Red Dead Redemption 2 Satchel Guide – how to upgrade your satchel, horse satchel, satchel full

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a massive game with so many places to explore, so it makes sense that you’d want stuff your satchel with all the loot in sight.

But this isn’t a Fallout game, so there’s no need to become a hoarder. Here’s everything you need to know about how to upgrade your satchel, how to access your horse satchel, and what to do when your satchel is full, so you can maximise your inventory and carry exactly what you need.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Satchel Upgrade guide

How to open your satchel in Red Dead Redemption 2

Red Dead Redemption 2’s controls are complicated, there’s no doubt about it. So to open your satchel, press and hold right on your d-pad. Make sure that you’re away from your horse as well as any NPCs, because this can open different menus.

Inside your inventory menu, your items are grouped under different tabs depending on the kind of item. Most are self-explanatory, but if you’ve cooked specific meals using meat, they are all packed into one location depending on what meat they were cooked with.

For instance, if you’ve cooked thyme beef to help with health core regeneration as well as beef with a stamina core regenerating herb, they are both found under beef in the provisions tab of your bag.

Horse Satchel

Your Horse Satchel is accessed by pressing and holding right on the d-pad while stood next to, or riding, your horse.

This is where large items that you collect hunting are stored, including carcasses and pelts. So if you’re trying to donate a carcass to Mr Pearson at camp, the horse tab is where to look when you’re talking to him.

If you’re struggling to collect perfect pelts for crafting, we have a full guide on how to get them every time.

What to do when your satchel is full

At the start of the game, you can only carry a small number of common types of items. The amount you can carry differs depending on the type of item – for instance: you can only carry three bottles of bourbon, five of each type of saleable valuable, and five pieces of uncooked game meat.

Because these items – especially booze – appear a lot in the game, most of the time when you’re getting a message that says your bag is full, it’s because you’ve hit your limit for that particular type of item.

To be able to carry more of each kind of item, you need to get Mr Pearson to craft a new one for you at camp. Each upgrade requires three different types of perfect pelt, so here’s where you can find some Legendary animals to do just that.

You also need to have unlocked Person’s tools from the Ledger, which we go into more about in our guide on how to upgrade your camp in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Some upgrades are locked behind a task that has to be completed as well as needing the correct materials.

The list of all the upgraded bags that you can craft are as follows:

Tonics Satchel – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Buck, Perfect Elk
Ingredients Satchel – Extra requirement: Donate 5 carcasses to Pearson – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Badger, Perfect Squirrel
Kit Satchel – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Elk, Perfect Panther
Provisions Satchel -Extra requirement: Upgrade the Provisions Wagon twice – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Bison, Perfect Raccoon
Materials Satchel – Extra requirement: Craft 3 recipes at the Scout Fire – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Boar, Perfect Iguana
Valuables Satchel – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Beaver, Perfect Rabbit
Legend of the East Satchel – Extra requirement: Craft every other satchel – Materials needed: Perfect Deer, Perfect Cougar, Perfect Wolf