Guide:Mod Installation

Chucklefish Games provides two official sources for mods, the Starbound Mod Repository and the Starbound Modding Forum. Steam users can also browse the Steam Workshop.
Many modders prefer the Steam Workshop for it's ease of use, accessibility, and more user friendly interface, leaving some forum mods outdated versions of their workshop counterparts.

Steam Workshop

If Starbound was purchased from Steam, any Workshop mods you are subscribed to are automatically downloaded to Steam\steamapps\workshop\content\211820\. These mods do not need to be moved to the Starbound\mods\ folder, the game will load them automatically. When a workshop mod is downloaded it will (usually) update automatically, unlike with Forum mods.

Chucklefish Forums

A more in-depth installation guide is available on the official forums.

Mods can be found in three forms, from most to least common :

• Compressed (.zip, .7zip, .rar, ect...): Starbound cannot load the mods in this state, the files need to be uncompressed first.
• Packed (.pak): These are "packed" in a format that Starbound can read, preferred for faster loading.
• Unpacked: The raw files and directories of the mod.

Once downloaded and unpacked, you'll need to place the mod in Starbound's mod directory, Starbound\mods\. Be careful when unpacking, as you can end up with the mods actual files nestled inside the unzipped folder like this : coolmod/coolmodsFiles, making Starbound unable to load it. All you would need to do in this case is move coolmodsFiles outside of coolmod and into Starbound\mods\.

GitHub

Mods can be installed straight from their GitHub repository, if they have one. GitHub versions of mods are often further ahead then their workshop or forum counterparts, but can also be more unstable, make a backup before installing any large mods! In order to download a mods content from GitHub from their repository click the green <> Code button found at the right of the screen, and then from the dropdown menu click Download Zip, from here you can unpack it like any other .zip file.