When I click load on a save and i don't have the mods that i had in the save, it shows me a confirmation box, and when i click Sync mods and load, in the Correct list, you can uncheck the base mod.
Sync mods with save box with base unchecked
08-18-2025, 12-36-01.png (33.44 KiB) Viewed 113 times
I have never risked loading factorio without the base mod, but as a progammer, I suspect that if it does not automatically turn it on in the background on load, Factorio will crash, if it would crash on load then it potentially hardlocks the player making them reinstall Factorio or manually turn on the base mod in one of the settings files , unless Factorio's essential files are outside of the base mod and it can work properly without it