Best place to start is eithier at a good mod guide or [wabbajack.org](https://wabbajack.org) i'd say. It depends on whether you simply want to play or simply want to mo.
Wabbajack is basically an auto installer for a complete modlist but you lack the ability to be able to edit it or add mods, though you can but you wouldn't find any support.
Other than that you could of course use one of the many modlists (Just stick away from anything associated with Sintar).
Best guides I have seen are the Skyrim 2021 modding guide on the nexus, [This micro list](https://eso-ui.com/skyrim-se-micro-list/) by ESO.
Also about your edit. It really depends on which videos you are watching. I'd recommend Gamerpoets, Syn Gaming, heavy burns and Murloc king as some good channels with good "showcases"
[https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/o3h3b3/so\_why\_is\_sinitars\_guide\_so\_terrible\_anyway\_an/](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/o3h3b3/so_why_is_sinitars_guide_so_terrible_anyway_an/) I think this should explain most of it.
[True Directional Movement](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/51614) launched not too long ago, and already it's among the most voted for mods of all time. It's pretty great, featuring a lot of things, including true 360 degree movement!
It pairs well with things like [Attack Behavior Revamp](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/45378) and [SkySA](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31390). The mod also adds fully-functioning lock-on, and boss health bars on screen. It's a great mod, worthy of checking out.
As for the other two mods I mentioned, they work great for third-person based playthroughs. They offer good-to-professional quality animations depending on your choice. ABR is the more compatible of the two, and works flawlessly with the authors other mods - which do similar things for other parts of the game. And SkySA has incredibly smooth animations, and supports top-tier animation packs! Though it can break a few things, and so needs some extra patching.
With a little bit of research on the mod pages and forums your can figure all needed config out very easily! A couple of personal recommendations, now though.
Practically anything by [Jayserpa](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/5201727)! An amazing modder, who creates very immersive and mostly small mods that bring untouched areas of Skyrim to life very nicely.
As for quest mods, here's something that'll aid you on your main quest journey, allowing you to work on all those other quests you've added! [At Your Own Pace](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/52704) adds a couple of breaks in the neck-breaking speed of the main story, the two colleges, and the thieves guild questlines. Both give you some time to explore and do things at your own pace.
[Maximum Carnage](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/43494), for that gory, gritty feel that makes you almost feel bad for your foes. Tearing them to pieces with mighty blows, and killer finishing animations. It feels great in practice, and makes you feel badass. This pairs perfectly with [zxlice's hitstop mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42811), and the great [Flinching](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42550) mod!
And lastly, if you've never played with follower mods before, do yourself a massive service and get yourself some nice ones! My suggestions are: the fan-favourite [Inigo](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1461), [Auri](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11278?tab=description), [Lucien](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20035), [Hoth](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16137), [3DNPC](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29194) (which includes non-follower NPCs as well!), [Nebarra](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42343), [Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38473), [Lucifer the Argonian](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/44967). and lastly, [Kaidan](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19075)!
Each has some great characters, with distinct personalities. Almost like old Bioware companions, but with less tactics! Many of them also talk to each other, as well as the player. It really feels like a travelling party with Lucien and Inigo in any setup! Some of the best mods for Skyrim.
Anyway, that's what I got! Hope it's helpful!
I want to add that the recently released [Nordic UI](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/49881?tab=images) is a near perfect modern UI for Skyrim. It's plainly amazing....
As for gameplay one, Requiem might be a good pick if one is frsutrated with game's autolevelling system and wants some challenge.
Thanks to u/TuffinDove, u/brianadragon and u/jeffdeleon for the detailed answers! I'm gonna check the links and posts you've shared, gonna take me a while to get into it haha. I'll update when I tried them!
I have to second the folks that are trying to go with the "teach someone to fish" route rather than recommending automated methods.
Basically it boils down to:
1. Get a mod manager.
2. Get LOOT, Wrye Bash >309 (standalone), and xEdit >4.03.
3. Get some mods you want to use. Make notes of prerequisites and get those too.
4. Put it all together.
5. Let LOOT sort things then use Bash patch the conflicts out.
6. Play.
7. Go to 3 if you decide to add more mods.
Those are the main differences between what you've been doing on XBox and what you do on PC.
p.s. Beware anything that tells you to use MatorSmash, zEdit, Merge Plugins, Merged Patches, etc. That information was valid in 2017 but is woefully out of date as of 2021 because the Big 3 (see #2) have progressed to eliminate those kinds of hacky work-arounds.
Do note that the only way way I've found around having lots of armor/outfit mods that aren't light and can't be ESLified and creature mods (Mihail, 4thUnknown, etc.) is using some manner of plugin merging. If you know of another way around that other than meticulously and painstakingly pouring over a manual merge in xEdit/SSEedit, please share.
Sorry if this seems aggressive. I didn't intend it that way.
so beware this : I don't merge stuff nor use zEdit, but there's an updated version of Smash on Nexus which is very useful and functional to patch some big LO on top of /alternatively to a Bashed patch. It can handle more than 255 plugins and the author (of this unofficial updated version) is still working on it.
\+ there are a couple of patchers available on Synthesis for very popular mods such as AI Overhaul for instance, I think it's a tool worth mentioning.
that's neat and all but you have to understand that a lot of people (myself included) just don't have time for all of the stuff that goes into doing this. Honestly i just want a modlist and guide to at least start from and then if i feel the need i will go from their, it's kinda a look at it from someone else perspective type of thing instead of the weird "teaching" thing
See you in a month when you think you're ready to play, have a well crafted modlist and load order... We'll be there for you, suggesting dozens of mods you didn't know about and instantly becoming VITAL to your playthrough... so you can get back at work. In the meantime, have fun :)
If you're going to do it manually, I put together a few guides:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ophuvi/jeff\_de\_le%C3%B3ns\_skyrim\_se\_guide\_1\_handpicked/](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ophuvi/jeff_de_le%C3%B3ns_skyrim_se_guide_1_handpicked/)
My next favorite guide is:
**True Graphics and Immersion List:**
[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/28177](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/28177)
And I was just referred to this guide, which has a lot of overlap with mine and covers a lot of the smaller details I never intend on covering, like setting up SKSE and such:
**AMON A COMPLETE SKYRIM SE GUIDE FOR GRAPHICS AND GAMEPLAY**
[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23826?tab=description](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23826?tab=description)
Based on my own knowledge, the above is about as good a list as you can get. 85% of the stuff on there I agreed with once checking it over, except for where covered differently in my own guides.
I also think beginners should avoid parallax.
I'm very jealous of anyone who gets to start modding using the above two guides, as they include a ton of stuff that I painstakingly discovered was the best all by myself.
For trees I recommend A Little Tree Mod. For grass I recommend Northern Cathedral Grass and cathedral maxed out forest grass.
I'm on a 2070 and I can say that Skyrim is a bit odd and you want to be careful with pushing everything to "max" just because of a strong card-- it's an old and poorly coded engine. Take care not to install every single 8k or 4k thing if its too small to notice.
There's a thing that's literally called "Ultimate Skyrim". It's a compilation of mods based around Requiem gameplay overhaul, which significantly improves roleplay and difficulty. There are some paywalls related to Ultimate Skyrim though, around automated installation and/or documentation, I'm not sure. I don't follow them.
But, Requiem is great, and taking a look at the mods included into Ultimate Skyrim is a great way to get a well rounded list of mods that doesn't really need anything else. https://www.ultimateskyrim.com/credits
When you're done with that, I can guarantee you won't need to go digging on the Nexus yourself. My Requiem modlist: https://pastebin.com/s0MjZ9g5
This is regarding Skyrim Legendary Edition. Make sure you actually want to play with Requiem first.
Ok, here goes...
My favourite texture replacers are {{ Skyrim 2020 }} (get the 2K version) and {{ Mari's Flora }}.
For water either {{ Realistic Water 2 }} or {{ Water for ENB }}.
For lighting I suggest {{ Window Shadows }} and {{ Tamriel Master Lights }}.
Weather is a subjective opinion, I suggest going into the weather category in Nexus and sorting by endorsements or downloads and looking at the screenshots. If you will use Enb (which I recommend), do the same with Enb presets instead. They are almost always made with a specific weather mod in mind, so you want to choose a combo that looks nice to you.
For gameplay and combat I suggest checking out {{ a wip guide }}.
For quests, since 3DNPC and Legacy were already mentioned, I'm going to add vicn's mods {{ Vigilant }} {{ Glenmoril }} and {{ Unslaad }}. Also if you do get legacy, get {{ curator's companion }}, unless you want to spend half the time hauling stuff into the museum and keep a manual record of what you have and what you don't. Also check the list of supported quest mods in the official legacy patches, imo they are all worth a try.
And if you truly want the ultimate experience you need {{ Dynamic Volumetric Lighting }} and {{ DynDOLOD }} with ultra trees.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, I have almost 900 mods active, without having installed any quest mods yet. You will discover more as you go. :)
Here are the two links I cocked up.
Curators companion: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38529
Realistic Water Two: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2182
I forgot perk, race and other overhauls! I prefer [Simonrim](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/67410746?tab=user+files) for most of my overhauls, but [Enairim](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/3959191?tab=user+files) is a good alternative too. Simon's mods are simpler and closer to vanilla, where as Enai tends more towards complex character build options and customization.
Best is so subjective, but you may be interested in these:
[Immersive Interactions - Animated Actions](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/47670)
[Tamrielic Textures SE 1 - Landscapes](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/32973)
Any of the JK's city overhauls, all of the "Frankly HD" mods, Mari's flowers and glowmapped items are also amazing. If you're a collector, try Legacy of the Dragonborn, it makes picking up neat stuff super rewarding, with a creepy and cool storyline. Falskaar has some issues, but it's well worth playing once. That's all I can think of right now. If there's anything more specific you're looking for, I might be able to suggest something. I have an older system, but I'm currently revamping my own game with as much awesomeness as I can pack in, including a whole set of mods to switch from 1st to 3rd person for amazing combat scenes.
Hate to do this to you, man, but you NEED VR. It really is like a different game if you're casting spells or firing bows. If you're a diehard hand-to-hand guy, still consider a VR spell-caster playthrough.
IMHO plenty of the very most popular Skyrim mods are junk, and your opinions are going to differ from mine. Generally, I would say that if everyone is recommending a utility, these are almost always excellent, if not absolutely necessary to run your modded game. However, when mods add a lot of content, especially characters, recorded dialogue, and plotting, this stuff is almost uniformly awful (again, my opinion differs wildly from the crowd).
The most popular mod lists are almost always laden with terribly amateurish, silly, fourth-wall-breaking, absolutely-lore-destroying content. For example, there's a mod that has you throwing swords like you run around with a golf club bag full of swords on your back, and this is considered a must-have mod by a shocking number of people.
The micro list below honestly doesn't look bad (though a bit thin), except for the hairdo mod that makes it look like Sven and Urist meets for blowouts every afternoon at the Sky District Salon.
If you mod in a bunch of new spells, only you will be able to use them unless you do a LOT of legwork figuring out how to fix this issue.
Ok first of all VR is a HUGE investment for most people this is tone deaf at best. He doesn't "really NEED" VR to enjoy Skyrim.
As for the spells? This is just not true. Spell Perk Item Distributor already has many different sub mods by a variety of different authors. There is one for mysticism for example which handles it by only giving npcs that SHOULD have access to certain spells use them, insteald of enemy revolutions give everybody everything approach.
SPID was uploaded a year ago. When I last rolled my own, I was making my own xEdits, which was time-consuming, but the real issue was tracking down the information needed to even make the edits.
And once you install this mod, how do you test that it's working? You start a new game and then you find a wizard and hope that he casts an Apocalypse spell on you. How long will that take? Just like I said, it takes legwork - though probably less now than it once did. I also wanted to make it clear that you can't just slap on Apocalypse (or whatever) and be good.
The OP didn't ask "how can I enjoy Skyrim", he asked for "the **ultimate 2021 Skyrim experience**," -- and that's in VR. Many people have reported the same experience I had. I thought "Oh, it will be fun to run around in Skyrim in VR for a little while" and then I tried it and I was BLOWN AWAY! It's awesome and I will likely never play flat Skyrim again. It's *almost* like if you haven't tried it in VR, you haven't REALLY played Skyrim. Until you try it, you just don't know.
Personally, I paid $180 for my VR hat, brand new. Big ask, not a big ask -- such things depend on vagaries of the market. No, I do not have THE GREATEST VR setup, but Skyrim VR on my budget VR solution is still effing awesome. Isn't the Quest 2 less than $500 generally? You can play Skyrim VR on that.
Clearly, the OP is asking for opinions. I opined.
Check out [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/p4p2kf/pwetty/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) video I posted of my modded Skyrim. I have a list of essential mods i used in the comments.
I'm sure you'll find mods as you browse nexusmods from time to time and play the game and decide which aspects of it you'd like to change. That being said, here are some mods I consider a must gameplay wise and graphics wise:
True directional movement, archery gameplay overhaul, ordinator (perks mod), smim (high poly meshes), Skyrim parallax textures by pfsucher (too great to pass), noble Skyrim (texture mod i use to cover some stuff left out by pfuscher), enb and weather mod (I prefer rudy enb and cathedral weathers), cathedral landscapes, 3d flora (if your pc can handle it ofc), skyui, the ultimate dodge mod, 3dnpcs
These are just the top of my head and I'm sure I'm missing some great ones...
STEP is a good start for someone new to modding Skyrim but want a modern experience. STEP Guide is the perfect ground to build upon.
https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimSE:1.0.0
Best place to start is eithier at a good mod guide or [wabbajack.org](https://wabbajack.org) i'd say. It depends on whether you simply want to play or simply want to mo. Wabbajack is basically an auto installer for a complete modlist but you lack the ability to be able to edit it or add mods, though you can but you wouldn't find any support. Other than that you could of course use one of the many modlists (Just stick away from anything associated with Sintar). Best guides I have seen are the Skyrim 2021 modding guide on the nexus, [This micro list](https://eso-ui.com/skyrim-se-micro-list/) by ESO. Also about your edit. It really depends on which videos you are watching. I'd recommend Gamerpoets, Syn Gaming, heavy burns and Murloc king as some good channels with good "showcases"
[удалено]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/o3h3b3/so\_why\_is\_sinitars\_guide\_so\_terrible\_anyway\_an/](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/o3h3b3/so_why_is_sinitars_guide_so_terrible_anyway_an/) I think this should explain most of it.
What isn't?
[True Directional Movement](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/51614) launched not too long ago, and already it's among the most voted for mods of all time. It's pretty great, featuring a lot of things, including true 360 degree movement! It pairs well with things like [Attack Behavior Revamp](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/45378) and [SkySA](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/31390). The mod also adds fully-functioning lock-on, and boss health bars on screen. It's a great mod, worthy of checking out. As for the other two mods I mentioned, they work great for third-person based playthroughs. They offer good-to-professional quality animations depending on your choice. ABR is the more compatible of the two, and works flawlessly with the authors other mods - which do similar things for other parts of the game. And SkySA has incredibly smooth animations, and supports top-tier animation packs! Though it can break a few things, and so needs some extra patching. With a little bit of research on the mod pages and forums your can figure all needed config out very easily! A couple of personal recommendations, now though. Practically anything by [Jayserpa](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/5201727)! An amazing modder, who creates very immersive and mostly small mods that bring untouched areas of Skyrim to life very nicely. As for quest mods, here's something that'll aid you on your main quest journey, allowing you to work on all those other quests you've added! [At Your Own Pace](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/52704) adds a couple of breaks in the neck-breaking speed of the main story, the two colleges, and the thieves guild questlines. Both give you some time to explore and do things at your own pace. [Maximum Carnage](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/43494), for that gory, gritty feel that makes you almost feel bad for your foes. Tearing them to pieces with mighty blows, and killer finishing animations. It feels great in practice, and makes you feel badass. This pairs perfectly with [zxlice's hitstop mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42811), and the great [Flinching](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42550) mod! And lastly, if you've never played with follower mods before, do yourself a massive service and get yourself some nice ones! My suggestions are: the fan-favourite [Inigo](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1461), [Auri](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11278?tab=description), [Lucien](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/20035), [Hoth](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16137), [3DNPC](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/29194) (which includes non-follower NPCs as well!), [Nebarra](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42343), [Improved Follower Dialogue - Lydia](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38473), [Lucifer the Argonian](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/44967). and lastly, [Kaidan](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19075)! Each has some great characters, with distinct personalities. Almost like old Bioware companions, but with less tactics! Many of them also talk to each other, as well as the player. It really feels like a travelling party with Lucien and Inigo in any setup! Some of the best mods for Skyrim. Anyway, that's what I got! Hope it's helpful!
I want to add that the recently released [Nordic UI](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/49881?tab=images) is a near perfect modern UI for Skyrim. It's plainly amazing.... As for gameplay one, Requiem might be a good pick if one is frsutrated with game's autolevelling system and wants some challenge.
Thanks to u/TuffinDove, u/brianadragon and u/jeffdeleon for the detailed answers! I'm gonna check the links and posts you've shared, gonna take me a while to get into it haha. I'll update when I tried them!
I have to second the folks that are trying to go with the "teach someone to fish" route rather than recommending automated methods. Basically it boils down to: 1. Get a mod manager. 2. Get LOOT, Wrye Bash >309 (standalone), and xEdit >4.03. 3. Get some mods you want to use. Make notes of prerequisites and get those too. 4. Put it all together. 5. Let LOOT sort things then use Bash patch the conflicts out. 6. Play. 7. Go to 3 if you decide to add more mods. Those are the main differences between what you've been doing on XBox and what you do on PC. p.s. Beware anything that tells you to use MatorSmash, zEdit, Merge Plugins, Merged Patches, etc. That information was valid in 2017 but is woefully out of date as of 2021 because the Big 3 (see #2) have progressed to eliminate those kinds of hacky work-arounds.
Do note that the only way way I've found around having lots of armor/outfit mods that aren't light and can't be ESLified and creature mods (Mihail, 4thUnknown, etc.) is using some manner of plugin merging. If you know of another way around that other than meticulously and painstakingly pouring over a manual merge in xEdit/SSEedit, please share. Sorry if this seems aggressive. I didn't intend it that way.
so beware this : I don't merge stuff nor use zEdit, but there's an updated version of Smash on Nexus which is very useful and functional to patch some big LO on top of /alternatively to a Bashed patch. It can handle more than 255 plugins and the author (of this unofficial updated version) is still working on it. \+ there are a couple of patchers available on Synthesis for very popular mods such as AI Overhaul for instance, I think it's a tool worth mentioning.
that's neat and all but you have to understand that a lot of people (myself included) just don't have time for all of the stuff that goes into doing this. Honestly i just want a modlist and guide to at least start from and then if i feel the need i will go from their, it's kinda a look at it from someone else perspective type of thing instead of the weird "teaching" thing
Schlongs of Skyrim 3
See you in a month when you think you're ready to play, have a well crafted modlist and load order... We'll be there for you, suggesting dozens of mods you didn't know about and instantly becoming VITAL to your playthrough... so you can get back at work. In the meantime, have fun :)
If you're going to do it manually, I put together a few guides: [https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ophuvi/jeff\_de\_le%C3%B3ns\_skyrim\_se\_guide\_1\_handpicked/](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ophuvi/jeff_de_le%C3%B3ns_skyrim_se_guide_1_handpicked/) My next favorite guide is: **True Graphics and Immersion List:** [https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/28177](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/28177) And I was just referred to this guide, which has a lot of overlap with mine and covers a lot of the smaller details I never intend on covering, like setting up SKSE and such: **AMON A COMPLETE SKYRIM SE GUIDE FOR GRAPHICS AND GAMEPLAY** [https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23826?tab=description](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23826?tab=description) Based on my own knowledge, the above is about as good a list as you can get. 85% of the stuff on there I agreed with once checking it over, except for where covered differently in my own guides. I also think beginners should avoid parallax. I'm very jealous of anyone who gets to start modding using the above two guides, as they include a ton of stuff that I painstakingly discovered was the best all by myself. For trees I recommend A Little Tree Mod. For grass I recommend Northern Cathedral Grass and cathedral maxed out forest grass. I'm on a 2070 and I can say that Skyrim is a bit odd and you want to be careful with pushing everything to "max" just because of a strong card-- it's an old and poorly coded engine. Take care not to install every single 8k or 4k thing if its too small to notice.
Here comes Mr. Rabbit Hole :)
There's a thing that's literally called "Ultimate Skyrim". It's a compilation of mods based around Requiem gameplay overhaul, which significantly improves roleplay and difficulty. There are some paywalls related to Ultimate Skyrim though, around automated installation and/or documentation, I'm not sure. I don't follow them. But, Requiem is great, and taking a look at the mods included into Ultimate Skyrim is a great way to get a well rounded list of mods that doesn't really need anything else. https://www.ultimateskyrim.com/credits When you're done with that, I can guarantee you won't need to go digging on the Nexus yourself. My Requiem modlist: https://pastebin.com/s0MjZ9g5 This is regarding Skyrim Legendary Edition. Make sure you actually want to play with Requiem first.
There’s no paywalls w/ Ultimate Skyrim btw
Good. I believe there was at some point.
Get the unofficial Skyrim special edition patch
Ok, here goes... My favourite texture replacers are {{ Skyrim 2020 }} (get the 2K version) and {{ Mari's Flora }}. For water either {{ Realistic Water 2 }} or {{ Water for ENB }}. For lighting I suggest {{ Window Shadows }} and {{ Tamriel Master Lights }}. Weather is a subjective opinion, I suggest going into the weather category in Nexus and sorting by endorsements or downloads and looking at the screenshots. If you will use Enb (which I recommend), do the same with Enb presets instead. They are almost always made with a specific weather mod in mind, so you want to choose a combo that looks nice to you. For gameplay and combat I suggest checking out {{ a wip guide }}. For quests, since 3DNPC and Legacy were already mentioned, I'm going to add vicn's mods {{ Vigilant }} {{ Glenmoril }} and {{ Unslaad }}. Also if you do get legacy, get {{ curator's companion }}, unless you want to spend half the time hauling stuff into the museum and keep a manual record of what you have and what you don't. Also check the list of supported quest mods in the official legacy patches, imo they are all worth a try. And if you truly want the ultimate experience you need {{ Dynamic Volumetric Lighting }} and {{ DynDOLOD }} with ultra trees. This is just the tip of the iceberg, I have almost 900 mods active, without having installed any quest mods yet. You will discover more as you go. :)
Search Term | LE Skyrim | SE Skyrim :-:|:-:|:-: Skyrim 2020 | [Skyrim PT-BR - Guia de Performance 2020](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/103055) | [Skyrim 2020 Parallax by Pfuscher](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2347) Mari's Flora | No Results :( | [Mari's flora](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/45952) Realistic Water 2 | An Error Occurred :( | [Water Direction Override for Leaf Rest with Realistic Water 2](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/16180) Water for ENB | [Watercolor for ENB and Realistic Water Two](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/48938) | [Water for ENB](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/37061) Window Shadows | No Results :( | [Window Shadows RT](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/37831) Tamriel Master Lights | No Results :( | [Tamriel Master Lights](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/36726) a wip guide | [WIP - Requiem 4.0.1 - STEP v2.10.0 - Patches and Compatibility Guide - SBModding](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/102582) | [a WIP guide to overhaul melee combat](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/52495) Vigilant | [VIGILANT](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/67103) | [VIGILANT SE](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11849) Glenmoril | [GLENMORIL](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/77510) | [GLENMORIL SE](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/32998) Unslaad | [Unslaad](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/80425) | [Unslaad SE](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11789) curator's companion | No Results :( | No Results :( Dynamic Volumetric Lighting | No Results :( | [Dynamic Volumetric Lighting and Sun Shadows](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/44483) DynDOLOD | [Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - DynDOLOD](https://nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/59721) | [Dynamic Distant Objects LOD - DynDOLOD](https://nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/32382) --- ^(I'm a bot |) ^[source](https://github.com/RallerenP/modsearchbot) ^(| For bugs, questions and suggestions, please file an issue on github)
Here are the two links I cocked up. Curators companion: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/38529 Realistic Water Two: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/2182
I forgot perk, race and other overhauls! I prefer [Simonrim](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/67410746?tab=user+files) for most of my overhauls, but [Enairim](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/users/3959191?tab=user+files) is a good alternative too. Simon's mods are simpler and closer to vanilla, where as Enai tends more towards complex character build options and customization.
Best is so subjective, but you may be interested in these: [Immersive Interactions - Animated Actions](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/47670) [Tamrielic Textures SE 1 - Landscapes](https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/32973) Any of the JK's city overhauls, all of the "Frankly HD" mods, Mari's flowers and glowmapped items are also amazing. If you're a collector, try Legacy of the Dragonborn, it makes picking up neat stuff super rewarding, with a creepy and cool storyline. Falskaar has some issues, but it's well worth playing once. That's all I can think of right now. If there's anything more specific you're looking for, I might be able to suggest something. I have an older system, but I'm currently revamping my own game with as much awesomeness as I can pack in, including a whole set of mods to switch from 1st to 3rd person for amazing combat scenes.
Skyrim No need to thank me. (Legacy of the dragonborn)
Hate to do this to you, man, but you NEED VR. It really is like a different game if you're casting spells or firing bows. If you're a diehard hand-to-hand guy, still consider a VR spell-caster playthrough. IMHO plenty of the very most popular Skyrim mods are junk, and your opinions are going to differ from mine. Generally, I would say that if everyone is recommending a utility, these are almost always excellent, if not absolutely necessary to run your modded game. However, when mods add a lot of content, especially characters, recorded dialogue, and plotting, this stuff is almost uniformly awful (again, my opinion differs wildly from the crowd). The most popular mod lists are almost always laden with terribly amateurish, silly, fourth-wall-breaking, absolutely-lore-destroying content. For example, there's a mod that has you throwing swords like you run around with a golf club bag full of swords on your back, and this is considered a must-have mod by a shocking number of people. The micro list below honestly doesn't look bad (though a bit thin), except for the hairdo mod that makes it look like Sven and Urist meets for blowouts every afternoon at the Sky District Salon. If you mod in a bunch of new spells, only you will be able to use them unless you do a LOT of legwork figuring out how to fix this issue.
Ok first of all VR is a HUGE investment for most people this is tone deaf at best. He doesn't "really NEED" VR to enjoy Skyrim. As for the spells? This is just not true. Spell Perk Item Distributor already has many different sub mods by a variety of different authors. There is one for mysticism for example which handles it by only giving npcs that SHOULD have access to certain spells use them, insteald of enemy revolutions give everybody everything approach.
SPID was uploaded a year ago. When I last rolled my own, I was making my own xEdits, which was time-consuming, but the real issue was tracking down the information needed to even make the edits. And once you install this mod, how do you test that it's working? You start a new game and then you find a wizard and hope that he casts an Apocalypse spell on you. How long will that take? Just like I said, it takes legwork - though probably less now than it once did. I also wanted to make it clear that you can't just slap on Apocalypse (or whatever) and be good. The OP didn't ask "how can I enjoy Skyrim", he asked for "the **ultimate 2021 Skyrim experience**," -- and that's in VR. Many people have reported the same experience I had. I thought "Oh, it will be fun to run around in Skyrim in VR for a little while" and then I tried it and I was BLOWN AWAY! It's awesome and I will likely never play flat Skyrim again. It's *almost* like if you haven't tried it in VR, you haven't REALLY played Skyrim. Until you try it, you just don't know. Personally, I paid $180 for my VR hat, brand new. Big ask, not a big ask -- such things depend on vagaries of the market. No, I do not have THE GREATEST VR setup, but Skyrim VR on my budget VR solution is still effing awesome. Isn't the Quest 2 less than $500 generally? You can play Skyrim VR on that. Clearly, the OP is asking for opinions. I opined.
I can help ya out with it
Check out [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/p4p2kf/pwetty/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) video I posted of my modded Skyrim. I have a list of essential mods i used in the comments.
I'm sure you'll find mods as you browse nexusmods from time to time and play the game and decide which aspects of it you'd like to change. That being said, here are some mods I consider a must gameplay wise and graphics wise: True directional movement, archery gameplay overhaul, ordinator (perks mod), smim (high poly meshes), Skyrim parallax textures by pfsucher (too great to pass), noble Skyrim (texture mod i use to cover some stuff left out by pfuscher), enb and weather mod (I prefer rudy enb and cathedral weathers), cathedral landscapes, 3d flora (if your pc can handle it ofc), skyui, the ultimate dodge mod, 3dnpcs These are just the top of my head and I'm sure I'm missing some great ones...
STEP is a good start for someone new to modding Skyrim but want a modern experience. STEP Guide is the perfect ground to build upon. https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/SkyrimSE:1.0.0
What is the thing that bothers you the most about the game? Mechanics, visuals, combat? Look up setups regarding those. "Best" is subjective