Once Human: How to Add Mods on Gear or Weapon

Mods drive most of your combat power in Once Human. You can fit them two ways. You can start from the mod and pick a weapon, or start from the weapon and pick a mod. Both routes use the same mod pool, and both take a few seconds once you know where the menus are.

Quick answer: Open your menu, go to the Mods tab, pick a mod, select a weapon or armor piece in the Select Gear list, and press F to equip it.

Equip a weapon mod from the Mods tab

The Mods tab is the fastest route when you already know which mod you want. It lists your whole collection by category, and from there you choose which weapon gets the mod.

Open your main menu. On PC, the backpack opens with I. Along the top you’ll see Backpack, Gear, Tech – Cradle, Blueprints, Mods, and Cosmetics.

Select the Mods tab. A second row of tabs appears, with Weapon first and then the six armor slots: Helmet, Top, Bottoms, Shoes, Gloves, and Mask.

Navigating to Mods Tab — The Mods tab gives weapons and each armor slot their own sub-tab. Shown at 00:10 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

Stay on the Weapon tab and click a mod family. Mods are grouped by effect type, such as Burn Mod, Frost Vortex Mod, and Bounce Mod.

Click the specific mod you want to use. Its card shows the effect, the level, the sub-attributes, and a Weapon Mode line. For example, Shattering Ice <General> lists “All Weapons,” so it fits anything in your arsenal.

Selecting a Weapon Mod — Selecting Shattering Ice in the Frost Vortex family shows its effect, level, and sub-attributes before you commit. Shown at 00:32 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

Choose a weapon from the Select Gear panel that opens on the right. The panel lists every weapon you own, from rifles and bows to melee tools like the Crowbar and Stun Baton.

Press F to equip. The prompt beside the highlighted weapon reads “Equip,” and pressing it binds the mod to that gun.

Equipping Mod to Gear — With KVD – Boom! Boom! highlighted in Select Gear, pressing F slots the mod onto it. Shown at 00:48 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

Check the Weapon Mode line before you equip. Some mods work only on melee weapons, such as Melee Amplifier, and others work only on ranged weapons, such as Munitions Amplifier.

Replace a mod that’s already equipped

A weapon holds one mod, so swapping is just the equip process pointed at a weapon that already has a mod. Pick the new mod, select the weapon in Select Gear, and the prompt changes from “Equip” to “F Replace Mod.” Press F and the new mod overwrites the old one.

Before you confirm, the screen puts the incoming mod next to the one it’s replacing. Moving from Shattering Ice to Multi-Bounce <Precision>, for example, trades Magazine Capacity and Reload Efficiency for Weakspot DMG and Weapon DMG. Hold Shift if you want to hide that comparison.

Replacing an Equipped Mod — Multi-Bounce is compared with the equipped Shattering Ice before the swap goes through. Shown at 01:03 in HeRo Survival Guides’s video. Image: Starry Studio

Moving mods around has no cost or penalty, so you can test combinations as often as you like.

Armor mods: one slot at a time

Armor mods use the same pick-select-press-F flow. The difference is that each armor piece has its own tab and its own mod pool, so you equip them one slot at a time:

Helmet (includes mods like Precise Strike, Deviation Expert, First-Move Advantage, and Mag Expansion)
Top
Bottoms
Shoes
Gloves
Mask

A helmet mod can’t go on gloves, and the reverse is also true. Open the matching tab, pick a mod, select the armor piece, and press F.

Add mods from the Gear menu instead

If you’d rather start from the item, every weapon and armor piece has its own mod slot inside its customization screen. This route works well when you’re building around a specific gun or jacket.

Begin by opening the Gear menu. Press K on PC; on console, open your inventory and navigate to the Gear tab.

Choose the weapon or armor item you want to change, using a right-click or selection. For weapons, this brings up Weapon Customization, with Mods, Accessory, and Cosmetics tabs.

In the Mods tab, click the blank slot marked with a plus icon. The Mod Backpack opens, showing every mod that fits that item, sorted into categories like All Mods, Burn Mods, and Shrapnel Mods.

Double-click the mod you want. It drops into the slot, and the item’s stats update right away. Putting Lifeforce Boost on a Rustic Jacket, for instance, adds its bonus to the jacket’s stat readout.

Mods screen controls (PC)

Key	Action
F	Equip / Replace Mod
Shift	Hidden Comparisons
Tab	Manage the list
T	Mod Shop
Esc	Back

Under the current mod system, the Mods Field Guide always serves up the highest-level copy of each mod you’ve ever obtained. The version you equip is your best one, and your collection carries over between scenarios.

How to tell a mod is equipped

There are three quick checks. Any mod already fitted to a piece of gear shows a letter E in the top-right corner of its icon in your mod list. Selecting that gear again with a different mod switches the prompt to “Replace Mod” instead of “Equip.” The item’s stat panel also reflects the mod’s bonuses once it’s slotted. If you see all three, the mod is active and you’re good to head back out.