TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Phoenix Flavour, at it's core, is a modding guide like many others, teaching you how to set up a certain set of tools and mods for best results. Unlike other modding guides, it contains many optional mods as well as extensive customisation option.
Overall, the guide is highly accessible for modding beginners with its countless additional notes, explanations and screenshots. The less experience you have with modding Skyrim, the more important it is that you read everything carefully.
The guide was written with the assumption that most readers have little previous knowledge about modding and supplies the basics before going more in-depth. Whenever you feel confident about your knowledge in a certain area, feel free to skip ahead.
If you are unwilling to dig deep into the topic of modding Skyrim, there is always the Wabbajack option (more on that below).
Anyone who does not want to or is unable to invest large amounts of time into modding Skyrim SE should look into the Wabbajack version of The Phoenix Flavour instead of the Classic Guide (manual installation).
Wabbajack is an auto-installer capable of "cloning" a full mod setup including all tweaks and changes to someone else's system. It requires virtually no modding experiences and little effort, although the automated download process does require a Nexus Premium account.
| Advantages and Disadvantages of Wabbajack | |
|---|---|
| ✅ | The actual mod installation can be done over night with zero effort. |
| ✅ | All additional instructions will take much less time to follow and complete than a full run of the Classic Guide would. |
| ✅ | Since most of the process is automated, it's unlikely that you will make a mistake that takes time to track and fix. |
| ⛔ | At least one month's Nexus Premium subscription is required for Wabbajack to automatically download the files. |
| ⛔ | You will learn nothing about modding or utilising the required tools. |
| ⛔ | You will miss out on the Customisation options that the Classic Guide features. |
Regardless of whether you build the setup manually with the Classic Guide or automated with the Wabbajack Guide, here is what the resulting mod setup will feature:
- A Better Skyrim: The guide includes hundreds of mods across forty categories, all carefully selected to fit my vision of a lore-friendly, improved but not radically changed Skyrim. The Phoenix Flavour strives to provide a solid upgrade of the vanilla experience with modern visuals and additional content.
- Custom Files and Patches: Both the final patch as well as some patches and plugin replacers installed during the mod setup have been made specifically for the guide by Umgak and myself. They ensure compatibility as well as consistency between all included mods.
- Customisability: In order to account for differences in taste among all users, a large amount of mods were marked as optional and are not required to be installed. Other mods come with extensive customisation options usually provided ingame through Mod Configuration Menus. A list of additional compatible mods and optional tweaks is available in a dedicated section of the guide.
- Performance: The Phoenix Flavour was created for gameplay instead of screen-archery and will for most people deliver solid results on a 1080p monitor resolution. For higher resolutions, better hardware is required. Through INI changes, reasonable texture resolutions, a performance-friendly grass overhaul as well as optional ENB installation and the choice to use low settings in DynDOLOD you can tweak your game until you reach a stable 60FPS.
The concept of "vanilla plus" simply refers to a mod or mod setup that improves the existing game without attempting to turn it into something entirely different. It is a matter of preference and there are guides with different approaches out there for those who are tired of Skyrim's core gameplay.
You can find a full list of mods here.
- Visuals: Obsidian Weathers, Luminosity and Relighting Skyrim, Cathedral Landscapes.
- Textures: Skyrim Realistic Overhaul as base, then Noble Skyrim 2K overwritten by dozens of smaller mods.
- Distant Level of Detail (LOD): DynDOLOD is included and mandatory, 3D tree LOD is optional.
- ENBSeries: Using ENB is optional, there are instructions to add a preset and related mods.
- Body Replacer: Caliente's Beautiful Bodies Enhancer.
- Perk Overhaul: Featuring Adamant - A Perk Overhaul, vanilla-plus-style and very light-weight.
- Combat: Based around Wildcat, both vanilla difficulty as well as lethal, fast-paced combat are possible.
- Loot and Rarity: Concept borrowed from Morrowloot, although much lighter and more stream-lined.
- New Companions: custom-voiced companions of (arguably) the highest quality are included: Inigo, Lucien and 3DNPCs
- DLC-Sized Mods: None included (although 3DNPC could be described as such).
- Needs and Survival Mods: None included.
The Phoenix Flavour is built using the most advanced, feature-rich mod manager out there: Mod Organizer 2, a tool vastly superior to both the outdated Nexus Mod Manager as well as the newer Vortex.
In addition to MO2, we will routinely utilise the official Creation Kit as well as SSEEdit and the Cathedral Assets Optimizer in the Classic Guide. Over its course you will be provided with detailed instructions for all these tools (and more) in order to teach you how and when to use them correctly.
This guide neither supports nor recommends LOOT. You should not use it at any point on a TPF installation.
The specs below are recommended for those looking to install all visual mods with high settings as well as 3D tree LOD through DynDOLOD and a full ENB preset. There are plenty options within the guide that allow you to lower its performance impact so that the modded game remains playable even on weaker machines.
Modded Skyrim is highly GPU-dependent. A fast card with plenty of VRAM will considerably improve performance.
| Hardware | Suggested |
|---|---|
| CPU | processor with high single core performance (3.2GHz or more) |
| RAM | 8-16 GB of DDR3 or DDR4 memory, running at 2400MHz or faster |
| GPU | a modern card with at least 4GB of VRAM (ideally 6-8GB) |
| Hard Drive | at least 100GB of free space on a fast HDD or SSD |
| Hardware | My PC |
|---|---|
| CPU | Intel i5 7600k @4.2GHz, hybrid-cooled |
| GPU | EVGA GTX 1070 Founder’s Edition (8192MB VRAM) |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4-3200 Memory |
| SSD | Samsung 850 Evo Series 256GB SSD (OS) |
| SSD | Samsung 860 Evo Series 1TB SSD (Games) |
| Monitor 1 | LG 27GL850-B UltraGear 1440p @144Hz (my primary monitor) |
| Monitor 2 | Acer S242HL 1080p @60Hz (my secondary monitor) |
Never underestimate the impact that high monitor resolutions have on performance. I would consider my setup to be on the higher end of the mid-tier spectrum, and when playing at 1080p I can get stable 60-100 FPS everywhere. At 1440p, I notice a considerable performance impact, losing 20 FPS on average. With the amount of additional pixels to render on resolutions like 1440p and upwards, the hardware requirement does go up quite harshly. And don’t expect 60FPS when playing on 4K with ENB.
The guide includes instructions to change the game's resolution.
Now that you have an idea of what the guide can offer you, it is your turn to decide which route to take. Continue with the Setup to install the guide manually or find the Wabbajack installer with instructions here.
On our dedicated Discord server for The Phoenix Flavour, we are providing support for the main guide as well as the Wabbajack version of TPF. We are also talking guide changes, Skyrim modding, and gaming in general. Feel free to join us here!
My primary concern is the main guide - The Phoenix Flavour for Skyrim SE. It is being updated regularly with new mods and improvements.
I also work on a Beginner's Guide (SkyPlus) that I would like to continually expand. I am planning to add a "DIY Kit" section in the future which is supposed to provide resources for the building of a custom setup. While it cannot contain any specifics, there are still many general rules and tips to give about the creation of a setup. Because this is fairly complex, I've had it on the backburner for a long, long time.
For the Wabbajack guys I'm working on a general Quickstart guide that covers the setup and preparations before a Wabbajack list can be installed.
Whenever I'm fed up with Kyne's Peace and SKYRIM BELONGS TO THE NORDS, I hide in Boston for a bit. My Fallout 4 list is still in an early WIP stage but I am planning to release it as a Wabbajack installer eventually.
The Phoenix Flavour guide could never exist in its current complexity without Umgak, our resident expert on all things modding, who has found herself in charge of the conflict resolution for the entire guide.
I would also like to give thanks to:
- Faron, Cassi, Slim, and D1Z4STR (who are currently our Discord moderators).
- Lively (thanks for that Wabbajack stuff bby).
- alsa (for being a helpful presence).
- DarkLadyLexy (use her guide if you are interested in LOTD).
- erri120 (for setting me on the path of Github).
- All the current and past contributors.
- Everyone who has been active on our server, leaving screenshots and feedback.
- And of course my lovely Patreons!