The STALKER trilogy's promised mod support has come to Xbox consoles, and you're allowed to cheese achievements with it (2024)

What you need to know

• STALKER: Legends of the Zone Trilogy is a collection of the three original STALKER open world survival FPS games that released on Xbox and PlayStation consoles earlier this year.
• At launch, developer GSC Game World promised mod support via mod.io integration would come at a later date. Now, that mod support is here.
• By signing into mod.io in-game, players can download and install mods uploaded to mod.io's website by the community. Modders are free to change or alter animations, textures, models, in-game videos, and sounds.
• Notably, mods do not require internet access once installed, and don't disable achievements, either. There is a 1GB size limit on individual mods, though.

Players of GSC Game World's single player open world survival shooter series, STALKER, have enjoyed many excellent community-made mod projects on PC over the years — especially after the release of an open source version of its X-Ray Engine accelerated their development. Now, official mod support has come to the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the STALKER trilogy as well, enabling anyone to make mods for the games that fans can then download and install for free.

As it said it would when the STALKER: Legends of The Zone Trilogy shadow dropped on console earlier this year, GSC has partnered with mod.io — a platform that helps developers integrate mods into their games — to bring mod support to console. The way it works is simple: after someone makes a mod for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, STALKER: Clear Sky, or STALKER: Call of Pripyat, they can upload it to the mod.io website. Then, at the in-game main menu, players can sign in with their mod.io account and browse for mods to install.

The official modding FAQ covers questions you're likely to have and includes links to things like a guide on how to make mods, mod.io's terms and conditions, and GSC's STALKER end-user license agreement. The developers note that animations, textures, models, in-game videos, and sounds are all files that can be modified, though other file types like scripts, configs, and libraries are off-limits. Individual mods also can't be bigger than 1GB, so expect to see graphical enhancements come in pieces instead of massive comprehensive overhauls.

A quick skim through the FAQ reveals good news: you don't have to be online to use mods, so you don't have to worry about getting booted back to the main menu or something if you start having connection issues. You only need an internet connection when downloading the mods you want; once they're installed, they'll function whether you're on or offline.

Another interesting thing to know is that GSC has opted not to disable the STALKER trilogy's achievements when using mods, which stands in contrast to the way Bethesda handles mods for Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield. That means you've got carte blanche to use mods to cheese them, which I'm sure we'll see mods for soon. My money's on someone making a stash in the Rookie Village that spawns with one of every collectible artifact in it.

In case you're wondering, there aren't many mods up yet — PS5 players have access to a cool high-quality retexture for blind dog mutants in Shadow of Chernobyl, though — but I'm sure we'll start to see plenty of uploads hit mod.io's servers in the coming days and weeks. Personally, I'm most excited to see if fans will develop major visual enhancements that elevate the games to the presentation quality achievable with STALKER Anomaly, but I'm looking forward to gameplay overhauls and joke mods, too. I'm sure someone is going to put Thomas the Tank Engine somewhere in The Zone.

As a massive fan of the STALKER games, it's awesome to see GSC follow through on its promise to bring them mod support on console — and if you haven't played the trilogy yet, there's never been a better time to check it out. A bundle that includes all three games is just $7.19 on Fanatical right now if you're part of the PC crowd, and you can also get them for $27.99 on Xbox — a cool 30% off the $39.99 MSRP. Each individual STALKER game also has that discount in the event you'd only like to get one of them, by the way (Shadow of Chernobyl is what I'd recommend in that case).

There's also STALKER 2 coming in just a few months, which is the first new game in the series since Call of Pripyat's 2009 release almost 15 years ago. It'll follow up on the events of the first three games and take fans to back to its fictional spin on the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, complete with advanced graphics, deadlier gunplay, a new story, and more. I'm jealous that my colleague Zachary Boddy got to play it at Summer Game Fest (read their preview), but come September 5, I'll be donning a gas mask and diving right in. If you've got Xbox Game Pass, you can too, as it's launching on Microsoft's gaming service day one.