How To Downgrade Fallout 4, Explained

The next-gen update for Fallout 4 isn’t for everyone. The previous version had a certain kind of charm that players are pining for in light of their game being automatically updated to the next-gen update; especially those who have intense mods that only work for the previous version. However, it’s completely possible to downgrade the game to revert to the version players know and love. Let’s dive into what you need to do to downgrade Fallout 4.

Downgrading Fallout 4

To downgrade your Steam version of Fallout 4, you need to follow the instructions under the below headers. Ensure that you follow them to the T because otherwise, the final product will not work correctly. I will be writing this guide out in parts to organize the process.

Downloading Previous Updates (Known as Depots)

The easiest way to download previous updates is to:

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows + R key and open the Run option.
2. In the available text box, type in steam://open/console and press OK.
3. Run the following bolded commands for the base games.
   • 377161 – Fallout 4 content_a
     • download_depot 377160 377161 7497069378349273908
   • 377162 – Fallout 4 exe
     • download_depot 377160 377162 5847529232406005096
   • 377163 – Fallout 4 content_b
     • download_depot 377160 377163 5819088023757897745
4. Assuming you are playing the English version of the game, you will need to run this depot as well.
   • 377164 – Fallout 4 English
     • download_depot 377160 377164 2178106366609958945
5. Locate Fallout 4 in your Steam library and right-click on it.
6. Select the Properties option on the game.
7. Go to the Updates tab and toggle the updates to Only update this game when I launch it.
8. Go to the Installed Updates tab and select the Browse button.
9. In the root directory, go back two folders until you are in the steamapps folder.
10. Locate the appmanifest_377160.acf file in this folder.
11. Right-click the file and select the Properties option.
12. In the General tab, toggle the Attributes to Read Only.
13. Located the downloaded depots from steps 3 and 4 in a separate window.
14. Go into each of these folders and copy their contents into the main Fallout 4 directory, ensuring that you copy the depot titled depot_377163 last.
    • If prompted, select to Replace the file in the destination.
15. Using the information on the game’s SteamDB page, delete all the files that were part of the new update.
16. Now it’s safe to launch the game in version 1.10.163.

Any issues that might arise after this might be because of conflicting content from the Creative Club. To combat this, go back into the game’s files and delete any files that start with cc.

Fallout 4 is playable on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.