Starfield, Bethesda's first new IP in a very long time, released to a generally positive but somewhat mixed reception. But, almost a year on, after steady updates — including a land vehicle, a first for any Bethesda game — Starfield is still going strong. One of the great strengths of Bethesda's world-famous and insanely popular Fallout and Elder Scrolls franchises is the vibrant and creative modding scene, enabled by the Creation Kit modding tool supplied by Bethesda Game Studios.
The modding scene for Starfield is growing by the day. Although it's still quite far from the heights reached by Skyrim, or even the number of great mods for Fallout 4, modders have taken to the space-age RPG to provide it with a whole slew of mods, from backend tinkering to new ship parts, new vehicle types, and so much more. Here are the most popular Starfield mods on the modding site, Nexus Mods, by number of downloads (at the time of writing).
10 Cleanfield - A No Intro And Clean Menu Fix
Downloads: 245,015
- Created by: Gametism
For fans of many games across many genres, the intro videos and screens when booting up a game can feel like a unique kind of torture after the first time. Not only do they add precious time to the opening of the game, but they can become very boring to hear and see after the first few watches.
But Cleanfield - A No Intro and Clean Menu Fix has got this covered. By removing all these annoying things from game start-up, it's faster, and it removes the annoying 'message of the day' and other menus too. A necessity for the impatient gamer.
9 Undelayed Menus
Downloads: 463,458
- Created by: Seb263
Undelayed Menus is a really simple mod that aims to reduce time spent waiting around for menus to open or close. Although this might not sound all that frustrating, some of the menus in Starfield take what feels like an agonizingly long amount of time to get where they need to be.
This mod solves the frustration by reducing the time spent on unnecessary fading effects, or by reducing the amount of time buttons need to remain pressed. The end result is much less frustration when it comes to closing and opening menus.
8 Constellation Overhaul
Downloads: 492,284
- Created by: 2077v2
The biggest and most popular of any of the overhaul mods yet to appear in the Starfield modding scene, the Constellation Overhaul mod is a large overhaul that tweaks many different values to enhance or modify gameplay. These little gameplay enhancements add up, and the mod authors have big plans to go further.
Over the course of the lifetime of games like these, overhaul mods become increasingly popular as people want to tweak aspects of the game to better suit how they want to be played, whether for greater challenge or better immersion. But, the Constellation Overhaul's got in early, and with nearly half a million users, it looks set to stick around.
7 Plugins.txt Enabler
Downloads: 514,727
- Created by: Nukem
Starfield in its base, unmodded form changed how mods and other plugins (including official Bethesda content) work. Before, players could manage mod load orders using the plugins.txt file. Many fans didn't appreciate the change, so mod author Nuken created a fix.
It might not seem a big deal, but to more than half a million modders, this was a fix worth downloading. Nukem's Plugin.txt Enabler mod reverts things to how they were in previous games.
6 Starfield Performance Optimizations
Downloads: 609,677
- Created by: Erok
Although Starfield runs very well, for many fans there are still further optimizations that could be made to really enhance gameplay by reducing lag or stutters, or by increasing FPS. This mod aims to do exactly that.
Through the wizardry of modding, Starfield Performance Optimizations allows users to squeeze the most out of their CPUs and GPUs, providing a number of options for players to use — all easily selected by using the normal in-game graphics quality options.
5 Neutral Color LUTs - No Color Filters
Downloads: 636,248
- Created by: fadingsignal
Although many fans praise the visuals in Starfield, others find certain aspects of the game distracting or unhelpful. For players who dislike some of the color filters used in Starfield, Neutral Color LUTs - No Color Filters is the answer. This mod changes certain values to produce a more neutral color palette in certain areas of the game to help players see better.
The creator has also included optional tweaks to dark color values to enable a much darker space experience. Although this mod is quite basic in comparison to what's available in Fallout 4 or Skyrim, it's still early days in the modding scene and is a sure sign of things to come.
4 Address Library For SFSE Plugins
Downloads: 760,970
- Created by: meh321
Address Library for SFSE Plugins is an incredibly useful mod for any player using the Starfield Script Extender — and the mods created using its functions. This is essentially a database that allows mods to be version independent. This might not sound like a big deal, but it's essential for a game still receiving regular new content and updates like Starfield.
It's not flashy, but it is incredibly popular, as many fans just don't want to wait for mods to update before playing new content or on new patches.
3 Baka Achievement Enabler (SFSE)
Downloads: 967,205
- Created by: shad0wshayd3
Many fans absolutely love getting achievements or trophies in the games they play, and it's easy to see why. Achievements can help provide a sense of structure to a game, or give the player concrete goals to work toward. Unfortunately, most mods disable achievements in Starfield.
But, for fans who don't like that, there are options. The most popular option is the Baka Achievement Enabler mod. This is a mod that works with the Starfield Script Extender to enable players using mods — along with official Creations — to get achievements.
2 StarUI Inventory
Downloads: 1,601,179
- Created by: m8r98a4f2
StarUI Inventory overhauls the default user interface, offering players dozens of new ways to sort, display, and interact with items in their inventory. While this might not seem like a big deal to those who find the basic user interface perfectly fine, with more than 1.5 million downloads, it's an incredibly popular option.
For players who want better searchability, more information, and a different way to display it all, StarUI Inventory is a must-have mod. The sorting options are amazing, giving the player unprecedented control of what's displayed and how.
1 Starfield Script Extender
Downloads: 1,860,606
- Created by: SFSE Team
The Starfield Script Extender is a mod that legions of fans have been waiting for, and that shows from its download numbers — it's approaching two million downloads! Not a mod in the traditional sense, the Starfield Script Extender, like its Fallout and Elder Scrolls counterparts — extends the number of script functions available for use by mod authors.
Many of the most complex mods from Fallout and Elder Scrolls (especially Skyrim) depend on their respective Script Extenders. For many, the existence of the Starfield Script Extender is a sure sign that some fantastic mods are on the way, and it's already seen use by other backend mods despite the Starfield modding scene being in its infancy.
Starfield
- Released
- September 6, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Bethesda
- Platform(s)
- PC, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
