Modding Starfield: The State of Things Before the Creation Kit (2024)

By: Filip Galekovic

3 June 2024

Time and again, we've discussed the ins and outs of modding Bethesda Game Studios RPGs here at 2Game. It's a simple statement of fact that, as time goes on, Bethesda's first-party sandbox titles turn into veritable modding powerhouses, thanks to their incredible communities and the games' awesomely flexible Creation engine.

This is, most assuredly, going to be the case with Starfield too... as soon as its Creation Kit releases later this year. We'll explain exactly what this means down below, but in the meantime, it's important to note that the core and the crux of this article will change in the coming months. We'll update it as soon as the Creation Kit is out, so be sure to stay tuned on that front!

With that all out of the way, over the next couple of sections we'll explain everything a newbie needs to know about modding Starfield, specifically, and why it's a bit problematic for the time being.

Modding Starfield: Everything You Need to Know (pre-Creation Kit)

Starfield is the first game to run on Bethesda's upgraded equivalent to the classic Gamebryo: the Creation Engine 2. CE2 allowed the team to go all-in on asset quality, graphics, and post-processing specifically, but it's also - by far - the most stable, secure, and efficient game engine a mainline Bethesda game has ever had. This is not an overstatement, and it's coming from someone who remembers the day one Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and New Vegas experiences.

Awesome games, those! Good grief did they keep crashing on us, though. Some of them still do!

Curiously, Starfield also represents the first time Bethesda has chosen to deliver game-changing gameplay loop upgrades to one of their releases. Just check out the Starfield May Update and what comes next to get a sense of how far we've come.

Granted, Starfield's complexity does mean that these updates are coming in somewhat slowly, but we don't judge. This is also the reason why we don't yet have the Creation Kit 2: Starfield's all-encompassing modding suite.

Get your Starfield Steam key right here at 2Game!

Why is Creation Kit so important?

While Bethesda's mainline RPG engines might be fairly rudimentary in some respects, such as in the areas of facial animation and character kinetics, this is offset by their ridiculous flexibility and user-friendliness. These features don't truly come into their own, though, until a game's Creation Kit is released.

Even though Starfield already has an immense list of mods, most of them pale in comparison to what we've got for Fallout and Elder Scrolls. That's because, until the Creation Kit 2 comes out, modders are working with their hands tied behind their backs, with no true, unfettered access to Starfield's backend processes.

After the Creation Kit for Starfield comes out, modders will be able to change anything and everything they want in Starfield, in other words.

Will the Creation Kit make modding easier?

Indeed, it will! The availability of a Creation Kit will make it so modders can create entire gameplay system overhauls, add new weapons (we're currently mostly stuck with jury-rigged solutions or, more often, simple mesh replacements for existing gear), introduce new features, and oodles of other stuff.

How to Install Starfield Mods on PC?

Another thing that the Creation Kit will help us out with is the mod installation. As it currently stands, it's deceptively complicated getting some mods to run in Starfield.

The game's file structure is, in some respects, fundamentally different from what came before, and this has made the installation of certain types of mods way more challenging than it should be. That's why installing Starfield mods is such a hassle, with tools such as Vortex simply incapable of reliably setting things up for you.

As it currently stands, you should install Starfield mods manually, which comes with its own set of complications and problems. Otherwise, however, the chances are good of your mods straight-up not functioning properly, since many of them work on a per-case installation basis.

Here's what you want to do upon finding a Starfield mod you'd like to install:

Read the mod's actual Nexus page thoroughly
Figure out exactly what its installation procedure wants you to do: in some cases, you may need to tweak specific .ini files or install additional prerequisites
Take care to follow the mod creator's instructions to the letter
Give it a shot in-game to see whether the mod is functioning properly

Now, make no mistake: Vortex and Mod Organizer 2 will be perfectly fine in some cases. Since they do not offer a comprehensive all-in-one solution for Starfield yet, though, you'll end up finding yourself in a situation where only a half of your mods are visible through the apps, leading to confusion, problematic load order issues, and excessive crashing.

The availability of the Creation Kit should help smooth things over, but in the interim, we recommend manual installations regardless.

Be sure to keep track of the mods you've installed, too

One crucial piece of advice we cannot overstate here is that you have to keep track of the mods you install manually. As Starfield gets more content updates similar to the May Patch, it will inevitably break mods. This means potentially breaking your save games, too, unless you handle the situation before problems come about.

As mod organizers just don't function properly for Starfield yet, they won't be able to reliably help in this regard. Instead, maybe consider keeping a list somewhere you can reference it. Further, if you'd like to avoid as many issues as possible while Starfield's still in its growing/expansion phase, you may wish to stick with simpler mods for time time being.

Think HUD replacers, re-textures, and similar things.

Currently available Starfield mods, explained

Sadly, modding Starfield isn't as easy as modding other mainline Bethesda RPGs has been in the past. This is partially because we've got no Creation Kit for Creation Engine 2 yet, yes, but also because Starfield uses a slightly different file structure than any of its predecessors.

This has led to a situation where adding genuinely new content to Starfield is no mean feat. Certainly, some modders have successfully found their way around these limitations. We've already seen some new ship parts, weapons, armor, and other tidibts, but there's no universal solution yet, and so we don't necessarily recommend jumping onto them.

Instead, our recommendation is to wait a bit for the Creation Kit to release for such content. Retextures, HUD replacers, and other assorted tweaks won't break your save game, but untested and cutting-edge stuff might. So, tread carefully until the Creation Kit releases!

The Starfield Creation Kit is coming, and it'll be transformative in the long run

At last, if you just want a reliable shortlist of awesome Starfield mods you should be installing as soon as possible, we've got you covered on that front as well. Just check out our pre-Creation Kit mod-list and you're golden! That being said, Bethesda has basically confirmed that the Creation Kit will be coming out sometime in 2024, and that'll be nothing short of game-changing.

Not only are we going to have immediate access to officially verified and vetted mods with one-click install, but the huge array of Nexus and ModDB mods will be made more reliable, interesting, and mechanically complex over time as well.

We don't know yet when, exactly, the Starfield Creation Kit might be coming, but we will have a massive update for this article ready to go, so stick around and have fun!