons.

No Glow for Pickups
Disables glow for pickups and objects.
# Install only Patch (visualsettings.dat) in FILES section.

Obtainable Arthur and John Bounty Posters
Adds obtainable Arthur and John bounty posters to the game.

Period Accurate Currency
Retextures all of the dollar bills in game to be accurate to how they looked in real life during the games setting.

Physical World Maps
Alters the textures of the Panoramic, Legendary Animal/Fish maps and Charles Châtenay's Sketch.
# 2K (Vanilla)

R.W.A.O. (Realistic Weapon Audio Overhaul)
Replaces all weapons with a new realistic twist to their audio.
# R.W.A.O. - V12

Realistic Worn Gun Metals
# Main Version 1.1

Refitted Bandoliers - Vests and Shirts
Refits the shirt and vest bandolier models to decrease the gap between them and the players body.

Resized and Reshaped M1899 Pistol
Resizes and shapes the M1899 pistol.

Restored Cut Content - Quiver
Shows dynamically a quiver when the character equip the bow.

Weapon Component Models
Makes the Colt SAA have an accurate barrel size (short & long version).
# Accurate Cattleman Revolver Barrel Lengths (install 4.75 (RDR2 scale 5.1) and 7.5 (RDR2 scale 7.85))

Winchester 1866 YellowBoy Variants 1st of 3 - Alt. Carbine
Reworks the Lancaster model to look similar to the actual models of the gun it was based on.


4k Upscaled Stars
Upscales the night sky to a crisp 4K resolution.
# Upscaled Sky PLUS Moon

Best TAA and Visual Effects
Improves graphics in many way.

Corpse Spawn Distance
Increases spawn distance of the corpses so you will not see them drop in front of you.

Higher Resolution Vegetation
Adds the unused higher resolution textures for some of the game's vegetation.

Increased Geometry Level of Detail
Increases far trees distance without breaking the lod.
# lodscale 1.75-2.0

Particles
Adds particles and improves their quality.
# WhyEm's Particles Standard Edition

Restored HD Textures
Restores unused HD textures for particle effects.

Timescale
Changes the timescale to be consistent between all hours.
# You can install my tweaked version on FILES section with 1 real hour = 24h in-game (vanilla is 1:30).

VESTIGIA - A Graphical and Environmental Overhaul
Overhauls visuals and related systems to create an immersive and dynamic environment.
# VESTIGIA (install also 3 - Very Dark from Nighttime Darkness Options folder and if you play with DLSS, 2 - Stylized from Precipitation Options folder)

VESTIGIA Community Variants
Completely removes vignette effects.
# Install only Patch (timecycle_mods_1-2.xml) in FILES section.


Aaron's Ped Accuracy Fix
Changes the default ped's accuracy into a more realistic and cinematic way.
# install only the Ped Accuracy folder.

Cores Regen Over Time
Core affecting items now have their effects applied over time, specifically 1 point every second.

Custom Aiming Camera Distance
Makes the camera move closer to your character while you're aiming down the sight in third person.

Dead Eye Activation Cool Down Reloaded 1.0
Makes dead-eye have a cool down after use, preventing the player from spamming it.

Herbalist
Gathering herbs, plants, berries and mushrooms gives almost as much as you see growing.

Kiddo's Minimalist Loot Economy Overhaul
Removes the sensation of becoming wealthy and overburdened just from looting enemies and balances item prices.

Kill Children
Allows you to kill children.

Less Money - Economy Reworked
Reduces the amount of money you get throughout the game.
# LessMoneyHardcore

Llama's Police Overhaul
Overhaul police and guard response systems with a focus on stealth and evidence-based responses.
# Llama's Police Overhaul - Standard

LOS Enemy Blips
Only get enemy blips when you have line of sight.

Manual Pickup
Forces manual pickups for arrows and throwables.

NITRO
Tweaks explosions damages/visual effects.
# NITRO - FOR VANILLA

No Hitmarker Mod
Removes the hitmarker when shooting.

No Honor Loss For Killing Law Animals
Lets you kill bloodhounds and law horses without losing honor.

Pinkerton Repellent
Lets Arthur explore the West in peace.

Poison Weapons Parity - Pre-Patch Poison Knife
Makes poison depletion work the same for knives and arrows.
# Install only Patch (weapons.ymt) in FILES section.

Predators Rework
Makes it possible to scare away predators by firing a warning shot.

Realistic Health and Stamina
Introduces a balanced and immersive overhaul of health and stamina mechanics.

Realistic Loadouts
More NPC weapons variety. More weapon skins. More historical accuracy. Faction weapons.
# patch for Ambient Gang

Realistic Weapon Rebalance
Reloading, accuracy, damage, fire rate tweaks. More historical accuracy. Realism combined with balance.
# Weapon Rebalance  Standalone version 3.2 + Faster weapon reloads + Special ped damage feature

Vegetation Tricks (Cactus Revenge. Bush Trap)
Cactus vegetation is able to deal damage to you and your horse.


Collectables In Range (Dreamcatchers. Dinosaur Bones. Rock Carvings)
Applies a visual and audio feedback when the player is close to some collectable.

🕹 Controller Movement Fix
Makes movement speed depend on how much press the left stick is pressed.
# ControllerMovementFix_v1.0.1 - Hold Sprint Version

Custom First Person FOV
Increases the field of view while in first person.
# Install only Patch (cameras.ymt) in FILES section.

Disable Horse Holstering
Disables holstering of long arm weapons on the horse so that you can always have them on your back.
# Disable Horse Holstering 1.7

Dump That Cargo
Allows to dumping larger cargo without even leaving your horse.

Early Game Fishing
Gives you access to fishing right away.

Fisherman
Adds a fish gutting mechanism which eliminates the need to cook or stow the large fish after catching them.

Fishing Rod Grip Toggle
Lets toggle gripping the fishing rod instead of having to hold the mouse button/LT the whole time.
# FishingRodGripToggle_NoCameraShake_1.0

Horse camera centering bugfix
Disables the sudden camera pull towards the center on horseback.
# Install only Patch (cameras.ymt) in FILES section.

Legal and Main Menu Skip
Skips the legal menu and main menu and puts you directly into story mode.

No more grindy challenges
Reduces the requirements of some challenges.
# Install only Patch (goals_sp.meta) in FILES section.

🕹 Proper Horse Sprint on Controller
Allows to press sprint button on the pad a few times and hold it to keep the horse sprinting.

Realtime Eagle Eye
Disables slowmotion during Eagle Eye as it destroyed pacing.
# Eagle Eye

⌨️ Remove Speed Limits
Removes horse and player speed limits in camps, towns, indoors and on bridges.

Safe Shopping
Disables bounty hunters when near the fence or trapper.

Silent Shopkeepers
Mutes most shopkeepers so you don't have to hear them say the same repetitive and annoying lines over and over again.

Silent Trapper
Silences the annoying trappers in roanoke ridge, riggs station and st denis.

So You Lost Your Hat (Hat Map Markers)
Marks dropped hat on the map with an icon.

Stash That Lantern
Adds the option of attaching your lantern to your satchel at will.

⌨️ Walking Control Complete
Fixes the player is jogging instead of walking while first person mode is enabled.


Once all mods are installed, download and install all the patches in FILES section.

Then, execute the ModManager.exe (installed previously with Lenny's Mod Loader) in order to edit the mods load order. LML loads mods from top to bottom, so you will need to place the mod you wish to overwrite ABOVE the other mod.

• WhyEm's Particles at the very top
• Graphical issue fixes below Higher Resolution Vegetation
• Improvements In Blood below Higher Res Ui
• Obtainable Arthur and John Bounty Posters below Ambient Gang - RDR Gang Addon
• Stutter fix below VESTIGIA
• All the patches at the very bottom
  

Click on the save button then quit the program. You are now ready to launch the Definitive Edition!


High Priority GAMES in CPU - DISK - RAM Processes (Eliminate Stuttering)
Makes the game take priority over any other process for the CPU, Disk, Network or Pagefile.
# Red Dead Redemption 2

LML Mod Conflict Checker Tool (LMCCT)
Checks your LML folder for any conflicting mods that edit the same files.

Pool Manager
Allows to identify the cause of a crash and if the crash is related to a memory pool within gameconfig.xml.

Rampage Trainer
Allows to test mods with a lot of hacks & cheats to simplify the process.
# Rampage NUI

GRAPHIC SETTINGS

It is highly recommended to reset your graphic settings in game after installing all the mods in order to rebuild your system.xml with the updated settings.
If you have a good setup (11th~14th Gen Intel CPU - nVidia 3070 or better) you can easily maxed-out all the graphic settings to target 60fps with few adjustments below:

• Graphics API: Vulkan (DX12 is not working properly with modded game)
• MSAA: Off (kills fps and messes with lod transitions)
• SSAO: On (without it objects that are at a distance will start flickering)
• Water Physcis Quality: 3/4 (4/4 kills FPS)
• Tree Tesselation: Off (On kills FPS)
• Parallax Occlusion Mapping Quality: High (Ultra introduces numerous graphical artifacts all around the map)
  

ADITIONNAL TIPS

• TAA offers the best visual quality on this game.
• Some recommend to set Shader Cache Size to Disabled on nVidia drivers.
• If you activate GSync/Adaptive Sync in graphic drivers, disable in-game Vsync and Triple Buffering.
• Power Management Mode should be set to Normal. It allows your GPU to rest and clock-down when appropriate. Max Performance makes it run 100% all the time, creating excess heat in the case, which means it has to clock down once heat builds up.
• Don't clamp Negative LOD Bias in graphic drivers, it destroys the anisotropic filtering.
• If you play on a TV screen, set RGB range to Limited in the graphic drivers and TV settings. If you play on a PC monitor, set it to Full.
  

Windows 11 has currently a "bug" that applies the wrong gamma curve to HDR (sRGB instead of 2.2), making dark areas too bright.
If you own an OLED screen with a peak luminance of 800, download the .icc profile in FILES section to fix the problem.

• Activate HGIG or HDR10+ in your monitor settings if you can.
• HDR is only functional while in Fullscreen mode when using Vulkan.
• HDR Style : Game,
• Peak Brightness : set to the maximum capability of your screen (in most cases 800 or 1000)
• White Paper : choose a value between180 and 250. Check the clouds on the image. White should not cut or crush details of the trees.
  

I have infinite loading screens/black screens?
This can happens for no particular reason on heavily modded game. Sometimes, just adding or removing a mod, or even changing a setting... The only solution is to remove all mods (see below how to restore a vanilla game), load the last save, quit the game and reinstall all mods.

Why don't you include WhyEm's DLC or big upscaled textures mods?
Because they add tons of .ytd files which is the cause of the nasty train spawn bug.

Train spawn bug? What is that $#!%?
This bug appears when too many texture files (.ytd) are loaded by the game.
The effects of this bug are as follows:

• trains no longer spawn,
• wildlife is greatly reduced,
• trams in Saint Denis spawn but are empty of passengers,
• random events become rarer.
  

You can read more about this subject on this dedicated thread. This mod list has been build to avoid this bug.

How do I know if I am affected by this bug?
Go to St Denis and check if there are passengers in the tramways (check 2 or 3 different one).

And what about Red Dead Offline?
Unfortunatly there is actually no good mod that reworks economy and compatible with it. Realistic Economy Rebalance would be a good pick but it also requires WhyEm's DLC. So I prefer to keep Kiddo's Minimalist Loot Economy Overhaul which doesn't includes RDO unfortunatly. Anyway, no regrets to have as RDO is not perfect and includes some bugs and glitches.

Mod XYZ needs a version.dll file to work. How can I get it?
The version.dll file is provided by the RDR 2 Asi Loader and is used to unlock Red Dead Online content in the single-player campaign. However, it can introduce bugs, such as broken encounters and missions. The preferred method to load online content now is the Online Content Unlocker.

What controller do you recommend for playing the game?
Definitely a Dualsense controller because it has a gyroscope, which is great for aiming. You can download my Steam Input profile by searching for RDR2 Definitive Edition in the community configuration list on Steam.

How do you check if mods are compatible with each other?
I maintain a Google Sheets listing files from each mod, allowing me to check if multiple mods modify the same files, which helps identify compatibility issues. You can also use LML Mod Conflict Checker Tool (LMCCT), a very good tool to check duplicate files.

I want to clean my RDR2 folder. How can I do this without reinstalling everything?
Here is a screenshot of a clean, vanilla RDR2 installation folder (you should have 42 files and folders).