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 that draw over the game's own menus.
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, without the HD2 Lua Runtime itself. Since 1.2.0 it works beside other mod loaders, and mods made for Boot Mod Loader and Bingus Shared Loader v21 run on it too.
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, unless that mod carries the loader's start-up stub (since 1.2.0 any mod may).
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, chef_loader_health.txt, chef_loader_lang_missing.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 that draw over the game's own menus.
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, without the HD2 Lua Runtime itself. Since 1.2.0 it works beside other mod loaders, and mods made for Boot Mod Loader and Bingus Shared Loader v21 run on it too.
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, unless that mod carries the loader's start-up stub (since 1.2.0 any mod may).
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 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. A mod can say what it needs, and the log and a notice name anything the loader doesn't have. 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. On the ship it's a full screen menu (the mods on the left, the picked mod's options on the right); in a mission a compact panel you can make see-through, and the game keeps running under it. Chef Shared Loader's own entry is first, then the 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 hint line shows each key as a chip with what it does, and while the menu is open mods' hotkeys stay quiet, so typing a search never fires one.
- Controller and mouse: the D-pad moves, cross/A picks, circle/B goes back, square/X puts the default back, L1/R1 a page; on the ship, hold the touchpad / View button for two seconds to open it. The mouse hovers, clicks, scrolls and drags sliders (on the ship by default), and while the menu has it the camera stays still.
- Over the game's own screens: the menu, the performance monitor and the loader's notices draw over the game's HUD, map, terminals and Esc menu (all but the menus' top bar and button prompts).
- Language files: a language file (a mod of its own) translates the loader's menu, monitor and notices and every mod's text at once. Pick it in F9 > Chef Shared Loader > Language. Texts it doesn't have yet are listed for translators in chef_loader_lang_missing.txt.
- 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.
- Performance monitor: turn it on in the menu (Chef Shared Loader > Performance monitor; Monitor position puts it in any corner, at the middle of either side, in the center, or wherever you drag it by its title bar on the pause screen; Monitor opacity makes it see-through; Monitor on pause screen only keeps it off the HUD while you play, in missions or everywhere) for a panel with your frame time and each mod's milliseconds a frame, share of the frame and worst moment, once a second. Budget (ms) marks the mods over it in orange, and Hide mods under N ms (N follows the budget) puts the rest on one line, so the heavy ones stand out. Off, it costs nothing.
- Crash guard: the loader learns from a crash. If the game ends the first time a mod makes a given call, or twice in a row in one of a mod's per-frame jobs, the next launch skips that call or job and names it in the log, instead of crashing again; the mod stays on. A mod that ends 3 launches in a row is switched off, and the screen says so. A mod that crashes the game while it starts isn't started again until it's updated. A call on one kind of unit, made with only the unit, that ended the game is refused for every mod, not only the one that found it.
- 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).
- Works beside other loaders: the loader's game boot script is a small start-up stub that any mod may carry unchanged, so whichever copy the game runs, every loader mod keeps running. Boot Mod Loader's and Bingus Shared Loader v21's boot scripts are named in the log and on screen and not run (their mods would start twice); their mods run here, and a mod another loader already started isn't started again.
- 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-1.3.1.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) 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, chef_loader_health.txt, chef_loader_lang_missing.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 Boot Mod Loader, Bingus Shared Loader (v21 included) and Mod Options Menu run on it, their options and key bindings in the F9 menu. You don't need Boot Mod Loader or HD2 Mod Setting GUI for them. A mod that keeps its log or settings straight in %LOCALAPPDATA% has those files kept in the loader's folder instead, under the same names; settings it saved there before are still read.
- Mods that read every field of a game object at once run too, behind a crash guard of their own.
- 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.
- 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
- The game's menus keep their top bar (the ship's name, tabs and currencies) and button prompts over the loader's menu and monitor.
- No mod may start programs or write to your Desktop, so a mod's buttons that export logs or open a web page do nothing here.
FAQ
- Do I need the HD2 Lua Runtime for its mods? No. Chef Shared Loader runs them by itself. Keep Chef Shared Loader at the highest priority.
- Can a mod write game files? Only a trusted mod, and only after you turn on its "Game patch files" row in F9 > Chef Shared Loader (off until you do; you can turn it off again at any time). A notice tells you when a mod asks.
- 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. What a trusted mod gets is set for that mod alone: its own lobby key, its own save folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%, or 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.
- Do mods or tools that change game memory work? No Lua mod can read or write game memory since the 7.2.0 update, with this loader or any other; chef_loader.log says so when one tries to start. Tools that edit the game's files outside the game don't need a loader and aren't affected.
- Do settings-file mods work? Yes. Their installer is run too, as the game would run it; follow their own steps.
- My other mod uses F9 too. Pick another key in F9 > Chef Shared Loader > Open this menu.
- F9 does nothing. Something else has the key before the game sees it: on many laptops the F keys do volume, brightness and the like unless Fn is held (or Fn-lock is on), so try Fn+F9; an app with an F9 hotkey takes it too. chef_loader.log names the menu's key at every start. To pick another key without the menu, see "If F9 does nothing" in the README on GitHub; a controller opens the menu too (hold the touchpad / View button two seconds on the ship).
- 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, and the calls of its that crashed are tried again. 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). A mod made only for Chef Shared Loader adds -- HD2-Requires: chef-shared-loader, so other loaders know to skip it.
- 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.
- Language files: a Lua resource starting -- HD2-Lang: mods/yourname/language that returns only data (a name, exact texts, optional patterns). See "Language files" in docs/MODDING.md.
- Carrying the start-up stub: a mod may ship the loader's start-up stub (chef_loader_stub.lua on the GitHub release), byte for byte, as its own boot: free, no credit needed. Without the loader installed it does just what the game's own boot does.
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: the boot-script fixes, the mod list and health file, and the resource index in 1.1.0; what an HD2 Lua Runtime mod needs and asks for, the live palette material calls and the trusted mods' inbox views (1.3.0).
- Rosensterner: the full screen menu look, its title picture, and the controller and mouse support in the options menu (1.2.0).
- MCTimeRL: the report on what kept UTF-8 (Chinese) text out of the game's font, with a working translated build, and the idea for language files (1.2.0); the key chips on the menu's hint line (1.2.2).
Source code
Source, the guide for mod makers and every release are on GitHub: Th3chef/Chef-Shared-Loader
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