Iron Nest Mods: What Exists and Safe Setup

IRON NEST mods currently live in two places: the Nexus Mods index, which hosts the game’s primary public mod section, and ProjectMods, which distributes the Full Cylinder ammunition mod. The most ambitious community release so far is a VR, co-op and PvP plugin that turns the turret into a multiplayer station, while Full Cylinder rewrites how ammunition resupply works.

One warning before anything else: Nexus hosting does not mean official developer support, and promotional mod pages are marketing, not documentation. Back up your saves, confirm which loader each mod needs, and install one mod at a time. The rest of this guide covers what exists, where to get it and how to install it without breaking your game.

Where to Find Iron Nest Mods

Nexus Mods runs an IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator section where community mods can be browsed by update date, downloads and category. It is the primary public mod index for the game, but treat it as a catalogue, not a guarantee — hosting there does not imply that the developers support or have reviewed any file.

Before downloading anything, read the full mod page. The details that matter:

• Supported game version
• Required dependencies
• Exact installation path
• Known issues
• Author permissions
• Uninstall instructions

A mod page that skips uninstall steps is a mod you cannot cleanly remove, so factor that into your decision. The Full Cylinder mod is distributed separately through ProjectMods rather than Nexus, and its download page promotes a premium account tier with bonus mods and extra features — treat those offers as advertising and judge the files on their own merits.

The VR, Co-op and PvP Mod

The headline release on the Nexus index is a mod titled “VR. Co-op. PvP.” Its description says it supports up to four players cooperating inside one Iron Nest, or splitting across two Nests for PvP, and it claims crossplay between VR and flatscreen players. For context on how the base game handles the multiplayer side, see our IRON NEST multiplayer guide.

The mod requires BepInEx 6 for Unity IL2CPP win-x64 — not BepInEx 5 Mono. The plugin installs under BepInEx\plugins\IronNestVR\, and the VR side uses openxr_loader.dll together with the launch parameters -force-d3d11 -force-gfx-direct.

The author is candid about stability: a complete co-op mission had not been fully tested, and sessions with more than two players were largely untested. Desynchronization, crashes and performance problems should be expected. To uninstall, remove openxr_loader.dll from the game root and delete the corresponding plugin folder.

The Full Cylinder Ammunition Mod

The Full Cylinder mod, shown off in a ProjectMods video, advertises unlimited shells: pick a shell type, turn the mod on, and every cylinder chamber fills instantly. As you fire, the chambers stay topped up, so you keep shooting without repeatedly requisitioning more shell punchcards. The mod description lists HE, AP, APHE, STAR, Smoke and DRIL among the selectable types, and says you can switch ammunition while the mod stays enabled.

All of those are the mod’s own promotional claims, not verified behaviour. The video’s setup walkthrough is short: download ProjectMods, enable Full Cylinder, select your ammo type and start firing. Its own description of the base game underlines the trade — shell selection, loading and ammunition management are part of keeping the gun firing, and Full Cylinder works by automatically keeping your selected ammunition loaded.

It is worth knowing what you are giving up: shell selection and requisition are part of the intended firing loop, and our shell types guide shows how much of the game’s decision-making sits in that ammunition work.

How to Install Iron Nest Mods Safely

Whatever you install, the workflow is the same:

1. Back up your saves and any game files that may be replaced.
2. Determine which loader the mod uses — MelonLoader, BepInEx 6 IL2CPP or another framework.
3. Install one mod at a time.
4. Test after each change.

The loader question is the step people skip. Mono and IL2CPP loader builds are not interchangeable, and the wrong one simply will not load. If you stack three new files and the game stops launching, you have no idea which one did it; if you add them one by one, you always know.

Game Updates and Crash Troubleshooting

Disable your mods after any game update until compatibility is confirmed. An update can break a loader or shift the files a mod replaces, and a mod that worked yesterday can crash today’s build.

If the game starts crashing, troubleshoot in a clean, unmodded environment first: remove the mods, confirm the base game runs, then add files back one at a time. Our crash troubleshooting guide walks through the unmodded side of that process.

Mods and Fair Play

Automation or resource-changing mods should not be used on leaderboards. Full Cylinder, which removes shell requisition entirely while enabled, is exactly that kind of mod. Keep leaderboard runs clean and treat mods as a single-player or private-session tool.