Schwoby's RDR2 Strategy Guide

Pearson can create new satchels, giving you additional carrying space for your adventure. The 'Legend of the East Satchel' is your ultimate goal here, as it will provide you with, mostly, 99 available carrying slots for each kind of item. There are a few steps you’ll need to go though to get this done, but this is my single first priority when I start a new play-through. Pearson can also upgrade various components in the camp, but check here for that list.

To get started with your satchel upgrade mini-quest, you will need to collect perfect pelts before making your way back to the camp to ‘Donate’ them to Pearson. The phrase ‘Donate For Crafting’ should appear when it’s an item he can use. You will also need to purchase the ‘Leather Working Tools’ from your camp ledger. This is a $225 upgrade, but you can find some gold bars to help out with this. Completing the mission ‘Money Lending and Other Sins’ from Strauss will unlock the Camp Ledger.

This step is not needed but it greatly increases your ability to obtaining perfect pelts. Obtain the ‘Legendary Buck Antler Trinket’. To do this, start by talking with Hosea and accept the ‘Exit, Pursued by a Bruised Ego’ mission. Once that mission is complete, go on the hunt for the Legendary Buck; it’s just North of Owanjila Lake. Any weapon can be used to kill legendary animals, they do not have a quality rating to degrade. Once you’ve killed the buck, load it onto your horse and head for a fence. I recommend going to the Rhodes fence at this point as it’s one of the closest and the town also has a gun smith to purchase the rifles, various upgrades, and ammunition. There’ll be a small fee to turn the Buck Antler into the trinket at the fence, but you’ll get more than that from selling the pelt to a Trapper. There is a reasonably close trapper by the hunting grounds and another on the way to Rhodes.

At this point, you’ll need to purchase your rifles to obtain the perfect pelts. If you haven’t gotten your gold yet, check out this early gold gathering guide. Head to Rhodes to fence your gold and then purchase and fully upgrade, stocks not included, the Varmint Rifle with the short scope and the Springfield Rifle with the medium scope. Don’t forget to purchase ammo, the Express is best. NOTE: You can purchase the Upgraded Bandolier, the Upgraded Holster, and the Upgraded Gun Belt when purchasing the rifles. I’d do this before so you can fully stock up on your ammo without having to purchase twice. There is also a side mission store robbery of the gun smith where you can get a free Lancaster Repeater. To activate this mission, walk around the gun shop until you see a boy yelling out of a basement window, then rob the gun smith with the ‘Rob Basement’ option. Don’t forget to upgrade the Lancaster, but maybe do it at another gun smith for now.

All perfect animals yield perfect pelts (three stars). With the ‘Legendary Buck Antler Trinket’, you have a chance to get perfect pelts from less than perfect animals, too! To find a perfect animal, you can either use your binoculars or gun scope while looking at the animals and it’ll show their quality. Alternatively, you can use your Eagle Eye, the one that turns the screen brownish, and investigate animal tracks. I find the second method particularly useful for small/fast animals like squirrels and rabbits. Using the binoculars works well on larger/slow animals. To obtain a perfect pelt, a clean (single head shot) kill with the correct weapon must be made.

If, by the time you get to the epilogue and you haven’t completed the mini quest to gain the Legend of the East Satchel, all of the satchels become available for purchase from any of the four fence locations; Emerald Ranch, Rhodes, Saint Denis, Van Horn.

The following table can be sorted by clicking on the Animal, Quantity, or Weapon titles. Clicking on the title a second time will reverse the sorted order. The stated weapon will guarantee a clean kill when fired into the head or heart of the target with using the Express Ammo type. NOTE: Using other weapons or ammo may also yield a clean kill, but mixed results have been experienced.