- Preamble
- Installation
- Updating
- Noteworthy Mods
- In-Game MCM Options
- Character Creation
- FAQ
- Tweaking Performance
- Removing the Modlist
- Credits and Thanks
- Contact
- Changelog
Notes for Testers: Plzread
Essentia is a modlist that I feel is the "soul" of what Skyrim Special Edition should have been, with enhanced mechanics, roleplaying utilities, graphics, quests, dialogue, and NPC's, all while remaining as simple to pick up and play as possible.
This modlist primarily revolves around Morrowind Miscellania, Simon Magus' mods, and Legacy of the Dragonbon.
Combat is handled by Blade and Blunt, Arena, and a custom Experience patch that rewards you for combat.
These steps are only needed if you install this Modlist for the first time. If you update the Modlist, jump straight to Updating.
I doubt you need to do this since you likely already have this installed. The package is required for MO2 and you can download it from Microsoft. Download the x64 version under "Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019". Direct link if you can't find it.
The Steam Overlay can cause issues with ENB and is recommended to be turned off.
Open the Properties window (right click the game in your Library->Properties), navigate to the General tab and un-tick the Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game checkbox.
SSE is still being updated by Bethesda (they only add Creation Club content). Whenever the game updates, the entire modding community goes silent for the next one or two weeks because some mods need to be updated to the latest game runtime version.
To ensure that Steam does not automatically updates the game for you, head over to the Properties window, navigate to the Updates tab and change Automatic updates to Only update this game when I launch it. You should also disable the Steam Cloud while you're at it.
This entire Modlist is in English and 99% of all mods you will find are also in English. I highly recommend playing the game in English and I will not give support to people with a non-English game.
Open the Steam Properties window, navigate to the Language tab and select English from the dropdown menu.
I highly recommend uninstalling the game through Steam, deleting the game folder and reinstalling it. You should also clean up the Skyrim Special Edition folder in Documents/My Games/.
After you have done everything above and got a clean SSE installation ready, start the Launcher and open the Options menu.
- Click on High
- Set the Aspect Ratio and Resolution to your monitor's native values
- Set Antialiasing to Off
- Check Windowed Mode and Borderless
Start the game and exit once you're in the main menu.
Grab the latest release of Essentia from the release tab.
Download the release to a working folder. This folder must not be in a common folders like your Desktop, Downloads or Program Files folder. It's best to create a Wabbajack folder near the root level of your drive like C:/Wabbajack.
Grab the latest release of Wabbajack from here and place the Wabbajack.exe file in the working folder.
The download and installation process can take a very long time depending on your system specs. Wabbajack will calculate the amount of threads it will use at the start of the installation. To have the highest amount of threads and thus the fastest speed, it is advised to have the working folder on an SSD. This modlist requires that you have at least 140 GB of free space to install successfully.
- Open Wabbajack
- Load the Modlist from Disk
- Adjust the download and installation paths
- Click the Go/Begin button
- Wait for Wabbajack to finish
There are a lot of different scenarios where Wabbajack will produce an error. I recommend re-running Wabbajack before posting anything. Wabbajack will continue where it left off so you loose no progress.
Could not download x:
If a mod updated and the old files got deleted, it is impossible to download them. In this case just wait till I update the Modlist.
x is not a whitelisted download:
This can happen when I update the modlist. Check if a new update is available and wait if there is none.
Wabbajack could not find my game folder:
Wabbajack will not work with a pirated version of the game. If you own the game on Steam, go back to the Pre-Installation step.
Download the latest ENB Series from here and copy d3d11.dll and d3dcompiler_46e.dll to your game folder.
Copy the all of the files from the MO2/Game Folder Files directory into your game folder.
If this Modlist receives an update please check the Changelog before doing anything. Always backup your saves or start a new game after updating.
Wabbajack will delete all files that are not part of the Modlist when updating!
This means that any additional mods you have installed on top of the Modlist will be deleted. Your downloads folder will not be touched!
Updating is like installing. You only have to make sure that you select the same path and tick the overwrite existing Modlist button.
Blade and Blunt is a streamlined combat overhaul designed to enhance Skyrim’s difficulty and encourage active resource management. Unlike other combat overhauls, it does not seek to import mechanics from other games into Skyrim. Instead, it enhances the existing mechanics of Skyrim’s combat and focuses on tightening the gameplay, to allow for more player skill and RPG-like character development.
Arena is a difficulty overhaul designed to enhance Skyrim’s original Encounter Zones rather than replace them. It is designed to further the sense of progression in the game, by tiering dungeons according to enemy type. This encourages the players to make judgments about the difficulty of an encounter based on experience and intuition, rather than consulting a complex chart on a mod page. This approach allows Arena to provide players with a more robust sense of progression, while retaining the freedom and independence of an open world game.
Trua, a simple mod that makes shrines more immersive and adds aspects of religious worship. No longer can you just accept any random blessing from any shrine. Using a shrine now presents you with a choice to worship the deity or not. If you do, you kneel in reverence and receive the deity's blessing and the Pray power, allowing you to pray to them anywhere.
Adamant is a streamlined perk overhaul designed to enhance every aspect of your Skyrim experience. It thoroughly overhauls the game’s eighteen skill trees in order to provide the player with compelling choices and smooth progression from start to finish. While Adamant does increase the total number of perks in the game, it avoids bloat, sprawl, and power creep by balancing its selection of perks around Vanilla perk gains. Like many modern perk overhauls, it provides support for popular gameplay styles that are underutilized in the Vanilla game, such as shouts, staves, and unarmed combat.
Skyrim Uncapper - Adamant Arena Uncapper Preset. Balanced progression across builds, freedom to pursue noncombat skills, dynamic 1-50 advancement experience. Perk rate expects Adamant. Engaging high-level growth.
Werewolves are overhauled by Growl, Sacrosanct for vampires.
Aetherious is a streamlined race overhaul designed to make races more meaningful without making them more restrictive.
Mundus is a streamlined Standing Stone overhaul designed to ensure that every stone fills a niche and offers competitive bonuses to different playstyles.
Essentia comes with a wide variety of new quest and encounters. A few are listed below.
Hammet's Dungeons add high quality dungeons.
Missives adds a laEssentia number of localized radiant quests found at Missive Boards of varying difficulty and with varying rewards. Missives has been extended to Solstheim.
The Wheels of Lull is an enormous, sprawling expansion sized quest mod that serves not just only as a sequel to Sotha Sil Expanded, but ties together almost all my previous Skyrim quest mods, including Aethernautics, Mzark, and even Brhuce Hammar. In it, the player is recruited into the ranks of a rejected Chronographer platoon, and shunted off to the Clockwork City outpost of Lull-Mor, a precariously perched outpost at the edge of Sotha Sil's domain. Much like Sotha Sil Expanded, the mod gives a focus on puzzle and problem solving. Featuring five enormous dungeons, with mini-bosses, unique treasures, and plenty of puzzles, you'll have your work cut out for you. The player will find themselves exploring strange new landscapes, from the deepest oceans, to underground forests, to giant foundries, and going up against strange new monsters, while wielding several new weapons, from the Harquebuses of Chronographers, to the great Unwinder of Goveri. They will find themselves dressing themselves in Chronographer robes. WoL also serves as introduction to the stranger side of TES lore, diving into the strange and ridiculous world of TES metaphysics, and will teach players about the Towers, Landfall, and the eponymous Wheels of Lull.
The Tale of Tsatampra Xiros Battle your way through the fragmented memories of Hermaeus Mora's rogue acolyte - Tsatampra Xiros. The pages of his chronicle are populated with distorted visions of himself, his fellow acolytes, and the terrifying creatures he consorted with. And somewhere, nestled in the heart of the Tale, Xiros himself awaits you...
Krovaxis The weak and the winnowed tremble! Molag Bal has visited a host of new powers upon his temple. Long dormant beneath the ice, these functions of Krovaxis once again present themselves to a worthy steward...
Legacy of the Dragonborn is one of the most acclaimed expansion sized mods for Skyrim which offers without equal; the most versatile, most expansive and most extensive display space for artifacts the Elder Scrolls series has ever seen! On top of offering a Museum for display of nearly 3500 potential unique items and sets (including supported mods), this mod offers an entirely new guild faction you start from the ground up, “The Explorer’s Society”. It offers dozens of new quest, a handful of major quest arcs and numerous useful and unique mechanics all centered around your home at the Dragonborn Gallery in Solitude.
Jk's Skyrim, Dawn of Skyrim, Expanded Towns and Cities, ETaC Jk's Skyrim replacer
Simple yet effective, Total Character Makeover with additional textures for beast races, and True Faces of Skyrim. This is a plugin-less setup, and it still looks fantastic.
Inigo is a fully voiced khajiit adventuring companion with over 7000 lines of unique dialogue - much of it about you. He'll level alongside you and avoid most traps. If you're sneaking he won't chatter and he'll whisper if you talk to him. He can run out of arrows. He's highly skilled in archery, one-handed, and sneak.
Lucien is a fully voiced Imperial follower with around 3000 lines of immersive, lore-friendly dialogue. Though he arrives in Skyrim as a cowardly scholar, he'll gradually gain strength and confidence by your side until he grows into a hero in his own right.
We're using Cathedral Weathers, True Storms, and a few addons for Cathedral to replace some of its weathers with Obsidian variants. The ENB included with the install is Silent Horizons, that I have customized to my taste and performance needs, as well as many extra custom LUTs included.
Everything not listed below is already configured for you. Feel free to peruse the settings and change them as you like.
Wait until no new messages appear in the top left corner!
After starting a new game, you will spawn in the LAL cell. You’ll find a key to the shelves on a table, with basic loadout necessities. Wait until the text in the top left is finished loading all of your mods, then press Esc and go to your MCM settings.
If it's not listed below then either the defaults are good enough or it's up to user preference. Work through all of the menus mentioned below while additionally customizing anything else as you see fit.
- Presets :
- Load user settings
- System → Save/Load Configuration :
- Load from File : Click
- Disable Lanterns in villages
- LOTD Settings → General → Shippment Crate Locations :
- Carriages : Enabled
- Inns : Enabled
- Player Houses : Enabled
- Quick Light → Brightness :
- Brightness - Bright
- General → Item List :
- Font Size : User Preference
- Advanced → SWF Version Checking :
- Map Menu : Disabled
- Favorites Menu : Disabled
- Inventory Menu : Disabled
- Barter Menu : Disabled
- Container Menu : Disabled
- Crafting Menu : Disabled
- Profile System → Menu Settings :
- Load : Essentia
Using RaceMenu you can create a stunning looking character. I have included A LOT of new eyes. Have fun!
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You have Nemesis, why not use CGO?
- Because I don't want to.
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Will you help me if I add [X] mod?
- No. The only mods that I will give assistance adding are widescreen fixes. If you want to build on this list, feel free, but do not ask how to do so in my support channel. Use general-se-discussion.
My Setup:
- Ryzen 2700x
- 2080 Super
- 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM (CL 14)
- Game and MO2 running on an M.2 NVME SSD
This should always be the first thing you tweak. Disabling the ENB entirely can give you anything from 20 to >70 FPS. The ENB this Modlist comes with (see Audio and Weather) is rather performance intensive. Open the ENB GUI using Right Shift + Enter (Right Shift is under the Enter key). This will open up the ENB GUI where you can enable and disable certain effects in the left panel.
Bloom: Can give you up to 3 FPS, will make light sources less brightDepthOfField: Can give you up to 10 FPS, disabled by default and not really suited for gameplayAmbient Occlusion: This one is a big hitter. You can get up to 20 FPS by disabling this but the effect is very noticeableDistant/DetailedShadow: Those two can really give you a lot of FPS back depending on your shader settings (game settings). They are very noticeable.ComplexFire/ParticleLights: You won't see a lot of difference at first when disabling those two, but when particles are on screen (eg using magic or near light sources such as fires), they can burn through your FPS
I highly recommend using BethINI which is included in this Modlist (can be found in MO2/tools/BethINI). I recommend tweaking the Detail section for more FPS:
Shadow Resolution: Very big one. A good balance is2048which is the borderline between high FPS drainage and garbage looking shadows.Ambient Occlusion: Highly recommended to leave this atNone. The ENB this Modlist comes with, uses the ENB SAO which is 10x better and performance friendly than base game SAO.Detailed Draw Distance: Maybe try2000instead of2800but you won't notice a lot of FPS gain (maybe 1-3)Remove Shadows: If you really struggle, use this. This will disable all Shadows (not recommended)
You can just remove the MO2 folder and be done with it. SKSE and ENB files will still be in your game folder so I recommend using ENB and ReShade Manager if you want to remove the ENB.
- YOU for actually reading the readme. Thanks a ton!!
- erri120, iXanza, and jdsmith2816 - README format
- Halgari and everyone the WJ Team - Wabbajack is awesome and so are you
- Frenchy - Thanks for the great work on the Linkle preset!
- Johanlh for keeping the base visuals of NOISE in his NOIR modlist.
- My friends here at Wabbajack, for being the best friends I've ever had.
While I'm always available on the Wabbajack Discord, I would advise checking the Issues (open and closed ones) on GitHub first if you have any problems. The same goes for Enhancements or Feature/Mod Requests. DO NOT DM ME ON DISCORD. I WILL NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR YOU IN DMS.
See Changelog.