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Cape Modding: Beginner's Course

Welcome to the beginning of your Cape Modding Adventure.

This guide is aimed at those who have never made a mod before and would like to get started.

If you feel this guide holds your hand too much please check out our Intermediate Guide

Tools Needed

If you haven't already, download the following files.

Blender 4.0

The way we'll be using Blender is more akin to a menu. You won't need any prior Blender Experience to complete this course.

WARNING

Blender Version 4.0 is absolutely required.

Any version from 4.0 to 4.3 will suffice but versions beyond WILL NOT WORK.

Helldivers 2 SDK

Essential Software that we'll plug into Blender that will allow us to make our mod. Don't unzip this.

GIMP

This is a free image editor that we'll be using to make adjustments to our files.

WARNING

I'll be using GIMP 2.10 in this course.

But any version of GIMP 2 will work the same. The only difference will be the appearance and layout of the application.

Section 1: Setup

In this section we'll get our battlestation fully operational.

Adding the SDK

After you have downloaded and install all three programs open Blender 4.0.

Once Blender is open, left-click Edit -> PreferencesEditPreferences

Make sure the Add-ons section is highlighted blue on the left-side navigation bar. If it is not, left-click on it.

Afterwards left-click on Install... in the top-right of the window. addonsinstall

Next we'll select our zipped SDK file by left-clicking once. Then left-click the blue button on the bottom right of the file view window labelled Install Add-on. installSDK

Then we'll enable the SDK Add-on by:

  • Using the search bar on the top right to enter the term Helldiver.
  • Left-click the box next to Import-Export: Helldivers 2 SDK: Community Edition so it shows a checked box. installSDK

Leave this window open for the next segment.


GIMP File Path

To start off we'll need to find out GIMP-x.x.exe file.

To do this press the Windows Button and type GIMP. The top result should be GIMP followed by the version number you installed. Right-click that application and left-click Open File Location. Placeholder

This should bring you to your Start Menu/Programs shortcuts. Right-click GIMP again and left-click Open File Location once more. Placeholder

Now we should be in the Program Files/GIMP 2/bin folder. We'll copy the path to this folder by Left-clicking anywhere to the right of all the URL text. Placeholder

This will highlight the URL blue, press Ctrl+C to copy this text.


Back in Blender: If you accidentally closed the Preferences window; left-click Edit -> PreferencesEditPreferences

Next we'll select File Paths in the left navigation bar. Then click the drop-down arrow next to Applications. EditPreferences

Then left-click the folder icon to the right of the Image Editor field. Placeholder

Now we'll paste our GIMP 2/bin path we copied earlier.

With our new window we just opened in Blender, left-click on the URL bar and after it's highlighted blue press Ctrl+V to paste the path then press ENTER.

After that we need to find the gimp-x.x.exe file. In my case, I have GIMP 2.10 so the filename is gimp-2.10.exe.

Once you find it, left-click it once.

After that click the blue Accept button on the bottom right of the window. Placeholder

Our last step in this course is to close Blender.

We have now completed our Setup Section. Well done soldier.

Section 2: Modding Basics

In this section we will go over the essentials to modding capes.