Mod Lists for Skyrim Special Edition By Rogdonlp

Mod Lists for Skyrim Special Edition

Updated as of February 3, 2019

by Rogdonlp

     This article is an update to the Mod List article that I wrote in June 2018.

     Of the seven guides shown in the original article, three of them have been withdrawn or abandoned.  These three are:

 BOSS 

- A Total Overhaul Project – hidden by author on Nexus -

      SkyVerse Guide 
- hidden by author on Nexus -

            Tech’s Skyrim Special Edition 
- abandoned until S.T.E.P. 3.0 is completed -

     As far as I could find, the following five mod guides are the only complete mod guides for Skyrim SSE that are currently up-to-date and being maintained.  There are other SSE mod guides and lists for Skyrim SSE.  However, these guides are primarily graphics/texture guides and are not what I would consider a complete mod guide with proper installation instructions.

Dark Lady Lexy’s Legacy of the Dragonborn – last updated February 3, 2019
 https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/User:Darkladylexy/Lexys_LOTD_SE

Mod List 2018 – last updated August 18, 2018 
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17334

Nordic Skyrim – last updated January 18, 2019
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/12562

The Phoenix Flavour – January 24, 2019 
https://thephoenixflavour.com/ 
or 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/14223

TUCO – last updated January 25, 2019 
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/10694

The Phoenix Flavour

     This guide has been under construction for over a year now.  It has its own Discord site https://discordapp.com/invite/SV5N6n7/.  The Discord link is on first page of The Phoenix Flavour website.  There you can read the history of the Guide or you can ask questions.  The Guide has 132 required mods and 176 optional mods.  In addition to these you have your choice of:

• 12 different ENBs

Rudy ENB

Natural View Tamriel ENB - NVT ENB

Skyrim Re-Engaged ENB

Photorealistic Tamriel - PRT ENB

Surreal ENB

Rembrandt ENB - for Obsidian Weathers + ELFX

Intrigued ENB

Aequinoctium ENB - for Aequinoctium Weathers

Mythical ENB - for Mythical Ages

Imaginarium ENB - for Obsidian Weathers or NAT + ELFX

Visceral ENB - for Obsidian Weathers + ELFX

Cinematic Film Looks ENB - CFL II ENB

• 5 different Weather Systems, all low impact – Vanilla (0 required mods, 6 optional), Obsidian (2 required mods, 5 optional), Natural & Atmospheric (1 required mod, 5 optional), Aequinoctium (1 required mod, 5 optional), and Mythical Ages (1 required mod, 5 optional)

• 2 different Lighting Systems – Warm no impact (1 required mod, 2 optional), Cinematic low impact (2 required mods, 2 optional)

• 2 different Tree Overhauls – Nordic medium impact (2 required mods, 4 optional), Lush high impact (2 required mods, 2 optional)

• 3 different Grass Overhauls – Rustic low impact (2 required mods), Wild medium impact (2 required mods), Lite low impact (2 required mods).  Option 2 requires Veydosebrom as its base grass mod.  Veydosebrom is currently hidden on Nexus.  I substituted Verdant and the grass looked fine.

• 2 different Water Overhauls – Lite zero impact (No required mods, 2 optional), Smooth low impact (1 required mod, 2 optional)

• 2 LOD Generation Methods – Lite xLODGen low impact and easy to use, DynDOLOD impact can range from low to very high depending on options selected, more difficult to use

     The Guide comes with conflict resolution patches.  These are both a blessing and a curse.  It is a blessing if you use all of the mods included in the conflict resolution patch.  It is a curse if you don’t use one or more mods that are contained in the patch since the patch is then missing one or more master files.
     If you don’t use all of the mods covered in the patch you have five choices:
1) use the required mods even if you do not want to
2) do not use the patch and suffer the consequences,
3) use Mator Smash to try to remove the conflicts (not always successful)
4) use Wrye Bash to create dummy master(s) which allows the conflict resolution patch to run, but may or may not cause other problems, and
5) use xEdit to remove the missing master mods from the patch.  This is the best solution but requires knowledge of xEdit.  There are tutorials on YouTube that cover this exact subject.  The procedure is tedious but totally safe and 100% effective.

I have created two builds using this guide.  The first was several months ago before it was not quite ready for release.  The second build I just finished creating.  After selecting the optional mods that I wanted I ended up with 279 mods with 177 .esp files.  Twenty-two of those .esp files were FE files which do not count against the 255 Skyrim mod limit.  An additional 41 mods could be merged into one mod using Wrye Bash.  This leaves 115 .esp files remaining in Mod Organizer 2’s right pane. You can safely add another 140 mods of your choice before exceeding the 255 mod limit.

     My impression of the Guide is that it is well thought out.  It is not an all-inclusive Guide in that it ignores survival, new lands, major quests, etc.  It is organized and arranged in a logical manner.  There are well written explanations of all of the required mods and optional mods.  The initial setup instructions are thorough and written for people new to Skyrim modding.  Due to users reporting problems and/or errors over many months I did not note any obvious errors or inconsistencies in the Guide.  Having scores of people proofread your work is really helpful.

     I did run into several frustrations though.  The mods are laid out for installation in logical sections and the author even provides colored separators to separate the different sections (I used 34 of the separators).  After the end of installing all the mods you are then required to rearrange the mods in the left pane of Mod Organizer 2 in accordance with the provided Mod List Order.  It took me about 2 hours to rearrange the mod load order in MO 2’s left pane.  With the TUCO Guide you install the mods in the left pane in load order so no rearranging is necessary.  Another frustration was that some of the names used in the Mod Order List were similar to the names used when the mod that was installed, but not close enough to avoid confusion with other mods.  Thus, time was spent trying to figure out which of the installed mods was really supposed to be in that position.

The game looks very good and was completely stable through 5 hours of game play.  At that point I added 119 of my can-not-live-without mods and have played another 3 hours.  Again, the game is stable.

SUMMARY

     Dark Lady Lexy’s Legend of the Dragonborn – This Guide is a work of art.  It is intended solely for advanced modders.  I have no interest in playing it.  But building it is always an education in current modding tools and techniques.  You should at least read through it to see how far Skyrim modding has advanced.

     Mod List 2018 – This Guide had 394 mods and few options as of June 2018 version.  The Guide emphasizes graphics and gameplay.  There are no instructions for installing the game or modding tools.  Thus, the Guide is not for people new to modding Skyrim.

     Nordic Skyrim – As of June 2018, this Guide had 967 mods listed in 45 sections.  The Guide is well organized and well written.  Nordic Skyrim is a comprehensive Guide in that it covers survival, advanced combat, other lands (Bruma, et al), quests, etc.  With a guide this comprehensive, there is little room for your own favorite mods.  Still, if you want an all-inclusive Guide this is where you should start looking.

     The Phoenix Flavour - This Guide has only 132 required mods with roughly 200 optional mods.  It is not intended to be an all-inclusive Guide in that it ignores classes of mods such as survival, new lands, and quests.  This is not necessarily a bad thing since it leaves room for adding lots of your own favorite mods.  The Guide is organized and arranged in a logical manner.  There are well written explanations of all of the required mods and optional mods.  Examples of correct mod and load order are given.  The initial setup instructions are thorough and written for people new to Skyrim modding. 

     TUCO’s Guide - This is the shortest and simplest of the five guides with 135 mods listed as of June 2018.  I use this Guide when I want a short, quick, and easy build base onto which I can add my favorite 300+ mods.