Install TCG Card Shop Simulator mods, step by step

Before you touch the game folder

Modding here runs through community tooling, not an official system: the game has no Steam Workshop, and the loader of choice is the BepInEx pack published on the game's Nexus hub. That works well, but it means every game update can temporarily break mods until their authors catch up.

Three habits prevent almost all install pain: close the game before copying files, make a copy of your save before the first install, and write down the game version plus the loader version you installed. If a mod misbehaves later, those two numbers are the first thing a helper will ask for.

Step 1 · Install the BepInEx pack

1. Create a free Nexus Mods account if you do not have one. Free accounts can download manually; no premium subscription is needed.
2. Open the BepInEx Pack for TCG Card Shop Simulator on the game's Nexus hub and choose Manual Download, then the slow download.
3. Find your game folder: in Steam, right-click TCG Card Shop Simulator, choose Manage and then Browse local files.
4. Extract the pack into that folder so that winhttp.dll and the BepInEx folder sit directly next to the game's .exe file. Windows' built-in Extract All is enough.
5. Run the game once and press F1. A configuration window listing your (so far empty) mod setup confirms the loader works.

The F1 window is the ConfigurationManager that ships inside the pack. If pressing F1 does nothing, the usual cause is that its files were not extracted next to the .exe; re-extract and try again before installing any mod.

Step 2 · Add your first mod

1. Pick one mod, not five. Download it manually from its Nexus page and read its description first; a minority of mods need extra steps or dependencies.
2. Extract the download. Most mods contain a BepInEx folder with a plugins folder inside; copy that content into your game's BepInEx\plugins folder. If the mod ships its own BepInEx folder, merging it over yours is the normal pattern, but follow the mod's own instructions where they differ.
3. Restart the game and press F1. The mod should now appear in the configuration list, and its readme should say what changed in game.

Install in small batches. If something goes wrong after adding three mods at once, you will not know which one caused it; adding them one at a time makes every problem diagnosable.

After every game update

The pattern to expect: a patch arrives, mods stop loading or render incorrectly, and authors publish updated files over the following days. When it happens, update the game, re-download the current BepInEx pack, then update each installed mod before concluding that anything is permanently broken.

Our post-update checklist walks through that diagnosis, including the black-texture and missing-F1 cases that recur in community threads. Verify game files in Steam after big updates if the game itself behaves oddly.

What mods can and cannot do

Mods range from small quality-of-life fixes to full franchise reskins and frameworks that add entirely new card sets. None of it is official: the developer has not announced Steam Workshop support, and community discussion confirms modding runs entirely through BepInEx.

Because mods are unofficial community work, treat claims on their pages the way you would treat any player advice: check the last-update date against your game version, and prefer maintained mods for anything you rely on daily. Our maintained shortlist applies those filters to a starting set.