There's a good chance a lot of you have heard of Ultimate Skyrim, a mod list built and perfected over hundereds of hours by by Belmont Boy who has even shared with us his creation through a series of videos on the linked youtube channel. It introduced a much harsher skyrim not built around the player where planning and preperation was everything. It was built around Requiem and used mods like Frostfall, Campire and iNeed to introduce a survival element to the game, making you consider packing some food and water over stuffing your bag with potions and gear as well as wrapping up warm. Combat is much more risky and with Permadeath Introduced by Dead is Dead, you need to choose your battles though Death Alternative gave you a fair chance at fighting again so long as you didn't go down too many times in quick succession. Since Ultimate Skyrim has yet to come to Special Edition in full I decided to make my own variation of a Roguelike Skyrim that's also highly customizable. So without further ado lets get into the basics of what we'll need. Getting Started SKSE64 - Obviously this will be needed, if you don't install this you'll not be able to use some mods PapyrusUtil SE - Allows you to use a few of these mods The Main Mods Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch - An absolute must in Skyrim modding SkyUI - Any modder who knows what they're doing should use SkyUI as it introduces the MCM (Mod Configuaration Menu) which has been invaluable in the community for years The Choice is Yours - Tired of quests being forced on you? Did reading a book suddenly trigger a quest you don't want cluttering up your quest list? This mod aims to stop quests being forced upon you though there are some exceptions... Mortal Enemies - This mod aims to improve combat AI and also introduce a nerf to the enemies movement while attack in any form. No longer will an enemy be able to turn a complete 180 while using a two-handed forward power attack and gives you an oppertunity to dodge. TK Dodge - This mod is fantastic! The dodge mechanic works wonderfully alongside Mortal Enemies who don't just 180 turn to hit while using a forward powerattack. Now your dual wield character can dodge out of the way and get some damage in while the Bandit recovers from his strike Smilodon - This mod improves combat AI in a number of ways. You could also opt in for the 'realistic damage' optiomal file and make combat much more deadly. I won't go into the changes as they are fairly numerous but trust me, the AI is vastly improved. Carriage and Ferry Travel Overhaul - An absolute gem of a mod that overhauls the fast travel system by allowing stops at small villages and adding carriages to Dawnstar, Falkreath and Morthal. I'd reccomend disabling fast travel from the map and just immersively use this in your playthroughs. Honed Metal - This mod allows you to ask a Blacksmith or Enchanter to make, upgrade ot enchant gear. Order a full set of Steel Armour, go do stuff for a day and eventually you'll get a courier message saying the order is done or you can just go back and ask if it's done. You can customise how long it takes too. Dead is Dead - This is an extremely hardcore mod. When your character dies, it is dead, and if you want to respect that function I'd suggest deleting all saves relating to him/her when/if you do eventually die. Death Alternative + Captured - With Permadeath enabled I think it's only fair that we have a fighting chance. So long as you don't fall too many times in quick succession you'll get a chance to fight again. When you go down you'll enter a pose similar to that Bandit you beat to an inch of his life and he started crying for 'Mercy', at which time you'll be given a second Health Bar of sorts. If you have followers the enemy will go for them next but if you're alone then each hit while down will lower this bar until you black out. A lot of things can happen, you could be rescued and brought to a nearby inn or found by a bandit who will then proceed to mug you and if you want to stay alive you'd best give him what he wants. If you're fighting Falmer there's a chance they'll even take you prisoner and have you work as a Slave under them in Blackreach. Just because you didn't die, doesn't mean you'll be much better off... Realistic AI Detection - Lets face it, the AI are dumb and the sneak mechanic is broken. Now you can no longer be right in front of someone in broad daylight and not be seen. I use the Lite version. Follower Trap Safety - Don't you hate it when Lydia activates that spiky gate trap and kills you? Yeah me too, well now followers can't activate traps, easy. Simply Better Movement Speed - Tired of outrunning NPC's you need to follow or perhaps their walk/jog jig annoys you to no end? This mod puts you on their level, reducing your default run to a slower jog while keeping spring speed the same. Optional Mods Loot and Degradation SE - In Oblivion your armour and weapons had durability and became broken eventually. With this mod, tempering a weapon and armour isn't a one time thing as it's quality will drop over time and eventually your Superior Iron Dagger will degrade to Fine then lose it's tempering altogether. It's not a quick process however and works in percentages. Optional but Reccomended Better Dialogue Controls - Makes dialogue much less clunky. I highly reccomend it Better MessageBox Controls - Another mod that makes the inferface of Skyrim much less annoying. Highly reccomended Sleep Tight - I struggled with whether or not this was important but it adds some validity to night attacks on a Bandit stronghold. They'll sleep at night and generally only have a skeleton crew up and awake in the late hours and you can even deal more damage to sleeping targets though this setting is optional from the MCM menu. Optional but reccomended. Lethal Traps - Are you brave enough to make traps 100% lethal? Lower Base Skills - With this mod you can reduce your default starting skills to 10/5/0 depending on the file you choose. Racial skills will still be higher but you'll effectively get more levels from this. XP Mods Simple XP Buff - When you've died ten times in a row and had to start a new toon, speeding up the process of levelling doesn't hurt. This isn't a hardcore mod though so consider it entirely optional. It doesn't buff xp outright by the way, it just makes buffs that increase levelling much better like the Warrior, Mage, Thief and Lover Stones or Well Rested. So you need to work for this buff in a way but still, it will make it easier and that might not appeal to everyone. Experience - I personally use this mod. It allows you to gain experience not through levelling skills but by doing things and exploring Skyrim. Discover a location - you get XP, clear a dungeon - you get XP. You can turn on an option that allows you killing enemies to give XP as well as Misc quests. I don't reccomend turning on bForceLvlMeter as it has been known to cause crashes. Alternate Starts Tired of Helgen? Do you want to just start somewhere else and perhaps skip the Main Story? Well here's a couple of mods you might like. I seperated these as you should only choose one or the other, not both. Alternate Start - Live Another Life + New Beginnings - With this you start in a prison cell, forgotten and alone as you wait for death. Nobody has fed you in days and don't think you can go on for much longer...until a Statue of Mara suddenly appears in your cell and offers to give you a new life of your choosing. Who will you become? Skyrim Unbound - I love this mod personally. Alternate Start is great and all but Skyrim Unbound lets you create your character AFTER you've sorted out your mod list so you can save that current state for later if you so wish then create your character. It runs entirely through the MCM and has many options so you can start however you please or make it random. You can even become a non-dragonborn and skip the main quest, not get words from walls or absord dragon souls. Dragons can also be turned on without having to fight Milmulnit in Whiterun. Final Word I used Vortex to install these mods though I'm sure Mod Organizer 2 will be just as useful. LOOT won't hurt either to make sure everything is working okay. This list has been built through trial and error but I've managed to play without crashing for a while now though your experience may differ. Finally this list is very bare bones. You can add to this as you please so long as you're smart and know what mods go with what. Maybe you want a survival aspect like Ultimate Skyrim? In that case Campire, Frostfall and iNeed are on the Special Edition Nexus. Perhaps Smilodon isn't your favourite combat mod? Then by all means use another. At the end of the day my aim was to make a stable Roguelike Skyrim where death is permanent. If you enjoy the experience or find a way to improve it on Special Edition, comment below :smile:
