Red Dead Redemption 2 has 144 Cigarette Card Locations. Finding all Cigarette Cards is required for the Smoking and Other Hobbies Stranger Mission. They are collectibles that are usually found inside buildings, huts and houses. For 100% game completion you only need to find one full set consisting of 12 cards.
There are 12 Cigarette Card Sets, each one containing 12 cards. That’s 144 cards in total. Each set contains one card that will only spawn after you’ve accepted the ‘Smoking and other Hobbies’ Stranger Mission by Phineas T. Ramsbottom. He becomes available in Chapter 2 after Main Mission ‘Who is Not without Sin‘, see his location in the guide below. Phineas himself also gives you one card upon meeting him.
Now here’s the funny part: they can all be bought from the general store. No need to look for them at all, it would just be a waste of your time. You can buy Premium Cigarette packs at the general store. Each one gives a random card. Afterward, discard the premium cigarettes from your inventory, buy new ones, and repeat. The whole process will take only 10 minutes with a fully upgraded satchel (allows you to buy more at once) or up to 60 minutes without satchel upgrades. It will cost around $2000 to buy them all but you get that money back from the mission rewards and selling duplicate cards at a fence.
You can keep track of your progress in the Compendium: Pause Menu — Progress — Compendium — Cigarette Cards.
After you get all 144 you must mail them to Phineas from the post office and complete his quest. This also counts as a Stranger Mission.
Cigarette Card Sets:
- Famous Gunslingers
- Artists
- Vistas of America
- Gems of Beauty
- Flora of America
- Stars of the Stage
- Fauna of America
- Marvels of Travel
- World Champions
- Amazing Inventions
- Horses
- Americans
Starting Location of Cigarette Cards Mission ‘Smoking and Other Hobbies’
This becomes available after Chapter 2 Main Mission “Who is Not without Sin”. A man at the train station will tell you about his card collecting and wants your help to complete all sets. After finding them all you must mail them to him through the post office.
How to Get all Cigarette Cards (Super Easy & Fast Method)
No point in searching for cards if you can just buy them from the general store. Here’s how you get all 144 cards super quick and easy with no searching required:
- Go to any General Store (e.g. in Valentine).
- Buy Premium Cigarette Packs (Provisions > Tobacco > Premium Cigarettes).
- Hold Circle (PS4) / B (XB1) to close the store book.
- Press D-Pad Right to open Satchel. Discard all Premium Cigarettes from your inventory.
- Buy new Premium Cigarettes, Discard Them, Repeat. The store has infinite premium cigarettes in stock so this can be repeated infinitely.
If you have a fully upgraded satchel you can buy more at once and it will go quicker. Each pack you buy gives you one RANDOM card. In total it will take you roughly $2000 to get them all. But here is the best part: The money you get from sending the cards back to the quest giver will make up for the expenses and you can even sell duplicate cards at a fence to make a profit! It’s essentially free money for doing nothing AND you complete a quest and get all 144 cards. It couldn’t be any easier than that. No need to search them in the game world. The whole process took me only 15 minutes with fully upgraded satchel. If you have the standard satchel then it can take between 30-60 minutes.
Complete Stranger Mission ‘Smoking and Other Hobbies’
After you found all 144 cards (can be checked in your compendium), go to the post office and mail them to the quest giver. He then sends you mails with the rewards. For collecting all cards you get $200 in cash.
For more RDR2 guides, check out our full Red Dead Redemption 2 Wiki & Strategy Guide.
Jaazeh says
Theirs one card in the van horn mansion balcony on the box
DR-INSANE95 says
Artists writers and poets Card 2 located in the hotel at strawberry. head on upstairs. will be on the table. called ( DR.HAWTHORNE’S)
DR-INSANE95 says
After the game head to Wallace Station, here you can buy Premium cigarettes.. which gives u 1 card each time. Discard the cigs an repeat. only takes about 2k lost. which isnt that bad for all of them
PowerPyx says
o_O
You can repeat this infinitely? Why am I running around for them then xD
I will check this right away LMAO. If true, you’re a life saver bro.
DR-INSANE95 says
Yeah, you can do this infinitely. i was the same as you. i tried following them, but i discovered you could buy packs. so why not XD
PowerPyx says
It really worked, WTF :D
I’ll just scrap the locations guide then and replace with this method. Pointless to search for them if you can just buy them and leave with more money. The rewards you get from this are worth what it costs to buy the cards or even more.
So much better with this method.
SolidNinjaSnake says
I seem to have a weird glitch where I can’t complete the mission. Did the buying and discarding trick which worked out. I then realised I was missing just one card and thought maybe it’s the card when first meeting the person who gives you the mission. It wasn’t unfortunately. I then checked in the Progress Menu and there it says I’ve collected all 144! Yet when I check my satchel, I’m missing just one card.
I guess it’s not a huge deal seeing as you only need to complete one set for 100% right?
Diamond says
Didnt you accidentally sell this one card? Happened to me too. I discovered all 144 card but physically i was missing one.. So i kept buying and buying all over again until i randomly got the right one 😂
RedDead says
Got a problem, i got the 144 cigaret cards, but when i want to send them it says i can only send 11 complete sets. i am missing the 12th set. but in my compendium it says that i have al the cards… someone know what to do now?
Bridey says
Check your satchel for the sets, I sold some crds early on and the compendium will say you have collected them. You have to have the actual card in your satchel to be able to send them.
Sunny says
I got 144 by your method. Still didn’t get collectible trophy .. is that bugged ?
Big Daddy says
Same thing happened to me. Haven’t been able to figure out quite what to do yet. My compendium says I have all 144 but I can’t mail them for some odd reason.
Big Daddy says
FOR EVERYONE UNABLE TO MAIL CARDS: There are 2 things you must do to ensure that you can acutally mail the cards.
1. Make sure you’ve actually started the side mission “Smoking and Other Hobbies” by speaking to Phineas T. Ramsbottom at Flatneck Station.
2. Make sure you actually have all of the cards in a set before trying to mail them! An issue I ran into was my compendium saying I had 144 of 144 cards but was unable to send the last set I needed to. After looking into my satchel it turned out I only had 11 of 12 cards in one set. I must’ve sold one card before knowing you had to mail them.
Enio Marques says
I suggest to add a note about selling a card if someone is aiming this collection to get the trophy. I accidentally sold a card, and had to buy like a hundred extra packs to get the god damn missing card. The trophy poped after sending the missing collection in the mail.
Cesko94 says
can I still get the fully upgraded satchel in chapter 6?
GaF says
Yes, buy it from fence.
ReapersD00M says
If you have high honor, its only $2.25 per pack. Really cuts down on the $2k estimated cost.
(my honor was max when I saw this, Im not sure if the discounts are in tiers or not)
Saloh says
Am I the only one who doesn’t like the idea of just buying them instead of finding them organically through exploration? It’s just more satisfying and gives you more of a reason to look in every nook and cranny. Or you can just cheese it and not try to take in the game people put in an insane effort to make. Just my opinion.
Kevin says
Guys I need help.. I have the legend of the east satchel but when I buy one pack it fills all the slots..does that happen to anyone else?
Anthony says
It happens to me I am playing without any updates so maybe that’s the reason, but it’s very annoying
joe says
I tried to do this but when i bought a pack and discarded the pack i did not get a card need HELP!!