Welcome to a new monthly series showcasing the best The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Editionmods. With the launch of Skyrim Special Edition on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, console players now finally have access to the wealth of mods for Bethesda’s open-world RPG that PC players have enjoyed for years.
We’ve scoured the complete mod database at Nexus Mods to find you the best mods if you like to roleplay, tweak the UI or graphics, or even flat out cheat. As with our Fallout 4 mods guide, we’ll do our best to cater to as many different types of players as possible.
Here are this month’s selections of the best Skyrim Special Edition mods:
Love your followers? Wish they had a bit more… sass? Look no further than Sophia, the raven-haired beauty that only has your best interests at heart. We swear. She’s witty, rebellious, and will sing you that special Skyrim song you’ve come to know and love — just with the wrong lyrics. Fall in love, and you can even marry her!
Sneaking around in Skyrim can be pretty fun, allowing players to avoid detection, muffle their movements, and granting a small collection of other skills. For those wanting to augment this feature, there’s Sneak Tools. With this mod, players can slit throats, knock people unconscious, kill sleeping targets, and equip identity-concealing masks. As if that weren’t enough, the mod also provides a small collection of arrows with different capabilities, as well as the ability to extinguish and light sources of fire.
Want to make Skyrim even more immersive? Try True Storms, the weather-augmenting mod. It completely overhauls the game’s storm system, including lighting, new weather, sound effects, textures, wind, and more. Players can even enjoy the sound of rain hammering against their roofs while inside. A set of sliders let you adjust the volume of thunder, rain, and interior sounds.
If you’ve been playing the Elder Scrolls games for long enough, you know that the weapons in previous games looked much more realistic. For some reason, the weapons in Skyrim are bulkier and less elegant looking. The Better-Shaped Weapons mod fixes all that. It replaces the weapon meshes with slimmer, more refined versions. The mod even lets you bling out your swords with gemstones so you can cruise the dungeons of Skyrim in style.
One of the more annoying things in Skyrim is stumbling across the same book repeatedly and having to check to make sure you’ve actually read it. The Unread Books Glow mod helps alleviate that frustration by imbuing unread books with a soft glow. In addition, the glow comes in several different hues, depending on which type of book you’re looking at: spell tomes, skill books, quest books, and regular books.
Sometimes you just need to flip on god mode and blast your way through things. Whether you’ve gotten your fill of the game or you’re just inherently a rule-breaker, the Gifts Of Akatosh mod is just for you! Once you’ve got this mod installed, take a jaunt over to Riverwood to find the chest Akatosh has left for you.
Inside, you’ll find a trove of items, ranging from weapons that paralyze their victims with a chance to turn them undead to a shield that blocks all magic while lighting your foes on fire. There are 15 different types of artifacts players can gather for their dragon-punching adventures.
