I thought I was finally free from stealth-focused Skyrim builds, then someone modded in the ability to hide in bushes

(Image credit: Bethesda)

It's me, the player who starts Skyrim over and over with different mod loadouts and yet, nine times out of 10, ends up crouching with a bow shooting draugr in slow motion. Every now and then I push myself into another playstyle—like two-handed melee barbarian or summon-focused wizard—but drift back to my old favorite. I haven't installed the mod that just kills you if you play Stealth Archer again, but I am absolutely part of the reason that mod exists.

Not that I needed it, but now I have another reason to go back to my old favorite next time I fire up Skyrim. Hide in Bushes is a real "does what it says on the tin" mod that makes you 50% harder to detect when you crouch in a bush, with a lower percentage bonus for smaller shrubs, and makes you 10% harder to detect when you crouch near a tree or stump.

Now those bushes and trees count as objects Skyrim cares about, they can have effects added to them. Like a boost to your stealthiness. Unfortunately grass doesn't count as an object—it's just a texture—which means you can't hide in it no matter how long it grows. Still, I expect my next khajiit to be squatting on his haunches behind a shrub for most of my next playthrough, and I will love every minute.

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Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

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