You're out for a hike in the woods. Suddenly, you hear an howl. It's a wolf pack... And they have spotted you! Now you have to act quickly if you want to survive!

If you ever encounter a pack of wolves in the woods, your first thought should never be, "Ah, an easy fight and some free furs." A wolf pack should be something that's actually dangerous to encounter. With that being said, having Skywild installed certainly won't make the game unplayable – just a lot more challenging and dangerous.

This mod is essentially Skywild II, with many improved features and an overall cleaner performance and compatibility compared to its previous installment.





Most wild animals have had their stats buffed to an extent where an encounter would be more or less dangerous for any player, regardless of level. In real life, no matter how skilled of a hunter you are, you wouldn't go hunting bear and elk with a sword or axe, and so it doesn't make any sense that you would in Skyrim either. The wild animals are not any smarter though, and they still lack strategy, so keeping them at bay should not really be hard, as long as you approach them with caution. In addition to that, any large animal that realistically would knock down a human, most likely will. On the contrary, you probably won't be able to knock down many of them.

As a rule of thumb, most animals have an amount of Health that would be somewhat equivalent to their weight in kilograms (or often more). You can also count on that carnivores will have less Health for more attack damage, and that herbivores will have more Health for less attack damage.


Wolves

With decent damage and Health, this is a common animal you need to look out for if you're walking in the woods. They still have a relatively small Health pool compared to some of the other animals though, and an experienced hunter should easily be able to defeat them. Additionally, Skyrim's large domestic dogs share most of the physical traits with their wild counterparts, aside from the fear of fire.


Bears

Bears scale from small to big, and the bigger the species, the more powerful and dangerous. Large bears have a massive Health pool as well as the ability to knock down their opponents when they raise on their hind legs. A bear is an imposing creature for anyone to encounter, and a confrontation with a bear is dangerous. It is worth to remember though, that bears are quite defensive and won't attack unless someone comes too close after being warned. And if a bear is charging, fire might just be what you need to scare them away.


Sabre Cats

A giant feline carnivore and the apex predator of Skyrim's animal kingdom; the sabre cat is not one to be trifled with. They will quietly sneak up on their prey until they charge for the kill. With high speed, the ability to knock down anyone they leap at, along with massive attack damage, this large predator is one of the most dangerous creatures to beware of when exploring the wilderness of Skyrim. Hunting them can be a challenging yet exciting experience for anyone brave enough to try. Their inherent fear of fire can also be used against them.


Slaughterfish

With their razor sharp teeth, slaughterfish will do tremendous damage to anyone they encounter in the water. This is one good reason for why the waters of Skyrim are dangerous.


Elk

With a huge size, a defensive temperament and beefy stats, the elk is a smaller and weaker alternative to the mammoth. Elk are big and strong animals. Running into and provoking an elk in the woods can be really dangerous – and someone who refuses to heed their warnings might soon find themselves trampled to death under their hooves.


Horkers

With a large body and some thick hide, a horker is not exactly easy to kill. However, as slow as they are, they aren't really a threat unless you're stupid enough to actually provoke them up close. Or in the water.


Mammoths

The elephants of the tundra, mammoths will always remain calm as long as they aren't provoked. With a massive Health pool, massive attack damage, as well as the ability to knock down and trample most things that tries to harm them, the mammoth is the by far strongest creature in Skyrim seen to brute strength. In addition to all this, they are also near immune to frost damage. It can be very profitable to hunt mammoths however, thanks to their very valuable tusks.





In addition to making animals more dangerous, Skywild also makes some of the monsters and creatures far more imposing than before. Unlike normal animals however, where you can assume certain things based on size and appearance, monsters and creatures are unnatural and much more unpredictable.


Giants

Just like their mammoth pets, the giants themselves also possess high Health and damage, along with the ability to knock down humans and other small creatures who are stupid enough to approach them.


Trolls

The wild species of trolls are bigger, tougher and stronger, and will throw around with humans as if they were dolls. It is not a smart idea to approach these creatures unless prepared. These trolls however, are extremely vulnerable to fire, which also puts a temporary stop to their otherwise rapid Health regeneration.


Werewolves

With the shape of a wolf, strength of a bear, ferocity of a sabre cat, and mind of a savage human, werewolves are some of the most dangerous creatures that exist in Skyrim. Overall, one can assume that people stupid enough to approach these creatures won't walk away alive.


Dwarven Automatons

Ancient robots made out of magically infused metal need nothing like weapons or armour. Naturally, they take almost no damage from neither conventional weapons nor magic, but a clever adventurer might figure out how to apply electricity to cause a short circuit.


Ice Wraiths

Strange elemental creatures with a shape that seems to be a combination of a ghost, a snake and an icicle; only a fool would assume these beings to be harmless. However, like many creatures in Skyrim's frozen lands, fire is an effective way to deal with them.


Spriggans

Strange magical entities guarding the realm of Skyrim, the spriggans can be very dangerous to anyone venturing too close. With their bodies entirely made out of wood however, they are almost always highly vulnerable to fire.


Spiders and Chaurus

Some people in Skyrim have nightmares as a result of these big bugs. With relatively high Health and damage, you probably want to deal with these creatures from a distance. Due to their major weakness to fire however, any smart adventurer will be able to quickly deal with them.


Atronachs

Mysterious creatures summoned from unknown places by powerful mages, the atronachs are not to be trifled with.

• The Flame Atronach has decent Magicka but a weakness to frost.
• The Frost Atronach has a huge body, lots of Health and can deliver heavy attacks, but is also very vulnerable to fire.
• The Storm Atronach is a huge, dangerous being capable of shocking most enemies it goes up against.
  

Optional DLC files

There are two optional additional files which affect the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLCs respectively. The creatures included there are listed below. Notice that some of these creatures (especially dogs) have stats similar to the ones from the main mod. On the other hand, wild trolls are much bigger and stronger than the armored ones that can acquired with the Dawnguard. This is of course a matter of balancing things.

Dawnguard

• Death Hounds
• Huskies
• Gargoyles
• Armored Trolls
• Vale Creatures
• Forgemaster
  

Dragonborn

• Werebears
• Lurkers
• Karstaag
  

Things to be aware of

• Unlike the previous installment of Skywild, this newer version was made to be what the name suggests and nothing else. Hence there are no strange changes to the playable races, which previously was a concern for some users.
  

• Due to a bug in the vanilla game which was fixed by the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch, the bear and cave bear species had originally been mixed up. It's advisable to have the patch installed when using Skywild. There wouldn't actually be any technical issues without it, but it could look a little bit odd.
  

• Skywild does not add any buff to the poison attacks utilized by spiders and chaurus, but users who have installerad Skytoxin will notice how these creatures have become some of the most dangerous ones you could ever encounter when exploring the depths and marshes of Skyrim.
  

Things that are NOT changed

Skywild does not touch or affect dragons in any way whatsoever. This is mainly for three reasons:

• Dragons are not really animals or monsters, but rather quest-based creatures and part of the story.
• If dragons had any of their stats tweaked, chances are that shouts and quests would have balancing issues.
• Many people probably have other mods which specifically deal with both dragons and shouts.
  

Do NOT download this mod if...

• You already find the vanilla game to be quite difficult.
• You mainly want to play the game for story-based purposes.
• You want to play as "the strong hero" who saves the world.
• You expect to win every encounter you have.
  

Balancing

The creatures you will encounter are indeed far stronger than those of the vanilla game. They should not be considered imbalanced however, since they scale and compare pretty well among each other. A bear can kill an elk, an elk can kill a wolf, a wolf pack can take down a wounded elk, but none of them can take down the mammoth.

Skywild is based on a really simple idea; the bear doesn't care whether you're a novice adventurer or the world's most accomplished hero. If you are reckless enough and come too close, the bear will maul you to death. It's not more complicated than that. Your experience and level won't grant you enough strength to physically brawl with a bear; your experience simply grants you the knowledge for how to deal with it in a safe way – or to avoid it.


Frequent questions, concerns and complaints

• Yes, many of the animals have very large Health pools. Yes, you will be able to hunt them once your archery level is high enough to do some serious damage. Yes, you need to practice.
  

• As soon as you are knocked to the ground by a large animal, you're most likely dead. You're not "supposed" to be able to get back up again. If so, that would just be a bonus. You made a bad decision in how to approach the animal, and now you feel the consequences of that.
  

• Frequent knockdowns are absolutely necessary to motivate the player to actually be scared. Everything else could easily be countered with sufficient stats and gear from the player's side.
  

• No, being a stealth archer is not the only viable way to play the game. Yes, it might be useful, but the main idea is simply that you shouldn't go on an animal killing spree in the first place.
  

• Yes, plate armour gives a fair bit of protection from cutting, slicing and stabbing. But an elk is heavy and cares little about things like that, especially when trampling you to death using its comparatively blunt, crushing force.
  

• Skywild is intended to be realistically challenging and dangerous, not realistic. There is a big difference between the two, and the latter would not quite be possible using Skyrim's game engine.
  

• If it cannot be done well, it should not be done at all. Yes, it would be interesting to see some new AI behaviour, such as hunting, mating etc., but quite frankly, this game was not designed for that. Trying to implement it would likely cause new issues, and in the end be more immersion breaking than the vanilla game. It's better to focus on the features that are known to work.
  

• The majority if the most "overpowered" creatures also have very distinct weaknesses. Exploit those.
  

• In terms of difficulty, Skywild is likely to be the most extreme (serious) creature mod available on the Nexus. It isn't just making things "a bit stronger than in the vanilla game". The difference between the novice difficulty and the legendary difficulty is far less noticeable than the difference between the vanilla game and Skywild. Be aware of this before you think of downloading this mod.
  

• This is a free mod. It is not mandatory to use. If you do not like the gameplay features it adds, do not download it. If you have a constructive piece of feedback, you should feel very welcome to present that. It will be appreciated. If you have a question or concern that has not been addressed here, you should feel most welcome to ask. It will be appreciated too. If you however only want to point out how much you dislike the mod, that will not be appreciated, and it's simply unnecessary. Please refrain from that.
  

Installation

Using Vortex is the recommended method.


Requirements

All you need is SEE, but you are highly recommended to also have the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch installed.

For the optional DLC files, you need their respective DLCs. In SSE, the DLCs should be available by default, unless you or a mod somehow manually had them removed.


Compatibility

Skywild should be fully compatible with virtually any mods as long as they don't affect creatures.

It is highly recommended to start a new character for using this mod to ensure that all new features start working as intended.

It is not recommended to use Skywild alongside any mods that add new creatures to the game, such as Animallica. There most likely wouldn't be any technical issues or bugs, but considering the creatures would follow a different system of stats, things could look a bit strange and out of place.




Check out our other mods

Skytoxin - Poisons are extremely potent and dangerous.

Skyrim Belongs to the Nords - Adds almost 500 new generic NPCs to the cities and villages of Skyrim.

Skyrim Belongs to the Nords - Bandit Edition - Bandit groups will be much more realistic and not use magic.

Gravity of Nirn - Fall damage is at truly realistic levels.

Skyrace - Playable races are more realistic.