I know this thread is years late and there's already a super old gaming thread for skyrim.

I just started playing Skyrim Legendary Edition for the first time in my life, and miserably found out that this game is broken and bland without mods.

Taking that in mind, the purpose of this thread is for skyrim mods or w/e you think it's cool to share here — NO SPOILERS.
Therefore, i'll have you experts to suggest some ultra needed mods/tips to make the experience better for me and other guys that are thinking to play TES V.

*very bad and unfunny posts that add nothing to the thread will be deleted.

Ok first off I'm going to assume you are playing the Skyrim: Special Edition ("SSE", the one you can now buy on steam that includes all DLC) and not Skyrim: Legendary Edition (also known as "Oldrim", which used to be the basegame skyrim + dlc sold seperately), as these are treated as different games in the modding scenes (mods for SSE rarely work for Oldrim and vice versa).

For starters, you'll want to make an account on the Nexus and download the mod organizer of your choice (Vortex, MO, etc etc) as these make installing and updating mods alot easier.

Regarding mods themselves, you'll definitely want the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch to fix most of the glaring bugs, aswell as the latest version of Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE)(Make sure you download the version for Special Edition). That's really the only essential mods you need, as most other mods require one or both and the Unofficial Patch fixes most of the glaring bugs.

also keep in mind the three rules of modding skyrim:

1. Don't uninstall a mod mid playthrough. Make backup saves before you install a new mod and roll back to those if you uninstall it.

2. Don't uninstall a mod mid playthrough.

3: Turn off autosaves and quicksaves and get into the habit of using manual saves, as autosaves/quicksaves can break scripts and cause your savegame to become irreversibly damaged and CTD later down the line.

Now I will share some of my favorite mods:

SkyUI completely reworks the atrocious Skyrim UI and adds functionality for ingame mod configuration menu's (MCM's) that many mods include. No downside to installing this.

Alternate Start allows you to skip the Helgen Opening Scene and customize your Start more than vanilla Skyrim.

Diverse Dragons Collection adds more dragon variety.

Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim adds hundreds of new spells and effects and fleshes out the meager magic system of vanilla skyrim. (WARNING: Script intensive, make sure to turn off autosaves)

Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim reworks every perk tree in the game and adds alot of new options to build your character. Also compatible with Apocalypse with a compatibility patch. (WARNING: Script intensive, make sure to turn off autosaves)

I deliberately left out any graphics mods or body replacers (*cough*)
as those are really down to personal preference.

One last thing, when using many mods, you can often lose sight of compatibility issues and load order (something that most Mod Organizers do automatically but sometimes you need to change something) so I highly recommend you use LOOT to make sure you are not using incompatible mods.

I, at the moment have 190 hours clocked on Steam and I have to admit that after some time the game gets really boring and repetetive. Radiant quests killed the fun of getting and completing a quest, main quest is honestly not that interesting (hurr durr we have to kill the big dragon) and the game world is honestly a mixed bag in my opinion (while it has more detail than Morrowind and Oblivion there are mutliple points where I prefer the world building in either of those games over Skyrim's).

While I completed the game several times without using any mods, I have to admit the mods do make the experience more enjoyable (to some degree). Granted, by using mods you adjust the game experience more to your taste but I didn't feel the same need with Oblivion and especially Morrowind.


If you guys disagree or have anything to fill into what I just typed out here feel free to let me know, I'd love to hear some new points about this issue.

I have to agree with your first paragraph.. I found some guild quests and messing around with char mods and love lab more fun.
Ngl, i'm not a huge fan of Bethesda's games.. I tried Fallout NV a few years ago and i uninstalled it 5 hours later.

Btw lol, how it's not going to get boring if you played it for like 190 hours.. It took me 200 hours on a game to get bored and try speed running.

I'm not gonna lie here either. I got bored playing the witcher 3 after 150 hours and that's the top rated game on steam.And I actually enjoyed paying through skyrim without mods at first. Even if it is somewhat bland, there is still a shitton of weird content.

Well I've told myself to do everything I possibly can during my current playthrough which easily is 150 hours of the 190. I still haven't done everything as I planned, though. At this point it's more of a chore.

skyrim is fun to play, so much possibilities
the special edition is nice but its nearly the same like skyrim and you cannot play skyrim mods in this
a whole new mod section is probably built up already

so I cannot hate on this popular well tasty piece of vegan pie

While I do agree that Skyrim is fun to play I gotta be real, though, Oblivion and Morrowind offer so much more in terms of possibilities. While Morrowind's magic and alchemy alone allow you to do so much, Oblivion feels more balanced and more rewarding in that sense.

at this poinnt we should only worry about TES VI in 2022

i play skyrim with my two handed sword char in full deadric armor
and summon the deadric monsters like naruto
one hitting everything with them