- Preamble
- Installation
- Updating
- In Game MCM Options
- How to start playing
- FAQ
- Removing the Modlist
- Credits and Thanks
- Contact
- Contributing
- Changelog
QWEST! was born after a few friends were talking about how some of their friends couldn't enjoy cool quests in modded Skyrim, even with Wabbajack, due to the hardware requirements. This list has very few graphical enhancements which can be removed if you find you're struggling to run it.
I chose mods that overhaul almost all of the vanilla quests, added some major mods such as Legacy of the Dragonborn, Interesting NPC's, Wyrmstooth and the Forgotten city, and also overhauled the animations a bit. You'll also find new music, new armors and weapons that are linked to LotD and vanilla enhancing weathers and lighting. You even have the choice between EnaiRim and SimonRim with the 2 available Profiles!
If you can run vanilla Skyrim, you should be able to run this.
If you have any questions regarding the list, you're free to ask in the main Wabbajack Discord or mine :here
It is a fork of the amazing SME/FT list; if you want to build your own list check it out here!
The name and picture are a reference to the amazing and wholesome Quest Sprout comic available on swordscomic.com. Their official Twitter is here.
Depending on the choice of profile, you will have a very different approach to the list: EnaiRim will make you and your enemies stronger overall while SimonRim will remain simple and closer to Vanilla. If you're unfamiliar with those overhauls, you should read their modpages as their changes are at the base of everything.
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Survival - If you chose to not make any modifications and go with the survival mods, you will have way more micromanagement to do. First you'll need to eat and sleep to survive, second you'll need to survive the cold or your stamina will drain and you'll die, third you'll need to clean yourself or you'll have very bad prices and everyone will smell you when trying to sneak. You should definitely check the Skill Trees within your campfire on top of the vanilla skill trees, your arrows will have a weight and you will need to sleep to level up your Character level. Fast travel is disabled in multiple of these mods so there's no easy way to reactivate it at all times but there's an alternative: Horizon Zero Dawn Fast Travel. If you're unfamiliar with those mods, have a read on Campfire, The Frozen North, Dirt and Blood, Keep it Clean and SunHelm. Lastly, all profiles have way better horse management thanks to Convenient Horses, you can even let one of your followers mount behind you thanks to Ride Sharing!
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Added Quests - Legacy of the Dragonborn is the core spine of the list. QWEST! is the list with most addons, all Wabbajack lists overall, but many new lands aren't integrated with it, I'm especially thinking of Unslaad, Darkend or Undeath. Interesting NPCs, Skyrim Sewers 4 and VIGILANT are in and provide artifacts aswell as many new stuff to do, on top of those there is still The Tools of Kagrenac, G.R.I.M, The Forgotten City, Wyrmstooth, Helgen Reborn or Beyond Reach. A much more detailled Spreadsheet can be found here.
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Overhaul-ed Quests - From Finding Derkeethus to Save the Icerunner with Thieves' Guild Night On the Town or Missives, many quests are changed. You should know that the Thieves Guild have Requirements now, and you can Renounce the Daedra if you will, while Vampires can skip Fort Dawnguard. A much more detailled Spreadsheet can be found here.
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Followers - Interesting NPCs will provide a nice amount of high quality followers but there is still the unforgettable Inigo, Lucien, Auri (with her cute face overhaul!), Vilja, and even Hoth. There is also Serana Dialogue Edit and Add-on for all the love for the goth cutie.
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Loot, Artefacts and Leveling - Reliquary of Myth overhauls all vanilla Artifacts and Dynamic Dungeon Loot coupled with Lock Related Loot makes sure you do not find spider webs in the dungeon chests. Experience handles levels, quests will level your character levels, skills will not level it anymore, but they'll level independently. Also there's a skill cap to avoid powerleveling, it is determined by the Player Character level, you really should check the modpage!
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Enemies and General Difficulty - QWEST! isn't here to make the game feel like it's Dark Souls' difficulty. My philosophy on enemies is that diversity should be more important than difficulty, and that very diversity is gonna make the game more challenging. That is why you will find all kinds of bandits, draugrs, vampires, dragons, while they all have new cool spells due to EEOS and their spawns are increased due to Genesis Unleashed. Here's a few mods adding diversity: For Draugrs we have: DUI, BriDO, Cannibal Draugr on Solstheim. Bandits have OBIS and it's Patrol addon. Vampires have Better Vampire NPCs. Dragons have Splendor, Diverse Dragons Collection and Zim's Dragon Improvements. This list isn't exhaustive!
These steps are only needed if you install this Modlist for the first time. If you are updating the Modlist, jump straight to Updating.
I doubt you need to do this since you likely already have this installed. This 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.
If you have your steam library in program files, read this to put it somewhere else. I will not provide support to people with Skyrim in their Program Files folder.
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.
Just do 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/ by deleting the contents in it. Alternatively, use the Shredder.
If you ever used Vortex to mod Skyrim SE, using the Shredder becomes a critically important step, as Vortex will conflict heavily with any Wabbajack installation, so backup your stuff or shred it.
After you have done everything above and got a clean SSE installation ready, start the Launcher and open the Options menu.
- Leave the quality to what Skyrim sets it to, but you can lower it if you wish. FPS gain is minor though.
- 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.
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.
Wabbajack will not work with Windows 7, I will not offer any kind of support for users of that operating system.
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.
- Open Wabbajack
- Browse the Gallery and Select QWEST!
- Create a folder for the List at the root of your drive (like the Wabbajack folder) called "QWEST!".
- Select the created folder in 3. as your installation folder.
- Go back to your drive, and create a new folder, called "Wabbajack Downloads Folder". This specific folder can be on a different drive if you wish.
- Select the created folder in 5. as your downloads folder.
- 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.
Copy the all of the files from the QWEST!/Game Folder Files directory into your game folder.
On a Ryzen 5 2400G paired with a GTX 950 2GB VRAM and 24GB RAM (never used more than 14GB, so 8GB RAM should be fine, WHEN installed on an SSD, if you use an HDD 16GB RAM minimum is recommended):
BethINI is located within QWEST!/Tools.
Make sure that Bethini is configured to the profile folder you will use in MO2 and not your vanilla INIs or any change will be rendered worthless!
Here are the normal INI Path that you should have in the Setup tab: EnaiRim SimonRim. If one or the other doesn't show properly, use the browse option to manually set it up.
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BethINI(Low)(locked to 60 FPS):
- Everywhere(where it got tested): 60FPS
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BethINI(Medium)(locked to 60 FPS):
- Outdoors: 30-40 FPS (average 40)
- Cities: 40-60 FPS (average 50)
- Indoors: 60FPS
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If you have 8GB RAM and NO SSD or if it still has frame drops, then I recommend:
- Testing:
- BethINI(Medium) -> BethINI(Poor) and stopping by the preset that has a playable framerate for you.
- Testing:
This list is aimed towards very low end PCs, but that doesn't mean ENB isn't an option.
I recommend anyone with a 2GB card to skip this step and test in game, then check afterwards for what's following, ENB is the biggest performance hit in modding (if you don't go nuts with textures which I didn't). For the lucky ones with more than 2GB of VRAM but still low end, we have a tweaked Zangdar's Rudy Cathedral specifically made for the list. There is also another option which is ReShade, it's even less heavy but does less, instructions on this option are below The Truth ENB's installation instructions.
To install Zangdar's Rudy Cathedral, navigate to Your Installation Folder\ENB Presets(here) and simply drag and drop the contents of either the performance one or the higher end one to your Skyrim SE Directory (where the game .exe is). Those.
On 2GB Cards, the average fps is 30 with the Low End Preset and Medium Bethini Preset, it is also very dependent on your PC, I do not recommend ENBs if your PC has an AMD GPU.
Now Let's talk about the ReShade option. ReShade is simpler than ENBs, they generally focus on color correction but if rightly used, they can enhance the game graphics nicely with even lower fps loss, couple that with a SKyrim set on Low and even the weaker gpus can experience more than vanilla Skyrim lighting. For Skyrim, it's very common for ReShade to be made with a certain ENB in mind, but some exist to be used on top of Vanilla Skyrim. I'll introduce you to 2 of them.
You can have both at the same time in your Skyrim, so if you want to try both you can download them and follow the installation instructions:
- Download the latest ReShade Version from here
- Open ReShade.exe, Select SkyrimSE.exe as the game you want to install it to.
- Select Direct3D 10/11/12 as the rendering API
- Check/Tick every single box until ReShade is installed. Now we'll go back to the presets downloaded
- Open the ReShade Preset archive and paste it to your game folder.
- When Skyrim launches (Refer to the next step in the readme if lost on this step), press the home button on your keyboard and select the .ini file you just put in your Skyrim Folder as the loaded .ini
- Press home again to close the window. Know that you can switch any ini at anytime during your gameplay, so if you want to compare between the 2 that I recommend, you can totally do that in game.
QWEST! has 2 profiles, one with EnaiRim, one with SimonRim. The main difference is that EnaiRim is kinda unbalanced and very strong while SimonRim is kinda like what vanilla Skyrim should've been. You can look them up here: EnaiRim and SimonRim.
To change the profile, there's a dropdown menu on the top left of MO2, the default profile is EnaiRim, so only change if you want the SimonRim one.
On top of the 2 Profiles available for the core gameplay mods, QWEST! comes with some Quality of Life changes and gameplay mods that some may or may not enjoy. All of those are supported as written here, other modifications fall under Rule 11: No support will be given if modifications happen.
First possible modifications is the Survival Setup. It is enabled by default as it has to be patched by Synthesis to work correctly. But if you follow carefully what I'm about to write, you will be able to remove it entirely. Yes entirely as I do not support removing only hypothermia or cleaning and washing while keeping food and sleep needs. There are 2 steps:
- Untick all the mods under
Survival Stuff( those ) - Tick the
Synthesis No Survivalat the bottom of the left pannel corresponding to your profile.
Second modification: Paper Ui. It is enabled by default but you can disable one or both of those depending on what you want.
Third modification: Unequip Quiver. Disabled by default, it'll make your Player Character unequip it's ammunition everytime you go out of combat if turned on.
Fourth modification: Oblivion Style HUD. Disabled by default, it'll make the UI have an oblivion style like this
Fifth Modification is the difficulty teaks. Disabled by default, one allows you to chose which skills to progress into upon leveling up, it's the Static Skill Leveling for Experience, don't forget to tick the Uncapper mod right above it! The second allows NPCs to have Ordinator perks, this will make the game really, really harder, but you must play the EnaiRim profile. If you want any of those 2 mods, tick them in MO2.
Sixth Modification is Quick Loot. Enabled by default, it adds a little box showing the inventory of whatever container, corpse, or anything that you're hovering, so you know what's inside without opening it. If you do not want that, simply untick the mod. (It's under the "Quality of Life" Separator in MO2)
Seventh and last modification: Gamepad Guide. Disabled by default, ask for the Gamepad guide in MY Discord (not Wabbajack's) if you want the details on how to use a controller with QWEST!
Head over to the installation folder and locate an executable named ModOrganizer.exe and launch it. Once its launched there will be a dropdown box on the top right and a big run button next to it. Ensure it is set to SKSE by selecting it in the dropdown box and then hitting the run button.
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.
Once the game has loaded. Wait until there are no more messages on the top left corner. Then you can hit escape and click on Mod Configuration to continue this section.
MCMs are not automated due to a personal choice: There are many, many important tweaks, informations, and usefull stuff in them that can solve problems or make your experience better. Those are my own and what I recommend for the least amount of problems and a balanced experience.
- The difficulty in this Modlist is quite harder due to Genesis Spawns and enemy diversity brought by Draugr Upgrades and Improvements, OBIS or Better Vampire NPCs. I highly suggest playing in Adept or Expert and putting it higher only if you feel it's too easy.
- Presets :
- Load User Settings
- Settings
- Enable/Disable
- Bow Camera : Disabled
- Bow Crosshair : Disabled
- Arrow Wounds (Player) : Disabled
- Arrow Wounds (NPCs) : Disabled
- Persistant Arrows : Disabled
- Enable/Disable
- Weapons - Player
- Shield Stay on arm while Equipped: Enable
- Toggle un/equipping Torso Armor: Enable
- Misc. Player :
- Require Torso Armor : Enabled
- (you can tweak stuff showing on you whenever you want, if something bothers you)
- NPC :
- Enable Weapons : Enabled
- Not an MCM
- In your inventory there's an item called "Vampire's Bloodgem" allowing to tweak stuff by clicking on it while crouched.
- I leave it as default. You can tweak it all you want. Experimental stuff may cause issues as expected. When done drop the bloodgem.
- In your inventory there's an item called "Vampire's Bloodgem" allowing to tweak stuff by clicking on it while crouched.
- Gameplay
- Hotkeys
- Set your Hotkeys however you want
- I go by :
- Create item : C
- Build Campfire : B
- Harvest wood : H
- Instincts : Nothing
- Hotkeys
- Dragons
- Nether Dragon : Disabled
- Sanguine Dragon : Disabled
- Vile Dragon : Disabled
- Player
- Modesty Male: Disabled
- Modesty Female: Disabled
- NPC
- Modesty Male: Disabled
- Modesty Female: Disabled
- System :
- Load From File
- Nights
- Spawn Only Night Time: Enabled
- Features
- Invulnerable During Transformation: Enabled
- If you want to be a Werebear instead:
- Immersion : Werebear : Enabled
- Main Settings
- Learn Spell Power: Enabled
- It gives you a power to put npcs in stagger once per IRL hour so you can rip their hearts, you can also bind it so you can do it anytime.
- Activation
- Compass Activation
- Key press toggles : Enabled
- Compass Activation
- Nothing is really important, you can toggle stuff depending on your Race though! Remember that you can't switch race/sex using Showracemenu because of such a mod!
- The mod should remain deactivated. No matter what.
- LOTD Settings → General → Shippment Crate Locations :
- Carriages: Enabled
- Inns: Enabled
- Player Houses: Enabled
- A lot of stuff is very nice in LOTD's MCMs, you should check them all just to know what they do, it'll be useful on the long run.
- Presets
- Save Settings with FISS
- Load User Settings? : GO
- Save Settings with FISS
- Leave as is
- Why? Enabling in the MCMs is only for the additional spawns option, but that is handled by Genesis Unleashed, so you'd end up with 50 bandits in Embershard Mine. Sounds fun? Enable it at your own peril.
- Settings
- Enable: Enabled
- General → Item List :
- Font Size : Small
- Category Icon Theme : CELTIC
- Advanced → SWF Version Checking :
- Map Menu : Disabled
- Favorites Menu : Disabled
- Inventory Menu : Disabled
- Barter Menu : Disabled
- Container Menu : Disabled
- Crafting Menu : Disabled
- Presets
- Load Preset There are 2 presets available for your to use, I personally prefer the Modern one but some prefer EasyEase's, try both and see which you prefer!
- Compatibility
- Archery Gameplay Overhaul: Enabled
- Only this one needs to be enabled!
- General Settings
- General
- SunHelm Suvival : Enabled (close MCMs and wait a bit in game)
- General
- It is a fully customizable mod so if something bothers you in game, you can go back to this MCM and tweak it.
- Set all tents in all tabs as "Rain and Snow" instead of "No Protection"
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Here is where you configure which key will allow you to Sneak (or crouch) and which will allow you to Dodge. TUDM hijacks the vanilla sneak key to have no delay or script lag.
- A Keybinding example would be:
- Vanilla Sneak key within Options: C
- Sneak key within TUDM's MCM: Left Control
- A Keybinding example would be:
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Now your character will roll/sidestep with C and Sneak with Left Control
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I also would recommend to use sidestep (personal preference)
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Please Note:
- You cannot dodge in the Starting Cell, you need to choose a path first.
- The first time you'll dodge, you'll be stuck in a weird position in the air, Press G (or your dodge swap key) 2 times to be un stuck.
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Npc Settings :
- NPC Dodge AI: Disabled
- Misc Options
- Load Preset
Cycle through all the tabs
- Load Preset
- Load Preset again (now it will stick)
- Extra Options
- Load Preset
Cycle through all the tabs
- Load Preset
- Load Preset again (now it will stick)
- Load Preset
- Disable Injuries: Enabled
- Allow Wildcat to manage difficulty: Enabled
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Max Number of Dungeon Spawns: 5
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Allow Spawning at Player: Disabled
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Disable Surface Spawns: Enabled
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Enable after you choose a start and interracted with the bed. Very next step basically.
Simply step up to the statue of mara and choose a start.
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.
Although I do not see why someone would have such a screen with the targetted minimals of the list, here's a document made by Mantis to help you solve such problems. Here
Ask it in my Discord, link here. The support channel in the Wabbajack Discord is for Installation questions, not support over in game stuff or suggestions.
Report it in my Discord, link here. The support channel in the Wabbajack Discord is for Installation questions, not bug reports.
Some Beards/hair is clipping through my head! There's duplicate eyes! Mouth is clipping! NPCs look ugly!
All of this is known. Those are the consequences of using HMB II which has been community voted to stay. I am sick and tired of dealing with those issues and they're very minor. You are playing a quest and content oriented list and you're bothering me with graphical problems? Get a better PC and play Elysium.
Headwear that conceals your identity will stop NPCs from interacting with you, for more details check Sneak Tools' Modpage
1st person animations are overhauled by First Person Combat Animations Overhaul 2.0. If it bothers you, you can safely disable it in MO2.
I thank you for that thought but you should probably donate to Wabbajack first. Link here. If you still want to only support me, my patreon is here.
- YOU for actually reading the readme. Thanks a ton!!
- Halgari and everyone in the WJ Team - Wabbajack is awesome and so are you
- Xanza and Jdsmith inspiring me to make this, y'all are neat.
- Luca for all the testing, feedback and recommendations, you are amazing.
- Althro for being such a resourceful person and helping with the Discord and development a lot.
- zino for testing 2.0 and onwards updates, allowing for accurate feedback on performance for 2GB GPUs.
- Every each of my Patreons for supporting me, and with the Special Folks of my discord, for helping with the development.
While I'm always available on the Wabbajack Discord, I would advise checking the Discord. The same goes for Enhancements or Feature/Mod Requests. DO NOT DM ME ON DISCORD. I WILL NOT PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR YOU IN DMS AND I WILL BLOCK YOU but you can safely ping me in #qwest-support or my own Discord, I'll answer whenever I can.
See Changelog.