There's A Skyrim Modpack With 1,500+ Mods Built For Steam Deck

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For me, there is one reason why I understand Skyrim is still so popular and getting tons of re-releases from Bethesda: Mods. The modding community keeps this game alive, and while the base/vanilla version is a solid foundation, it's the mods that really kick it up a notch. The reason why I love playing it on the Steam Deck for a portable experience over the Switch is the modding capabilities, but unlike desktop PCs, the Deck has limited power, so we have to be careful about how many mods we put in. Luckily, someone created a modpack designed for the Steam Deck, and it is filled to the brim with over 1,500 different mods!

The Tuxborn modpack, created by Ouruboros and Omni-Guides (and I first noticed it from the r/SteamDeck Reddit post from user Ascerta), is the first Wabbajack modpack designed from the ground up with the Steam Deck in mind. Wabbajack is an automated mod list installer that will automatically find every mod on the list and download it, so you don't have to manually select and download each individual mod. There are other modpacks for Wabbajack that can work with the Steam Deck, but they require some tweaking. However, Tuxborn was designed for an easy out-of-the-box experience, making it a bit more appealing to those who just want things to work without needing to change anything.

As I mentioned, the mod pack has over 1,500 mods, ranging from enhancing visuals to adding in new content like quests, new locations, weapons, NPC changes, and even some optional ones that can completely bring in new combat animations and able to attack while jumping and swimming. There are even some major overhauls like Thaumaturgy, Static Skill Leveling, and Blade and Blunt. This should have everything you could ever want and more to expand your Skyrim experience. You can check out the full modlist here.

There are 4 specific Deck Performance Profiles you can choose from, separated into two categories depending if you want the optional BFCO Attack Behavior Framework. You can use the Deck or Deck BFCO profiles to target 40 FPS, or you can choose the Deck CS or Deck CS BFCO for a targeted 30 FPS with some additional visual enhancements from the community shaders mod. The CS version will look better, but it won't feel as smooth.

Now, installation is a little bit tricky, but there are multiple ways of doing it. You can install it using the .wabbajack file you download from Nexusmods, which will auto-download everything. To do this, you will have to download Wabbajack and launch it via Wine or Proton (adding it as a non-Steam game and forcing Proton 9.0-3 should work). In the Reddit post, the poster mentions they did this in Desktop mode, and it worked fine. You can either have the tool download directly to your Skyrim data folder or transfer it manually. You could also follow this guide to use Modorganizer or use an automation script that can automatically install the mods.

I have not personally tested any of these methods, but the person who did report this on Reddit downloaded it via Wabbajack on Linux without Modorganizer or the automation script. It is also recommended to have a premium Nexusmods account so all the downloads go faster and won't hit any snags.

One other thing to mention is that this is a LOT of mods and will end up taking up 176 GB of space after installation, which is a ton of space. I would consider this a bit too much for most people, but if you are a diehard Skyrim fan and want a really new experience, this is going to be the way to do it! It may be a little bit too much for me, but I need all the space I can get. It's a great option for those who really want a new Skyrim experience on the go.

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