The best Star Wars mods

For as long as there have been PC games, there have been modders turning them into Star Wars games. Some mods add stormtrooper skins or lightsabers, and some are massively ambitious total conversions that warrant recognition as full Star Wars games in their own right.

Whether you're looking for a few cosmetic additions or you want your game to be completely transported to a galaxy far, far away, here are the best Star Wars mods for PC games.

Star Wars: A Galaxy Divided for Stellaris

Stellaris makes a great fit for some sprawling Star Wars strategy. This total conversion adds a galaxy with almost 1,000 systems, Republic and Empire ship sets, accurately named and located planets and hyperlane routes, plus custom loading screens and ambient Star Wars music. It even includes the Force as a trait that may be found in some leaders, and can lead to the discovery of new technologies. —Chris Livingston

Hero Blast for Star Wars Battlefront

This mod is the restoration of a mode for Star Wars Battlefront that never saw the light of day: Hero Blast. Dug up by data miners and reconstructed by modders, this 6v6 deathmatch actually trumps the game's official modes with small, intense battles and frenetic action, making it a shame it was never fully realized and released by the development team. Thanks to the mod, we can finally play it. —Chris Livingston

Star Wars Imperial Armor for XCOM 2

The highly moddable XCOM 2 is the perfect game to slide in some Star Wars, and this nice-looking armor pack adds a little of the old (classic stormtrooper armor) and a little of the new (First Order stormtroopers). You'll also find Death troopers from Rogue One, and there are plans to add more armor sets in the future. —Chris Livingston

Tides of War for Freelancer

Freelancer and Star Wars are a perfect fit, and years ago several modders teamed up to mash the two realities together. Set in the time period following Emperor Palpatine's unfortunate excursion into a reactor core, the rebels have gained power but the war—the star war—is far from over. Pilot all sorts of ships from the Star Wars universe, from the plucky X-wing to a massive star destroyer. —Chris Livingston

Star Wars: Requiem for Sins of a Solar Empire

While most Star Wars mods take the form of total conversions that replace near every aspect, Requiem takes a different approach. It posits the theory that Sins of a Solar Empire and Star Wars take place in the same universe—and shows what would happen if the two worlds were to ever collide. Predictably, after stumbling upon Sins' little patch of spacetime, the Empire decides to conquer it in the name of ol' Electric Hands himself, Emperor Palpatine. In response, the warring factions of Sins come together as the Alliance. As an extension of Sins rather than an entire overhaul, Requiem should suit players who don't want to throw its finely tuned balance out with the bathwater. —Tom Sykes

Conquest for Mount & Blade

An astonishingly ambitious mod for the medieval sword- ’em-up that fully integrates the Star Wars universe from the galaxy-spanning world map to lightsaber combat, custom races and working speeders. It’s not available for Mount & Blade: Warband, however, so if that’s your preferred platform you should look up the Bear Force II mod instead. Yes, that’s its real name. —Chris Thursten

Warlords for Homeworld 2

With a Remastered version on the way, this is one of the most stunning Star Wars total conversions ever made. It’s more ambitious than most retail games, incorporating the full roster of factions from the films plus the Yuuzhan Vong from the (now deprecated) expanded universe novels. The scale is immense, with squadrons of X-Wings tangling with everything up to—and including—Super Star Destroyers. —Chris Thursten

Sins of a Galactic Empire for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Sins of Galactic Empire is a total overhaul mod with its roots in Homeworld 2: Warlords. As the Galactic Civil War rages on, pick from a vast range of factions: the Confederacy of Independent Systems, the Galactic Republic, the New Republic, the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance and the Yuuzhan Vong with their weird organic ships. As this is Sins we're talking about, there are also NPC pirates who will show up to ruin all your warmongering plans. Sins' slow pace and huge galaxies are a great fit for the enormous Star Wars universe, bringing the Galactic Civil War to life on an epic scale. —Tom Sykes

First Strike for Battlefield 2142

The 2142 community has struggled to maintain new multiplayer mods since EA axed the servers, so the next release for this Star Wars total conversion will focus on singleplayer. Multiplayer mods may be possible again fairly soon, however. That’s a good thing: First Strike amounts to an interim sequel to Battlefront II, with dogfighting, a selection of vehicles, and a range of detailed maps. —Chris Thursten

Galactic Conquest for Battlefield 1942

This Battlefield 1942 mod lets you choose between the Galactic Civil war and the Clone Wars, then do battle on land or in space. Engage AT-AT walkers in your snow speeder and pilot the Millennium Falcon among hulking star destroyers, or choose from other vehicles from the Star Wars universe. This mod was first released in 2006 but is still receiving attention from its makers. —Chris Livingston

Vector Prime for Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage

Vector Prime is another mod that explores the Galactic Civil War—well-worn territory if you've played similar mods for Sins of a Solar Empire or Homeworld. It's the differences to the base game that give each mod a unique flavour, bleeding through the samey TIE Fighter and Millennium Falcon assets to show the conflict in a new light. Haegemonia's complex RTS mechanics complement Star Wars pretty well, and this mod even embellishes them to a degree. Vector Prime adds a random map generator to proceedings, so no two games need ever be the same. —Tom Sykes

Imperial Architect for Prison Architect

In truth, this is more a reskinning than a full conversion, but it adds enough Star Wars flavor to Prison Architect for inclusion here. Guards are replaced with various types of stormtroopers and officers, dogs look like probe droids, and every bedspread bears the Imperial logo. Adorable. If you've ever dreamt of managing (or escaping from) an Imperial prison cell block, now you can. —Chris Livingston

Galactic Warfare for COD4: MW

Despite the aging engine, this is one of the better-looking modern Star Wars games—let alone mods. It’s a total conversion for Modern Warfare’s multiplayer that incorporates Star Wars weapons to a rare degree of fidelity. A huge effort went into building maps that feel like replicas of the movie sets, and the foundation of an already-strong shooter enhances the feel of combat from the outset. —Chris Thursten

Star Wars Eternal Conflicts for Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

With the Kickstarter for Nexus 2 failing to get off the ground back in 2012, mods will be our only way to enjoy more of the cromulent The Jupiter Incident for the foreseeable future. The battle-focused tactical RTS was a one-of-a-kind, so if you want a Star Wars-themed strategy game that doesn't waste time with base-building or resource-gathering, then you've found it. There's a good chance Eternal Conflicts might never be entirely finished, but you can't accuse it of lacking ambition: it encompasses moments from the entirety of Star Wars history. —Tom Sykes

Republic at War for Star Wars: Empire at War: Forces of Corruption

A total conversion mod for an existing Star Wars game—how does that work? It works because the Star Wars universe is pretty damned sizeable, its history well-detailed and long. In Republic at War, the base game's Empire are swapped for the Galactic Republic, while the Rebel Alliance tag in the Confederacy. This allows the mod to tell the story of the soggy prequel trilogy of films, while diving into the Clone Wars cartoon to re-enact campaigns including the Outer Rim Sieges. —Tom Sykes

Thrawn's Revenge II: Ascendancy for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion

Ascendancy extends the story of Star Wars past the original film trilogy, exploring what happens after the Emperor falls down that big shaft, and the Empire collapses in his absence. You can play as either the New Republic (formerly the Alliance), or as the remains of the shattered Empire, as they fight to assert control over a fractured galaxy. Yes this is Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion again, but with a new time period, units, and a bunch of other changes that should help make it feel fresh. —Tom Sykes

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.