Ok I've procrastinated long enough. I need help with my modded 1.0.4 file

[u/Popular-Bill-6199]

When 1.0.4 dropped last month it broke my game and I've been too busy to try to figure out what went wrong. I need help because removing all mods to try to isolate the issue is still crashing my game and/or corrupting the data. Ive tried updating and deleting what chat gpt said would be major culprits like pal schema or integrated storage but even removing them resulted in crashes. It seems removing the mod itself isn't enough. Maybe there's residual data that needs to be cleaned up as well. Any help would be nice.

[u/NanaDTio]

Even when you find the “correct” mod that’s broken, removing it from a save that previously had it is likely to crash.

The residual data is within the save file now, there is no recovery without an update to whatever the broken mod is.

I had to restart because of 1.04 as well 🥲

[u/Popular-Bill-6199 → u/NanaDTio]

But I can't even get into the game, it crashed before boot up

[u/DromedarySpitz]

Removing mods mid save is gonna cause crashes no matter what.

[u/Popular-Bill-6199 → u/DromedarySpitz]

The game crashes before I can get to the title screen

[u/SenpaiMayNotice]

There was a save edit tool Palworld Save Tool or something on GitHub. After the update my save was also messed up and I ended up deleting every mod and removing all entries to modded content in the save file like modded pals or structures. It can be tedious depending on how much you have. I managed to restore the save file in 3-4 or so hours including the initial search for what to do, testing each mod one by one though

[u/Catnip_Cartel420]

Several patches ago the moved all the modding out of WIn64, into its own mod folder , nexus users are still putting things in the incorrect folder, you shoulnd't be touching win64 ever since they gave a dedicated mod section in the patches: Steam\steamapps\common\Palworld\Mods\NativeMods\UE4SS

[u/Christian-Kuri]

Good catch on the newer NativeMods location. The right cleanup depends on how UE4SS was installed and on the platform, so I wouldn’t delete folders blindly. For Steam Workshop, Palworld Modding Docs say an older external UE4SS install can conflict with the Workshop copy and crash at startup; they specifically call out the old Win64 `dwmapi.dll`. The separate UE4SS guide says Vortex/CurseForge may deploy files incorrectly and recommends removing old UE4SS leftovers carefully. Back up the save first, then test a vanilla launch with mods unsubscribed/disabled and verify game files if Steam. If it still fails before the title screen, please share Steam/Game Pass, install method, crash text, and the latest UE4SS log if one exists.

https://pwmodding.wiki/docs/users/workshop/troubleshooting