PC Modding
Preface
DISCLAIMER
By choosing to use mods, you understand that:
- You may experience problems that don't exist in the vanilla game. 99.9% of bugs, crashes, and lag are due to mods.
- Mods are subject to being broken by updates and that's normal - be patient and respectful when this happens, as modders are volunteers with real lives.
- Beat Games aren't purposefully trying to break mods. They wish to work on the codebase and sometimes this breaks mods, but they are not out to kill mods.
Do not attack the game developers for issues related to mods, and vice versa - modders and game developers are two separate groups. Just don't be a jerk ok.
STAY SAFE WHEN INSTALLING MODS
Beat Saber will NEVER ask you to run it as Administrator.
If you've downloaded and installed a mod and you get the User Account Control prompt, DO NOT click accept, and please report this. What you installed is a malicious mod!
The only approved case is when activating/deactivating OneClick™ Install in Mod Assistant. Administrator access is required to register the program with your computer to handle OneClick™ Install links.
If you're unsure if something you installed is malware or not, please ask someone in our discord.
Beat Saber natively supports custom songs, so if that's all you're looking for, you don't require more mods! It's a wise idea to install SongCore
though, as this mod expands upon the base game functionality to improve loading times and provide functionality for other mods like the in-game downloader, custom leaderboards, playlists, etc.
WARNING
This guide is for PC-modding on Windows.
If you have a Quest, see the Quest Modding page.
If you're on Linux, check out the Linux page
If you run into problems at any point, please head to the support page and see if you can identify what went wrong before asking in the Discord server. Chances are, your answer is on that page!
I watched a video tutorial on YouTube, but I got stuck/it didn't work. What gives?
We at BSMG strongly suggest against using video tutorials for modding. Often, we find they are outdated or contain a incomplete, erroneous, or straight up incorrect information.
Instead, you should follow the written guides here on the wiki or seek out help in the BSMG Discord.
NOTE
The latest moddable Beat Saber version for PC is 1.34.2
. You can also downgrade to 1.29.1
if you prefer.
Visit the Downgrading section on this page for more information.
Installers
Mod Assistant
THIS IS CURRENTLY THE RECOMMENDED MOD INSTALLER.
**Run the game at least once** before trying to mod the game! This applies to reinstalling your game too.
A simple Beat Saber Mod Installer similar to the mod manager, but with additional features such as mod removal and version checking! Get it on BSMG's GitHub
BSManager
**Make sure you own the game on Steam or Oculus (PCVR)** before trying to download Beat Saber!
An all-in-one tool that lets you easily manage BeatSaber versions, maps, mods, and even more. Get it on Zagrios' GitHub
BeatSaberModManager
**Run the game at least once** before trying to mod the game! This applies to reinstalling your game too.
Yet another mod installer for Beat Saber, heavily inspired by ModAssistant. It strives to look more visually appealing and support both Windows and Linux, while still being as feature-rich as ModAssistant. Get it on affederaffe's GitHub
How to get more songs
TIP
Most maps in the "Top All", "Rating", "Downloads" or "Plays" sort filters were created before good mapping practices were established. Try downloading songs released between late 2019 and now to get the best custom levels experience.
WARNING
It is a good idea to backup your CustomLevels
folder periodically as there is a small chance it will be reset if the game updates!
This folder is located in your game install: Beat Saber/Beat Saber_Data/CustomLevels
In-game Downloader
The BeatSaver Downloader
mod allows you to download maps in-game using the MORE SONGS
menu button on the MODS
menu screen. This pulls maps directly from BeatSaver
BeatSaver
BeatSaver is the master repository of custom songs made by the community. Many other tools and sites enhance the experience of downloading custom songs, but this site is where they are stored. To install songs downloaded from the site, unzip them into a folder and place it into Beat Saber/Beat Saber_Data/CustomLevels
. You can also use the in-game downloader mod, the OneClick™ Install feature of Mod Assistant or BSManager, or in the "maps" tab of BSManager.
To enable and use Mod Assistant's OneClick™ Install see the picture below:
To enable and use BSManager's OneClick™ Install see the picture below:
Beast Saber
Beast Saber (bsaber.com) is a site that tries to help make finding fantastic maps to play easier. It does this by categorizing the thousands of songs on BeatSaver and lets you sort by a song's genre and many other attribute tags. It also has a full social feature where players can review songs and comment on them. One of the most used features is the "Curator Recommended" feature where a team plays through most songs released each day and recommends the ones that stand out, letting you automatically download these in-game.
Song Management Apps
There are no working song management apps available at this time.
Playlists
You need to install the PlaylistManager mod.
Then you can either:
- Use the
Install Playlist
tool in the Options tab of Mod Assistant. - Place the playlist file into
Beat Saber/Playlists
, select it in-game, then hit download all songs.
You should see the playlist next to the Custom Levels album's in-game. The mod also supports managing playlists in-game.
Install Folder
Where is Beat Saber installed?
Default Location
Steam | C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Beat Saber\ |
Oculus | C:\Program Files\Oculus\Software\Software\hyperbolic-magnetism-beat-saber\ |
Other Locations
If you have moved your install folder to a different drive, it might be in the location below. Replace the drive letter F
with the drive your game is installed on.
Steam | F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Beat Saber\ |
Oculus | F:\Oculus\Software\Software\hyperbolic-magnetism-beat-saber\ |
Manual Installation
A mod installer is the recommended way to install mods. See the section above. If you have patched the game and just need to install mods that are not available in the installer, skip to step 4.
STAY SAFE WHEN INSTALLING MODS
Modding your game with unverified mods such as mods found in the #pc-mods
channel comes with risks, including the possibility for malicious software that acts like a regular mod.
Beat Saber will NEVER ask you to run it as Administrator.
If you've downloaded and installed a mod and you get the User Account Control prompt, DO NOT click accept, and please report this. If you're unsure if something you installed is malware or not, please ask someone in our discord.
Run the game at least once before trying to mod the game! This applies to reinstalling your game too.
Install BSIPA
- Download BSIPA.
- Navigate to your install folder. and extract the contents of BSIPA into it.
- Double click IPA.exe to patch the game. Any mods in the
Plugins
folder will now be loaded when starting the game. If there are errors, you probably didn't follow step 2 correctly.
Install Mods
- Download the mod(s) you wish to install, whether it be from GitHub, the BSMG Discord
#pc-mods
channel, BeatMods or other sources. Make sure to download any dependencies required by the mod. - Some mods have installation instructions, some don't. Generally you can just drag and drop the zip contents into your beat saber install folder, and the files should go into the corresponding folders.
Downgrading
Check #modding-announcements
in BSMG to see if the latest version is moddable. If it is not, you can follow these tutorials to downgrade to a moddable version.
Game Managers
Click on these links corresponding to where you own the game to see the tutorials.
- For Steam you can use either:
- For Oculus Store you can use either:
Legacy Branch
If you want to downgrade to 1.29.1
you can use the legacy branch method.
Steam Users
- Open ModAssistant go to the options tab and Uninstall BSIPA
- If you have 1.30+ mods installed, press the Remove All Mods button instead.
- Right click Beat Saber in the game library
- Select Properties
- Select Betas in the window
- Select the
legacy1.29.1_unity_ver2019.4.28f1 - pre unity upgrade build
- Click ok and exit the window
- Let the download complete then run the game once
- Follow the regular modding process
Oculus Store Users
- Open ModAssistant go to the options tab and Uninstall BSIPA
- If you have 1.30+ mods installed, press the Remove All Mods button instead.
- Go to the Beat Saber store page
- Scroll down to
Versions + Release Notes
- Click on the word
(LIVE)
next to the current version number - Select the
legacy1.29.1_unity_ver2019.4.28f1: 1.29.1_4575554838
option - Let the download complete and run the game once
- Follow the regular modding process
How to uninstall mods
Either remove the .dll
file from the Plugins
folder, or click the Uninstall
button in Mod Assistant or BSManager (after selecting your version, go to the 'Mods' tab).
Where to go from here
- Grips and Tricks
- Making Beatmaps
- Custom Sabers
- Custom Avatars
- Custom Platforms
- Play Customs in Multiplayer
- Making Mods
Have questions?
Visit the support channels in the BSMG Discord!