The best Skyrim mods

Free ways to keep Skyrim your forever game

Skyrim is now over twelve years old, but its modding community remains as vibrant as ever. Whether you want to overhaul the fantasy RPG ’s graphics, add new companions to carry your burdens, or pursue adventures on all-new terrain, generous creators have built something that will satisfy. The only thing that’s changed is that, as more have been released, it’s become harder to find the very best Skyrim mods. Thankfully, we’ve picked the best for you.

Nearly all the mods 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. All of the mod download links point at Nexus Mods, and we haven’t included any that are exclusive to Bethesda’s own Creation platform, so everything below is totally free.

How to install Skyrim mods

Before you start turning dragons into ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage, there are a few things you’ll want to install first. It’s also recommended to do a clean install of Skyrim and start a new game, especially if you’re going to be throwing a lot of mods into the mix. 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. You don’t need to fire up the save after every mod, but it’s worth checking a few times during the process to make sure everything’s working. The fewer mods you’ve installed, the easier it will be to pinpoint any problems or conflicts.

Best Skyrim mods

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.

• Essential Skyrim mods
• Best graphic mods
• Best NPC and creature mods
• Best weapon and armour mods
• Best combat and magic mods
• Best town and city mods
• Best quest and overhaul mods
• Best character customisation mods
• Best UI mods
• Best survival mods

Essential Skyrim mods

Nexus Mod Manager

Even if you’re just planning on using a few mods, grabbing a mod manager will skip so much hassle. There are several good ones, but Nexus Mod Manager is your best bet. It looks a bit intimidating at first, but once you’ve got it set up, you won’t need to worry about it at all. If you’ve modded Fallout 4 , you’ll already be au fait with the manager, and you can use it for several other games, including The Witcher 3. Here’s a tutorial from mod guru Gopher to get you started.

Download Nexus Mod Manager

LOOT

A lot of the mods in this list can be used in tandem, but even compatible mods can have a falling out when they’re not put in the correct load order. LOOT solves this and myriad other problems, checking your load order, hunting for errors and directing you to naughty mods that aren’t playing nicely. Before you test anything in-game, run LOOT. It takes seconds.

Download LOOT

Skyrim Script Extender

Several important mods won’t work at all without the Skyrim Script Extender. When Skyrim Special Edition launched, the script extender’s absence meant that a lot of mods couldn’t be used or ported over, so the original Skyrim remained the best version for anyone looking to spice up their game. It’s been updated since then, thankfully, and now works with both editions. Note that, from now on, you’ll need to launch Skyrim with the script extender, not through Steam. You can launch it directly from the .EXE or by connecting it to the Nexus Mod Manager.

Download the Skyrim Script Extender

Unofficial Skyrim Patch

Even if you’re not planning on adding a single mod, you should get the Unofficial Skyrim Patch. It’s one giant bugfix that’s constantly being updated, and as with every massive Bethesda game, Skyrim sure has a lot of bugs.

Download the Unofficial Skyrim Patch or the Special Edition version

Cutting Room Floor

Like the Unofficial Skyrim Patch, Cutting Room Floor is worth getting even if you just want the vanilla Skyrim experience. It’s a large compilation of cut content, adding villages, NPCs, quests and countless other bits and pieces that Bethesda created but never implemented. None of this has just been flung back in, of course, and has instead been tweaked to make sure it all fits with Bethesda’s final version of Skyrim.

Download Cutting Room Floor or the Special Edition version

Achievements Mods Enabler

In Skyrim Special Edition, achievements can’t be earned if you’re using mods. That’s obviously dumb, so here’s a mod that gets around that. If you’ve got regular Skyrim, you don’t need to do anything.

Download Achievements Mods Enabler

Best graphic mods for Skyrim

Static Mesh Improvement Mod

It’s a terrible name for a mod that you absolutely need to get. Basically, it spruces up a huge pile of 3D models, making all of Skyrim look nicer in hundreds of tiny ways. You’ll probably not even notice it most of the time, but it works its magic everywhere. It’s also a key ingredient in several other mods, so it should be one of your first downloads.

Download Static Mesh Improvement or the Special Edition version

Skyrim HD

Skyrim HD is a long-running texture mod that replaces over 600 textures. Everything from the sky and mountains to the interiors of ramshackle hovels has been done up. There are two complete versions, one of which is a 1K resolution ‘lite version’ for less powerful PCs. 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.

Download Skyrim HD

Skyrim 2018 Textures

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 2017 version is more modular. You can pick what you want retextured, whether it’s just the roads, only mountains or all of Riften. The mod’s creator advises people with the old version to keep it, as it has some files that haven’t been added to the 2018 version yet.

Download Skyrim 2018 Textures

RealVision ENB

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. You definitely won’t be able to use a PC that ran Skyrim in 2011.

Download RealVision ENB

SkyrimSE Re-Engaged ENB

When the Special Edition first launched, flashy post-processing options were limited while we waited for ENB to be updated. SkyrimSE Re-Engaged started out as a Reshade mod (it has since made the jump to ENB) and proved to be the best alternative, and while there’s now no dearth of competition, it continues to be my favourite. There are seven presets, not including vanilla, each dramatically different and designed with a specific weather mod in mind, and if there’s something you don’t like, you can adjust it.

Download SkyrimSE Re-Engaged ENB

Realistic Lighting Overhaul

If you don’t want to fiddle around with ENBs or take the inevitable performance hit that comes with the most impressive ones, Realistic Lighting Overhaul might be just your horn of mead. It’s a comprehensive lighting mod that doesn’t use any post-processing or screen injector tricks, so there’s no performance cost. It’s not as dramatic, either, but that’s the point. It aims to light up Skyrim realistically, based on actual light sources, whether it’s the sun or a candle.

Download Realistic Lighting Overhaul or the Special Edition version

Enhanced Lights and FX

Enhanced Lights and FX is similar to RLO, but it’s more dramatic and stylised. 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.

Download Enhanced Lights and FX or the Special Edition version

Skyrim Flora Overhaul

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’s a grass-only and trees-only version, too, which obviously have less of a performance impact. This is one of those changes that’s worth sacrificing some frames over, mind.

Download Skyrim Flora Overhaul or the Special Edition version

Simply Bigger Trees

Simply Bigger Trees does exactly what it says on the tin, giving Skyrim’s forests a growth spurt. It’s a surprisingly significant improvement, and though it’s only partially compatible, I like to pair it with SFO. Some of the trees get overwritten, but there’s still plenty of variety and the forests look considerably more striking.

Download Simply Bigger Trees or the Special Edition version

Realistic Water Two

Realistic Water makes the pools, coasts, rivers and lakes of Skyrim distinct, so it doesn’t look like they’re all full of the same murky bath water. If you see some H2O in the game, it’s probably been improved. 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 Realistic Water Two or the Special Edition version

Better Roads

Better Roads makes Skyrim’s trails and highways more interesting, giving them a bit more character and adding some lore-specific touches. More walls and fences have been added - touches of civilisation - while bridges have been made a bit more diverse and in keeping with the architecture of the areas they’re built in. Generally, they’re just less drab. It’s a subtle improvement, but Skyrim’s a much better place to walk around with this in your mod library.

Download Better Roads or the Special Edition version

Climates of Tamriel

Climates of Tamriel is a massive weather and lighting mod that replaces all of Skyrim’s boring weather with hundreds of different weather variations, from sunny days to cataclysmic storms and everything in between. It’s predominantly a visual mod, but there are plenty of audio improvements to go along with it. Climates of Tamriel is at its best when paired with an ENB like SkyrimSE Re-Engaged ENB and Realistic Lighting Overhaul’s interior lighting.

Download Climates of Tamriel or the Special Edition version

Best NPCs and creature mods for Skyrim

Interesting NPCs

Interesting NPCs is packed with new characters scattered all over Skyrim, each with their own background, schedule and branching dialogue. There’s over 250 of them, including marriage prospects, followers and quest givers. Followers also have unique commentary, insights and questlines, so there’s plenty of reasons to ditch the largely forgettable vanilla cast and travel with some new pals.

Download Interesting NPCs or the Special Edition version

Immersive Citizens

Skyrim’s NPCs aren’t always the sharpest knives in the drawer, but Immersive Citizens alleviates some of that by delving into their empty heads and leaving something there. 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

Immersive Creatures

We’ve all killed our fair share of draugr and dragons (too many, probably), so thank goodness for Immersive Creatures and its long list of mostly lore-friendly monsters and creatures waiting to be battered. This throws in everything from warring goblin tribes to considerably more exotic and indescribable nightmares. The world a bit more deadly. It’s possible to tweak this mod to your liking, removing creatures and changing the difficulty via the menu.

Download Immersive Creatures or the Special Edition version

Immersive Patrols

Skyrim’s supposedly warring factions don’t really get up to very much, but Immersive Patrols thrusts them into conflict a bit more often. 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. It makes Skyrim feel like a more mutable place, and importantly one that doesn’t need you to get involved for changes to happen.

Download Immersive Patrols or the Special Edition version

Amazing Follower Tweaks

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. The limit is five followers, but that’s much more impressive when it’s five deadly, magical monsters with a thirst for blood and flesh.

Download Amazing Follower Tweaks or the Special Edition version

Run For Your Lives

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. No more risking your life to save some idiot with a torch who’s decided they can fight a dragon. Guards and Warrior Guild members will, of course, still impotently flail at monsters, since it’s their job.

Download Run For Your Lives or the Special Edition version

Convenient Horses

It’s pretty clear why most people in Skyrim travel by foot - their horses are terrible. Not with Convenient Horses, however. The name doesn’t paint the full picture. Sure, it makes horses a lot more convenient, letting you loot, harvest and interact with the world while you’re riding, along with other time-saving features, but it also makes horses deeper generally. You can train them, put all of your followers on them, get new equipment via faction quests and crafting, and there’s an encumbrance system.

Download Convenient Horses or the Special Edition version

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul makes Skyrim a chattier place. NPCs get a whopping 5,000 lines of new, reactive dialogue, all voiced. The mod’s creators used existing lines, adding them to new situations and, in some instances, creating new bits of dialogue by splicing lines together. NPCs react more realistically, letting you know what they think of you, while followers will take into account their relationship with you. If you’re travelling with your spouse, for instance, they’ll talk to you like a husband or wife rather than just another hired hand.

Download Relationship Dialogue Overhaul or the Special Edition version

Simply Better Movement Speed

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.

Download Simply Better Movement Speed or the Special Edition version

Moonlight Tales

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. Whichever beastie you pick, you’ll also get lots of different skin choices.

Download Moonlight Tales or the Special Edition version

Best weapon and armour mods for Skyrim

Immersive Weapons

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. It’s an increasingly massive mod that adds over 250 weapons and 21 archetypes to the game that you can buy, loot or craft yourself. 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

Immersive Armors

If you’re grabbing Hothtrooper’s Immersive Weapons, you should pick up their Immersive Armors as well. 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. You’ll be prepared for anything.

Download Immersive Armors or the Special Edition version

Bandoliers

If you’ve ever fancied dressing your Dragonborn up as a Rob Liefeld superhero, Bandoliers is the mod for you. 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. If you’d prefer to look less like Cable and more like a wizard, there are also book and vial holders. They’re practical, too, letting you stuff your inventory full of junk.

Download Bandoliers or the Special Edition version

Cloaks of Skyrim

If you don’t wear a cloak, how will anyone know that you’re an adventuring hero? Cloaks are an RPG necessity, so Cloaks of Skyrim provides an important public service. It summons a bounty of cloaks into the world, nearly 100 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

Wearable Lanterns

Only mugs hold their own lanterns. Wearable Lanterns is a mod for the adventurer who doesn’t have time for holding extra junk while they’re slaughtering their way through undead-infested dungeons. 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

Deadly Cabbages

Throw a magical cabbage at your enemies. Go on.

Download Deadly Cabbages or the Special Edition version

Best combat and magic mods for Skyrim

Phenderix Magic Evolved

Phenderix’s Magic Evolved flings 400 new spells into your magical repertoire. 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. They’re customisable, too! You can change how they look, and while that has no practical benefit, being a wizard is at least 50% showmanship.

Download Phenderix Magic Evolved or the Special Edition version

Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim

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.

Download Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim or the Special Edition version

Wildcat/Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim

Wildcat and Smilodon are combat overhaul mods for Original Flavour Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition respectively, both created by EnaiSiaion (they also made Apocalypse). 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. It’s designed to be tinkered with, however, so don’t just stick with the default settings if you’re finding them a bit too tricky.

Download Wildcat/Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim or the Special Edition version

VioLens - A Killmove Mod

VioLens lets you customise your killmoves, both melee and ranged, letting you decide how often they appear and what move each weapon triggers. You can create different profiles and tweak things like decapitations, slow motion, and what you see when you’re in first-person or third-person mode. If you want to give your fights some extra cinematic flair, this is a good way to go about it.

Download VioLens - A Killmove Mod or the Special Edition version

Pretty Combat Animations

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.

Download Pretty Combat Animations or the Special Edition version

Best town and city mods for Skyrim

Towns and Villages Enhanced

Towns and Villages Enhanced is a series of mods from Aplestormy that gives several of Skyrim’s settlements stunning makeovers. There are maybe a few too many trees, though I am a fan of the overgrown look. They’re more cluttered and lively as a result of the tweaks and additions, and they make vanilla Skyrim look positively dead in comparison. Unfortunately, the mods haven’t been updated in years, and they’ve not been ported over to the new edition. The should still work with Special Edition anyway, but there might be some unforeseen issues.

Download Towns and Villages Enhanced

HQ Towns and Villages / Expanded Towns and Cities

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. And unlike Towns and Villages Enhanced, they’re designed for the Special Edition. If you’re looking for something that hews closer to Bethesda’s vision of Skyrim, these are perfect. 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.

Download HQ Towns and Villages and Expanded Towns and Cities

Open Cities Skyrim

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. All you’re really bypassing is a brief loading screen, but what a difference it makes. The world feels more cohesive, guards react to what’s going on beyond the walls and you can ride your horse into town.

Download Open Cities Skyrim or the Special Edition version

Helgen Reborn

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. Not only does it let you bring Helgen back, there are six custom dungeons, loads of new NPCs, quests, feuds, a town guard to train, new sets of armour to discover - there’s a lot going on. It’s much better than leaving it a charred ruin, even if you still harbour a grudge for everyone standing by when you were about to get your head chopped off.

Download Helgen Reborn or the Special Edition version

Winterhold Rebuilt

Similar to Helgen Reborn, this mod revitalises the gloomy town of Winterhold as you work through a quest. In the end, you’ll get yourself a new home, while Winterhold will get a bunch of new buildings and merchants. 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

Best quests and overhaul mods for Skyrim

Alternate Start - Live Another Life

Alternate Start is the best way to start a new game of Skyrim. Instead of starting out on the prisoner wagon heading to Helgen, you’ll be able to pick from a multitude of very different origins. Maybe you’re just a hunter camping in the woods, a patron of the Riverwood Inn or a vampire hiding with your undead kin in a dark cave. What you pick doesn’t just determine your starting location, it also changes your inventory. If you want, you can easily pick up the main quest again, or you can just revel in your new life as a recently escaped necromancer’s thrall.

Download Alternate Start - Live Another Life or the Special Edition version

Falskaar

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. He’s since landed a job at Bungie as a result. 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. If you’re looking to push more mileage from Skyrim, they don’t come much better than Falskaar.

Download Falskaar or the Special Edition version

The Forgotten City

Another ambitious conversion, The Forgotten City won a national Writer’s Guild award, a first in the medium, for its clever murder mystery script. It’s an eight-hour investigative romp set in an ancient underground city that is, not surprisingly, thick with mysteries. It’s a proper detective story, full of interrogations and sniffing around for clues. 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.

Download The Forgotten City or the Special Edition version

Moonpath to Elsweyr

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. It’s the best time to take it for a spin.

Download The Forgotten City or the Special Edition version

Enderal

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. Perks, combat and animations have similarly been overhauled - it’s essentially a new game. And a great one, to boot.

Downoad Enderal

Unfortunately, it’s not compatible with the Special Edition; you’ll need to do a bit of faffing to get it to work, though it’s entirely worth the effort.

Best character customisation mods for Skyrim

Total Character Makeover

Total Character Makeover takes the best appearances from Skyrim Nexus, spruces them up even more and collects them in one convenient package. It doesn’t include new hairstyles, beards or body shapes, but it improves just about everything else for every race. It generally sticks close to the original style of Skyrim’s NPCs - you won’t see big anime eyes or uncanny dolls - but it’s still a meaty enhancement.

Download Total Character Makeover or the Special Edition version

Apachii’s Skyhair

Worried your greasy hair is holding you back? Keep finding twigs in your mane right after a job interview? Get yourself Apachii’s Skyhair and replace your manky bird’s nest with silky smooth locks that a model would envy - adventurers can use conditioner too, you know. The mod offers up a ridiculous number of new styles. Remember to get the optional helmet wigs file to make sure your gorgeous hair can be shown off even when you’re wearing a hat.

Download Apachii’s Skyhair or the Special Edition version

Ishs Souls to Perks

Souls to Perks adds a ‘Dragon Stone’ to Guardian Stones which allows dragon souls to be swapped for perk points without the restrictions other mods have come with. No more souls gathering dust because you’ve had your fill of Dragon Shouts.

Download Ish’s Souls to Perks or the Special Edition version

Ordinator

Ordinator completely overhauls Skyrim’s perk trees, introducing a ridiculous 400 new perks. They’re brilliant. 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. It’s rubbish. 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.

Download Ish’s Souls to Perks or the Special Edition version

Best UI mods for Skyrim

SkyUI

SkyUI works magic with Skyrim’s interface, vastly improving everything from inventory management to crafting. 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. It’s used by several on this list, making SkyUI even more essential. After a long wait, a Special Edition port appeared last year, but it’s still in alpha.

Download SkyUI or the Special Edition version

Immersive HUD

The best HUDs are the ones you don’t notice until you need them. Immersive HUD makes HUD elements like the crosshair and compass invisible until they’re called for. The crosshair will only show up if you’re holding a ranged weapon or hovering over an item, you can toggle the compass with the press of a button and meters vanish when they’re at 100%. It’s customisable, too, so you can tweak the transparency of the compass and fiddle with other elements. Skyrim doesn’t have too much screen clutter, but there’s no need for any at all when you’re just exploring peacefully.

Download Immersive HUD or the Special Edition version

A Quality World Map - With Roads

Skyrim’s map is pretty but largely indecipherable. It’s not the sort of map that you’d use if you were orienteering. You’ll get lost, stuck behind mountains, lose track of the road and curse the cartographer who made this unhelpful mess. A Quality World Map - With Roads is considerably more detailed, clear and, importantly, shows you where all the roads are. It’s essential for explorers.

Download A Quality World Map - With Roads or the Special Edition version

Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers

A simple but effective mod that adds quest markers to all 24 Stones of Barenziah which feature in the ‘No Stone Unturned’ quest. It’s a massive pain in the arse to find them all without it.

Download Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers or the Special Edition version

Best survival mods for Skyrim

Frostfall

Frostfall turns Skyrim into a survival game. It implements a system that tracks your location, the weather, the time of day, and your worn clothing among other things and, combined with the Campfire mod, adds a range of craftable camping equipment which you’ll need to combat hypothermia. 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 - Complete Camping System

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. There’s a perk tree attached to it, as well. It’s handy if you want to play around with other survival mods without giving up the comforts of your campsite. It’s also required if you want to use the latest version of Frostfall.

Download Campfire - Complete Camping System or the Special Edition version

Realistic Needs and Diseases

Nobody really needs to eat in Skyrim, which explains the abundance of food. It’s just sitting there, completely ignored. 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. If you don’t eat, you’ll starve. Drinking is similarly necessary. There are other negative effects before death, but also lots of positive ones for eating well. You need your rest, too, but watch out where you decide to take a nap - if it’s somewhere horrible you might contract a nasty disease.

Download Realistic Needs and Diseases or the Special Edition version

Wet and Cold

Wet and Cold is a perfect accompaniment to Skyrim’s survival and weather mods. It mostly adds visual effects that complement the foul weather, but it also changes NPC behaviours. If it’s raining you’ll drip and, if you look up, you might get a raindrop in your eye. When it’s cold, you’ll see your breath (unless you’re a vampire, which is a fantastic touch) and, if it’s also snowing, your hair will get covered in it. During bad weather, NPCs will have different reactions depending on their race, age and job. Argonians, for instance, will stay outside when it’s raining because they can’t get enough of it, while children will flee because they have a deep, abiding fear of water.

Download Wet and Cold or the Special Edition version

If you want to see some other cool things people are doing with Skyrim? Check-out our sister site’s D&D Character Creator guide , which includes how people are using Skyrim mods to do it.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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