Before you start

What you need#

Find your Ravenfield folder#

Everything in this guide happens in one folder: the one containing ravenfield.exe. Modding guides call this the game root. Get it right once and the rest of the install is drag and drop.

1. Open your Steam library

   Right-click Ravenfield in the left-hand games list.

2. Manage, then Browse local files

   Steam opens the folder directly in File Explorer. This is the game root — the folder you want for every step that follows.

3. Confirm you are in the right place

   You should see ravenfield.exe, a folder called ravenfield_Data, UnityPlayer.dll and MonoBleedingEdge. If you see those four, you are in the right folder.

The default location on most machines is under C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\, but a second library on another drive is common — the screenshot below is from a library on F:\. What matters is not the path, it is what is inside the folder.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Ravenfield\
F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Ravenfield\
D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Ravenfield\

Full sizeExplorer

Which BepInEx pack, and why it matters#

BepInEx is published in a lot of variants because it supports a lot of games. Three things about your game decide which one you need, and Ravenfield answers all three the same way every time:

Operating system

Windows — so a win pack. Linux and Steam Deck users see the note below.

Architecture

64-bit — so x64, never x86. Ravenfield has shipped 64-bit only for years.

Scripting backend

Mono — not IL2CPP. Confirmed by the MonoBleedingEdge folder in the game root.

Major version

BepInEx 5. All three of these mods are built against the BepInEx 5 API. BepInEx 6 is still pre-release and does not load BepInEx 5 plugins.

Put together, that is one file: BepInEx_win_x64_5.4.23.3.zip. Older BepInEx 5 releases named the same pack BepInEx_x64_5.4.x.x.zip without the win; both naming styles are the same thing and either will work.

Two Windows behaviours that break installs#

Downloaded archives arrive blocked#

Windows attaches a hidden marker to files downloaded from the internet. When you extract an archive that carries it, every file inside inherits the marker, and .NET refuses to load blocked assemblies from some locations. The result is a BepInEx install that looks perfect and does nothing.

Fix it before extracting, on the zip itself:

1. Right-click the downloaded zip or rar

   Choose Properties.

2. Look at the bottom of the General tab

   If there is a Security line reading This file came from another computer and might be blocked, tick Unblock and click OK.

   If there is no such line, the file was never marked and there is nothing to do.

Get-ChildItem -Path . -Recurse | Unblock-File

Antivirus does not like DLL injection#

BepInEx works by getting a DLL loaded into another process. That is also what a lot of malware does, so heuristic scanners flag it periodically — Windows Defender has quarantined winhttp.dll on and off for years, and third-party suites are worse about it.

If files vanish from the game folder shortly after you extract them, that is what happened. The fix is to add an exclusion for your Ravenfield folder in your antivirus settings, then extract again. In Windows Security that is Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Add or remove exclusions → Add an exclusion → Folder.

Write permission and synced folders#

• Libraries under C:\Program Files sometimes need elevation to write to. If dropping a file in produces a "you need permission" prompt, click through it — that is normal and grants the copy. If it fails outright, run File Explorer as administrator for that one copy.
• Never put a Steam library inside OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive. Sync clients lock files while uploading, which makes BepInEx's log and config writes fail intermittently and produces problems that come and go for no visible reason.
• Extract to the real folder, not through a shortcut. Dragging into a pinned Quick Access entry that points somewhere else is an easy way to install BepInEx into the wrong game.

Linux, Steam Deck and Proton#

Ravenfield through Proton is a Windows process, so it wants the Windows BepInEx pack — the same BepInEx_win_x64_5.4.23.3.zip as everyone else, not the Linux one. The extra step is that Proton needs to be told to load the loader.

Set the game's launch options in Steam to:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="winhttp=n,b" %command%

Everything else in this guide applies unchanged, including the folder layout. Case sensitivity is the one thing to watch: on Linux filesystems BepInEx/plugins and BepInEx/Plugins are different folders, and only the first one is scanned.

A word on multiplayer#

Ravenfield is a singleplayer and skirmish game, and all three of these mods are built for that. There is no anti-cheat to trip and nothing here communicates over a network. If you use a community multiplayer mod, be aware that these change AI behaviour, rendering and decals locally only — other players will not see the same battle you do.

You are ready#

• I know where my Ravenfield folder is and I can see ravenfield.exe in it
• I have 7-Zip or WinRAR installed for the .rar archives
• I know to download BepInEx_win_x64_5.4.23.3.zip and not an IL2CPP or x86 pack
• I know to unblock the zip in Properties before extracting it
• My Steam library is not inside OneDrive or another synced folder

Get the downloads → Skip to installing BepInEx