Best 'Skyrim' Mods
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continues to be a popular PC game due to its vast, open world that contains many quests, secrets, and enemies. Still, many fans want to add to the experience so that players can do even more within the game. Whether it’s on Nexus Mods or the Steam Workshop, you can find a plethora of mods that add more gameplay features, visual enhancements, or a new story campaign altogether. If you want to spend hundreds of hours in the world of Skyrim, you’ll need to download these community-lauded add-ons.
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14: Horses Revamped
Second only to the fast-travel feature, horses are one of the faster ways to move throughout the world. However, the animal’s default performance is substandard for most players. “DServant” created a mod with improved animations and an increase in both movement speed and stamina regeneration. As an added bonus, your horse’s tail also gets a physics makeover, although you need to install the HDT Physics Extension mod to make it work.
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13: Vivid Weathers
At some point the surroundings in Skyrim become monotonous. The same mountain ranges are always bathed in sunlight, and their summits are coated with a fierce blizzard. Now and then, rain will fall and give the landscape a darker scenery, but that’s about it. This is where the Vivid Weathers mod comes into play. It contains over 500 different weather types that include dense fog, heavy rain, and thunderstorms. It also adds new effects, particles, and textures for existing weather systems for more authentic surroundings.
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12: Immersive Horses
If you really love horses then this is the mod for you. You can buy, steal, or acquire every horse from the base game. You can also use multiple commands — such as telling it to wait at a specific spot, opening its inventory, or summoning it with a whistle — to make them more efficient companions. The mod also increases a horse’s performance in terms of stamina, sprint speed, and health. You can even use magic spells while on horseback, which should save you some valuable time during combat.
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11: Enderal
In Enderal, you’ll have to investigate a terrible event called the Cleansing and find out more about the beings associated with it: the mysterious High Ones. The mod uses the foundation of Skyrim to make this new campaign, but Enderal provides a completely different experience. Gameplay takes place in a new land and includes a unique campaign, side quests, and even some guild-based missions. It’s time to embark on a new adventure, and you don’t have to pay a cent to try out this total conversion mod.
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10: Amazing Follower Tweaks
As you gain fame and honor throughout the land, some people might be available to join your journey as followers. However, their standard movement and behavior in the game could use some improvement, which this mod provides. They can learn magic spells, follow your orders in combat, and enter stealth mode. For a better experience, you can also choose to manage their skills and stats or even tell them create a small camp in the wilderness. Simply put, this mod gives you more control over your minions so that you have a more effective team as you make your way across the region.
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9: RealVision ENB
If you want to improve the overall look of the game, consider this one of the first mods to install. It’s a collection of improved visual and post-processing effects that can make the world of Skyrim more lifelike. Upgrades include better contrast between dark and light areas, lighting, and water effects. The result is a visual experience that’s similar to more recent titles. However, you’ll need a powerful card in order to reap the full benefits. The modder believes that Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 970 or AMD’s Radeon R9 390 should do the trick.
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8: Climates of Tamriel
Just like Vivid Weathers, Climates of Tamriel aims to provide a more varied spread of weather effects to give the game more visual flavor. Specifically, it expands on Skyrim’s seven biomes — Coast, Fall Forest, Snow, Reach, Tundra, Volcanic Tundra, and Tundra Marsh — and adds a total of 56 variants of cloud and clear weather in each area. In addition, the mod includes another set of interior-based and foggy weather for the cities of Markarth and Riften, respectively. All in all, there are 506 weather variations available in Climates of Tamriel, which means that you can visit your favorite locations and see them in a different light, so to speak.
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7: Campfire
The land of Skyrim contains small settlements and large cities alike, but Mother Nature still has a majority stake in the area. Even though you’ll eventually just fast-travel between cities to complete quests, there are some players who prefer to take the road less traveled and enjoy the outdoors. With Campfire, you can create your own area of solace in the wilderness. Once your campfire is built, you’ll have to scavenge for resources, such as tinder to keep the flame going and food to keep you well-fed throughout the day. Once you have enough resources, you can also add tents for shelter or create tanning racks to craft leather for other items. You also have the opportunity to gain new abilities with a custom skill system, which can help you gather more resources and improve your hunting prowess.
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6: LOOT: The Load Order Optimization Tool
This isn’t a piece of software specific to Skyrim, but it is an important tool to have for anyone who installs a plethora of mods. When the game is running, LOOT loads in the many mods you installed. However, the load order is important because each mod contains plugins, which need to activate in a specific sequence. Otherwise, the game crashes. Instead of figuring out the load order for yourself, LOOT does the work for you so that you spend more time playing the game.
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5: Open Cities
Before you enter a city, you have to first wait for the many assets within its walls to load. This means staring at a loading screen that you saw many times in the past. With this mod, you can enter any settlement seamlessly, which means that you don’t have to endure through the dreaded loading screen again. For most people, using this mod is a matter of convenience, but it also keeps you immersed in the game. You can use this new feature to your advantage during combat. Enemies can chase you to the city walls, and you’ll get reinforcements thanks to the local guards.
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