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Bethesda wanted to capitalize on this with Skyrim Creation Club, a means of supporting mod creators to create high-quality mods that have a premium price tied to them. This has resulted in a massive amount of controversy about the practice, but few talk about the quality of the creations in question. Like the millions of free mods on the Nexus, it’s a mixed bag.
Updated November 1, 2021 by Erik Petrovich: The Skyrim Creation Club had its fair share of controversy in its time, but with the release of Skyrim Anniversary Edition (which contains a swathe of Creation Club mods), many players are going back to Skyrim Special Edition to see what the service has to offer. Many were put off by the high prices of the Credits used in the Creation Club, but ultimately it’s the best place to get reliable DLC for Skyrim while supporting creators too. It’s a place where players can download official spell extensions through addons like the Arcane Accessories, or find themselves a new companion in the Pets of Skyrim mod. There’s plenty of Skyrim Creation Club content available, but not all of it stands out.
13 What Is The Skyrim Creation Club?
The Skyrim Special Edition Creation Club is the primary way a player can mod the remastered version of the game, as many mods can be installed via third-party means or manually. In Skyrim all Creation Club content has a Credit amount associated with it, as players have to spend money on Creation Club Credits in the amounts listed below to download anything.
750 Creation Club Credits: $7. 99 1500 Creation Club Credits: $14. 99 3000 Creation Club Credits: $24. 99 5500 Creation Club Credits: $39. 99
In this way, players are able to more directly support the creators of Creation Club assets, though it’s certainly not without controversy. With the release of Skyrim: Anniversary Edition a variety of these mods will become built-in to the main game rather than serve as addons, though not all of the best creation club mods Skyrim Special Edition offers will be included.
Accessing Skyrim Creation Club Content
The Skyrim Creation Club is not like the Steam Workshop or Nexus Mods where players can go to a website to view available addons. The storefront is only available in-game through the main menu, and Credits for the Creation Club can similarly only be bought through the in-game interface or via Steam or the console-appropriate marketplace.
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Getting access to Skyrim Creation Club mods is as easy as launching Skyrim Special Edition and navigating to the “Creation Club” tab in the main menu. This will launch a browser where players can sort through mods. Additionally, there is a “Mods” tab below the “Creation Club” tab that lets players maintain and adjust their installed mods as needed.
12 Pets of Skyrim
The Pets of Skyrim mod adds five companion pets to Skyrim, being a frostbite spider, a goat, a skeever, a fox, and a rabbit alongside a lengthy quest chain to unlock them in the first place. Each of the five pets has its own ability, like the frostbite spider being able to spin web traps, the fox being able to hunt treasure, and the rabbit that can locate harvestable plants.
It’s a pretty cheap mod at only 300 Creation Club credits and it adds a lot more than just animal companions to the game. There are several new books to read that go over the new systems, new items including a pack and a collar, as well as several new systems for taking care of and learning about the new companions.
11 Saints & Seducers
Saints & Seducers adds a new questline to Skyrim that involves an insane mage trying to merge Sheogorath’s realm with Nirn. In gameplay terms, this is effectively one long Shivering Isles-themed dungeon romp with some Oblivion-themed enemies and loot for good measure, making it one of the best Skyrim Creation Club mods (and one of the most pricey).
The quality of this creation is surprisingly high, blending the vibrant art style of Oblivion’s Shivering Isles with Skyrim expertly. New items and enemies are also of high quality and worth using in any playthrough. It is rather expensive at 1,500 points, hence why ranking this higher would be hard to justify.
10 Civil War Champions
The Civil War backdrop of Skyrim is definitely one of the world’s most interesting aspects, but there’s no denying the fact that this setting fizzles out a bit after the corresponding quest is over and done with. However, by spending 600 points, players can squeeze out a bit more content from this war.
The Civil War Champions pack adds two new armors, along with a quest that sees you taking the side of one faction as their champion as you participate in a vicious duel against the other warring faction’s champion. It’s a great way to flesh out the conflict between the Imperials and the Stormcloaks.
9 Arcane Archer Pack…
Skyrim has one of the most flexible leveling systems in any RPG, allowing players to play nearly any build they want. Some archetypes are missing, though. One archetype is an arcane archer, using magical arrows to fire spells from afar.
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Well, the Arcane Archer Pack fulfills that fantasy rather well. This mod grants spell-infused arrows such as Telekinesis arrows or Chain-Lightning arrows. For 150 points, this isn’t a bad deal. There are mods on the Nexus that do something similar, but none are as simple as this one.
8 …And Arcane Accessories
Arcane Accessories is an addon that no mage in Skyrim Special Edition should go without. It adds a whopping 28 new items to the game, which includes 16 new spells that fit perfectly into progression through the regular game. These spells range from a variety of Elemental ranged attacks to a variety of useful out-of-combat spells to the powerful Touch of Death absorb ability.
Two sets of robes, the Robes of Conjuration and Illusion and the Robes of Destruction and Alteration, make their wearers more proficient at two schools of magic at once, which scale from Novice to Master level. Access to the Arcane Accessories can be unlocked by completing the new Lost Library quest which begins in Hob’s Fall Cave after unlocking the mod for 100 Creation Club Credits.
7 Camping
While this might be a minor integration, one can’t deny that having the ability to camp will do wonders when it comes to immersion. This Skyrim Creation Club mod allows the Dragonborn to carry a portable camp that can be used for sleeping and cooking on the go.
The best part about the Camping mod is that it pairs off perfectly with the Survival Mode mod that can be purchased in the Skyrim Creation Club as well. Any player who wants their travels in Skyrim to feel slightly more realistic need only try out the Camping mod for themselves.
6 Elianora Home Bundle
Modded player houses are hit or miss for Skyrim. Most player houses either have a plethora of bugs that make them unusable over a playthrough or are located in inconvenient locations. Mod author Elianora has some fantastic mods on the Nexus as well as a few high-quality housing Creations in the Creation Club—some of which are tied to the Elianora Home Bundle.
Three houses are tied to this bundle that each have some theme. The Tundra Homestead is arguably the most whelming of the bunch but matches the style of Hearthfire’s player homes perfectly. Myrwatch is an excellent player home for mages due to its arcane aesthetic that borrows heavily from the College of Winterhold. Finally, the Shadowfoot Sanctum Creation is a cozy den located in the Riften Ratways, perfect for a thief playthrough. For 1,110 points, obtaining three houses that are bug-free is a great deal. Each Creation can also be individually purchased for 400 points each.
5 Alternate Armor Series
Looks are subjective, but most can agree that the armor in Skyrim is some of the coolest designed armor in any RPG. With that said, sometimes rocking the same look can get stale.
Meet the Alternate Armor Series. This series of mods overhauls a type of armor with a new visual style while still respecting the source material. Each armor set is 100 points, and the quality of these armors is higher than the base armor. They look great, are easy to get, and are worth the cost.
4 Survival Mode
The harsh climate of Skyrim is reflected in dialogue but not in gameplay. Mods exist that fix this, but these mods either range from too extreme to not impactful enough. Survival Mode is a Creation Club mod that, for 500 points, adds new mechanics that mimic key survival elements seen in Fallout: New Vegas or Fallout 4 such as hunger.
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Body temperature is also a key part of this mod, making inns and abandoned buildings more useful than they were in the base game. It’s a nice deviation from Skyrim’s core gameplay loop without being too hardcore to enjoy. This is particularly good for those on PlayStation 4 since Frostfall and other survival mods aren’t available on that platform.
3 Nix-Hound
Any fan of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind will be aware of the infamous Nix-Hound, one of the most iconic enemies in the game. It was a shame that this enemy hadn’t appeared in later games… that is, until the advent of the Skyrim Creation Club mod that goes by the same name.
Downloading this mod adds hostile Nix-Hounds to the region of Solstheim, making for a rather nostalgic ride as the player hacks these iconic enemies to bits once again. Along with this, there’s also a friendly Nix-Hound that the player can purchase to accompany them in their travels as well!
2 Forgotten Seasons
Forgotten Seasons is one of Skyrim’s most expensive pieces of Creation Club content, costing a whopping 1200 points. What this Creation provides is an expertly made dungeon that is one of Skyrim’s best.
Each section of the new Runoff Caverns dungeon is themed off of a season, resulting in 4 sections total. Each zone has enemies that accompany that theme. It is visually impressive, has some great combat moments, and grants some impressive items for completing it. Forgotten Seasons is the highest quality content available currently, but its high price point makes it a tough sell. It is completely worth it if it ever goes on sale, however.
1 Rare Curios
It seems the cheapest items on the Creation Club are some of the platform’s best pieces of content. Rare Curios is yet another example of a 100 point mod that is worth the price.
Rare Curios adds over 50 new Alchemy ingredients that include various effects and recipes not available in the vanilla game such as spell resistance and cure poison. These items are seamlessly added into the core game, and the mod even comes with new bolt types and Ayleid treasures!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is available for PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 3, 4, and 5, Xbox 360, One, and X|S
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