Mods are a great way to enhance your single player GTA V experience, but they do carry some risks. Use this guide to make sure your GTA V modding is as safe as possible, both for your computer and your GTA Online account — and note that it applies to story mode/single player mods only! We don't endorse modding when you are playing GTA Online with others.
First, before you download any mods, you should take steps to protect yourself from malware. Your computer should be protected by anti-virus and anti-malware software to scan files you download.
Mods from Nexusmods.com and GTA5-Mods.com are among the safest, because the websites scan for malware as the mods are uploaded. Still, no matter where you download a mod from, look through the comments to make sure other players aren't reporting issues.
Malware is possible mainly in .asi and .dll mods, so be especially careful when downloaded these.
Next, there are a few modding tools you should have on hand:
Rockstar has no issue with users modding their single player GTA V games, but it doesn't want mods used in GTA Online. Therefore, if you want to play GTA Online, you need the ability to turn your mods off.
As indicated above, modding tools have features built in to help you with this.
Mod Manager can be used to launch a modded rpf file while keeping the original safe. It will make sure the Rockstar Social Club is offline, as well, and you can turn specific mods on or off. These features are especially useful if you are used modded files that the game might try to "fix" if you are online. Make sure the launcher can't access the Internet before you try to use mods that involve the common.rpf and x64_.rpf files.
A special "Online Mode" in Mod Manager disables all mods and opens your firewall when you are ready for GTA Online.
These tips and tools should help you have a safer, easier GTA V modding experience.
