The best Skyrim overhaul mods: conversions and gameplay changes

Requiem — The Roleplaying Overhaul

Requiem rebuilds Skyrim as a roleplaying game rather than an action game with leveling. It removes enemy scaling and gives the world fixed threats: Whiterun’s bandits stay the same instead of leveling up alongside you.

• Removes enemy scaling: danger depends on where you go and how well prepared you are
• Combat system rework: now incoming damage is high, so death comes quickly
• Rethinking skills, magic, crafting and equipment
• Perks become the main driver of character development rather than skill level
• There is Russian localization

Important: Requiem requires a new game. Do not install it mid-playthrough. Its systems are deliberately packaged into one ESP so they work together.

✅ Gameplay changes: You walk into your first dungeon and die to a random skeleton. Come back at level twenty and you finally feel how far you’ve come. A good fit if you miss older RPGs like Morrowind, Gothic and Daggerfall.

Combat Gameplay Overhaul SE (CGO)

CGO adds combat mechanics that felt missing from the start: animated dodges, switching weapon grips, mid-air attacks and using staves as melee weapons.

• Rolls with animation in 8 directions (first and third person)
• Switching weapon grip on the fly – one-handed and two-handed mode
• Attacks and spells work while jumping
• Procedural body tilt during movement and turns
• Hitting with staves deals damage like a weapon
• Two-handed weapon combined with a spell, shield or torch

Installation note: CGO changes behavior files. Use Nemesis Unlimited Behavior Engine to make it work alongside similar mods; FNIS is incompatible. If something fails, a behavior-mod conflict is the likely culprit.

✅ Gameplay changes: Combat ceases to be an alternating exchange of blows and begins to require positioning. A roll appears, which did not exist at all in the original game.

Ordinator — Perks of Skyrim

Ordinator rewrites all Skyrim perk trees. Instead of boring bonuses like “+20% damage” – 469 new perks with active effects, unique mechanics and interactions.

• Complete replacement of all perk branches in all skills
• Perks with active abilities: explosions, portals, rituals, summons
• Compatible with any mods for races, magic, weapons
• Can be installed mid-playthrough, with a perk-point reset
• There is Russian localization

Ordinator is part of the Enairim modifications: the author recommends using it together with Wildcat, Apocalypse, Imperious and his other mods for full effect.

✅ Gameplay changes: Perk choices finally give you something to plan around. A thief using the Sneak tree gets mechanics worth building toward, rather than another perk to pick without thinking.

Wildcat — Combat of Skyrim

Wildcat is a combat overhaul from the author of Ordinator. It makes fights faster and deadlier through higher damage on both sides, injuries, timed blocking and reworked enemy AI.

• Injury system: If you fall below 30% HP, you can get injured in the arm, leg, chest, head or spine with specific negative effects
• Timed blocking: raise your shield at the right moment for 25% better blocking and a stagger against the attacker
• Attacks of Opportunity: Hitting an enemy while casting or staggering gives a damage bonus
• Thoughtful consumption of stamina for attacks and archery

Most functions are disabled via MCM. There is an optional plugin with realistic damage – both participants in the battle die much faster.

✅ Gameplay changes: Paired with Requiem or Ordinator, Wildcat turns every fight into a small decision. There’s no point in just spamming the attack button anymore.

Sentinel — An Equipment Overhaul

Sentinel adds almost 300 pieces of equipment as variations of existing items in the game. The iron helmet can be one of three different designs – and all of them are equivalent in characteristics, they just look different.

• Modular installation: you choose which sets to add and which not
• Distributes equipment through SkyPatcher without overwriting vanilla records
• Faction armor variants for Stormcloaks, Thalmor, Imperial battlemages and Vigilants of Stendarr
• Support for alternate armor from Anniversary Edition
• Clothing options for priests and monks
• Separate module with regional guards for holds

Compatible with NPC appearance mods without patches. Do not install to an existing save.

✅ Gameplay changes: Loot is starting to really surprise. You open the chest, and instead of the usual iron helmet, you see something that has never been seen in Skyrim before. The visual diversity of the world increases dramatically without changing the balance.

Legacy of the Dragonborn SSE

Legacy of the Dragonborn is the sort of mod people build entire modlists around. It adds the Dragonborn Gallery in Solitude, a huge museum with displays for more than 4,500 items from Skyrim, the mod itself and supported mods.

• New Explorer’s Society guild with quests, recruitment and expeditions
• Archeology system as a separate skill with three perk trees
• Smart crafting system: resources are stored in a special storage, and do not clog up inventory
• Automatic sorting of objects in a museum
• Hundreds of new relics with unique models
• Replication of items – you can hang the original in a display case and still use the copy

This is one of the most difficult mods to install. The developers directly recommend starting a new game and installing all the necessary patches through Legacy Patch Central before the first launch.

✅ Gameplay changes: Each relic becomes more than another inventory item: it has a place in the museum catalog. Your playthrough gains a running side project: collecting artifacts from across Tamriel.

CIVIL WAR OVERHAUL — Redux

The Skyrim Civil War is one of the most frustrating parts of the vanilla game. CWO Redux rebuilds it almost from scratch based on the original Apollodown mod:

• Full sieges of cities with the participation of troops from both sides
• Enemy soldiers attack upon entering a captured city
• Expanded military camps and new types of soldiers (berserkers, assassins, mages)
• MCM options for debugging stuck scripts, useful given how fragile Skyrim’s civil-war scripting can be

Fair warning from the author of the mod: civil war is the most buggy part of the Skyrim engine. CWO does its best, but keep a few saves before each major battle and don’t run from quest to quest without a break.

✅ Gameplay changes: The war is finally starting to feel like war. The siege of Whiterun with two dozen soldiers on both sides is a completely different matter compared to what it was in the original.

WGO — Warrior Gameplay Overhaul SSE

WGO is reworking everything about the warrior: combat, enemies, perks, shouts, and even horses. This is part of a series of five mods by the same author – WGO, MGO, RGO, SVOM and SWOM – for different classes.

• Slowdown and damage penalty when wearing heavy armor – the more pieces on a character, the more noticeable
• New unique artifacts and side quests inspired by Norse mythology (including the hammer Mjolnir and a quest with a clan of giants)
• Reworked AI for each type of enemy: bandits can scatter if left alone against Dovahkiin, draugr do not dodge, vampires teleport and can even disappear into the fog
• New enemy types: boars, centaurs, rogue berserkers, colossal giant
• Shouts can be modified at High Hrothgar
• There is Russian localization

✅ Gameplay changes: Different enemies demand different tactics. Draugr push forward without dodging and resist physical damage; vampires blind you, teleport and recover health.

MGO — Magic Gameplay Overhaul SSE

MGO belongs to the same series as WGO but focuses on magic. Spells cost more magicka and take longer to cast, but hit much harder.

• All races start with less magicka and slower regeneration
• Spell books have been replaced with “grimoires” – books that teach several spells of the same school at once
• Ability to perform rituals in Dark Shrines: permanent atronachs, undead beyond the summoning limit, teleportation
• New necromantic dragon Nun’mir, which can be summoned and ridden
• Two new player towers – in Falkreath and north of Riften
• There is Russian localization

Important: MGO works best in conjunction with WGO, RGO and other mods in the series. The author directly recommends installing the entire package.

✅ Gameplay changes: A mage has to choose between spending magicka on a costly spell and holding back. Magicka becomes a resource to manage, rather than a bar you refill in a second.

Beyond Skyrim — Bruma SE

Beyond Skyrim: Bruma adds a whole new region to the game – Bruma District in northern Cyrodiil. This is larger in scale than the Dragonborn DLC.

• Bruma city with 70+ inhabitants, unique dialogues and daily routine
• Over 24,000 voiced lines from professional actors
• New dungeons, Ayleid ruins, points of interest and secrets
• Cyrodilic weapons and armor
• Over three hours of original music
• Compatible with existing character – no new game needed

Installation via Vortex or MO2. Do not use NMM – the developers directly warn about data loss. Both files (BSAssets.esm and BSHeartland.esm) must be included in the correct order.

✅ Gameplay changes: This is not just an additional map – it is a separate world with history, atmosphere and the feeling that you have gone beyond the usual borders of Tamriel. For Oblivion fans, this is something of a visit home.

Recommendations for installing mods from this list

Overhauls need more care than dropping a folder into Data. A few rules will save you some frustration:

1. Read the entire mod page before installing. Requiem, Legacy of the Dragonborn and CWO Redux are particularly picky about installation order
2. Use LOOT to automatically sort the load order – manually is a pain
3. xEdit (SSEEdit) will help you find conflicts between ESP files if something goes wrong
4. Make clean saves before adding major mods mid-playthrough (and better still start a new game)
5. Check compatibility on each mod page. Many mods on this list have official patches on Nexus Mods.
6. Nemesis is required for CGO and other mods that change the behavior of NPCs; FNIS doesn’t work with them
7. For a larger overhaul, consider Requiem, Ordinator, Wildcat, Sentinel and Legacy; combining them requires checking their compatibility and any necessary patches.

Which Skyrim overhaul mod should you install first?

If you’re new to overhauls, start with Ordinator + Wildcat. They work well together and quickly show how much gameplay can change. Both can be added without a new game, though Ordinator has installation caveats.

If you want a complete reset, use Requiem as your foundation. It takes time and patience, but can make Skyrim feel like a game you do not know yet.

If I missed any mod that you think is worthy of this list, write to me, I’ll test it and, if the mod passes the test, I’ll add it here.