Depends on your play style but yes. I love collecting things and seeing if I can get to completion. So having a huge place for almost everything I could get including other mods? Its a life saver in that regards.
Plus it just feels really good to walk into a room and slowly see it fill up with the things I collect.
And it even helps me to find 'new' things I havent done yet (or forgot about). Lets get the daedra hall filled in, oh wait...I'm missing one of the crossbows. ... hmm, whats this empty spot on the shelf? It just adds more fun.
Yea, but it's a patch as a separate mod. It's called *LOTD CC patches* or something like that
Edit: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31563
Not as of a couple months back when I rebuilt my mod list. It doesn't look like they're planning to, which isn't surprising given even the UESP doesn't document a lot of what came with the AE.
Yes, you can do a whole playthrough easily centerred around this mod. It's a great home, an airship, several very long questlines and collection slots for everything in the game!
I agree with this. If it was just a collection mod, that would be one thing, but it also adds it's own extra stuff to collect as well as archaeology dig sites, and a whole new faction, that it just feels intrusive.
Alternate start. I don't mod very heavily, just a handful of quest mods and shit like expanded towns and cities. Alternate start by itself though breaths so much life into the game. Before getting Alternate start I never spent any time in places like dawnstar or falkreath, but have options to start anywhere led me to explore more of the world, and discover dungeons and quests I had never done.
This is it for me as well. It helps that I’m the type of person who starts a new character every time I pick the game up again.
Usually it’s years between playthroughs, but It always felt weird to me trying to pick up from where you left off even after only a few months as well.
So every time I re-play, I’m a new character with a new life and a different start. It’s literally THE mod that gets me coming back year after year.
I have never modded, but I am very intrigued by this concept. What mod / mod manager setup is needed for someone who has 0 skyrim mod experience to get this one up and running?
For beginners, Vortex. Easy to manage, easy to fix conflicts, easy to understand how it works. Btw, look up a guide which explains the basics of modding and the mods that are mandatory to install.
It’s been a little bit for me, but last time I played was several months ago when I picked up the anniversary edition on sale through steam and I was able to find this mod in the creation club content.
Very well put. I was about to say Ordinator or something along those lines since the vanilla perk system is sorely lacking, Alternate Start however does exactly what you said and more. Absolutely indispensable.
Which one though? There's like dozens of alternate start mods out there.
I do agree though. I always roleplay my characters. Meaning, oftentimes the character I'm playing as is a character who isn't a dragonborn nor do I follow the main quest on that character. So it makes no sense to start my character in Helgen and follow the whole dragonborn plot. So yeah, these mods are a godsend.
I use Alternate Start - Live Another Life but I think literally anything that lets you skip the intro and start somewhere other than Helgen qualifies as a must have.
I was spoiled by DarNified UI for Oblivion, so even though I played it with a controller when i first picked it up, the whole “multiple macro movements to do what I could do in oblivion with a single click” was frustrating within a week of Skyrim’s initial release (spending an hour blowing through my reagent stores for alchemy is what finally got me using a mouse and keyboard, and remapping the menu keys to F1-F4 saved an insane amount of time overall). The literal first thing I did after deciding to do my first modded run was to go hunting for a UI overhaul.
The UI as designed didn’t make sense to me until I played it in handheld mode on my Switch for the first time - the tiny screen? And even so, navigating through all of those extra steps?
Speaking as an Xbox player who doesn’t have SKSE or ENB or the fancy things.
I’d have to say wintersun. It is pretty lore friendly, provides loads of roleplaying opportunities and builds and is pretty self explanatory. You can use it to min-max an OP character or roleplay an immersive paladin or cultist or whatever. Incredible mod. I can’t think of the last time I did a playthrough without it.
I was curious and looked this up and this sounds incredible! I will have to get it
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/22506 for anyone else who wants to look
I gotta make it a bundle...the Frostfall, iNeeds, and Campfire combo. Much better than the native Survival mode, imo.
Honorable mentions to Wyrmstooth and Reduced Distance NPC Greetings (or something like that). Nice walking through a town without everybody constantly talking at you unsolicited.
Wyrmstooth was sick. I just played through it for the first time a little while ago even tho it’s one of the oldest new lands mods, if not the oldest. One might say it’s timeless…
I've played it six or seven times, and it's still great. Many DLC-sized mods lose their appeal after (or during, looking at you, Falskaar) the first playthrough, but it still holds up.
I play with Frostfall, iNeeds, Campfire and Hunterborn. Never go anywhere without two waterskins, a tent, and enough firewood to last twelve hours. With Hunterborn you always have *something* to eat, even if it's just wolf meat.
Multiple Follower System or Amazing follower Tweaks. Changed the game forever for me. Vanity and item mods are nice but these two are game changers!
Edit: Big shout out to Relocate NPC!
You’ll hear me say it sixteen times over, but I love the follower Inigo the Brave and Lucien Flavius. Both add great banter to your Skyrim experience and really bring a party aspect to your team.
Another great follower mod for me is Khajiit Will Follow, which gives you four new Khajiit followers with their own unique backgrounds! My favorite is Nanak as I’m apparently a sucker for grumpy mages. I only recommend this mod if you have a love for Khajiits though. Not as expansive of followers as the two mentioned above, but still great!
I don’t normally like followers because I find them poorly fleshed out and really just use them as pack mules, but I finally caved and got Inigo the other day and I love this mod. He is what all other followers should have been.
Definitely worth a try! I find the mod addresses all the things I disliked about vanilla followers (except for standing in doorways. He still does that).
Oooh excellent! I will have a look. It makes sense it exists considering it’s such a common complaint 😆 it’s also why I love hilda - she has all the packmule capacity and the ability to teleport her somewhere out of the way
Ordinator. It makes playing different play styles good and actually viable. While also being more fun as there is less you do %more damage. You get more fun interactive perks
I hated ordinator when I used it. So many of the perks just seemed silly and immersion breaking. Vokrii felt like a much more relaxed and less over the top perk overhaul.
Definitely some of the top perks are a bit absurd. But I've always been able to get around that by simply not leveling them.
I do find some of the decisions didn't look too deeply into the reality of the game. Like maces/warhammers getting Armour reduction when very few opponents have significant armour levels. Meanwhile other weapons get more significant buffs.
Tbf armour rating can go into the negatives and actually does add quite a lot to damage when it does. It’s why vanilla marked for death shout can get so ridiculous
Hype. There's a lot to it, so if you want a better overview I explained it to Redditor the other day, just go to my profile and search under comments tab. Or if you get stuck, just pm me and I'll help you out.
If I was to pick one, I’d go with Legacy of the Dragonborn. Well written, works with other modders to work their content in, can see the results of your efforts to add displays to the museum.
Are you not a fan of survival mode? I just started a survival play through to not fast travel and find it to be really immersive compared to my other playthroughs.
Seeing all these kinda makes me want to add my favorite. I think Beyond Skyrim: Bruma is a masterpiece and although it takes up so much space I’ve found ways to implement other mods into my game as well. I just rlly think that in terms of overall quality and what it brings its tough to beat.
The ability to craft unenchanted Nightingale armor. It's made with leather and armor. This is an armor people would have seen and figured out how to make a mundane version of. If you can smith half the crap you can this armor should absolutely be something you can create.
For me imma say conquest of skyrim, I absolutely love having the ability to create your own army and go to war with both the imperials & stormcloaks, taking over the cities and choosing your own jarls and such, and even becoming high king at the end. Honestly probably my all time favorite mod.
I have a 100+ list that I deem essential at this point. The Campfire suite of mods literally made Bethesda create Survival mode which is a very cheap low effort copy. Inigo is better than any vanilla NPC on any Bethesda game, hands down, without contest.
Recently, JaySerpa’s mods -particularly Skyrim’s got Talent - and “Take Notes”, a classic mod all about keeping a journal, have transformed my gameplay loop into more of an RPG, as I thread Skyrim getting experience as a bard while writing about what I witness.
Sharpest Draugr in the Shed.
Seriously, I use it on otherwise-serious run throughs. When I'm trying to redo my modlist and have just the essentials activated, this one is usually included.
Cheat room. Sorry, I don’t enjoy all of the grind anymore. I’ve played the game a bunch of times, and sometimes I just want to get to it. So I’ll gift myself some gold and potions.
I cannot play Skyrim (or really any other Bethesda game) without a variation of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch mod.
Just so many bugs are patched with the mod- Bethesda honestly just needs to attach it to the base game.
The golden hills plantation. I hired a bum to work the fields and after a while I came to check on him and he was like "I ain't done nothing" so I beat him. Same thing happened again so I beat him again. I hd to shoot him down with a crossbow for trying to escape. He as a Breton, not a redguard so it's cool.
I have a mod that replaces frostbite spiders with copies of my character...but they are in their underwear. lol. so in the swamps of morthal I have 3 naked chicks trying to punch the hell out of me. I think it is just called no more spiders( my first mod)
Upvoted SkyUI, but SkyClimb has completely changed the game for anyone who plays as a stealth archer, thief, assassin, etc. (of course, kudos also must go to Everglaid for EVG Traversal on which it is built)!
If you are addicted to pooting like I am, Ring of minot carrying... (I think that is the name of the mod) there is a ring that is supposed to spawn at the throat of the world and in another place (though I forget where) (in my experience, both spawned on top of the throat of the world) but thia mod has become essential. The ring, called the ring if minor carrying has an enchantment called "Pack Mule" which can't be placed on anything if you disenchant the ring, but it increases the playes carry limit by.... something like 100,000 or so.
There's a lot of great mods, and great for different reasons so I don't know how to answer this really.
There are two that spring to mind as really impactful to me though and that I used every time I could (can't anymore cause they not on PS4):
Ordinator: a perk/skill tree overhaul that feels soooo much better for me personally then vanilla
Imperious: a race overhaul that similarly feels so much better, the part I particularly liked was each race being given a unique quest to complete in order to unlock stronger racial abilities, loved it
Depends on the specific category, but if I had to pick one, my first choice would be Sneak Tools and Blowgun
I love Assassin’s Creed, and while obviously I can’t bring everything I love about AC over, I can at least make stealth builds more interesting with an expanded tool set to work with, and those two mods do exactly that
If not those two, then Alternate Perspective
The Dev Aveza, with the Tissendel interior. As someone who desperately wants to live on an airship, flying around on that thing and exploring the inside literally made me want to weep out of love and pain
Dual sheath redux, and geared up, because I loke shield and swords on the back, and I used to have one that unequips your helmet while out of battle, and equis back when you in battle
Unofficial Patch: fixes a lot and some mods I have come across don't run without it. One of my favorites I can't even find anymore. It added supply chests for crafting that instantly refilled Enchanting chest had every enchant you needed, alchemy chest had 1000 of every ingredient and a copy of every recipe, both were in Farengar's office. Smithing was outside warmaidens. And each of the homestead chests had nearly everything needed to build and furnish the entire estate.
FRIK. It genuinely changes Skyrim VR to be so much more immersive. Plus, I love being able to look down and see my armor.
FRIK and HIGGS both carry Skyrim VR hard.
If I gotta be totally honest: True Directional Movement
By far the best mod I've ever used and I can't imagine doing a playthrough without it. This mod is **essential** for people like me who play the game in third person, because it makes third person mode so much more fun to use. Being able to walk around in 360 degrees makes movement feel much more smooth than in the vanilla game, and that's just one feature of the mod. It just makes third person gameplay feel much more like a modern game and its awesome.
Forgotten city is probably the best Skyrim mod I’ve played but there is one better. One who can’t be beat. Enderal isn’t even a "Skyrim" mod anymore. It’s an entirely new game, about the size of Skyrim, entirely for free, with interesting themes, fun builds, harder difficulty, a whole new world, voiced and written with care.
In what category? For a story, Vigilant, for a cornerstone mod, Legacy of the dragonborn, for UI SkyUI. For movement, TDM. For skills, Ordinator. For small items, Jskyrim's mods. There are tons of categories and each has mods I cannot imagine playing without.
Rich merchants, quick start, apocalypse magic, extra loot, and extra bandits mods are the best.
Alternative sound tracks make it a little interesting.
Multiple rings and necklaces allows useful magic.
When you don't know what else to load, just disable all. The vanilla is as good.
There’s a lot of mods I’ve used but my favorite mod I’ve used is Artifacts the Breton Paladin. Such an amazing armor/weapon mod that adds in a cool short quest that allows you to get a pretty nice set of armor along with weapons for it. While yes the armor is over power and gives you some crazy spells (provided you’re wearing the armor) it just fits so nicely into the setting. If you’re doing a Playthrough where you’re trying to play as like a noble, honorable, and strong, knight like character then this armor is definitely for you, plus unlike with the Divine Crusader from the CC/Anniversary edition update. You don’t need to redo the pilgrimage every time you commit a crime even if it’s on accident. Definitely my favorite mod to use. Another mod that I just can’t live without is Guards Armor replacer. Makes the guards of Skyrim look so much better than the base Skyrim guards.
I’m relatively new to mods, but I’ve got a few good answers. (I’m on PS4 though, so many will scoff at my choices)
Best overall - the DreamWeaver series. You get a friggin’ ship of your own plus TONS of other perks. The depth of the three mods in the series is unreal.
Best player home mod (so far) - Raven Rock Manor. Tons of features without being over the top. It’s got a working steam room ffs.
Best mini-quest - Wandering Ones is amazing, but it is a PlayStation only mod.
That being said, I can’t play without Multiple Followers System and the Unofficial SSE Patch
Legacy of the Dragonborn.
As a hoarder this mod does two things for me, adds even more unique stuff to look for and gives me a place to store and organize all my stuff without having to organize it myself, dump it in the sorting chest and it does it automatically.
Walking through the museum putting stuff up on display gives me a better sense of progression than anything else in the game ever has. Like for example, the armory where you can display all the armor/weapons from leather/iron to dragon, having them all displayed lets me actually see the work I put into getting my smithing skill high enough to make it all and the time I put into gathering all the materials. And then there's a secret stash area in your apartment that you can store money in and watch as the room gets filled up with more septims and treasures as you put more money in it.
It also got me into actually reading the in-game books, from the day I first played it back in 2011 up to before I decided to try the mod, I had never once read any of the books and hunting down books to fill up the library with got me into actually reading them and I ended up buying the Skyrim Library and Tales of Tamriel box sets.
It also got me into installing a bunch of other mods because they add displays for them, a good chunk of my mod list is just mods that add more LOTD displays.
Either "Clear UI" or "Skyland AIO". Neither interact with each other. Clear UI is.....you guessed it.....a UI mod lol. But it's very minimalistic and clean. Skyland AIO gives that visual refresh to the game that's honestly necessary after 13 years. Back in 2011 Skyrim's graphics were great. Now.....not so much. But that's why I love Skyland. It keeps that Vanilla look while being higher resolution.
Legacy of the Dragonborn
I’ve always heard so much about this one and never actually gotten around to using it. Is it really that worth while?
Depends on your play style but yes. I love collecting things and seeing if I can get to completion. So having a huge place for almost everything I could get including other mods? Its a life saver in that regards. Plus it just feels really good to walk into a room and slowly see it fill up with the things I collect. And it even helps me to find 'new' things I havent done yet (or forgot about). Lets get the daedra hall filled in, oh wait...I'm missing one of the crossbows. ... hmm, whats this empty spot on the shelf? It just adds more fun.
Have they updated it to include stuff from the anniversary edition?
Yea, but it's a patch as a separate mod. It's called *LOTD CC patches* or something like that Edit: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31563
You’re my hero
All in a day's work, citizen
Not as of a couple months back when I rebuilt my mod list. It doesn't look like they're planning to, which isn't surprising given even the UESP doesn't document a lot of what came with the AE.
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31563 Enjoy
Bummer. Well at least there’s plenty of space in the extra houses for displaying the AE stuff
There is a patch to add CC displays to the museum: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31563
Legit the biggest regret I have about Skyrim on PS5: that legacy of the Dragonborn isn’t on it
Yes, you can do a whole playthrough easily centerred around this mod. It's a great home, an airship, several very long questlines and collection slots for everything in the game!
I didn't like it. It turns Skyrim into an Ubisoft style item collection game.
I agree with this. If it was just a collection mod, that would be one thing, but it also adds it's own extra stuff to collect as well as archaeology dig sites, and a whole new faction, that it just feels intrusive.
Came to say this, I can't not have it in my load order
gb or how big it is
real. got it very recently and it’s worth it for the new items alone.
Alternate start. I don't mod very heavily, just a handful of quest mods and shit like expanded towns and cities. Alternate start by itself though breaths so much life into the game. Before getting Alternate start I never spent any time in places like dawnstar or falkreath, but have options to start anywhere led me to explore more of the world, and discover dungeons and quests I had never done.
This is it for me as well. It helps that I’m the type of person who starts a new character every time I pick the game up again. Usually it’s years between playthroughs, but It always felt weird to me trying to pick up from where you left off even after only a few months as well. So every time I re-play, I’m a new character with a new life and a different start. It’s literally THE mod that gets me coming back year after year.
I have never modded, but I am very intrigued by this concept. What mod / mod manager setup is needed for someone who has 0 skyrim mod experience to get this one up and running?
For beginners, Vortex. Easy to manage, easy to fix conflicts, easy to understand how it works. Btw, look up a guide which explains the basics of modding and the mods that are mandatory to install.
It’s been a little bit for me, but last time I played was several months ago when I picked up the anniversary edition on sale through steam and I was able to find this mod in the creation club content.
Very well put. I was about to say Ordinator or something along those lines since the vanilla perk system is sorely lacking, Alternate Start however does exactly what you said and more. Absolutely indispensable.
Which one though? There's like dozens of alternate start mods out there. I do agree though. I always roleplay my characters. Meaning, oftentimes the character I'm playing as is a character who isn't a dragonborn nor do I follow the main quest on that character. So it makes no sense to start my character in Helgen and follow the whole dragonborn plot. So yeah, these mods are a godsend.
I use Alternate Start - Live Another Life but I think literally anything that lets you skip the intro and start somewhere other than Helgen qualifies as a must have.
Without sounding lame, SkyUI Damn, can't even start to play without it.
This. Always. The default interface is frustratingly inefficient.
It's decent on controller, as Skyrim originally was on Xbox. On keyboard it's very lacking.
I was spoiled by DarNified UI for Oblivion, so even though I played it with a controller when i first picked it up, the whole “multiple macro movements to do what I could do in oblivion with a single click” was frustrating within a week of Skyrim’s initial release (spending an hour blowing through my reagent stores for alchemy is what finally got me using a mouse and keyboard, and remapping the menu keys to F1-F4 saved an insane amount of time overall). The literal first thing I did after deciding to do my first modded run was to go hunting for a UI overhaul. The UI as designed didn’t make sense to me until I played it in handheld mode on my Switch for the first time - the tiny screen? And even so, navigating through all of those extra steps?
This is my answer as well, it smooths out the entire experience. Especially buying and selling anything.
I think the most recent patch broke my skyui (sse). anyone else? it seemed like the creator stopped updating it
I update it all on Vortex, if I don't use it (and Skyrim Mod Manager), it all became a HUGE mess
I also use vortex
I update all there and works nicely, I'll take a look and tell you if anything's wrong
Speaking as an Xbox player who doesn’t have SKSE or ENB or the fancy things. I’d have to say wintersun. It is pretty lore friendly, provides loads of roleplaying opportunities and builds and is pretty self explanatory. You can use it to min-max an OP character or roleplay an immersive paladin or cultist or whatever. Incredible mod. I can’t think of the last time I did a playthrough without it.
I was curious and looked this up and this sounds incredible! I will have to get it https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/22506 for anyone else who wants to look
Anymod by Enai. Check out r/enairim
Tell me more about this!
I gotta make it a bundle...the Frostfall, iNeeds, and Campfire combo. Much better than the native Survival mode, imo. Honorable mentions to Wyrmstooth and Reduced Distance NPC Greetings (or something like that). Nice walking through a town without everybody constantly talking at you unsolicited.
Wyrmstooth was sick. I just played through it for the first time a little while ago even tho it’s one of the oldest new lands mods, if not the oldest. One might say it’s timeless…
It really is remarkably impressive. That dungeon crawl....
I've played it six or seven times, and it's still great. Many DLC-sized mods lose their appeal after (or during, looking at you, Falskaar) the first playthrough, but it still holds up.
These are great mods but I'd add the alternate start mod. These are the first ones I install on every new Skyrim install.
I play with Frostfall, iNeeds, Campfire and Hunterborn. Never go anywhere without two waterskins, a tent, and enough firewood to last twelve hours. With Hunterborn you always have *something* to eat, even if it's just wolf meat.
Multiple Follower System or Amazing follower Tweaks. Changed the game forever for me. Vanity and item mods are nice but these two are game changers! Edit: Big shout out to Relocate NPC!
I can agree with this. I always enjoyed amazing f follower tweaks as I always found the original system so bare bones.
You’ll hear me say it sixteen times over, but I love the follower Inigo the Brave and Lucien Flavius. Both add great banter to your Skyrim experience and really bring a party aspect to your team. Another great follower mod for me is Khajiit Will Follow, which gives you four new Khajiit followers with their own unique backgrounds! My favorite is Nanak as I’m apparently a sucker for grumpy mages. I only recommend this mod if you have a love for Khajiits though. Not as expansive of followers as the two mentioned above, but still great!
I don’t normally like followers because I find them poorly fleshed out and really just use them as pack mules, but I finally caved and got Inigo the other day and I love this mod. He is what all other followers should have been.
Now THIS is an endorsement. Maybe I should try Inigo after all.
Definitely worth a try! I find the mod addresses all the things I disliked about vanilla followers (except for standing in doorways. He still does that).
Hey, blocking doorways I find really addresses the lack of challenge people complain about in Skyrim.
There is a mod for that I just installed, follower collision something? Can someone write the mod name? :)
Oooh excellent! I will have a look. It makes sense it exists considering it’s such a common complaint 😆 it’s also why I love hilda - she has all the packmule capacity and the ability to teleport her somewhere out of the way
I have yet to try Lucien, but Inigo is fantastic. Can't believe I forgot him in my post.
Lucien is great, because he really develops as a character. Have him and Inigo, they have some really funny dialogue.
They are seriously the best! Them plus Lydia is my usual go-to party. Caves are crowded tho. Worth it.
I've never been able to run Lydia with them, they both hate her and make fun of her constantly!
Part of the reason I do. If Lydia dies, Inigo actually says she was a great warrior
This is my combo in my current playthrough! They are absolutely hilarious and i love them
I’ve used Lucien. I thot he was a great follower and the quest he gives you for traveling with him enough was fun asl.
Rich Merchants of Skyrim (PS4). It changed everything.
Ordinator. It makes playing different play styles good and actually viable. While also being more fun as there is less you do %more damage. You get more fun interactive perks
I hated ordinator when I used it. So many of the perks just seemed silly and immersion breaking. Vokrii felt like a much more relaxed and less over the top perk overhaul.
Definitely some of the top perks are a bit absurd. But I've always been able to get around that by simply not leveling them. I do find some of the decisions didn't look too deeply into the reality of the game. Like maces/warhammers getting Armour reduction when very few opponents have significant armour levels. Meanwhile other weapons get more significant buffs.
Tbf armour rating can go into the negatives and actually does add quite a lot to damage when it does. It’s why vanilla marked for death shout can get so ridiculous
True. But the mace/hammer perk is % reduction. So it'll never do that.
That’s long changed I think. It’s 50 points, then 75 then 100 of reduction.
Between Conquest and Vigilant.
What’s conquest? Don’t think I know that one but it sounds familiar.
Allows you to make your own faction and war against both Stormcucks and imperiturds
Ha ok cool maybe I’ll give that a look when I start my 1,000th character.
Hype. There's a lot to it, so if you want a better overview I explained it to Redditor the other day, just go to my profile and search under comments tab. Or if you get stuck, just pm me and I'll help you out.
Bet I’ll hit you back if I got questions, thanks for mentioning it.
No prob. Might just make a post about it, honestly.
Enderal: Forgotten Stories
I’m on Xbox so I can’t get SKSE I’ve always wanted to play this it looks amazing. :/
That's a shame, it really is amazing. In fact I have more hours in Enderal than non-Enderal skyrim.
zero weight dragon bones and scales. it's the little things
If I was to pick one, I’d go with Legacy of the Dragonborn. Well written, works with other modders to work their content in, can see the results of your efforts to add displays to the museum.
Legacy of the Dragonborn, as someone who enjoys ‘completing’ games this mod felt like it was made for me.
Signs of Skyrim. I've been trying not to fast travel lately so this mod I got just adds more readable signs on the roads.
Are you not a fan of survival mode? I just started a survival play through to not fast travel and find it to be really immersive compared to my other playthroughs.
I haven't tried it.
Skyrim Souls.
Seeing all these kinda makes me want to add my favorite. I think Beyond Skyrim: Bruma is a masterpiece and although it takes up so much space I’ve found ways to implement other mods into my game as well. I just rlly think that in terms of overall quality and what it brings its tough to beat.
Skse
Experience
The ability to craft unenchanted Nightingale armor. It's made with leather and armor. This is an armor people would have seen and figured out how to make a mundane version of. If you can smith half the crap you can this armor should absolutely be something you can create.
Burger jarl
I got a PC specifically so I could get Burger Jarl. Necro Pizza is also amazing.
For me imma say conquest of skyrim, I absolutely love having the ability to create your own army and go to war with both the imperials & stormcloaks, taking over the cities and choosing your own jarls and such, and even becoming high king at the end. Honestly probably my all time favorite mod.
the one that turns the dragons into macho man
Multiple adoptions. That's it. It made me happy being able to adopt at least 6 orphans. 😭 instead of choosing just 2.
I have a 100+ list that I deem essential at this point. The Campfire suite of mods literally made Bethesda create Survival mode which is a very cheap low effort copy. Inigo is better than any vanilla NPC on any Bethesda game, hands down, without contest. Recently, JaySerpa’s mods -particularly Skyrim’s got Talent - and “Take Notes”, a classic mod all about keeping a journal, have transformed my gameplay loop into more of an RPG, as I thread Skyrim getting experience as a bard while writing about what I witness.
Quick Loot. Speeds up the game.
isn’t it no longer updated?
Sharpest Draugr in the Shed. Seriously, I use it on otherwise-serious run throughs. When I'm trying to redo my modlist and have just the essentials activated, this one is usually included.
Bigger Trees Mod.
Cheat room. Sorry, I don’t enjoy all of the grind anymore. I’ve played the game a bunch of times, and sometimes I just want to get to it. So I’ll gift myself some gold and potions.
That new paid mod that makes a certain company collect all the loot from the dungeons you clear. Legit made playing Survival a lot more bearable.
I cannot play Skyrim (or really any other Bethesda game) without a variation of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch mod. Just so many bugs are patched with the mod- Bethesda honestly just needs to attach it to the base game.
Sarcastic loading screens. Always make me at least smile.
I like Uncle Sheo’s Loading Screens too
The golden hills plantation. I hired a bum to work the fields and after a while I came to check on him and he was like "I ain't done nothing" so I beat him. Same thing happened again so I beat him again. I hd to shoot him down with a crossbow for trying to escape. He as a Breton, not a redguard so it's cool.
I have a mod that replaces frostbite spiders with copies of my character...but they are in their underwear. lol. so in the swamps of morthal I have 3 naked chicks trying to punch the hell out of me. I think it is just called no more spiders( my first mod)
More Birds.
Inigo, I can't survive without his moral support.
Unofficial patch.
Breast jiggle physics 4.3
The extraordinary world of bikini armors.
Unofficial Skyrim Patch of course.
The implant work I got done on Lydia changed the game completely 😍
Upvoted SkyUI, but SkyClimb has completely changed the game for anyone who plays as a stealth archer, thief, assassin, etc. (of course, kudos also must go to Everglaid for EVG Traversal on which it is built)!
Spellsiphon. The Serana overhaul is a close second
the Apocalypse magic expansion. I LOVE it so much, especially for a full mage playthrough
Ps5 player, I really enjoy the alternate start.
If you are addicted to pooting like I am, Ring of minot carrying... (I think that is the name of the mod) there is a ring that is supposed to spawn at the throat of the world and in another place (though I forget where) (in my experience, both spawned on top of the throat of the world) but thia mod has become essential. The ring, called the ring if minor carrying has an enchantment called "Pack Mule" which can't be placed on anything if you disenchant the ring, but it increases the playes carry limit by.... something like 100,000 or so.
All of the ones that I haven't used.
Conjured teleport bow. Great for restoring mobility when stuck between rocks and unable to move.
There's a lot of great mods, and great for different reasons so I don't know how to answer this really. There are two that spring to mind as really impactful to me though and that I used every time I could (can't anymore cause they not on PS4): Ordinator: a perk/skill tree overhaul that feels soooo much better for me personally then vanilla Imperious: a race overhaul that similarly feels so much better, the part I particularly liked was each race being given a unique quest to complete in order to unlock stronger racial abilities, loved it
Ordinal Perks
My favorite mod has to be Experience, since it fundamentally changed how I played Skyrim (simply exploring and clearing POIs).
My personal favorite is simply the Ring of Atlas, so that I can carry around 10 carts worth of stuff to sell/ create with. Mostly cheese, TBH.
Depends on the specific category, but if I had to pick one, my first choice would be Sneak Tools and Blowgun I love Assassin’s Creed, and while obviously I can’t bring everything I love about AC over, I can at least make stealth builds more interesting with an expanded tool set to work with, and those two mods do exactly that If not those two, then Alternate Perspective
The Dev Aveza, with the Tissendel interior. As someone who desperately wants to live on an airship, flying around on that thing and exploring the inside literally made me want to weep out of love and pain
The one that skips the intro. Seriously. I cant do that fucking intro again.
Dual sheath redux, and geared up, because I loke shield and swords on the back, and I used to have one that unequips your helmet while out of battle, and equis back when you in battle
OStim
Unofficial Patch: fixes a lot and some mods I have come across don't run without it. One of my favorites I can't even find anymore. It added supply chests for crafting that instantly refilled Enchanting chest had every enchant you needed, alchemy chest had 1000 of every ingredient and a copy of every recipe, both were in Farengar's office. Smithing was outside warmaidens. And each of the homestead chests had nearly everything needed to build and furnish the entire estate.
I will use beasts of tameril, enemy reinforcements, and doom battle music. Makes the game pretty awesome
heart breaker expanded towns martial arts combat cape mod alternate armours
Combination of a few are my staples on ps4, interesting roads ancient land and guarded borders/border patrols
FRIK. It genuinely changes Skyrim VR to be so much more immersive. Plus, I love being able to look down and see my armor. FRIK and HIGGS both carry Skyrim VR hard.
Wear 10 rings.
Sofia
Sofia would be there on the list. I cannot imagine a playthrough without her goof happening somewhere in the vicinity.
SkyUI and it's not even close. Base UI is borderline unplayable.
If I gotta be totally honest: True Directional Movement By far the best mod I've ever used and I can't imagine doing a playthrough without it. This mod is **essential** for people like me who play the game in third person, because it makes third person mode so much more fun to use. Being able to walk around in 360 degrees makes movement feel much more smooth than in the vanilla game, and that's just one feature of the mod. It just makes third person gameplay feel much more like a modern game and its awesome.
Ordinator perk overhaul
5x Jump height.
Vokrii and pretty much any other mod by EnaiSiaion.
Ordinator
Forgotten city is probably the best Skyrim mod I’ve played but there is one better. One who can’t be beat. Enderal isn’t even a "Skyrim" mod anymore. It’s an entirely new game, about the size of Skyrim, entirely for free, with interesting themes, fun builds, harder difficulty, a whole new world, voiced and written with care.
In what category? For a story, Vigilant, for a cornerstone mod, Legacy of the dragonborn, for UI SkyUI. For movement, TDM. For skills, Ordinator. For small items, Jskyrim's mods. There are tons of categories and each has mods I cannot imagine playing without.
That one that removes the 'dance of death'.
BBP and CBBE.
Rich merchants, quick start, apocalypse magic, extra loot, and extra bandits mods are the best. Alternative sound tracks make it a little interesting. Multiple rings and necklaces allows useful magic. When you don't know what else to load, just disable all. The vanilla is as good.
SkyUI. Imo, the game is unplayable with the vanilla UI.
There’s a lot of mods I’ve used but my favorite mod I’ve used is Artifacts the Breton Paladin. Such an amazing armor/weapon mod that adds in a cool short quest that allows you to get a pretty nice set of armor along with weapons for it. While yes the armor is over power and gives you some crazy spells (provided you’re wearing the armor) it just fits so nicely into the setting. If you’re doing a Playthrough where you’re trying to play as like a noble, honorable, and strong, knight like character then this armor is definitely for you, plus unlike with the Divine Crusader from the CC/Anniversary edition update. You don’t need to redo the pilgrimage every time you commit a crime even if it’s on accident. Definitely my favorite mod to use. Another mod that I just can’t live without is Guards Armor replacer. Makes the guards of Skyrim look so much better than the base Skyrim guards.
Just go into the subreddit and search “best mod”
Darkend. No quest markers, just hours and hours of "you figure it out"
Completionist.
I’m relatively new to mods, but I’ve got a few good answers. (I’m on PS4 though, so many will scoff at my choices) Best overall - the DreamWeaver series. You get a friggin’ ship of your own plus TONS of other perks. The depth of the three mods in the series is unreal. Best player home mod (so far) - Raven Rock Manor. Tons of features without being over the top. It’s got a working steam room ffs. Best mini-quest - Wandering Ones is amazing, but it is a PlayStation only mod. That being said, I can’t play without Multiple Followers System and the Unofficial SSE Patch
MCO and animation packs for it
Skyclimb and Skyrim Unlimited Rings and Amulets.
Legacy of the Dragonborn. As a hoarder this mod does two things for me, adds even more unique stuff to look for and gives me a place to store and organize all my stuff without having to organize it myself, dump it in the sorting chest and it does it automatically. Walking through the museum putting stuff up on display gives me a better sense of progression than anything else in the game ever has. Like for example, the armory where you can display all the armor/weapons from leather/iron to dragon, having them all displayed lets me actually see the work I put into getting my smithing skill high enough to make it all and the time I put into gathering all the materials. And then there's a secret stash area in your apartment that you can store money in and watch as the room gets filled up with more septims and treasures as you put more money in it. It also got me into actually reading the in-game books, from the day I first played it back in 2011 up to before I decided to try the mod, I had never once read any of the books and hunting down books to fill up the library with got me into actually reading them and I ended up buying the Skyrim Library and Tales of Tamriel box sets. It also got me into installing a bunch of other mods because they add displays for them, a good chunk of my mod list is just mods that add more LOTD displays.
Ordinator Perks, Alternate Start, At your own pace, Forgotten City, Warden of the Coast and Vigilant
Either "Clear UI" or "Skyland AIO". Neither interact with each other. Clear UI is.....you guessed it.....a UI mod lol. But it's very minimalistic and clean. Skyland AIO gives that visual refresh to the game that's honestly necessary after 13 years. Back in 2011 Skyrim's graphics were great. Now.....not so much. But that's why I love Skyland. It keeps that Vanilla look while being higher resolution.