Starfield: Shattered Space does not break your modlist, after all

Modded games tend to fall apart whenever the developer pushes an official update to them, but I am thrilled to announce that this is not the case with Starfield. Specifically, the release of Shattered Space and its accompanying patch worked surprisingly flawlessly, and our mods are mostly safe.

The jury is still out on whether Starfield: Shattered Space is some of Bethesda’s finest work yet. I find it roughly comparable to prior Bethesda mainline DLCs such as Dragonborn and Far Harbor, though a tad more disappointing in some key ways. The flip side of the coin, though, is that Shattered Space does not seem to break the vast majority of mods for Starfield, and even the legendary Script Extender has already been updated to support it.

Your Starfield modlist is safe with Shattered Space, and the Script Extender has already been updated

As is usually the case with any other first-party Bethesda RPG, it doesn’t take long before it becomes unthinkable to play them without mods. I myself enjoy systemic revamps such as Bedlam’s dungeon randomization features, while others might be more keen on upgrading the game with a whole assortment of new gear, vehicle mods, graphics upgrades, or even Star Wars-themed paraphernalia. Who am I to judge?

The obvious expectation was that our modded builds of Starfield would basically be out of the picture for a little while until all the mods get updated and tweaked to accommodate Shattered Space. Imagine my surprise, then, when I managed to load into the game basically minutes after the DLC’s release.

For better or for worse, Starfield‘s new Shattered Space is almost entirely separate from the rest of the game. It adds a reasonable chunk of new stuff, sure, but it doesn’t tap into Starfield‘s core progression and gameplay systems. In turn, this means Shattered Space is functionally a mod in all the ways that matter and should behave nicely for most users.

Very, very few mods needed updates outside of the Script Extender. I’m not running an overly hefty modlist, granted, as I’ve got “only” a few dozen mods installed at this time, but other people are happily reporting experiences that mirror mine.

In case you missed the news, the update that dropped alongside Shattered Space is a monumental achievement in its own right. Specifically, it resolves a whole bunch of problems with Starfield in general, including the infamous mod limit that has been in place from launch day onwards. In practice, this means we no longer have to keep our modlists lean just to prevent the game from keeling over and crashing, which is phenomenal stuff. Now, if only Shattered Space had added some new ship-building content, I would’ve been happy.