With the recent success of the new Fallout TV series on Amazon Prime, there seems to be a growing and newfound interest in this long-running video game series. Developed and then bought out by Bethesda, the Fallout series currently has a number of mainline entries and spin-offs under it. Each fan has their favorite, and for many, it’s 2015’s Fallout 4. Released for the PS4, Xbox One, and Windows, and then ported to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, Fallout 4, as the name suggests, is the fourth main game, taking place ten years after the events of Fallout 3. Upon its release, the game was met with wide critical acclaim and even went on to win the Games of the Year award at the 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards. Suffice to say, it’s a fun game and one that is a must-play if you are new to the series. And many are playing it; some are even enjoying it on their Steam Decks. While the game is fun on its own, a lot of Steam Deck users want to play it with mods. Something this guide here will be able to help you with.
The Steam Deck is one of the best hardware releases of the past two decades. It’s all thanks to it that we are now seeing PC handheld gaming get more popular by the day. This is not to say that PC handhelds didn’t exist before the release of Steam Deck. In fact, there were a ton of them. But unfortunately, they were limited by two major factors: affordability and support. Two things that the Steam Deck was able to overcome. Now, while the Deck is a great device, it can be confusing at times to do stuff outside of downloading and playing games. This is mainly due to the Deck running SteamOS, instead of Windows, which almost all of its competitors use. And because of that, modding a game can be a bit of a hassle. Hence, you, the reader, are stumbling across this guide. Now, you want to install mods for Fallout 4 on the Deck and we are going to help you achieve that. So, without further ado, let’s go ahead and find out how.
How to install Fallout 4 mods on Steam Deck
We are going to preface this by informing you that this is going to be a long and complex guide. However, if you follow all the steps mentioned below thoroughly, then you will be enjoying Fallout 4 with mods in no time.
Switching to Desktop Mode and Uninstalling Fallout 4
- You can start the modding process by switching to Desktop Mode on your Steam Deck. To do that, just click the Steam button on your Deck and then select Power from the options present. Next, scroll down and click on Switch to Desktop button. You are now in Steam Deck’s Desktop Mode.
- In order to install mods on your Steam Deck, you will first need to do a clean installation of Fallout 4. Simply uninstall Fallout 4 from your Steam Library and then delete everything Fallout 4-related on the Deck. You can find the Fallout 4 folder by heading to this location: .steam/steam/steamapps/common. Do note that you will need to have Show Hidden Files enabled for this.
Reinstalling Fallout 4 and Launcher settings
Once all Fallout 4 folders and files are deleted, you will need to reinstall Fallout 4. For that, head to your Steam Library and start downloading the game. When it’s downloaded and installed, launch Fallout 4. This is done so that the launcher can detect your hardware. Don’t worry if the launcher isn’t able to detect anything. Just make sure that you have set the Resolution to 1280 x 720 from the drop-down menu and Detail to Ultra in the Launcher settings. Don’t try to change the resolution to any other options.
Installing SteamTinkerLaunch (STL)
Time to install SteamTinkerLaunch on your Steam Deck. Now, there are two ways to download and install it on your Deck. The first one is through ProtonUp-Qt, which is available on the Discover store. The second is by simply manually installing it on the Steam Deck.
Installing SteamTinkerLaunch using ProtonUp-Qt
- Launch Discover Store and download ProtonUp-Qt from there.
- After it’s installed, launch ProtonUp-Qt, select the latest version of SteamTinkerLaunch from the drop-down menu, and install it. Don’t panic if the installation remains at 99%. Leave it for a few minutes, and STL should be installed.
- Once STL is installed, restart your Steam Deck.
Manually Installing SteamTinkerLaunch
- Start by clicking on this link. This will take you to the Releases section of SteamTinkerLaunch’s GitHub page. Scroll down, and download the source code (zip) file. Once the download is complete, head to your Steam’s Download folder and find the recently downloaded file. Extract it and copy the link to the steamtinkerlaunch file. The link should resemble something like this: /home/Deck/Downloads/steamtinkerlaunch/steamtinkerlaunch-master/steamtinkerlaunch.
- Now, open Konsole, paste the link, add a space, and then type in install (/home/Deck/Downloads/steamtinkerlaunch/steamtinkerlaunch-master/steamtinkerlaunch install). Hit enter and wait for the installation to be complete.
- Once that’s done, head to where you have installed SteamTinkerLaunch and right-click on the steamtinkerlaunch file. Select Properties from the options present, switch to the Permissions tab, and checkmark the Is Executable option. Close the window by clicking on OK.
- Now, right-click on an empty part of the current folder and select Open Terminal. To run the STL, either copy-paste or type in this command: ./steamtinkerlaunch. Once the script is finished running, type in or copy-paste this command to add SteamTinkerLaunch as a compatibility tool in Steam: ./steamtinkerlaunch compat add. After that’s done, restart both Steam and the Steam Deck.
- By the way, you can also head to this link, scroll down to the Steam Deck section, and use the steps mentioned below in the Install sub-section to manually install STL if you want.
(You can also clone the latest git repository of SteamTinkerLaunch and install it on your Deck.)
Selecting SteamTinkerLaunch as a Compatibility Tool
After installing STL on your Steam Deck, navigate to your Steam Library and find Fallout 4. Right-click on the game and select Properties. Next, switch to Compatibility and checkmark Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool option. Now, select Steam Tinker Launch from the drop-down menu and then close the Properties window.
Installing Mod Organizer 2
- Now you need to launch Fallout 4. Just click on the Play button from Steam and that should start the game.
- If you see a bunch of notifications on the bottom-right of the Deck don’t worry. Just wait for the STL GUI to pop up. When it does, you will see two options in the bottom-right corner– Main Menu and Skip.
- Quickly select the Main Menu option and in the next menu, select Mod Organizer 2. The reason why we emphasize quickly selecting the Main Menu option is because, by default, the STL GUI is set to timeout after two seconds. By chance, if you are unable to select the aforementioned option, exit the Fallout 4 launcher that pops up after the timeout, and you will see the STL GUI reappear. You can then select Retry Different Settings and this will take you to the STL main menu.
- Once you have selected Mod Organizer 2 from the menu, wait for it to download and install. After it is installed, MO2 will launch. Simply exit MO2 when that happens.
Running Mod Organizer 2
- For this one, make sure that STL GUI is still on your screen. If it is, select Game Menu from the options present at the bottom of the STL GUI.
- If you have closed STL, you can launch Fallout 4 once again, and then click on Main Menu. Now, follow the previous step.
- Once you are inside the Game Menu, scroll down until you come across the Mod Organizer 2 section. It will be titled Mod Organizer 2 Options and will be right above Proton options and Misc Options.
- Under Mod Organizer 2 options, there will be only two settings: Mod Organizer 2 mode and Mod Organizer 2 requester timeout. Make sure that the former setting is set to GUI and the latter setting is set to 2. Close the window by clicking on SAVE AND PLAY button located below. From now on, the MO2 window will launch every time you start Fallout 4 from Steam.
Installing Fallout 4 Script Extender
- Next, you will need to download the Fallout 4 Script Extender. To do that, click on this link. You will find two builds in there: Fallout 4 runtime 1.10.163 and Fallout 4 VR runtime 1.2.72. Select the first one and download it. Don’t try to download the VR version.
- Once the download is complete, head to where the file is and extract it. Copy-paste or cut-paste all of the files inside the recently extracted file to the Fallout 4 folder, which should be located here: .steam/steam/steamapps/common.
- When you get a pop-up window showing Skip or Write Into options, checkmark Appy to All and then select Write Into.
- Now, get back to your still open Mod Organizer 2 window and select F4SE from the drop-down menu located on the right side, just beside the orange-colored Run button. If F4SE isn’t available as an option, restart Fallout 4 with STL from Steam, and you will get F4SE as an option upon relaunching Mod Organizer 2.
Installing mods using Mod Organizer
- Head to the Fallout 4 section of Nexus Mods, and start downloading whatever mods you would like to use in Fallout 4.
- Once you have downloaded your preferred mods, you will need to add them to MO2. That can be done by first selecting the Downloads tab on the right side of MO2. It’s the last option before the Saves tab. When you are in the Downloads tab, drag and drop the mod’s zipped files in there, right-click on it, and select Install.
- If everything goes successfully, then you will see your installed mods on the left-side of MO2 under Mod Name.
- Now, you will be able to disable and enable all of your Fallout 4 installed mods simply by checking their associated box. You can also reorder your mods on the left side of MO2 and plugins, which is available under the Plugins tab on the right side. Furthermore, you can also organize your mods using named separators by right-clicking on an open area on the left side and selecting Create separator.
Playing Fallout 4 with mods
- Now that you have installed and enabled all of your Fallout 4 mods, it’s time to launch the game and see if the mod configuration is right.
- From the Mod Organizer 2 window, click on Run while F4SE is selected in the drop-down menu next to it.
- In order to check whether F4SE is loaded correctly, launch Konsole while you are in-game by pressing the tile (~) button, typing in getf4seversion, and hitting Enter. You will see the version number if everything is normal. If it’s not, you will get the Script command ‘get4seversion’ not found on your display. If it’s the latter case with you, then ensure that you are correctly running Fallout 4 with F4SE selected in MO2. Otherwise, you will have to reinstall F4SE and reinstall your mods.
- If everything runs perfectly, switch back to Game Mode and launch Fallout 4 from there. You should then once again see the STL and then the MO2 window. Now, just click on the Run button in MO2 with F4SE selected in the drop-down menu.
- You are now free to play Fallout 4 with mods on your Steam Deck. Do note that there are some mods like BethINI and Interior Nav Cut Fix that can crash Fallout 4. However, if you want, you can still try to download and install them. Also, try not to install mods all at once. Install them in groups. That way, you will be able to find out issues faster.
And that’s all you need to do in order to install and play Fallout 4 with mods on your Steam Deck. Additionally, you can also take a quick look here if you want to fix Fallout 4 crashing on the Deck. Lastly, keep following DigiStatement for more guides like this. Also read: Fallout 4 Steam Deck Controller not working: How to fix it?
