Although Skyrim's seemingly endless string of re-releases are the subject of much bellyaching and many memes among Bethesda fans, one incredibly radical addition that the Special Edition release introduced was mod support for consoles. Xbox players, however, definitely get access to a wider array of goodies than their Playstation counterparts, opening up abigger spread of possibilities when it comes to altering their gameplay experiences. And one of the most popular angles for Skyrim modification revolves around immersion and realism.
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Sure, Skyrim's expansive open world is already easy enough to get lost in, but a few balancing tweaks, additional gameplay mechanics, and graphical improvements can make it seem like a world you can truly live in. If this sounds exactly like the Skyrim experience you've always wanted, then keep scrolling to check out ten of the best immersion-enhancing Skyrim mods that you can actually use on the Xbox One.
10 Campfire: Complete Camping System
Campfire is the most important mod on this list. Apart from being necessary in order for its sister component, Frostfall, to work, it lays the foundation necessary for your character to set up a camp: tents, fires for cooking and warmth, the works!
It adds a lot more than that, too. You'll also be able to train and advance in a set of new survival-oriented skills, gather firewood, and utilize your instincts to track enemies or wildlife. It might all sound a little daunting at first, but it integrates well into Skyrim's UI and is crucial for putting together a good set of immersive mods.
9 Frostfall: Hypothermia, Camping, Survival
Frostfall, like Campfire, is absolutely indispensable to your load order if you're shooting for a more immersive Skyrim experience. Frostfall revolves around four new statistics in total. These are Warmth, Coverage, Exposure, and Wetness. Think of the first two as "defenses" against the latter two. Exposure is combated with Warmth, and Wetness can be defended against with Coverage.
Wetness, whether from rain or swimming, causes your exposure to rise faster. Higher exposure means negative status effects and can culminate in losing consciousness. You can keep it at bay with warmer clothing, or by stopping to rest near a campfire when you can. Frostfall is highly modular, so you can tune how "hardcore" you'd like the penalties to be. You can even use it to disable fast travel if you're really committed.
8 Climates of Tamriel for Xbox One
Climates of Tamriel is, for the most part, an aesthetic enhancement to accompany Campfire and Frostfall, but it makes a multitude of great enhancements to Skyrim's weather systems. You'll definitely appreciate them, given the new emphasis that Frostfall's survival mechanics place on weather conditions.
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It adds an incredible spread of new weather variations, complete with new visual effects as well as improved effects for the existing ones. The audio effects are also pretty awesome, especially the addition of indoor audio for weather - when ducking into an inn to get out of the rain, you'll still hear it pattering on the roof.
7 iNeed - Food, Water, Sleep
iNeed sort of ties up the suite of survival-oriented mechanics by adding systems for hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Obviously, this means that your character will actually need to eat food, drink water, and sleep in order to forgo crippling status ailments.
Most food items will have hunger values attached to them, with cooked and prepared items being more effective than the alternatives. It also adds a waterskin item that holds three "charges" of thirst-slaking water and can be refilled from bodies of water, wells, snow, or by an innkeeper or merchant.
6 Wet and Cold
Wet and Cold adds a wide variety of environmental effects that are dependent on weather, such as visible breath in colder conditions, rain or snow accumulating on exposed characters, and more. It also allows the player to slightly customize AI responses to weather conditions. For example, NPCs can be made to equip weather-appropriate gear during a rainstorm or tailored to seek shelter from it. Even Solstheim's ash storms get some love.
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There are also some subtle gameplay effects, such as all characters moving 15% slower during a windy blizzard. Likewise, hostile NPCs will have a harder time detecting stealthy targets in weather conditions that might impair their vision.
5 Winter Is Coming SSE
Winter Is Coming is hardly a necessary inclusion in your load order, but it certainly adds a nice bit of flavor, as well as a bit of additional help with tackling Frostfall's exposure mechanics. All it really does is add a new set ofwearable cloaks, capes, and hoods to the game.
The cloaks and capes take up their own inventory slot, so they won't conflict with any existing equipment. They also have warmth values attached to them, though the Winter Is Coming Survival Mode Patch might be necessary in order to take full advantage of that. The new clothing also looks incredibly radical, is craftable, and is added to the leveled loot lists of most humanoid NPCs.
4 Climates of Tamriel: Darker Nights
This branch of Climates of Tamriel is fairly self-explanatory, but for the sake of abundant clarity, it makes night time in Skyrim feel a bit more like actual night time. It really works too, as you'll have difficulty making your way through the wilderness after sunset without a torch to light the way.
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It adds to the sense of realism in no short measure, with different weather patterns or phenomena such as the aurora affecting just how dark it gets. As an added bonus, it makes the Night Eye effect seem to actually matter. So, there's a real and valid reason for learning the spell or making use of the Khajiit's natural affinity for this ability.
3 Lampposts of Skyrim: Special Edition
It might seem like an awfully small thing, but it does wonders as far as truly making the world of Skyrim feel a little more alive and "lived in," so to speak. All this mod really does is add lampposts throughout Skyrim's many lengthy roads.
This mod really stands out when combined with Climates of Tamriel: Darker Nights, making them feel a little more important and altogether better-looking. Between the two, traveling at nighttime feels much more engaging, especially when you pass fellow travelers or patrols by the light of a nearby lamppost.
2 Immersive Patrols
Though it isn't exactly a cure-all solution for the relatively disappointing Civil War questline, Immersive Patrols helps to lend some scope and a bit more action to the whole concept by ratcheting up the number of Imperial and Stormcloak patrols encountered on the road, resulting in more spontaneous skirmishes and battles to witness or participate in.
These patrols will stop spawning once the civil war ends, giving the player a little more actual finality once they've concluded the questline. As a neat bonus, it also adds Skaal and Riekling patrols to Solstheim, as well as more Dawnguard patrols for the Dawnguard DLC.
1 Wildcat - Combat of Skyrim
Wildcat, in a nutshell, makes combat in Skyrim a lot more dangerous. It starts by turning up and evening out the damage bonuses experienced by players versus NPCs, and improves combat AI to make enemies a bit more cautious and tactical in their approach.
Even more interestingly, players can now inflict and sustain injuries that have profound and lasting effects on combat. Injuries to the chest will drain stamina very quickly, for example, while sustaining a traumatic leg injury will knock the character over and has the chance to cause them to fall when running. The injuries last five minutes, or until healed to full HP, but have enough of an impact to immediately change the outcome of any fight.
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