Skyrim: Special Edition unlocks in a matter of hours, launching on all three platforms--PS4, Xbox One, and PC--with mod support. Bethesda's website already has a list of all the mods that are currently available, giving you a chance to peruse before the game arrives.
The selection may be somewhat limited at launch, particularly on PS4.
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Among those you'll currently find are ones adding a new difficulty level, removing health regeneration, expanding villages, and making named dogs invincible (because who needs a dead dog on their conscience?). If you come across any you're interested in on Bethesda's website, you can add them to your library right from there.
The 209 mods available as of this writing can all be seen here. Xbox One currently has the most with 100, while PS4 has by far the least, with just 27. (It's worth noting that PC players don't have to rely on Bethesda's workshop to download mods.) Xbox One and PS4 mods are more limited than those on PC, as the consoles have storage limits of 5 GB and 1 GB, respectively.
More importantly, PS4 mods are restricted to using in-game assets; modders can't create their own work from scratch or craft scripts that are often used for more complex creations (and some simpler ones). This limitation is seemingly part of the deal Bethesda struck with Sony in order to allow mods on the platform in Skyrim and Fallout 4.
Some modders have expressed a lack of interest in developing mods for PS4 due to the restrictions. It remains to be seen how much the PS4 mod scene will suffer, or if players disappointed with what's offered put additional pressure on Sony to ease up on its restrictions.
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This guide will walk newcomers to modding through the steps necessary to find, download, and install our mod manager Vortex as well as the following mods for Skyrim Special Edition:
These mods were selected to give you a good modding foundation and in order to convey some basic knowledge regarding Skyrim modding.
Note: you may choose to install other/more mods than the ones listed above, but please note that this guide is focused on describing the exact process for those exact mods.
Installing our Mod Manager Vortex from the website
Vortex Initial Setup
Once Vortex is installed, there are a few steps to be taken in order to set it up to manage and download mods for Skyrim Special Edition. There are also some things that you might (optionally) want to customise to your liking.
Starting up Vortex
Once installed, start up Vortex via the shortcut on your Desktop. Upon initialising, Vortex will automatically associate itself with Nexus Mods download links and inform you of that via a notification in the top right corner:
This is necessary so Vortex can be used to download mods straight from Nexus Mods via the corresponding “Download: Vortex” button on a given mod page.
As Vortex does this automatically upon startup, no action on your end is required.
Link your Nexus Mods account to Vortex (required)
Open Vortex and click the red icon in the top right corner.
In the next dialogue window that comes up, click “Log In On Website” to open a new page in your browser:
If no new page is loaded in your browser, copy and paste the link displayed by Vortex into your browser’s address bar:
Click the 'Authorise' button to allow Vortex to sign in.
Congratulations! You have now successfully linked your Nexus Mods account to Vortex.
Note: if authorising via the website fails, you can try to log in manually. To do so, click on the hyperlink that reads “Not working? Try manual login.”
Follow the instructions on screen to copy and paste your API key from your API access page (https://www.nexusmods.com/users/myaccount?tab=api+access):
Once you hit “Save” you should have successfully linked your account with Vortex and your Nexus Mods profile should display your avatar.
Search for, discover, and manage a game (required)![]()
Vortex is capable of managing mods for dozens of different games. That being said, Vortex does not just automatically take over mod management for a particular game - in case you would rather manage it yourself or with another tool. Therefore, in order to use Vortex the first thing we want to do after installation is to tell it to actively manage Skyrim Special Edition.
To do that, navigate to the “Games” section from the side menu.There you will see three different tabs:
If your installed game does not appear in the “Discovered” tab, you can have Vortex attempt to find it by running either a quick scan (from the toolbar) or a detailed scan (from the button at the bottom right of the Vortex window). A detailed scan may take several minutes to complete, so, please, be patient while Vortex is searching for the game.
Once your game appears in the “Discovered” tab, put your mouse over the game tile and click “Manage”. Vortex will automatically switch to that game mode and a tile representing Skyrim Special Edition will appear in the top left.
Change your Download Folder and/or Mod Staging Folder (optional)Download Folder
While Vortex will always install the files it needs in order to work to your C drive, you are free to choose the location where you want your downloaded mods (i.e. the file archives) to be stored.
To change the default download location which is “C:UsersYourUsernameAppDataRoamingVortexdownloads” go to your Settings > Download:
You can specify any folder on your drive. Make sure to confirm your selection by clicking “Apply”.
Mod Staging folder
This is the folder where Vortex stages your mods i.e. unpacks them to. Due to how the Bethesda games work (including Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition), the Mod Staging Folder must be on the same partition as the game.
The default location for the Mod Staging Folder is “C:UsersYourUsernameAppDataRoamingVortexskyrimsemods”. To change it, go to Settings > Mods and change the folder to an (empty) folder of your choice that is located on the same partition as the game.
You can change both your Download Folder as well as your Mod Staging Folder at a later point in time and even when you have already downloaded and installed mods. Depending on the amount of mods you have downloaded and/or installed, it will take a while for Vortex to move your folder(s). Please make sure that enough disk space is available and remain patient, as your mods will be copied over.
Downloading and installing mods via Vortex
In the following, we will go over the necessary steps involved in order to get mods from the website downloaded, installed, and enabled via Vortex.
Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch
Navigate to the Skyrim Special Edition section on the website. If your search is sorted by endorsements (default), the “Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch” should appear as the first mod in the list for results.
(Alternatively, you can type “Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch” in the search bar at the top right or use this link to get to the mod page directly: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/266)
Open up the mod page by clicking the mod tile. In the top right, you will see a download button labelled “Download: Vortex”. Clicking this button will trigger a download of the mod’s main file via Vortex, provided that Vortex is set up to handle download links (see above).
Once the download has been started, it will appear in your download list for Skyrim Special Edition inside Vortex (side bar / navigation area > DOWNLOADS).
As soon as the download is finished, Vortex will display a notification in the top right corner informing you of the download finishing and giving you the option to install the mod right away (clicking “Dismiss” will only dismiss the notification, the mod has still been downloaded successfully and you can still install it at a later point in time if you want to).
Click on the button labelled “Install” to start the installation process for the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch, which should only take a couple of seconds (this varies depending on how many files a mod installs, how big those files are etc.).
Once the installation is complete, the mod is ready to be enabled. Vortex will now display another notification where you can choose to enable the installed mod by clicking the “Enable” button:
Clicking the “Enable” button will do the following:
Note: While many mods for Skyrim Special Edition (as well as other Bethesda games) come with a plugin, not every mod does. When we say “mod” it refers to the entirety of the modification including all the files it provides to achieve a game-altering effect. A “plugin” on the other hand is a particular file (esp, esm, or esl) that contains information and edits that the game can load (e.g. the position of a mod-added rock in the world). Oftentimes, mods such as retextures only come with texture files that replace existing textures in the game and do not require a plugin to function.
On the other hand, some mods consist of just a plugin file (simple patches or bugfixes that require no additional files), and no other files.
If you followed the steps outlined above, your plugin list in Vortex (Sidemenu / navigation area > Plugins) should now look like this:
Congratulations! You have just successfully installed your first mod.
Considerations:
If you have accidentally dismissed the notification that asks whether you want to install the just downloaded mod, you can still do so via the “Downloads” section: side menu / navigation area > Downloads > Install
If you want to disable the mod, you need to navigate to your mod list (not plugin list) and disable the mod from there. This will “undeploy” (purge) all the mod’s files and remove them from your game’s mod folder. Note that you will not have to reinstall the mod if you decide later on that you still want to use it (you would simply have to reenable it).
Simply disabling the plugin rather than the mod, will only disable the esp, but the other files (if there are any, some mods consist of only a plugin file) will remain in your game’s mod folder potentially still affecting your game. Disabling plugins can be a quick way to troubleshoot issues in your load order, but it is not the advised way of uninstalling mods.
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