Deadlock Mod Manager: what it does and how to set it up

Deadlock Mod Manager is a free, open-source desktop app that installs and manages mods for Valve’s Deadlock. It browses the GameBanana catalog, installs a mod in a few clicks, and turns mods on and off without you copying files into the game folder by hand. It runs on Windows and Linux.

This page describes the manager from its GitHub repository, its release notes and its documentation at docs.deadlockmods.app, all read on October 20, 2026. Nobody here has installed it or played Deadlock with it. Where the project’s own pages disagree with each other, this page says so.

What Deadlock Mod Manager does

The README calls it “a mod manager for the Valve game Deadlock, built with Tauri, React, and TypeScript”. The project states that it is not affiliated with Valve. Its feature list:

• Mods Store: browse the GameBanana catalog of mods, sounds, maps and works in progress, with search, hero and category filters, favorites and sorting.
• One-click installs: download a mod, pick its files or variants, and pause, resume or retry the download. You can import local mod files too.
• Mods Library: enable, disable, reorder, update and reinstall mods, with conflict warnings and backups.
• Hero Skins: pick the active skin for each hero, and toggle sounds and other hero mods separately.
• Profiles: keep separate mod setups and share one with friends through a Profile ID.
• Mod Foundry: recolor a hero skin, swap cards and sounds, and export the result as a VPK.
• Customization: a crosshair editor, an autoexec editor with a command library, and themes for the app itself.
• Server Browser and Stats: find community servers, with required maps and addons checked before you join, and view match, hero and item stats.

Several of these sit behind switches under Settings → Experimental. Custom Maps, Server Browser and Performance Configs are off by default on a fresh setup, and the other switches are on. Experimental features may change between releases.

How mods load in Deadlock

No Valve page documents mod support for Deadlock as of October 20, 2026. The Steam store page describes Deadlock as “a multiplayer game in early development” and lists the release date as “To be announced”.

Deadlock mods are VPK files. The game’s gameinfo.gi file “controls which content folders are loaded”, and the manager adjusts it for modded and vanilla launches. Mods go “directly into your Deadlock game directory”, in addons and profile folders, while the downloaded archives stay in local app data.

Unlike Mod Organizer 2, it writes into the game folder. Our Mod Organizer 2 review explains how MO2 keeps Skyrim mods out of it instead.

Load order matters when two mods replace the same file. In Mods Library, choose Change Mods Order, drag the entries and save. Load order decides which replacement wins, but conflicting mods may still fail to work together.

Two buttons start the game: Launch modded uses your active setup, and Launch without mods skips it. If you edited gameinfo.gi by hand, keep a copy before you reset it or run Steam’s Verify integrity of game files.

Download and platforms

The stable release on October 20, 2026 is 1.1.0, published on August 1, 2026. Its assets include a Windows setup .exe, a .deb, an .rpm and two Flatpak bundles, one regular and one CEF. A nightly channel ships newer builds; the latest on October 20, 2026 was 2.0.0-nightly.20261019.

Caveats from the installation guide:

• Winget updates are “a work in progress”, because Microsoft takes a while to approve new versions.
• APT packages are built on Ubuntu 24.04. Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12 may install them but fail to start.
• Some releases include a CEF build, which bundles Chromium instead of the system webview. For a slow or laggy app, especially on Linux, the guide suggests the CEF build.
• A portable Windows executable is described, but the 1.1.0 asset list has no portable file, so look for it on newer releases.

Deadlock Mod Manager on Linux

Linux support is “provided on a best-effort basis”, in the project’s own words. The README warns that you may hit packaging issues, missing dependencies or platform-specific bugs, and asks Linux users to help. For a Steam Deck, the troubleshooting guide covers a Flatpak crash when you pick the game folder: grant the Flatpak access to your Steam library with Flatseal or flatpak override. You do that in Desktop Mode, which our guide to Steam Deck mods explains.

Stable or nightly

Stable is the default channel, and its builds are signed with the production code-signing policy. The README credits SignPath Foundation for free code signing on Windows. Nightly builds use a test signing policy, so Windows SmartScreen may warn the first time you run one. To switch, open Settings, find Update Channel under Application, select Nightly and restart. Do not run two builds against the same game install.

Install and add your first mod

1. Install the manager and start it. It tries to detect your Deadlock installation.
2. Check the detected game path. If it is wrong, browse to the game folder. You can change it later under Settings → Game.
3. Review any existing addons and your network settings, then choose your analytics preference.
4. Open Mods Store, pick a mod, and read its description, requirements and files.
5. Choose Download Mod and select the files you want.
6. Enable the mod in Mods Library. Downloaded mods stay disabled until you enable them.
7. Choose Launch modded. If Deadlock was already running when you changed files, restart it.

If you already have mods in the game folder, choose Analyze Local Addons in Mods Library. The manager tries to match those files with catalog entries.

Is Deadlock Mod Manager safe?

The project answers “Yes, Deadlock Mod Manager is completely safe” in its FAQ, and points to its public source code. It also suggests scanning downloads with VirusTotal if you have concerns. Treat that as the developers’ own statement, not an independent audit. You can check:

• Source and licence. The code is on GitHub. The repository’s LICENSE.md is the GNU GPL v3; the FAQ still says “MIT License”, so the docs are out of step with the repository.
• Your Steam login. The optional Match Data Sharing feature reads the Steam auto-login token already stored on your PC to fetch your own match history. According to the Servers and Stats page, the token goes only to Steam, and the app sends only match IDs and salts to deadlock-api. The same page warns that some antivirus software may flag the app for reading that token.
• Is it on by default? The pages disagree. The 1.1.0 release notes call it “opt-in”, and the Servers and Stats page says it is “off by default”. The FAQ and Settings pages say it is on by default. After you install, check Settings → Privacy → Match Data Sharing. A separate Matchdata Ingest Tool setting sits under Application.
• The docs themselves. The documentation site says it is a work in progress and that much of it was written with the help of Cursor AI.

Can mods get you banned?

Valve has not published a mod policy for Deadlock on its own pages as of October 20, 2026. The manager’s FAQ claims that Deadlock “currently allows client-side modifications that don’t affect gameplay balance”. It adds that gameplay mods “may be restricted” and that you should check Valve’s current policy. That is the project’s reading, not a Valve statement.

One related detail comes from the Customization page: Deadlock’s matchmaking error lists several gameinfo.gi sections where the game does not support changes. The manager’s experimental Performance configs leave edits to those engine sections out unless you choose Include for a config.

Deadlock Mod Manager not working

The troubleshooting guide covers the common failures:

• Game not found. Install Deadlock through Steam and launch it once. Then check every Steam library folder for steamapps/common/Deadlock.
• “Access is denied. (os error 5)”. The manager cannot write its files. Clear the read-only flag on gameinfo.gi or the addons folder.
• Grey window on Linux with NVIDIA. For the Flatpak, the guide gives a community workaround that sets WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1.
• Downloads fail. Check your connection, firewall and GameBanana itself. The installation guide notes that players in some regions, including Brazil, China, Iran, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, may need a VPN to reach mod downloads.

Mods broken after a Deadlock update

A game patch can break mods that worked the day before. The fixing-mods page describes a repair check: after each Deadlock update, the manager compares installed mods with your game files. Where it knows a verified fix, it writes the fixed resources to a separate local layer and never edits the mod’s own files. Badges such as Can be fixed and Needs an update for this patch show the result in Mods Library.

The check targets the Paint the Town update of October 16, 2026, which moved the camera points on every hero. Stable 1.1.0 dates from August 1, 2026, and the October 19, 2026 nightly notes list work on these repairs. So the feature is in nightly builds, not in 1.1.0.

If you do not know which mod is at fault, use Find a broken mod in the Mods Library menu. It turns mods off in rounds while you launch the game and report back: at most 6 launches for 12 mods, and at most 9 for 100.

Mods from Nexus Mods and other sites

The built-in store reads GameBanana, and the documentation does not mention Nexus Mods. To add a mod from another site, choose Add Local Mod in Mods Library and drop in a .vpk, .zip, .rar or .7z. The manager does not check local mods for updates, so keep your own copy of the source files.

Two other routes exist. DeadlockForge, a separate community workshop, can send mods to the manager once you turn on 1-click installs from DeadlockForge in Settings. And Import from other mod managers brings over mods, profiles and crosshairs from a manager such as Grimoire without changing that manager’s files.

Verdict

4.0 out of 5

Deadlock Mod Manager documents a GameBanana browser, load order, profiles, backups and a vanilla launch, on Windows and Linux, under the GPL-3.0. Stable 1.1.0 dates from August 1, 2026, and the repair check is in nightly builds only. The docs and repository disagree on the licence, and the docs disagree with themselves on the Match Data Sharing default.

Facts checked against the official pages on October 20, 2026

Sources

• deadlock-mod-manager on GitHub (README and LICENSE.md)
• Release 1.1.0 notes and assets and all releases
• Deadlock Mod Manager documentation
• Docs: Installation Guide and Getting Started
• Docs: Features Overview and Mods Library and Files
• Docs: FAQ, Settings and Recovery and Servers and Stats
• Docs: Troubleshooting Guide and Update Channels
• Docs: Fixing Mods After Game Updates and Finding a Broken Mod
• Docs: Customization
• Deadlock on Steam