If you’ve played Red Dead Redemption 2, there are two things you’re sure to have noticed about the game. Firstly, life is not easy for a cowboy and his outlaw gang. Secondly, it’s a ridiculously vast game, with a myriad of customisation options and possible upgrades to bestow on our hero Arthur Morgan.
What does this mean for the player? It means that they’d better get to grips with the crafting system darn soon if they want the best chances of surviving the tough challenges that lie ahead.
Let’s take a look at how, where, and when you can craft, the kinds of items you want to shoot for, and how to make them.
Updated on October 3rd, 2020 by Josh Davison: With Red Dead Redemption 2 remaining a powerhouse of gaming that many people are still picking or returning to, it's always worth brushing up on how exactly to go about one of the most important skills of the game: crafting. Given the effort put into realism with this game, Arthur Morgan is given very little out of the blue. He has to make or acquire everything he uses to survive out in the wild with the Van Der Linde Gang. That means the player better learn how to master crafting quickly, or Arthur Morgan won't stand much of a chance. With that in mind, another five entries have been added to this list to help new RDR2 players learn how to master the craft of crafting.
15 How Do You Get Started With Crafting?
As you’ll have seen if you’ve checked out our guide to fast travel in Red Dead Redemption 2, this is one complex game. A lot of crucial mechanics are hidden away behind fiddly menus, making it tough to get a handle on how things work. Let’s start at the beginning with crafting, too, then.
The first thing to note is that you can’t craft anything on the fly. To start crafting, you’ll first need to rest (Arthur will crouch on the ground when you stop moving and hold the Triangle—or Y—button). Doing so gives you the options Set Up Camp, Craft, and Leave. Depending on what you want to craft, you’ll either need to set up a camp first or hop straight into the basic crafting menu.
14 To Build A Camp First Or Not To Build A Camp First, That Is The Question
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game all about immersion and authenticity. This is why its fast travel system is just a little clunky (you have to travel from your base each time, and cannot fast travel back from a location), and the same holds true for its crafting.
As Game Pressure explains, you jump straight into the Crafting menu from a resting position, you can craft only those basic items that don’t require a bonfire for Arthur to create: weapons and ammunition.
If you opt to Set Up Camp instead, you’ll have a much wider variety of crafting options to choose from. Weapons, ammunition, horse-care, tonics, hunting, and provisions options will all be available to you. Next, let’s take a look at each of these categories, and what you should be prioritising while crafting items.
13 Be On The Lookout For Crafting Recipes
There are many things you won't be able to craft right out of the gate, even if you have the necessary ingredients. There are many crafting recipes that Arthur just doesn't know off the top of his head. Recipes are found throughout the world or are tied to story progress.
Most recipes can be purchased from the Fencers located throughout the world of RDR2, even if you missed the initial chance to grab them. Fencers can be found near Saint Denis, Rhodes, Van Horn Trading Post, and Emerald Ranch.
12 Never Stop Picking Things Up
Never miss an opportunity to pick up stuff. This seems like an obvious one, especially to veterans of most open-world games and RPGs, but it bears repeating. Grab everything you can. Never stop picking up items.
The only thing that should stop you from picking things up is the size of your satchel, and we'll cover that later in this list.
11 Head On A Swivel
A lot of crafting ingredients are tied to animals, plants, and other things that may not be easy to find (does anybody else hear a bald eagle?) in the world of RDR2. You may find yourself burned out on hunting down some of these animals and plants, and that is completely understandable.
That said, never stop being on the lookout for rare animals and plants. You never know when the game may decide to throw a passing oriole that you've been searching for over the past five hours.
10 When To Advance The Story
As previously stated, many recipes and other aspects of crafting are tied to story progress. The Fencers won't have most of their recipes until you hit certain milestones throughout the story, and the game, to its credit, usually signals this in little ways.
There is a certain common variety of gamer who likes to tackle all of the side missions and extras before advancing the story, but you're limited in your ability to do this in RDR2. If you're looking for a recipe, item, or ability of Arthur that you know should be there, but you don't see it, then odds are that the game has locked it away behind story progress.
9 Money Helps
This is another obvious observation, but money helps when it comes to crafting as well as just about everything else in Red Dead Redemption 2. You'll need money to buy most of the crafting recipes, and you can use the money to even buy certain crafting ingredients.
TheGamer already has a great guide for making money in RDR2, so check that one out if you need some help in acquiring coin out in the world.
8 Provisions
Now, in the time of Red Dead Redemption 2, people did not have an easy ride. There were no convenient McDonald’s outlets every couple of feet for you to gorge yourself at. Survival was a darn tough business.
That’s exactly what the provisions tab of the crafting menu is all about. Meal recipes. This isn’t a survival game as such, but there are definitely elements of that. Your primary method of healing damage and restoring your attributes is by cooking and eating meals.
What’s on the menu, then? Well, that depends on what you’ve managed to bag. Plain Game Bird (sparrow, owl, raven and such) and Plain Herptile (iguana, frog) will restore only a small amount of your attributes, while rarer or stronger animals (Exotic Game Bird like a parrot or Plain Big Game like a bear or alligator) will restore a larger amount; filling them completely in the latter case.
Spicing the food first, where you’re able, will confer additional bonuses. It’s definitely worth experimenting with that.
7 Tonics
As with meals, Tonics are a crucial element of keeping Arthur and his vitals in good shape. It’s a similar system to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, in which you can create different dishes and recipes that cater to the specific needs of the character.
Some of the tonics are available to craft right from the off, while others will need to be unlocked with progress. The Special Bitter recipe (costing just 2 sage and 1 burdock root to craft) will boost your Stamina level, while the Potent Miracle Cure (for the cost of 1 Indian tobacco) will increase your Health, Stamina, and Dead Eye levels.
After the story mission "American Distillation" (chapter 3), you gain access to the powerful Special Health Cure (1 slander, 1 yarrow) which regenerates health, and the Special Snake Oil (2 Indian Tobacco), which fully replenishes your Dead Eye gauge.
6 Hunting
As we’ve come to see, then, hunting is a key concept of Red Dead Redemption 2. Food, clothing, decorative items… all of these and more rely on your ability to track and take down the great variety of wild animals that roam the game’s world.
Naturally, then, you’re going to want to be sure that you’re equipped for the task. In the Hunting tab of the crafting menu, you can make yourself Potent Predator Bait (1 Gritty Fish Meat and 1 Blackberry) and Potent Herbivore Bait (1 Vanilla Flower, 1 Snowdrop, and 1 Parasol Mushroom) from the start of chapter two.
With both of these, and the Cover Scent Lotion (1 Scent Gland), to prevent animals from detecting you, you can tailor your hunts to the specific animals you need.
5 Weapons
Whether you’re an avid fan of the game or you’ve only dabbled and checked out a trailer or two, there’s something you’ve definitely picked up on: it’s very combat-heavy. There’s a reason why it’s referred to as "Grand Theft Auto with horses": because that’s largely what it is.
As such, the next important crafting tab is weapons. Here, you can make yourself some crucial tools like Volatile Dynamite (1 Dynamite, 1 Animal Fat), after completing the "American Distillation" mission. Before that, on starting Chapter 2, you gain access to priceless weapons like the Fire Bottle (1 Animal Fat, 1 Moonshine), Improved Throwing Knife (1 Throwing Knife, 1 Eagle Feather), and Improved Tomahawk (1 Tomahawk, 1 Eagle Feather).
4 Ammo
So, maybe you’ve got a good stock of side-arms like Fire Bottles and Throwing Knives. That’s an excellent start, but there’s something else you’ve got to consider: ammunition for your burgeoning armoury.
Over in the Ammo tab, there are some fantastic things to craft that you do not want to sleep on. From the beginning of the second chapter, you have access to the likes of Fire Arrows (1 Arrow, 1 Animal Fat, and 1 Flight Feather) and Poison Arrows (1 Arrow, 1 Oleander Sage, and 1 Flight Feather). After Chapter 3’s A Short Walk In A Pretty Town, Dynamite Arrows (1 Arrow, 1 Animal Fat, and 1 Dynamite) become available.
On top of that, you’ve also got Explosive Cartridges (1 Animal Fat, 1 weapon) from the start of Chapter 2. That’s just for starters. Seriously, experiment with the Ammo tab, the results are far too much fun.
3 Horse Care
The final tab of the crafting menu is dedicated to your biggest, hairiest friend in Red Dead Redemption 2. No, not Micah Bell (although that’s a darn powerful beard if ever we’ve seen one), but your trusty horse.
Just as with Arthur himself, your horse has Health and Stamina stats that you need to keep track of. Fortunately, there are medicines for these, too, and after completing the Pouring Forth Oil mission in the second chapter, you gain access to stronger versions. The Special Horse Stimulant (2 Sage, 2 Common Bullrushes, and 2 Wild Carrots) and Special Horse Medicine (2 Ginseng, 2 Common Bullrush, and Wild Carrots) are excellent for this.
Most powerful is the Special Horse Reviver, which you can craft for 2 Ginseng, 2 Mushrooms, and 2 Wild Carrots after completing the "American Distillation" mission of Chapter 3. This reinforces and refills your horse’s health.
2 Satchels
As you can see, then, you’ll need a good stock of various items on hand to craft the best gear and supplies. Which brings us to one gripe many players have about the game: the teeny inventory size at the start.
To fix this issue, here’s another crucial tip: make sure you buy that $225 set of leatherworking tools for camp cook Pearson (from the ledger) as soon as feasible.
Once you’ve done so, you can start collecting perfect hides and skins (from efficient hunts) to bring to him. There are seven satchel upgrades in all, with one each of the game’s six different types of items (Ingredients, Tonics, Materials, Valuables, and Kit). Each increases your storage for that type of item, and there’s also the coveted Legend of the East satchel on top of that.
Start off with a Perfect Deer Hide, a Perfect Buck Hide and a Perfect Elk Hide for the Tonics satchel, and you’ll eventually get your hands on the Legend of the East (which extends your carrying capacity for all categories to 99, from the original 5).
Polygon has a complete guide to going about this, and while it's a slog, it’s 100% worth the effort.
1 Clothing
Now, all these practical items are all well and good. That’s what survival is all about, right? You forage, scavenge and hunt for anything and everything you can, trying to waste nothing at all in the process (just ask Bear Grylls).
That’s not always the way, though. Practicality is one thing, but style? That’s priceless. Character customisation is a huge draw in these open-world games, and you can make alternative use of those Perfect Pelts you’ve been accumulating.
If you feel the need for a quick fashion fix, take them to the Trapper instead. Here, you can craft new clothes for Arthur, in six different categories: Hats, Vests, Coats, Gloves, Chaps, and Boots. You can also craft Saddles, such as the swanky Rattlesnake Vaquero Saddle (10 Perfect Snake Skin).
Some items are rather easy to craft, such as the Homestead hat (1 Chicken Feather, 2 Goose Feather, $10.00), while others have quite hefty requirements, like the Legendary Panther Range gloves (1 Legendary Panther Pelt, 1 Perfect Gila Monster Skin, $30.00).
Take a look through the store and see what takes your fancy, and what you want to part with.
The astonishing thing is, there’s still more to craft in the game. You can also make trinkets and talismans for Arthur to wear on his person, which give the player a variety of passive bonuses, and various improvements around the camp. In the end, it all comes down to making sure you talk to everybody and open up all of your options, which is what you should be doing in Red Dead Redemption 2 anyway. Happy crafting!