Skyrim was first released in 2011 on the previous console generation and PC, and to say it was a great game would be an understatement. It won countless awards and is almost always high ranking in Top 100 Best Games Lists. Spawning countless memes, and the various strange glitches we could manipulate, Skyrim is great and fun. Fans of the game helped push Skyrim to new heights, with a strong modding community on PC.
Due to the game's on-going popularity, we were blessed with a gorgeously overhauled newer, shinier Skyrim, bringing mod support to consoles for the first time. Here are our favorites.
We have compiled some of the coolest mods available right now for Skyrim: Special Edition. Since the game also includes all of the DLC, there is no need to worry about incompatibility. And we've only selected free mods, nothing from the Creators Club.
Note: Achievements are disabled while mods are active.
This mod gives you an alternate opening, where you're left to fester in a jail, forgotten, instead of the Helgen opening we know so well by now. You still get to pick your race, and your choices here still have as much of an impact on the rest of the game. This mod expands character creation so that you'll find yourself faced with a choice of 13 new beginnings.
Campfire - Complete Camping System
In addition to the new attributes you get in Frostfall, Campfire also grants you Resourcefulness and Instinct. Instinct allows you to stalk your prey and has its own skill system which can be accessed from any lit campfire.
Cheat Room
Less than 1MB in size, this cheat room has it all. It adds a spell to your roster and teleports you to a room where you can do anything. Resurrect NPCs (because seriously, eff those vampire attacks), spawn any item, make anyone a follower, as well as all the skills leveling up, and changing the weather. It's THE cheat mod to get.
Classic Oblivion Jail System
The jail system in Skyrim is pretty tame compared to Oblivion's. When you're locked up in jail in Skyrim, depending on the length of your sentence, you may lose progress towards your next level in a few skills. It's not really a hardship. This mod implements Oblivion's system, whereby the longer your sentence, the more levels you lose. Not just the progress towards them, actual levels. If you want being imprisoned to be any kind of threat, you should get this mod.
The Forgotten City
This award winning, critically acclaimed mod is, basically, a fan made expansion bordering on official DLC quality realms of brilliance. With this installed, from level 5 your character will be approached by a courier who directs you to the Forgotten City. What follows is a six-to-eight-hour original and non-linear experience, in an incredibly intricate and beautiful new city. Even boasting complex moral decisions with consequences, and several different endings, it would be a shame to miss out on such beautifully crafted modding!
Frostfall - Hypothermia Camping Survival
If you wanted to turn Skyrim into a potentially fatal survival game, Frostfall would be the mod to do it. The three main components of this mod are hypothermia, cold water survival, and camping. This mod tracks everything from time of day, and weather to what you are wearing to create an immediately immersive experience. Your character can visibly become wet and snowy. It is also deeply customizable, making the experience as pleasant or unpleasant as you feel comfortable with. It adds new attributes to your character, Wetness and Exposure, and defenses for Warmth and Coverage. As you get colder, it raises your Exposure, and your skills suffer as a result; and when you are Wet, it increases your Exposure quicker. Warmth will always reduce Exposure, and Coverage decreases Wetness. You'll need the following mod to implement the effects of this fully.
Hardcore Difficulty - No Milkdrinkers!
Ouch. If you thought the Legendary difficulty was hard, go cry off into your sweet roll, dumpling. This mod isn't for you. It scales the leveling of enemies, making higher level enemies tougher, and keeping weaker ones weak. It also tweaks the block rate and damage output, and forces enemy AI to close in proximity during combat. Install this mod while you have Legendary difficulty active to switch it on.
Immersive Citizens
The NPCs in Skyrim aren't the ost intelligent lifeforms you'll come across in gaming. In fact, the entire AI isn't the smartest, which is what Immersive Citizens attempts to address by making NPCs you come across feel a little more lively. They'll travel places, have more immersive schedules for each day and react better to any threats that may pop around the corner.
iNeed - Food, Water, Sleep
Couple this with Frostfall, and you've pretty much got yourself a Skyrim/The Sims cross-over. If keeping your Dragonborn alive wasn't hard enough, you'll now also have to make sure they're well rested, and well fed and watered. Messages appear to keep you informed of your status, as well as sound effects so you hear your stomach rumbling. The heavier the food, the more filling it is, and you'll begin the game with a waterskin but they can be crafted and purchased if you need more.
Just Walk - No Fast Travel
This mod disables fast travel options from the map screen. If you want to get somewhere, you'd better be prepared to use your legs. And why not, the overhauled graphics and lighting systems are wonderful to behold, it'd be a shame to waste so much exploring to fast traveling! Fast traveling by coach, boat or being arrested is unaffected.
Natural Eyes
If there's one thing I largely dislike about Skyrim, it's the default textures for eyes. Simply put, they're awful, with little to no detail, and why does there always have to be a 'blind in one eye' option? This mod replaces all of the eyes with newer high resolution versions. It beats staring at elves who look like they've had their eyes pulled out with corkscrews.
Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim
This is a great mod for those who want to level up but are tired of selecting the same old perk. Want to create an entirely new character from scratch with upgraded perk trees? Ordinator is the one for you! It has completely overhauled the perks system, adding new ones, so you have more fun building a character exactly how you want them.
People are Strangers XB1
If you ever thought it was a bit weird that for some reason you automatically knew every character's name without ever speaking to them before, install this mod. Now, instead of showing the NPC's name, it'll show a ? until you speak to them. Jarls will just be called The Jarl until you are introduced.
Rich Skyrim Merchants
You've just looted everything out of a dungeon, and you have so much expensive stuff to sell - but you have to offload it to multiple merchants to actually make any money. Vanilla Skyrim merchants don't often carry an excess of a thousand gold, making hoarding money a slow process, especially if you want to get on with homesteading. This Rich Skyrim Merchants mod gives every merchant five times more gold.
Sheogorath's Cheat Menu
There are other cheat mods available, and this certainly isn't the tidiest but I selected this one in particular due to one of the additional things it does. This mod spawns a book on a stool that you can find at the Standing Stones just after you escape from Helgen on your way to Riverwood. Selecting the book adds a spell to the Restoration section of your magic, which is the cheat menu. You can fast level, or add items and money, etc.. but you can also turn off collision detection, enabling you to bypass entire sections of the map just by aiming into the sky while you walk! See my personal screenshot above of this in action! The good thing about this cheat mod is that it only requires a free spell to launch.
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
The most comprehensive mod for straightening out all the bugs, kinks and glitches left in the game post-release. Made to be compatible with as many mods as possible, you'll want to install this for a cleaner and less messy game. The fact we still need an unofficial patch is rather laughable, though.
Over to you!
The list of mods available on Xbox One is still growing, and there are more being added daily. Have we missed any already that you think should be on this list? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
Updated on June 01, 2018: We refreshed the list, fixing any redirect issues with Bethesda moving pages and removing/adding mods.
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Before displaying the load order, add-on mods such as Frostfall must be loaded under their root mod on the screen (Campfire: Complete Camping System). Frostfall will load later of course, but for it to work, it’s dependent root mod Campfire must be first (higher on the list) and since it must remain above everything, this specific dependency is easy to manage.
After about five tries I finally make it, after taking a sprinting jump off the first floe and using my healing spell the moment I've got my boots on the next one. Having, I decided to buy and try out the new survival system. Skyrim nexus adult section. Even with the 100 free credits Bethesda gives you, you still need to spend $8 if you didn't grab the survival mode while it was free (I forgot to). SSE's survival mode costs 500 credits in the Club store, which is about $5, though naturally you can't buy $5 worth of credits: the minimum amount is 750 credits for $7.99. We've also got a list of.At the same time, I'm curious about the mode itself.
Taken Straight From Aleithian
INTRODUCTION: This is the product of Aleithian testing mod load orders on Xbox One. His list (later in guide) changes as he changes his personal mod selection and as new mods come out. At any given time, he can’t guarantee that the load order won’t cause glitches or CTDs.
This list is the result of a general guide to load order on Nexus (https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/753253-only-you-can-prevent-forest-fires/), a guide on Bethesda.net (https://beta-community.bethesda.net/topic/5795/how-to-load-order), reasonably extensive in-game testing, and direct discussion with modders on Bethesda.net.
REQUESTS: If you want help with your mod list, first rearrange the list according to the Structure given below. Reordering a mod list is time-consuming, and Aleithian and myself do not have a huge amount of free time, so please first make a good-faith effort to reorder your list.
“NOT ENOUGH STORAGE SPACE” GLITCH: If you get this message when installing mods, even though you have enough space, there’s no easy fix at the moment. You need to go to Skyrim > Manage Game > Delete reserved memory. This will wipe all your mods but will also clear the glitch. The fastest way to reinstall a large mod list is to search for and install your mods in order, i.e. start with USSEP and move down the list. Using a keyboard to enter the mod names rather than the controller will also speed things up.
MY NOTES BEFORE ALEITHIAN’S STRUCTURE:
This is cleanly figured out by redditor Aleithian and the rest of the team on the Skyrim reddit community that has worked with him. They discovered and tested the mod load order by type extensively without any problems. Use this basic guide for knowing where to place newly installed mods. In the next page, I will show you my personal load order based off this guide designed by Aleithian and the reddit team.
QUIRKS: Some mods that you wouldn’t think include a certain type of change, do in fact include that change. A good example is KS Lite, which many seem to think includes only hair. But it includes facial content too due to the way Bethesda coded hair. Hence, any facial mod that you want to run needs to be placed after KS Lite, or any other hair mod. Mods that change bodies also need to be placed after mods that change faces to avoid neck seams and pixilated faces. Be attentive to mod descriptions and comments on Bethesda.net. Remember that mods lower in the list overwrite mods higher in the list.
STRUCTURE:
Bug fixes (e.g. Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch)
Structure and UI Mods;
Overhauls (e.g. Campfire and Frostfall)
Mission and content correction (e.g. Cutting Room Floor)
Difficulty/level list mods
Race mods
Perk mods
UI mods
Cheat mods
Missions/Quests;
Environmental mods;
Global mesh mods (e.g. SMIM)
Weather/lighting mods
Foliage mods
Sound mods
Buildings;
Mods that add distributed or worldwide content (Dolmen Ruins or Oblivion Gates)
Mods that add or expand settlements
Mods that add individual buildings
Mods that modify building interiors
Items;
Item packs
Individual items
Gameplay;
AI mods (e.g. Immersive Citizens)
Robust gameplay changes (e.g. Marriage All, Alternate Start)
Expanded armor (e.g. Magic Books, Pouches)
Crafting mods
Other gameplay mods (e.g. Rich Merchants, Faster Greatswords)
NPCs;
Overhauls (e.g. Diverse Dragons)
Populated series
Other additions
Appearance mods;
Hairdo mods
Adorable Females
Face mods
Body mesh mods (e.g. Seraphim, Beautiful Mistresses, Dimon99 and Maevan2 Female body)
Natural Eyes
Other appearance mods
Texture mods;
Patches;
Patches for earlier mods (e.g. the Apocalypse-Ordinator Compatibility Patch)
Patches that alter content
Patches that disable content or purport to improve performance
Mods that mod creators request should appear last (e.g. Go Away Clouds!).
BASIC MOD LIST: Many Xbox users simply want a short list of major mods that modify some basic aspects of their game, without adding the kind of content Aleithian has in his list below. You should be able to select any mods from the list below and use them together (mods in italics may require some adjustment of the rest of the list). If you want a short list of mods, just extract the mods you want from the list below and place them in the indicated order. Be sure to check the [patch] section at the end – some mods require patches to work together.
Aleithian’s Extended Load Order (Recurrently Updated)
Mods in italics are no longer active in his load queue, but are popular. They are included to show you where to put them. Some require patches that he doesn’t list, and some are outright incompatible with mods in his list. Please consult the mod description for guidance.
Bug Fixes
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch (“USSEP”)
Game Structure and UI Mods
Climates of Tamriel (though an environment mod, it now defaults to the top)
Campfire
Better Gray Quarter
Frostfall
Open Cities (Incompatible with Project Hippie; May Conflict with Alternate Start Considering Research by /u/ApatheticPsycho; Be Sure to DL All Necessary Patches)
Cutting Room Floor
Even Better Quest Objectives (Be Sure to DL All Necessary Patches)
Paarthurnax Dilemma
Imperious
Phenderix Magic Evolved
Apocalypse
Ordinator
Missions/Quests
Falskaar
Conan
The Scarlet
Environmental Mods
SMIM
Lush Overhaul
Vivid Weather
True Storms
Skyrim is Windy
Climate of Tamriel Winter Edition
Climate of Tamriel Darker Nights
Surreal Lighting
RealLight – Cities
RealLight – CitiesExt
RealLight – DLC
RealLight – Dungeons
RealLight – Weather
Display Enhancements
Project Hippie
Fallen Trees
Dense Grass
No Snow Under the Roof (Incompatible with Any Map Texture Pack Mods)
Wet and Cold (Incompatible with Immersive Citizens)
Marriage All
Alternate Start (May Conflict with Open Cities Considering Research by /u/ApatheticPsycho)
Skyrim Unbound
Increase Follow Limit
NPC Clothes Changer
Civil War Equipment
True Lords of Oblivion
Equippable Tomes
Bandolier: Bags and Pouches
Ars Metallica
Skyforge Dragonbone
Craftable Elven Light Armor
Clothing Forge Crafting
Unlimited Werewolf Transformations
Faster Greatswords
NPC
Immersive Patrols
Diverse Dragons
ERSO Mighty Dragons
Hardcore Dragons
Better Vampires
Sacrosanct
Populated Skyrim Civil War
RS Children’s Overhaul
Diverse Imperial Soldiers
Frost Giants
Deadric Cults
Appearance Mods
Girly Animations
Apachii Hair HiRes
KS Hairdos Lite
Skyrim Hair Colors
Adorable Females
Ashara’s Faces Series
Aela Facelift
Mjoll Facelift
Dimon99 and Maevan2 Female Body
Beautiful Mistresses 2.1
Seraphim Body Mods
Natural Eyes
Roman Imperial Armor
Open Face Guard Helmets
Get Rid of Serana’s Hood
Humanoid Vampires
Belt-Fastened Quivers
Covered Carriages
Texture Mods
Optimized Vanilla Textures
Skyrim Graphic Overhaul
Skyland
Nordic Snow
Vivid and Classic Map Series (Possibly Incompatible with No Snow Under the Roof)
UNP Female Armor Refitted
LeanWolf’s Better-Shaped Weapons
Real Bows
Enhanced Blood Textures
Sovngarde Gold
Sinister Elven Armor
Webs
Patches
Even Better Quest Objectives + Cutting Room Floor Patch
Even Better Quest Objectives + Paarthurnax
Stones of Barenziah Droppable + Quest Markers
Apocalypse – Ordinator Patch
Equippable Tomes – Campfire
ERSO – Diverse Dragons Patch
Rich Merchants
Hunter’s Reward – Better Prices
Vampires Take no Fall Damage
Vampires Suck
Skyrim Se Nexus Mod
Better Gray Quarter Patch
Torch Light Expanded
Dawnbreaker Sun Damage
Disable Cinematic Kills
No Radial Blur
No Edge Glow
Disable Combat Boundary
FPS Boost
Mods That Mod Creators Request Should Appear Last
People of Skyrim (Be Sure to DL All Necessary Patches and Read the Mod Description to Avoid Conflicts; the Mod Creator Recommends This Appear Very Low on the List, So Place all its Patches After it)
Realistic Water Two
Elizabeth’s Tower
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
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One of the most popular installments to The Elder Scrolls has officially released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. While all three platforms will allow mods to be installed, PC gamers have an easier time when it comes to these community additions.
If you never played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or of you’re looking to get back into the journey once again, these ten mods are quickly becoming a must-have for the newly released Skyrim Special Edition. Do you know if a mod worth checking out? Let us know by leaving a comment down below.
Alternate Start – Live Another Life
Not feeling up to going through the lengthy intro sequence at Helgen? Thankfully you can bypass the intro for a new alternate starting point. This is a decent changeup for players interested in replaying Skyrim, but not necessarily thrilled with having to replay the same start over and over again.
Alternate Start puts players into a dungeon where you’ve been locked up and forgotten about. Now as you run low on food, it’s time to make your way out and start your life all over again.
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
Skyrim Special Edition came with a big overhaul in the graphics department, but there are still some bugs that need to be cleaned out for gamers to truly enjoy the gameplay. With this mod, gamers will have hundreds of bugs fixed that makes this a necessity for Skyrim Special Edition.
Essentially, you’ll find that there are hundreds of bugs that fix gameplay, quests, NPCs, objects, texts, and placement issues. Even if you plan on enjoying Skyrim Special Edition without the addition of mods, do yourself a favor and at least give the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch some consideration.
Cutting Room Floor
The Cutting Room Floor mod is actually pretty exciting for both new and veteran Skyrim players. With this mod, gamers can successfully load content that was found within the game code but was never actually loaded into the full game.
With this mod, gamers will find new NPCs, quests, and other miscellaneous content that was ultimately cut from the official release.
Total Character Makeover
While the latest Skyrim iteration has released to the masses, there are still some textures that probably could have been looked at with a bit more detail. The NPCs that dwell the game world of Skyrim are looking a bit dated and there’s a mod that really gives these characters a touchup.
Total Character Makeover is a mod that gives a more detailed texture update for the variety of NPCs you’ll come across on your grand journey. You’ll find that there are improved hand and foot meshes, new complete texture sets for all races, improved teeth textures, beard textures, high-resolution makeups, warpaint, dirt, freckles, and more.
Wet and Cold
Wet and Cold is a nice little mod that adds a little more immersion when enduring some of the elements in Skyrim. Essentially this mod adds a new weather-dependent visual effect for NPCs. Depending on the weather, you may see a variety of new effects play out.
This could range from water drips from an NPC’s body, splash of particles when running across soggy ground, breath moisture when out in frigid regions, new snow accumulation visuals, stronger winds, and more.
Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim
One of the key features to building your character is adding perks. As you level up in Skyrim, your character can be finely tuned to what skills you unlock and really, there’s plenty of perks to go with as is in Skyrim.
With Ordinator, gamers will find over 400 new perks available to unlock. This is one mod that would really open up the customization possibilities for your character and we highly recommend you check out some of the changes added to the perk trees within the official list attached to the download link.
Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim
If you find that Ordinator to be a bit too much then Apocalypse is a slightly step down by offering gamers 155 new spells. These new spells are unique, balanced, and will be lore friendly to the vanilla magic system for Skyrim Special Edition.
Point The Way
Point The Way is actually a pretty simple mod that is highly effective. If you don’t enjoy constantly opening up your map menu to find out where you’re going or making sure you didn’t lose your route, then this mod is well worth the download.
All-in-all, Point The Way simply just adds new road signs in several major intersections that were previously lacking signs. This way, gamers can look at these signs to assure that they are going the right way to Dawnstar instead of finding that they backtracked and ended right back at in Solitude.
Immersive Sounds – Compendium
Skyrim Special Edition And Mods Pc
The audio in Skyrim was decent as is, though, with the aging hardware and limited disc space, it could have been better. This is where Immersive Sounds Compendium comes in. With this mod, there are thousands of new individual sounds that have been created for the game, which allow players a new element that complements not only the visuals but overall gameplay.
If you want more dynamic and reactive audio experience, this mod is a must-have. You’ll find additions and replacements for foley, weapons, magic, creatures, and more.
Immersive Patrols SE
Want more of a challenge? The mod Immersive Patrols SE will add new fully functional scheduled patrols. This will include major factions such as Stormcloaks, Thalmor, Imperials, Dawnguard, Bandits, and more.
This will add an extra element to deal with when raiding or if you’re wanted by a particular group. If you find that this mod is too much of a challenge, gamers can uninstall the mod without having to worry about their progress.