I still recall playing Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for the first time. I felt accomplished as I knocked out quests, explored dungeons, picked flowers while stealing anything and everything in sight to sate my endless hunger for wealth… yeah.

Countless hours later, I found that I had nothing left to do, combat felt stale as I started one-shotting anything that would dare challenge me, every criminal organisation feared me, Jarls hailed me as a hero, all the wenches swooned over me but I felt empty. Then I learned about Nexus Mods and Skyrim Mods, I was a changed man.

Any fan of the 8-year old Elder Scrolls: Skyrim will proudly proclaim to fellow Skyrim fans that they’ve spent painstaking hours modding the game to death, reviving it and modding to death once more. Even with all the Bethesda shenanigans with Fallout 76, fans can still find sanctuary in Skyrim and a modding community that’s still going strong!

Today, I’ll be pulling out my personal list of Skyrim mods I’ll admit spending way too much compiling. Do bear in mind that this is not a top mods list.

This is a list of mods -in no particular order- I personally found changed my gameplay experience in major and minor ways. Meaningful changes, so that means no joke mods here.

This also isn’t a comprehensive list; my actual mod list consisted of 50 somewhat mods. Yeah, I was addicted. Without further ado, let’s get on with it.

#1. SkyUI

The quintessential user interface (UI) mod, SkyUI! It would be blasphemy to not install this mod! SkyUI completely overhauls the clunky vanilla Skyrim UI and introduces a clean, organized, easy to use UI for your inventory and spells. You’d be a damn milk drinker if you actually liked the vanilla UI!

#2. The Notice Board

This lovely but simple mod adds a quaint looking Notice Board if every major town. These Notice Boards house random side quests the player can embark in to earn some extra coin, rescue quests, fetch quests, kill quests and many more. It’s a nice neat little way for the player to grab some smaller quests if you don’t feel like going on a big adventure.

#3. Apachii SkyHair

This mod doesn’t change your gameplay one single bit, not at all but it does add a wide variety of high-quality hairstyles for you to customize your character with. Purely eye pleasing and aesthetic as hell. What’s that? You don’t play in third-person, so you never see your character? Fret not, with console commands, the NPCs too can rock these hairstyles.

#4. Helmet Toggle

Well, if you’re like me and actually want to see your characters face/hair but still enjoy the benefits of your headgear, Helmet Toggle is the mod for you! As the name suggests, this simple mod give you the option to toggle the appearance of your helmet so you can bask in the glory of your characters beauty or ugliness if you swing that way.

#5.Alternate Start

Sick of sitting through the long intro cutscene, and tired of running away from Alduin for the 100th time? We gotcha, fam!

With this mod, you quite literally have an Alternate Start. You can choose to start the game as a prisoner or a bandit, maybe even a warlock’s thrall. Whatever you choose, you need not endure the cart ride anymore.

#6. Calientes Beautiful Bodies Edition (CBBE)

Hey, we all like a lady with a nice bod, I think we can all agree on that. I would consider CBBE to be the gateway drug to Skyrim adult modding, but we can talk about that another day.

CBBE introduces a much more alluring body model for female characters, which may or may not cause them to be fully nude if they aren’t wearing any gear. Try it at your own risk!

Some trivia, CBBE used to stand for Calientes Big Booty Edition.

#7. Ordinator/Perkus Maximus

Breathe some life into your character skill builds with these two mods. Ordinator and Perkus Maximus are the two premier skill overhaul mods out there. Obviously, you gotta choose one or the other, but I’m just giving you options.

Both mods really force players to invent all-new playstyles and make every skill point invested feel impactful.

#8. Archery Gameplay Overhaul (AGO) and Scoped Bows

I was once an adventurer like you…so let’s talk archery.

The combo of the two mods are aimed at making archery feel fresh again, it definitely did for me. AGO add features like arrow bleed, arm stamina, enchanted bows and enhanced character animations, for that added immersion. Scoped Bows literally adds scoped bows.

Why? Why not.

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