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Best Red Dead Redemption 2 mods

Jon Bitner
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Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t a game that’s wanting for content. With a campaign that lasts nearly 50 hours — and enough extra content to keep players busy well past 100 — it’s about as close to a complete western experience as you can get. But that hasn’t stopped the modding community from putting together some impressive new material for Rockstar’s hit title. If you find yourself growing bored of roaming the wild west, installing any of these mods is bound to liven up the experience. Here are the best mods currently available for Red Dead Redemption 2.

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Red Dead Redemption 2 Mod Manager

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Before installing several different mods, it’s worth installing software that can manage them all. Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn’t have a great method built into the game that allows players to easily wrangle all the extra files, meaning you’ll want something like this Mod Manager. There are a few steps to get this running, but once it’s up you’ll be able to install subsequent mods with ease.

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Railroad Engineer

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While trains are fun to mess around with in vanilla Red Dead Redemption 2, Railroad Engineer takes things to the next level. The mod adds dozens of new features including cruise control, speed and direction displays, and the ability to change switches and tracks at the press of a button. It’s currently one of the most downloaded mods for the game, and it’s easy to see why.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Trainer

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If you want to get really weird with the game and have direct access to dozens of crazy features, Zolika’s Trainer is the mod you’re looking for. It will allow you to start riots on demand, spawn any vehicle or pedestrian at will, change the time of day, change the weather, and even use a feature called “Full god mode.” If you want to bend the world to your will and simply enjoy the massive playground that is Red Dead, it’s hard to beat this one.

Longer Days

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Sometimes the day flies by, and all you want is a bit more time in the sun. That’s the premise of Longer Days, a mod that lets you change the exact length of the day/night cycle. It’s a simple mod, but one that lets you enjoy the beauty of Red Dead Redemption 2 on your terms.

Intro Completed Save

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Let’s be honest — once you’ve played through the beginning sequence of RDR2, you never want to do it again. It’s a bit tedious compared to other parts of the game, and since you already know what happens, it’s even more exhausting to slog through. If you want to start up a new file — but don’t want to endure the game’s intro — just install this easy mod and you’ll be able to skip the entire intro portion of the story.

Legal Screen Skip

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This mod introduces a small tweak that makes the game easier to jump into and play. If you’re really impatient — or don’t plan on doing anything unscrupulous with the game — Legal Screen Skip lets you bypass all the warnings when loading up Red Dead Redemption 2.

Bank Robberies

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What’s a western game without bank robberies? This aptly named Bank Robberies mod gives players the ability to rob banks by pointing their gun at the teller — like how it works in Grand Theft Auto V. It’s an easy way to make a quick buck, but don’t expect to get far without alerting the local authorities!

Ped Damage Overhaul

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If you wished your shootouts had a bit more variety to them, you’re not alone. One of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s most downloaded mods of all time is Ped Damage Overhaul. This complex add-on changes the way NPCs react after being shot. For example, they might stumble if they have an injured leg or grab at a wound on their arm. It comes in two varieties, Realistic and Standard, so you can tailor the experience to your liking.

Photo-Realism Reshade

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The visuals of Rockstar’s western are beautiful on their own, but if you want something a bit grander, you can install this popular mod by Anamist. It requires a powerful computer — users typically see a bit of a drop in fps — but if you have the processing power to run this mod, you’ll be treated to a wonderfully reimagined world.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Save Editor

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Don’t have the time to work through the 50-plus-hour campaign to unlock all the content? With this mod, you can change dozens of variables associated with your save file. Whether you’re looking to increase your health, earn more money, or just change the items in your satchel, you can do it all with this Save Editor.

Survive The Island

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Currently in beta, Survive The Island drops players on an abandoned island with no weapons and forces them to fight for their life. Players will need to scour their surroundings to find resources to aid them on their journey, lest they meet an early demise. The overall goal? To locate the Molotov and hunt down a bear. It’s a fun — and challenging — mod that introduces a whole new way to play the game.

Red Dead Freecam

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It’s a beautiful world, so why not explore it without limits? Red Dead Freecam gives players complete control over the camera, allowing them to soar high into the air and take amazing photos of the environment. It’s not the most complex of mods, but viewing the world from a new angle can be a surprisingly fun experience.

Blink (Teleportation)

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Forget the horse, just teleport! Getting around the massive world is easy when you can instantly jump to the location of your cursor. There’s a maximum range you can Blink to — likely due to technological constraints — but it’s still a heck of a lot faster than riding on horseback.

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Jon Bitner
Jon Bitner
Jon Bitner is a writer covering consumer electronics, technology, and gaming. His work has been published on various websites…
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