Baldur's Gate 3: How to Keep Earning Achievements with Mods in 2026

Baldur's Gate 3 mods are a smorgasbord of glorious nonsense. A player can slap on a new face, summon a party of twelve, turn every goblin into a wheel of cheese, or crank up the difficulty until even a long rest feels like a boss fight. Mods make multiple playthroughs feel fresh, and by 2026 the modding scene is still thriving thanks to Patch 7's official mod support. But there is one tiny, infuriating detail: the moment a single mod is active, the game often slams the achievement window shut like a mimic on a greedy adventurer.

That does not have to be the end of the story. A player can absolutely keep earning achievements during a modded run, provided they make a small tweak before starting a fresh campaign. The trick involves Larian's Script Extender and the Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager, often called BG3MM. It sounds scarier than it is — no one needs to wrestle a tarrasque or read ancient Netherese code.

Why Mods Block Achievements

The short version is that mods alter the game's expected state. Baldur's Gate 3, like many RPGs, uses a set of hidden checks to decide whether a playthrough is 'legit' for achievements. When custom content or altered mechanics are detected, those checks can fail. It is not necessarily a punishment; think of it as the game saying, 'I don't know what that is, so I'm not signing the certificate.' The Script Extender, however, can tell the game to relax and let the achievements flow.

What You Need

Tool	Purpose
BG3MM (Baldur's Gate 3 Mod Manager)	Toggle achievement settings and manage mods
Script Extender	The actual behind-the-scenes fix
Steam local files access	To check or create the settings file
A fresh modded campaign	The fix works best on new saves

Step-by-Step: Enable Achievements with Mods

1. Download the latest version of BG3MM from GitHub. A player should choose the most recent release, because older versions may not play nicely with current game patches in 2026.

2. Open BG3MM and click the Tools tab. Then select Download & Extract Script Extender. Let the tool do its arcane business.

3. Click the Settings tab, then select Open Preferences.

4. From the Open Preferences menu, choose Script Extender.

5. Look for an option called Achievements Enabled. Toggle it on — this usually appears as an X in the box. If it is off, the game will keep ignoring those sweet, sweet achievement pings.

6. Open Steam, right-click Baldur's Gate 3, select Manage, then Browse Local Files.

7. Open the bin folder. Inside, a file named ScriptExtenderSettings.json should exist. If it does, everything is probably working, and the player can launch the game, start a new playthrough, and test whether achievements pop while mods are enabled.

If the File Is Missing

No file? No panic. A player can create it in under a minute using any text editor — Notepad, Notepad++, or whatever ancient relic is installed. Open the editor and paste the following:

{

  "CreateConsole": true,

  "EnableAchievements": true

}

Save it as ScriptExtenderSettings.json in the BG3 bin folder. Make sure the extension is .json, not .txt. Windows may try to add a sneaky .txt ending, so keep an eye on it. Once saved, launch the game and test with a new modded campaign.

The Catch: Old Saves Are a Coin Toss

Now for the slightly sad news. This method is only guaranteed to work for new modded campaigns created after the change. If a player has an older modded save that already had achievements disabled, the chance of success is roughly fifty-fifty. Some adventurers report that old saves suddenly started popping achievements, while others are left staring at an empty achievement tracker like it owes them gold. The safest bet is to start fresh, enjoy the new mods, and let the achievements roll in naturally.

Quick Tips and Troubleshooting

• Keep BG3MM updated. Game patches in 2026 can break older mod manager versions.

• Double-check the file name. ScriptExtenderSettings.json must be exact, including capitalization.

• If achievements still don't work, open the JSON file and confirm EnableAchievements is set to true.

• Avoid testing on an old save. The game may simply refuse to cooperate, and that is not the mod's fault.

• Some mods are so chaotic that even the Script Extender might side-eye them. In those cases, check mod compatibility before blaming the settings.

Final Verdict

Mods are too much fun to skip just because of an achievement blocker. With a little BG3MM wizardry and one tiny JSON file, a player can have both a wildly customized Faerûn and a healthy achievement list. It is not cheating in the traditional sense — it is more like politely asking the game to stop being dramatic about the player's desire to romance a mind flayer while wearing a hat shaped like a beholder. In 2026, the method still works, the modding scene is still chaos, and the achievements are definitely still worth chasing.

Data referenced from SteamDB helps contextualize why Baldur’s Gate 3’s modding ecosystem remains active in 2026: when official patch updates land, players often surge back in to test compatibility, spin up fresh saves, and experiment with Script Extender setups that keep achievements enabled even in heavily modded campaigns.