Starfield Mod:Mods

Preparing Starfield for using mods

Before downloaded mods can be used in Starfield changes to the game configuration and installation of essentials is required. The required changes depend on if the game as purchased on Steam or on Gamepass.

Steam Version

Configuration

Open Windows File Explorer and navigation to your Documents folder, My Games, Starfield. You can use the location bar and enter %UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Starfield to quickly jump there.

Create or edit the file StarfieldCustom.ini with a text editor like Notepad.

Ensure these lines exist, or add them to the file:

[Archive]
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
sResourceDataDirsFinal=

Essentials

These are required to enable loading mods as of Starfield Version 1.7.36 released September 25, 2023.

• Navigate to Starfield Script Extender (SFSE). From the Files-tab download the latest version and follow the instructions in the Description-tab to install.
• Navigate to Plugins.txt. From the Files-tab download the latest version and follow the instructions in the Description-tab to install.

Using Mods with Plugins.txt

Read instructions given by mod authors on the mod description page. If there are no special instructions, the author likely assumed the default installation procedure for their mod:

• Download the file(s) provided by the mod. This likely is a singular file with the ending .esm, or a compressed file like .zip, .rar, .7z.
• Files ending in .esm are directly usable by the game, by placing them in the directory %UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Starfield\Data.
• Any compressed files will need extraction and - provided they only contain files ending with .esm - can then be placed in %UserProfile%\Documents\My Games\Starfield\Data too.
• Add the name of the .esm file to %LocalAppData%\Starfield\Plugins.txt as new line starting with an asterisk (*).

Example line to add for the mod file AwesomeMod.esm:

*AwesomeMod.esm

The description tab of Plugins.txt contains the necessary information to activate the majority of mods, it is therefore essential to read and understand. Special per-mod instructions are usually available on the specific mod page.