Play Starfield with mods and wondering why your achievements aren’t popping? Then one of the game’s latest mods might interest you.
Starfield on PC actually blocks the unlocking of achievements if your save has mods enabled. Yes, even the one that changes your flashlight to Todd Howard’s face. This isn’t an entirely new thing for Bethesda Game Studios; the developer also blocked achievements when it added mod support for Skyrim and Fallout 4 on console.
Thankfully, enterprising modders have banded together to come up with workarounds. In Starfield’s early access phase, NexusMods user brunph uploaded the Achievement Enabler mod to the website. However, since the game’s official, full launch on September 5, an updated tool had to be developed.
That’s where fellow user shad0wshayd3 comes in, who created the Baka Achievement Enabler, which user RennieBoy (who provided instructions on how to get the mod working) explains should work with the launch version of Starfield.
“shad0wshady3’s mod obviously enables achievements when using console commands,” RennieBoy explains, “also disables the annoying pop-up box when using the console and if you remove the mod or it ends up breaking due to future updates to the game your saves will stay as unmodded saves, meaning they won’t revert back to being modded and blocking achievements on saves that you may have put blood sweat and tears into!”
If you’re keen to use mods and unlock achievements simultaneously, then, the Baka Achievement Enabler mod is probably your best bet. And while Bethesda’s achievement block seems a little heavy-handed, I can understand why the developer would want to place such a restriction. This mainly stems from the fact that there are plenty of mods out there that essentially act as cheats, giving players access to a variety of late-game items early on or custom equipment with absurdly high stats, for example. But for the many players who simply want to improve the game’s visuals and performance via mods, the block can seem somewhat excessive.
At least now, with a bit of extra work, players can continue earning achievements with their modded Starfield saves – for now.
Starfield is one of the best RPGs of the year and if you have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, it’s well worth checking out along with our other picks for the best Xbox Game Pass games.