~Skyrim Mod Recommendations~

Here is a list of mods, which I recommend, for Skyrim.

~Important Patches~

- Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch

A mod that fixes thousands of bugs and inconsistencies with Skyrim. It's useful for removing annoyances and making sure some parts of the game actually work.

The unofficial patch has been quite controversial over the years. Its lead developer, Arthmoor, is known for stubbornly insisting that Shor's Stone should have secret quicksilver deposits instead of secret ebony deposits, getting similar patches taken off Nexus Mods for copyright reasons, hiding older patches for outdated Skyrim versions, and being very right-wing. However, it does enough to improve the game that I still sort of recommend it.

- Skyrim Misc Fixes Pack

The Skyrim Misc Fixes Pack is a smaller mod in the vein of the Unofficial Patch. It makes a lot of nitty-gritty changes to Skyrim's inner workings, on things like spell mechanics, NPC equipment and abilities, levelled lists for shops and loot, and which things are affected by what perks. You probably won't need the Misc Fixes Pack if you have mods to overhaul everything, but for a light set of mods, it will be helpful.

~Gameplay Overhauls~

- SUMMER: Skyrim Universally ‘Mursive Mechanical Expansion & Recalibration

The most "full-on" gameplay overhaul I'd recommend. SUMMER balances a lot of Skyrim's game mechanics and adds a lot of new ones, including parrying and dodging, stamina costs and aim-shake for bows, a disguise system, non-lethal knock-out attacks, unarmed combat build into the one-handed skill, several new types of spell, and more damage from jumping off cliffs. It's split into eighteen modules from which you can pick and choose freely.

Although it's a lot to take in, SUMMER meshes nicely with Skyrim, adding depth and new options which build on what mechanics Skyrim had already without feeling tacked on. With it, you probably won't need a dedicated magic mod like Mysticism.

- Valravn - Integrated Combat of Skyrim

Valravn makes a lot of improvements to how combat works, in particular making Stamina more important for warriors and archers, balancing stat regeneration and armour, and allowing you to make "attacks of opportunity" against opponents when they're vulnerable. It takes a fairly restrained approach that builds on the game mechanics Skyrim already has, and in my view makes it feel a lot better to play.

Ideally, you should only have one combat overhaul at a time, like Valravn or Blade and Blunt (see below). Feel free to research all the mods and choose whichever one you like; I do recommend Valravn, though.

- Blade and Blunt - A Combat Overhaul

Blade and Blunt is a combat mod similar to Valravn, but with some deeper mechanics; it adds different Stamina costs for sprinting in different types of armour, different stagger amounts for power attacks with different weapons, and maximum values for magic resistance. It even includes an injury system which kicks in when you're below half health, allowing enemies to give you injuries that last until you sleep in a bed.

Blade and Blunt adds Stamina costs to sneaking, swimming and jumping, disables Stamina and Magicka regeneration while you're casting a spell, and by default makes enemies do more damage compared to the player. Overall, it has a harsh approach to balance that can be difficult to get to grips with, and won't be to everyone's taste. However, it is well-made and consistent, and adds a strategic element to fights that improves on what Skyrim has to offer.

- Vanilla Plus

Vanilla Plus makes a handful of judicious improvements to Skyrim's game mechanics, not making grand, sweeping changes, but touching every aspect of the game. It makes NPCs play more fairly in combat, makes equipment and loot more realistic and "on theme", makes healing potions work over time instead of instantly, balances stealth mechanics to reward your skills, makes vampires and werewolves a bit tougher, gives creatures more varied resistances, improves the scaling of the various perk trees, and lets you wear circlets with hoods.

It also gives dragons so much armour they resist 80% of weapon damage, which could be a little over-the-top. Anyway, think of Vanilla Plus as a simple alternative to big overhaul mods like the other ones in this section.

~Other Gameplay Mods~

- I'm Glad You're Here - a follower and spouse appreciation mod

This mod is essential for a true next-gen Skyrim experience. "I'm Glad You're Here" lets you have a closer relationship with your lovers, followers, children and pets. You can give them presents, and sometimes they'll send you letters while you're out travelling. It also allows you to give them hugs, with custom animations and repurposed voice lines.

~Perk Mods~

- Vokrii - Minimalistic Perks of Skyrim

Vokrii is quite a comprehensive perk mod, which expands Skyrim's perk trees with more options for gameplay and better perks where they might have been lacking. It replaces tedious default perks, such as the five ranks of Armsman which each add 20% more One-Handed Weapon Damage, with scaling perks such as One-Handed Mastery, where you "buy into" the skill for a damage bonus that grows with your one-handed skill. It also removes some perks which were unfairly good, such as unbreakable lockpicks, or the damage reflection you can get from heavy armour.

Many of Vokrii's new perks add new ways to engage with the game; for example, crafting armour padding in Smithing, using telekinesis in combat with Alteration, get better at unarmed combat through Light Armour, use more effective Shouts via Speechcraft, or reprogramme Dwemer robots with Lockpicking. It gives you a lot more ways to design a character than Skyrim has on its own.

Vokrii also changes skill scaling and experience gain "behind the scenes" to improve problems such as not getting much experience from enchanting, getting too much experience from enchanting, or smithing taking forever to level up.

- Adamant - A Perk Overhaul

Adamant is a similar mod to Vokrii, and they can't both be used at the same time. Adamant changes up all of Skyrim's perks and adds new ways to use game mechanics, such as Alteration perks which power up your magic in unarmoured robes, Block perks adding more useful effects to shield or weapon bashing, and Restoration and Conjuration perks to make shrine blessings more effective. It takes a more restrained approach than Vokrii, not adding anything "new" like Dwemer automaton hacking, but trying to bring the best out of what Skyrim already has.

Whether Adamant or Vokrii is better, I cannot say. They both come highly recommended. If I were you, I'd read all about both mods on their respective pages before deciding which one to use.

There are also some optional add-ons adding to Adamant's array of skill trees, notably the bard add-on, which allows you to play instruments for temporary bonuses; and the hand-to-hand add-on, which adds an unarmed combat skill tree, while also condensing Lockpicking and Pickpocket into one combined skill. I do recommend these for the extra gameplay options, although unlike regular Adamant, the add-ons need SKSE and other framework mods.

- Hand to Hand - An Adamant Addon

Adamant's most prominent add-on, with its own page and a sizeable list of requirements.

- Perks Plus Plus - Vanilla Perks Improved

A very light and restrained alternative to the other perk overhaul mods. Perks Plus Plus alters and rearranges a few default perks to balance them and make them more user-friendly, as well as adding just Two (2) new perks, which let you use sun magic on living targets or get more damage from non-elemental Destruction spells.

~Magic Mods~

- Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul

Mysticism makes a lot of changes to improve the magic-usage experience in Skyrim, inlcuding balance changes to nearly every spell, letting scrolls and staves benefit from your magic perks, and making sales-wizards sell a lot more staves and scrolls. It also adds plenty of new spells, such as animal- and skeleton-based Conjuration summons, Alteration spells that weaken enemies, and the full sets of poison and sun magic under Restoration.

- Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul

Odin is a fairly similar mod to Mysticism, which tweaks Skyrim's default spells, adds many more spells to choose from, improves how staves and scrolls work and makes sure court wizards have some for sale. Its spells include some fun new options like building walls or bridges through Alteration, summoning familiars that give you a bonus just by being there, or calling illusory spirits to distract your enemies.

Part of Odin's focus is helping magic scale into the late game, such as by allowing conjured Daedra to level with the player, and giving Illusion spells a chance of working on stronger opponents instead of a strict level limit. It also lets you find quite a few master-level scrolls in random treasure.

~Weather and Lighting Mods~

- RAID Weathers

A very beautiful, lovingly-crafted weather mod which makes Skyrim gorgeous, with beautiful sunsets and lush banks of fog. It was designed to balance stealth and detection with the player's own ability to see; at night or in dense fog, you should have as much chance of seeing a nearby enemy as they will of seeing you.

- Realistic AI Detection (RAID)

RAID actually came before RAID Weathers, and is a do-over for stealth gameplay and detection mechanics. RAID makes NPCs rather more likely to see you when you try to sneak in broad daylight, placing an emphasis on staying in the shadows and avoiding your enemies' line of sight. A lot of jokes have been made that stealth archery is the best way to play Skyrim, and RAID will indeed make it more of a challenge.

- Mythical Ages - Weather and Lighting Overhaul

Another weather mod, and possibly my favourite one so far. It keeps the weather natural-looking and Skyrimesque, but also gorgeous, soft and sun-soaked, or bathed in luscious banks of fog, with beautiful, glowing sunsets and northern lights. It also allows you to select a visual "mood" for the overall look of the game.

~Character Models and Texture Packs~

- Simply Skin - Female Texture Replacer and Male Texture Replacer

Two mods full of nice, but real-looking face and body textures for humanoid characters, including Argonians and Khajiit. They cover all the base textures, but not the tint-maps for individual characters. The textures are 2K and occasionally 4K, which will be handy if you like squinting at the tiny little pores on your character's nose, but it may be worth scaling them down to ease on memory usage.

- Variations

A texture pack for most of the armour, weaponry and clothing in Skyrim, with improved models for some outfits and weapons. Variations has 1K textures and quite a real, grounded look that suits Skyrim. Notably, it replaces the models for some women's armour to remove an overemphasis on the bust. If you don't want big texture packs, I'd recommend Variations as more of a medium-sized big texture pack.

~World Models and Texture Packs~

- Enhanced Landscapes - Grass Standalone

Despite being just the grass bit of a larger mod, this is one of my favourite grass texture packs. Enhanced Landscapes - Grass Standalone has nice, natural-looking replacement textures for every type of grass, without looking too pretty or out-of-place for Skyrim. Some of the default grass in Skyrim looks a bit rough, so I do recommend a grass texture pack.

~World and City Mods~

~Enemy and Creature Mods~

~Equipment Mods~

- Awesome Artifacts

A mod to improve all the unique weapons and armour in Skyrim, including all the ones added by the unbalanced, cheaply-made "Creations" bundled with the Anniversary Edition. Awesome Artifacts adds fun, unique effects to a lot of items, and improves on ones which might have felt weak.

~Quests and Story Mods~

~Smaller Touches~