Modding used to be a nightmare of manual dragging and dropping. You’d spend three hours arranging files in a window, hit "launch," and watch your game crash to desktop because two textures for a rock in Skyrim didn't like each other. Nexus Mods changed the game when they released Vortex. But for people coming from Mod Organizer 2, or even the old Nexus Mod Manager, the biggest culture shock is usually the realization that you can't just click and drag files to fix your "vortex change load order" problems.
It feels restrictive. It feels like the software is bossing you around. Honestly, it kind of is.
Vortex operates on a logic-based system. Instead of you manually deciding that Mod A must come after Mod B, you tell the program a specific rule, and it calculates the entire list for you using the LOOT (Load Order Optimisation Tool) API. It’s basically math for your mods. This approach prevents the "house of cards" effect where moving one mod manually breaks ten others down the line. If you’re trying to figure out how to force a specific change, you have to stop thinking about positions and start thinking about relationships.
The Rule-Based Logic Behind Your Load Order
Vortex doesn't have a "load order" tab in the way most veterans expect. It has a Plugins tab. This is where the real work happens. When you want a vortex change load order outcome, you aren't moving a line; you are creating a dependency.
🔗 Read more: Can You Pick Up a Spawner with Silk Touch? Why Most Minecraft Players Get This Wrong
Imagine you have a weather mod and a lighting mod. If the lighting mod needs to overwrite the weather mod to look right, you don't drag it to the bottom. You click the icon in the "Dependencies" column. This opens a visual graph—literally a spiderweb of lines—where you can drag a line from one mod to another and select "Must load after."
Why do it this way? Because the moment you add a 300th mod, a manual list becomes impossible to manage. If you tell Vortex "A always follows B," it doesn't matter if you add 50 more mods in between; that rule stays iron-clad.
Understanding Group Tags
Sometimes individual rules are too tedious. That's where Groups come in. Vortex sorts plugins into "buckets" like Core, Fixes, Late Loaders, and Dynamic Patches. If you need to change your load order on a macro level, you move a plugin from the "Default" group to something like "Late Loaders." This effectively shoves it toward the bottom of the list without you having to manually fight with every other plugin in your list.
It’s a bit like a seating chart at a wedding. You don't necessarily care if Uncle Bob is in chair 4 or chair 5, as long as he’s at the table furthest from the open bar. Groups let you set those "tables."
Managing Conflicts and Overwrites
The most common reason people search for ways to change their load order is a conflict. In Vortex, conflicts are handled at the file level, not just the plugin level. When two mods try to change the same file—say, a specific script for a follower—Vortex will flag it with a red lightning bolt.
👉 See also: How to Put Chests on a Donkey Without Losing Your Mind
You’ll see a notification: "There are unresolved file conflicts."
Clicking that isn't just a suggestion; it’s a requirement. You’ll be presented with a screen that asks you to choose between "Load Before" or "Load After" for the conflicting files. This is the granular version of a vortex change load order tweak. Once you set this, Vortex remembers it. If you update one of those mods later, the rule usually persists, saving you from having to remember which mod had the "better" textures six months from now.
The "Sort Now" Button vs. Deployment
Vortex has a "Sort Now" button. It’s tempting to spam it. Don't.
Vortex sorts automatically by default unless you’ve toggled that off in the settings. Every time you enable or disable a mod, the LOOT engine runs in the background. But here is the kicker: sorting the load order is not the same as deploying it.
Deployment is the process where Vortex moves files into your game folder (using hardlinks). You can change your load order rules all day, but if you don't hit that "Deploy Mods" button at the top, the game engine is still seeing the old version of your setup. This is the #1 reason people think their changes aren't working. If the little chain link icon isn't green, your game hasn't changed.
📖 Related: Claw Them Into Shape: Why Most Players Miss This Critical Warrior Quest
Why Manual Sorting is Usually a Trap
There is a subset of modders who absolutely hate the Vortex system. They want total control. And look, I get it. If you’re used to the precision of Mod Organizer 2, Vortex feels like driving a car with an automatic transmission when you want a stick shift.
But for 95% of users, manual sorting is how you break a save file.
The LOOT masterlist, which Vortex pulls from, is a massive community-driven database. It contains thousands of entries on which mods are incompatible and which ones need specific patches. When you let Vortex handle the "vortex change load order" process, you’re tapping into years of collective debugging from the modding community.
If you try to manually force a mod to the top that needs to be at the bottom, Vortex will actually bark at you. It’ll show a cyclic redundancy error. This is a fancy way of saying: "You told me A must load before B, but B must load before A. I can't do both, so I'm doing nothing." Fixing these cycles is the "final boss" of Vortex modding. You have to go into the "Manage Rules" menu and delete the conflicting instruction you created.
Actionable Steps for a Stable Load Order
If your game is crashing or mods aren't showing up, follow this sequence to fix your order properly:
- Check the Plugins Tab: Don't just look at the Mods tab. The Plugins tab shows the actual
.espor.esmfiles that the game reads. - Resolve Red Lightning Bolts: If you see red icons, click them. You cannot have a stable game with unresolved conflicts. Pick which mod "wins" the conflict.
- Assign to Groups: If a modder says "This must load late," right-click the plugin, go to "Move to Group," and select a group like "Late Loaders" or "Procop."
- Manage Custom Rules: If two mods are fighting, use the "Manage Rules" button at the top of the Plugins bar. Add a new rule: [Mod Name] [Must load after] [Other Mod Name].
- The Deployment Check: Always ensure the "Elevation" and "Deployment" notifications are cleared. If Windows asks for permission to make changes, say yes. Vortex needs that permission to link the files.
- Verify with an External Tool: If you’re truly paranoid, run the standalone version of LOOT. It can sometimes provide more detailed "dirty plugin" warnings that Vortex might skip over in its simplified UI.
Modding is about playing the game, not just tinkering with the manager. The Vortex system is designed to get you into the game faster by taking the "manual" out of "manual labor." Trust the rules, fix the cycles, and always, always deploy.