How To Mod Skyrim On Steam Deck EASY Setup And Complete Guide! No PC Or USB Neeeded! 

A recent update from Bethesda has completely broken SKSE and other mods. Until SKSE/MO2 is updated, many of your mods will not work. Thanks BUGTHESDA!

THIS is single handedly the best tutorial I’ve ever watched. As someone who has never modded and always been a console user this was the most direct and simple way to teach someone to mod. Thank you brother for this

Hey, thanks a ton for this video. I love modding now. I didn't mod for years because I was intimidated by it. You broke it down in really easy to understand steps and it was good to watch.

I'm so glad Alex makes Steamdeck tutorials. I love how clear and consise he is with the instructions.

I just got a steam deck and wanted to mod skyrim a little bit to inprove my experience. This video helped me sooooo so much. No unnessecary blabla, straight to the point. Everything worked completely fine! What a great tutorial. Hood work!

Alex, sincerely thank you for your guides! Seldom comment smth, but after a few evenings of struggles trying to mod skyrim on deck - your videos are a huge relief! Guide still works 22.02.2024 (Skyrim SE from Steam) - for all, who wonders

Love your content, always straight forward without unnecessary crap. Keep up the good work

omg i watched someone else and i was so lost, followed this and had no problems at all tysm 😭❤️

Thank you so much! This worked for me. I had issues with the track pad so I just used an external mouse. I didn’t know about the steam button + trackpad option. Thank you so much!

I used to play Skyrim with a lot of mods but I moved to another country and now only have a MacBook (M1 Pro Chip). It was quite a journey to get Skyrim working here, and for some reason, all the water textures turned green - I have no idea why that happened. So, I ultimately made the decision to buy a SteamDeck, not only for the joy of playing with mods (which I discovered thanks to your video) but also because I've decided not to build a gaming PC anymore. Just wanted to give you some context - your video inspired me to purchase a SteamDeck, haha! I considered getting a gaming laptop, but I really value the portability of the SteamDeck. Nice content!!

Thank you so much! I don't have a Steam Deck, but I have an Arch desktop, and this, unlike Vortex Mod Manager, just works.

Thank you for the video, King 👑. I'm absolutely loving my Steam Deck.

whats the chance of me deciding i want to mod skyrim on my steam deck, find your older video just to see you posted an update 9 hours ago. crazy

I recently got a steam deck and I don’t know anything about pc so this video was helpful. Was stressful at first but I finally got it down days later lol..

I just have to say thank you so much for this video. I spent an entire day trying 3 other methods and each one had an issue at some point. Yours worked great.

This was the tut I needed. Thanks man. Made life so much less complicated.

Was just watching your older skyrim vid and i thought hmm let me see if he did a new one, absolute legend

With your instructions it finally worked for me! Thank you very much Alex!🎉

Thank you very much for the video, I'm now super happy that I can mod Skyrim on the Steam Deck

Excellent ... your content is gold! What I need is a full proof Emu deck set-up video that covers Switch emulation.. I have a bunch of Switch titles but since getting the deck my device is gathering dust.

took me like two hours but i finally got it together thanks for the help

Dude, can you do Fallout 4 pretty please. I'm going to try and mirror this process, but a focused FO4 would be grand. BGS games on the Deck are comfort food, but they need mods lol. Love your stuff man, you make it easy for rubberheads like me :D

i have been trying to do this for literal months and this is the only guide that has ever worked for me

If anyone is having trouble with the keyboard in game, such as trying to name your character, try launching Skyrim through game mode. I couldn't get anything to work for the life of me but I figured out once you get MO2 up and running and you know your mods work, you can go back to game mode and launch Skyrim there instead of desktop. When you launch it will pull up the MO2 same as before and you launch from there. Hope this helps

I just did all the steps love your video yeah it tells me I’m useing a newer version of Skyrim then ske64 supports

This worked for me on a different game. The mods under the workshop keep unchecking. Ty, great tip for those new to Linux

Thank you so much, finally I can use MO2 on the steam deck

Love the instructions - one small quip for improvement from my perspective would be indicating the game has to be installed to the ssd and not the sd card up front.

Great video! Will send you actual money if you can get Requiem / reqtificator to run on steam deck! driving me insane!

Appreciate these steps, any consideration for fav mods that aren’t going to be too cpu/gpu intense

after 3 hours of searching this one finally worked! now I can just continue playing with the unofficial patch mod installed AND still earn achievements now maybe I can also add in a multiplayer mod if I find one I did have to change one thing to open the launcher to access the graphics settings, they renamed the launcher to _launcher,... and didn't change this in the settings of the mod manager!

Sets great job alex!!

Hey Alex, new subscriber here. Great video really helped me a lot. Got a question for you....I was able to follow your guide without any issues, got to the end and the mods are working great in desktop mode. Almost started dancing....been a few years since I modded Skyrim and I don't exactly have a background in Linux based systems so it was a big win for me. Here's the question. Can I still play it (Nexus) modded in game/handheld mode? I have it set so that when I launch Skyrim SE from game mode it launches with the skse loader with no issues but so far I can't get any of the nexus mods to work (skse required or not). No crashes or strange behavior...the mods just aren't registering. Let me know when you can and thanks again.

I don't have a steam deck but maybe this will help me in my decision making. I'll subscribe.

Coming back to this, has SKSE, MO2, and several mods been updated?

3:08 a huge advise for new Linux users like me when choosing pt versions for this kind of thing you don’t need the same exact version they are updated regularly to this day pt 9.0 is the one mo2 recommends but pt only has 9.1 (you get the idea)

Thanks for this tutorial! Any chance of you doing a mod tutorial for BG3 on the steam deck?

I learn how to mod on Linux, man so satisfying to play my games modded.

This is a great tutorial for **specifically** manual mod downloads, but wanted to mention from what ive seen and played around with, there is no way to use Nexus mod linker/collections with this wine-based method. Looks like the best/easier way to download a collection/lots of mods is via file transfer from another PCs skyrim folder with the mods you want to the deck

This tutorial works! I was able to install SkyUI!

Gonna have to wait for an update now. I only used two mods anyway with mo2, elfx and raid weathers. I can play the game without them for the time being.

Alexx, do you think you can make a video showing how to mod The Witcher 3 on Steam Deck? Love the channel BTW.

Going to be trying this later. But before I do... once this is all set up, am I able to launch in the game mode or do I need to launch it from desktop mode for MO2 to work correctly?

Thanks Alex!!

Would it be possible for you to make a tutorial on how to get Doom mods to work on Steamdeck? Mods like: Blade of Agony Ashes 2063 Winters Fury The Golden Souls Etc. I normally wouldn’t make a request, but Doom mods on my Steam Deck was one of the main reasons I bought it (along with modded Morrowind, Daggerfall, and New Vegas), and all I can do is play Doom and Hexen on GZDoom unmodded.

I’ve never actually tried Skyrim with mods before. Any recommendations?

Some Feedback: 1. You don't need flatseal, flatpak permision are already in the settings app in desktop mode 2. You can not run the downgrader on linux. So if you still mod on 1.5.97 (Just before AE) you will have to download and overwrite both the skyrim files and the skse files. And hope steam doesn't update anything when you open skyrim. I know this becaus I basically already pulled this off for skyrin on my desktpo using your other recent Bethesda game tutorials. So thanks for the content man!

It's now easier to install the mods, for vortex you still have to go through github but the rest is exactly like on PC, no need to touch the files like in the video

Thx for the tutorial

Can you make a tutorial for modding Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Steam Deck? I know there is a video on here that uses adding Vortex as a Steam game but I haven’t had any luck with it. It’s installed and runs but it doesn’t show a load order and the mods don’t appear in game. All I’m trying to do is mod in presets that don’t look hideous for masculine Tieflings so I can commit to doing a redeemed Dark Urge Tiefling run.

Can you do a Vortex tutorial?

Will protontricks work for the regular skyrim? I don't have the special edition. When I opened protontricks skyrim was listed. I checked properties and compatability but protontricks wasn't ticked. When checking for it I'm not seeing the 8.0-3 but I see 8.0-5 I believe. Is it OK to set it for 8.0-5? Thanks is advance. Thank you for the awesome tutorial vid? Awesome bro!

i dont know if you would be willing or if its possible but could you explore the possibility of teaching how to mod Mass effect LE and andromeda from a steamdeck??

I figured out how to get my game back 🎉 I had to open the konsole to run the console command and download the depots and reinstall mo2 linux version

can you do a video for people who only have sd card for skyrim? my internal storage is full even though there are no games installed internally.

Hmm i have three mods downloaded but it wont let me drag them into mod organizer

Воу, спасибо большое, всё объяснил, все удобно и точно

What are the differences between the regular skyrim and the special edition? Is the special edition better for modding? If so I may just get the special edition.

Thanks best video ever

Alex, sorry about the dumb question, but is this setup still working? Thank you for the update, brother.

Thanks for the video, I managed to make it work but I can't seem to open the Launcher through mod organizer, it says there is already an instance of MO2 running. Edit: Nevermind, took me 10 minutes to find a way 😆 I just booted SkyrimLauncher with protontricks.

Does the Steam Deck have any problems running skeletal mods such as xp32? Or is there no issue because of Proton Tricks?

In your older video it was possible to launch SKSE from gaming mode, using MO2 do we always need to launch from desktop now? I was in the middle of following your previous vid when I found this one lol.

Hey Alex, will you make an update vid/comment on Skyrim modding for Steam Deck?

Have you been able to launch mod organise from main screen (not desktop mode)?

I have already downloaded the script extender and have been using nexus. i have been considering switching to MO2. Am i able to follow this method or do i need to remove nexus first?

thank you! =D

Hey Alex. I’m having an unrelated problem with Cyberpunk (running on heroic launcher). Anytime I close the game, I need to remove it from library, then add it again to be able to open the game. Is there a way around having to do this?

Either I’m missing something or you never circled back to what was next with protontricks at 2:30? Like I can understand everything after that but what do I do once it shows up in protontricks?

What I need is a tutorial on modding games like Arkham Knight.

is there a way to not have MO2 launch when I try and play the game in game mode? Id prefer it to launch the game normally

Alex can you do a tutorial on gettin mods like fnis and XP32 up and running.

Im guessing this method works for fallout and oblivon on the older engines too?

At 7:30 you mention you can connect direct to nexus. How do you do this? Whenever I try this it says where do you want to open the nxm file however, mo2 isn’t listed or discoverable as an application even though it shows up when I launch Skyrim. Thanks

Do you happen to know hot to access the normal Skyrim Launcher with MO2 installed. This damn game needs the damn launcher to be able to change the settings. But Im not able to start the Launcher anymore, it always goes back to MO2

Amazing video! I still have problems with the keyboard not showing up went i play and if you cant name your character, you cant play pass the character creator. I try to change desktop steam in game setting to allow steam overlay but nothing work. Anyway know how to bypass that?

I'm suprised alex & frit hasn't done a podcast together yet. Call them "the salt boys."

Thanks! But how can I keep the ACHIEVEMENTS modding this way on Steam Deck?

Not really on topic, but how is your flatseal in "dark theme" mine is blindingly white

How do you go about adding a game that isn't immediately recognized? I'm looking to add Stardew Valley but it's not on the list. I heard you can manually add a golbal instance for the game through MO2 but the game is stored under the ".local" file which is hidden and as a result does not show up when browsing

MO2 says my i am running a newer version of skyrim than this version of SKSE64 Supports. Runtime: 1.6.1130 SKSE64: 2.2.3 Im not entirely sure what this all means. I but then instead of Running the mod on SKSE like you did in this tutorial i hit the dropdown menu and selected Skyrim Special Edition and it ran the mod seemingly with no problems. So im not sure why you chose SKSE specifically. Does it make a difference? Do i need to go back to skse.silverlock and get an updated SKSE ?? I tried to but idk if i did it right or not, it came up with the same thing on MO2 when i thought I got a more updated version, nothing changed. Please let me know if any of this matters or if I can always just Run it on the "Skyrim Special Edition" instead of "SKSE" and thank you very much for the tutorial. PS I followed your original tutorial lastnight but on the last step trying to load the mod on Vortex came up with a white screen that wouldnt go away and had to be manually closed each time. So that didnt work for me then I tried this easier tutorial and it really was much better for me! Thank you!

Unfortunately im playing skyrim through the sd card and vortex is serving me well. So i guess im stuck on the old method.

How to disable MO2 from running when i wonna play skyrim?

Can you play it in gaming mode still

What about SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender)? I'm having trouble getting that working lol

This worked like a charm until today Now that they added Creations, after update MO2 won't start up and when I load my game, mods aren't in use anymore and game asks if I want you search them from Creations 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 And I want to load the save anyway, it now says file is corrupted and won't work.

Does it have to be MO2, or is that just your preferred mod manager?

does this method work with the standard edition or just Special edition?

Hey thanks for the Video! I still Need a Little help… everything works just fine but i cant Open the original launcher to chance the settings…

Just a quick question. So this is for Skyrim SE but you use SKsE for normal Skyrim?

hey so I'm thinking of downgrading to 1.5.97, would the mo2 link you use work? or do I need an older version?

It's asking me if i want to dk a global instance or portable instance. Which do i select? Or did i do it wrong?

I wonder how you would install the protable mo2

I loved this but unfortunately FNIS doesn’t work at all no matter how much I try and other animation mods. 😭 MO2 doesn’t seem to recognize them at all

Will HD graphics and texture mods work on steam deck?

Can you do a tutorial for modding eso on steamdeck please

Works great but I can't figure out how to actually run the launcher to change graphics settings again. When you try to run it through Mod Organizer it doesn't open it like it should.

Is there a special method for SSE? The mod manager doesn't seem to recognize it.

this worked flawlessly for anyone in early 2024

I hope You will like finding paradise Is a beautiful game