Red Dead Redemption 2 - 100% Completion Strategy Guide

This guide will provide you with the necessary information needed to complete Red Dead Redemption 2 to 100%. It will also contain an incredible strategy route that will minimize your travel time and optimize your approach to achieving full game completion. Checklist and achievement details are also included for all achievements you will get when following the guide.

A Few Words

This guide will feature all you need to do in order to complete RDR 2 at 100%. I highly recommend you have played through the game once already and experienced the story. This will obviously feature spoilers so you have been warned! The Strategy guide I link in this guide is NOT mine! I am simply a fan of the game and I simply followed this guide to complete mine on 100%. I was incredibly impressed by it so I am popularizing it here!

All Tasks Required for 100%

These are all the tasks required to achieve 100% completion in Red Dead Redemption 2

Missions and strangers:
- Complete all 107 story missions.
- Complete any 10 Stranger missions (or strands if you start one)
- Capture 5 bounties.
- Encounter 25 chance encouters. (basically impossible to finish the story without those happening)
- Survive a gang ambush.
- Clear the 6 gang hideouts.

Collectibles:
- Find a single point of interest.
- Visit all 9 graves of various members of the gang. (Available after certain story missions)
- Collect Cigarette Cards.
- Collect all exotics.
- Collect and mail all legendary fishes.
- Collect and mail all rock cravings.
- Collect and mail all dinosaur bones.
- Find all 20 dreamcatchers.

Compedium:
- Study 50 animal species.
- Discover 10 equipment items.
- Catch 10 fish species.
- Discover all 6 gangs.
- Discover 10 horse breeds
- Pick 20 plants.
- Collect 48 weapons.

Player tasks:
- Max all 3 cores.
- Achieve level 4 bonding with a single horse.
- Complete the 9 challenge chains.

Misc:
- Find 5 hidden shacks around the world.
- Hunt 5 legendary animals.
- Play all table games.
- Take a bath at least once.
- Meet 5 random characters. (Different from strangers)
- Watch a show.
- Craft 6 types of recipes.
- Visit the theater.
- Complete 4 types of robberies.

Main Story Achievements

Following this guide will effectively grant you these story achievements in RDR 2.



Just a Scratch - Complete 'Enter, pursued by a Memory'. This is the second mission in the story, you will meet a familiar iconic character and score yourself an achievement.



Back in the Mud - Complete Chapter 1. This is unlocked upon completing the final mission of the first chapter, 'Eastward Bound'.



To Greener Pastures - Complete Chapter 2. This one is unlocked upon completing the final mission of the second chapter, 'A Strange Kindness'.



Settling Feuds - Complete Chapter 3. Awarded after the explosive finale of the third chapter, upon completing the mission 'The Battle of Shady Belle'.



Washed Ashore - Complete Chapter 4. Awarded after reaching the shores of Guarma, at the end of 'Banking, The Old American Art'.



No Traitors - Complete Chapter 5. Awarded after the final mission of the fifth chapter, 'That's Murfree Country'.



Third Time Lucky - Complete 'Goodbye, Dear Friend'. One of the most important story missions.



Redemption - Complete 'Red Dead Redemption'. The final story mission of Chapter 6. Prepare to bring tissues..



Cowboy Builder - Complete 'A New Jerusalem'. A nice tribute to the fans of the original game. This is the ending of the first part of the Epilogue.



Endless Summer - Complete the Epilogue. Awarded after completing the finale of RDR 2, 'American Venom'.

Gameplay Achievements

Following the linked strategy guide will also grant you a number of gameplay and miscellaneous achievements in RDR 2.



Lending a Hand - Complete all optional story missions. These are similar to side missions, but have a direct impact on the story.



Gold Rush - Earn 70 Gold Medals in Story missions. Each story mission has optional objectives, you need to complete them all in order to earn a Gold Medal. Only 70 are required out of 100+ missions.



Friends With Benefits - Complete a Companion Activity in each camp. These are available in Chapter 2-4, not required for the story or 100%, but they are done in the Strategy guide. If you follow it, you will get this achievement naturally.



Hobby Horse - Play all mini games. Playing them is required so you will get this naturally when going for 100%.



Breaking and Entering - Recover the stash from 4 homesteads. Some stashes include special weapons or items, so this will also be unlocked as you progress through the game. Following the Strategy Guide covers this achievement as well.



Artificial Intelligence - Discover the fate of Marko Dragic. An interesting side missions within the game, specifically not required for 100%, but the linked guide will cover this so it will be unlocked.



Give to the Poor - Donate $250 to the gang tithing box. Available from Chapter 2-4. Not required for 100%, but gives a lot of benefits and is covered in the strategy guide.



Extreme Personality - Reach maximum or minimum Honor level. Not required for 100%, but is essential for the 'good' ending of the game and is once again done in the guide.



Western Stranger - Complete 10 Stranger mission strands. This should come naturally as you work your way towards full completion.



Collector's Item - Complete one of the Collectable strands. You need to complete them all so this will unlock in time.



Paying Respects - Find the graves of each of your fallen companions. A requirement for 100% is to find them all so you can't miss this one, if you are going for it.



Self Sufficient - Craft 30 unique items in Story Mode. Virtually unmissable when following the strategy guide.



It was THIS Big! - Catch a fish weighing at least 16 lbs (7.3 kg). In order to attain 100% you need to catch and mail all legendary pieces of fish. Some of them are over 16lbs so this achievement will also unlock naturally.



Trusty Steed - Reach max bonding level with a horse. This is part of the requirements for 100% so, once again, it will unlock naturally.



Best in the West - Attain 100% completion. Duh!

Jimbatron Strategy Guide

Getting 100% in RDR 2 is possible after completing all missions. There is no way to lock yourself out of 100% like a certain other Rockstar title. Doing tasks in chaotic order, however, is not recommended as the time needed to complete the game will be well over 150 hours. What I recommend, and what I personally used was a fantastic strategy guide posted on the GTA Forums by Jimbatron. All credit goes to him I am not the creator of it, but just want to spread the word around as it's not a very popular guide I don't think, despite definitely being the best one I have seen.

Jimbatron's fantastic guide[gtaforums.com]

In addition to that, I recently found that he has made videos on all those things. Documented in a nice playlist that follows the best order of completion to minimize on travel time. This video is the introduction to that incredible playlist. Please give love to the creator, I am just trying to shed light on it.

Personal review of RDR 2

You can find my personal Red Dead Redemption 2 review below, should you be interested in how I rated the game.

The prequel to Rockstar's highly acclaimed Wild West masterpiece is in a league of its own and it's an example of an artistic video game. Despite nearing its 4th anniversary, this experience is still unmatched in quality, and it may very well never be.

Full Review here

Huge Thanks

Massive thanks to Jimbatron who is the creator of the Strategy Guide linked here! He has put a lot of time and effort into it and all credit goes to him. I saw how criminally underrated his guide was so I decided to create a Steam Guide and popularize it here. A lot of people seem to have used it, which makes me happy. Consider following Jimbatron's YouTube channel below!!!

Jimbatron's YouTube Channel

Also huge thanks to all Steam members who used the guide and left a comment here mentioning that it helped them. This means that my goal of popularizing was successful!

[Macasharoni]

Honestly was just curious on what goes into 100% this game..... now i want to grind forever until i do

[A Harmless Cat]

@Alistair That will take some time, yeah, but it will surely be a lot of fun!

[Finn_in_a_Bin]

I plan on doing this but I want to go farther I want to do EVERY POSSIBLE THING YOU CAN DO i want to get every outfit hunt every animal, cross everything off the map, I WILL do it all it might take years but I am determined to do it all WITHOUT cheats

[elderlynel]

dam

[A Harmless Cat]

@Chorizo_Joe It is yeah, also criminally underrated.

[Chorizo_Joe]

The Jimbatron guide really is true gold. Thank you for sharing!

[Zen]

nicee

[pond water drinker]

wow

[A Harmless Cat]

Nice

[NashNicko]

Took me 71 parts, each one 3 hours long ... WORTH IT. :-)