Laconic Skyrim SE Modding Guide

A comprehensive overhaul of Skyrim SE

With over 500 mods, this guide touches almost every aspect of the game. Thousands of models and textures have been updated with the best the modding community has to offer, and the gameplay has been heavily modified as well to create a more challenging, rewarding, and realistic gameplay experience.

This guide is the result of several months worth of work on my part to create the "perfect" Skyrim playthrough. Who knows if I've accomplished that, but I'm happy with the results either way. Now hopefully my obsession can benefit you in some way as you embark on (or continue) your modding journey.

Basic info

This guide is for you if...

...you're looking for a challenging survival experience

This guide includes several mods that crank up the difficulty of day-to-day living in Skyrim, including Campfire, Frostfall, and Realistic Needs and Diseases. Additionally, the economy has been overhauled to make merchants much more cutthroat and to give them fewer goods to sell. Enemies are now much smarter and more deadly thanks to Ultimate Combat, which gives both you and your foes new abilities to play with on the battlefield.

This guide might not be for you if...

...you prefer the vanilla look

This guide is not intended to give your game an "enhanced vanilla" look. If you follow it completely, it will make your game look VERY different from vanilla. I think it looks better for the most part, but I admit there is a certain (blue-ish) charm to vanilla Skyrim that is somewhat lost due to the huge amount of texture and landscape changes in my guide. If you prefer a more tradition Skyrim style, this guide might not be for you. You could try Tech's Skyrim SE Guide instead, as it strives to keep more of the vanilla look intact. Feel free to check out the comparisons page if you want to see the difference between vanilla Skyrim SE and my guide.

...you're new to modding Skyrim

This guide isn't the most beginner friendly one out there. In order to get everything working properly, you'll have to make use of several different programs and patchers, including Mod Organizer, SSEEdit, FNIS, Merge Plugins, Mator Smash, DynDOLOD, and more. If you don't know what a lot of those are or how to use them, you may want to go with a somewhat less complicated guide (Skyrim SE It Just Works Edition is one of my personal favorites). That being said, if you're up for the challenge then by all means go for it! I'm going to do my best to explain everything as I go in as much detail as possible without making things too wordy. I'm also happy to answer questions if you have them. Feel free to email me at laconic.guide@gmail.com.

...you're not a fan of Mod Organizer

Mod Organizer 2 is the mod manager of choice for this guide. You can feel free to use a different mod manager if you'd like, but all the instructions will be written with MO2 users in mind. I consider MO2's virtual file system to be unbeatable, and it's also the one that I'm most used to so it just makes sense to use it for this guide.

Popular mods that aren't included and why

  • Immersive Citizens: I really wish I could include this mod because it is truly wonderful, but it simply conflicts with too many other things in this guide. The author is also known for being strict about patches, so there aren't too many available unfortunately.

  • Immersive Patrols: This one comes down to personal choice mainly. I think it's a good mod, but I got tired of the regular skirmishes that would break out while I was walking around. Also, it may have been causing crashes for some reason.

  • Wet and Cold: This mod adds some nice little immersive tweaks to the game, but unfortunately it seems to cause crashes when used alongside Frostfall.

  • Palaces and Castles Enhanced SSE: I would really like to include this mod but it conflicts with too many other things in this guide, and it's not practical for me to make my own patches for it.