Red Dead Redemption 2 Error: Exited Unexpectedly (Safe Mod)

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an open-world action-adventure game published and developed by Rockstar Games. This game was a success for Rockstar like their other games. Some players experienced an issue with a game that crashed on the startup giving an error. The error is “Exited Unexpectedly”.

Why does this Error Show up?

There are many reasons why this error is showing up like;

• Missing or corrupted files of the game
• Windows Firewall 
• Outdated GPU drivers
• Changed too much high video settings

What are the Fixes for this Error?

These are the Fixes for this Error;

1. Verifying file integrity 
2. Change Windows Firewall settings
3. Update GPU drivers
4. Change back to the Vulkan setting

1. Verify game-file integrity 

• Open Steam and locate the game
• Press right-click on the game and go to the properties
• Go to the Local Files tab and select the Verify integrity of game files

2. Change Windows Firewall settings

• Click on the Windows search bar, type Windows Defender Firewall, and open it.
• Click on Allow an app or feature through Windows Defender Firewall.
• Click on Change Settings and Allow Another App, select Browse, and navigate to the game installation folder.
• Click on the game Read Dead Redemption and select Open.
• Check the checkbox in columns Private and Public in the game row and press Ok.

3. Update GPU drivers

• For Nvidia go to  Nvidia Drivers and for Amd go to Amd drivers.
• Download and Install the drivers.
• After Installing, restart your PC to complete the installation.

4. Change back to the Vulkan setting

This step is the most important fix if none of the above is working. Many issues related to video settings will be fixed by changing back to the Vulkan setting.

• Go to File Explorer and Find this path “C:\Users\%username%\Documents\Rockstar Games\Red Dead Redemption 2\Settings”
• Right-click on system.xml and open with edit notepad++
• After that find this line “<API>kSettingAPI_DX12</API>”. Change this line into “<API>kSettingAPI_Vulkan</API>”
• To Save this Press Shift+S and close notepad. After that run the game as Administrator

Conclusion

After Following these steps the error “Exited Unexpectedly” will fixed and the game will run smoothly without any giving video-setting error. You have to perform the last step of Vulkan setting to fix this error if not any other method is working.