If you’ve played Skyrim and its main questlines, you know how much there is to the base game. If you haven’t, go do that real quick, then come back. Trust me, vanilla’s worth it. But once that gets a little boring, once you’ve gone through it all, and you’ve killed Nazeem in every way you can think of, what’s left? What do you explore? Mods. Lots and lots of mods. Or go play Morrowind or something, I’m not your mom.
Modding Skyrim is a technical adventure all on its own, with all the options out there, how do you choose? Clearly, you don’t know how, which is understandable, it’s overwhelming. So just let my immaculate taste guide you through the deluge of modded content.
25. Blackrock Temple
Part of the fun of Skyrim is the hacking and slashing, and spell-slinging, (unless you’re a stealth archer,) but eventually, you’ll hack, slash, and cast your way through Skyrim, the Dawnguard, and Solstheim. When the adventures start to feel thin, maybe it’s time to pay Blackrock Temple a visit. Hidden in the eastern mountains, Blackrock is a high-level dungeon made for late-game characters. The enemies here are well-equipped, and most can use the thu’um.
Blackrock is a fun, challenging dungeon well worth the hours it may take to clear it. It includes lovely attractions such as:
- High level enemies that scream at you
- A new challenge
- Dremora Overlords
24. Sneak Tools
Adding something for the rogues, Borgut’s sneak tools. Adding new options for stealth, combat, and infiltration sneak tools expands upon the conniving assassins' arsenal.
Not only does this add more options, increasing immersion and flexibility in gameplay, it also adds:
- An armor effect that hides your identity while committing crimes, preventing you from accruing a bounty.
- New stealth interaction options, such as throat slitting, and knockouts.
- Specialized arrows, and a new spell that teleports you to a shady shop, where you can buy all the assassin tools you could want
23. Oppressor's Loading Screens
Waiting for Skyrim to load is arguably one of the most boring parts of the game, besides jumping up mountains you should really just walk around. Masochists. So, why not add a little spice to it? There are plenty of loading screen mods out there, but OLS is one of my personal favorites, for the breathtaking detail these loading screen images are rendered in.
OLS adds:
- 15 beautifully rendered, intricate images.
- A sense of wistfulness to your game.
- A moment to relax, and ground yourself in the details.
22. Wisecrack Loading Screens
Wisecracks additions and experiences include:
- New laughs.
- New loading screen models.
- And, hilariously; “You can fast travel while over-encumbered with a horse. But why would you carry a horse?”
21. Legacy of the Dragonborn
Have you ever wished you could keep all your weapons in one place? Wished you could see them displayed? Get those pesky elder scrolls out of your inventory? Or even just have somebody else do the legwork of tracking down every single legendary weapon questline for you? Legacy of the Dragonborn will fulfill all these wishes, and so, so much more.
On your path to 100% completion, Legacy of the Dragonborn guides you through:
- A museum displaying all of the major artifacts, weapons, and armor sets in the game.
- Dozens of quests, and artifacts, with a museum curator who sends you out on missions to find them.
- A secret lair that outstrips any vanilla homes in the game.
Download Legacy of the Dragonborn here.
20. Mihails Vampire Lord Expansion
Vampire lords become a common enemy around Skyrim, usually appearing with thralls following along. These are similar to the players' vampire lord form and will use many of the same attacks. This mod requires the Dawnguard DLC.
Adds terrifying vampiric menaces such as:
- Skeleton vampire lords that will raise more vampire lords, among 11 other creatures
- A transformation to several vanilla vampire fights.
- Changes to lord harkon's boss battle.
Download Mihails Vampire Lord Expansion here
19. The Forgotten City
The Forgotten City thrusts you into Skyrim's past, tasked with a murder to solve. The ending is entirely up to you. It adds:
- A replayable storyline with several varied endings.
- An entirely new region to explore.
- Hours of new content.
Download The Forgotten City here
18. More Dialogue Options
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF_B_gxf4bs
Eventually, after a few replays, Skyrim's default dialogue gets a bit boring and repetitive. There’s no shame in admitting it, we all want something a little different now and then. This mod goes back to the script and changes interactions all over the map.
Some of these interactions include:
- Conversations with Maul.
- The Thieves Guild recruitment conversation.
- Aela.
Download More Dialogue Options here.
17. Guns of Skyrim
For more combat changes, you can add the Guns of Skyrim mod. This adds guns. Lots and lots of guns. The industrial revolution is still hundreds of years off, and Asian gunpowder is nowhere to be heard of, but still, guns.
This adds:
- Specialized guns for vampires and werewolves.
- Set specific guns for the nightingale, nordic, dark brotherhood, and others.
- Specialized ammo.
16. Immersive Armors
Immersive armors’ additions include:
- A rehauled crafting system
- Historical armor pieces
- 55 full armor sets, and over 350 shields
Download Immersive Armors here.
15. Cloaks of Skyrim
It comes with new additions such as:
- 13 named dragon priest cloaks.
- New crafting additions
- Compatibility with many other cloak and warmth-related mods.
Download Cloaks of Skyrim here
14. Andromeda - Unique Standing Stones of Skyrim
It includes game-changing abilities such as:
- Corrupted Arcana (The Atronach Stone): Magicka ceases to regenerate, instead being stolen from slain enemies. The amount scales by the level of the defeated enemy.
- Star Curse (The Serpent Stone): Steal all magicka and stamina from an enemy, while also preventing them from regenerating for a short time.
- Bag of holding (The Steed Stone): You gain the ability to magically store things in the void.
13. The Lost Wonders of Mzark
Adds dwarvish wonders such as:
- Mzarnumez, an intricate, puzzle-based dungeon.
- New enemies, including holograms and new mechs.
- 3 new armor sets.
Download The Lost Wonders of Mzark here
12. Legend of the Eagles Nest
I'm sure we all have a favorite home in Skyrim. There's plenty of them, and even an extra three customizable properties with the hearthfire DLC. But sometimes it just doesn't feel right. Every so often you need to escape to the mountain tops, and vanish into the snowy haze. When the adventure gets a little too hectic, one day you hear it. The Eagles. They're calling to you. Drawing you into the nest itself.
The Eagles nest is a custom castle including:
- An in-home merchant.
- A mine underneath the home.
- Secret passages.
Download Legend of the Eagles Nest here
11. Dovahkiin Perks
Just to change up the combat a bit, there’s also Dovahkiin Perks. This new skill tree provides several new abilities, primarily gleaned from the dovahkiin's superhuman reflexes. The perks benefit the thu’um, alongside the three main combat methods. These perks are semi-reliant on other skill trees.
This includes perks such as:
- Breath of the Dovahkiin, which increases your shout recovery time.
- Adrenaline Surge, which slows time as you attack.
- Elemental Mastery, improving all elemental damage.
10. Ravengrave
It adds:
- 3 hours of content
- A spider cave
- Fully rendered, detailed dungeons
9. Weapon Arts
Skyrim’s combat gets a little repetitive, hack slash, hack slash, throw in some well-timed spells and blocks, and call it a day. Weapon arts allow your hacking and slashing to get a little more creative.
Adds:
- A unique power for each Weapon type.
- Enchantment based effects.
- A book that teaches you the skills to use them.
8. Moonpath to Elsweyr
Travel far away from Skyrim with a khajiit caravan, to the steaming, tropical jungles of Elsweyr. The khajiit are the only ones who know the path, but they will bring you, in exchange for protection.
Moonpath to Elsweyr adds new elements such as:
- New quests.
- An area to explore.
- Custom jungle enemies to defeat.
Download Moonpath to Elsweyr here
7. Become High king of Skyrim
The mod gives you the right to:
- Play political games.
- Legally execute citizens.
- Ability to promote NPC’s to jarl positions. (compatible with most follower mods.)
Download Become High King of Skyrim here
6. The Falkreath Hauntings
Battle through exciting new experiences such as:
- 3 hauntings
- A questline
- Two boss battles
Download Falkreath Hauntings here
5. The Paladin Stone
Changes:
- A new stone next to the statue of Meridia
- Increases the rate at which restoration, heavy armor, one/two handed, and speech improve
- Encourages preferred playstyles.
Download The Paladin Stone here
4. Daedric Dawnbreaker
Cleave through the undead with:
- A different upgrade material
- Higher base damage
- Higher enchantment damage
Download Daedric Dawnbreaker here
3. INIGO
Are you looking for new friends in Skyrim? Are you a little tired of all your usual pals? Do they get you caught in dungeons when you’re trying to sneak past draugr overlords under-leveled? Do they talk about the same things in a circle? Let me introduce you to Inigo. Your first hangout sesh will be breaking him out of jail. Yeah… I mean you’re a criminal too at this point. Probably.
Inigo comes with:
- 7000+ lines of dialogue.
- An adaptive personality and combat system.
- Common sense and communication skills. (Big green flag there y’all.)
2. Solstheim: The Lost Levels
The Dragonborn expansion is lovely, but short. This mod expands upon Solsthiems room for exploration and unique lore. You can seek them out on your own, or wait for the radiant quest system to point you to them. They’re lore accurate, taking from dungeons in previous in-universe appearances of the island.
The island now sports:
- 4 new quests.
- 8 new plants.
- 6 new caves.
Download Solsthiem the Lost Levels here
1. Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim
Rip through enemies with spells such as:
- Detonate lock, a spell that opens almost any lock
- Lamb of Mara, a health-stealing spell where you absorb any life you take from an opponent
- Shared trauma, where one opponent loses 10% of the health the following target loses
