Garry's Mod was a pretty weird project when it started out back in 2006. With very little content upfront, it offered a sandbox experience where you could use the physics engine that Source offers to goof around with your friends. But over the years the modding community slowly turned it into a sleeper hit, with multiple game modes that are now staples of the gaming industry, such as Trouble in Terrorist Town, Prop Hunt, Murder and so much more.
PC Games With The Most Active Modding Communities
But while Garry's Mod offers a ton of functionality, the modding community stepped in to deliver even more tools to help create game modes, maps, player models, and so much more. Let's have a look at some of the best tools that can enhance your Garry's Mod creations.
7 Wiremod
This mod contains a large collection of entities that are connectable through wires, allowing you to create more complex and fun contraptions. You can use it to link teleporters, star gates, combine doors, and so much more. If you have the know-how, you can even use Wiremod to create your own controllable vehicles.
If you're a fan of Rube Goldberg machines, you create an entire map focused on the concept via this mod. The only real problem with it is the big learning curve. It might take a few hours before you get accustomed to it and start using it effectively.
6 More Materials
With a name that says it all, More Materials is a mod that brings a ton of textures to Garry's Mod from Half-Life, Half-Life 2, or CS: Source. It will help you unleash your artistic vision on any map that you create in Garry's Mod. If you want to make a vehicle completely of cheese, More Materials has got you covered.
The only limitation to this mod is your imagination. If you want to use it on a multiplayer server make sure that everyone else installs this mod, otherwise they'll be looking at empty walls.
5 Precision Tool
You'll often here complaints about the base tools that Garry's Mod offers. Some of them have certain issues, especially when it comes to building. This is where Precision Tool comes in, making the base building tools more precise and intuitive.
If you've dreamed about building a masterpiece but always found the basic tools lacking, Precision Tool can help unleash that creative spark. Whether you're into creating maps, buildings, or fun contraptions, this mod will make sure everything is inch-perfect.
4 Player Status Icon
Even though it mostly caters to multiplayer, Garry's Mod lacks some basic functionalities. By activating this mod on your server, all players will have some extra information about what they're doing above their heads. This can help you in decipher what exactly your buddy is doing before they drop that explosive barrel on your head.
Player Status Icon will show you what menu the player currently has open, whether they're AFK or not, and so forth. Over the years it has become a standard for the multiplayer community, with plenty of players asking for this type of functionality in the base game.
3 Customizable Weaponry 2.0
If you're a fan of Escape from Tarkov, you probably love the weapon customization options that it offers. Customizable Weaponry 2.0 tries to bring a bit of that into Garry's Mod, offering new weapon options with tons of customizable elements.
Choose your ideal scope, stock, magazine, or any attachment you can imagine with hundreds of options at your disposal. While the mod tries to emulate the recoil and weight in the best way it can, it is still limited by the Source engine, so don't expect to practice your Tarkov skills here.
2 VJ Base
This is one of the more advanced tools on this list since you can pretty much create other types of mods with it. The main focus is to help you create NPC's for your maps. You can choose from a myriad of customization options for those NPC's, including animations, sounds they make, and behavior systems.
With a bit of effort put into it, VJ Base can open up a new world of possibilities when it comes to multiplayer maps. If you want to create an NPC vendor that explodes into confetti after you make a purchase, with a bit of work, VJ Base can help you with that.
1 Enhanced Player Model Selector
If you've been dabbling with Garry's Mod on various multiplayer servers, you're well aware that choosing your player model is usually extremely buggy. Most players will end up having hundreds of models to choose from, and no way to organize them. This is where this mod steps in, enabling the sandbox model selector in any game mode you want.
While it doesn't offer a lot of extra functionality, it does allow you to change your player model on the go, without having to respawn. You can even blacklist this mod for certain game modes where it could cause issues. Enhanced Player Model Selector is compatible with a ton of player model packs or adjacent mods, so the possibilities are endless. If you want to dress your entire crew like Pokemon for a game of Guess Who, then this is the ideal mod for you.