The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remains a milestone game more than five years after its initial release. And since it doesn’t look like we’re getting another entry in Bethesda’s RPG series for a while longer (no, Elder Scrolls Online doesn’t count), even the most dedicated Skyrim player might be looking for ways to get some new life out of the original game.Fortunately, modders have been making vanilla Skyrim better since the game came out. And we’re not just talking about improving the graphics, either (though graphics mods are awesome). At this point, there are mods that add new characters, questlines, enemies, spells, and even new areas to explore. If Skyrim was starting to feel a little dull after five years, these mods will make it feel fresh again. What You’ll NeedThis guide is for the original PC version of Skyrim, not the Special Edition. The original game has the best selection of mods.

• Epic Music Genre
• Skyrim Se Overhaul
• Skyrim Epic Music Overhaul Kit

Skyrim is a game that offers the player an abundance of decisions to make that often times have considerable consequences. Most of the choices offered in The Elder Scrolls 5 are rather morally ambiguous, with no clearly defined “right” or “wrong” answer. However, a handful of the options we’re given in Skyrim are downright evil. Dragon Combat Overhaul Civil War Overhaul Fire and Ice Overhaul Combat Drama Overhaul Important Information Overhaul Epic Music. Attempting to mod skyrim is a.

Some might be available for the Special Edition too (and a few are also on the Xbox One and PS4 versions), but the original PC game is still the way to go if you want to customize your experience.RELATED:In addition, some of the more advanced mods can’t be found on the, which is the de facto repository (and the easiest to use for beginners). For more complex fare, you’ll want to upgrade to the third-party, which.

You might want to start with (SKSE), a prerequisite for many advanced game mods. Lots of them need the as well. A Better User InterfaceThe user interface in Skyrim is designed to be usable with both a mouse and keyboard and a standard console controller.

Regrettably, that means it’s not particularly good at either of them, including a lot of tedious scrolling and no real options for organization. With this installed you can search your inventory by text, organize items by weight when you’re over encumbered, colored icons for item types, and integration across all shop and lootable menus, too.

New FollowersThe follower system is a staple of Bethesda RPGs. But most of the companions you can recruit in Skyrim are either fairly limited characters designed to be battle companions, or tied to specific quests and unavailable for the longer game. There are a wide variety of add-on followers available as game mods that insert new characters specifically designed to be interesting or useful. Some of the best examples include custom-recorded voice lines from the community, full backstories and quests that flesh out the character, and unique equipment to make them stand out from the polygonal crowd. And are good places to start. Better DragonsThe massive dragon battles in Skyrim differentiate it from the rest of The Elder Scrolls, and they were a huge selling point before the game’s release.

But after a few dozen hours, dragons cease to be any particular challenge, and there are only a handful of different types. To add some spice to Tamriel’s skies, try the, an omnibus mod that combines custom dragons from a bunch of different creators. These souped-up beasts come with custom attacks and creature models, special effects, and lots of combat modifiers that can make them a real challenge. Speaking of which, if all you want is more epic dragon fights, you can try (which can be combined with Diverse Dragons Collection). If you want even more motivation to become a legendary dragon slayer, which lets you trade a leveled amount of dragon souls for skill improvements instead of the standard dragon shouts. More Magic and Tougher CombatSkyrim’s magic and combat aren’t its best features—games like Dark Souls and Shadow of Mordor have it beaten dead to rights when it comes to the sheer mechanical joy of fighting.

Modders, thankfully, have expanded both of these areas. Makes combat more deadly, making it more important to dodge attacks and find the right time to strike rather than simply tanking or blocking all damage. You’ll have to use actual tactics in each and every fight something most Skyrim players probably haven’t done since they maxed out their Smithing score. There’s not much that can be done for Skyrim’s magic system except expand the spells and effects, but several mods do that to a spectacular degree, including. Explore New LandsEasily the most ambitious Skyrim mods are the ones that add entirely new areas to the game, or transform existing ones with a ton of new content. Is surely the biggest of the big, adding a whole new island to the land of Skyrim brimming with new characters, new quests, and a new storyline to follow. It’s full of dozens of custom voiced characters, new equipment, spells, and books, and even custom-made music. There’s also, a total conversion that essentially creates an original fantasy RPG using Skyrim as its backbone.

With a completely customized continent and dozens of hours’ worth of quests and gameplay, you can think of this as a community-made companion game (that just happens to be free). A few other examples include,.

Or Just Change the WallpaperThere are innumerable mods out there that are made and installed just for fun, like the one that or adds a custom “IKEA-born” race. But for a bit of fun that doesn’t actually change Skyrim‘s core gameplay, I recommend. This mod replaces the flavor text that appears whenever you go to a new area with sarcastic and goofy alternative descriptions. It’s a great way to get a quick chuckle without messing up the balance of the rest of the game.

Is Skyrim the most modded game of all time? It's definitely up there. There are over 60,000 mods out there, and modders are still creating new, ambitious projects. Just about any change, tweak, and fix you can imagine has been made by some enterprising modder, along with hundreds of hours of original content, and there's no sign the modding well has dried up yet.

It's an overwhelming number to sort through, which is why we're here to help find and install Skyrim mods.This is our guide to the best Skyrim mods, sorted into categories that will make it easy for you to find what you're looking for. And if you're looking for, follow that link to our separate collection. Mods added in the latest update of this list have been marked with a ⭐.First up: some essential improvements. Table of contents.: A grab bag of useful improvements.: Make the game look beautiful.: New adventures and new lands.: Find different ways to play.: Some improved, some entirely new.: Armor, weapons, and custom accessories.: Changes to the other characters, plus some new ones.: Soup up your sorcery, pep up your perks.: Tools and utilities to install, organize, and use these mods.Patches, optimization, and UIIt's no secret Bethesda's RPGs can be more than a bit buggy. There are glitches, optimization problems, and in Skyrim's case, a UI designed for consoles.

Thankfully, long after the official patches stopped rolling out modders remain devoted to making the game more stable and usable. Here are some mods that will improve your overall experience. A Quality World Map ⭐Skyrim's map is functional but boring. A Quality World Map offers multiple ways to fix it. You can replace the map with a much more detailed world texture, with colors that help delineate the separate areas much more obviously, but there's also an option to have a paper map with a more Oblivion look if that's your thing. Skyrim's original UI is, well, terrible. SkyUI makes it easier to use, more pleasant to read, and much more useful for sorting through your loot and menus.

Most importantly, SkyUI adds a mod configuration menu to the pause screen, letting you tweak and adjust compatible mods (including many on this list). A lot of mods don't require SkyUI and will run just fine without it, but you'll get much more out of your mods if you have it.In other words, it's highly recommended.

Unofficial Skyrim PatchesDownload links:,.Created by the same modders as the Unofficial Oblivion patches, the Unofficial Skyrim patches catch a huge amount of bugs the official patches don't. A lot of them are things you might never notice, like objects that were placed slightly wrong so they clip through each other or quests that break if you do something unusual, but it's still better to have them than not. There's one for the Legendary Edition and one for the official High Resolution textures patch. Vendor Sale Delay - GONEThis is a small mod, but it makes the game much less frustrating. Now instead of having to listen to the vendor dialogue before they’ll trade with you, the trade window opens up immediately while they give their speech about their junk—I mean “treasures.” Realistic Humanoid Movement SpeedSick of walking like a turtle and sprinting like a cheetah? This mod fixes the problem.

Your movement speed is adjusted to more reasonable levels, from a brisk walk that lets you keep up with NPCs, to slower run speeds that make it challenging to escape from that cranky troll. Also eliminates “skating” from sneak running. Not So FastDragons returning is a pretty big deal, but the main questline feels like you’re on a runaway train at times. This mod helps you modify the order of events to a more reasonable pace. Not only can you get Breezehome when you hand in the Dragonstone, but you can also ignore the Civil War part altogether! Fully customizable through MCM.Project OptimizationProject Optimization improves Skyrim performance by occlusion culling, which means not rendering effects you can't see.

If you use a lot of serious lighting mods, like ENB and Realistic Lighting, then this mod can save you several frames per second. Performance TexturesThis mod rezises and enhances the textures for armor, clothes, and weapons, making them both better looking while simultaneously making the file sizes smaller for improved performance. This is useful for users with low-end machines who still want to improve their graphics. The modder has done the same for. Performance PlusFalling leaves and snow are pretty, but can sometimes cause FPS drops on older GPUs due to the size of the textures.

Performance Plus decreases the fidelity of particles, which provides an FPS boost. In most cases, such as snow, it's barely noticeable, and the slight degrading of particle textures is more than made up for by an increase in performance. The Choice is YoursLets the player be way more in charge of what quests they want. Stops random auto-quest greetings from NPCs, stops books from giving auto-quests, and lets the player customize when they want to see certain quests become available.

Epic Music Genre

Full MCM support. Optimal experience paired with. Better Dialogue ControlsUsing a keyboard and mouse for Skyrim means sometimes the game gets confused when you're selecting a dialogue option. You've noticed, surely, that sometimes when you choose a response the game thinks you've chosen a different one. Skyrim's dialogue controls are weird and clunky, and this mod completely and thankfully fixes that.

Skyrim Se Overhaul

Immersive HUDYou don't need your HUD onscreen all the time. This mod hides the crosshairs and status bars when you're not actively using them, such as outside combat. You can also toggle the compass and quest markers on and off with a keypress, and adjust their opacity. HUD ClockOn the other hand, sometimes you want a little more info on-screen. This widget adds a clock to your screen—with several different elegant and unobtrusive faces you can choose through SkyUI's mod configuration menu—so you can keep track of the time and date.

Skyrim Epic Music Overhaul Kit

The Dovahkiin's got a smartwatch. Table of contents.: A grab bag of useful improvements.: Make the game look beautiful.: New adventures and new lands.: Find different ways to play.: Some improved, some entirely new.: Armor, weapons, and custom accessories.: Changes to the other characters, plus some new ones.: Soup up your sorcery, pep up your perks.: The best ways to install, organize, and use these mods.