Undead Nightmare: how to complete Red Dead Redemption’s zombie campaign to 100%

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is a story expansion by Rockstar San Diego that turns the Western into zombie horror. The map, characters and mechanics are the same as in Red Dead Redemption, but a plague has swept the frontier: the dead rise from their graves, towns are under siege and the shops are shut.

The story isn’t canon - it’s an alternate take on events in which some base-game characters come back as zombies. Undead Nightmare is launched from its own entry in the main menu and has separate saves: money, weapons and progress from the main campaign don’t carry over. John's canonical story, mission by mission, is on our Red Dead Redemption missions page.

In 2010 the expansion won best DLC of the year at the Spike Video Game Awards, and according to the wiki the standalone disc sold 2 million copies by 2011.

The Undead Overrun and Land Grab multiplayer modes only existed in the 2010 original. In the 2023-2025 versions Undead Nightmare is single-player only.

Undead Nightmare isn’t sold on its own in today’s stores: it already comes with Red Dead Redemption. The game costs $49.99 on Steam (as of November 7, 2026) and on PlayStation Store (as of October 31, 2026); in the UK it’s £39.99 on Steam. On PlayStation Store RDR1 is also marked as included for GTA+ members.

So there’s nothing extra to buy: if you own Red Dead Redemption on PS4, PS5, Switch, PC or a phone, Undead Nightmare is already there. Store prices and system requirements are on the Red Dead Redemption page.

John Marston lives with his family at the Beecher’s Hope ranch. One stormy night Uncle comes back - already a zombie - and bites Abigail, who then bites Jack. John ties up his wife and son and sets off to find a cure.

The trail leads from Blackwater, where Professor Harold MacDougal is studying the outbreak, to New Austin with two leads: the con man Nigel West Dickens and the eccentric treasure hunter Seth Briars. From there it’s on to Mexico, where the answer is tied to an ancient Aztec mask.

There are eight story missions. Order and completion share follow iRedDead; the list matches Red Dead Wiki.

Completed missions can’t be replayed, so if you’re after achievements, don’t rush the finale before finishing the challenges.

There are six side missions, each worth 2% completion.

The main activity outside the story is liberating settlements. A town under attack is marked on the map; to save it, hand ammo to the survivors and kill the undead until the safety meter fills. After that you can save there, take ammo from chests and pick up jobs.

A saved town stays safe for a few in-game days, then the undead return. If you don’t help, all the survivors may die and the town is lost.

• There are 23 settlements on the map; three of them - Fort Mercer, El Presidio and Casa Madrugada - are always safe, so you need to save 20.
• There are no shops or gunsmiths: ammo is your key resource, and giving it to survivors pays off.
• Zombies die from headshots, fire, Holy Water or when the body is blown apart (Blunderbuss, dynamite). They can’t climb ladders, so a roof is the safest spot.
• Zombie types: regular undead, fast Bolters, big Bruisers and Retchers that spit bile.

Two more activities count toward 100%: 5 graveyards (Blackwater, Coot’s Chapel, Odd Fellow’s Rest, Tumbleweed, Sepulcro - burn the coffins) and Missing Persons, which replaces bounty hunting. Rescued people go to Fort Mercer or El Presidio.

Regular base-game weapons are there too, but ammo is scarce. According to Red Dead Wiki, the Blunderbuss, Holy Water and baits can’t be spawned with cheats.

The four horses have unlimited stamina and are very hard to kill. When a mythical creature is nearby, a blue circle and a message appear on the minimap.

There are four challenges with five ranks each: Undead Hunter, Undead Sharpshooter, Undead Treasure Hunter and Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Together they’re worth 16% completion. The final Undead Hunter rank is killing the Chupacabra; the final horses rank is killing each zombie type with Death. The treasure hunts of the main game, tied to the Treasure Hunter challenge, are covered on our Red Dead Redemption treasure maps page.

• Undead Hunter (outfit) - five pieces: the missions Birth of the Conservation Movement, Filth and Other Entertainment and Missing Souls, one missing person returned to El Presidio, and breaking the Unicorn. It gives the Holy Relic, which refills ammo once per in-game day (per Red Dead Wiki).
• Legend of the Apocalypse - for rank 5 in every challenge (per Red Dead Wiki).

Breakdown per iRedDead. Guides disagree on the number of missing persons: Red Dead Wiki counts 15 (9 for Fort Mercer and 6 for El Presidio), PowerPyx 16. 100% in Undead Nightmare isn’t needed for the main game’s 100%, but it unlocks Zed’s Dead, Baby and is required for the Platinum.

On PC, PS4 and PS5 the expansion has 10 achievements. The two multiplayer ones from the original (Smoke That Skinwagon and Kingpin) were dropped along with online play.

Trophy grades follow PowerPyx for PS4/PS5; on PS3 they were lower (for example, Zed’s Dead, Baby was Silver).

The expansion has no cheat codes of its own. The same phrases as in the base game work: Pause → Options → Cheats, and type the phrase in English. The full list is on the Red Dead Redemption cheats page.

• Invincibility, infinite ammo, Dead Eye and the gun sets work.
• Money, fame and honor cheats do nothing, per Red Dead Wiki: Undead Nightmare doesn’t use those systems.
• Any active cheat disables achievements, trophies and autosave, just like in the main campaign.
• Platforms: on the original PS3 and Xbox 360 the list is the same; the PS4, Switch and PC ports use the same base-game codes.

HowLongToBeat data as of November 7, 2026. Other estimates are close: Wikipedia puts the story at “about six hours”. For the prequel, see Red Dead Redemption 2 - it has no zombie campaign.