RDR2 Compendium: What You Need for 100% and How to Complete It

The Compendium tracks much of what you discover in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Open:

Pause → Progress → Compendium

It contains:

• Animals;
• Equipment;
• Fish;
• Gangs;
• Plants;
• Horses;
• Weapons;
• Cigarette Cards.

There are two different goals.

Official 100% Total Completion

You only need part of the Compendium.

Full Compendium

You need almost every available entry.

Total Completion needs part of the Compendium. Filling the Compendium means chasing almost all of it.

Quick answer

Category	Full Compendium*	Required for 100%
Animals	178	50
Equipment	About 77 on current versions	10
Fish	30	10
Gangs	6	6
Plants	43	20
Horses	19	10
Weapons	About 63 on a standard current save	48
Cigarette Cards	144	1 complete 12-card set as a separate collectible requirement

*Later Story Mode updates added content, so older guides can show lower Equipment and Weapons totals.

A normal current save commonly shows around 560 Compendium entries. External unlocks such as the GTA-linked Stone Hatchet can alter the weapon count in some saves.

You do not need a full Compendium for 100%

The official Total Completion checklist asks for:

• 50 animals;
• 10 Equipment entries;
• 10 fish species;
• all 6 gangs;
• 10 horse breeds;
• 20 plants;
• 48 weapons.

That is the Compendium portion of official 100%.

Cigarette Cards are handled separately under Collectibles, where one complete set is enough.

Animals

This is the largest category.

The standard Compendium contains 178 animal entries.

That includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, domestic animals, Legendary Animals and Guarma species.

Discovering an animal

Studying the animal or performing another qualifying interaction normally adds the species.

A fully completed animal page can track more actions, including:

• study;
• track;
• kill;
• skin or collect.

Discovering the animal and completing every statistic on its page are separate goals.

For official 100%

You need:

50 animals.

Normal exploration and hunting should take you comfortably beyond that.

For all 178

Now planning matters.

The big warning is:

Guarma.

Several species appear there during Chapter 5.

If you want a naturally complete animal Compendium, study them while you are on the island.

Are Guarma animals required for Total Completion?

No.

You can miss them and still reach official 100%.

They matter when your goal is the full animal Compendium.

Equipment

Equipment includes things such as:

• tools;
• satchels;
• Talismans;
• Trinkets;
• reinforced Challenge gear.

Official 100% requires only:

10 entries.

Normal progression gives you far more.

Why do old guides show different totals?

Rockstar added more Story Mode content after release.

Later updates included:

• five hidden Trinkets;
• four Story Mode weapons;
• new treasure hunts;
• additional Story Mode content.

That is why 2018 Compendium guides can display lower totals.

When in doubt, trust the count shown in your own patched game.

Fish

There are 30 Compendium entries:

• 15 normal species;
• Legendary entries.

Official 100% requires:

10 fish species.

Completing Survivalist 10 already makes you catch all 15 normal species.

Filling all 30

You also need the Legendary Fish strand.

That overlaps with A Fisher of Fish, which is itself required for Total Completion.

Gangs

The six required gangs are:

• O’Driscoll Boys;
• Lemoyne Raiders;
• Murfree Brood;
• Skinner Brothers;
• Laramie Gang;
• Del Lobos.

This category is different from the others because official 100% requires:

6 of 6.

Story progression introduces most of them.

The western gangs arrive with Epilogue access to New Austin.

Plants

There are 43 plant species.

Official 100% requires:

20.

Herbalist 9 requires:

all 43.

So finishing all 90 Challenges takes you well beyond the Total Completion requirement.

For all 43

Use a checklist.

Do not try to remember what Arthur picked forty hours earlier.

Herbalist 9 makes this particularly important because you need to pick the species again while that rank is active.

Horses

The Compendium tracks 19 breeds.

Official 100% requires:

10 breeds.

You do not need every coat variation.

Horseman 10 helps

Horseman 10 requires you to break nine specific wild breeds.

That gets you very close to the ten-breed Total Completion requirement by itself.

Other breeds appear through:

• stables;
• towns;
• wagons;
• NPCs;
• missions.

Weapons

This category creates confusion because Rockstar added Story Mode weapons after launch.

Later additions include:

• M1899 Pistol;
• Evans Repeater;
• High Roller Revolver;
• LeMat Revolver.

That means an original 2018 guide can show fewer entries than a current patched game.

A modern standard save contains roughly 63 normal Story Mode weapon entries.

The GTA-linked Stone Hatchet can add another weapon entry when unlocked.

For official 100%

You need:

48 weapons.

Not all of them.

Easy approach

Buy newly unlocked weapons.

Pick up unique guns when missions put them in front of you.

Take gunslinger weapons.

Craft weapon variants that register in the Compendium.

You can reach 48 without chasing every obscure weapon.

Pick up named weapons immediately

When a unique character drops a named gun:

take it.

Do not create a future problem for yourself because you assumed it would still be there later.

Cigarette Cards

There are:

144 cards.

Twelve sets of twelve.

Official Total Completion does not require all 144.

The Collectibles requirement asks for:

one complete set.

If you have enough money:

1. visit a General Store;
2. buy Premium Cigarettes;
3. each pack gives a random card;
4. discard cigarettes when inventory fills;
5. buy more;
6. continue until one set is complete.

It is ugly.

It works.

For all 144, you can also collect the fixed cards around the world.

What does 100% animal-page completion mean?

Finding an animal and fully completing its Compendium page are separate things.

Depending on the species, the page may track:

• studied;
• tracked;
• killed;
• skinned.

Official Total Completion does not require you to fill every statistic for every animal.

A true full-Compendium run is much stricter.

What can be missed in a full Compendium run?

The main things to watch are:

Guarma species

Handle these during Chapter 5 if you want the cleanest full run.

Unique weapons

Pick them up when they appear.

Story-dependent entries

Do not assume every Compendium entry will remain equally convenient after the Epilogue.

Pair this guide with the missables guide if your goal is a perfect save.

Guarma is the big difference

For official 100%:

you can leave Guarma without filling its wildlife pages.

For a complete Compendium:

take time to study the island wildlife.

Those are different completion goals.

Recommended Compendium route

Study new animals.

Pick new plants.

Use new weapons.

Ride new horse breeds.

Catch new fish.

You do not need to stop the story every time the Compendium updates.

In Guarma

Slow down.

Get the island species if you want the full animal category.

While doing Challenges

Combine your work:

• Herbalist → Plants;
• Horseman → Horses;
• Survivalist → Fish;
• Master Hunter → Animals;
• Sharpshooter / Weapons Expert → Weapons and Challenge gear.

Do not repeat work you can stack.

Epilogue

Clean up:

• New Austin;
• Del Lobos;
• western horses;
• western plants;
• remaining animals;
• missing weapons.

How to find what you are missing

Open:

Pause → Progress → Compendium

Enter each category.

Look at the blank entries.

When you only have a few animals or plants left, use a checklist rather than wandering randomly around the whole map.

Identify the missing entry first.

Then hunt it.

Full Compendium and Total Completion are different goals

Official 100%

Requires:

• 50 Animals;
• 10 Equipment;
• 10 Fish;
• 6 Gangs;
• 10 Horses;
• 20 Plants;
• 48 Weapons.

Full Compendium

Requires every entry available to your version and save.

That is far more work and makes missable content more important.

Frequently asked questions

How many Compendium entries are in RDR2?

Current versions contain around 560 standard entries. The exact displayed total can differ slightly with optional linked content such as the Stone Hatchet.

Do I need the full Compendium for 100%?

No.

How many animals do I need?

50 for Total Completion.

178 for the full normal animal category.

How many plants?

20 for Total Completion.

43 for the full category and Herbalist 9.

How many fish?

10 for Total Completion.

The full Compendium contains 30 fish entries including Legendary Fish.

How many horse breeds?

10 for Total Completion.

19 in the full breed category.

How many weapons?

48 for Total Completion.

Current patched versions contain more because Rockstar added Story Mode weapons after release.

Are Guarma animals required for 100%?

No.

Do I need them for a completely filled animal Compendium?

Yes, if you want every normal entry without relying on later workarounds.

Do I need all 144 Cigarette Cards for 100%?

No.

One complete set is enough.

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More RDR2 guides

RDR2 100% Completion

Every Missable in RDR2

What to Do in Guarma Before Leaving

Herbalist Challenges

Survivalist Challenges

Horseman Challenges

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Sources

Red Dead Redemption 2 — Compendium and Total Completion menus.

Rockstar Games — post-launch Story Mode additions.

PowerPyx — Red Dead Redemption 2 Full Compendium.

Red Dead Wiki — Compendium.

Last verified: October 5, 2026.

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