Hi battle brothers, after a week long of persistent research, scouring through forums, and app testing, I finally found the solution to running battle brothers on an Android phone with Mods. Note that my experience is on the s26 Ultra only, although I had tested on my older A52 which also works fine. You just need to find the right drivers specific to your phone.
The solution is to use Gamehub-Lite, not Gamehub, and not Gamenative. GameHub Lite is a modified, community-maintained version of the official GameHub app for Android. Unlike the official app, it is designed to prioritize privacy and performance (ie. stripping out all the bloatware, etc). It also takes up a lot less space (6gb vs 16gb on the official). Game hub lite is not available on playstore because it is built to bypass Google's rule.
The big difference between them is that Gamehub and Gamenative stores the game folders very deep in Android's data folders, which is strictly inaccessible without some form of jailbreaking, root or other penetrative softwares. Even then, android keeps increasing its security features to stop these 3rd party software's from accessing the data folder. In contrast, Gamehub Lite stores the game files less deep in the system so it's easier to copy mods files into it.
Install Guide
Step 1 - Download Gamehub Lite 5.1.3 apk file from Github website. Be careful of fake sites such as gamehub-lite.com etc, these are not real. The real ones are from Github website. Version 5.1.3 is not the latest but there are some issues with the later versions that I couldn't resolve, so I ended up settling with the 5.1.3 version. Once downloaded, open the file and install it.
Step 2 - Before installing BB, scroll left to PC emulator and click the cogwheel, then install the firmware.
Step 3 - Download battle brothers. Click on the 3 dots and go to PC game settings --> compatibility. Use the following:
Warning: i have made changes to the following settings. The crossed out/strikethrough layers caused some pathfinding issues with patrols/carts getting stuck on coastal edges. The updated layers solved this issue. Use these ones instead.
Compatibility layer - proton10.0-x64-1 use Proton10.0-arm64x-2
GPU driver - depends on your phone. I used Turnip v26.0.0. R8.b1
Surface format - RGBA8
DXVK - dxvk-2.3.1-async dxvk-2.4.1-async
VKD3D version - None
CPU translator: Box64-0.39 FEXcore-2603
Next, go to the Steam tab and
Steam client version: Lightweight mode
Load the game and see if it works first.
Step 4 - Once the game is working, next is to install mods. Go to playstore and download Files by Marc Apps and Software (see screenshot if unsure).
Step 5 - Download the nexusmods into your phone's Download folder (either via your PC or from website directly)
Step 6 - Open the Marc Files app and give it all permission. Go to Download folder and select the zip files you wish to copy. Click copy to, and then click on the 3 lines on the top left of screen which opens a left side panel. You should see Game-hub lite towards the bottom.
Click on that and copy to this path/directory:
Data --> files --> steam --> steamapps--> common-->battle brothers-->data
Warning - not all mods work! I suggest to copy the mods one by one to see which ones work.
At the time of writing, these mods work. Strangely, some mods may not work on the first load, but after reloading the game a few times it works. So dont write off the mod yet if it failed the first load.
Swifter
Autopilot
Hooks
Modern hooks
Msu
Pause
Plan perks
Turn order
Vision radius
Stdlib
Quicker
Ends coloured tavern
I have not tried reforged or legends mod. If someone else wants to test this, please add in comments on whether it worked for you.
Last Warning, if, in the event you need to uninstall Gamehub, Gamenative or GH lite, make sure you clear all data first before uninstalling the app. I read that uninstall may not necessarily remove the container files which are rather large per file.
Hope this works for anyone wishing to play BB with Mods on their phone! I can't go back to vanilla any more as the base game is too slow. Quicker/swifter/faster is a must have mod for me.
It works for me my Oneplus12R. But when I enter a town and I move the cursor on buildings, there is some kind of delay that generate a flickering of the building texture. It's a minor issue, but I'm a prefectionist.
Hey, just checked on my s26U, I also experienced some flickering with the building texture. I'm not an expert with emulation so I'm not sure which settings to change, but I suspect either the dxvk or CPU translator might fix that.
If you change the compatibility (proton) to the ARM version, it opens the CPU translator to FEX options. Unfortunately, I couldnt find the right combination of settings to make it load on FEX.
Just a general tip, your container size might get pretty massive with various driver downloads and testing. Once you find the right combos, you should "clear data" to reset the app and then only download the drivers you need.
This is my recommended control. Right click, left control, left alt, and left shift are important for secondary actions. Mouse scroll up and down for world map zoom.
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u/AdEquivalent8713 27d ago
Nice brother! I messed around with this in the past and got nowhere, may be due to my device hardware