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The legacy of Bethesda games serving as a playground for modders continues with Starfield. Even before the game was released, it was already known that many mods would be made for Starfield. There are already so many mods on both Nexus and Steam, from optimization to gameplay, but which ones are indispensable? Let’s break down the best Starfield mods you can’t get past without trying.
Starfield Upscaler
Unfortunately, Starfield does not support Nvidia’s DLSS and Intel’s XeSS in the game’s early access. This means that those who use these graphics cards will not get the same performance as AMD. Luckily, you can add this support to the game with the help of a mod called Starfield Upscaler. Additionally, each individual hardware supports rendering the game at 4K resolutions while maintaining graphics and performance.
FOV Changer
Strangely enough, there are no field-of-view settings in Starfield. This causes you to play the game at a narrower FOV and not be able to see objects in the periphery. A mod called FOV Changer lets you tweak these settings, allowing you to play in a larger perspective as 120 in Starfield. You can now play Starfield in first or third person with a wider image thanks to the FOV Changer mod.
Quantum Reshade
Do you wish to explore Starfield‘s immense universe in better image quality? The Quantum Reshade mode makes the colors of the game more vibrant and makes most of the details clearer. Starfield‘s original visuals are also satisfying enough, but a little touch wouldn’t hurt.
BetterHUD
Some details such as XP and location may seem very confusing and crowded on your screen. With BetterHUD, your game screen will look cleaner and more organized. It relocates your XP and new location alerts to less disruptive positions on the screen. Moreover, BetterHUD completely removes hit markers from the screen.
DualSense PS5 Icon
Starfield is only available on PC and Xbox and will not be coming to PS4 and PS5 anytime soon. However, you can always plug your PS controller into a PC and play with it. Sadly, since the game is not on PS, you will see Xbox buttons in-game and this can be very confusing. You can eliminate this problem by using a mod called DualSense PS5 Icons and have PS buttons on your screen
Cleanfield
Want to avoid seeing the Bethesda, Starfield, or “Message of the Day” logos on the main menu? Cleanfield makes the opening screen cleaner by removing the cinematic and a lot of redundancy you may find unnecessary.
Starfield Performance Optimizations
Starfield isn’t in very good shape in terms of system performance at its first launch. Especially when you visit New Atlantis or Neon, your FPS value greatly drops. However, the Starfield Performance Optimizations mod fixes this optimization problem, providing smoother gameplay. Moreover, you don’t lose out on performance when you use this mode.
Achievement Enabler
Starfield lets players tweak something in-game using the tilde key (~) on their keyboard. You can add money, skill points, and many more things. However, Bethesda has taken steps to prevent cheating when using console commands to unlock achievements. The Achievement Enabler mod allows you to cheat on achievements now.
Tactical Crosshair
Starfield has this feature, even during non-combat interactions, where the crosshair is plastered on your screen. With the Tactical Crosshair mod, you will only see the crosshair when you ADS in either first-person or third-person, or when engaged in battle
Enhanced Blood Textures
For those who wish to make the game more violent, here’s the hot ticket. The Enhanced Blood Textures mod makes the blood gorier and adds more realistic details to the game. The blood platters will be 4k texture instead of 2k.
Enhanced Dialogue Interface
Thanks to the Enhanced Dialogue Interface mod, the dialogues in the game will now look clearer and more modern. This mod completely redesigns the dialogue UI, getting rid of the stiff black boxes and centering the text on the screen. You can also customize your font and size.
Stellar Water
Even though Starfield‘s graphics are already admirable, they can be improved with some tweaks. Stellar Water adds more realistic ripple and shadow effects to the water effect in the game, making it much better than the default water.
Dark Mode For Terminals
In a crafting station or lab in Starfield, the text is very difficult to read and the bright colors are too eye-catching. Dark Mode For Terminals puts all terminal displays in the game into a darker and more readable mode. Now you can craft more easily with a black background and smooth display.
Enhanced Player Healthbar
Can’t keep track of how many lives you have left while playing Starfield? When you use The Enhanced Player Healthbar mod, your HP bar in the bottom right corner now changes color when you take damage or heal. In accordance with custom, it begins out white and gradually transitions through white, bright orange, dark orange, and red.
Ship Skip
You can now skip cutscenes for landing, taking off, and docking in your ship with the Ship Skip mod in Starfield. Even if it’s cool at first, it can get boring seeing the same thing over and over again. You can avoid this with Ship Skip and skip cutscenes directly.
Related:
Should You Join Vanguard in Starfield? Answered
Hopefully, this guide provided you with the best up-to-date Starfield mods you need to have.
Starfield is now available as Early Access for PC and Xbox Series X|S and will be released fully on September 6.