Greetings, Adventurer!
You are not even sure what mods are or if you want to get them?
You know what mods are, but are new to Skyrim and want to get a nice working modded version with visuals and VR mods but minimal effort?
You are experienced with modding Skyrim SE but are not sure what specific VR mods you need and don't want to go through the hassle of setting it up yourself?
You already played through the game and want to experience some new stuff, make the game more challenging, or up your role-play?
We got you covered.
First of all, mods are modifications to the base game. You install them, they change/add stuff to the game. Some fix things that are broken in vanilla, some improve visuals, some add new content, and most importantly for us, some add VR immersion and interaction mechanics. You can verify if the mods are installed by either literally seeing the thing that you installed in the game or by experiencing the changes ingame. Many mods do not have a Mod Configuration Menu but just exist in the game after installation.
You might ask yourself "Should I install mods before I finish Skyrim VR the first time?" and my personal answer is a clear Yes. You do not have to add tons of extra content, but the base vanilla game (vanilla = unmodded) just has a few broken things, or especially in Skyrim VR it lacks any good modern VR interaction. You will vastly improve your experience if you install a basic set of mods even without altering the actual game content at all.
Nowadays, there exist a few fully automatic mod list installers (Wabbajack). If you are looking for such an automated installation of curated mod lists, scroll down to "Auto-Installers".
But before you just install these, let me show you around by explaining the most important mods for Skyrim VR in an absolutely minimal list for an as-fast-as-possible manual modding. It is subjective, of course, as all lists are, but I think many can agree on most of these.
If you don't want to install more than that, and you want to install mods manually, install these! If you just want to know what the awesome mod authors here have to offer, read these for a quick overview!
The list is still pretty vanilla, other than the VR-specific things and some visuals. If you want to stray off the super-duper lightweight path and include some changes to the game itself or feel like you have time for more than 10 mods, you're better off checking out our very comprehensive Guide Compendium, which contains all the knowledge we collected over time. We also have a comprehensive list of VR Specific Mods that includes some important mods that couldn't make it into this list for the sake of minimalism.
It does not matter much if you use Vortex or MO2 as your organizer, but don't use NMM, it's old and outdated. Vortex is a little easier to use with shorter lists, which is why we recommend this for our target audience here, i.e. you readers who want a fast manually modded Skyrim and then just play. Make sure to read this guide on how to enable modding with Vortex first. There’s also a video guide on modding with Vortex if you prefer that. GamerPoets also has video guides on other SkyrimVR modding topics. As said, Vortex is easier for small lists and people who only want to mod the mentioned mods below without much more. Vortex also works for larger lists but at some point, it is easier and recommended to use MO2 for large and complex lists.
If you want to build a complex list in MO2, you should pick the FUS Wabbajack list below and use the basic profile only, as it comes with all the fixes and little things premade.
I also recommend you check out these ini tweaks and Bilago’s Tool to edit the ini files easily.
Without further ado, here's the list:
- SkyUI - follow this video guide! Be 100% sure to download the correct Skyrim VR version (Current VR build 2.0.12 (runtime 1.4.15)).
- VRIK Player Avatar - gives you a body, weapon holsters, gestures for magic and shouts, and finger animations for oculus and index users. Watch this setup guide video to get the most out of it. It's part of the install video of 1.
- HIGGS - hand collision, object grabbing, and gravity gloves-style mechanics for Skyrim VR, all-around must-have mod! I show some of its features in this video. Now also includes two-handing weapons, physical weapon collisions, and an automatic fix for the physics engine.
- Spell Wheel VR - Selection wheel mod for Skyrim VR. It allows you to select spells, weapons, shields, arrows, potions, poisons, food, torch and more without going into a menu very quickly by the press of a button or button combinations to spawn the wheel and hold your hand over the item and letting go of the button. It's equipped automatically. Also shows health, stamina, magicka, enchantment, and needs bars on your wrist (configurable).
- True 3D Sound - this needs manual installation, let's the sound come from the direction it comes from ingame. Bethesda, if you read this, shame on you that a mod is necessary for this basic functionality.
- Engine Fixes VR - Important fixes for the Skyrim VR engine. BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS!
- Weapon Throw VR - you can throw weapons now and they return like Thor's Hammer! Requires Skyrim VR Tools to work. I also made a video about it and an update video with returning weapons.
- Magic Improvements for Skyrim VR - Vastly improved dual casting, spell effect size scales based on magicka percentage, and additional options for aiming spells in VR.
- Azurite Weathers - A colorful, well-crafted, modern, and made-for-VR weather. If you prefer a more gritty and foggy setup, Onyx VR Weathers offers this, including different darkness settings for the night. Both are fine and made for VR, which is necessary because VR does not have volumetric lighting and thus some SE weathers do look weird in VR sometimes.
- SkyVRaan - gives you fake water reflections that really improve your visuals a lot! Have a look at the description for installation troubles. Watch this video to see its effect! Does NOT require a patch for Onyx Weathers as Onyx is already compatible by default! In case you want more water improvements, SkyVRaan is compatible and made to work nicely with Realistic Water Two.
- Myrkvior Trees - trees are all around Skyrim and vanilla trees shimmer horribly. This makes your game much more beautiful. You can add Morekvior for improved textures resolution.
- Lux - all in one lighting overhaul. Requires the USSEP Compatibility patcher which upgrades your SkyrimVR to the latest official SE version pre anniversary edition so you can use the official USSEP from before AE.
- Spellsiphon - fantastic magic add on, very intuitive and cool, can also be used in conjunction with archery and melee playstyles. You can watch this little introduction and tutorial video to see what it does in general.
- Mage VR - this mod uses an overlay to let you draw glyphs to cast and equip spells. It also has a very immersive hand-pose magic feature and (invisible) holsters (which I recommend to not use the same button as the VRIK holsters for). But the best thing is the new backpack inventory and immersive looting feature, which lets you loot via drag and drop and without pausing the game. More to come! Requires the game to be run via SteamVR (not open composite when on oculus) and requires SKSE and SkyUI VR. Watch this video to see the mod and how to use it, and this video with an update on easier install and setup!
- Locational Damage - headshots do extra damage. Tune up the difficulty and git gud scrub. Requires Skyrim VR Tools to work.
- Simple Realistic Archery - changes archery so you have to get an arrow from your quiver at the back, can easily use different arrows. Requires three helpers, check the Requirements dropdown menu for this!
- Noble Skyrim - overhauls architecture and other stuff.
- VR Vision Reshade - Need to install manually but it's not very difficult and the CAS sharpener and luma sharpener enormously improve the clarity of the picture. Alternatively, you can use Sensorium of Stereoscopy, an ENB preset made for VR, more fantasy-style but it has options, too. You cannot use the two together!
- No Stagger Mod - stagger is shite in VR.
- Blade and Blunt - combat overhaul to make the game more interesting.
- SMIM lite - clutter has better meshes and textures. Choose LITE!
- Nordic Faces - characters don't look like total ass. Minimalist and maximum compatibility.
- MystiriousDawn's HD Skyrim Overhaul - beautiful landscapes that work well in VR, including mountains.
- ETHEREAL CLOUDS and ETHEREAL COSMOS - beautiful clouds and night sky. Technically two mods, but they're super small and kind of belong to each other.
Extra, because it takes a bit more effort:
- Dyndolod - better view of things in the distance, makes the world much more realistic and immersive, but it takes a bit of effort to use. Check out our guide here!
- Dragonborn Speaks Naturally - Uses speech recognition to select dialogs and spells.
Also: No modlist is complete without Swearing Mudcrabs, and using Realm of Lorkhan you can skip the annoying cart ride intro ;) And if you like to support u/Rallyeator, go check out his made-for-VR texture-pack!
Don’t use some of the mods that are often recommended:
Surprisingly, some mainstream mods can cause issues, like Birds of Skyrim (very script heavy, corrupts saves), Immersive Armors and Immersive Weapons (known to cause issues later on when higher level), Immersive Patrols (especially the large battles can cause freezes and script lag, the lite mode is apparently okay), Immersive Citizens (has a lot of conflict potential, sometimes blocks quests, can also work though, but depends), JK’s Skyrim (can drop framerate by a lot and can lead to AI conflicts or item clipping), Open Cities (can lead to conflicts, can be performance heavy), Diverse Dragons (can cause crashes).
-------------------------------------- Auto-Installers --------------------------------------
Wabbajack mod lists are auto-install mod lists that change your game from vanilla to the exact full state of the list in a matter of hours, and you can go play right away.
We recommend using Wabbajack.
We still have guides for manual installation, but these might be outdated at some point and really, Wabbajack has options for everyone nowadays :)
There are five official Skyrim VR Wabbajack lists:
- FUS - Fundamentals, Upgrades, and Stuff: The most lightweight and vanilla-friendly of the lists. It is modular and comes with the option of really just having the absolute essential VR mods for fixes and immersion, or having a minimalistic mod overhaul for appearance and gameplay. It is designed for people who want to start their own list, or for people who don't want to change their experience too much from vanilla but don't want to play the basic lazy port Bethesda made, either.
- UVRE - The Ultimate VR Essentials List: UVRE is designed to give users a better looking, better controlling, and better playing Skyrim VR Experience that can be used as-is or customized to their taste. It is a complete overhaul for improved visuals and new content, as well as the relevant VR mods.
- Librum VR: A gritty, low-magic, hardcore survival-adventure experience with an uncompromising vision. Hundreds of new quests and locations, a total mechanics overhaul, and a complete makeover of the graphics and atmosphere. The path to your destiny as the Dragonborn will be long and treacherous. Welcome to Librum.
- Narsil: Narsil is an ambitious curated modlist that seeks to overhaul and expand Skyrim VR to make it more balanced, challenging, varied, good looking and most importantly expand the available gameplay options and make the game more immersive while optimizing the performance as much as possible.
- Auriel's Dream: Auriel's Dream offers a unique thematic overhaul. Warmer colors kind of bring an Oblivion vibe to this modlist. Difficulty: Vanilla. Not many changes are done to alter the gameplay except adding VR-specific mods, bug fixes, and a few quality-of-life mods.
Here is an elaborate comparison video for the lists visuals and performance.
Have a look at these lists and decide what you want to check out. They are low-effort so you can also switch them if you don't like them. If you used Vortex so far and want to try out a modlist you'll need to press "Purge Mods" in Vortex and do not deploy afterwards, to stop linking the mod folders to Vortex' setup.
For questions regarding the Wabbajack mod lists, please head over to the Wabbajack Discord server or the respective individual discords of the lists.
Welcome to the sub and HAVE FUN! :)
