How to Install Mods on Your Enshrouded Server

How Enshrouded mods work

Enshrouded has no official mod support. Its community mod loader is EML (the Enshrouded Mod Loader). EML does not run inside the game: before the server starts, it applies your mods to a copy of the game's data files, and the server then starts with the modded data.

Mods for it are folders, or .zip files, that contain a mod.json, and they live in your server's mods folder. Most are published on Nexus Mods.

Which mods actually work

This is the question worth answering before you go shopping, because Nexus has mods of both kinds and only one of them works on a dedicated server.

EML is a data patcher, not a code loader. It rewrites the game's own data before the server starts, and then gets out of the way — it is not running while anybody is playing. Its mod format has a slot for code that runs at runtime, but that slot is not implemented in the version the platform pins, and loading native code is switched off.

So:

If a mod's page talks about scripts, plugins, hooks or a DLL, it is the second kind and it will not do anything on your server. If it talks about editing values, it is the first kind.

Server-side or client-side? Read the mod's own page: authors usually say. A data mod that changes something the server owns — chest sizes, stack sizes, recipes — generally needs installing only on the server, and your players need nothing. A mod that changes what a player sees needs to be on their machine. If the page does not say, assume your players need it too and test with one person before announcing it.

Turning EML on

Open Mods in your server's sidebar. Above the mod lists is a panel for the mod loader, EML, marked Installed or Not installed. Press Install EML to switch it on for this server. Until it is installed, no mod of yours is applied, even one that is in the mods folder. As the panel says, it is "Applied at server start": installing or removing EML takes effect at the next restart.

You do not have to do this first: when you install a mod from the marketplace and EML is not on the server yet, GameGrid installs EML with it, and the install message says so, as long as your account is allowed to install EML itself (the same permission the Install EML button needs). If your account is not, the mod still installs, and the message tells you that an account owner or administrator can install EML at the top of the Mods page. If EML could not be installed, the message says the mod will not load until it is, and the Install button above does the rest.

Uninstall switches it off again (after a confirmation), and your own mods are no longer applied; Reinstall puts a fresh copy in place. GameGrid also uses EML itself, with no action from you, for the Inventory & Storage settings (bigger stacks, backpacks and storage chests); those keep working whether or not you installed EML here. See Bigger Stacks, Backpacks and Chests.

GameGrid keeps its own copy of EML and checks it before every use, so it cannot be swapped for a different program.

Installing mods

From the Mods page. Open the Browse marketplaces tab, search Nexus Mods, press + on a mod and choose the file that matches your server. The mod is put in your mods folder. If the marketplace is marked "browse only" on your server, install by hand instead.

By hand. Download the mod from its page on your own computer, then upload it into the mods folder: a mod's folder, or its .zip, as the mod's author ships it. Files takes uploads of up to 1.4 MB a file; for anything bigger, use FTP or SFTP with the details on the File Access (FTP/SFTP) card of your Overview.

Restart the server after installing, disabling or removing a mod. Mods are applied as the server starts, so nothing changes on a running server.

Whether your players need the same mod in their own game depends on the mod. Read its page on Nexus Mods before you install it, and tell your players if they need it.

Disabling and removing mods

The Installed tab lists your mods. Disable turns a mod off without deleting it, and Enable turns it back on; this is the quickest way to find out whether one mod is causing a problem. Remove deletes it from your server. Restart afterwards.

A disabled mod is still on the server (it is held aside for the run, not thrown away), so enabling it again needs nothing more than a restart. That makes finding a bad mod cheap: disable half, restart, see which half.

If a mod fails

Every start begins from the game's original, unmodded data, and the mods are applied to that. So a mod you remove or disable is really gone at the next start, and a game update gives the mods a clean, current copy to work on.

If a mod cannot be applied (a broken mod, or one made for a different game version), your server still starts, and your Inventory & Storage settings are still applied. When you have several mods and the failure names one of them, GameGrid leaves out only that mod and applies the others; if it is your only mod, if the log does not name one, or if the others cannot be applied either, the server starts without your mods. The Console has a [GameGrid] line saying whether mods were applied (and which mod was left out), and the reason is written to logs/mod-framework.log, which you can open in Files. EML stops at the first mod that fails, and the log names it: disable that mod or look for a version made for this game build, then restart.

Mods can break when Enshrouded updates. If the server starts without mods after a game update, check each mod's page for a version that matches. See Enshrouded Game Updates on GameGrid.

Backups

A GameGrid backup includes your mods folder, so restoring one puts your mods back with your world and settings. It is still worth keeping your own copy of any mod you uploaded by hand. See Enshrouded Saves, Backups and Restore.

Where to go next

• Bigger Stacks, Backpacks and Chests — no mod needed
• Files and FTP on Your Enshrouded Server
• Mods Guide — the Mods page on every game