How to downgrade Fallout 4 from Anniversary Edition

Fallout 4 just rolled out its Anniversary Edition, giving it the Creation micro-DLC galore that Skyrim also got four years ago. Just like that game, though, most players may need to downgrade the Fallout 4 binaries. Even for those who don't own the Anniversary Edition upgrade, the game will still auto-update to its new binaries (1.11.137.0), which breaks most of your modlist.

So here's a few ways you can rollback to Fallout 4's pre-Anniversary Edition binaries. They seem a bit fiddly at first, but take it from a modding casual: it's easier than it looks.

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How to rollback Fallout 4 to pre-Anniversary Edition version

Currently, there are two ways you can rollback Fallout 4 to a pre-Anniversary Edition build. You can either use Delta Patcher, or use steam console to download depot files for the older game versions (if you own the game on Steam, that is). Before we get to them, a few caveats to get out of the way:

• Currently, there's no confirmed stable way to install the Anniversary Edition content on top of an old binary build of Fallout 4 (1.10.163.0 or earlier), since the Delta Patcher is reportedly not working for some users.
• If you've installed mods with a mod manager other than MO2, it might get particularly difficult to resuscitate your load order to functional condition.
• I personally use MO2, which does not tamper with the installation folder itself, and that's the way I recommend you mod Bethesda games. In case you are still using dated methods like NMM and your load order is now irrepairably damaged by the auto-update, you should turn this misfortune into an opportunity to start using MO2 and start fresh.
• Even if you don't own the Anniversary Edition of Fallout 4, the update adds 108 total new files in the "Data" folder. All of these begin with "cc". You should select all of them (total 1.32 gb) and back them up somewhere else, just in case.

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Using Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition content with old binaries via Delta Patcher downgrader

Fallout 4 Delta Patcher is the only way right now to use cc content with old binary (Image via Sportskeeda)

The Delta Patcher method basically just patches the Fallout 4 binaries to older versions. Theoretically, this can be used to run a pre-Anniversary Edition Fallout 4 binary with currently available F4SE versions, while also getting the Anniversary Edition content.

Here are the steps to follow:

• Download a fresh copy of the current edition of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition (1.11.137.0).
• Back up the following by copying them into a separate folder outside the Fallout 4 main folder: Fallout4.exe, Fallout4Launcher.exe, Steam_api64.dll
• Also back up all the files that start with "cc" from the Data folder. As mentioned before, this should be a total of 108 files.
• Download Delta Patcher from its official github page. Make sure to download the version compatible with your current OS.
• Extract DeltaPatcher.exe into the main Fallout 4 folder (steamapps/common/Fallout 4)
• Download the Anniversary Edition downgrader from Nexus. There's two options: one for the version right before the latest update (1.10.984.0), another for the last-gen patch (1.10.163.0). Consider what mods you want to use, and which version they have support for. If you had an up-to-date Fallout 4 till Anniversary Edition with your load-order, you want the NexGen patch from the optional files.
• Manually download the chosen archive, and extract its content somewhere.
• Next, go to the DeltaPatcher.exe file you extracted into the Fallout 4 directory, and launch it.
• The idea here is to patch Fallout 4.exe, Fallout4Launcher.exe, and Steam_api64.dll.
• For each, you want to select the original file, and then the corresponding xDelta patch you downloaded from nexus. For example, Fallout4.exe needs to be supplemented with Fallout4NextGenExePatch.xdelta.
• If you face an error while patching steam_api64.dll, this is a known bug. If this occurs, try closing Steam and launching DeltaPatcher.exe in admin mode. If it still doesn't work, you will unfortunately need to wait for a fix from the mod author, or another downgrade patcher, and use the other method listed here for now.

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Downloading a fresh Fallout 4 copy from Steam depot

It may take a while to download (Image via Sportskeeda)

If you want to simply revert to Fallout 4's pre-Anniversary Edition build, you can download a fresh copy of those files instead of trying to rollback from the current version. Here's what you need to do for this:

• This method only works for those who own Fallout 4 on Steam
• Type steam://nav/console into your browser. Click the pop-up window to open Steam when it appears.
• A console will appear. Here, you'll need to input the depot code for specific groups of files, which will start downloading under the steamapps/content subfolder.

These are the codes you'll need to input for Fallout 4 base game files:

• download_depot 377160 377162 5698952341602575696
• download_depot 377160 377161 7332110922360867314
• download_depot 377160 377163 8681102885670959037
• download_depot 377160 377164 8492427313392140315

For those who own the GOTY edition should additionally input the following:

• download_depot 377160 435870 1213339795579796878
• download_depot 377160 435871 7785009542965564688
• download_depot 377160 435880 366079256218893805

Afterwards, go to steamapps/content/app_377160/ under your Steam directory, or whichever Drive you download games on. You'll see 4 subfolders here (7 if GOTY edition). You'll need to copy the contents from inside each of these subfolders, and then put them all into one folder.

This folder will now contain the base files of Fallout 4's 1.10.984.0 version (as in, the one right before the Anniversary Edition update). You can place them into Steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 4, or create a "Stock Game" folder in your MO2 instance and put it there. Doing the latter will ensure it does not get auto-updated by Steam.

Launch the game, and then go into the settings menu to confirm your version. Note that if you want to download the pre-Next Gen version, here are the codes for that instead:

• download_depot 377160 377162 5847529232406005096
• download_depot 377160 377161 7497069378349273908
• download_depot 377160 377163 5819088023757897745
• download_depot 377160 377164 2178106366609958945
• download_depot 377160 435870 1691678129192680960
• download_depot 377160 435871 5106118861901111234
• download_depot 377160 435880 1255562923187931216

If you had the Anniversary Edition's .bsa and .esp files backed up (those starting with "cc"), you can try putting them into your Data folder and see if you can load them as just regular esp's. However, forcing Creation content from another version like this may not work properly, and will most likely cause stability issues down the line.

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Check out our other articles on this game:

• Fallout 4 vs Fallout 76
• All Fallout games ranked
• Best Melee build
• Is Fallout 4 on Game Pass?

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Edited by Sambit Pal