For Steam Deck users who may only wish to use the Bethesda Mod Portal or who are not very experienced with modding Bethesda games, but who are looking for a generalized load order that should, hopefully, minimize conflicts.  Please note that this is not some exhaustive, definitive load order guide and I have no desire to create one. However, this brief overview should help you run a stable game, provided you understand what you're doing, and you know how to create patches specific to your load order.



1. Master Files
2. Framework & ESL Mods
3. Fast Start Mods (including SKK Fast Start Series, etc.)
4. Faction Overhaul Mods
5. AI Overhaul Mods
6. New Worldspace Mods
7. New Faction Mods
8. Vanilla Quest Edits (including Survival Mode, Workshops, Companion Overhauls, etc.)
9. Settlement Building Mods (including powered objects, assignable objects, decorations, etc.)
10. Settlement Building Mods (including new menus, pre-smm scripting, requires Settlement Menu Manager, etc.)
11. Gameplay Changing Mods (including Game Settings, Survival Mode, Perks, Spells, Value Tweaks, etc.)
12. New NPC Mods (including Pets and followers)
13. New NPC Mods (including Settlers and other types of NPCs)
14. Audio Mods (including Ambient Soundtrack, Combat Soundtrack, Radio Stations, etc.)
15. Visual Mods (including Weathers, Foliage, Textures, etc.)
16. Vanilla Settlement Mods (including Settlement Border Extensions, No Combat Borders, etc.)
17. Sorting Mods
18. HUD Mods (including Camera Tweaks, HUD Framework, FallUI, Scopes, Ini changes, etc.)
19. Character Model Replacers (including Player Character, NPCs, Creatures, etc.)
20. PIP-BOY Replacers
21. Map Mods (including Map Replacers, Colored Maps, etc.)
22. Weapons, Armor & Clothing Mods
23. Crafting Mods (including Crafting Frameworks, Crafting Benches, AWKCR, etc.)
24. New Settlement Mods
25. New Player Homes
26. New Quests and World Edits
27. Weapon, Armor & Clothing Frameworks or Overhauls (including Equilibrium, New Ammos, Unique Replacers, etc.)
28. Landscape Overhauls
29. Precombines (including Previsbines Repair Pack, Boston FPS Fix, etc.)
30. Gameplay Overhauls (including Sim Settlements, Damn Apocalypse, MAIM, Start Me Up, etc.)
31. Patches (including leveled list merges, value adjustments, etc.)

Note: Do not load anything which affects Precombines below #29 except for Precombine patches.


If you require additional guidance on manually adjusting your load orders, go checkout Load Order Dividers - Helpful Labels for Manual Sorting and drop them an endorsement. Here is my Plugins.txt if you wish to see an example of my Load Order.