Mod Manager Guide
Hello there!
Understandably, many people are confused about the mod manager, so I made this guide.
I know this guide looks long and boring, but I recommend taking the time and reading all of it.
I try my best to cut to the chase, promised.
Before you can use the mod manager, you first need to pick the game path, if you haven't already.
If you're using the Xbox (Beta) app, I recommend to enable mods first:
Open the game's page, click on the three dots, and enable mods.
If the button is grayed out or somehow missing, don't worry: Just run the tool as administrator then. It’ll work anyway, even if it makes modding a bit inconvenient.
To pick the game path, go to the "Game profiles" tab in the settings:
Click on "Attempt auto-detect" or on "..." to pick the path manually.
If you have trouble finding the game location, see: FAQ: Where is the Fallout76.exe located?
NOTE: If you use the Xbox version, make sure to use "X:\Program Files\ModifiableWindowsApps\Fallout 76" (X:\ being the drive you installed the game to). Any other path will NOT work!
When you first start the mod manager, you'll be greeted with this window:
You might want to import mods you've already installed.
You can do this by clicking on "File → Import installed mods":
Ready to mod the game now? Good! Let's continue:
To import a mod, you can simply drag-and-drop a *.ba2 file, an archive (*.zip, *.rar, *.7z), or a folder into the mod order.
Alternatively, you can click on the "Add archive" or "Add folder" buttons in the left panel (those with the little plus).
To sort mods, you can use the arrow buttons in the panel, or select a mod (or multiple mods) and press Ctrl+ArrowUp / Ctrl+ArrowDown.
After importing a mod, the mod manager trys to auto-detect the correct installation options. You might need to set these options yourself, though.
There are generally three different types of mods:
- .ba2 archives: These files contain textures, meshes, sound effects, interface files, and so on. You can think of them like *.rar or *.zip files.
- .dll files: These files get loaded by the game and contain instructions (= machine code). They basically extend / change the game's functionality.
- Loose assets, such as files in a Strings folder.
The mod manager gives you four options on how to install a mod:
- Bundled *.ba2 archive: This will bundle every mod into a 'Bundled.ba2', 'Bundled - Textures.ba2', or 'Bundled - Sounds.ba2'. The files will get sorted for you.
- Separate *.ba2 archive: This will create a new *.ba2 archive on every deployment.
- Separate *.ba2 archive (Frozen): This will create a *.ba2 archive once (it will be stored in FrozenData) and then it will just copy and rename that archive into the Data folder. Freezing archives saves time on deployment, which is especially useful for huge re-texture mods (>1 GiB).
- Loose files: This will copy files directly into a specified folder without putting them into a *.ba2 archive.
ℹ️ To know how to install a particular mod, you'll need to read the installation instructions of the mod authors carefully.
Let's say you want to install Recipes and Plans Glow by runew0lf.
This mod only contains a "Glow.ba2".
Drag-and-drop the *.7z into the mod order. You can also unpack it first and drag-and-drop the *.ba2. For this example, it won't make a difference.
After importing it, you can edit the mod by simply selecting it.
This will open a side panel:
Ugh, ugly.
Lets enter the URL and some more information,
and click on "Tools → NexusMods API → Update mod information",
then it will look like this:
Better. Now let's focus on the installation options.
If you select the "Bundled *.ba2 archive" option, the mod will get bundled in one or multiple "Bundled.ba2" files.
This option always works (at least for mods that come as *.ba2 files), but the deployment will take longer, as it rebuilds the bundled archives every time.
You can enable "Freeze bundled archives" to keep the bundled archives:
If you decide to select the "Separate *.ba2 archive" option, you'll get a few more options:
Here, you can give the archive a name:
Also, you can select a preset. Since it is a mod that changes the materials of certain items (it contains *.bgsm files),
you could select the preset "General / Interface / Materials / Animations" or just leave it on "Auto-detect":
You might want to check the "Freeze" checkbox as well.
As said, it'll then pack the archive only once. This will therefore make the deployment process quicker.
By the way, if you wonder about the "Loose files" option:
It only gives you the option to select the installation path relative to the game's directory. ("." being the Fallout76 folder)
So, nothing too fancy.
The final step is to deploy mods.
Click on "Deploy", and the mod manager then starts to go through the list, from top-to-bottom, to install every mod you enabled.
When an update is available (and you use the NexusMods API), the version in the list becomes red:
I suggest to update a mod this way:
- First, download the latest version of the mod from the Nexus.
- Then delete all folder contents. There's a button you can click (see image below).
- Drag-and-drop the archive, folder, or *.ba2 file into the little box (see image below).
- Check, if everything got imported correctly.
- Click on "Set latest version" (if you're using the NexusMods API).
- Deploy.
| Action | Button | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| Save changes | File > Save changes | Ctrl+S |
| Select all mods | N/A | Ctrl+A |
| Selecting multiple mods | N/A | Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click |
| Enable/disable mods | .png) |
Spacebar |
| Delete mods |  |
Delete or Backspace |
| Move mods up and down |
 and 
|
Ctrl+ArrowUp and Ctrl+ArrowDown |
If you wonder what the buttons in the panel do:
| Button | Action |
|---|---|
 |
Add any archive (*.zip, *.rar, *.7z, *.tar, *.ba2) |
 |
Add a folder |
|
Check / uncheck selected or all mods |
|
Move selected mod(s) up |
|
Move selected mod(s) down |
 |
Open the folder the mod resides in |
 |
Freeze selected mod(s) |
 |
Unfreeze selected mod(s) |
|
Delete selected mod(s) |
Tip: You can select multiple mods and perform actions in bulk. (Use Shift+Click or Ctrl+Click to select multiple mods)
You cannot change the sResourceIndexFileList in the file itself, because it will get overwritten by the mod manager.
Instead, you may change it from the Settings tab of the mod manager:
⚠️ Important: The list entries are separated by new-lines, not commas!- "Clean list" will remove non-existing files.
- "Reset" will reset the list, if you made an accident.
- Don't forget to hit "Apply changes".
The mod manager can access the public NexusMods API to retrieve information about mods such as latest version, title, thumbnails, and so on.
You can also endorse mods from within the mod manager.
To access the API, you'll need to login first.
This is all explained in detail here: NexusMods Integration
- Open the mod manager
- Copy-and-paste the link of each mod in the side panel (otherwise the tool doesn't know what to do with it)
- Click on "Tools → Update mod information" to download thumbnails, etc. (see picture)
