Steammodded for iOS Build Guide for Dummies

[thealyxvancereal]

I did a lot of dumb stuff getting mods to sideload onto my iPhone, so I decided to make a guide to help everyone else. This has both Linux and Windows instructions, though you need a virtual machine with USB passthrough on Linux, or a way to transfer files wirelessly.
Big thanks to Aurelius7309 and yumiyacha1, I've pretty much paraphrased what they've said into something more comprehensible.

What you need

• iTunes and iCloud
• Sideloadly working and ready to install apps
• A copy of modded Balatro
• BalatroMobileMaker for your operating system and CPU architecture
• (Optional but saves a lot of time) iMazing

Windows Installation

1. Press Windows + R, type in %appdata%, and navigate to your Balatro folder.
2. Put the BalatroMobileCompat mod into the "Mods" folder, along with any other mods you want to use on your phone. Note that some mods do not work, such as SystemClock.
3. Run Balatro from Steam, then close it. This does something to make all the mods do something they need to do, I actually don't know.
4. Make a folder on your desktop and put the following in it:

• A copy of your Mods folder from Step 4 (paste the folder, not the folders in it)
• Optionally any save data folders, numbered 1-3 (or M1-3 for Cryptid mod)
• All of the files and folders in Mods/Lovely/Dump
• nativefs.lua from Mods/Steammodded/Libs/nativefs/nativefs.lua
• json.lua from Mods/Steammodded/Libs/json/json.lua
• A new folder in your folder on the desktop called SMODS
• version.lua in the SMODS folder, gotten from Mods/Steammodded/version.lua
• A file called lovely.lua with the contents return { repo = "https://github.com/ethangreen-dev/lovely-injector", version = "0.7.1", mod_dir = os.getenv("HOME") .. "/Documents/game/Mods", }

5. Run BalatroMobileMaker, it's recommended to get it to clean up after. Go through the prompts until you reach "Would you like to build for Android? (y/n)". Select no. It then asks to build for iOS. Select yes. then continue installation.
6. Sideload balatro.ipa onto your iPhone with Sideloadly. It should be in the "Downloads" folder. This guide will help if you don't know how to already.
7. When Balatro is done sideloading, open the Balatro app once, lose a blind, then close it.
8. Go into iTunes with your phone connected to your PC via USB. Click on the phone icon to the right of "Music" at the top. Click it again.
   10A. (slower). Drag the folder on your desktop into the Balatro Documents section on iTunes. Go into the files app on your phone, and copy every file in the folder from your desktop you copied into the "game" folder.
   10B. (faster). Open iMazing and navigate to your Balatro "game" folder, open the folder from your desktop, and drag its contents into iMazing. Click proceed when there is a pop-up for file transfer.
9. Modded Balatro should just work now! Sticky Fingers is a must-have mod for me, it ports the Android touch controls since the original mobile maker doesn't come with it.

Linux installation

Copy your Balatro folder from .steam/steam/steamapps/common to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps in your Windows Virtual machine so that BalatroMobileMaker sees your install, copy over your Mods folder from .steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/2379780/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/AppData/Roaming/Balatro/, and optionally your saves from the same location. Then just follow Windows Installation in the Virtual Machine.

Hope this helped anyone who was confused the same way I was!

[VaradAnnadate]

Thanks alot! I was able to play Multiplayer Balatro on my phone!

[VaradAnnadate]

Cryptid Mod – iOS Shader Fix

While installing the Cryptid mod, I encountered multiple GLSL ES (OpenGL ES) shader compilation errors on iOS. To resolve these issues, I modified the shader files to ensure compatibility. Sharing this here in case it helps others facing similar problems.

✅ Requirements

• Modified astral.fs shader file

🔧 Installation Instructions

1. Complete the Windows installation steps up to Step 4.
2. Navigate to the following directory in the folder you created on your desktop: Mods/Cryptid/assets/shaders
3. Replace the existing astral.fs file with the modified version linked above.
4. Proceed with the remaining installation steps as usual.

You should now be able to run the Cryptid mod on iOS without shader-related crashes.

Known Issues

• Game saves do not work
• Some shaders like Glitched do not show up properly

[KelFO1]

sorry if this sounds dumb but, what if i use altstore with livecontainer? can i still do it then? beacuse im finding this "read only file" issue and cant find any fixes aside from jailbreaking or funky needs mac stuff

[VaradAnnadate]

sorry if this sounds dumb but, what if i use altstore with livecontainer? can i still do it then? beacuse im finding this "read only file" issue and cant find any fixes aside from jailbreaking or funky needs mac stuff

Absolutely! I personally use sidestore with live container. I do not have any issues while using this setup! Mind elaborating your issue? So maybe we can try to fix it!

[KelFO1]

sorry if this sounds dumb but, what if i use altstore with livecontainer? can i still do it then? beacuse im finding this "read only file" issue and cant find any fixes aside from jailbreaking or funky needs mac stuff

Absolutely! I personally use sidestore with live container. I do not have any issues while using this setup! Mind elaborating your issue? So maybe we can try to fix it!

Okay so i follow everything up correctly until the balatro "game" folder part, beacuse for this what i do is, in iMazing, go to the livecontainer app, documents folder, applications, then org.(randomstuff).balatro.app, but when i try to drag the contents over to the file, it says its "read only and cannot be modified". I'm not sure if im in the wrong folder or it may be beacuse i have another balatro app also loaded into LiveContainer beacuse i couldnt get the mobilemaker to work

[VaradAnnadate]

sorry if this sounds dumb but, what if i use altstore with livecontainer? can i still do it then? beacuse im finding this "read only file" issue and cant find any fixes aside from jailbreaking or funky needs mac stuff

Absolutely! I personally use sidestore with live container. I do not have any issues while using this setup! Mind elaborating your issue? So maybe we can try to fix it!

Okay so i follow everything up correctly until the balatro "game" folder part, beacuse for this what i do is, in iMazing, go to the livecontainer app, documents folder, applications, then org.(randomstuff).balatro.app, but when i try to drag the contents over to the file, it says its "read only and cannot be modified". I'm not sure if im in the wrong folder or it may be beacuse i have another balatro app also loaded into LiveContainer beacuse i couldnt get the mobilemaker to work

Ahh! I see what you are trying to do! what I'll suggest is make a zip file of the folder created on desktop! and then mail the file to your iPhone and download the file and unzip it somewhere. The good part about using live container is you can access it's internal files from the native files app on iOS! Navigate toOn My iPhone\LiveContainer\Data\Application\{Data_Folder_of_Balatro*}\Documents\game . Here you have to just move the unzipped files and folders.

*To know what's the name of the data folder of your balatro installation! just run the game once and close it! Open the live container application and just below the balatro icon and name will be the data folder name, consisting of random alphanumeric characters

[KelFO1]

Ahh! I see what you are trying to do! what I'll suggest is make a zip file of the folder created on desktop! and then mail the file to your iPhone and download the file and unzip it somewhere. The good part about using live container is you can access it's internal files from the native files app on iOS! Navigate toOn My iPhone\LiveContainer\Data\Application\{Data_Folder_of_Balatro*}\Documents\game . Here you have to just move the unzipped files and folders.

*To know what's the name of the data folder of your balatro installation! just run the game once and close it! Open the live container application and just below the balatro icon and name will be the data folder name, consisting of random alphanumeric characters

Alright i’ll try this and update if it works or doesn’t

[KelFO1]

Ahh! I see what you are trying to do! what I'll suggest is make a zip file of the folder created on desktop! and then mail the file to your iPhone and download the file and unzip it somewhere. The good part about using live container is you can access it's internal files from the native files app on iOS! Navigate toOn My iPhone\LiveContainer\Data\Application\{Data_Folder_of_Balatro*}\Documents\game . Here you have to just move the unzipped files and folders.
*To know what's the name of the data folder of your balatro installation! just run the game once and close it! Open the live container application and just below the balatro icon and name will be the data folder name, consisting of random alphanumeric characters

Alright i’ll try this and update if it works or doesn’t

Well, the file (singular, dont know if thats ANOTHER issue), which i called folder2, is in {Balatro_Folder}\Documents\game, but the game itself doesnt change from regular and im starting to assume maybe there were meant to be various files rather than one big one, i redid the process but there was no change in title screen, start-up screen, etc.

[Banan1r]

Does this guide work with trollstore? Im not able to find balatro in iMazing and I cant tell if im looking in the wrong place or if trollstore making it a system app just causes it to not appear

[VaradAnnadate]

Ahh! I see what you are trying to do! what I'll suggest is make a zip file of the folder created on desktop! and then mail the file to your iPhone and download the file and unzip it somewhere. The good part about using live container is you can access it's internal files from the native files app on iOS! Navigate toOn My iPhone\LiveContainer\Data\Application\{Data_Folder_of_Balatro*}\Documents\game . Here you have to just move the unzipped files and folders.
*To know what's the name of the data folder of your balatro installation! just run the game once and close it! Open the live container application and just below the balatro icon and name will be the data folder name, consisting of random alphanumeric characters

Alright i’ll try this and update if it works or doesn’t

Well, the file (singular, dont know if thats ANOTHER issue), which i called folder2, is in {Balatro_Folder}\Documents\game, but the game itself doesnt change from regular and im starting to assume maybe there were meant to be various files rather than one big one, i redid the process but there was no change in title screen, start-up screen, etc.

Ohh I see 🤔 which mod were you trying to install on your phone?

[VaradAnnadate]

Does this guide work with trollstore? Im not able to find balatro in iMazing and I cant tell if im looking in the wrong place or if trollstore making it a system app just causes it to not appear

Cant say! I have never used troll store.

[KelFO1]

Ahh! I see what you are trying to do! what I'll suggest is make a zip file of the folder created on desktop! and then mail the file to your iPhone and download the file and unzip it somewhere. The good part about using live container is you can access it's internal files from the native files app on iOS! Navigate toOn My iPhone\LiveContainer\Data\Application\{Data_Folder_of_Balatro*}\Documents\game . Here you have to just move the unzipped files and folders.
*To know what's the name of the data folder of your balatro installation! just run the game once and close it! Open the live container application and just below the balatro icon and name will be the data folder name, consisting of random alphanumeric characters

Alright i’ll try this and update if it works or doesn’t

Well, the file (singular, dont know if thats ANOTHER issue), which i called folder2, is in {Balatro_Folder}\Documents\game, but the game itself doesnt change from regular and im starting to assume maybe there were meant to be various files rather than one big one, i redid the process but there was no change in title screen, start-up screen, etc.

Ohh I see 🤔 which mod were you trying to install on your phone?

Cryptid, Sticky Fingers and their necessities