If you ever thought it would be nice to experience the magic of Skyrim with friends, yes you can. Skyrim Together is a neat mod that allows you to run the entire game, except for the first part in the Weekend, with your friend. While the co-op is quite workable, there are still some inconsistencies and bugs to be expected. Plus, with more than one player conquering Skyrim, you'll definitely want to add a few mods to enhance the experience.
25 Best Skyrim Mods That Improve NPCs
NPCs really help the world of Skyrim come to life. These amazing mods improve the quality of every interaction in the game.
Enter mods to run with co-op mod. There are generally two schools of people: those who think it's best to just experience Skyrim Together vanilla style, and those who see the value in sprucing things up a bit. While the vanilla version is nice, there are a few things that the following mods address that you might want to consider before choosing which school of thought to go with.
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Optional quick start
Skip the Weekend part to start Co-Op faster
If there's one mod that everyone should absolutely get for Skyrim Together, it's this one. Why? Mainly because to start a new co-op game you have to get through the introductory section of Skyrim, The Weekend. If you've played the game before, you know this part can feel like a bit of a drag.
It's much more convenient to just jump straight into character creation and head out into the world, with the entire Weekend part completely automatically completed. That's exactly what any quick launch lets you do. You even get a box of supplies with this mod, so it's not like you're missing out on too much loot-wise when you skip Weekend (and not that Weekend has crazy loot to begin with).
NPC Bartering
Bypasses the need for gold when trading
So, an annoying feature that you've probably dealt with, even in solo Skyrim, is the fact that vendors have very little gold on them. Whenever you want to get rid of your loot, you have to run around and find someone willing and able to buy it. That's where the NPC Bartering mod comes in. This basically lets you trade with most NPCs in the game, with a few exceptions mostly related to factions and guards.
Skyrim: 23 Best Armor Mods You Should Try
Thanks to the power of the modding community, Skyrim has even more incredibly designed armor than ever before.
This is even nicer in Skyrim Together, as there are multiple layers to manage. Plus, if something goes wrong quest-wise in the game (which can happen very easily), bartering allows you to conveniently access the warehouses of NPCs that may contain items you need or want, without having to rely on, say, pickpockets (and with two players, sneaking can get a little weird).
Hand-placed enemies
You want more enemies to beat with a friend by your side
A very common complaint people have in Skyrim Together is the lack of enemies now that there is more than one Last Dragonborn. Going through even some of the harder high difficulty dungeons can feel like a breeze, and it's just boring. Fortunately, there is a mod that solves this problem as well. Hand Placed Enemies add a ton more threat in various overworld and underground locations and dungeons Skyrim.
According to the mod creator, the increase in enemy numbers has increased by 50% in some places, which is quite impressive. This is also not done in an immersion-breaking way. Enemies are added in patches that make sense. For example, a large fort will have a lot more people patrolling it than a small room in a dungeon.
Imperious – Races Of Skyrim
A great overhaul mod for Skyrim's races
Moving on to more “fun” mods now, which are stuff you don't necessarily need but are nice to have anyway, we have Imperious – Races of Skyrim. This is a really solid mod even for solo players, but it gets even more interesting when you have a friend to share the journey with. Basically, the game's races get a couple of new, different features: three passive features and a special ability that you can gain by completing a mission.
This just keeps things a little more interesting, even if vanilla Skyrim already has some minor differentiation in terms of racial bonuses and racial skills. However, with this mod, some of the abilities become incredibly powerful. For example, Imperials give their allies 150 extra armor points and a 15% damage increase. It's impressive stuff and can make it fun to build with friends if you're trying to make a party with complementary abilities.
Ordinator
Add some spice to skill trees
Speaking of buildcrafting, let's talk about the perk tree Skyrim. Nothing wrong with that directly, but playing the game together in co-op is the perfect chance to introduce some more variety and detail to it. Ordinator – Perks of Skyrim really dives deep into the game's skill tree and adds tons of perks that you can unlock as you level up with your friend.
For example, at level 90 of Heavy Armor, you can unlock the Primal Fear perk, which has a chance to make enemies run away from you when you walk towards them while wearing a full set of Heavy Armor. Talk about maxing out your aura. Another really unique one is the Performer perk for Speech, which feels like it should have been in the game to begin with. It basically lets you make a song once a day to earn gold. Finally we can become real bards in Skyrim as Bards College intended!
Immersive Armor and Immersive Weapons
Expands the pool of available armor and weapons
So we have perks and we have racial abilities, but what about loot like weapons and armor? Well, the most popular Skyrim players for years have been the Immersive Armor and Immersive Weapons mods. Both of these mods have brand new content. You get beautiful armor sets, shields, even scarves and capes to fully bring out your Skyrim character.
Skyrim: Best Follower Mods You Need to Install
At this point, most players have traveled with every follower in Skyrim. These mods offer some fresh faces to fight alongside the Dragonborn.
Many of these armor skins also come with some variations, so you'll want to explore and collect them all, maybe even display them on your Skyrim home of choice. And good news for all the lore purists out there: they don't break your immersion. The same goes for weapons, and some of the newcomers include scythes, claymores, halberds and clubs. It's not a must-have mod, but with friends it makes building and combat a little more varied.
SKSE
A must have for all modded games
We've covered tons of different mods here, but none of them will really matter or even work properly unless you first install SKSE, the Skyrim Script Extender. This is a tool that has been used by modders in Skyrim community for many, many years and is a staple.
While it's not technically a mod, I think it's important to mention this in case anyone jumps into modding Skyrim and Skyrim Together specifically for the first time. Go nowhere without this in your back pocket!
SkyUI
The best review for Skyrim's interface
Given that Skyrim Together is a pure PC experience, but Skyrim's interface is arguably more console-friendly than mouse and keyboard, SkyUI is a must. If there's one mod I absolutely recommend and insist you put into your mostly vanilla experience, it would be this and the optional quickstart.
However, SkyUI feels even more important, as it makes inventory management, trading, equipment, interacting with containers, etc much more bearable for PC gamers. UI never was Skyrim's forté, and this one enhances it so much without being too invasive or immersive of a mod.
- Released
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28 October 2016
- ESRB
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M for Adults 17+ due to blood and gore, intense violence, language, sexual themes, use of alcohol
- Developer
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher
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Bethesda Softworks
