How to download mods for pc

The simplicity of the Steam Workshop is great, but when mods are bigger and more complex they may need more than a single click installation. You need to create a free account to download mods, but if you're into modding it's absolutely worth it. Nexus Mods has its own mod manager called Vortex , which helps you manage the mods you download, makes installation much easier, and lets you know when there are new versions available for updating.

Once installed, it'll even detect which games you own that it supports, making it easy to get started with modding them. Nexus Mods has a massive and highly enthusiastic community—there are over 15 million members who have collectively downloaded nearly 3 billion files.

The site also publishes mod spotlight features created by the staff, and even has a rewards system for modders that can earn them a bit of money for their hard work paid by the site, not by the users.

If you want to really get into modding your games, get familiar with Nexus Mods. It's an outstanding and reliable resource of the best mods ever made. Mod DB is a long-running modding community website, first established in Since then it's amassed thousands of mods and over a million downloads. It's an excellent resource to hunt for mods for older games that might not turn up at the Steam Workshop or Nexus Mods.

Mod DB provides a voice for modders, and there are many who post developer blogs and news about mods in progress.

It's also the site of the Mod of the Year Awards , a contest that's been running for the past 17 years, where users can vote on their favorite mods. The three sites listed above should provide you with mods for just about every game you're looking for, but there are still other places to look for mods for specific games. And if you're looking for a place to jump in, we cover mod news regularly here on PC Gamer, and we've got lots of articles to point you at some great mods for great games:.

While we wish modding were always a simple affair, it can often be complicated and require a bit of work on your end. Here are a few tips to keep in mind. Back up your saved games Using mods can have an effect on your saved games, and you may run into problems further down the line.

Sometimes when a game is patched, the mod will also need a patch to be compatible with the new version of the game, and that might not happen immediately or, in some cases, ever. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow.

Download Article Explore this Article parts. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Author Info Last Updated: May 28, Part 1. Open your web browser and then search for "Minecraft Forge Download" click here. Choose a version that is compatible with your Minecraft version and press download. Part 2. After the Forge install is finished, you need to download mods that you would like to have. There are lots of websites that you can download mods from, but some are not as safe as others. Two trustworthy sites to download mods on are: Planet Minecraft.

Part 3. Change your version to the Forge one. For example: you have installed Forge 1. Part 4. Choose: ". Look for "mods" folder, if you don't have it yet, just create a new one and name it as "mods".

Steam Workshop makes modding dead simple. Curse , recently acquired by Twitch, is a multimedia organization that holds a wide range of gaming-centric media. At E3 , game publisher Bethesda introduced the Bethesda Creation Club , a curated marketplace for mod creators to be able to make and sell content for Fallout 4 and Skyrim Special Edition.

The idea of paid mods may be a touchy subject for some, though. Several games and series have specific community sites where most of their mods originate. The popular mods from these sources may be rehosted elsewhere, but these niche sites tend to be the primary community for the games. Here are some examples:. On the other hand, some especially useful mods support many different games.

They show you the mods you have installed, include abilities to enable or disable individual mods, and can help let you know when an update is available. That said, there are some mod management tools available that help in specific games. If your game of choice has enough mods, chances are someone has developed a manager for them. Here are a few popular ones:.

Because of that, modders also created several key Bethesda-focused management tools. LOOT helps you organize your mod list and load order, saving you the time and energy of having to learn what most of the order needs to be yourself. Additionally, LOOT can help point out opportunities for optimization in some mods, such as redundant components or dirty edits that will only slow things down.

Wrye Bash helps you get into the thick of things in terms of mod management by helping you access the parts of mods that might need cleaning or even file merging. Modding is about fine-tuning games to suit your tastes, making changes and alterations to games based on whatever you and mod creators see fit.

You could change something visual, you could change how your character gains power, or you could swap out the entire game soundtrack for a fan-made orchestral version. The most popular mods for the most popularly modded games tend to be aesthetic mods that tweak the look and sound of a game. Take Skyrim , one of the most heavily modded games of all time, and take a look for some of its mods.

But a picture is worth a thousand words. Click the images to enlarge them if you want to bask in all the improvements. Audio mods are only popular in some games, but they can do interesting things.

Some mods focus on decreasing visual quality, to allow games to run better on underpowered hardware or simply increase the frame rate for a more buttery feel. Many competitive players reduce graphical quality just enough so that the important details are still visible, but the framerate can be as high as the hardware will allow it to be.

Fixing bugs and enhancing system compatibility are the key reasons for technical modding. Sure, it may feel like every classic game is getting an HD remaster this week, but not all fan favorites are so lucky.