Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats and newspaper requirements

Red Dead Redemption 2 hides cheats as phrases rather than button combinations. Every platform uses the same words, but several phrases stay locked until Arthur or John owns the correct newspaper issue after the required story mission.

Cheats are a temporary sandbox. Once any cheat is active, saving is disabled and trophies or achievements cannot be earned in that session. Make a manual save before opening the Cheats menu.

How to enter RDR2 cheats on PC, PlayStation and Xbox

1. Pause the game and select Settings.
2. Use the prompt in the lower-right corner to open Cheats. Press Triangle on PlayStation or Y on Xbox.
3. Press the same button again to enter a new phrase.
4. Type the phrase. Capitalization does not matter, but words and punctuation should match.
5. Select the unlocked cheat and switch it on.

PS5 and Xbox Series consoles use the same backward-compatible menu as PS4 and Xbox One. PC uses the same phrase list.

Why newspapers matter

Buying one early newspaper does not unlock every printed phrase. Later issues become available as the story progresses, and the relevant paper must be in the character’s inventory. Newspaper sellers operate in Valentine, Strawberry, Rhodes, Saint Denis, Blackwater and Annesburg as their regional editions become available.

If a phrase is correct but remains locked, check three things:

• the required story mission is complete;
• the later newspaper issue has been purchased;
• the paper is still in the satchel.

All RDR2 player and progression cheats

Effect	Phrase	Requirement
Add $500	Greed is now a virtue	None
Refill Health, Stamina and Dead Eye	You flourish before you die	None
Fortify Health, Stamina and Dead Eye	You seek more than the world offers	Blackwater Ledger 68 after Dear Uncle Tacitus
Increase Health, Stamina and Dead Eye levels	Seek all the bounty of this place	None
Infinite Stamina	The lucky be strong evermore	Blackwater Ledger 68 after Dear Uncle Tacitus
Infinite Dead Eye	Be greedy only for foresight	None
Dead Eye level 1	Guide me better	None
Dead Eye level 2	Make me better	None
Dead Eye level 3	I shall be better	None
Dead Eye level 4	I still seek more	None
Dead Eye level 5	I seek and I find	None
Maximum honor	Virtue unearned is not virtue	Blackwater Ledger 67 after Banking, the Old American Art
Neutral honor	Balance. All is balance	New Hanover Gazette 27
Minimum honor	You revel in your disgrace, I see	New Hanover Gazette 27
Raise wanted level	You want punishment	None
Lower wanted level	You want freedom	None
Clear bounties and lockdowns	You want everyone to go away	None
Learn every crafting recipe	Eat of knowledge	None
Unlock every outfit	Vanity. All is vanity	None
Obtain camp upgrades	Share	None
Drunk mode	A fool on command	None

The $500 cheat can be repeated, but none of that money can be saved into normal progress. It is useful for testing weapons, horses or outfits within the same sandbox session, not for funding the story.

Weapon cheats and newspaper gates

Effect	Phrase	Requirement
Simple weapons	A simple life, a beautiful death	New Hanover Gazette 27
Gunslinger weapons	History is written by fools	New Hanover Gazette 27 on builds that enforce the paper gate
Stealth weapons	Death is silence	New Hanover Gazette 27
Heavy weapons	Greed is American virtue	Saint Denis Times 46 or Blackwater Ledger 65 after Advertising, the New American Art
Infinite ammunition	Abundance is the dullest desire	New Hanover Gazette 27

Infinite ammunition removes the need to restock ordinary rounds during the cheat session. Weapon-set cheats place a curated group in the inventory rather than unlocking every catalog variant.

Horse and wagon cheats

Effect	Phrase	Requirement
Increase bonding with owned horses	My kingdom is a horse	None
Call your horse from anywhere	Better than my dog	None
Spawn a race horse	Run! Run! Run!	None
Spawn a superior horse	You want more than you have	None
Spawn a random horse	You want something new	None
Spawn a war horse	You are a beast built for war	Blackwater Ledger 72 in Epilogue Part I
Spawn a wagon	Keep your dreams simple	None
Spawn a buggy	Keep your dreams light	None
Spawn a stagecoach	The best of the old ways	None
Spawn a circus wagon	Would you be happier as a clown?	Blackwater Ledger 73 in Epilogue Part II

Spawn in open terrain. Roads and fields give the horse or vehicle enough room; interiors, camps and steep slopes can block the effect.

Map and exploration cheats

Effect	Phrase	Requirement
Reveal the entire map	You long for sight but see nothing	Blackwater Ledger 66 or New Hanover Gazette 31 after Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern

Map reveal removes fog but does not complete discoveries, challenges or points of interest. It is a planning aid inside the unsavable session, not a completion shortcut that carries back to your clean save.

Can cheats be saved or used for trophies?

No. Activating a cheat blocks saving and trophy or achievement progress for the current session. The safest workflow is:

1. make a manual save;
2. activate and test cheats;
3. return to the title screen when finished;
4. load the manual save rather than relying on autosave.

Entering a phrase into the list is not the same as switching it on. You can store unlocked phrases in the Cheats menu, but the restriction begins when a cheat is activated.

Troubleshooting invalid or locked phrases

• Retype curly punctuation as the ordinary keyboard character shown by the game.
• Keep every word, including small words such as is, the and of.
• Buy the newspaper after its associated mission makes that issue available.
• Check the satchel rather than assuming a paper seen at a vendor was purchased.
• If the menu has no entry prompt, back out to Settings and use the lower-right control hint.
• Do not confuse Red Dead Online with Story Mode; this menu is a single-player feature.

Players searching for an online money code should stop there: these cheats do not work in Red Dead Online, and third-party tools risk the account.

For another Rockstar single-player sandbox, see GTA 5 cheats. For command-line control on PC, use Skyrim console commands.

How this guide was reviewed

All 37 phrases were reconciled by effect and grouped by what a player is trying to change. Newspaper requirements were kept beside the relevant phrase instead of separated into a second list, which prevents a valid phrase from looking broken when the actual missing input is story progress.