Chef Shared Loader
One Lua loader for every Helldivers 2 mod, HD2 Lua Runtime mods too: side by side, crash-guarded and locked down, with an in-game options menu and a performance monitor.
Chef Shared Loader runs Lua mods on the current game build (Lua 5.1). Install it once, and every mod made for it runs next to the others, each in its own space, with no fight over the game's boot script. It's what my script mods (Treasure Radar first) run on, and it's open to every mod author. Since 1.1.0 it also runs mods made for the HD2 Lua Runtime, such as HD2 Transmog and Native Notification, without the HD2 Lua Runtime itself.
Load order: give Chef Shared Loader the highest priority, so it wins over every other mod. In Arsenal with "First mod highest priority", put it at the top of the list; with "Last mod highest priority", put it at the bottom. If a mod that replaces the game's boot script (the HD2 Lua Runtime included) has a higher priority, it takes the loader's place and no Chef Shared Loader mod runs.
Mods that need memory access won't work. Since the October 20, 2026 update (7.2.0), Helldivers 2 runs plain Lua 5.1 instead of LuaJIT: there's no ffi any more, so no Lua mod can read or write game memory. Script mods built on memory access (older Bingus Shared Loader addons, for example) won't run here and have to be rebuilt for the new Lua; no loader can bring that back.
Features
Install / update
Uninstall
Disable it in your mod manager, then Purge and Deploy (mods that need it stop working). Its files in %APPDATA%\Arrowhead\Helldivers2 (chef_loader.log, chef_loader_settings.txt, chef_loader_state.txt, chef_loader_trace.txt) can be deleted.
Compatibility
Known limitations
FAQ
What a Lua mod needs to run on Chef Shared Loader
Troubleshooting
Credits
Source code
Source, the guide for mod makers and every release are on GitHub: Th3chef/Chef-Shared-Loader
One Lua loader for every Helldivers 2 mod, HD2 Lua Runtime mods too: side by side, crash-guarded and locked down, with an in-game options menu and a performance monitor.
Chef Shared Loader runs Lua mods on the current game build (Lua 5.1). Install it once, and every mod made for it runs next to the others, each in its own space, with no fight over the game's boot script. It's what my script mods (Treasure Radar first) run on, and it's open to every mod author. Since 1.1.0 it also runs mods made for the HD2 Lua Runtime, such as HD2 Transmog and Native Notification, without the HD2 Lua Runtime itself.
Load order: give Chef Shared Loader the highest priority, so it wins over every other mod. In Arsenal with "First mod highest priority", put it at the top of the list; with "Last mod highest priority", put it at the bottom. If a mod that replaces the game's boot script (the HD2 Lua Runtime included) has a higher priority, it takes the loader's place and no Chef Shared Loader mod runs.
Mods that need memory access won't work. Since the October 20, 2026 update (7.2.0), Helldivers 2 runs plain Lua 5.1 instead of LuaJIT: there's no ffi any more, so no Lua mod can read or write game memory. Script mods built on memory access (older Bingus Shared Loader addons, for example) won't run here and have to be rebuilt for the new Lua; no loader can bring that back.
Features
- Every mod side by side: it finds every Chef Shared Loader mod in your installed mods and runs each in its own space. Mods that still replace the game's boot script themselves run too, when Chef Shared Loader has a higher priority than they do.
- HD2 Lua Runtime mods: mods written for the HD2 Lua Runtime (HD2 Transmog, Native Notification) run on a built-in stand-in for it, with the same crash guard and lockdown as every other mod, and whatever they made in the game is cleaned up when they stop. You don't need the HD2 Lua Runtime installed.
- Options menu (F9): one menu for every mod's settings and key bindings, saved between launches. It opens on the list of mods in alphabetical order; Enter opens a mod's options, < Back (or Backspace) goes back, Delete puts a setting's default back, Escape or F9 closes it, and / searches across every mod.
- The game's own font: the menu, the performance monitor and notices are written in the HUD's font (FSSinclair Medium), kept on screen and only redrawn when they change, so they cost next to nothing. If the font isn't there, the loader's own pixel font takes over (or pick it: Chef Shared Loader > Game font).
- Performance monitor: turn it on in the menu (Chef Shared Loader > Performance monitor) for a panel with your frame time and each mod's milliseconds a frame, share of the frame and worst moment, once a second. Off, it costs nothing.
- Crash guard: if the game ever crashes inside a mod, the next launch skips that call or switches that mod off, says so on screen, and names it in the log, instead of crashing again.
- Locked down: mods can't start programs, load native code or compiled Lua, touch files outside the game's own folders, or reach the network, the Steam lobby or what other players see. Only a short list of trusted mods gets more, and only what each needs (see the FAQ).
- Light: about a millisecond at start-up, next to nothing a frame while idle.
- For mod authors: a documented API (shared settings, events, menus, key bindings, safe engine calls, timers, spawning with clean-up and more). See docs/MODDING.md on GitHub.
Install / update
- Mod manager (Arsenal / HD2 Mod Manager): add Chef-Shared-Loader-1.1.0.zip and enable it.
- Give it the highest priority: the top of the list with "First mod highest priority", the bottom with "Last mod highest priority" (keep it there when you add mods later).
- Purge and Deploy.
- Install the mods that need it (for example Treasure Radar 0.6.0 or newer, or HD2 Transmog) the usual way.
- Treasure Radar 0.5.1 or older carried its own copy of the loader: update it to 0.6.0.
Uninstall
Disable it in your mod manager, then Purge and Deploy (mods that need it stop working). Its files in %APPDATA%\Arrowhead\Helldivers2 (chef_loader.log, chef_loader_settings.txt, chef_loader_state.txt, chef_loader_trace.txt) can be deleted.
Compatibility
- Runs every Chef Shared Loader mod. A mod that replaces the game's boot script itself runs too when Chef Shared Loader has a higher priority; another mod loader's boot script isn't run (it would start every mod twice) and the log and the screen say so.
- Mods made for the HD2 Lua Runtime run without it. If you have the HD2 Lua Runtime installed too, keep Chef Shared Loader above it: its boot script isn't run, and the log says it isn't needed. You can remove it.
- Tested with HD2 Transmog 1.0.2 (the F8 picker, the wardrobe build and placing it, a saved look coming back the next launch).
- Only you see its menu and monitor; nobody else needs it, except for the mods they use themselves.
- Lua mods that read or write game memory (ffi, LuaJIT-only code) don't work on the current game, with this loader or any other.
- Made and tested on the October 2026 game version (the Lua 5.1 build).
Known limitations
- HD2 Transmog's "Export logs" and GitHub issue buttons don't work here, since no mod may start programs or write to your Desktop. Its log is in %LOCALAPPDATA%\HD2Transmog-1.0 instead.
FAQ
- Do I need the HD2 Lua Runtime for HD2 Transmog? No. Chef Shared Loader runs it by itself. Keep Chef Shared Loader at the highest priority.
- Why does HD2 Transmog ask to write game files? Its wardrobe is a patch file it builds from your own game install. A notice says "HD2 TRANSMOG WANTS TO WRITE GAME FILES" the first time it asks: open F9 > Chef Shared Loader, turn on "Game patch files: HD2 Transmog", and restart the game. The row is off until you turn it on, and you can turn it off again at any time.
- Is that safe? The loader checks a patch file before it takes a patch's name: it must not replace the game's boot script, and any Lua in it must be comments only, so a patch file can't sneak code into the game. A mod may only write its own patch files, never another mod's.
- What's a trusted mod? A mod on a short list inside the loader that gets a little more than the locked-down space, only what it needs. Today that's HD2 Transmog: its own lobby key for sharing looks with friends, its own save folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%, and game patch files with your yes. Mod authors who need something like this can open an issue on GitHub with what the mod needs and why.
- Does SHODAN Stat Editor work with it? SHODAN Stat Editor Offline does: it doesn't use a mod loader at all. Close the game, start it, change your values, press "Install into the game", then start the game. The older in-game SHODAN Stat Editor (the mod zip) changes the game's memory, which no Lua mod can do since the 7.2.0 update, with this loader or any other; chef_loader.log says so when it tries to start.
- Do settings-file mods (Consistent Vaulting, Stratagem Balls Stay Put) work? Yes. Their installer is run too, as the game would run it; follow their own steps (launch, exit once, relaunch).
- A mod was switched off after a crash. How do I get it back? It comes back on by itself when the mod is updated. chef_loader.log names the call that crashed, so attach it to a bug report for that mod.
- Does everyone in my lobby need it? No, only players who use the mods that need it.
What a Lua mod needs to run on Chef Shared Loader
- A header as its very first line: -- HD2-Addon: mods/yourname/modname for a mod that returns a table with update(dt) and shutdown(), or -- HD2-Boot: mods/yourname/modname for a boot-style script with global init, update, render and shutdown. The names use letters, digits, _ and -. A Lua file without a header isn't started.
- Plain Lua 5.1 source text: no LuaJIT bytecode, no ffi, no jit and no goto. The loader puts back bit, table.new, table.clear and table.unpack.
- No memory access: the game's script API (stingray, Unit, World ...) works as usual, but a mod can't read or write game memory, start programs, load native code, or touch files outside the game's own folders.
- Packed as a Lua resource in a patch archive and installed with a mod manager like any other mod (tools/pack_addon.py on GitHub builds an Arsenal-ready zip). Its page should say it needs Chef Shared Loader 1.0.0 or newer (1.1.0 or newer for HD2 Lua Runtime mods).
- Mods made for the HD2 Lua Runtime: HD2Runtime, require('hd2rt') and mod(spec) work as they do there. The mod's own package.preload modules load too.
- Mods made for Bingus Shared Loader or Mod Options Menu: add the header. Hooking in the old way (replacing update and calling the one it found) works, and so does returning update(dt) from the mod's table. Their CowboyBingusModLoader and ModOptionsMenu calls keep working through the loader's stand-ins.
- Using the loader's code: you may copy and adapt parts of it into your own mod to call its functions, detect it, or work with it and the mods it runs, with the credit line "Parts adapted from Chef Shared Loader by Th3chef". The examples and the code in docs/MODDING.md are free to use. Reuploading the loader, or releasing it as your own loader, needs asking first (LICENSE on GitHub).
- Mods that replace the game's boot script: make the first line the HD2-Boot header and give the resource any name but boot.
Troubleshooting
- A mod doesn't run: check that Chef Shared Loader is enabled, that it has the highest priority in your load order, and that you Purged and Deployed. chef_loader.log says which mods it found and started.
- Attach the log to a bug report: chef_loader.log in %APPDATA%\Arrowhead\Helldivers2 (type that into the File Explorer address bar and press Enter). It shows that it started, which mods it found, any Lua errors and its timings.
Credits
- Fonts in the art: Anton, Barlow Condensed and JetBrains Mono (SIL Open Font License).
- RatinPlat (HD2 Transmog): the boot-script fixes, the mod list and health file, and the resource index in 1.1.0.
Source code
Source, the guide for mod makers and every release are on GitHub: Th3chef/Chef-Shared-Loader
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