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Best Skyrim SE Graphics Mods - Gamerstips
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💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Skyrim hit its tenth birthday recently, and a list of the best Skyrim mods remains as useful as ever. More useful, even, given that hundreds of new mods are still being released for the fantasy RPG every week. If you're planning on starting the game fresh, or just looking for something new to add to your existing mod mountain, you should find something worth your time below. Almost every mod we've chosen will work with either the regular or Skyrim Special Edition, and we've provided links to both versions - or similar alternatives - where necessary. There's also undoubtedly many, many great mods that we've not included. If you think your favourite Skyrim mod is an essential install, then take to the comments and make your case. We love discovering new mods, too, and may include your suggestion in a future revision. Watch on YouTube. What I like to do is create a new, unmodified game, get somewhere like Riverwood and then create a save that I can use for testing. We've only picked the very best Skyrim mods, but there are so many available that we've had to break them down by category. You can hop directly to the kind of mod you want via the links below. There are several good ones, but Nexus Mod Manager is your best bet. Download Nexus Mod Manager. Before you test anything in-game, run LOOT. It takes seconds. You can launch it directly from the. Download Achievements Mods Enabler. Basically, it spruces up a huge pile of 3D models, making all of Skyrim look nicer in hundreds of tiny ways. Skyrim HD is a long-running texture mod that replaces over textures. Everything from the sky and mountains to the interiors of ramshackle hovels has been done up. Optionally, you can download just the cities, landscapes, dungeons or miscelleanous packs. This is specifically for old Skyrim, but there are plenty of great alternatives for the Special Edition. Another huge, broad texture mod, this time specifically for the Special Edition. The latest version of the mod only comes with one complete file, but the version is more modular. You can pick what you want retextured, whether it's just the roads, only mountains or all of Riften. Download Skyrim Textures. More than most other mods, the lighting, post-processing and colour tweaks made by ENBs and Reshade mods are down to personal preference. In OG Skyrim, I was rather partial to RealVision ENB, and it still makes the seven-year-old game look absolutely gorgeous, though it does come at the cost of performance. When the Special Edition first launched, flashy post-processing options were limited while we waited for ENB to be updated. ELFX wants to make Skyrim pretty, not just realistically lit. Both mods are great, so it really depends on what kind of atmosphere you want to generate. You could always mix and match, and even throw in an ENB for good measure. Since Skyrim is full of forests, Skyrim Flora Overhaul has a pretty dramatic effect. It includes lots of new, high-quality tree models, even more grasses and plants, and loads of visual tweaks that generally make forests look deeper and more imposing. There are so many tiny touches that make this mod brilliant, like curated sound effects and animated icebergs. The Special Edition introduced a new water flow system, which is nice and all, but it was applied to all bodies of water indiscriminately, which made less sense. Realistic Water also fixes that. Download Better Roads or the Special Edition version. Download Climates of Tamriel or the Special Edition version. Interesting NPCs is packed with new characters scattered all over Skyrim, each with their own background, schedule and branching dialogue. With these tweaks, NPCs respond in more realistic and diverse ways to things like weather, attacks and their day-to-day schedules, depending on who they are. Most important is the survival instinct feature, letting NPCs evaluate threats and act accordingly. Download Immersive Citizens or the Special Edition version. This throws in everything from warring goblin tribes to considerably more exotic and indescribable nightmares. The world a bit more deadly. Download Immersive Creatures or the Special Edition version. It creates patrols for not just the factions of the civil war, the Stormcloaks and Imperials, but also the Dawnguard and Thalmor. There are even some raider patrols, too. These warbands clash in specific areas, with forts and territory changing hands depending on the outcome of the battle. Download Immersive Patrols or the Special Edition version. Ever wanted to traipse around Skyrim with your very own supernatural band? Amazing Follower Tweaks is an extremely helpful follower management tool that lets you have multiple followers, organise their equipment and give them orders, but the best bit is being able to turn them into vampires and werewolves. Speaking of deadly, magical monsters with a thirst for blood and flesh, this mod makes NPCs run away when one of them attacks. Dragons and vampires will scare off NPCs, making them run to their home or the nearest inn until the area is safe again. Not with Convenient Horses, however. Download Convenient Horses or the Special Edition version. Relationship Dialogue Overhaul makes Skyrim a chattier place. NPCs get a whopping 5, lines of new, reactive dialogue, all voiced. NPCs react more realistically, letting you know what they think of you, while followers will take into account their relationship with you. Simply Better Movement Speed tweaks how fast you move while walking, running and sneaking. Walking speed has been significantly boosted, while running is slower. The pace feels more natural, making it necessary to get a horse for long journeys, but making wandering around towns and villages much quicker. It also makes players the same speed as NPCs, so following people around is no longer a chore where you have to make constant adjustments. Getting lycanthropy is a great way to shake things up, but as much fun as it is to stomp around Skyrim as a massive wolf, the system is pretty underdeveloped. Moonlight Tales, then, is essential if you plan on tearing people apart during a full moon. It completely overhauls werewolves, replacing the perk tree, introducing new abilities, forcing lunar transformations and, best of all, letting you become a werebear. Download Moonlight Tales or the Special Edition version. There is a seemingly endless supply of user-created weapons on the Skyrim Nexus, but Immersive Weapons should always be at the top of your list. The benefit of using this instead of adding all your weapons piecemeal is that these weapons have been designed to co-exist, keeping balance and lore in mind. Unlike lightsabers. Download Immersive Weapons or the Special Edition version. Like the weapon mod, it introduces hundreds of new pieces of lore-appropriate armour and shields, allowing you to finally live out your dream of wearing a saber-toothed cat on your head. There are some nifty accessories, too, including eye patches and scarves. Download Immersive Armors or the Special Edition version. It adds new item slots to your body and then provides a vast number of pouches, bags and bandoliers that you can strap onto yourself. Download Bandoliers or the Special Edition version. It summons a bounty of cloaks into the world, nearly styles in all, ranging from faction-specific clobber to tattered, monstrous garments that only a Daedra would wear. NPCs will wear them, too, and they actually make guards look more authoritative. A nice cloak commands respect. Download Cloaks of Skyrim or the Special Edition version. Only mugs hold their own lanterns. You can attach the lantern to your belt, or you can just give it to one of your followers; they can hold or wear it for you. Even handier! Honestly, is there any need for the sun now that we've got this sorted? Download Wearable Lanterns or the Special Edition version. Download Deadly Cabbages or the Special Edition version. You can expand your arcane arsenal with blood magic, druidic spells and all sorts of new stuff that can then be combined to create even more powerful results. Cast some lightning magic on someone you just soaked with water magic, for instance, and you're going to do a bit more harm. You can even clone enemies, turn them into chickens or break the laws of time and space. Apocalypse has fewer spells, but boy are they fun. And flashy! You can summon tornadoes and volcanoes, rip ghosts out of corpses and send them towards enemies or trap people in mystical prisons. The handiest, however, are often the more mundane spells, like being able to find gold veins or conjuring up spectral bridges that transport you across large gaps. OK, that's not mundane at all. The mod neatly slots into the game and feels like a natural extension of the existing magic system, but a lot more creative. There are some differences between the versions, but both improve combat AI and introduce attacks of opportunity and timed blocking. Generally, combat is faster and more deadly, with weapons dealing more damage. VioLens lets you customise your killmoves, both melee and ranged, letting you decide how often they appear and what move each weapon triggers. If you want to give your fights some extra cinematic flair, this is a good way to go about it. Swap out the boring vanilla idle weapon animations for something a bit fancier. Pretty Combat Animations lets you pick from full animation sets that change what your character looks like when they run, walk and sneak while armed or unarmed, if you're just using your fists. You'll look dangerous even when you're just standing around. There are maybe a few too many trees, though I am a fan of the overgrown look. The should still work with Special Edition anyway, but there might be some unforeseen issues. Download Towns and Villages Enhanced. They're not quite the dramatic visual overhaul that Towns and Villages Enhanced is, but together these two mods replace the vanilla textures with high-quality versions and add new bits and pieces. The textures are much improved, but they otherwise maintain the original aesthetic, while the towns that have been expanded so far Darkwater Crossing, Dawnstar and Riverwood are familiar but busier. Skyrim hides all of its cities behind gates and loading screens; Open Cities Skyrim smashes them down. This beefy mod moves the cities into the main Skyrim map, rather than the pocket dimension in which they existed, so you can seamlessly move between city and wilderness. Poor Helgen. It only got a few minutes of screentime before it got roasted, along with most of its inhabitants. Helgen Reborn, then, is a lovely mod that gives the town a second life. Download Helgen Reborn or the Special Edition version. Similar to Helgen Reborn, this mod revitalises the gloomy town of Winterhold as you work through a quest. Those merchants, I should add, are very wealthy, so it's a great place to offload your inventory. Everyone wins! Download Winterhold Rebuilt or the Special Edition version. Alternate Start is the best way to start a new game of Skyrim. Falskaar is a total conversion mod created by Alexander Velicky to prove to Bethesda he could make something that rivalled their DLC, but with a fraction of their resources. Adding approximately 20 hours to the base game, Falskaar is an impressive mod that adds a whole new land independent of Tamriel, accessible by portal and later by boat. It boasts new items and shouts, and adds 26 new quests - which includes nine main story ventures and 17 side quests. Download Falskaar or the Special Edition version. Think Poirot, but with magic and ethical conundrums. It feels like a professional production that just happens to also be a mod for Skyrim. A standalone game based on the mod is also in the works. Sick of chilly Skyrim? Hop on a wagon and take a trip to distant Elsweyr, the home of the fluffy Khajiit. The rainforest and desert makes a nice change of scene, and the Khajiit are far more interesting than the moody Nords. As well as a change in setting, there are plenty of entertaining quests, NPCs and, above all else, an airship of your very own. Moonpath to Elsweyr is almost as old as Skyrim and was a bit creaky as a result, but it started getting updated again last year. With a main storyline alone that amounts to 30 hours of questing, Enderal is a titanic mod set in an entirely new land made up of tropical costs, frosty mountains and dense forests. There are countless new assets, running the gamut from photo-scanned rocks to new monsters. And a great one, to boot. Total Character Makeover takes the best appearances from Skyrim Nexus, spruces them up even more and collects them in one convenient package. Worried your greasy hair is holding you back? Keep finding twigs in your mane right after a job interview? The mod offers up a ridiculous number of new styles. Download Apachii's Skyhair or the Special Edition version. It turns each perk tree into a cohesive class, though of course the perks are still all designed to be mixed and matched. Take Alchemy, for instance. The vanilla tree just gives you some resistances and lets you make more powerful potions. The Ordinator version, however, transforms you into a mad scientist, dripping horrible pools of magical and explosive oil and figuring out new ways to hurt people with poisons. Building your own unique class is infinitely more rewarding with all these exotic perks. There are search fields, you can make lists of favourites and everything is displayed clearly. It cuts out so much mucking around. It also includes the Mod Configuration Menu, an extremely handy tool that makes it easy to customise mods. A Quality World Map - With Roads is considerably more detailed, clear and, importantly, shows you where all the roads are. Frostfall turns Skyrim into a survival game. Trekking through Winterhold wearing the wrong gear or taking a dip in an ice water lake can prove fatal — be sure to wrap up. Download Frostfall or the Special Edition version. Campfire takes the camping system from Frostfall and spins it into an even more developed standalone mod. You can craft camping gear, make roaring hearths that give you bonuses and even become a tracker. Nobody really needs to eat in Skyrim, which explains the abundance of food. Imagine how miserable all the chefs must be, preparing food that nobody is remotely interested in. The best they can hope for is that an adventurer will scoff some as a last resort. Realistic Needs and Diseases returns food to its lofty status. Drinking is similarly necessary. There are other negative effects before death, but also lots of positive ones for eating well. It mostly adds visual effects that complement the foul weather, but it also changes NPC behaviours. During bad weather, NPCs will have different reactions depending on their race, age and job. Download Wet and Cold or the Special Edition version. Lonely Mountains: Downhill goes murderously fast but appreciates stopping for a good view. What's better: Cameras which actually take pictures, or running into a wall so fast you hurt yourself? This visual novel takes you on a lovely little cycling tour. Two Point Campus review: a relaxed management sim bursting with silliness and seminars. I am not good at The Final Earth 2. Why are there no games about running? If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Lonely Mountains: Downhill goes murderously fast but appreciates stopping for a good view A series of lovely mountain biking adventures. Alice O'Connor an hour ago 7. Help us decide the single best thing, one face-off at a time. Alice O'Connor 1 day ago Chris Wallace 1 day ago 2. Alice O'Connor 2 days ago Two Point Campus review: a relaxed management sim bursting with silliness and seminars I predict a strong turnout on Open Day. Ed Thorn 25 minutes ago 1. CJ Wheeler 2 hours ago 4. CJ Wheeler 3 hours ago 4. R Suffering for your artifacts. 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