Best Skyrim Ps4 Mods
We've found the best Skyrim mods you should download for Skyrim Special Edition which will fix NPCs, add new combat, and make travelling a lot easier.
After seeing this post, I realized I've been meaning to do the same with my mod list as I've spent hours upon hours tinkering and sorting through PS4 mods to determine which ones are both bug-free and lore friendly.
EDIT - I should just give credit to the Bethesda Forum as that is where I found the recommended load order but figured most people had read it. Please find the master list here.
The mods listed below are NOT IN CORRECT LOAD ORDER. I don't want to re-sort that all now. Just look at the above link to see a very detailed ordering guide. These are the mods I think are the best for PS4. I can verify they have no bugs, no gray face glitches, and won't mess your game up if you uninstall. I have hundreds of hours on PS4 at this point, and can promise these are all great mods.
Homes
I have 21 characters, so I have a ton of player homes. Most people do not need more than a handful of home mods, but these are all great.
Mannequins Stay Put (a must have)
Hearthfire Map Marker Fix (changes map marker to the little house icon, not the town icon)
Improved Hearthfire Lighting (removes the weird ambient light that exists in the vanilla Hearthfire homes)
Hearthfire Display Case Fix (fixes buggy display cases)
Chartreusepod Reverie (MUST HAVE for any Bosmer players. Seriously, this is the only home a Wood Elf on PS4 should be using. It's incredible)
Whitewind Player Home (one of the best homes on PS4. Must have for Nords, buried deep in the snow outside Winterhold)
Crypt of the Old Guard (perfect Vampire home. Tons of details and storage, looks amazing. Must have for Vampires who don't particularly like living in Volkihar Castle)
Necrosis (one of the best homes on PS4. A new world-space, tons of static decor, a merchant, just a ton of stuff. Good for Necromancers and evil-doers)
Riverstone Hut (small house in Riverwood, great for a spellsword. Very dark, so I used Portable Tools to add some candles)
Hunter's Cabin of Riverwood (perfect for a grizzled hunter character)
Rayek's End (a Batcave if there ever was one. Used for my Batman build, but perfect for Argonians or sneaky characters)
Hunter's Treehouse (one-room treehouse for a wandering Nord. I use it for my Khajiit monk, because cats like trees, right?)
Ramshackle Trading Post (adds a basement home to the Ramshackle Trading Post on Solstheim. Good for Dunmer assassins)
Whiterun Watch (a generic cabin in the Whiterun plains. Good for low-key travelers. Using it for my Dragonhunter now)
Looter's Cove (one of many homes by Rezthebear. His are amazing - static decor, small yet filled with everything you need, bug-free. This is a cozy home for a thief that connects to both Riften and the Ragged Flagon)
Wanderer's Abode (another Rezthebear home. Perfect for wandering pilgrims. Small but with tons of detail, this is good for Nords/Bretons/Imperials and is one of the more 'generic' homes that can fit most player characters)
Solitude Inn Player Room - Merchant Home (another Rezthebear home. Turns the room in the Winking Skeever into a merchant's home. I use it for my Imperial Bard build. It can cause frame rate drops [seems to happen if I have had my PS4 on for a long time], but re-booting the system fixes it immediately. This is great for bards/travelling merchants)
Wizard's Laboratory (Rezthebear again. This is a Dwemer-themed mage's home in the northwest corner of the map. Great for any wizards/sorcerers)
Agent's Basement (the last Rezthebear home. A small, one-room home in Raven Rock that used the be the home of an East Empire Company agent. Perfect for an Imperial Spy or Scout, but I'm using it for a Redguard Mercenary)
Draco's Heljarchen Manor (adds walls, guards and a merchant to Heljarchen. Very Nordic themed - statues of Talos everywhere. The merchant has the gray face bug, but he is a gray Khajiit so it's hard to notice and he just stays in his tent anyway lol)
Draco's Lakeview Manor (see above, but with Dwemer-style architecture. No merchant)
Graphics
Rain and Snow FX (very nice touch)
BIG: More Blood & Gore (just adds more blood)
Re-Color Replacer Pack (modifies the colors of Steel, Ebony and Elven gear to be a bit more silver/black/gold)
Animated Weapon Enchants (adds some awesome, enchantment-specific visuals to weapons)
True Alternation Armor Visuals (restores the cut visuals from Flesh spells - Oak has a wood-esque look, Iron is gray, etc.)
Smooth Human Female Faces (removes the wrinkles from your Breton female player characters)
Locations
Magical College of Winterhold (arguably the best mod for PS4. Completely changes the College, adds so much to the buildings themselves and re-designs the interiors entirely)
Ruins of Winterhold (puts some ruined castle parts around Winterhold)
Dawnguard Map Markers (adds markers to Soul Cairn and other Dawnguard locations)
Go Away Map Clouds (simply removes clouds from player's map)
Gameplay
Bethesda Skyrim Ps4 Mods
Even Better Quest Objectives (makes quests objectives much more detailed)
Lore Based Loading Screens (very informative)
Biased Tweaks (a ton of little fixes that are much needed)
Better Sleep (increases Well Rested bonus, makes it 12 hours too)
Immersive Leveling (faster leveling, but not super fast)
Better Loot (increases the amount of rare loot in chests)
Rebalanced Level Lists (use with Better Loot as this one adjusts the chests to have more thematic items - i.e. Dwarven chests have Dwarven gear. Boss chests are amazing with these mods combined)
Rich Merchants of Skyrim (increases merchant gold by 10,000)
Smilodon: Combat of Skyrim (the best combat mod for PS4)
Helmetless Armor Perks (simply removes the 'head' part of all armor perks that require a full set)
Werewolf Perks Expanded (just adds/modifies werewolf perks)
BIG: Maximum Kill Move Chance (I love kill moves, this mod gives me the most I could possibly get)
BIG: More Kill Moves (see above. I noticed when using any of the BIG mods that increase decapitations, you essentially get only decapitations. So I avoid adding the BIG: Ultimate Kills or whatever that is a compilation of all these mods)
GET: No More Dead Followers (Must have. Makes all followers essential)
CC Tweaks: Better Hunger Restore Amount (must have if you play Survival Mode - changes the hunger-restore values of food to a much more reasonable scale) Amy e learning.
Unlimited Shouting (adds a book in High Hrothgar that lets you shout w/o cool-downs)
Blessing of Talos Fix (simple bug fix that correctly displays the Blessing of Talos effect in your menu)
DLC Integration (adds ovens and stuff from Dawnguard/Dragonborn to mainland Skyrim - bandits might have crossbows, a lot of bandits wear bonemold armor, etc.)
Magic
No Starting Spells (removes Flames/Healing from your starting character but keeps the race-specific ones like Conjure Familiar. Great for player characters that don't use magic)
Better Magic (simply adds some nice round scaling to the Novice to Master perks. Increases by 15% or 25%, I forgot. It also makes some tweaks to other spells)
Phenderix Magic Evolved (adds 400+ spells. An absolute must have)
Every School Magic Damage (adds spells to Conjuration, Restoration, Alteration and Illusion that do damage directly to enemies)
Vampires & Magic (changes to Vampires all together)
Animals
Legendary Creatures (adds a ton of boss-level animals to hunt down)
Various Dragons (cyan49's re-color of dragons)
KPatch Vanilla AF Dragon Enhancement (diversifies the dragons you encounter)
Less Aggressive Animals (Mudcrabs, Skeevers and Wolves won't attack on sight now. Bigger animals have to be provoked)
Sabre Cats Respawn (did you know Sabre Cats don't respawn on PS4? This fixes that)
Better Horses (horses are essential, faster, etc.)
Harvest Overhaul (underrated, and a must have in my opinion. Changes plant and animal loot to give you much more, and animals won't carry gold or gems)
Environment
Rustic Weathers & Lighting (by far the best weather/lighting mod on PS4. Lighting is realistic but not drab, weather is diverse and impacts game play. Rain storms are severe and blizzards can be terrible to navigate in, but you also get light showers and flurries. Also, it's the only weather mod I've ever used that somehow manages to have made the sound of rain audible when you are inside a building. A must have)
Supreme and Volumetric Fog (adds intense fog when appropriate. Really cool and works well with Rustic Weathers)
ELE Interior Lighting Overhaul (a must have, totally changes the way interior lighting works)
Skyrim is Windy (makes leaves/grass move with the wind)
WATER (revamps water entirely. Must have)
Fallen Trees (must have, just looks awesome)
Dense Grass (adds grass lol)
Lamposts of Skyrim (nice to have lanterns along the roads)
Bridges of Skyrim (straight forward, adds some cool bridges)
Point the Way (adds road signs, very useful for Survival Mode where you cannot fast travel)
Insignificant Object Remover (removes rocks and grass underwater to improve frame rate)
Weapons, Armors, Clothing and Crafting
TAOS: The Art of Smithing (compilation of the best TAOS mods. Must have as it changes so much about crafting)
Missing Tempering Recipes Fix (allows you to temper items that couldn't be tempered before)
WAR: Immersive Weapons (adjusts speed and stagger for all weapons and fixes the Greatsword speed bug as well)
Katana Pack (cyan49 makes some of the best mods, this adds craftable katanas for every material)
Paladin, Ranger & Mercenary Armory (adds a ton of armor and weapons that are just re-works of vanilla gear, but very useful as it adds a ton of little things like Paladin swords, Light Armor Ranger Hoods, Light Armor Mage Robes, etc.)
Morag Tong Master Assassin Armor (adds a Morag Tong set with really good enchantments to their headquarters on Solstheim)
Handwraps (lets you craft clothing, light armor and heavy armor hand wraps. Perfect for unarmed characters as it makes you look like a cool martial artist)
Unarmed Damage Increase Ring (must have for unarmed builds. Adds 5 rings to Belethor's that increases unarmed damage by 50 points up to 600 points. I use the 50 on my unarmed monk build to still be immersive and not cheat)
Exquisite Clothing (awesome mod that both renames all clothing [so all Clothes have unique names - Merchant Clothes, Barkeep Clothes, etc.] and adds a bunch of new items to Radiant Raiment including light armor versions of High King Torygg's gear)
Tailor's Measure (this mod is both a utility to change NPC outfits and a bug-fixer in itself. So, the GET: No More Dead Merchants mod I was using glitched out and made Nurelion strip to his underwear for some reason. Stumped on how to fix it, I realized this mod could help. Now Nurelion is wearing some nice blue mage robes. It also can help you change an NPC's gear if you think what they are wearing is silly and it has a ton of options. Be careful, as if you uninstall this when you have custom clothes on someone, they will be naked. Read the description carefully, but this is a great tool)
Portable Tools: Survival Mode Edition (another mod that has insane utility. Allows you to craft items to set up a camp: tents, bed rolls, campfires, chest, candles, etc. All storage you make is safe. I've used this to turn two locations - Narzulbur and Blind Cliff Cave - into full-on player homes. You can do infinite things with this mod)
NPCs
Immersive Citizens (must have. Complete revamp of NPC AI)
Realistic Conversations (dialogue overhaul for NPCs)
Vampire Knights (All of SkaerKrow's mods are great. I've only found 1 bug in any of them, in his Path Stalkers one, which I'm not using anymore. This one adds a ton of Vampire and Vampire Hunter content - enemies, followers, armor, weapons and dungeons. A must-have if you are doing a character that's involved with Dawnguard or a Vampire themselves)
Wolf Blooded (see above, but for Werewolves. Must add for Companions characters, adds ton of wolf-themed weapons, armors, encounter, followers, etc. Incredible)
Dragon Spawn (another SkaerKrow mod, this one has some Dragon worshipers and other interesting NPCs, armor and weapons)
Dragon Priest Gear Overhaul (completely changes the Dragon Priest masks and gives them some cool unique weapons as well)
Killable Generals (removes essential status from the Civil War Generals)
Immersive Civil War Units (adjusts the armor and weapons of Imperials and Stormcloaks. Only issue is that Stormcloaks have a bizarre amount of gear in their inventory if you loot their dead bodies. A bit immersion breaking in that regard, and I am still looking for the fix)
NPCs Don't Drop Weapons Upon Death (NPCs won't actually drop their weapons, but they stay in their inventory. Helps remove clutter/save bloat)
Lore and Gender Heights (adjusts all NPCs and the player character to lore-specific heights)
Realistic AI Detection (revamp of how NPCs can detect you when sneaking)
Sound, Music and Audio
Best Skyrim Ps4 Mods
Improved Sounds ('A simple mod that modifies hundreds of sounds in the game, from the volume of a river flowing, to the sound of a sword swinging'. Must have)
Player Home Tavern Music (plays the music from inns and taverns when you are in a player home. Ends up working with some modded player homes too, which is a nice bonus)
Combat Music Fix (fixes the glitch where high level characters wouldn't have combat music ever)
Hopefully this helps. Above are 97 mods, and I also have 3 mods - Fimbulvetr Retreat, Project Hippie and Feminine Females - that are no longer on the Bethesda page. That brings me to the 100 mod limit on PS4. I wrote the names exactly, so if you are looking for one just search on Bethesda. Most are available on XBOX and PC as well.
EDIT - added ELE Interior Lighting Overhaul, Hold Border Banners (which I've always had but just skipped over) and Dragon Spawn. Removed Spell Light Dynamic Shadows (I found out it had a bug that caused a ton of crashes in Dragonsreach - Farengar casts Candlelight and the shadows cause the game to crash) and Morrowind Music Integration as I realized I like the idea of Solstheim having separate music.
EDIT 2 - removed Hold Border Banners (found out that it causes water clipping bugs near Riverwood) and added Werewolf Perks Expanded.