How to Install Mods In PUBG: Battlegrounds (2026)

A full guide on how to download and install mods in PUBG: Battlegrounds including using mod managers like Curseforge.

September 20, 20268 min readUpdated September 20, 2026

How to Install Mods In PUBG: Battlegrounds (2026)

A guide on how to download and install mods for PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS on PC.

PUBG modding is not what most people expect when they hear the word. There is no mod loader, no .dll files and no way to alter the base game. PUBG runs BattlEye, and touching the client is a ban, full stop.

What PUBG actually has is a UGC system: an official in-game editor that creators use to build custom game modes and maps, published as .pugc files on CurseForge and played through custom matches. Those are the "mods" this guide covers.

We use two of them as examples: GIANTS TOYS, where everything except you is enormous, and Hide-and-Seek, a party mode split into hiders and seekers.

Read This First

Do not install anything that claims to mod the PUBG client. PUBG is a competitive online shooter protected by BattlEye. Injectors, DLL mods, config hacks and anything else that modifies the running game are cheats as far as the anti-cheat is concerned, and the result is a permanent hardware ban on your account.

Everything in this guide is content that PUBG Studios built the system for and that CurseForge hosts with their blessing. It is entirely safe, and it is the only kind of PUBG modding there is.

Requirements

A PC running Windows 10 or later. PUBG also runs on Linux through Proton, though the UGC workflow below assumes Windows paths.
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS on Steam. The game is free to play.
A small amount of free space. .pugc files are usually a few MB at most.
Friends, ideally. Most of the interesting UGC modes need more than one player.

What PUBG Mods Actually Are

A PUBG mod is a single .pugc file. It describes a custom game mode or map built with PUBG's own in-game editor: the layout, the rules, the teams, the win conditions, the loot.

Because it is data for the editor rather than code, a .pugc file cannot do anything the editor cannot. It cannot change your character, give you an advantage in ranked, or alter the normal game in any way. It is closer in spirit to a Counter-Strike community map than to a Skyrim mod.

On CurseForge they are organised by the kind of experience they create, with categories like Battle (Team), Battle (Free-For-All), Parkour and Casual. Browsing those is a better way to find something worth playing than searching by name.

NOTE - PUBG Studios and CurseForge have run official UGC contests with substantial prize pools, most recently one with $95,000 across 46 creators. The quality at the top end is considerably higher than you might expect.

Installing A Mod

Downloading From CurseForge

Go to CurseForge's PUBG section.
Find a mod. For this guide, open GIANTS TOYS.
Click Download.

You will get a single .pugc file, for example GIANTS TOYSS 1.2.pugc.

The CurseForge app does not manage PUBG UGC files for you the way it does Minecraft mods, so this is a plain browser download.

Putting The File In The Right Place

PUBG reads UGC files out of a folder in your local app data, not out of the game install.

Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog.
Type %localappdata% and press Enter.
Navigate to TslGame, then Saved, then UGC.

The full path is:

C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\TslGame\Saved\UGC

Copy the .pugc file into that folder.

If the UGC folder does not exist, create it. It is only made once the game has reason to use it.

TIP - You can paste %localappdata%\TslGame\Saved\UGC straight into the File Explorer address bar to jump there in one go. Right-click the folder and pin it to Quick access if you plan to collect a few of these.

Loading It In-Game

Launch PUBG.
From the main menu, go to Custom and choose UGC Alpha Map.
Create a room.
Press F10 to open the file loader.
Pick your .pugc file.
Press P, then Play.

The mode loads and you are in. Repeat the same steps for Hide-and-Seek or anything else you have downloaded, since each .pugc is loaded per room rather than installed permanently.

NOTE - The exact wording of these menus has shifted as the UGC system has developed, and individual mods sometimes have their own quirks. The mod's CurseForge description is worth reading, because creators normally note anything unusual about loading theirs.

The TMC App

Mentioned for completeness rather than because PUBG needs it. The TMC App is our own mod manager and server browser, and since PUBG UGC is a single file dropped into a single folder, there is not a great deal for a mod manager to do here.

PUBG is not in its supported games list, and unless the UGC system grows considerably it is unlikely to be a priority. We are not going to pretend otherwise to get you to install something.

Where the app might earn its place for you is elsewhere: sandboxed mod profiles for the other games you play, a server browser with live latency graphs, and RCON. It is in very early development though, and its own README describes it as partially tested, so go in with that expectation.

It is open source under GPL-3.0 at github.com/modcommunity/tmc-app. If you try it, the issue tracker is where bug reports and feature requests are most useful, and pull requests are very welcome. Feedback at this stage shapes what the app becomes.

Installing it:

Linux: one line, no root and no package manager.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/modcommunity/tmc-app/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Windows: the setup.exe or setup.msi from the releases page. There is a portable build too, though it does not register the launcher entry or the tmc:// link handler.
macOS: the .dmg from the same releases page.

Playing With Other People

UGC modes run in custom matches, so the flow is the same as any other custom game:

The host loads the .pugc as described above and creates the room.
Other players join the custom match through the room's code or the custom match browser.

Only the host needs the file. Everybody else connects to the host's room and plays whatever is loaded there, which is a nice side effect of this being a server-authoritative system rather than a client mod.

Most UGC modes have a minimum player count to be worth anything. Hide-and-Seek in particular needs a group, since it divides everyone into two teams.

Consoles And Mobile

PUBG is also on PlayStation, Xbox and mobile, and UGC is a PC feature. There is no way to load .pugc files on a console or a phone.

Crossplay is worth a quick word while we are here, because it is frequently misunderstood. PUBG console crossplay pairs PlayStation and Xbox players together, and PC players are in their own pool. PC and console players do not match with each other in normal play, and PUBG Mobile is a separate game entirely with its own accounts and progression.

So if you want to play UGC modes, everyone involved needs to be on PC.

Managing Your UGC Files

There is no mod manager for this. The UGC folder is just a folder, and managing your collection means managing files.

Remove a mode: delete its .pugc file.
Update a mode: download the new version from CurseForge and replace the old file. Creators normally bump the version in the filename, so keeping the old one around does no harm beyond clutter.
Organise: keeping them flat in UGC is what the game expects. Subfolders are not reliably picked up.

Because the files are small, backing up your collection is as simple as copying the folder somewhere.

Making Your Own

If any of this appeals, the editor is built into PUBG and available to everyone. CurseForge and PUBG Studios publish a How to Create Custom Modes walkthrough covering the editor step by step, and it is linked from the PUBG section on CurseForge.

Publishing your own mode puts it in the same catalogue as everything else here, and the official contests are open to new creators.

Troubleshooting

F10 does nothing. You are probably not in a UGC Alpha Map room. The file loader only exists in that mode, not in a normal custom match.

The file loader opens but my mod is not listed. Wrong folder. It has to be in %localappdata%\TslGame\Saved\UGC, not in the Steam install folder and not in Documents.

The UGC folder does not exist. Create it yourself at that exact path.

The mode loads but plays wrong. Some older .pugc files were built against earlier versions of the editor and have not been updated. Check the mod's Updated date and its comments on CurseForge.

Friends cannot join my room. That is a custom match problem rather than a mod problem. Check the room settings and that everybody is on PC.

Can I use these in ranked or normal matches? No. UGC content only exists inside custom matches, by design.

Am I going to get banned? Not for this. You will be banned for client-side modifications, which is a completely different thing. Stick to .pugc files from CurseForge.

Conclusion

PUBG modding boils down to three steps: download a .pugc from CurseForge, drop it in %localappdata%\TslGame\Saved\UGC, and load it with F10 inside a UGC Alpha Map custom room. Only the host needs the file.

The important part is the part that is not in those three steps. PUBG is an anti-cheat protected competitive shooter, and the UGC system is the entire legitimate modding surface. Anything promising more than that is a cheat and will cost you your account.

For the games that do need a mod manager, the TMC App is ours. It is open source and very early in development, and feedback on it would be appreciated.