How to download mods from steam workshop

How to download mods from steam workshop

This guide will give you instructions on how to download and use mods and maps from the L4D2 Steam Workshop.

The Left 4 Dead 2 workshop lists mods which have received the most visitors and ratings from the community within the week.

Near the top you can search for a specific mod using the search bar.

The sidebar filters allow you filter by infected, survivors, content type and more.

Along the top you can choose to filter mods by their popularity and you can choose to view the most recent submissions.

Some mods will be listed as part of a collection. Collections typically contain related mods. To browse the workshop collections select «Browse» and then choose «Collections«.

To download a mod you will need to subscribe to it. You can subscribe to a mod to it by selecting its thumbnail on the workshop. Before subscribing to the mod you’ve selected it’s a good idea to read the mods description and tags. It’s common for workshop authors to give specific details regarding their submission in these areas.

After you’ve chosen a mod click on the green «Subscribe» button located on its workshop page.

You’ll receive a confirmation box letting you know the subscription has been successful. Subscribing to mods on the Steam Workshop will ensure that it remains up to date. Any author released updates will automatically be downloaded the next time you start L4D2. If you’re currently playing L4D2 you’ll need to restart the game before you’ll be able to use any newly subscribed workshop mods.

If you’d like to delete and unsubscribe from a workshop asset you can do so by visiting your subscriptions list. Locate the asset you’d like to unsubscribe from and select the «Unsubscribe» button.

Selecting «Add-ons» from the main menu of L4D2 will allow you to specify which subscribed workshop mods you’d like your game to load.

Many mods have their own instructions which are typically listed in the workshop description area. Certain mods may require a series of user commands to be ran before you’ll be able to see their effect in-game.

If you’re attempting to play an add-on campaign they can be chosen by selecting «Add-On Campaign» near the bottom of the campaign selection drop down.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this guide please feel free to leave a comment below.

How to download mods from steam workshop

So to install a mod from the workshop, we first need to download a mod from the workshop.

I’ll be using the Backbot Craftpack mod for this tutorial.
It will replace the Crash Mechanic Backpack with a Craftbot Backpack.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2286816505

To download anything from the workshop, you need to hit subscribe, just like you hit the like button on good Steam guides;)

Make sure to read the mod description, as it usually contains install instructions and info on the mod. Try to figure out if the mod works with the latest game version, or test your luck.

Once the mod has been downloaded, open file explorer. Head to the following path:

Sort the files in the folder by date so you can find your most recent folder at the top.

Once you opened the folder, look for the game files you need to overwrite. Those are often the ‘Data’ and ‘Survival’ folders. Sometimes they are in a folder.
In our case, they are in a zip, which we have to unzip first. Keep the window with the game files that you want to overwrite open.

Go to your Steam library and right-click on Scrap Mechanic. Select ‘Properties’, then ‘local files’, and click on ‘browse local files’. This should open the Scrap Mechanic folder.

Now copy-paste the game files from the mod folder to the Scrap Mechanic folder. Click ‘Replace the files in the destination’, if prompted.

Done.
Now launch Scrap Mechanic and see if it worked.

If it didn’t work, you might have copied over the wrong files from the mod folder(if there are multiple), or the mod isn’t compatible with your version of the game. If you tried installing more than one mod, the mods might not be compatible. Therefore, if you want to play with lots of mods, you should be looking for a modpack.

If you download mods from other sources than the Steam Workshop, such as the scrapmechanicmods.com website, you should find all the files to install the mod in the download folder.

Sometimes you need to do more than copy-pasting files. In this case, there should be manual install instruction on the site you downloaded the mod from or in the mod folder.

With Notepad++ installed you can right-click on files and click ‘Edit with Notepad++’. For example, if we open

and change line 100 from ‘if g_survivalDev then’ to ‘if true then’, we can activate devmode.

If you want to uninstall mods, go to your Steam library and right-click on Scrap Mechanic. Select ‘Properties’, then ‘local files’, and click ‘verify integrity of game files’.

Once the process is done, all game files will be restored to the original game files. This will remove all changes and all mods. Your save files, aka your worlds, will stay the same.

NOTE: Verifying the game files should work in most cases, but not always. In that case, you’d have to reinstall the game.

Before you start playing around with mods, you should backup your worlds (which you should do in general as Scrap Mechanic is still in early access).

Press the Windows key on your keyboard and R. This should open a run command window. Type in ‘%appdata%’ and press Enter.

Navigate to the ‘Axolot Games’ folder, then ‘Scrap Mechanic’, and ‘User’. Now you need to select the folder with your user id, which usually is the only folder.

If you open the ‘Save’ folder, you will find all of your creative world save files. The survival worlds are located in the ‘Survival’ folder. Copy the worlds you want to backup and save them in a backup folder or wherever you like. You can paste them back into the ‘Save’ folder later to play them.

If you want to see some cool mods, I’ve made a video about the top 10 survival mods.