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Load Order

This section tells you how to sort your mods correctly.

Sorting is important

After you've installed the mods from the previous sections, you now need to sort your load order. The load order is a list that tells the game in which order it should load esp/esm/esl plugins. Those plugins contain changes to vanilla game objects (like quests, items) or add new objects. Some plugins depend on other plugins, or need to overwrite changes from other plugins (="winning conflicts"). That is why sorting your load order is important, otherwise features from mods will break, or you will encounter issues like crashes, fps issues and bugs.

This section provides information on how to sort your load order regarding FROST and the mods featured in this guide, but also for mods which are not featured in this guide. We do not recommend to use LOOT or any other automatic load order sorting tool, as they tend to sort mods wrong (especially FROST mods).

Mods without plugins

Not all mods have an esm/esp/esl plugin. Certain mods that are part of the guide, like Buffout 4, don't have a plugin.

How to sort your mods in your mod manager

The scope of the guide does not include detailed instructions about how to use your mod manager. There are other resources online for that. This is only a rough overview. If you are already familiar with how to do this, skip this subsection.

Expand me if you need to know more.

MO2 Panes If you want more details, read this MO2 guide

  • Left Pane

    The left pane contains the mods and mod separators you've installed.

    Sort the separators and the mods inside them in the same order as they have been featured in this guide.

    To sort them, you can simply drag & drop the mods and separators around.

  • Right Pane

    The right pane has a "plugins" section. It contains the esm/esp/esl plugins from the mods from this guide.

    They reflect the content of your loadorder.txt and plugins.txt files, which tell the game how to load your plugins.

    To sort them, you can simply drag&drop the plugins around in the list.

I am not using Vortex, and I don't recommend using it. If you followed this guide and decided to use Vortex, and don't know how to sort your load order in it, you should have decided to use MO2 instead (bummer).

I can not offer you much help. There are videos like this video from Gopher that talk about the topic, and the Nexusmods Discord where you might be able to find additional help and resources.

Load Order Structure

This load order structure applies to the mods featured in this guide, as well as all other mods that you can find online.

1. Bethesda Files

All Bethesda main files. Make sure that you don't have DLCUltraHighResolution.esm here.

  • Fallout4.esm
  • DLCRobot.esm
  • DLCworkshop01.esm
  • DLCCoast.esm
  • DLCworkshop02.esm
  • DLCworkshop03.esm
  • DLCNukaWorld.esm

2. Master files

Put all .esm files and .esm flagged .esp files here

  • PANPC.esm
  • HUDFramework.esm
  • Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
  • ...

3. Frost Unrelated Mods I

Put all mods that are unrelated to FROST and don't need a frost patch here. Weather should not be placed here though, they need to be loaded later if possible.

  • GCM_DLC_Automatron.esl
  • GCM_DLC_Far_Harbor.esl
  • GCM.esp
  • SCM.esp
  • Immersive HUD.esp
  • M8rDisablePipboyEffects.esp (this is an optional plugin from FallUI Inventory)
  • ...

4. Frost Unrelated Mods II

Put all mods here that need a patch for Frost. Load their frost patches at the section marked down below!. Mods that belong here are Lighting Mods, Weapon Mods, Armor Mods, Creature Mods, Mods that edit leveled lists, ...

  • UltraInteriorLighting.esp
  • UltraExteriorLighting.esp
  • ...

5. Frost Main Files

The following four plugins must be in this exact order!

  • FROST.esp
  • RedsFrostFixes.esp
  • aFrostMod.esp
  • FROST - UFO4P Patch.esp

6. Other Frost Mods

Put all other FROST standalone mods here.

  • RedsFrostBlurRemoval.esp (Optional File)
  • RedsFrostExplosionEffects.esp (Optional File)
  • FROST - It Snowed.esp
  • Frost-Snowy-Weathers.esp
  • FROST - LootableCars.esp
  • FROST_LLCars_Intermediate.esp (Optional File)
  • FROST_LLCars_Realistic.esp (Optional File)
  • FROST_LLCars_Scarcity.esp (Optional File)
  • FROST - AccessibleMedTekResearch.esp
  • FROST - AccessibleFortStrong.esp
  • FROST - AccessibleArcJet.esp
  • FROST - AccessibleFortHagen.esp
  • FROST - SuperMutantLocations.esp
  • FROST - Hunkered Down.esp
  • FROST - Hunkered Down-Settlements.esp
  • FROST Downtown Workbenches.esp
  • ...

7. Frost Patches

Put all mods here that patch a certain mod for FROST.

  • PANPC FROST Patch.esp
  • RedsFrostCampsitePatch.esp
  • RedsFrostSCM.esp
  • ...

8. Weather Mods

Weather mods need to be loaded here.

Notes

  • The Automatic Load Order checker below does not know which mods are weather mods, and therefore might complain. You can ignore the load order checker in such cases. Certain Weather mods are esm files and can't be loaded here. In that case they need to be loaded at the top of the load order (see rule 1), and require a patch for FROST that needs to be loaded here.
  • NACX does not need a patch for FROST anymore and needs to be loaded at the top of the load order

9. Frost Cell Fixes (FCF)

No other files should come after the FCF .esp files, except very special mods (see rule 10). If you don't follow these rules, bad things will happen! The FCF_Main.esp and FCF_Previsibines.esp must come first, and in the same order as below. After those two plugins all other FCF plugins must be loaded.

  • FCF_Main.esp
  • FCF_Previsibines.esp
  • (Additional FCF files for patching certain mods)
  • FCF_Hotfix.esp (only if there is a Hotfix for FCF)
  • ...

10. Exceptions to Rule 9

If you use the following plugins, they need to be loaded after FCF. Keep in mind that this list is not complete. These mods either have speciallcell headers that can be safely loaded after FCF, or provide their own precombines/previs data which needs to overwrite FCF. If you use a sorting mod, make sure to let it generate a sorting plugin for your load order specifically, and load it after all other plugins.

  • PLI_USAF_Satellite_Station_Olivia.esp
  • PLI_USAF_Olivia FROSTified.esp
  • Vivid Waters.esp
  • Synthesis.esp
  • SatelliteWorldMap.esp
  • FOLIP - Before Generation.esp
  • (Auto-Generated Item Sorting Mod plugin)

Example Load Order

This load order contains most mods from this guide. Your load order should look similar. Make sure to follow the sorting rules from above, and to use the Automatic Load Order checker from below.

Expand me if you want to see the example load order 
# This file was automatically generated by Mod Organizer.
Fallout4.esm
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCworkshop02.esm
DLCworkshop03.esm
DLCNukaWorld.esm
PANPC.esm
HUDFramework.esm
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
GCM_DLC_Automatron.esl
GCM_DLC_Far_Harbor.esl
GCM.esp
SCM.esp
Immersive HUD.esp
M8rDisablePipboyEffects.esp
UltraInteriorLighting.esp
UltraExteriorLighting.esp
Campsite.esp
FROST.esp
RedsFrostFixes.esp
aFrostMod.esp
FROST - UFO4P Patch.esp
FROST - It Snowed.esp
RedsFrostBlurRemoval.esp
RedsFrostExplosionEffects.esp
FROST - LootableCars.esp
FROST_LLCars_Scarcity.esp
FROST - AccessibleMedTekResearch.esp
FROST - AccessibleFortStrong.esp
FROST - AccessibleArcJet.esp
FROST - AccessibleFortHagen.esp
FROST - SuperMutantLocations.esp
FROST - Hunkered Down.esp
FROST - Hunkered Down-Settlements.esp
FROST Downtown Workbenches.esp
PANPC FROST Patch.esp
RedsFrostCampsitePatch.esp
RedsFrostSCM.esp
FCF_Main.esp
FCF_Previsibines.esp
FCF_Hotfix.esp

Automatic Load Order Checker

The Automatic Load Order Checker can detect if you

  • use mods that are incompatible with FROST
  • use mods that are outdated or broken
  • forgot to install a required mod from this guide
  • sorted your mods correctly

Copy and paste the content of your loadorder.txt into this text field, and press the button. Make sure that you copy all the content of your load order into the text field.

Info

The Automatic Load Order checker is especially useful if you add mods from outside of this guide or from the Additional Mods section.

How to find your loadorder.txt

If you use MO2, you can find your loadorder.txt here:

MO2 LO location

If you use Vortex, you can find your loadorder.txt here:

Vortex LO location

Alternatively, you can find your loadorder.txt in C:/Users/[YourUsername]/AppData/Local/Fallout4

A Small Warning

The load order checker is not perfect, it won't find every problem, and in rare cases it sometimes complains when it should not. However, it works well enough and will definitely help you a lot if something is really wrong. If you need help, visit the FROST Discord Server .

The load order checker is not smart enough to check if you use a mod that requires a patch for FROST.

Put the content of your load order here!

Check Load Order

Note: If you sorted your load order, you can move on to the next section.