RDR2 Care Overhaul – Player And Horse Care V1.0.3.1

A complete Story Mode care overhaul for Arthur, John and their horses. Adds Rest, Food, Drink, Bladder, Canteen and Water Quality systems, horse care and autonomy, Camp Anywhere, contextual interactions, save-slot progress and an adaptive vanilla-style HUD.

RDR2 Care Overhaul expands everyday life in Story Mode with persistent Player and Horse Care, natural world interactions, horse autonomy, camping, water quality, recovery systems and a fully adaptive vanilla-style HUD.

Care for Arthur or John, look after your main and temporary horses, use the world around you, build camp along the road and keep separate Care progress for every Story Mode save.

The goal is not to turn Red Dead Redemption 2 into a harsh survival game. It is to make eating, drinking, resting, travelling, camping and caring for your horse feel like natural parts of the world.

After the beta period and extensive work on gameplay integration, missions, random events, interruptions and system stability, I currently consider the mod feature-complete for its intended scope.

I do not currently plan to keep adding new features simply for the sake of expanding the mod.

• If serious bugs or compatibility problems are discovered, I plan to fix them and release maintenance updates.
• Smaller stability and reliability improvements may also be released when necessary.
• If there is strong community interest in a specific new feature, I may reconsider future feature development.

Without significant demand for additional systems, version 1.0 should be considered very close to the final feature set of RDR2 Care Overhaul.

The focus from this point forward is stability, compatibility and preserving the experience that has been built throughout the beta period.

If you enjoy RDR2 Care Overhaul, please do not forget to leave an endorsement and vote for the mod.

Feedback like this is one of the biggest sources of motivation behind the project. It lets me know that the time and effort put into development are being noticed and appreciated, and it genuinely increases my motivation to keep working on the mod.

You do not need to write anything long — if you enjoyed the experience, simply remembering to endorse or vote already means a lot.

Thank you for supporting the project.

RDR2 Care Overhaul brings Player Care, Horse Care and world interaction together as one connected Story Mode system.

• Player Care: manage Rest, Food, Drink and Bladder through normal gameplay, contextual interactions and Story Mode activities.
• Horse Care: look after Drink, Food and Hoof Condition for both your main and temporary horses.
• Horse Autonomy: horses can react naturally to their needs, including finding water and benefiting from supported grazing, drinking, resting and sleeping behavior.
• Natural Water & Canteen: drink, wash and fill your canteen from natural water, manage clean and dirty water, and boil dirty water at campfires.
• Camp Anywhere: build your own camp in suitable places, rest by the fire and use integrated camp features while travelling.
• Adaptive Vanilla-Style HUD: custom Care cores follow RDR2’s own radar and HUD layout instead of using a separate survival overlay.
• Save-Slot-Aware Progress: Care values belong to the Story Mode save that created them, including manual saves, manual loads and autosave.
• Deep Configuration: tune individual systems, drain rates, recovery, thresholds, consequences, automation, mission behavior, random-event behavior and HUD presentation.

Every major system can be adjusted independently, allowing Care Overhaul to stay as light or as involved as you want.

Arthur and John have four persistent Care needs designed to develop naturally during normal Story Mode gameplay.

• Rest: fatigue builds over time and reacts to activity. Recover through resting, camps, supported sleeping locations and normal Story Mode sleep.
• Food: works with RDR2’s existing nutrition and consumption systems instead of creating a second conflicting hunger system. Meals, provisions, herbs, cooked food, camp food, stew and supported saloon meals all contribute naturally.
• Drink: hydration falls over time and during activity. Recover through the canteen, supported drinks and natural water sources.
• Bladder: pressure develops gradually during normal play and can be relieved through contextual actions.

Care needs are persistent, but they are not designed to constantly interrupt gameplay.

By default:

• LOW = 20
• CRITICAL = 5

Low and critical states can apply configurable consequences, including changes to movement and vanilla core pressure, while leaving RDR2’s original Health, Stamina and Dead Eye systems intact.

Each Player Care system can be enabled, disabled and balanced independently through the configuration.

Rest is more than a simple meter.

Fatigue builds gradually during normal play and responds to activity, movement and recovery. Rest can be restored through Player Care, camps, supported sleeping locations and normal Story Mode sleep.

Coffee Overpowered

Drinking coffee can provide immediate Rest recovery and build a temporary Coffee Overpowered reserve.

• While the reserve is active, Rest drain is reduced.
• Running and sprinting consume the reserve faster.
• When the reserve is exhausted, a configurable Coffee Crash can follow.
• Crash strength and duration scale with the reserve that was actually gained.

Sleep Overpowered

Successful sleep provides a different recovery state.

• Sleep Overpowered reduces Rest drain without a crash penalty.
• Sleep can replace an active Coffee Overpowered state.
• Completed sleep can reduce remaining Coffee Crash debt.

The Rest core visually reflects these states through its ring color, while RDR2’s original Health, Stamina and Dead Eye systems remain untouched.

Additional Recovery

• Supported vanilla sleep and Care Rest actions restore Rest naturally.
• Stimulant Tonics can provide a configurable temporary Rest boost.
• Rest and Sleep interactions can appear contextually at supported locations.

Coffee recovery, reserve size, active drain reduction, crash severity, sleep recovery and related balance values can all be configured independently.

Natural water is part of the Care system, not just scenery.

At suitable lakes, rivers and other supported water sources, Arthur or John can kneel beside the water and use contextual Care actions.

• Drink Water: restore hydration directly from a natural source.
• Fill Canteen: collect water for later use.
• Wash: clean the face, hands, clothing and other supported body areas through contextual animations.

Flask drinking uses full character animations and can be used in several supported states, including standing, walking, running, sprinting, sitting and riding a horse.

Water Quality

Not every water source is equally safe.

• Natural water is dirty.
• Hotels and saloons provide clean water.
• Drinking dirty water can cause coughing.
• Dirty water can be replaced with clean water or purified at a campfire.

Boil Water

When the canteen contains dirty water, sit at an active campfire through Rest by Fire.

Boil Water then becomes available in the campfire interaction group.

Arthur performs the bottle-boiling animation and the water becomes clean when the action completes.

Other campfire interactions remain visible, but conflicting actions are protected while boiling is in progress.

Canteen Refill Services

You do not always have to rely on wilderness water.

Supported hotels and saloons can refill the canteen with clean water for a fee through a contextual town interaction.

This creates two natural ways to manage water while travelling:

• Use the wilderness, accept dirty water and boil it when needed.
• Return to town and pay for a clean refill.

Canteen water is persistent and follows the Story Mode save that owns it.

Horse Care remains one of the core parts of RDR2 Care Overhaul.

Your main horse and temporary horse are handled independently, with their own Care values, interactions and recovery.

• Drink: horse hydration falls gradually over time and drains faster during more demanding movement.
• Food: works with RDR2’s existing horse hunger system instead of replacing it with a separate duplicate hunger mechanic.
• Hoof Condition: travelling gradually wears the horse’s hooves and horseshoes over time.

Clean Horseshoe

Hoof Condition can be restored through a dedicated Clean Horseshoe interaction.

The horse is positioned for the care sequence and the interaction uses its own animation flow rather than applying recovery instantly in the background.

Successful direct horse-care actions can also provide configurable bonding rewards.

Natural Water & Troughs

Horses can drink from supported natural water sources and troughs.

The drinking system handles:

• Approaching the water source.
• Finding a usable position.
• Moving to another valid position when the first one cannot be reached.
• Entering the appropriate drinking behavior before recovery begins.
• Cleaning up safely if the action is interrupted or cancelled.

Manual horse commands always retain priority. Follow, Stay, Flee, Lead, Hitch, whistle and other supported vanilla interactions can interrupt Care behavior without being blocked.

Main & Temporary Horses

The main horse and temporary horse are supported independently.

Their Care values, actions and interactions do not need to share one common horse state.

Horse Lantern

Supported player horses can equip or remove a working lantern through contextual horse interaction prompts.

The lantern uses the horse equipment system and follows the horse during movement.

The feature can be disabled independently from the configuration.

Bonding & Consequences

Direct Care can reward configurable bonding experience, while serious neglect can apply configurable consequences.

Care Overhaul is designed to extend horse ownership without replacing RDR2’s original horse systems.

Horse Care is not limited to direct player commands.

When hydration becomes low enough, an unmounted horse can autonomously look for nearby water and take care of its own need.

• Natural Water Search: thirsty horses can search for suitable nearby natural water instead of waiting for a manual Water Horse command.
• Trough Autonomy: supported nearby troughs can also be used automatically when the configured conditions are met.
• Controlled Background Behavior: water searching runs on a measured cadence rather than constantly scanning the world.
• Manual Commands Always Win: Follow, Stay, Flee, Hitch, Lead and other player interactions can interrupt or delay autonomous Care behavior.

The goal is to make the horse feel more aware of its own needs without taking control away from the player.

Ambient Care

Unmounted horses can receive small Care benefits from natural behavior they are already visibly performing.

Supported ambient behavior includes:

• Grazing.
• Ground drinking.
• Resting.
• Sleeping.

Care Overhaul recognizes these behaviors instead of forcing constant custom interactions.

Relax / Unalerted Behavior

The player can allow a horse to settle into a calmer, unalerted-style state.

This is designed to feel more like letting the horse relax than issuing another rigid Follow, Stay or Flee command.

The feature respects RDR2’s own horse behavior and can be disabled independently.

Camp Horse Behavior

Player Camp can also manage the Main Horse and Temporary Horse independently.

Day and night behavior can be configured separately.

Available camp behaviors include:

• REST
• SLEEP
• NONE
• RANDOM

NONE allows the horse to be positioned without forcing a scenario.

RANDOM can choose between resting, sleeping or no forced scenario.

Main Horse and Temporary Horse camp teleport behavior can also be configured independently.

You are no longer limited to predefined camping locations.

Care Overhaul allows Arthur or John to build a personal camp in suitable parts of the world, turning the wilderness into a more natural part of everyday travel.

• Flexible Camp Placement: build camp in suitable open areas instead of relying only on fixed camping locations.
• Environment Validation: the system checks terrain, available space and nearby obstacles before creating the camp.
• Camp Life: use the camp for resting, cooking and supported Care interactions while travelling.
• Horse Integration: Main Horse and Temporary Horse can use configurable camp behavior alongside the player.

Rest by Fire

Campfire interactions are integrated into the normal camp flow.

Rest by the fire to access supported Care and camp actions without replacing RDR2’s existing campfire interaction style.

Fast Travel

Fast Travel can optionally be enabled for Player Camp Anywhere.

After using Rest by Fire, Fast Travel becomes available through the campfire interaction group.

The system follows the normal travel sequence, including destination loading, teleport, camera transition and control return.

Camp objects are cleaned up only after travel has completed, preventing the camp from disappearing in the middle of the transition.

Camp Horse Behavior

Main Horse and Temporary Horse behavior can be configured independently while using Player Camp.

Day and night behavior can use different settings, allowing horses to rest, sleep or remain unforced depending on the player’s configuration.

The camp system is designed to work alongside RDR2’s normal player camp behavior rather than replace it.

Care Overhaul does not use a separate modern survival overlay.

Its custom Player and Horse Care cores are designed around RDR2’s own HUD language and dynamically position themselves around the vanilla Health, Stamina and Dead Eye core group.

• Regular Radar: custom Care cores are arranged around the normal radar layout.
• Expanded Radar: spacing and radial placement adapt to the larger radar state.
• Simple Compass: Care cores switch to a compact layout appropriate for compass mode.
• Radar Off: custom cores remain aligned with the remaining vanilla HUD elements instead of disappearing into fixed screen coordinates.

Adaptive Layout

The HUD responds to:

• Resolution and aspect ratio.
• Ultrawide displays.
• RDR2 safe-zone settings.
• Radar mode changes.
• Individual Care systems appearing or disappearing.

Player and Horse Care cores keep stable positions so disabling or temporarily hiding one system does not cause the entire HUD to collapse into an inconsistent layout.

Configurable Radial Floors

Regular and Expanded radar layouts support multiple configurable radial floors.

Each floor can use:

• LEFT, CENTER or RIGHT alignment.
• Independent core capacity.
• Custom spacing.
• Icon scale and offset.
• Tint and opacity controls.

Player and Horse Care icons can be configured independently.

Automatic & Manual Display Support

For normal setups, Care Overhaul automatically resolves the active game output and HUD safe frame.

Manual resolution and safe-frame controls are also available for unusual fullscreen, borderless, wrapper, ultrawide or modified game setups where automatic detection does not match the player’s display.

The result is a Care HUD that stays visually close to RDR2 instead of looking like a separate survival-game interface.

Care Overhaul is designed to work around Story Mode instead of forcing its systems through every scripted situation.

Missions and random events can control Care behavior independently, allowing the mod to step back when RDR2 needs full control of the player, horse, prompts, animations or scripted scenes.

• Mission Controls: individual Player and Horse Care systems can be allowed or paused during missions.
• Random Event Controls: the same systems can be configured separately for random encounters and scripted world events.
• Supporting Systems Follow the Same Rules: natural-water interactions, horse ambient care, horse unalerted behavior, saddle lanterns and Player Camp Anywhere can follow the same runtime policy.
• Safe Cleanup: when a feature becomes unavailable, its active prompts, actions, scenarios, animations, penalties and related output are cleaned up safely.
• Persistent Progress Is Preserved: pausing a system does not discard its saved Care values.
• Vanilla Control Comes First: movement-condition penalties remain protected during missions and random events where they could interfere with scripted gameplay.

Care features can therefore remain active during normal free roam while becoming more conservative in situations where Story Mode needs tighter control.

The default configuration keeps mission support enabled while random-event support is more conservative, and both can be adjusted per system.

Care progress belongs to the Story Mode save that created it.

Player Care, Canteen and Horse Care values are not stored as one global state shared across every playthrough.

• Manual Saves: current Care values are stored with the selected Story Mode save slot after the game confirms the save successfully completed.
• Manual Loads: loading another Story Mode save switches Care Overhaul to the values belonging to that slot.
• Autosave: the autosave slot keeps its own independent Care snapshot.
• Separate Playthroughs: unrelated Story Mode saves do not share one common Player or Horse Care state.
• Main & Temporary Horses: their Care values remain independent inside the active save context.
• Canteen Progress: carried water and related persistent Canteen state follow the Story Mode save that owns them.

Safer Manual Saving

Care data is not blindly written as soon as the save menu opens.

Manual Care snapshots are staged first and committed only after RDR2 confirms that the save completed successfully.

Cancelled or failed save attempts do not overwrite the Care data belonging to a slot.

Saving also does not unexpectedly replace the Care values currently active during gameplay.

Profile Detection

Care Overhaul supports common and redirected Story Mode profile locations, including:

• Documents.
• Redirected Documents.
• OneDrive.
• Roaming AppData.
• Local AppData.
• Supported alternative launcher/profile locations.

When multiple valid Story Mode profiles are found, Care Overhaul can automatically select the profile containing the newest save.

Advanced users can override automatic selection through PROFILE_ID or PROFILE_PATH.

Care Overhaul provides configuration controls across its major gameplay systems.

• Player Rest, Food, Drink and Bladder can be enabled or disabled independently.
• Horse Drink, Food and Hoof Condition can be enabled or disabled independently.
• Mission and random-event behavior can be controlled per supported Care feature.
• Rest Overpowered settings include reserve capacity, recovery, drain reduction, Coffee Crash and Sleep behavior.
• Horse autonomy, trough drinking, Horse Unalerted behavior and camp horse behavior have their own controls.
• Player Camp Anywhere includes optional Fast Travel and related camp settings.
• HUD settings include radial-floor layout, alignment, spacing, icon scale, color, opacity, output resolution and safe-frame controls.

Supported settings are documented directly in config.ini, and many configuration changes can be reloaded during gameplay.

Player Care

• Press Right Arrow on keyboard or D-Pad Right on controller.
• The Open Player Care prompt appears.
• Hold the displayed confirm button to open the available Care actions.
• Use Close or press the Care input again to leave.

Player Care can also be opened while riding.

Natural Water

Stand near suitable natural water, open Player Care and choose Kneel by Water.

Once kneeling, available actions can include:

• Drink Water.
• Fill Canteen.
• Supported Wash actions.

Horse Care

Target your Main Horse or Temporary Horse with the normal horse focus controls.

Available Care actions can include:

• Water Horse
• Drink from Trough
• Clean Horseshoe
• Equip / Unequip Lantern

Follow the button shown by the game. Some actions may be unavailable while the horse is busy, moving, hitched or already fully cared for.

Food

Food is not a Player Care menu action.

Eat normally through RDR2’s item wheel, camps, campfires, saloons and other supported Story Mode activities.

• Install a working RDR2 ASI loader / ScriptHook setup.
• Extract the downloaded archive.
• Copy all included files and folders into the Red Dead Redemption 2 game folder.
• Keep the included folder structure unchanged.
• Start Story Mode.

Example:

C:\Program Files\Epic Games\RedDeadRedemption2

Use the equivalent game folder for Steam or Rockstar Launcher.

Requirements

• LITE – Multiplayer Asset Enabler	required if you want to use horse lantern
  RDR2 Care Assistant – Horse and Player	recommended
  Saloon Coffee	Recommended – Saloon coffee can bost your rest and food
  ScriptHookRDR2 V2	Required

  Mod name	Notes
  Lenny’s Mod Loader	required

The rest of Care Overhaul works without Online Content Unlocker.

RDR2 Care Assistant can display optional Care notifications.

It is not required to use RDR2 Care Overhaul.

Care Overhaul owns the gameplay systems, Care cores, actions, prompts, HUD behavior and saved values. Without Care Assistant, the main gameplay features continue to work normally.

RDR2 Care Overhaul supports Saloon Coffee by 14N001st.

With both mods installed, Care Overhaul responds to each sip you actually drink. Buying a coffee alone gives no Care benefit, and throwing away a partly finished cup counts only the sips you took. Four sips provide the same total Rest recovery and Coffee Overpowered reserve as one full cup of camp coffee.

Saloon Coffee is optional. You do not need it to use RDR2 Care Overhaul.

Special thanks to 14N001st for adding the sip signals that make this integration possible.

Bug reports, gameplay feedback and suggestions are welcome.

When reporting a problem:

• Set MINIMUM_LOG_LEVEL = 1 in config.ini.
• Delete the old debug.log.
• Start the game and reproduce the problem once.
• Close the game and attach the new debug.log with a short explanation of what happened.

The default diagnostic switches are already enabled, so changing MINIMUM_LOG_LEVEL is normally enough.

If you enjoy RDR2 Care Overhaul, consider leaving an endorsement. It helps more players discover the project.

Credits:

RcnYn