Running ME Mod Manager on Steam Deck

This guide walks through how to use Proton and Lutris to successfully install mods for Mass Effect Legendary Edition on your Steam Deck.

The key aspects here are:

• Using a Steam-Generated Prefix
  
• Using Lutris to manage your startup options
  
• Using linked folders to get around file visibility issues

While this guide is for Mass Effect, the core premise should work for any companion program to a Steam game running on Proton.

Requirements

Running ME Mod Manager on your Steam Deck is not hard - but it will require some setup.

Requirements:

• A Steam Deck in Desktop Mode
  
• Lutris (Install from the Discover Store)[lutris.net]
  
• Mass Effect Legendary Edition
  
• Proton

Also helpful is being able to dock your deck to a monitor/keyboard/mouse, but this is not strictly required.

Setting up your Prefix

Proton (and WINE, on which Proton is based) uses "prefixes" (a collection of configuration files) to tell it how to run Windows software on Linux. We'll be copying the Prefix Steam auto-generates for Mass Effect and making some small tweaks.

Step 1: Find your Mass Effect Prefix

You should find your prefix in

/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/1328670/

13328670 is the Steam Game ID for Mass Effect Legendary Edition - if you are using this for a different game, the ID will be different.

This is what the folder contents should look like:

Step 2: Make a copy

What you will want to do is copy that entire folder somewhere else - I copied it to

/home/deck/Desktop/LEPfx/

but anywhere should work.

It is very important to make a copy! We will be making changes to these files/folders and if you don't make a copy, you will break your Legendary Edition Install

Step 3: Install Mod Manager to your new Prefix

You'll want to download the Mod Manager[www.nexusmods.com] and extract it into the prefix you just created.

I put it into

/home/deck/Desktop/LEPfx/drive_c/Program Files/

However, anywhere in the drive_c folder should be fine.

Lutris Part 1: Initial Setup & Extracting the Executable

In this stage, we'll be extracting the executable and setting up our Lutris profile.

If you're able to extract the executable some other way, simply update your references in this step to ME3TweaksModManager.exe - you still need to set up Lutris and so on as described here.

Step 1: Starting Lutris in Proton Mode

By default, Lutris uses WINE and not Proton. We'll want to start Lutris from the command line:

Open up the console and input

LUTRIS_ENABLE_PROTON=1 flatpak run net.lutris.Lutris

Step 2: Adding in the Mass Effect Mod Manager

Here we'll be doing the setup for the application. Open up Lutris and click the plus sign in the top left.

From there, add a locally installed game:

Configure the Game Info Panel:

You can name it whatever you want - the key thing here is to make sure you selece WINE.

Configure the Game Options:

These are more important - make sure you:

• Designate the executable we saved earlier
  
• Use the new prefix we created

Set your runner options

Make sure you select Proton as the Runner. I also deactivated all the visual settings and set the resolution manually because I was running into issues with flickering/etc - YMMV. You also don't need the Anti-Cheat so you can disable those.

All other settings we left at the defaults. Hit save and you should see your game in Lutris.

Step 3: Extracting the Executable

Start the game you just created:

After a second, you should see the extraction dialogue pop up:
You'll want to browse to a new location for the executable - I used Program Files (where we have the current exe) but it can be anywhere.

When you're done, hit OK and let it extract. When you're done, a Windows Explorer window should show up:

You're done extracting! Close the window and proceed to the next step

Lutris Part 2: Running the Mod Manager

This part is easy - we'll be using the same configuration for the Mod Manager itself.

Step 1: Changing the exe path

Click on the game we created earlier and hit "Configure". We'll want to be changing the executable path to the new extracted exe.

For me, the new path is

/home/deck/Desktop/LEPfx/pfx/drive_c/Program Files/ME3TweaksModManager/ME3TweaksModManager.exe

It should be the same for you unless you saved things somewhere else.

This is the only change - hit save when you're done.

(Optional) Step 2: Creating a Desktop Shortcut

While not strictly required, it is helpful to create a desktop shortcut for your game so you don't have to boot up Lutris from the command line every time.

Right click on the game we created and hit "Create Desktop Shortcut". This should create a shortcut on your desktop.

We need to add a command line argument to use Proton instead of WINE. Right click on the shortcut you just created, open up the properties and go to application.


You'll need to add the same argument as before:

LUTRIS_ENABLE_PROTON=1

The full argument in the Arguments field should be something like:

LUTRIS_ENABLE_PROTON=1 LUTRIS_SKIP_INIT=1 flatpak run net.lutris.Lutris lutris:rungameid/1

Step 2: Booting up the Manager!

Hit play on your game again. After a few seconds, you should see the manager pop up!

If it asks to update, don't let it - I haven't tested, but it will probably break.

You're basically done! Just some setup and you'll be ready to install some mods

Mod Manager Setup

All that remains now is to tell the mod manager where to find your game.

Step 1: Creating non-hidden symlink

Your Legendary Edition Binaries should be in a hidden folder

/home/deck/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/Mass Effect Legendary Edition/Game/

This is a problem - we can't browse to hidden folders from the mod manager!

We'll need to do a little hack: Open up the console and type in

ln -s /home/deck/.steam ~/Desktop/steamdir

This should create a link to the directory on your desktop.

Step 2: Linking Game EXE

Click "Add Target" in the mod manager and browse through the folder you just created - the path should be

/home/deck/Desktop/steamdir/steam/steamapps/common/Mass Effect Legendary Edition/Game/

(Optional) Step 3: Backing up your game

You should probably back up your game. The process here is identical to windows.

You can save it anywhere you want - however, I would recommend you save it on the deck's SD card because the backup can be quite large. The SD card should show up as a lettered drive in the explorer window (For me it was E)

Step 3: Installing your first Mod

You can't drag and drop the mods - you'll need to manually add them. You can find that option in Mod Management > Import Mod > Import Mod from .7z/.rar/.zip/.exe/.me2mod

You can import mods from anywhere on your system - for example, I just save mine in Downloads, which can be found at

/home/deck/Downloads

From there, the process is identical to windows -just follow the prompts.

And you're done! Manager is set up.

Happy modding!

Playing Your Modded Game

When you're ready to play, launch the game normally from Steam (desktop mode or gaming mode, doesn't matter)

All of your changes will carry over.

You shouldn't launch the game from the manager - it might work, but I wouldn't count on it. Launch from Steam to avoid headaches.

Enjoy your newly modded game!

[Strong Arms McArms]

Thank you *so* much for making this guide, I doubt I would have been able to get mods working without it!

[George Kaplan (skyrim forever)]

Did anyone manage to get the trilogy save editor working? says it needs c++

[JinxSwe]

Thank you for this. How ever most mods has been updated to Me3Tweaks 9.0. 9.0 Has problem running on lutris.


What I did to make it work.
Follow the guide till you have installed me3tweaks (9.0).
Then just add it to steam in desktop mode.
In desktop mode via steam start me3tweaks and install mods.
Then start the game in gamemode

[murla]

The binary of ME3TweaksModManagerExtractor_<VERSION>.exe can be extracted via simple:

7z x ME3TweaksModManagerExtractor_*.exe

[Ykara]

I got version 9 running with Wine 9.19 (staging branch). So far no problems.

[Remogeus]

@TheRedBaron - that is due to change for version 9.0, which was updated to use .NET 8 - I don't know if anyone was able to run this under Linux after this change, as the crash is due to application not being able to use it in Wine, even with library overrides

[TheRedBaron]

Ran into an issue: did everything according to the guide but the manager won't boot up. It says its running for about five seconds before crashing without any windows opening.

[Makz]

Thank you for this guide. Seems like everyhing working great so far on my linux system (playing ME3 right now and wanted some mods).

Also maybe someone will find these useful: better to install lutris from flatpak (it simplier, otherwise you'll need to install additional dependencies for Wine), use ME3Tweaks Mod Manager 8.2.4 (new version 9.0 crashed when I tried to run it). Also mod manager found out game folder automatically, maybe because I have games on other mounted drive and there are no hidden dirs.

[Lady of Terror]

AngelicGhoul - I've been able to play MELE with mods done via this method on my Steam Deck in both Desktop & Gaming Mode (using BT keyboard and mouse), as the mods are loaded when the game is launched and launching with ME3Tweaks Mod Manager just bypasses the stock MELE Launcher under Windows.

[AngelicGhoul]

will i be able to launch the game from the gaming mode or do i need to switch to desktop everytime