There aren't usually a lot of ways that PS4 players end up in this situation, but they've actually been outclassed by Xbox fans in the mods department this time around thanks to Skyrim: Special Edition.
PlayStation 4 players are now playing catch up twice with this revamped Skyrim experience: once to meet the PC community's insane plethora of mods, and again to just get on par with the Xbox One, which had several months lead time on mod support over the PS4.
At the moment, there are only a paltry 1,600 PS4 Skyrim mods available, which might sound like a large number, but it's an infinitesimal fraction of what's been created since the game first arrived for PC six years back.
What if this didn't happen? What if followers had unique combat styles to match their unique personalities? What if each follower was specialized and worth using in different situations? I've done this. With this full Special Edition release, all 59 permanent NPC followers from the base game and all DLC have been given unique abilities.
Many of the best Skyrim mods -- like the major bug fixes that address problems still present even after all the patches -- sadly haven't hit the PS4 just yet. There aren't a ton of mods that spice up the game's dialog options yet either, which is a shame as much like with Fallout 4, the dialog and story in Skyrim aren't quite up to par with the promise offered by this massive game world.
Despite those missing elements, there are still plenty of excellent PS4 Skyrim mods available, and here we're rounding up the best of the best mods you should get on installing first.
If you want to see other fantastic Skyrim mods, check out this page.
Mod: Even Better Quest Objectives
Skyrim's vanilla (and exceedingly bare bones) quest objective screen barely tells you anything about your current quest other than the absolute basics.
It definitely pales in comparison to the lengthy journal entries of more hardcore RPGs, and the lack of information sort of dumbs down the game -- especially the Special Edition -- as you basically just follow the arrow until you hit the person you need to talk to or kill.
That particular issue is alleviated with this mod, which gives you a much clearer idea of who gave the quest, where they are located, and what you are supposed to do to specifically fulfill the quest objectives.
Skyrim Special Edition Followers Mod
Mod: Scroll Crafting
I sort of don't understand why this Special Edition mod wasn't in the base game. Who exactly is making these scrolls that you find everywhere -- and why can't the main character get in on the scroll-creating action?
Bethesda's vanilla Skyrim oversight is fixed by the modding community yet again, adding a new branch to the skill tree and the ability to craft a scroll for any spell. Besides the obvious utility function, this addition also makes it easier to have a pure magic build at earlier levels -- even before you have tons of magicka available.
Mod: Cooking, Brewing, and Alchemy Overhaul
An expansion to Skyrim's base crafting system, this nifty mod puts cooking pots and alchemy stations in every inn so you don't have to go hunting for them in any given settlement. But that's just the beginning.
The main draw of this mod is the brewstation, letting you brew drinks in addition to cooking the standard food options, while the number of food recipes is also bumped up significantly and a few ingredients have been added in as well.
If you've already crafted every type of food, try installing this Special Edition mod and keep your craft addiction going strong!
Mod: Hardcore Difficulty -- No Milkdrinkers
Is Skyrim too easy an experience for your walking siege engine of a Dragonborn? Does destroying enemies in the Special Edition get rote and tired? Not anymore!
If you are felling dragons and giants with ease -- and the town guards are no match for your Nord killing machine -- try out this mod to make things more deadly.
The main tweaks you'll find here are that your stamina and magicka will regenerate slower, while enemies will be tougher and block your attacks more often. It's an addition that really increases the stakes.
Mod: Alidon's Ultimate Armory
Definitely a “cheating” mod, this Skyrim: Special Edition mod is basically like accessing the secret console room in Fallout 4 -- but on steroids.
The extra area created by this mod gives you access to every vanilla item in the game, in addition to a host of custom items, spells, and followers. Topping it all off are doors to every hold, dungeon, and guild location. We'd suggest installing this one after you've either beaten the game or start a new playthrough.
Mod: Phenderix The Archmage Artifacts
These Skyrim “artifacts” are really just a simple way to cheat and get essentially infinite magicka. Equip one of the rings from this mod and you'll find yourself with an extra 100,000 magicka with which to sling an endless torrent of spells. So get on changing those iron ingots to gold and let loose with the fireballs already!
Mod: Extra Carry Weight
One of the most annoying things about these types of open world RPGs (other than de-emphasizing story and actual roleplaying choice) is that you always have more loot than you can conceivably carry back to town to sell or disenchant.
That won't be a problem with this very helpful PS4 mod, which gives an extra 2,500 pounds of carry-weight capacity for every point you put in stamina upon leveling up! Your mage will be able to sling a couple of hundred suits of armor over his shoulder and sell 'em all! If you've ever wanted to make more money in Skyrim, this is one of the better ways to do it.
Mod: Magical College of Winterhold
This immersion-based mod makes a series of tweaks to the college at Winterhold, so it feels more like a place actually inhabited by powerful wizards. In other words, Winterhold becomes a little more Hogwarts and a little less “dusty empty barn on top of the mountain.”
While it might not be a game-changing Skyrim mod, this one does lend more realism to the game -- which can go a long way after you've spent 200+ hours slaying dragons.
Mod: Surreal Lighting
With the serious possibility of spending hundreds of hours in-game, graphic overhaul mods are always a welcome addition to any RPG. However, they especially keep Skyrim looking interesting and gorgeous.
This much-praised lighting mod makes some changes to the base game so that outdoor areas have a brighter, more vibrant feel. Again, not a game-changing mod, but one that will make the Special Edition just a tad more special.
Mod: Rain and Snow FX
Skyrim Se Follower Mods
There may have been a graphics overall update with the release of the Special Edition, but there's still room for improvement -- and more ways to utilize the advanced power of current gen systems.
Creating more immersion with weather effects, this PlayStation 4 mod adds frost to your equipment when outside in cold areas, and also creates dripping particle effects when you run through water or stand outside in the rain.
Mod: Khajiit Speak Dialog Overhaul
An immersion mod to get you more into character if you picked the Khajiit race, this one modifies nearly every line of player dialog in the PS4 version of the game -- with a heavy dialect emphasis on Khajiit speech patterns.
Some of the additions are funny, while others are serious, and quite a few dig deep into the lore of The Elder Scrolls universe. Afterall, it's the ethos of the RPG genre to make you feel more like you're actually a living person in Skyrim.
To generate complex behavior, you can chain events together via sub-events. To skip the coding part and simplify the whole process, you can load existing plugins such as buttons, file chooser, list, slider bar, particles, shadow light, geo-allocation, or video.For sprite behavior, you can set various attributes: persist, shadow caster, solid, jump-thru, anchor, line of sight, timer, and fade. Design sprites and control their behaviorTypical game development features are found in Construct 2, like turning images into sprites, creating and managing multiple layouts, and customizing object properties like color, shape, text or font. Construct 2 license download.
Mod: Restore Vanilla Settings
As many a giddy PS4 fan has learned after going crazy installing new features, uninstalling mods isn't quite the same as it is on the PC version of Skyrim.
When you're done playing with all those nifty new mods, you might want to grab this one to scrub it all clean, especially if you went overboard and installed a bunch that don't play nice with each other.
This is a life-saving fallback if you're combating broken mods that have unintended consequences, accidentally preventing you from completing main story quests for one reason or another.
With more and more mods being added every day, it's only a matter of time before the PlayStation 4 version of Skyrim: Special Edition starts really competing with the Xbox One and PC versions.
While the number of mods right now is limited, there's still a massive amount of fun to be had trying out the options currently available on PS4.
What did you think of our PS4 Skyrim mod picks, and what mods would you recommend we try to keep us playing the game years later?