You're riding through the Heartlands. The sun is setting, casting that perfect orange glow over the grass, and you spot a perfect buck. You take the shot. It’s a clean kill. You hop off your horse, knife in hand, ready to skin it, only to see that dreaded red icon in the corner of your screen. "You cannot carry any more of this item." It's infuriating. Honestly, nothing kills the immersion of being a rugged outlaw like Arthur Morgan more than a tiny leather bag that can only hold five pieces of stringy meat.
If you haven't prioritized Red Dead Redemption 2 satchel upgrades, you are basically playing the game on hard mode for no reason.
Most players spend their first twenty hours focusing on guns or horses. I get it. A shiny Schofield Revolver is sexier than a leather pouch. But the satchel is the single most important piece of gear in the entire game. It's the difference between being a scavenger who has to leave half their loot behind and being a mobile warehouse that can survive weeks in the Grizzlies without visiting a General Store.
The Legend of the East Satchel is the Only Goal That Matters
Let’s be real. There are several different satchels you can craft at Pearson’s table in the Van der Linde camp. You’ve got the Provisions Satchel, the Ingredients Satchel, the Materials Satchel, and so on. Each one bumps your capacity for specific items from five to ten. That’s... okay. It’s fine. But it’s not the goal. The goal—the only thing that actually changes the way the game feels—is the Legend of the East Satchel.
This thing is a game-changer. It increases your carrying capacity for almost every single item in the game to 99.
Think about that for a second. Instead of five health tonics, you have 99. Instead of five pieces of Big Game Meat, you have 99. You never have to look at a lootable cabinet and wonder if you have space. You just take everything. It turns Arthur into a hoarding god. To get it, though, you have to craft every other satchel first. It’s a grind. It’s a massive, time-consuming hunt that will take you from the swamps of Lemoyne to the snow-capped peaks of Ambarino.
Is it worth it? Yes. A thousand times, yes.
Pearson’s Grocery List: What You Actually Need to Hunt
You can’t just buy these. You have to earn them through blood, sweat, and a lot of Cover Scent Lotion. You need to talk to Pearson at camp. He’s the one with the dirty apron and the questionable stew. You’ll also need to buy the Leather Working Tools from the Ledger first—it costs $225. Don't complain about the price; it’s the best money you’ll ever spend in Chapter 2.
Here is the thing about hunting in RDR2: quality is everything. If you bring Pearson a "Good" pelt, he’ll just use it for stew. You need "Perfect" pelts. This means you need to find a three-star animal and kill it with the right weapon. Using a repeater on a rabbit? You just ruined the pelt. Using a shotgun on a deer? Forget about it.
To get the Red Dead Redemption 2 satchel upgrades, you’re going to need a specific shopping list of carcasses and skins:
First, for the Provisions Satchel, you need a perfect Deer pelt, a perfect Bison pelt, and a perfect Raccoon pelt. The Bison is the easy part—they're huge targets in the plains of New Hanover. The Raccoon? That’s a nighttime hunt. Look near the creek beds.
Then comes the Ingredients Satchel. You’ll need another Deer, a Badger, and a Squirrel. Squirrels are the worst. They are tiny, fast, and require the Small Game Arrow. If you try to use a Varmint Rifle, you’ll rarely get that three-star result. It’s frustrating. You’ll spend an hour squinting at the grass in Scarlett Meadows just to find one.
For the Materials Satchel, it’s a Deer, a Boar, and an Iguana. Yes, an Iguana. You have to row a boat out to the islands on Flat Iron Lake, across from Clemens Point, to find the Green Iguanas. It feels like a side quest in itself, but the tropical vibe is a nice break from the mud of Valentine.
The Valuables Satchel requires a Deer, a Beaver, and a Rabbit. Beavers are localized mostly around Owanjila or the Butcher Creek area. They’re skittish. If you splash in the water, they’re gone.
The Mid-Game Bottleneck
The Tools Satchel asks for a Deer, an Elk, and a Cougar. This is where most people quit. Cougars in RDR2 are terrifying. They don't give you a warning bark or a growl; they just teleport onto your neck from a bush. My advice? Ride your horse through the woods north of Strawberry. When the horse starts acting nervous, the Cougar is near. Use a Bolt Action Rifle and aim for the head.
The final "pre-requisite" is the Materials Satchel, which needs a Deer, a Wolf, and a Buck. By this point, you’ll be a master hunter. Or you’ll be incredibly sick of skinning animations.
Once those six are hanging on Pearson’s wall, you can finally craft the Legend of the East. It requires a Deer pelt, a Cougar pelt, and a Wolf pelt. It feels like a victory lap.
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Why the Varmint Rifle and Springfield are Your Best Friends
You cannot do this effectively without the right tools. If you’re trying to get these Red Dead Redemption 2 satchel upgrades using the Carbine Repeater you started with, you’re going to have a bad time.
The Springfield Rifle (or the Bolt Action) is essential for the big stuff. Deer, Buck, Elk, Cougar, Boar, Bison—they all need a high-velocity rifle round to the brain. If you hit them in the lungs, you might get the kill, but you risk ruining the pelt if they bleed out slowly or if you have to track them for miles.
The Varmint Rifle is for the mid-sized annoyances. Rabbits, Badgers, Raccoons.
And for the tiny things? The Squirrels and small birds? You need the Small Game Arrow. Crafting these requires flight feathers, which means you need to start shooting every hawk and crow you see in the sky. It's a whole ecosystem of preparation.
Misconceptions About the Satchel Grind
One thing people get wrong is thinking they have to do this all at once. You don't. Honestly, it's better to weave the hunting into your natural exploration. If you’re heading to Saint Denis for a mission, stop by the swamps and look for that Boar. If you're up in the mountains for a bounty, keep an eye out for the Elk.
Another common mistake? Forgetting to donate the pelts "for crafting." When you go to Pearson, there are two options: donate for funds/provisions or donate for crafting. If you choose the wrong one, that perfect pelt just goes toward the camp's dinner, and you have to go find another one. It’s heartbreaking. Always check the text at the bottom of the screen to make sure the pelt is being used for the upgrade.
There's also a weird myth that you can't get these upgrades as John Marston in the Epilogue. You absolutely can. In fact, if you didn't do it as Arthur, you can just buy the satchels from a Fence after the main story ends. But where’s the fun in that? Buying them feels like a cheat code. Earning them as Arthur feels like you're actually preparing the gang for the long winter they keep talking about.
The Nuance of the Legendary Buck Antler Trinket
If you are serious about these upgrades, stop everything and go kill the Legendary Buck first. It’s located in the far west of Big Valley. Take the antler to a Fence and craft the Buck Antler Trinket.
This item is a literal godsend. It increases the quality of skinned animals. This means if you mess up a shot slightly and turn a three-star deer into a two-star carcass, the trinket gives you a chance to still receive a "Perfect" pelt when you skin it. It makes the grind 50% less stressful. It won't turn a one-star mangy animal into a perfect one, but it fixes those "oops" moments that happen when your horse trips over a rock mid-hunt.
Actionable Strategy for Efficient Upgrading
Stop wandering aimlessly. If you want the Legend of the East Satchel before you even hit Chapter 3, follow this flow:
- Step 1: Unlock the Ledger in Chapter 2 and buy the Leather Working Tools for Pearson.
- Step 2: Head to Big Valley and hunt the Legendary Buck. Get that trinket from the Fence in Emerald Ranch immediately.
- Step 3: Focus on the "Small" stuff first. Get the Squirrel, Rabbit, and Raccoon pelts while you’re near rivers. These are the hardest to spot, so get them out of the way.
- Step 4: Hunt the predators last. Cougars and Wolves are easier to find when you aren't distracted by looking for a Badger.
- Step 5: Keep your horse stowed with one large pelt (Bison or Elk) and two medium pelts (Deer/Buck) on the sides.
The inventory management in this game is meant to be restrictive. It’s meant to make you feel the weight of your choices. But once you have that final satchel, the game changes. You stop worrying about "can I carry this?" and start enjoying the world. You become a collector of everything.
It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of sitting in bushes and waiting for a three-star Elk to walk into your sights. But the first time you loot a whole camp and realize you have 90 spaces left in your bag, you’ll realize why people obsess over these upgrades.
Your next move is to check your Ledger. See if you've got the $225 for the tools. If not, go rob a train or find a gold bar. Once those tools are in Pearson's hands, head northwest of Strawberry for that Legendary Buck. That trinket is the foundation for everything else you're going to do in the wilderness. Don't even bother aiming at a squirrel until that antler is hanging from Arthur's belt.