How Will Mods Work in Skyrim Special Edition?

With the special edition of Skyrim set for release in a few short days, one of the questions on the minds of current series fans is how the new edition will affect the mods they’re currently using.

Well, there is actually no impact on your current mod list, as the special edition is its own separate game in that regard. If you’re a user of Nexusmods like I am, you’ll see that the Nexus is actually giving the remaster its own mod link that modders and current mod authors can use for creating mods for the remaster.

Additionally, the folks over at the Nexus have implemented a mod duplicate feature for all current Skyrim mods to make it easier for the mod authors to port their mods to the new game. According to an excerpt from the Nexus, the duplicate feature will take care of the following:

Duplicated mods will have the mod description, images, videos, tags and permissions copied over to a totally new mod page under the Skyrim: Special Edition game page. All other information will be blank, including download stats, endorsements, comments, bugs and files. The two mods will then be totally different from that point onwards and will be in no way linked. You can find more information about this decision here.

While it might be possible to use some of the more basic mods without having a port made by the mod author, it is suggested that you use ported mods so that you are less likely to run into issues.

In addition to the visual improvements for the special edition, the game is DirectX11 compatible and also a 64-bit title, compared to the original 32-bit release. This means that we can expect the game to be more stable, as it has improved memory availability to make use of. But it also means there may be some compatibility issues with non-ported mod versions.

A number of popular modders — such as Elianora, Arthmoor, and Chesko — were given advance copies of the game and the creation kit. So we can expect a number of day-1 and week-1 mods to be available.

If you want to know more, the great guys over at Brodual posted this informative video late yesterday evening that goes into some more detail.

What are you most looking forward to in the Skyrim: Special Edition release? Let me know in the comments below and share your favorite mods too!