Mods | Elden Ring Wiki

Preparation

1. Back up your game folder. Copy the whole ELDEN RING game folder somewhere safe. A bad install is then a paste away from being undone.

2. Back up your saves. If you use Steam Cloud saves, turn it off first, then copy your local .sl2 and .bak files elsewhere. They usually live in one of:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\EldenRing\[steam-id]\
C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\ELDEN RING\Game
C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games

3. Understand EasyAntiCheat. Many mods require EAC to be disabled. Turning EAC off does not by itself keep you offline and going online with modified files carries a high likelihood of a ban on your entire Steam account, not only Elden Ring. Disable it only when a mod requires it, and play offline when you do.

4. Use a separate save slot for modded characters, and check which game version each mod targets. Most are built against a specific patch and will crash on a newer one.

Method 1: Elden Mod Loader

Best for .dll mods the quality-of-life fixes, camera and UI changes.

1. Download EldenModLoader.zip from the Elden Mod Loader page and extract it directly into your game folder: ...\steamapps\common\ELDEN RING\Game
2. Download the anti-cheat toggler and extract it to the same folder.
3. Run toggle_anti_cheat.exe and confirm. Running it again re-enables EAC.
4. Put each mod's files in the \mods folder inside your game directory.
5. Launch with start_game_in_offline_mode.exe.

To control which mods load first, edit mod_loader_config.ini:

[modloader]
load_delay = 5000
show_terminal = 0

[loadorder]
PauseTheGame.dll = 1
SkipTheIntro.dll = 2

Method 2: Mod Engine 2

Required for the large overhauls, which replace game parameter files.

1. Download ModEngine-2.1.0.0-win64.zip from the Mod Engine 2 GitHub releases. It can be extracted anywhere; it does not go in the game folder.
2. Put each mod's contents in the \mod folder inside the Mod Engine directory.
3. For .dll mods, also place the .dll beside the .bat and .toml files, then add it to external_dlls in config_eldenring.toml (example below).
4. With Steam running, launch using launchmod_eldenring.bat and confirm the prompt.

external_dlls = ["SkipTheIntro.dll", "PauseTheGame.dll"]

Only one mod may edit regulation.bin at a time. This is why two overhauls will not run together combining them means merging the files by hand in a tool such as Smithbox or DSMapStudio.

Running Both, and Mod Engine 3

The two loaders can run alongside each other. Launching with start_game_in_offline_mode.exe loads only the Elden Mod Loader mods; launching with launchmod_eldenring.bat loads both, provided nothing conflicts.

Mod Engine 3 is now in use as well some newer releases target it specifically, so check what the mod's own page asks for before assuming Mod Engine 2. The steps above are for Mod Engine 2, which remains what most current Elden Ring mods expect.

If the game crashes on launch, the usual causes are a mod built for a different patch, two mods both editing regulation.bin, or a missing load-order entry.

Nexus Mods

Nexus Mods lists over 6,500 Elden Ring mods, and hosts most of the overhauls and moveset packs. The download figures in the tables on this page are its published counts.

GG Mods

GG Mods hosts mods for Elden Ring alongside Skyrim, Fallout, Starfield and Baldur's Gate 3. Its Elden Ring section covers the mod loaders and the quality-of-life fixes, and it has its own comment threads per mod.

The Community

r/EldenRingMods is where new releases, load-order problems and patch-day breakage get discussed. Worth checking before you install anything large, and after every game update.