The best mods to breathe new life into Skyrim.
Whether you’re like us and you’ve logged several hundred hours in Skyrim or you’re a newbie just looking to enhance your experience, this is the definitive list of the ten greatest Skyrim mods available. You can find them all on the Skyrim Nexus or through Steam Workshop. Starting off at the tenth spot is:
10. Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim (EnaiSiaion)
'Bandit, meet Mr. Tornado.'
After a few playthroughs, you’ve seen practically everything there is to see about Skyrim’s magic. Not anymore. Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim adds 155 new spells to the game that add depth and variety to the combat. You use to Bolide spell to launch a flaming rock that increases in damage the farther it travels or Poet’s Whim which instantly kills a target if its health is doubled within 10 seconds.
These spells are fun and unique and a ton of fun. Installing the mod ties the spells directly into the game, allowing them to be purchased from vendors and spawning staves and scrolls in treasure chests. Install this mod and use the magic that Skyrim always should have had.
9. T3nd0s Skyrim Redone (T3nd0)
‘Redone? That’s the same Skyrim logo as before!’
Skyrim Redone was created to ‘enhance the depth of character development by giving options to you’, and it succeeds marvelously. Disguise yourself, collect bones for necromancy, and level speech by using shouts. This game features tons of interesting and well thought out improvements to the game that will only serve to enhance your experience.
8. Interesting NPCs (kristakahashi)
‘Finally, NPCs that don’t call me milk drinker all the time.’
After only a few dozen hours, the NPCs in Skyrim can begin to become annoying with their repetitive dialogue and bland appearances. This mod fixes that by adding over 250 voiced NPCs, over 50 quests, over 25 new followers, and over 15 marriage NPCs. That’s a lot of new content!
Add this mod and you’ll get a fresh feeling of excitement whenever you travel. You never know when you’ll bump into a cool new follower or get a fun new quest!
7. Frostfall (Chesko)
‘I like how there’s a dead bandit just lying there.’
Ever wish that Skyrim felt a bit more realistic or, well, as realistic as a game with dragons and werewolves can get at any rate? Then Frostfall is the mod for you. Frostfall adds depth to the game by implementing a hypothermia system, a cold water survival system, and a camping equipment system. The mod tracks the player’s location, the clothing being worn, the time of day, and the weather to determine your character’s current condition.
With Frostfall installed, when players venture into cold, icy environments, they better be sure to bring warm clothing and firewood else risk dying of exposure. Building tents is also an option to keep warm. If you’re getting set to venture into a cold area, you’ll want a hide tent not a leather tent, which are waterproof but not as good in the cold.
6. Falskaar (AlexanderJVelicky)
‘One guy made all that. I feel lazy now.’
Falskaar is a mod that can only be described as ambitious. The mod adds an entire new worldspace to the game which is about the size of 2-3 Skyrim holds as well as 20+ hours of gameplay, 26 quests, and 40 minutes of new music. Oh, and it’s fully voiced.
This mod is huge, the music is good, and the voice acting is believable. The game doesn’t feature many new armors, weapons, or spells, but there are plenty of other mods that add those. If you’re tired of tromping around the same old Skyrim and need a change of pace, or if you’re just looking for an awesome new land to explore, then Falskaar is for you.
5. Unofficial Skyrim Patch (Arthmoor)
‘Dovahkiin hate bugs.’
The Unofficial Skyrim Patch is, well, an unofficial Skyrim patch. The mod fixes literally hundreds of bugs relating to things like quests, NPCs, items, text, and gameplay bugs. This mod is all about the details and fixes things as varied as bad character meshes, the infamously buggy Archmage Robes, and the ugly water in forge troughs, as well as just giving the game a general sprucing up.
‘Those were banners this whole time?’
It’s a must have for modders and is intentionally designed to be compatible with as many mods as possible, so you can go crazy with the mods without sacrificing fixing all of Skyrim’s little flaws.
4. Immersive Weapons (hothtrooper44)
‘These are the weapons Skyrim should have had.’
Immersive Weapons adds a bunch of new weapon classes to the game along with 224 new weapons and 6 new types of arrows to the game! All of which are craftable, enchantable, and upgradable. Players are no longer stuck using the same old boring weapons. Use a spear, a double-bladed axe, a halberd, a claymore, a club, or even a scythe – and those are just a few of the new options available!
‘Did we mention scimitars? There’s scimitars, too.’
The mod breathes new life into the game, giving players back that little tingle of excitement every time they open a chest again. The mod is designed to spawn power-appropriate weapons for players beginning from level one to level 50 and beyond. What cool new weapon will you find?
3. Immersive Armors (hothtrooper44)
‘Having to giant, razor sharp fangs on each side of your face seems like it would defeat the point of the armor if you ask me.’
This mod is great because it adds another layer of depth to the game by adding some beautiful and lore-friendly armor to Skyrim, including shields. You have complete control over the distribution of these armors, too through an intuitive, in-game interface which allows you to set which armors will appear in workbench menus or which armors you would like to appear on enemies and NPC’s.
‘Sweet.’
Tired of looking at the same guards over and over again? You can set the mod vary the kinds of helmets worn by guards. Always been annoyed that you couldn’t break down that set of ebony armor into ingots? Now you can.
The game even allows the player to decide what armors from the mod will appear in vendors’ inventories for sale.
2. Alternate Start – Live another Life (Arthmoor)
‘Why can’t there be any nice options like starting in a candy store?’
In Alternate Start, players are finally given the option to skip that long, boring introduction and start fresh. The Dragonborn starts locked in a cell in the Abandoned Prison all alone. The Dragonborn can speak to a statue of Mara, who asks some questions that, depending on your answers, will decide how your adventure is to begin.
How you answer the statue even has unique options available to each of the game’s races such as starting the game in an Orcish stronghold for Orcs or as a member of a Khajiit caravan for Khajiit. You can even choose to begin the game after having been captured attempting to cross the border illegally, beginning the game almost as if the mod hadn’t been installed at all (though we don’t know why anyone would do such a thing).
1. SkyUI (Schlangster)
‘Now those are some nice menus.’
This mod may not be as grandiose and sexy as the other mods on this list, but there is no doubt that SkyUI is one of the most popular mods ever created for Skyrim. SkyUI has been downloaded by millions of players and it is easy to see why. SkyUI boasts that it is an ‘elegant, PC-friendly UI mod for Skyrim,’ and it is.
SkyUI takes Skyrim’s tedious and clunky menu design and gives it a full makeover. Every menu in the game is streamlined and improved by this mod. Every menu.
With SkyUI, active effects like poison or diseases are displayed prominently, but unobtrusively, in the player’s HUD, removing the need for the player to open up the magic menu and scroll through a bunch of effects. You’ll never know how you played without this mod after installing it which is why it made it to the top of our list.
Let us hear from you! Tell us your favorite Skyrim mods in the comments below!
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