Mods are a core part of what makes Bethesda games have such a long lifespan. Skyrim is a great example of this. The game has been out for nearly a decade, yet it lives on thanks to the passionate modding community. Hundreds of mods are uploaded every day that fix issues with the game or add new content.
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One category of mods that many often overlook is quality of life mods, additions that focus on making a certain aspect of the game more intuitive. These can range from small bug fixes to new mechanics that offer solid alternatives to mundane tasks. Here are the 12 best Skyrim quality of life mods players should be using. This list focuses on mods for the PC version of Skyrim Special Edition, although most mods on this list have alternatives or ports for consoles.
Updated July 24th, 2021, by Charles Burgar: Skyrim's modding community continues to raise the bar each year with innovative mods that push the engine to new heights. While quality of life mods aren't as notable as new quest or animation mods, they serve an equally important role of making a playthrough as intuitive as possible. These mods can involve significant or small changes, and they can make a considerable difference and fix issues someone might have with Skyrim. This list will cover two additional QoL mods that most players will want to check out, and every entry has a direct download link to the mod in question.
12 Bug Fix Mods
Bethesda and bugs are practically synonymous with each other. Games such as Skyrim are prone to thousands of unique bugs that can be as harmless as flying mammoths or a game-breaking issue that bricks a save file. Fortunately, there are plenty of mods that fix this.
There are too many amazing bug fix mods to simply list one. The most well-known bug fix mod is the Unofficial Skyrim Patch by the Unofficial Patch Project Team, a mod that fixes thousands of bugs and exploits. Other notable mods are Bug Fixes, Actor Limit Fix, and SSE Fixes, all by meh321. Havok Fix by rezy also deserves mention. When all of these mods are used together, expect a much more stable framerate, significantly fewer bugs, and the ability to play Skyrim above 60FPS without the physics engine going haywire.
Download Links
- Unofficial Skyrim Patch (By The Unofficial Patch Project Team)
- Bug Fixes (By meh321)
- Actor Limit Fix (By meh321)
- SSE Fixes (By meh321)
- Havok Fix (By rezy)
11 The Choice Is Yours
Skyrim has hundreds of quests for players to experience, most of which contain multiple steps that can quickly flood a player's journal. It'd be much easier to control this if players could deny quests, yet the game doesn't allow players to deny a quest from an NPC.
Thankfully, mod author kryptopyr has created a simple solution to this problem. The Choice is Yours allows players to deny a quest from an NPC during dialogue. It's a small addition, yet its impact on reducing journal bloat is hard to overstate. This mod is also useful for players that want to wait until they reach a certain level before starting a quest, as some of Skyrim's quests have rewards that scale based on the player's current level.
Download Link
10 Stay At The System Page
The release version of Skyrim back in 2011 would bring players to the system tab whenever they'd press escape or start. For whatever reason, Bethesda changed this in the Special Edition to direct players to their journal instead.
Stay at the System Page does exactly what the name implies. Whenever a player presses escape or start, they'll be brought to the system tab instead of the journal tab, making it slightly faster to load a save or quit the game.
Download Link
9 SkyUI
Most menus in Skyrim were designed around controllers and a strange tab system that never provides enough information. If players are modding on the PC version, they are in luck. SkyUI is a great mod that updates Skyrim's UI to provide much more information without becoming obtrusive. Features include unique icons for item types and a search bar all while increasing the number of items a player can see at once. It also comes with the Mod Configuration Menu (or MCM for short), a must for PC modders.
Download Link
8 MoreHUD
MoreHUD is yet another UI mod that attempts to provide more information to the player without overloading them with useless images. MoreHUD has plenty of quality of life features such as showing magical properties on ingredients and enchanted gear while it is out of a player's inventory, marks which enchantments have been discovered, and displays enemy Magicka and Stamina values in real-time with numerical values. The mod is fully customizable with an MCM menu for players that only want certain features enabled.
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Download Link
7 Acquisitive Soul Gems Multithreaded
Enchanters and most mages know the pain of having their grand soul gems get filled by petty souls on accident. It's a major inconvenience that actively discourages players from carrying only high-valued soul gems on their journey.
That is thankfully fixed with Acquisitive Soul Gems Multithreaded. This mod does two things: it prevents lesser souls from infusing into larger-sized soul gems and allows the player to fill multiple soul gems at once. Killing multiple enemies at once that are soul trapped will now fill the respective amount of soul gems instead of just one. This is a must for any magic-focused character.
Download Link
6 Better Dialogue Controls
Dialogue in Skyrim behaves poorly when the player uses a mouse to select options. It will try to select the center option instead of where the mouse is pointing at. Better Dialogue Controls fixes this completely, allowing players to select non-highlighted options with their mouse with little issue. As minor as this fix sounds, it is a massive quality of life improvement for mouse and keyboard users.
Download Link
5 Honed Metal
Isn't it strange that players can never ask blacksmiths and enchanters to make gear for them? That is what Honed Edge tries to fix. Blacksmiths and enchanters can create, upgrade, and enchant gear for the player for a small fee. Players will still need to obtain the materials for the item in question, making this more of an alternative to leveling Smithing and Enchanting than anything else. For those that are tired of crafting Dwarven Bows and Iron Daggers to max Smithing, give Honed Edge a look.
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Download Link
4 Better Jumping
Better Jumping is one of the simplest yet most noticeable quality of life mods a player can install. In essence, this mod allows players to jump while sprinting while keeping the momentum from sprinting. A configuration menu also allows players to enable multiple jumps in the air and modify jump height if they so desire. Being able to jump while sprinting is a game-changer for traversal and combat.
Download Link
3 Spell And Shout Organizer
Arguably the most underrated set of mods on this list are Spell Organizer and Shout Organizer by MaskedRPGFan. These mods allow players to hide or delete unwanted spells and Shouts through a flexible Mod Configuration Menu. Anyone that plays with spell packs or Shout mods should give both mods a look.
Download Link
2 Quick Loot RE
Fallout 4's looting system has made its way to Skyrim with the Quick Loot mod. It works exactly like Fallout 4's loot system, showing the items inside a container in a small panel to the right of the player's screen for them to quickly sort through and take what's needed. For those that have not experienced Fallout 4's looting menu, this dramatically speeds up looting after combat or during exploration. Collecting Gold from every urn isn't such a tedious task with this mod installed.
Download Link
1 Simply Knock
Simply Knock doubles as a quality of life improvement and an immersion mod. Whenever players find themselves in front of a locked door on someone's property, they can choose to knock on the door instead of instantly going to lockpicking.
The benefit is that the owner of the property might allow the player to head inside if they either pass a Speech check or have a good reputation with the owner. This can allow players to enter shops before or after they close with no penalty. Alternatively, it can be used to check if someone is home before the player decides to rob the place. Regardless of how players use this mod, Simply Knock is one of the best lightweight mods Skyrim has seen in quite some time.