How to use Elden Mod Loader and Mod Engine 2 simultaneously on Linux (or Windows)

For specific Windows info,scroll to the bottom! I've added links to all the necessary tools in the requirements. If you have WIndows-specific questions, feel free to ask! And yes, all of this works 100% on Deck, and there is no difference in the process. I have the exact same mod setup on PC and on Deck.

First things first, install this:

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/90

to the game's "Game" folder. Add "toggle_anti_cheat . exe" as a non-Steam game and MAKE SURE to launch it before trying Mod Loader or it might not work! Also, this tool makes you unable to go online at all just to be safe. Note that if you ever want to go online, you WILL need to disable all your mods and revert your regulation .bin to stock.

Also, make sure you've ticked "show hidden files and folders" in your DE's file explorer.

II.

Unrar modengine in the ELDEN RING folder, but not in the GAME folder, it automatically detects the game. Add "launchmod_eldenring.bat"

as a non-Steam game, and put WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command% as a launch command.

edit: As user adraido mentioned, I forgot to add this: you might need to edit  launchmod_eldenring.bat to point it to the base eldenring.exe in your drive if you are on an SDcard or on a different drive to your steam install - ModEngine doesn't always recognize it. For deck, for example, you edit it in a manner like this:

.\modengine2_launcher.exe -t er -c .\config_eldenring.toml --game-path

"/run/media/deck/360c883b-7c0c-4b3f-b1f4-3d66dcdedbe7/steamapps/common/ELDEN

RING/Game/eldenring.exe"

The directory won't match yours, this is just an example. For deck, if installed to the SD card, to get the address, just go to "primary" (your mounted SD card), then find your steam library/steamapps/common/ELDEN RING.

This is particular to your setup, on a different distro the path might be, for example,

/media/YOURUSER/YOURDRIVE/steamapps/common/ELDEN RING/Game/eldenring.exe.

It then recognizes it and launches without issue. Thank for reminding me to include this, adraido.

Here is what the modengine folder contains. If you are just gonna use this as a loader to add mods, you don't need to change the default

config. This is where the .bat file you need to add to steam is located, though.

Here is what most mods for Mod Engine 2 you get look like. They're a bunch of chr/event/map/action etc folders that you just paste in this folder and do nothing else, an