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.

If, after reading this, you still have a question, feel free to drop a post or to PM me. :)

Table of contents

1. Requirements
2. Understanding the workflow
3. Configuring mods
4. More information!
5. NexusMods API

1. Requirements

Before you use the mod manager, you first need to...

• set the game edition and
• pick the game path.

You find both options under the "Info" tab:

If you have trouble finding the game location:
For Steam, look under C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout76\
For Bethesda.net, look under C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda.net Launcher\games\Fallout76\
For Microsoft Store / Xbox Game Pass, look under C:\Program Files\ModifiableWindowsApps\Fallout76\

If you want to mod multiple game versions, you'd want to check the "I use more than one game edition" box.

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When you first start the mod manager, you'll be greeted with this window:

From here, I recommend ticking this box ("Make hard links instead of copying files manually") in the "Settings" tab:

This will reduce disk space and deployment time by keeping only one file and one link around. (This is also how Vortex deploys mods; read more about hard links here)

After that, 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:

2. Understanding the workflow

Generally, you'll do these things to install mods:

1. Add a mod by either clicking one of the “+” buttons or dragging and dropping files into the mod order.
2. Enable the mod by ticking the checkbox or pressing Space.
3. Configure the mod by right-clicking the mod or selecting it and clicking the green pen. We'll discuss the configuration part later.
4. Sort mods. You can use the arrow buttons in the panel or press Ctrl+ArrowUp / Ctrl+ArrowDown.

Once you're ready, you'd click "Deploy".
The mod manager then starts to go through the list, from top-to-bottom, to install every mod you enabled.

You may wonder what the buttons in the panel do, here you go:

Tip: Did you know that you can select multiple mods and perform these actions above in bulk? (Use Shift+Click or Ctrl+Click to select multiple mods)

You'll notice that some mods get imported as "Bundled", some as "Frozen separate", and some as "Loose".
Sounds confusing? Let's look at those options in detail:

3. Configuring mods

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. You need to specify the "mod type".
• Separate *.ba2 archive (Frozen): This will create a "frozen.ba2" archive on the first deployment, 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.

To know how to install a particular mod, you'll need to read the installation instructions of the mod authors carefully.

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Let's look at an example:

Say you want to install "Recipes and Plans Glow" by runew0lf.
This mod only contains a "Glow.ba2".
So, if you dragged the *.ba2 archive *(not the .7z file), it gets imported as "Frozen separate".

If it's imported that way, I'd keep it that way, as mod authors usually select the correct settings for an archive.
But if you want to poke around in the files or change the settings, you'll need to unfreeze it first.

You can edit a mod by either right-clicking it, or selecting it and clicking on the green pen.
This will open a side panel:

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If you drag-and-drop the *.7z though, it'll get imported as "Bundled":

When this option is selected, you don't necessarily need to change anything.
The mod will work, but the deployment might be slower, as it rebuilds them every time.

But you can enable "Freeze bundled archives" to keep the bundled archives:

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If you decide to select the "Separate *.ba2 archive" option, you'll get a few more options:

The two most important things are:

1. Select the correct preset and
2. give the archive a unique name (to avoid conflicts).

So, give the archive a name:

Since it is a mod that changes the materials of certain items (it contains *.bgsm files),
you'll need to select the preset "General / Interface / Materials / Animations":

If you aren't sure, you can leave it on "Auto-detect".

And that's it. All set.

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.

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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.\

4. More information!

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Button	Shortcut
Selecting multiple mods	N/A	Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click
Enable/disable mods		Spacebar
Edit mods		Right click
Delete mods		Delete or Backspace
Move mods up and down	and	Ctrl+ArrowUp and Ctrl+ArrowDown

Exploring the settings tab

You can directly change both sResourceIndexFileList and sResourceArchive2List under the Settings tab of the mod manager:

• Important: The list entries are separated by new-lines, not commas!
• "Clean lists" will remove non-existing files.
• "Reset" will reset the list, if you made an accident.
• Don't forget to hit "Apply changes"!

5. NexusMods API

The mod manager can access the public NexusMods API to retrieve information about mods such as latest version, title, thumbnails, and so on. To access the API, you'll need to provide your personal API key.

The API functionality is very basic at the moment, but I plan on extending it further. For now, it only checks if a mod has a newer version and downloads thumbnails.

How to get a personal API key

On NexusMods, click on your account profile in the top-right corner and then click on "Site preferences". From there, select the API tab.
Or click here to get there.

Scroll all the way down and click on "REQUEST AN API KEY":

A question will popup. Click on OK:

And that's it. Now you have your key:

Just copy and paste it under the NexusMods tab of the mod manager.
Once you did, click on the teal "Update profile" button and you should be set.

To retrieve information about mods (and thus checking for updates), click on the teal "Update mod information" button.

About the rate limit

Every time the tool makes a request to the API, you'll get closer to the "rate limit". Once you used it up completely, you won't be able to use the API for a while till it resets.
In total, you get 2500 daily requests in addition to 100 hourly requests.
This is plenty and you're unlikely to completely use it up.