Despite being over a decade old, Skyrim lives on as a cult classic many still play today, with no small thanks to the modding community. Regardless of how many times Bethesda re-releases The Elder Scrolls V, the tens of thousands of mods are what’s given the game its evergreen lifespan. With such a vast sea of fanmade content to browse, picking the best mods for Skyrim on PC can be both a hassle and intimidating. Nevertheless, we will list our top 20 best mods for The Elder Scrolls V that will doubtless offer the most utility and satisfaction for your next playthrough as the Dragonborn.
What Are the Best PC Mods for Skyrim?
(Updated on October 8, 2024 – updated links and format)
Before we dive in, it is crucial to note that the top 20 best Skyrim PC mods below are highly subjective. Nevertheless, each one has been handpicked with objective gameplay improvement in mind. However, we omitted fundamental ones like SkyUI and RaceMenu or well-known graphical upgrades like Skyland or LUX. Instead, our list’s focus will be relatively accessible mods that perhaps you’ve yet to hear about and are less likely to set your GPU ablaze.
Herika – The ChatGPT Companion
While the idea of AI taking over a developer or designer’s role has sparked more discord than enthusiasm, there are still incredible breakthroughs, particularly the Herika mod for Skyrim. As its title implies, Herika is an AI-run follower you can recruit in-game capable of dynamically interacting with the Dragonborn via chatbox or one’s microphone. While some kinks need ironing out, such an inter-communicative companion can significantly improve one’s immersion.
Whose Quest Is It Anyway
It’s hard not to hoard while venturing across the land of the Nords. While you can easily clear your inventory by selling, consuming, or storing things, pesky quest items can hinder your organizing, especially when you don’t know what quest they’re related to. Whose Quest Is It Anyway resolves this by offering a much better description of an entity’s purpose than the vague message of “Quest items cannot be removed.”
Convenient Horses
While horses in Skyrim are excellent “mountain climbers,” they are generally less practical and more clunky than desired for traversal. Convenient Horses seeks to make your equestrian companions more useful by adding a variety of beneficial mechanics, such as mobile storage, horseback looting, basic mounted combat, and more. Additionally, this mod lets you whistle to call your horse to your side, removing the need to search across the country for its whereabouts.
Skyrim Flora Overhaul
Even in its vanilla state from 2011, Skyrim does have its gorgeous environmental scenery where the sun hits the landscape just right. However, those looking to add a bit more variety and color to some of the washed-out environments should consider Skyrim Flora Overhaul SE. This mod dramatically improves the natural diversity of flora we see across the world map.
Improved Camera SE
Seeing is believing, and it can oftentimes be hard to believe we’re in a world if we’re forced out of our first-person perspective during a specific action. Improved Camera SE tweaks this immersion-breaking mechanic by allowing you to stay in first-person while crafting, horse riding, or even after transforming into a werewolf. There are excellent albeit outdated alternatives to this mod, such as Joy of Perspective and Immersive First Person View.
JK’s Skyrim City Overhauls
Like Skyrim Flora Overhaul, JK’s Skyrim seeks to overhaul the visual looks of cities and towns across the region, transforming them from aesthetically pleasing to extraordinarily spectacular. This pick is not actually a single mod but an extensive list of mods packaged together, including overhauls for Whiterun, Solitude, Skaal Village, and many more. JK’s Skyrim is perfect for adding more visual flair to one’s multiple playthroughs.
Interesting NPCs SE (3DNPC)
Skyrim features some of the most memorable characters in gaming. Yet, many of these well-known faces can seem quite bland compared to other immersive RPGs. Interesting NPCs is a mod that ramps up your interactions with NPCs by a substantial amount, offerings hundreds of voiced characters for you to meet, quest for, and even marry. While none can compare to Herika, you’ll definitely appreciate this immersive addition to Skyrim’s population.
Alternate Start – Live Another Life
“Hey, you! You’re finally awake” is an expression Skyrim players often meme about but seldom relish during their twelfth playthrough. Alternate Start does away with the unskippable opening sequence, allowing you to begin your RPG adventure as a vampire, bandit, and much more. Such a mod is especially ideal for those seeking to roleplay as a specific character without having to deal with Hadvar or Ralof.
Better Combat Escape – SSE
No longer must you suffer the wrath of a Mudcrab a mile away, with its aggroed state restricting your ability to Wait or fast travel. Better Combat Escape resolves this annoyance by lowering your angered opponents’ ability to catch and follow your scent from unreasonable distances. This mod can be particularly helpful when an enemy you know gets stuck in the environment’s geometry, and you can easily exit combat for convenience’s sake.
Better Jumping SE
Few open-world enthusiasts would disagree that jumping makes every exploration-oriented game better. While you can jump in Skyrim, you’re limited to leaping only during your walking animation. Better Jumping SE is one of the best Skyrim mods because it enables you to jump while sprinting. Furthermore, this mod lets you control your leaps’ height and add a double jump. Say goodbye to slow, monotonous traversal on foot!
Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul
Alchemy in Skyrim is good, but it could be better. Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul is an alchemist’s dream come true and more, as cooking also receives a massive improvement from this mod. This overhaul adds more ingredients, alchemical effects, harvestable animals, and much more. Speaking of Alchemy, we also recommend Alchemy Plus, a QoL mod that enhances the Alchemy system with dynamic models, better item names, and balanced effects.
Show Player In Menus
While you can see your Dragonborn’s full appearance in the third person, swapping camera perspectives might break your immersion or become quite inconvenient throughout your playthroughs. Like Oblivion, Show Player In Menus lets you see your character in the menu screen, allowing you to view your equipment’s changes in real time. With this mod, there are no more annoying back-and-forth switches just to check out your snazzy new piece of armor.
Compass Navigation Overhaul
After playing the likes of modern open-world titles like The Witcher 3 or God of War, the HUD’s compass in Skyrim will seem quite outdated. However, Compass Navigation Overhaul is an excellent QoL mod that adds quest name information, distance, and the vertical position of your destination. If you’re an avid explorer of the land of the Nords, then this compass improvement is undoubtedly a must-have.
Security Overhaul SKSE – Lock Variations
Even if you’re not playing as a sneaky rogue or thief, picking locks is something you’ll do relatively often in Skyrim playthroughs. Seeing the same lockpicking overlay and animation can get incredibly dull after a while. With Security Overhaul SKSE, you’ll want to pick every lock you see just to witness the eye candy of its many lock variations. This mod is definitely a long-time personal favorite of ours.
Better Third Person Selection
On paper, the limitation of picking up items only within your virtual crosshairs might sound minor. However, once you install the Better Third Person Selection mod, you’ll never want to go back. This mod enables you to effortlessly pick up objects and loot containers, even interactables not in front of your body. For third-person-only players, Better Third Person Selection will be one of the best Skyrim PC mods for you.
moreHUD SE
Another notably helpful Skyrim mod we can’t recommend enough is moreHUD SE. As its name implies, it adds more information to your HUD, letting you see details otherwise only visible via your inventory menu. Are you tired of picking up a piece of equipment only to find its value isn’t worthwhile or its stats are subpar? moreHUD SE will ensure you see the info you need before picking the object up.
Immersive Equipment Displays
Continuing the train of the best immersive Skyrim PC mods is Immersive Equipment Displays, which does exactly what it says. Wondering where the Dragonborn stores their scrolls, potions, or gear? This mod visually shows you! As the mod author states, “If it exists in your LO, you can make it into a display.” Immersive Equipment Displays is an incredibly nifty feature that makes your journey and loot gathering more engaging.
Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim
If you’re well-versed in modding Skyrim, you’ll doubtless have heard of Ordinator, a Perk overhaul that makes spending Perk points much more engaging. If you’re more into creating diverse builds during your every playthrough, Ordinator has you covered with the dynamic Perk system you need. This mod is a must-have for those who take the time to make mental or actual character sheets for their Dragonborns.
Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim
If you have even the slightest bit of interest in the arcane arts of Skyrim, Apocalypse – Magic of Skyrim is the mod that will make any aspiring mage’s dream come true. Adding over a hundred new spells, including several additional scrolls and staves, Apocalypse can even capture the stealth archer addict’s attention. If you want a spell for anything in Skyrim, combat or not, this magic mod likely has it.
Sofia & Inigo
Technically, these are two separate follower mods, but we’ve bundled them together as the best fanmade companions available among Skyrim‘s PC mods. While AI Herika is still a fantastic follower, it’s still hard to beat the scripted yet incredible human talent of programming and voice acting that went into these two characters. If you ever need companionship during a playthrough but are tired of vanilla choices, Sofia and Inigo are the best.
As mentioned earlier, our top 20 picks aren’t even the tip of the iceberg when discussing the best Skyrim mods on PC. The modding community has created incredible expansion-sized DLC-esque mods like Beyond Reach and Beyond Skyrim – Bruma. Browsing about, you can find fun mods like Destructible Skyrim, which lets you bash apart barrels, or A Quality World Map, a wonderfully-designed map overhaul. Nonetheless, we hope our recommendations not only gave you some excellent choices but have sparked (or reignited) your interest in modding the unfading classic of a fanbase-carried game that is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
