Table of Contents
Page 1: Getting started - How to install mods, patches, interface, and textures
Page 2: Content mods - quests, characters, creatures, and places
Page 3: Gameplay mods - weapons, skills, systems, and tweaks
These content mods for Skyrim can keep you playing for years. From the full-sized fan expansion Enderal to new cities and factions, there's so much you can add to the world of Skyrim. Get adventurin'.
Quests and expansions
Clockwork
Download from: Nexus Mods
You won't find many Skyrim quest mods with Silent Hill and Fritz Lang's Metropolis among their inspirations, but Clockwork isn't just any Skyrim mod. It's a three-in-one storyline that takes you through a haunted mine where you'll be tormented by a singular spirit, a clockwork castle where revived dwemer automatons have created an outpost of modern convenience, and an underground realm run by maddened relics who've lost their masters. It's a sizable mod, and one you'll need to leave your followers behind for, but it's well worth taking several hours out of your playthrough to sink into this long bath of atmospheric and cleverly designed questing.
The Forgotten City
Download from: Nexus Mods
This extensive mod not only gives you a new city to explore, but a murder mystery to solve, NPCs to interrogate, secrets to uncover, and, oh yeah, a chance to do some time travel. Voiced by over a dozen actors, this mod took years of development time and is recommended for characters over level five. We tried it out here. (The Forgotten City has also been made into an excellent standalone game.)
Enderal: Forgotten Stories
Download from: Steam
This total conversion mod creates an entirely new world, very nearly the size of Skyrim itself, and populates it with new dungeons, quests, monsters, and fully voiced NPCs. Some of Skyrim's systems have also been tweaked, there's a new custom story to enjoy, and a good 50+ hours of new adventures to be hard. Read our impressions of the opening hours of Enderal.
Brynjolf and the Riften Guild – Birthright
Download from: Nexus Mods
When you wrap up the Thieves Guild questline, the lack of an epilogue feels a bit jarring. Even your mentor Brynjolf doesn't have anything to say or offer you after you've saved the guild together. This fully voiced quest mod, which splices together existing dialogue to make new lines, finally gives us closure. Brynjolf's new quests make him romanceable too, but you can also finally unlock the guild's vault, and solve the mystery of the orphan thief Rune's mysterious backstory.
Pirates of Skyrim – The Northern Cardinal Under the Black Flag
Download from: Nexus Mods
Become captain of your own ship, then commit acts of piracy or do battle with pirates. The only thing missing is being able to sail in real-time, though that was unlikely to ever be an option. Instead, once you've completed a short questline to unlock your upgradeable ship and recruited at least three crew by giving sailors' journals to your followers, you can fast travel out into the Sea of Ghosts, then either dive for treasure or look through the telescopes for ships to board. You can raid pirate ships if you'd rather pretend to be a pirate hunter, or faction warships if you're playing privateer. Then, after every victory, line your ship's trophy room with the booty.
Moonpath to Elsweyr
Download from: Nexus Mods
For those who are sick of snowy mountains, Moonpath to Elsweyr offers two brand new environments: lush jungle and barren desert. This quest mod takes you to the khajiit homeland of Elsweyr, which you can travel across in your airship. Did I mention you get an airship? You get an airship. We spoke to its creator about making one of the first Skyrim quest mods.
Legacy of the Dragonborn
Download from: Nexus Mods
Legacy of the Dragonborn adds a gallery in Solitude where you can keep mementos of your time in Skyrim. It's a museum about you, with space for almost every unique item in the game. All those quest rewards and Daedric artifacts you went to so much trouble to earn but don't actually use can be displayed in a beautiful building with its own library, store room, and more. The curator hands out quests to help fill it, there's an entire archeology system with its own perks, and Legacy is compatible with several major quest mods like Moonpath, Moon and Star, and Undeath so you can display items from those as well. The only downside is that it won't recognize items received before installing it, so it's worth starting a fresh save.
Become High King of Skyrim
Download from: Nexus Mods
With great power comes great responsibility. But what about great rewards? With all of your accomplishments and deadly abilities, it would make sense for you to become King of Skyrim, don't you think? Move into a huge castle, have your own army follow you everywhere, and throw citizens in prison or have them beheaded. It's good to be the king.
Imperial Mail
Download from: Nexus Mods
Post offices may not sound like an exciting addition to Skyrim, but Imperial Mail adds a heck of a lot of convenience. Once you open an account at either the central office in Solitude or any of the marked taverns, you can forward equipment between them for a fee—meaning you can send a bunch of heavy gear back home after a quest, then carry on. There are also quests on offer if you want to help the Imperial Mail out by delivering messages, and it's compatible with Legacy of the Dragonborn so you can send items direct to the gallery.
Faction: Pit Fighter
Download from: Steam Workshop
Miss the arena? This quest mod adds a group of pit fighters you can join to the Gray Quarter of Windhelm, each of them voice-acted. The bouts take place in bespoke arenas outside the bounds of the map, and you can choose to fight one-on-one, against teams, or against wild animals. You'll have to wait between fights, so it's a good faction to visit in between other questlines. If you use the Open Cities mod download this version instead, and make sure to read the notes on that page to get the voices working.
The Paarthurnax Dilemma
Download from: AFK Mods
Ever wanted to tell the Blades to get bent when they tell you to kill your dragon bro? Well, now you can! With this mod from Arthmoor, you now have the option to explain matters to the Blades and make them see reason (although you might have to get a bit forceful—darn).
Cutting Room Floor
Download from: AFK Mods
Adds in a lot of content that Bethesda cut before release, including NPCs, dialogue, items, quests, and locations like villages, towers, farms, mills, and more. The mod author, Arthmoor, also organized and cleaned up the code so that everything would make sense and run smoothly.
Sea of Ghosts
Download from: Steam Workshop
Ahoy, matey! Fancy yourself a ship captain, but not in a piratical way? This mod lets you acquire a ship, hire a crew, and set sail for a number of quests on the Sea of Ghosts. There are seven quests scattered over a number of new islands, and the mod features professional voice acting to boot.
Enhanced Skyrim Factions - The Companions
Download from: Nexus Mods
Ever thought it was pretty stupid that you got into the Circle after only doing a few minor quests, or that you were railroaded into becoming a werewolf? With this mod, you get a lot more quests, becoming a werewolf is your choice, and you can battle the Silver Hand with members other than Farkas or Aela the Huntress.
Undeath
Download from: Nexus Mods
As the saying goes: if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Alternately, you can beat 'em and join 'em. I'm talking about necromancers, in this case. Undeath is a custom quest in which you're tasked with wiping out an evil cabal of necromancers, with the twist that you can choose to continue their dark unholy work. You can even perform a ritual that will allow you to become a powerful lich and command an army of the undead. It's meant for players over level 30. We covered it here.
Moon and Star
Download from: Nexus Mods
A dangerous criminal from Morrowind has arrived in Skyrim, and your quest to track him down will take you to a new town and an inventive, puzzle-filled dungeon, introduce you to several new NPCs including merchants and traders, and outfit you with new weapons and spells.
Helgen Reborn
Download from: Nexus Mods
A huge and fantastic quest mod that centres around rebuilding and ruling the town of Helgen, also known as "that place that got burnt down at the start of the game." Following the quest will lead you to creating a ragtag bunch of misfits to act as the town guard, while the city itself slowly expands around you.
You also wind up with the coolest player home ever designed: read our article about it.
Companions and NPCs
Inigo
Download from: Nexus Mods
Maybe you don't think a blue khajiit who follows you around commenting on everything and being sarcastic about Lydia is what Skyrim needs, but trust us on this. Inigo is a follower with tons of dialogue, some tied to his own questline and more that crops up at appropriate times depending on the location you're at. He can be told where to go and what to do by whistling, and will follow you even if you've got an existing companion, chatting away with them thanks to skilfully repurposed voice lines.
Vilja in Skyrim
Download from: Nexus Mods
A sequel to a much-loved Oblivion mod (which Terry Pratchett contributed to), Vilja in Skyrim adds the great-granddaughter of the original Vilja as a follower. She's an alchemist with her own questline to follow and a unique system to give her orders, essentially spells bound to hotkeys that can be used to co-ordinate attacks. Like Inigo she doesn't count toward your follower limit, and if introduced to each other Inigo and Vilja will even chat among themselves.
Interesting NPCs
Download from: Nexus Mods
If you'd like even more new companions, this mod adds a ton of additional followers with custom voices and tons of location-based commentary, their own questlines, and some interesting and unique appearances. If you find one you particularly like, great news—you can marry them.
Diverse Guards
Download from: AFK Mods
Ever noticed that Skyrim's Imperial army is a no-girls-allowed club? Oh sure, there are female named characters like Legate Rikke, but the actual rank-and-file soldiers, with the exception of Windhelm and Riften, are always male. This mod edits the list of models that town guards and Imperial soldiers are randomly drawn from, adding some women into the mix, and also adds in several different faces for the male guards.
Immersive Patrols
Download from: Nexus Mods
Immersive Patrols creates a series of patrols for Skyrim's different factions: Stormcloak, Imperial, Thalmor, Dawnguard, bandits, and so on. Occasionally these routes intersect, resulting in two opposed factions fighting to the death. Imperials and Stormcloaks regularly clash at designated warzones, with the survivors either reinforcing or taking control of the nearest fort. It adds a tremendous amount of life to Skyrim's conflict, and generates far more of those emergent clashes we all love to watch.
Nether's Follower Framework
Download from: Nexus Mods
Everyone knows a properly balanced adventuring party consists of three-to-six heroes, and just one NPC companion couldn't possibly be enough. Nether's Follower Framework is the best option out of several mods that let you recruit more followers—up to 10 at a time. (Not counting custom companions like Inigo, who you don't need to integrate with Nether's Follower Framework.) This mod also has tweakable options that let you decide whether followers ride mounts, create outfit sets for them, access a separate storage inventory that lets them pack-mule items you don't want them to use, and plenty more.
Travelers of Skyrim
Download from: Nexus Mods
The roads of Skyrim are typically pretty empty, except for you and the occasional bandit who is forced to make his living trying to rob you since you're the only person on the roads. This mod adds dozens of fellow travelers who move between the cities and towns. Now you'll encounter traveling merchants, alchemists, mercenaries, and mages when you hit the road.
Cats of the Jarls
Download from: Nexus Mods
The Jarls all have cats. The cats all have little outfits. Is it lore-friendly? Who cares? I mean, look at the little boots. You might want to go with the version without purring because these little house cats can start sounding like a parade of classic cars if you listen long enough. If you don't want cats for Jarls, perhaps you just want the Creatures of Nirn - Khajit Alfiq mod that it's based on, which adds the tiny khajiit species to the game. Remember, they do not like being mistaken for house cats.
Locations
Daedric Shrines
Download from: Nexus Mods
Sure, Azura gets a huge statue because she's the one Daedric Prince with a decent PR department, but worshippers of the other Demon Lords of Misrule have to hide their devotion away in dungeons or modest shrines that only appear if you complete certain quests. Sheogorath and Sanguine get nothing even if you do finish their sidequests (which are two of the best in the whole game). This mod fixes that by adding shrine statues for them, while replacing the statues of those who do appear with newer models. Going above and beyond, it also replaces the statues of Dibella, both big and small, even though the goddess of love is technically one of the Nine Divines. Comes in 2K and 4K versions.
Bigger Dragon Bridge
Download from: Nexus Mods
There's no way you could fit a dragon on Dragon Bridge. It looks like it should have a warning sign that says "no more than three sheep abreast". If you think the architectural feature that the town of Dragon Bridge in Haafingar Hold derives its name from should be a little more impressively scaled, this mod bumps it up. Now it looks like something you could get at least six sheep across in a row.
Airship Dev Aveza
Download from: Nexus Mods
Want your own flying ship? Yeah, course you do. This takes the airship model from the Moonpath to Elsweyr quest mod and combines it with the interactions from a separate skyship mod to make the best flying fantasy you'll get. The Dev Aveza is docked behind Solitude, and once it's yours can be flown all over the map. It's a much easier way to get to the top of the Throat of the World than walking, and it's got room on board for all your belongings.
Hidden Hideouts of Skyrim
Download from: Nexus Mods
Puts a ton of hidden shelters in the game, dotted all over the landscape. They're great fun to stumble upon and perfect for outlaws to stash their stuff or just disappear from the law. The mod is customizable depending on how easily players want to find these places (you can turn map markers off).
Ranger Cabins
Download from: Nexus Mods
Pair with Corners of Skyrim, these mods work together to enhance a survival playthrough. The first puts a hunter cabin in each Hold, which can be used as a basic starting player home. Also includes some lore-friendly weapons and arrows for ranger characters, including a "secret stash" of better weapons out in the woods of Falkreath. Corners of Skyrim puts even smaller shelters in the game, great as emergency shelters that offer a few basic necessities. They both feature creative architecture and are lore-friendly. Players can decide if they want to see NPCs living in the shelters or not.
Creatures & Enemies
The Sinister Seven
Download from: Nexus Mods
If you enjoy the feeling of being hunted, The Sinister Seven delivers. As you level up you'll be pursued by more and more challenging assassins, including seven bosses who wear unique magical masks. The first of those appears when you reach level 12, with another every even-numbered level after that. Though sometimes they'll attack you in a settlement and get mobbed by guards, they can also appear while you're weakened from a previous fight or slogging through the wilderness, resulting in a tough duel you might have to give up and run away from.
Really Useful Dragons
Download from: Nexus Mods
You've got multiple options for replacing Skyrim's dragons with something goofy-looking. The "Really Useful Dragons mod" adds Thomas the Tank Engine, who seems to make it into even more mods than Shrek these days. For another replacement route, Macho Dragons turns them into 'Macho Man' Randy Savage. Both are hilarious and creepy in their own way. Note that the first actually adds a variety of characters from Thomas the Tank Engine, if that's a selling point for you.
No Spiders
Download from: Nexus Mods
Arachnophobes might appreciate the mod that replaces the spider textures with Spider-Man, although it still looks freaky as all get-out to me. For a more lore-friendly attempt at getting rid of the bugs, Insects Begone swaps spiders for bears and chaurus for skeevers as well as deleting spiderwebs and other arachnid clutter.
Enhanced Mighty Dragons Reborn
Download from: Nexus Mods
Guess what? You're not the only one who can shout, Dragonborn. This mod gives dragons a whole new toolbox of spells and shouts, new abilities like disarming attacks and the power to summon animals or other monsters. One can raise the dead, another can't fly—it's a skeleton—but uses deadly physical attacks. It's completely customizable as well, in terms of difficulty, frequency, and loot. We tried out these new dragons here.
Automatic Variants
Download from: Nexus Mods
There are a lot of excellent retexture mods available for Skyrim, but the sad thing is that you can only ever use one at a time. Automatic Variants exists to correct that problem. It allows Skyrim to randomly choose different skins from a pool of variants. Pick a bunch you like, and the mod will distribute those textures for you in the game.
Bellyache's Animal and Creature Pack
Download from: Nexus Mods
While it doesn't add new species, this mod does add around 100 recolored or touched-up textures for Skyrim's animals, everything from goats to bears to werewolves to the oft-discussed mudcrabs. You can choose from high or medium resolutions.
Realistic Animals and Predators
Download from: Nexus Mods
Animals have been revamped with better AI and more realistic behavior. Bears will hibernate in winter, animals will travel to water to drink each day, and predators not only hunt but whatever they consume will remain in their inventory (belly) for a while. Instead of always attacking, they may flee, or simply just watch you. Plus, you won't just see full-grown animals but also their young following them around.
Table of Contents
Page 1: Getting started - How to install mods, patches, interface, and textures
Page 2: Content mods - quests, characters, creatures, and places
Page 3: Gameplay mods - weapons, skills, systems, and tweaks
