Inability to access the Tomahawk and Explosive Rifle when using Single Player with the Undead Nightmare Standalone Disc

Last Updated: October 3, 2024

Question: I own the original Red Dead Redemption disc and the Undead Nightmare Standalone Disc, which contains all the DLC packs. How can I access the new DLC weapons (e.g. Tomahawk, Explosive Rifle) in my original Red Dead Redemption Single Player Game?

Answer: Using the standalone disc version of Undead Nightmare/DLC, you will not be able to access any of the new DLC weapons in the original Single Player campaign. This is because the weapon unlock is stored on the Undead Nightmare disc, and there would be no way to access this information with the original RDR disc in the console.

To access the new weapons and weapon challenges in the original Single Player RDR campaign, we recommend the downloadable versions of the packs.  The Undead Nightmare Disc is intended to be a standalone experience, and although save files do transfer between both RDR discs, new content exclusive to the Undead Nightmare disc does not affect the gameplay experience while the original Red Dead Redemption disc is running.

You can access the DLC weapons (like the Tomahawk and Explosive Rifle) in the Undead Nightmare Single Player campaign using the Standalone disc.  The Tomahawk is awarded for clearing Manzanita Post.  The Explosive Rifle is awarded for clearing the town of Rathskeller.

Note that the Axe Master and Master Exploder achievements have been added to the Undead Nightmare Standalone disc to ensure that all achievements related to Undead Nightmare and the DLC packs can be unlocked using just the Standalone disc.  

Note: If you own both the original Red Dead Redemption disc and the Undead Nightmare disc on PS3 and are having trouble getting the new challenges to show up, try deleting the Game Data (not save data) from the PS3 Game Data Utility and then install/play just the Undead Nightmare disc until the challenges appear.