Mods that sound small can make the biggest difference in making you feel like a part of the world you're playing in.

Being fully immersed in your game can be one of the most fun parts of Skyrim! Sure, some people prefer to just level up fast and kill things as quickly as possible. If you’re wanting to take a slightly slower path in the game, or you just want to focus on unique aspects that make you feel immersed in the world of Tamriel: check these mods out. 

15. End Times

Alduin, finally living up to his name of World Eater.

One of the coolest parts of Skyrim is that you can entirely put off the main quest to do whatever your heart desires. However, after a few playthroughs, this makes the threat of Alduin not seem very important. If you’re looking to add a new challenging aspect to your game, try End Times in your next playthrough.

Features:

• Count-down timer (customizable with SKSE installed through MCM menus) that leads to Aludin destroying the world
• If the clock reaches the end and you haven’t defeated Alduin, you get to watch him destroy everything followed by death 
• Afterward, you can reload a previous save or start completely over and try again

Get the mod here./se version. 

14. Extended Encounters

Thieves stealing from cities other than Riften for once?! 

Mods that give you more interesting encounters and scenarios to run across in Skyrim always add an extra level of immersion for me. This mod adds many cool events to run into without any impact or performance or save bloating. 

Features:

• MCM menu (through SkyUI) that allows you to pick and choose which events you want to leave out if any
• Faction raids on locations, mercenaries out in the world, adventurers traveling to dungeons, and much more
• Sleeping/waiting in a location such as a bandit camp can lead to them attacking you for intruding 

Get the mod here./se version.

13. Sit Anywhere 2

When this mod says anywhere... they mean anywhere!

Why sit in a chair when you can sit anywhere? It sounds silly, but for those who really like feeling immersed with their character, sitting down somewhere and taking in the scenery can be a nice experience. This is the second version of the mod, which now features an MCM menu and an option to hide the hud automatically. 

Features:

• Create ‘sitting spots’ virtually anywhere for you and any followers traveling with you (health, stamina, and Magicka regen 5% faster while sitting)
• 4 lesser powers in your spell menu: sit cross-legged, sit on ledge, create cross-legged sitting spot, and create ledge sitting spot
• Spots are removed when you get far away from them to avoid save bloat

Get the mod here for SE. 

12. Zdo Immersive Death

A grave belonging to a previous character who met a terrible fate. 

Zdo Immersive Death is perfect for someone who is looking for a mod that makes death more impactful in their game. This mod has a customizable MCM and is turned off by default, so you can have the option of playing without it on some playthroughs. 

Features:

• Your character is essential, entering a bleed-out state where you have multiple choices 
• You can lose some equipment and have the chance to get it back 
• Permadeath is enabled by default, but you may change the value of permadeath chance to zero if you don’t want this feature

Get the mod here for SE. 

 11. Locks Are Just Locked

A door displaying only the word 'locked' with this mod. 

A lot of the risk involved with lockpicking (especially with lower skills) is eliminated by the difficulty being visible. If the difficulty is unknown, you risk losing a lot more lockpicks and will be surprised each time. 

Features:

• Locks will no longer display their difficulty, they will just read as ‘locked’
• A very lightweight mod that should be compatible with any mods that add new doors or chests
• It is recommended to put this mod under any mods that affect locks in your load order

Get the mod here for SE. 

10. Immersion and Lore Continuity - Additions and Tweaks

A carving mentioned in the text 'Nightingales: Fact or Fiction?'

This mod adds small features throughout the game that are based on things mentioned in books throughout Skyrim. Some of the features just add to the immersion by changing small things in the interest of continuity. 

Features:

• Your character will suffer  sleep-related nightmare debuffs in Dawnstar until the ‘Waking Nightmare’ quest has been completed 
• Visual deformities added to ‘Dented Iron Shield’, Nightingale etchings referred to in ‘Nightingales: Fact or Fiction?’
• Many other changes and this mod can be installed mid-playthrough (but should not be uninstalled mid-game)

Get the mod here for SE. 

9. Contraband Confiscation

It makes sense for guards to have some doubts about you carrying around severed human flesh...

When you’re arrested by guards, it only makes sense that they would take any illegal items from you, right? With this mod, they will. These items will be found in the stolen items chest along with anything else you acquired by not-so-legal means. 

Features:

• Guards will confiscate illegal items such as Skooma, Human Heart, Human Flesh, etc
• Your items won’t be gone forever: they’re in the stolen goods chest along with anything you stole upon arrest
• No more toting around suspicious black soul gems for powerful magic and guards letting you get away with it

Get the mod here for SE. 

8. Purchasable Store-Display-Items

Items displayed on a merchant's desk easily available for purchase.

Have you ever thought about how pointless it is that shopkeepers have their counters full of products that you can’t purchase? Sure, they may have some of that stuff in their shop inventory, but for the most part, they are purely for decoration (or stealing), Now these items are easy to purchase.

Features:

• Easily buy items displayed in the store by looking at it as you would to pick things up normally
• If you don’t want to be a paying customer, sneak to steal things as you would in the vanilla game
• MCM menus to tweak features and toggle mod on/off with a customizable hot-key

Get the mod here for SE. 

7. Pronouns

The pronoun selection menu that appears upon exiting racemenu or character creation. 

This mod is a fairly simple one that is very inclusive and allows you to change your character’s pronouns independent of their chosen body type. You can edit your choices anytime to accommodate your character’s needs at any time with showracemenu. 

Features:

• Prompt to choose your character’s pronouns as soon as you exit Racemenu/character creation
• The non-binary option allows your character to be referred to with gender-neutral language (this has some issues which the mod author has made their own ‘Pronoun patcher’ to help fix)
• Very compatible with other mods, but this mod requires SKSE and the Pronoun patcher requires xEdit

Get the mod here./se version. 

6. Smooth Combat - Non Combat Animation System

A look at some of the casual animations this mod has to offer. 

Skyrim definitely has some issues with awkward animations regarding combat. Smooth Combat Non Combat Animation System focuses on creating more casual animations for when your weapons are drawn but you are not in active combat. 

Features:

• Relaxed animations for when your weapons are drawn but you’re not in combat
• Your animation switches to a combat stance once an enemy is detected and you’ve entered combat
• Once an enemy is killed/very far away, the animation will switch back to the more casual variant

Get the mod here./se version. 

5. Classic RPG Archetypes AND FULL NPC Perks

Enemies will be a much more even match with this mod (maybe not this guy).

With Class RPG Archetypes, all NPCs can access the same perks that the player character can for their skills! This mod will make things more difficult after a while because NPCs in combat will be much more on your level.

Features:

• Adventurer, Barbarian, Bard, Cleric+Paladin, Paladin of Talos, Duelist/Spellsword, Werewolf
• Friends and lovers will no longer let you take their most valuable items 
• Worn gear weighs less than gear that is not equipped 

Get the mod here for SE. 

4. Just Do It - An inventory-free way to use items

This mod allows you to easily do things like eat this apples right out of the bowl. (Just don't tell the Innkeeper). 

Just Do It is one of the most useful mods I’ve seen recently. Walking up to items allows you to equip/eat them without going through the step of putting them in your inventory. This mod will keep your inventory from getting filled up as quickly for sure. 

Features:

• Equip armor/weapons, eat food, consume potions, try alchemy ingredients, poison weapons
• Configurable hot-key to change in and out of this mode
• Support for crime when stealing items 

Get the mod here for SE. 

3. SunHelm Survival and needs

A character asking an Innkeeper to refill their water vessels. 

SunHelm is a good, lightweight alternative to the more well-known survival/needs mods out there. The goal of this mod is to give you features of survival mods without being too extensive or too small. SKSE is required and SkyUI is required for the MCM menus. 

Features:

• Needs including Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, and Well-Being
• Refilling waterskins/bottles yourself or at taverns/inns
• Disease system with stages for each disease

Get the mod here for SE. 

2. Horizon Zero Dawn Fast Travel

Change up fast travel for a more realistic playthrough. 

This mod certainly isn’t the first mod to change how the fast travel system works, but it is very unique to Skyrim. It utilizes a fast travel system modeled after that in the game Horizon Zero Dawn. You have to craft fast travel packs that you can then use to travel around the map. To quote the mod author: “You will be discouraged from just flying all over the map like a Game of Thrones character in season 7.”

Features:

• An immersive system that requires you to craft fast travel packs that are single-use
• The travel packs weigh 20 pounds by default, but there are versions that change it to 10, 5, or 0
• Versions available to change the crafting recipe

Get the mod here for SE. 

1. Time Flies SE

Adjust how much (if any) time each task across Skyrim takes your character in in-game hours.

If your goal is a very immersive game, crafting armor for an hour and having the in-game time not change at all just doesn’t make much sense! This mod is highly customizable, so anything you don’t want taking up time/too much time is fully up to you. 

Features:

• Different tasks pass hours of in-game time including but not limited to crafting, cooking, and house building
• The amount of time that passes as well as which activities pass time is customizable through in-game MCM menus 
• Compatibility and features for other mods, such as iNeed and Honed Metal

Get the mod here for SE. 

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