Skyrim’s Modding Community Is Among the Biggest in the World

With over 10,000 Workshop mods believed to have been in existence by 2012 alone, it’s obvious that Skyrim encourages an extremely enthusiastic modding community. With tens of thousands available: finding the most awesome mods is a daunting task for anyone new to the Skyrim community! Still, we’ve given it our best shot. Below is a list of the mods which we believe will make Skyrim as super-awesome an experience as possible…

11. Sky UI

Sky UI – Official Trailer – Skyrim User Interface Mods

Let’s start with the little things. The Sky UI mod – created by Sky UI Team – is useful for anyone who likes their adventures a little more organized. The vanilla Skyrim User Interface is notoriously minimal and barebones – and so can leave people who do wanting.

Sky UI not only gives the inventory and menu a little more of a robust aesthetic – it integrates a full search engine – for map locations and items.  Now you can enter the name of that prized enchanted Ebony bow you lost hours ago – and find it just like that.

This is essential for a Dovahkiin who needs specific items of his armoury on hand – or needs to fast travel away from that Dragon to a precise location as quickly as possible.

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Sky UI drastically streamlines the game’s menu system. Pictured: a comparison between Sky UI and the vanilla game menu.

Sky UI streamlines map navigation…allowing for easier player navigation!

10. Enhanced Blood Textures

Skyrim Mod: Enhanced Blood Texture

Ever wondered what Skyrim would look like – after applying Fallout’s notorious Bloody Mess perk? Enhanced Blood Textures – by dDefinder – gives Skyrim a grittier Game of Thrones-type fantasy feel.

It does this by giving wounds and blood a far more realistic look. With the addition of this mod: blood spatters will seem to melt into the snow – while you can now see clearly the wounds you’ve just dealt your foe. Anything from deep cuts, to severed limbs and heads, are now visually apparent.

Perhaps this mod isn’t for the faint-of-heart. It is however for gamers who want full, no-holes-barred immersion in the bloody battle for Skyrim.

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Blood on the snow: Enhanced Blood Textures adds extra grit to Skyrim’s combat.

A Windhelm guard lies dead…Enhanced Blood Textures highlights Skyrim’s bloodier side.

9. A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map – With Roads

Skyrim Mod: A Quality World Map – With Roads – UI

The A Quality World Map and Solstheim Map mod – by IcePenguin – makes the Skyrim map more visually reflective of the epic landscape it is supposed to be depicting.

The vanilla game map presented us with a much more colourless appearance of the vibrant Skyrim province. Combine that with the eerie mist coating everything and the map had very little to offer the eye.

 The opposite is true here. IcedPenguin has picked out individual roads and landmarks with an artistic eye. This applies to both the map of Skyrim and the map of Solstheim. The mod also gives you the bonus of a well-illustrated paper map of Skyrim – professionally drawn.

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Dragon’s eye view: A Quality World Map makes you feel as though you’re gazing down on that same mountain you climbed a few minutes ago.

I can see my castle from here! A Quality World Map highlights paths running through the Tamriel province.

8. UFO – Ultimate Follower Overhaul

Skyrim Mod Sanctuary 27 – UFO Ultimate Follower Overhaul

If Bethesda’s one-follower-at-a-time policy never made any sense to you: fLokii’s Ultimate Follower Overhaul should sort you right out. Now: you can have up to 15 followers – not including dogs or Quest NPCs. You’ve got yourself an army.

In addition to this: Ultimate Follower Overhaul also gives your companions far more customization. Through dialogue with followers: you can dictate whether they can die, exactly what armour they wear (overriding their default armour with whatever you choose), which spells/skills you want them to learn, and much more!

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The Fellowship of the Dovahkiin. Ultimate Followers Overhaul creates potential for an army of adventurers.

Adventurers. The Dovahkiin looks back at two new companions – thanks to Ultimate Followers Overhaul.

7.  Fore’s New Idles In Skyrim – FNIS

FNIS What it is & How to Install

Anyone whose played a Bethesda RPG knows that – though immersive – NPCs generally have a very robotic demeanour.. After a while every character – from the farmers of Whiterun to demonic Daedric warriors – seem to go through identical motions.

That’s where Fores New Idles – by fore - fixes things. This mod allows for a dramatic increase in the number of character animations. How dramatic? It allows for an additional 12,000 character animations, apparently.

If you’ve ever wanted Skyrim to have a much more cinematic quality: you couldn’t go wrong in downloading this and then as many character animation mods as your heart desires (provided they don’t exceed 12,000).

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On guard! Fore’s New Idles allows for increased variety in character movements.

Skyrim is made more immersive with a more realistic range of character movements and gestures.

6. Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch

SKYRIM Mods Serie 6. Unofficial Legendary Edition Patch Installation Germany (Full HD)

The Unofficial Patch Project Team’s goal was simple – in making the ginormous Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch. In their own words: “to eventually fix every bug with Skyrim and its 3 DLCs not officially resolved by the developers…”

Skyrim – and every game of Bethesda’s Fallout and Elder Scrolls series – is infamously buggy. Infamous might be an understatement. I myself recall being catapulted into a fantastic spectacle of endless cartwheels into space – after being struck by a passing giant. Some poor half-blind old lady sinking through the ground and into the abyss was another fond, confusing memory. These are just a couple of examples from personal experience.

Bugs seem an inherent part of games as ambitious as Bethesda RPGs. That’s why patches like this are invaluable to Skyrim fans worldwide.

Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch

From bland to bold…The city banners are given a complete overhaul – making for a more epic aesthetic.

The unofficial patch fixes major and minor flaws – including little aesthetic bugs, like an Arch Mage’s see through legs.

5. Skyrim Flora Overhaul

TES V- Skyrim Mods: Skyrim Flora Overhaul 2.0

Although anyone who’s wandered the chilly wastes of the Nord’s homeland for more than five minutes will already have the impression that they are walking through a graphic spectacle – it’s hard not to notice that things seem a little grey. It might just be the mist that’s covering everything – but it all seems grey nonetheless.

Skyrim Flora Overhaul – brought to you by vurt – brings out the understated diversity of Skyrim’s regions. It does this by adding heaps of new flora – and bringing out the colours of the existing shrubbery.

Through vurt’s mod: Bethesda’s grand graphic vision of the Nordic homeland is fully realized. For the most part you can’t help but admire the view.

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

Autumn valley…the Unofficial Skyrim Flora Overhaul gives Skyrim’s stunning scenery a whole new colour palette.

Even the forests of Windhelm are made more immersive – the trees being given a whole new look.

4. Immersive Armours

Immersive Armours – Skyrim: Special Edition Mods (PC)

Having earned the title of #1 Armour Mod (that’s according to the Nexus page at least), Hothtrooper44’s Immersive Armours is a huge addition Skyrim’s defensive armoury. Huge in that it adds over 55 brand new sets of armour – and a startling 396 new shields – to the game.

Walking through a land ravaged by Dragon apocalypse has never felt safer. With the addition of 450 + new defensive items that is.

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Desert wanderer. Immersive Armours gives this Redguard more convincing desert apparel.

With Immersive Armours: this Nord now resembles a true hero of Sovengarde.

3. Immersive Weapons

Skyrim Mod: Immersive Weapons

Brought to you by a holy modding trinity – Hothtrooper44, Ironman5000, and Eckss – Immersive Weapons brings many great blades, staffs, spears, and bows to the Dovahkiin’s arsenal. A plus is that it does this without breaking canon – much like Immersive Armours.

From Antique Daedric Swords, to Valenwood bows, and the Shadowsting – Immersive Weapons brings tones of new toys to the Skyrim sandbox.

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Bone-crushing. Immersive Weapons makes this bone-axe look truly bone-chilling.

An Orc hefts his shiny new Immersive Weapons steel axe.

2. Skyrim HD – 2K Textures

Skyrim Mods – Skyrim HD 2K Textures

NebuLa’s HD 2K Textures lands at #2 on our list for how drastically it shifts the mood of the entire game. 2K Textures is a complete graphical overhaul: emphasising staggering attention to detail to Tamriel. Every city, landscape, and dungeon is given an impressive visual makeover.

There’s painstaking detail given to every light, shadow, crack, and crevice. Skyrim HD – 2K Textures is vital for those who wish to be wowed by the visual spectacle as much as they do the gameplay.

Download Skyrim HD 2K Textures

By the river. The city of Riften looks even more Autumnal and lively.

2k HD shadows are thrown across Whiterun at night – honing its visual edge.

1. Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim

Skyrim Mod: Apocalypse Spell Package - 170+ Fair and Balanced Spells for any Playstyle

Adding 31 spells to each school of magic – that’s 155 plus spells in total – Enai Saiaion’s Magic of Skyrim mod is an astounding addition to any aspiring mage’s arsenal. These new spells range from the ability to bring lightening down upon your foes to complete mind control of a chosen target.

Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim puts the mystical aspect of Bethesda’s world on steroids.

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Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim allows this Imperial and his steed untethered speed over the realm.

A mage incinerates his Frost Troll foe with Dragon’s teeth.

It should be said that - through modding - the Skyrim community has realized a greater vision of the Nordic homeland. Although the fact that the Skyrim modding community has yet to tire of the game six years on is a testament to Bethesda’s masterful game-building ability.

Thanks to mods such as these: Skyrim will not cease to entertain and entrance for many years to come.

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