By far Bethesda’s most successful Triple A title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the gift that keeps on giving.
It’s not just because Skyrim has over 200 hours of content for gamers to enjoy, with the Skyrim Special Edition having even more. Skyrim’s modding community are committed to making sure no one ever gets bored of the title, adding everything from new characters, new quests, new guilds, and some even overhaul the entire storyline.
Skyrim’s modders have been really busy over the past few years, so there’s enough material available on forums like Nexusmods to keep you busy for a long while. So, before you go reaching for another DLC like The Witcher, check out this list of the best Skyrim quest mods:
1. Shezarrine: The Fate of Tamriel
Shezarrine: The Fate of Tamriel is a massive expansion to the vanilla game that forces your character, Shezarrine, into the middle of a dramatic new Thalmor plot which will see you deciding not only the fate of the Thalmor, but all of Tamriel. The mod was developed by anbeegod.
At the heart of this DLC is fan-favourite is a massively expanded version of Onmund, the mage companion available in the vanilla game from the College of Winterhold. The mod extensively rewrites Onmund’s character, giving him over 4000 lines of additional dialogue. This is because Onmund is essential to Shezzarine: The Fate of Tamriel’s original storyline. The mod also adds other additional features to the companion, allowing you to befriend, romance, or even antagonise your favourite new follower.
This is a mod with roleplaying at its heart. To help do this, it’s extremely immersive. It enriches the world of Skyrim, adding new items and quests which expand Tamriel’s history and lore. All the new NPCs to facilitate the new quests are fully voice-acted, helping to make them dynamic enough that players can enjoy massive freedom in both conversation and questing.
However, there are a few conditions you’ll need to meet and maintain so you don’t run into any issues. The modder recommends that you start a new game before you install Shezarrine, as you miss out on at least 20% of the prologue’s content. You must also install the Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Patch’ and have all three of Skyrim’s DLCS.
2. Undeath
Undeath, or The Elder Scrolls V: Undeath, is a massive mod expansion that adds a whole new threat for the Dragonborn to face: a group of evil Necromancers, looking to control the dark arts and achieve immortality. To stop them, the Dragonborn will have to travel across Skyrim, facing new quests in various new locations. The mod was developed by Antioch08.
The story of TES V: Undeath tasks you with tracking a powerful necromancer and his coven of followers deep into the “frigid peaks of the Dragontail Mountains themselves.” To thwart their evil scheme to attain immortality, you need to grab the powerful artifacts and ingredients they are looking for.
At the heart of this fan-made DLC is the moral decision all players will need to make: once you get your hands on the necromancy-capable instruments, you’ll need to decide what happens to them. Do you sacrifice everything to prevent the ritual falling into the wrong hands, or do you further the evil knowledge they discover and attempt to achieve true immortality?
Interestingly, this mod is the product of creator Antioch08’s own research in necromancy and lore: “through determination, perseverance and many months of insane experiments that has driven me almost to the very brink of my sanity,” the modder writes.
But don’t worry, the contents of this mod are purely fictional, so you won’t need any experience in witchcraft. However, to make sure this mod works correctly you will need to require both the Dawnguard and Dragonborn downloadable content packs.
3. Wyrmstooth
Wyrmstooth, sometimes referred to as The Elder Scrolls V: Wyrmstooth, is a DLC-sized expansion mod by jonx0r that takes the Dragonborn on an epic adventure on the island of Wyrmstooth. The mod is one of the biggest ever created for Skyrim, and includes a wealth of new features, characters, locations, quests and items.
Among the added features are a massive new quest which ends in an epic dragon battle, a new dungeon which is one of the biggest in all of Tamriel, more than 30 new characters, 17 new quests (two of which are “main quests”), new locations, map & markers. It also adds 200 new lines of voice acting, new locations for Dragonborn homes, placeable bear traps and – my favourite – more playable instruments scattered across the island.
However, sadly, it’s a lot harder to get your hands on jonx0r’s original mod nowadays. All the way back in May of 2016, the modification was mysteriously deleted from all well-known mod hosting sites, like NexusMods. Wyrmstooth’s official social media accounts were all taken down. Ten days later, the modder announced in a Reddit post that he had not only deleted Wyrmstooth but his entire online presence for personal reasons.
A sad ending to an epic story, but Jonx0r announced before he departed that fans of the mod are free to share it in private with others. So if you’d like to give Wyrmstooth a whirl, it’s still out there – even if it’s a tad harder to get your hands on.
4. Into the Depths
Have you ever heard of the Silverfall mine, located just outside of Riverwood? It’s been closed for decades, apparently it was way too dangerous to continue operations. But lately, the residents of Riverwood have reported strange goings-on, including ghoulish noises and bright lights illuminating from inside. Maybe it’s time someone goes and checks it out…
In Into the Depths, that someone is you. GLArtMods’ mod is an English translation of the original German unofficial DLC. It adds a new main quest, a new item, a new location, and some awesome new lore. There are a few scary things in Skyrim: the Draugr are hardly pleasant to look at and you’d hardly feel relaxed when a Giant attacks. But this is possibly Skyrim’s most famous horror mod, adding a quest which is actually frightening. In fact, it’s downright terrifying. If you don’t deal with jumpscares well, I’d recommend steering clear.
However, a few notes. The modder recommends you leave any companions back in Riverwood. During the course of the ‘Into the Depths’ quest, you’ll be teleported around… a lot. This can cause some real complications. Furthermore, the monster attacks that define the mod won’t activate when you sneak.
It might even be that your sneak skill is so high that the enemies don’t notice you. Given all the jumpscares, I’m not sure if that ruins it or finally makes it bearable.
5. The Wheels of Lull
Trainwiz’s The Wheels of Lull is a DLC-sized mod expansion for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which takes you back to the Clockwork City and the mysterious reaches of Sotha Sil. It is a sequel to Trainwiz’s first mod, the Sotha Sil Expanded mod for Morrowind. The mod submerges you into “the stranger side of TES lore”, inviting you to breach the ranks of the mysterious Chronographers, “the fabricant time-keepers and watchers of the world.”
When I say the Wheels of Lull is a DLC-sized mod expansion, I’m not kidding. Its main offering is an expansive main quest which consists of seven parts, “with puzzles, infiltration, poltergeists, mad science, and butter.” But it also features five brand new dungeons, each fleshed out with their own locations and boss battles.
The mod also includes seven new sidequests within Lull-Mor, helping flesh out the new town and its inhabitants. It contains ten original weapons, including clockwork drills, beam swords, lightning rods and the Chronographer’s ‘Harquebus’, pre-historic rifles, as well as several new pieces of armour and equipment. Finally, the mod features a brand new race to Skyrim, the living machine-mer of Sotha Sil. That means you shouldn’t expect a Nord-fest.
To start the mod, you need to be level 15 and have Dawnguard and Dragonborn installed. Just fast-travel to any settlement (except the five main cities) and prepare for the mer called Llavados to approach. If he doesn’t, there’s also a glowing light by the Fort Neugrad lake that will begin the mod’s main quest.
6. Psijic Realm
The Psijic Order have some of Skyrim’s most interesting lore. The problem: they only feature in the College of Winterhold quest-line, which isn’t very long. If you’re a mage, you may be looking for a mod which expands upon it.
Well, welcome to the Psijic Realm, the ancestral homeland of the Psijic Order. The Order, which is said to have originated in the Summerset Isles, was awfully mysterious… until now. For with the Psijic Realm mod, you have a front-row seat into the inner workings of the Psijic Order back on their home turf, and in doing so will find yourself setting on a series of trials to develop your clout with the mysterious organisation.
This mod adds a bunch of new items, features, locations and spells to Skyrim, all based around the Psijic Realm’s two new main quests which pit the Dragonborn against the Dark Brotherhood on their home turf. The mod adds three new locations: the Psijic Realm, the Boat of the Dark Brotherhood, and the Hidden Sanctuary of the Dark Brotherhood. It also adds brand new teleportation spells, powerfully enchanted Psijic Order clothes, various powerful new Dark Brotherhood-exclusive weapons and interactive locations.
This mod builds on your experience in the College of Winterhold, beginning as soon as you’ve defeated Ancano and find yourself branded Arch-Mage. Just install all Skyrim DLC, finish the College of Winterhold quest-line, head up to the College of WInterhold’s rooftop and enter the Psijic Realm.
7. Summerset Isle
If you’re looking for another take on the exploits of the Dragonborn as Arch-Mage, look no further than yourenotsupposedtobeinhere’s Summerset Isle, a fan-made DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The mod continues the exploits of the Arch-Mage of Winterhold, with you receiving an invitation to the land of Altmer. There, you will experience a world of mystery and fantasy, where you will be free to explore and make choices that influence the way events on the island will play out. The mod is lore-friendly, being extensively linked to past Elder Scrolls titles like Oblivion, Morrowind and Daggerfall.
The mod is a fully voiced fan-made downloadable expansion for Skyrim, featuring more than 60 hours of new gameplay. For the record, that’s the same size as the DLC Bethesda made. The mod is centered around a main quest line with a wide array of optional side quests to beef it up. The mod expands the Summerset Isle, the home of the Altmeri people, with 5 fully developed world spaces inside. It includes more than 191 new locations and 120 new caves and dungeons, as well as a whole cast of 21 brand new, fully voiced NPCs.
There are 7 new potential player homes up for grabs, as well as a catalogue of 16 new custom items, 19 new weapons, 74 new foods and 28 ingredients. Finally, the mod features a bunch of 34 new spells from various schools of magic, a unique travel system, and 8 new boss and mini-boss battles.
8. Moon and Star
GanXingBa’s Moon and Star is a quest mod for vanilla Skyrim, meaning it doesn’t require any outside mods or DLC. Moon and Star is one of the Skyrim fan community’s favourite quest mods, ranked #9 on Brodual’s list of the Top 10 quest mods.
After you fast travel, you will find yourself confronted by the courier who will direct you to the quest-giver in Riverwood’s Sleeping Giant Inn. A “mysterious and powerful criminal” has been sighted in Skyrim, after being hunted mercilessly by Morrowind’s most experienced hunters. There are multiple pathways through this quest, with a bunch of optional encounters to help pad out the experience. Best of all, your actions and choices throughout the main quest have serious consequences that reverberate throughout the Skyrim endgame.
Although Moon and Star is just a quest mod, it actually adds quite a lot of content. It, of course, has the main quest we’ve already discussed. However, it also contains 5 all-new original side-quests from the 9 new and fully voiced NPCs. This helps bring the mod’s new town, Little Vivec, to life. That is if the merchant and two new trainers didn’t already do that. It also features 7 new weapons, 1 new spell, and a new dungeon with all new puzzles and a brand new dungeon boss.
However, be warned: Moon and Star is incompatible with Tel Nalta I & II and Undeath, but compatibility patches are available for the latter two.
9. Legacy of the Dragonborn
So far, some of these mods have either been single quest mods, with an individual focus and a handful of new features. Others are more like fan-made DLC, with all new land masses, a bunch of quests and dozens of new dungeons and locations. But IceCreamAssassin’s Legacy of the Dragonborn is something else entirely.
Legacy of the Dragonborn is perhaps one of Skyrim’s most famous mod overhauls. Not just a quest mod, Legacy will fundamentally change the way you play Skyrim. All in all, this larger-than-an-official-DLC expansion adds hundreds of items, dozens of quests and, in total, hundreds of hours of extra play.
You end up with your own museum in the capital of Solitude, showing off almost 3500 items which act as evidence of your exploits. But your personal museum’s curator, Auryen Morellus, will open the doors to the “Shattered Legacy” questline, and dozens of others linked to the mod’s brand new guilt called the “Explorer’s Society.” Best of all, it is you and Auryen who form the guild, so you will be responsible for recruiting new members and fulfilling the role of guild master.
The mod also includes a brand new player home, an intelligent new crafting system, a “massive array of relics and collections”, an extensive new questline that drives forward the Dragonborn’s story in a lore-friendly expansion. It also features a system for shipping around loot with your new ‘museum shipment crates’ and a brand new skill ‘Archeology’, along with a bunch of new perks.
10. Beyond Reach
If you are looking for a DLC-sized fan expansion with extremely deep, and quite dark, lore: look no further than RazorKid’s Beyond Reach. In the Western Reach, you’ll face many different factions – men, nobility & gods – and uncover a conspiracy which will decide the fate of the very region.
To start, just head to any major city in Skyrim and look for The Priestess and her bodyguard Oliver. In Beyond Reach, you will be sent into the Western Reach, “a land of grey skies with no respite beneath them”, as a mercenary. You are there there to aid the Reachment folk, an ethnic community of Bretons native to the Druadach mountains. As you are delivered to the region on a merchant’s carriage, you will learn that these people are under siege by ‘the Witchmen’, a broad range of insane Tribal cultists who have recently organised and upped their reign of terror.
Central to the fan-made DLC is a long and winding main questline, tied together and accompanied by significant addition of 28 side quests including mercenary work, fetch quests and exercises in masterful lore-building. This really helps to fill out the mod’s huge new worldspace which is the equivalent size of three Skyrim holds. No detail is left untouched, and it is also filled with over 50 new semi-voiced NPCs. The mod also features new armour, new models, new weapons and new spells. Finally, it features over 25 new dungeons to trench through, ranging from mines and forts to frozen tombs and spider caverns.
11. The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal
MannyGT’s The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal is a DLC-sized quest mod for both Skyrim and Skyrim: Special Edition. However, this isn’t just a fan-made expansion with a bunch of new quests, items, locations, and characters. The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal is specifically focused around puzzle-solving and stealth-gameplay. Of course, you can work through the expansion without ever using stealth. But the mod is specifically designed to reward players for adapting to stealthy play.
For such a stealthy expansion, it’s no surprise that the Thieves Guild is integral to the fan-made DLC. The Gray Cowl of Nocturnal was an ancient item hidden at the end of the Third Era, after The Champion of Cyrodiil couldn’t find any candidate in the Thieves Guild worthy of accepting it. However, there were two special provisions: only a worthy thief or the Dragonborn could be able to retrieve it.
The mod adds a new land known as the Alik’r Desert, which is a part of Hammerfell. To fill out the new land mass, Gray Cowl adds dozens of new discoverable locations to the game. To fully work through the adventure in Alik’r, it’ll take players around 8 to 10 hours. That is accounted for with an expensive main quest-line, as well as a number of side-quests and misc quests which are focused on stealth gameplay. It also adds a bunch of new items, many of which are fan favourite lore items from previous Elder Scrolls games. Finally, the mod adds three new Spells to the game.
12. Falskaar
AlexanderJVelicky’s Falskaar isn’t described as a quest mod, or a DLC-like expansion, but something a little more specific. As perhaps Skyrim’s most famous new lands mod, Falskaar adds a whole new area of land to explore to the North of Skyrim. However, just because it isn’t described as a full-sized DLC expansion doesn’t mean it isn’t filled out with new quests to enjoy. The creator claims it is one of the biggest mods ever created for Skyrim, and estimates that a complete playthrough of Falskaar will take 20 to 30 hours.
The mods main questline is in total 9 quests long, and is entirely lore-friendly even if it is not canon. It explores the history of Falskaar, a region historically inhabited by the Nords but before that no one is quite sure. Based on an old prophecy, the player is denoted ‘The Traveler’ upon arrival, having mysteriously transported to the region through a Dwemer-protected dungeon outside Riften. If you’re thinking: “hey, this doesn’t sound like some cheesy, fan-made mod”, you’d be right. Velicky crafted Falskaar to prove his game development chops.
As such, Falskaar also includes 17 side quests and a bunch of unmarked content which span the entire reaches of an entirely new and independent land mass outside of Tamriel, which is roughly the size of 2 to 3 Skyrim holds. It also features new items, books, recipes, weapons and armours, two brand new spells and a new shout, a bard with several unique songs and a soundtrack with almost 40 minutes of new music. Best of all, though: the voice acting. Falskaar contains more than 30 professional voice actors to bring the story to life.
13. Moonpath to Elsweyr
In The Elder Scrolls, there is a lot of mystery surrounding the Beastfolk. In part, this is for lore reasons: Khajiit and Argonians are widely misunderstood, racially profiled and mistreated. Most nords and mer believe that all Khajiit are thieves and liars. Of course, Oblivion’s Highwaymen and M’aiq the Liar don’t particularly help matters.
The mystery surrounding the Khajiit and their Jungle homeland of Elsweyr are addressed in Moonpath to Elsweyr, one of the oldest and most beloved Skyrim quest mods. If you’ve already downloaded Legacy of the Dragonborn you should already be familiar with it, as that mod has fully integrated Moonpath to Elsweyr.
However, be warned: this mod is almost ten years old and it certainly shows. Tomas Sala’s attempt was launched in the very earliest days of the creation kit, with some of it created even before the modding community got up and running. As such, some fans have complained that the mod fails to seamlessly integrate its new quests or provide a concise and comprehensive addition to the Skyrim lore. Similarly, Moonpath to Elsweyr doesn’t offer a comprehensive mod overworld like some others on this list, rather just some new environments and custom creatures to live in them. All in all, it shouldn’t take you far over an hour to work through it.
Regardless, if you’re looking for some more Khajiit lore or to experience a bit of Skryim mod history, Moonpath to Elsweyr may be worth a look.
14. The Tools of Kagrenac
Titansbane and PrivateEye’s The Tools of Kagrenac is a lore-friendly quest mod which brings some serious nostalgia from Morrowind back into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The quest mod explores the story of ‘the Tools of Kagrenac’, three great enchanted artifacts: the gauntlet called ‘Wraithguard’, the hammer called ‘Sunder’, and the blade called ‘Keening’.
This isn’t actually the first time Kagrenac’s tools made an appearance in Skyrim. The blade, Keening, is featured in the College of Winterhold questline. But the mod developers were frustrated with how weak it seemed compared to its version in Morrowind, and wished to create a mod that introduced the other two and “unlocks their full potential.” You’ll need to get your hands on Keening before you begin by finishing the Arniel’s Endeavor questline before you can start, but when you do, just make sure you have it in your inventory and it should turn into a quest item.
The main pull of the quest mod is the continuation of the Tools of Kagrenac story, where you’ll have to uncover the mystery after the events of Morrowind and “restore them to their former glory.” This fan-made quest is fully voiced with over 300+ lines of original dialogue and hours of new gameplay, including navigating long new dungeons and facing up to some pretty challenging enemies. Finally, Titansbane and PrivateEye included a number of new items, armour, weapons and spells, among them the titular Tools of Kagrenac, a full set of Aetherial power armour, and two Jewelry Artifacts.
15. Fight Against the Thalmor
The Fight Against the Thalmor mod series by MadFrenchie does just that: allows you to take up arms and battle the “elven supremacists.” The Thalmor are famous in Skyrim for being a “shadowy cabal” dedicated to the elimination of the Empire and the worship of Talos. This is a four-part adventure, with four separate installments to download and playthrough, which tasks you with thwarting a Thalmor scheme and eventually infiltrate the Thalmor themselves.
The four installments are: Adal Matar the Lost Stronghold, The Cyrodiil Frontier, The Aldmeri Domain and South Dragon Bridge. Together, these mods add hours of gameplay, hundreds of new enemies & NPCs, around 10 new dungeons, new locations, and a couple of awesome new player homes. Finally, the first installment includes two new marriable Orc followers – one is an ‘ancient imperial legioner’, and the modder claims the other to be the most beautiful merchant orc in the game.
This is one of the most popular mod series out there, notably because fans are always looking for new ways to take on the Thalmor… you know, probably the most hated race in all of Skyrim. If you too are looking for a multi-part mod series to sink your teeth into, look no further than MadFrenchie’s Fight Against The Thalmor. Be warned, though: users have reported a couple of lingering buds from this nearly one decade old mod.
16. The Forgotten City
Nick James Pearce’s The Forgotten City is a quest mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition, which became the first mod script in history to win a national Writers’ Guild award. The mod is basically a glorified murder-mystery investigation, adding between 6 and 8 hours of new gameplay in a massive and sprawling ancient underground city. As a result, it’s racked up more than 3 million downloads and is considered a fan favorite.
The mod features an original and professionally produced soundtrack from composed Trent Moriarty., which has recently seen a remastered version. It adds a massive new underground city, filled with secrets, mysteries and relics. A community of dynamic and interesting NPCs, each with their own stories and sidequests. The original quest at the centre of this mod is an RPG through and through, with decisions you make both before and during the quest influencing which ending you will get. This is because the mod will face you with various moral dilemmas, forcing repercussions “whether you’re a saint or a psychopath.”
If you’re still not convinced that The Forgotten City is something special, you’ll be glad to hear that the mod is being recreated as a full length game developed by Modern Storyteller. Although the game is reimagined in pretty significant ways – it takes place in an ancient Roman city, not underground Skyrim – but if it is half as good as the Skyrim mod, it’ll be fantastic.
17. Enderal: Forgotten Stories
So far, the mods on this list have been quest mods or fan-made downloadable expansions. But Enderal: Forgotten Stories by SureAI is something else entirely. A ‘total conversion’ of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Enderal uses Skyrim and its engine as a springboard to launch an entirely new and totally immersive role playing game.
The mod features an extensive open world with its own lore and hand-crafted landscapes, with dynamic biomes including deserts, heathlands, forests, jungles and mountains. However, that’s only where the immersion begins. Believable and professionally voiced NPCs (available in both English and German, including talent like Dave Fennoy and Lani Minella) serve as the gateway into an engaging and darkly psychological main narrative that lasts over 30 hours of playtime. There are also twelve new side-quests, unmarked activities and two non-linear guild questlines to fill your time. As well as re-balanced combat, a completely overhauled leveling system and a skill system with experience points and classes. Finally, the mod features two new “crafting classes” that utilise alchemy and enchanting for combat: the Lyantrope, who use potions to shapeshift into werewolves, or Phasmalists, who use enchanting to craft spirit companions.
There is a lot of material available on this list already, but nothing quite as expensive and immersive as Enderal: Forgotten Stories. The mod improves performance and stability across the board, but SureAI warns that it won’t be a bugless experience. Regardless, if you’re looking for something that mixes up Skyrim almost beyond recognition, I’d recommend Enderal: Forgotten Stories.
18. Beyond Skyrim: Bruma
Have you ever wondered what happens to the people of Bruma, Oblivion’s fan favourite city in the North of Cyrodiil. Beyond Skyrim is a collaborative project by several of Skyrim’s most popular modding teams, creating “large continent expansion mods” for The Elder Scrolls V. Originally released as a playable proof of concept for the upcoming Cyrodiil: Seat of Sundered King mod.
Unlike other remake mods like Skyblivion and Skywind, Bruma doesn’t just remake aspects of previous games in the Skyrim engine. The mod reconstructs (and reimagines) the entire city of Bruma from scratch. Walk through the parameter walls of Skyrim straight into County Bruma, larger in both size and scope than the Dragonborn DLC. In fact, Beyond Skyrim: Bruma has more custom assets “than any comparable Skyrim mod.” There are also over 24,000 lines of professional voiceover, over 3 hours of original music and “innumerable all-new quests and storylines.”
Not only that, Beyond Skyrim: Bruma brings all-new Cyrodiilic weapons and armours, as well as a bunch of new creatures that you’ll be faced with defeating, some of which you may remember from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. In Beyond Skyrim: Bruma, you’ll be faced with Skeletons, Pelinaga, Ogres, River Trolls, Zombies, Goblins, Minotaurs and Timber Wolves.
Finally, Beyond Skyrim: Bruma seamlessly integrates with your base game, no reason to start a new game. Just cross the border from Skyrim into Cyrodiil and enjoy one of Skyrim’s most popular mods.
Another of the Beyond Skyrim modding team’s fantastic fan made expansions, Cyrodiil Seat of Sundered Kings will be a new lands, fan made downloadable expansion for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It’s not clear when it’ll launch, but there was a pretty cool trailed dropped at E3 2019.
19. The March Of The Dwemer
The Dwemer are one of the most mysterious races in all of Tamriel. The March Of The Dwemer by Emerald Demond aims to eliminate some of that mystery, describing the events that made the Dwemer return to Tamriel with their many amazing technological advancements. However, to do so, the Dragonborn must first get themselves involved in the Deep Elves’ plans.
March Of The Dwemer sees the reappearance of the ‘Deep Elves’, a race once believed to be extinct. As it turns out, the race was simply fractured, and this is the Dwemer you find yourself interacting with. The mod’s primary offering is a 15 quest long main narrative, with 6 prominent side quests. Better yet, Emerald Demond has promised even more quests in later beta versions.
However, the quests aren’t the only attraction March Of The Dwemer has to offer. The mod institutes a quest reward token system involving the Dwemer currency. It can be traded for goods and services, as well with various unique and powerful objects and artefacts that cannot be obtained otherwise. The mod also institutes a real world perk system, bypassing the inability of the creator to build additional Perk Trees. This allows players to gain additional and powerful statistical upgrades by interacting with objects in the real world. It also includes a revised cooking setup and two weapon and armour tiers.
20. Vigilant
Vigilant is a massive, multi-part quest mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim developed by Vicn. It allows players to join the shadowy Vigilants of Stendarr and complete various tasks for the people of Skyrim.
The main quest is a multi-part that tells the dark story of the Vigilants of Stendarr. The four episodes take you deep into its new areas of Skyrim and a DLC-sized land mass called Coldharbour. It will allow you to relive memories of the characters you’ll meet, both new and from previous Elder Scrolls titles. It’ll also force players to battle tough new boxes. As well as the main narrative and side quests, Vigilant offers various radiant quests to help pad out the experience. These include things like bounties to collect and can get picked up from various areas on the map.
It adds new armour and weapons, some of which are handcrafted by the author, as well as a new gameplay mechanic known as ‘karma’. The mod also allows you to craft unique armours, weapons, and colour variants in the unique quest item called the ‘Anvil of Zenithar.’ You will unlock more items to craft and upgrade by finishing objectives, defeating bosses, and reaching new areas of the extensive custom land mass.
21. Helgen Reborn
Saving the best, or at least most popular, for last, Helgen Reborn is an epic fan-made downloadable expansion for Skyrim by Mike Hancho, the author of the famous ‘New Bison Steve Hotel’ and ‘Afterschool Special’ mods for Fallout: New Vegas. Helgen Reborn is self-described as “THE definitive quest mod for rebuilding Helgen!”
The main thrust of the story is deciding the future of Helgen after it was destroyed by Alduin, and each NPC is fully voiced by over 20 popular voice actors. There are two factions are vying for control of the town: Imperials and the Stormcloaks. Or, could the people of the town – with the help of the Dragonborn – turn Helgen into a fully independent settlement. To do whatever you feel is best for the town, you must first work to rebuild the settlement. Recruiting a staff of town guards, reuniting the citizens of the town and uncovering its dark secrets.
In return for your role in returning Helgen’s glory, you will be rewarded with a luxurious private quarters in Helgen tower, which includes “the most interactive and dynamic display museum in Skyrim”, which fills and changes as you progress through the game. Helgen reborn also adds 6 new custom dungeons, marriage options for Cienna, a lot more miscellaneous dialogue for Helgen’s inhabitants and three new sets of armour.
Expanding Gameplay with DLC
But before you go delving into the extensive world of the best Skyrim mods, have you taken a look at the official Skyrim DLC?
Vanilla Skyrim is already a massive undertaking, with a single main story playthrough lasting about 30 hours – and that’s before you dip into Skyrim’s extensive side quests, which can easily add between 70 and 200 hours of gameplay to the experience.
But when you really run out of things to do in the base game, it’s time to dip into Skyrim’s three DLC packs – Dawnguard, Dragonborn & Hearthfire.
Some of these downloadable content packs are as extensive as Skyrim’s main quest. Dawnguard adds an extensive faction questline and Hearthfire adds a bunch of immersive RPG features. Dragonborn is the largest by far, said to last between 10 and 30 hours and even adding an extensive new worldspace filled with new NPCs and dungeons to explore.
And if you’ve bought Skyrim recently, you might already have them. The most common versions on the market today are Skyrim: Game of the Year Edition and Skyrim Special Edition, both of which come with all three DLC packs.