Modding Skyrim on The Steamdeck

Launch Skyrim and create a new save so that the game makes all of the necessary files.

Quit out of the game and restart Steam in desktop mode.

(Optional Step) For a slight boost in fps, change the settings to high (The default is ultra) and make sure windowed mode and borderless are both on. On SteamDeck, the options menu on startup is turned off by default so you'll need to go into launch options and paste this command: SteamDeck=0 %command% Once you've changed your settings, you can go back and delete that command from launch options.

Download SKSE here. Drag and drop the files into your Skyrim folder with the .exe. Pick the version that matches your game version. If you don't have the Anniversary Edition DLC, but you're running the latest version of Special Edition, you should still download the Anniversary Edition of SKSE regardless. You can find your Skyrim install folder by right-clicking the game on Steam, mouse over manage, and clicking browse local files.

Go to this site https://github.com/pikdum/steam-deck/ in a browser on the Steam Deck. Under the Install section, right-click on his link and "save as", name it "install.desktop" and save it to your downloads folder. Apps should now be created on your desktop. Run the Vortex installer.

Once Vortex is installed, you can search for it in your applications. Run Vortex and any available updates. You'll need to link your game folder. The SteamDeck uses drives J: for the internal drive and K: for your micro SD card. go in desktop mode

download the redistributable exe

move it to your skyrim installation folder(/home/deck/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/common/Skyrim Special Edition/)

rename SkyrimSELauncher.exe to something else, like SkyrimSELauncher.exe.bkp

rename the visual c++ redistributable exe to SkyrimSELauncher.exe

launch skyrim from steam and wait for the redistributable installer to pop up

install the redistributable

go back to your skyrim folder and restore SkyrimSELauncher.exe.bkp to its old name (delete the redistributable exe first)

launch skyrim