Overview
A easy to follow guide for complete beginners on how to mod skyrim
Installation of all required software
Before you can mod skyrim you need to download and install a couple of programs. These are the apps I personally use, I will explain in detail later. Firstly you need to google and download the following apps.
Vortex[www.nexusmods.com]
LOOT[loot.github.io]
Xedit[github.com]
Install them where you wish, take note with Vortex it’s recommended to install on the same drive where Skyrim is installed. Once you are done installing those apps run vortex. Usually it automatically detects where your moddable games are installed. If it doesn’t simply go to the games tab and search for the game and click manage. You can now start to mod the game. In this guide I will simply talk about Nexus but note there are other mod sites out there.
QUICK SUMMARY OF EACH APP
VORTEX
This is the mod manager that basically manages all the mods you install and use with your game. Here you can download, install, enable, disable mods and also sort your load order etc. however the latter has a better method outside of Vortex.
LOOT
This is a must have in my opinion. This amazing app basically automatically sorts the load order for
skyrim. The load order in basic terms is the order in which your mods load in. If mods aren’t correctly ordered they won’t work properly and even cause crashes. This tool makes sorting the load order a breeze.
X edit
This amazing tool makes it very easy and quick to clean your already installed mods. Cleaning mods gets rid of identical Master File records and deletes dirty edits which can reduce/eliminate CTD’s by getting rid of files that the game doesn’t need, this is most useful after modding the game and after removing mods, in many cases you don’t notice any big differences especially with Skyrim being the most stable Bethesda game when running multiple mods. In summary even though you may not notice any changes it does help, in certain respects it’s like defragmenting your PC’s hard drive it deletes file fragments from old deleted files and gives a slight yet un-noticable increase in performance.
Downloading and Installing Mods
Nexus is the website where most mods for Skyrim and other games can be found. It is the largest and most popular site to download mods. All mods on the site are free and costs you nothing, except data obviously. Firstly navigate to the game that you wish to mod, in this case it’s skyrim SE. Take your time and find the mods you want to download. Always read the description of the mods before you install it. Most of the time you will need to install other mods for the current mod to function properly. Download all the requirements. When downloading, I recommend to download via the mod manager, the button text says “vortex” or “mod manager download”. After you click the button a prompt box should appear asking to open Vortex just click always. There is a option in Vortex to automatically handle this so you won’t have to click on the prompt box everytime. Once the mods are downloaded simply click install, once done you should run loot and click the sort plugins button, click apply when prompted. Your load order is now correctly sorted. Just follow those steps after you install mods to be safe.Loot will sometimes show you messages that ask you to clean certain mods. This is when you run xedit and click on the corresponding mods to start cleaning them. There is a lot of guides online to show you how to do this. There is also a auto clean exe which I recommend to use, with that you just select the mod you want to clean and it will do the rest.
Certain mods can’t be installed as easily and require manual work. Examples are ENB mods, these mods are basically graphic overhauls and make everything look pretty. The mod description will usually give you instructions on how to install the mod step by step. See the image below to see how drastically the overall visual look of the game can change when using an ENB. I used the RE-ENGAGED ENB mod in this screenshot, if you were curious. There are many ENB mods so go and try them you will almost always find one that you will really like. This particular ENB makes the game much more bright and life like, the vanilla game looks bland and depressing, but if you like depressing and dark then there are ENB mods for that too. There is a lot to choose from and you can also use Reshade to create your own look for the game if you want, but that won’t be discussed in this guide. This particular screenshot is indoors as you can see and lighting plays a big roll when it comes to visuals that’s why using an ENB alone isn’t enough, you will need to install a lighting overhaul mod that is compatible with your ENB for the best possible look.
When installing any mod that uses custom animations or involves a skeleton you MUST always run FNIS otherwise your character will T-pose. After installing FNIS you can link Vortex to GenerateFNISforusers exe. This will make it easier to run FNIS which you will probably have to do a lot if you install animation mods frequently. You can link FNIS to Vortex on the dashboard tab. You can also link Xedit, LOOT and other apps this way. See picture below.
Script Extender
You will also have to install SKSE for most mods to work properly. See the video below from a youtuber if you need help installing it.
After you installed SKSE you should ALWAYS run skyrim via the skse64.exe otherwise all skse dependant mods won’t work. Make a shortcut and add it to the desktop.
Bodyslide
Bodyslide is one of my personal favorite tools for modding skyrim, this tool basically gives you the ability to customize the body of your character and make it look exactly as you want it. Let’s say you download CBBE (a body mod for females) but you are not happy with the size of the waist or you want to change the breast size etc. This tool makes it possible to morph the body into your own personal style, it is very easy to use as the user interface is basically just a series of sliders that you manipulate to change certain parts of the body. You can find this tool on the nexus and a installation tutorial video from Gopher will be posted below to help you show the installation process. In this video he uses fallout 4 but this works the exact same with Skyrim so don’t worry.
Updating mods
It is important to keep your mods up to date to get rid of bugs and improve performance.To update mods simply go the the mods tab in vortex and click on ‘check for updates’ at the top part of the screen. Mods like SKSE are VERY important and most mods rely on SKSE to function, please note if SKSE gets updated most mods will be broken until they get updated to work with the latest SKSE version.
Conclusion
I hope this little guide has helped you, I will update it as often as I can. If you need help just comment and I will respond ASAP. Please rate this guide when you get the time. Now go and mod your game until it doesn’t look like skyrim anymore XD