A guide to addons for Guild Wars 2 on Linux

[HikariKnight]

Introduction

So on windows, the majority of people use Blish HUD and love it (i do too!).
However Blish HUD has some issues on Linux which makes it not so appealing to use.

The good thing though is that the most common thing people care about from Blish actually works in Linux, that being markers! You just have to use Burrito instead for loading the markers which often are based on TaCO.

For ArcDPS we will just use ArcDPS as it is already fully working in Linux and we will load burrito_link to display markers while Raidcore Nexus handles all the loading and managing of the addons.

For any other addons we will use Raidcore Nexus which will also chainload Burrito. This is an addon loader which works inside the game through an overlay and also has some of the addons from blish (or somilar ones), one example being the Radial menu for mounts in blish called “Mounts & More”, in Raidcore Nexus they have “Radial Menu” instead. A lot of the useful things are still in Raidcore.

Now to tie all of this together we will use

• Scopebuddy (pre-installed on Bazzite) to notify about and update ArcDPS before anything launches and also modify the gw2 launch options in my case as i have an ArenaNet account for the game instead of a Steam account
• Raidcore Nexus to let us use ArcDPS and other addons along with Burrito for markers

If you are migrating from the old Gw2AddonManager setup, please follow these migration steps first!

1. Delete or rename your addons folder (it will conflict with the one from Raidcore Nexus and crash the game)
2. Delete the Gw2AddonManager directory we made in the Guild Wars 2 folder
3. Delete the d3d11.dll and dxgi.dll files from the Guild Wars 2 folder
4. Delete any d3d11.dll, dxgi.dll, d3dcompiler_43.dll and d3dcompiler_47.dll files from bin64 and bin64/cef

Remember to update the following files with the ones from the new guide below!

1. Update the arcdps manager script at ~/.config/scopebuddy/scripts/dl-arcdps
2. Update the scopebuddy config at ~/.config/scopebuddy/AppID/1284210.conf

Installation

NOTE: For simplicity in writing the guide, it will assume you want ArcDPS, Markers & other addons, the file structure will reflect this.

Increasing compatibility with some addons (this may no longer be needed, mentioned just in-case)

1. Install Guild Wars 2 through Steam (even if you use an ArenaNet account!) and open the launcher once and close it to generate the prefix for proton.
2. Run Protontricks (if it complains about not having access to your steam library locations, fix that with the command it gives you and re-launch Protontricks)
3. Select Guild Wars 2, click OK
   
   
4. Make sure Select the default wineprefix is selected and click OK
5. Click Install a Windows DLL or component
6. Select d3dcompiler_43, d3dcompiler_47 and d3d11_43 and click OK and wait (if you get an error about not using a socket, ignore it)
   
   

Configure ScopeBuddy (optional QoL)

NOTE: ScopeBuddy is used for updating ArcDPS before anything runs, and frankly i am tired of manually updating or removing it whenever it breaks the game. ArcDPS breaks frequently with updates so having an update check before launch is beneficial (especially if you have to temporarily delete the .dll to launch the game until the addon gets updated)

1. Make the config file in ~/.config/scopebuddy/AppID/1284210.conf
2. Add the below text to the config file and save

# Guild Wars 2
# Remove the line below to disable MangoHUD
export MANGOHUD=1
# Tell scopebuddy to not run the game inside nested gamescope
SCB_NOSCOPE=1

# Get the game directory from %command%
GAMEDIR=$(echo $command | awk -F '" "' '{ print $12 }' | sed 's/\/Gw2-64.exe//')

# Add launch arguments to Guild Wars 2
# "-provider Portal" lets you login with an ArenaNet account instead of using Steam Login
# If you use Steam to login, please remove "-provider Portal"
command+=" -provider Portal -maploadinfo"

# Uncomment and use this instead if you want to launch burrito automatically with the game (files must be inside a "burrito" folder in the "addons" folder in Guild Wars 2
# Make sure you uncomment this AFTER all addons have been setup
#command+=" -provider Portal -maploadinfo & sleep 10 && env -u LD_PRELOAD \"$GAMEDIR/addons/burrito/burrito.x86_64\""

# Run script to update arcdps if needed
bash "$SCB_CONFIGDIR/scripts/dl-arcdps" "$GAMEDIR"

# Allow modifying the game files (not sure if this is still needed)
export PRESSURE_VESSEL_FILESYSTEMS_RW="$(echo $GAMEDIR | sed 's/\s/\\ /g')"

Create the script file inside ~/.config/scopebuddy/scripts/dl-arcdps and put in the following

#!/bin/bash
GW2_DIR=$1
ARCDPS_DLL="$GW2_DIR/addons/ArcDPS.dll"
NEWMD5SUM=$(wget -qO- https://www.deltaconnected.com/arcdps/x64/d3d11.dll.md5sum | awk '{print $1}')
MD5SUM=$(md5sum "$ARCDPS_DLL" 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1}')
MANAGED_FILE="$GW2_DIR/.arcdps_managed"
MANAGED_ARCDPS=0
if [ -f "$MANAGED_FILE" ]; then
    MANAGED_ARCDPS=1
fi
if [ "$MD5SUM" != "$NEWMD5SUM" ] || [ -f "$MANAGED_FILE" ]; then
    dialog=$(yad --form --separator="," \
        --title="ArcDPS Manager" \
        --text="Update ArcDPS?\nNew MD5: $NEWMD5SUM\nOld MD5: $MD5SUM" \
        --field="Manage ArcDPS on every launch":CHK $MANAGED_ARCDPS \
        --button="Remove ArcDPS":6 \
        --button="Update ArcDPS":4 \
        --button="Launch GW2":2
        )
    status=$?
    IFS=, read -r MANAGED_ARCDPS <<< "$dialog"
    case $status in
        4)
            wget -O "$ARCDPS_DLL" https://www.deltaconnected.com/arcdps/x64/d3d11.dll ;;
        6)
            rm "$ARCDPS_DLL" ;;
    esac
    if [ "$MANAGED_ARCDPS" == "TRUE" ] && [ ! -f "$MANAGED_FILE" ]; then
        touch "$MANAGED_FILE"
    elif [ "$MANAGED_ARCDPS" == "FALSE" ] && [ -f "$MANAGED_FILE" ]; then
        rm "$MANAGED_FILE"
    fi
fi

This will create a nice manager for ArcDPS to update it whenever there is an update (or show it before launching Guild Wars 2 each time). The default is for this to only show when there is an update.

To make this dialog appear on every launch, add the file .arcdps_managed into your Guild Wars 2 folder or enable the checkbox before pressing any of the buttons.

NOTE: Every button will close the dialog, do the action you asked and then continue launching Guild Wars 2

Installing the Addons

1. Download Raidcore Nexus, we want the dll directly
   

   

2. Open Steam and right click on Guild Wars 2, click Properties

3. If you configured ScopeBuddy, set the Launch Options to scb -- %command% so the game will launch through scopebuddy in the future. If you are not using scopebuddy and just want to play with an ArenaNet account then set the Launch Options to -provider Portal

4. Then navigate to Installed Files and click Browse

5. Place the d3d11.dll from Raidcore Nexus here. It should look like this
   

   

6. Launch Guild Wars 2

7. If you configured ScopeBuddy, you will get a prompt to update ArcDPS, select if you want to show “ArcDPS Manager” on every launch if you want to, then click Launch GW2 for now (going forward after ArcDPS is installed, you will press Update ArcDPS if the MD5 checksums do not match).

   

8. Once in-game, press CTRL+O to open Raidcore Nexus, then navigate to Library

9. Install ArcDPS
   Note: ArcDPS or any addon you choose to install, will not vanish from the Library list until you navigate away from the Library tab after it is installed.

   

10. Go back to the Installed tab and Load ArcDPS, then close the game to continue installing the Pathing and Markers addon.

11. Download Burrito extract the files into addons/burrito and open the burrito_link folder and rename d3d11.dll to d3d11_chainload.dll and copy it to the Guild Wars 2 game folder so that it is next to the Raidcore Nexus d3d11.dll.

    

    NOTE: If importing TaCO packs does not work for you, use Burrito-next the pre-release version of burrito, as of writing there is a chance importing TaCO marker packs fails on Burrito version 1.0.0 for some people.

12. Download the TaCO marker packs you want (i personally use tekkit all in one, choose to just download the Marker Pack)

13. Launch Guild Wars 2

14. Launch Burrito after Guild Wars 2 has launched (otherwise it might not constantly appear over Guild Wars 2 when playing!)

15. If you have multiple monitors, Burrito might have launched on the wrong monitor (thank you wayland!), hold down the WIN button and left click and drag the Burrito icon to the correct monitor and place it along the top bar in Guild Wars 2
    
    

    

16. The Burrito icon and the Nexus icon will overlap! Open the Nexus window with CTRL+O and go to settings and change Location to Custom and change the offset (or be lazy and set Location to Under)
    

    

17. Click the Burrito icon and import any TaCO marker packs you have downloaded (importing them will temporarily freeze the interface, just grab a drink and wait).

18. While the Burrito menu is open, the game ignores any input and your screen will have a RED border!
    

    

19. Congratulations you now have ArcDPS (Settings opened with ALT+SHIFT+T), Raidcore Nexus (settings opened with CTRL+O) and Markers added to Guild Wars 2!

I know this will not give you all the awesomeness of BlishHUD, but i hope this will provide you with enough of the creature comforts

You can find Burrito settings and data files inside ~/.local/share/godot/app_userdata/Burrito/

Update 2025.06.08: Added a commented out line to the scopebuddy appid config for gw2 to launch burrito with the game.

Update 2025.09.13: If you want to automatically move burrito to the correct monitor automatically on KDE then you can use these window rules in the system settings, just change the Position width to the correct one (you can grab the value by moving burrito to the correct location then use Detect Window Properties button and click on the burrito icon)

[ScAmp3R]

Great guide!
If I may I’d like to add some additional information for other people on different distros.

I’m running nobara42 with KDE.

I needed to install scopebuddy, I didn’t see any error message from Steam about that.
Maybe obvious but there you go.

About screen configuration: I’m using 3 screens and one of them is vertical, I think burrito is getting the total pixel of your desktop and draws in your theoretical top left corner depending on max height and max width. But there’s no screen.
I manually disabled the vertical screen in the display configurations and then burrito was drawing in the visible area so I could drag it around where it belongs to and made a rule to force the position. After that I could enable the screen and burrito was showing up in the correct position.

One Question:
Could you modify the scopebuddy command so that either the GW launcher or the GWUOAOM launcher starts and not both of them?
EDIT: Found the lines in the scopebuddy config. You already did that.

Thanks!

[HikariKnight]

thanks!

i am looking into migrating this setup away from gw2addonmanager to something more up to date like raidcore nexus (someone today ingame actually mentioned this to me), as it would simplify this setup a bunch!

However currently burrito (i believe) will cause gw2 to crash when using raidcore

[HikariKnight]

success!

I will be testing this then updating the guide, benefits include:

• Much easier setup
• Burrito/Markers no longer relying on the ArcDPS addon working
• Easier installation and management of new addons from within the game
• Has in-game UI instead of separate application
• Can be migrated to (just requires to remove a lot of dll files spread across the gw2 and bin64 folder)
• Access to more mods similar or identical to the ones in BlishHUD (example: Regions of Tyria)
• Might no longer require the ArcDPS manager script in scopebuddy (thereby removing scopebuddy as a hard requirement unless you want the ArcDPS manager, which i will update to work with this new loader)

[HikariKnight]

Guide has been updated with migration from GW2AddonManager and also with setup instructions for Raidcore Nexus as the new addon loader.

Enjoy having a lot more features from Blish!

[anaeijon]

Just wanted to leave a note here:

I roughly followed this guide and it works great. Because I had modded my GW2 installation a lot over the years I kept carrying that Bottle over from one installation to the next, I ran into bigger problems with Raidcore Nexus, even after trying to remove all mods.

I did a full reinstall and it fixed all my problems.

How to do a quick re-install without re-download

If you want to do a full reinstall but don’t want to re-download the (over) 90GB of game files, you can simply move the large the Gw2.dat from your GuildWars2-Folder somewhere else and delete the whole Proton/Wineprefix. I then installed GW2 again using the Bottles script. After logging in, you can close the launcher and move the Gw2.dat back into the appropriate folder, overwriting whatever the launcher has downloaded already. This should reset your installation to a completely clean GW2.

After that, just drop the d3d11.dll from Raidcore Nexus and everything should be fine.

If you are using Bottles, I also highly recommend activating LatencyFleX and Post Processing for that bottle.

Linux-compatible Taco/BilshHUD-alternative

Also, there is an awesome new contender to Taco available: TaimiHUD

It’s specifically made to be more compatible on Linux, natively implemented for Nexus and ArcDPS, hugely improves performance and, because it runs completely in GW2 and not as an external overlay, just works out of the box without having to change KDE display settings.

Currently, to get full Taco-path compatibility, you have to manually replace the TaimiHUD.dll with newer v0.3 release candidates from their GitHub release page and then reload the extension in Nexus.
Nexus also doesn’t load the proper sources.toml for it, but you can also grab that from the release page of another GitHub repo.

[HikariKnight]

TaimiHUD is something i am keeping an eye on, and i am looking forward to it improving, right now its not in a state i can recommend though as it is not as simple as burrito