Armor version here. Original (patcher) version here. Expansion patches here.

Know Your Enemy Redux fixes Skyrim's repetitive combat by changing the resistance and susceptibility of enemies to different weapons and spells. The end result is that you will no longer be able to slaughter your way through Skyrim armed with only a single weapon or spell, instead you will need to flexibly adapt your strategy to the current foe.

• Enemies are given traits that affect their resistances.
• Weapons are split into blade, axes, blunt and arrows (fists count as blunt).
• Spells are split into fire, frost, and shock. Poison and disease damage are affected too.
• All vanilla enemies (except dragons and playable races) are affected, and all done seamlessly via SPID.
• Mod added enemies are automatically affected provided they are part of vanilla races, patches for many mods that add new races are here.
• The player is given a spell to reveal a target's traits (with an optional patch to make it a lesser power instead).
• A series of books are hidden throughout Skyrim that when read enhance your abilities against certain targets.
  

There are 21 possible traits that reflect aspects of a creature's nature, including its size, habitat, body type and mental capacity. Each creature is given a few traits and they stack to determine their overall resistances and weaknesses. The player is given a spell, "inspect creature", that when cast on a target reveals its traits. There is a patch in the optional downloads to make it a lesser power instead of a spell. The full list of traits is:

Aquatic
Water protects crabs, fish and even lurkers from fire, but conducts electricity.
Resistances: Fire (50%).
Weaknesses: Shock (100%).

Armored
Armor protects against physical damage and can be natural in the case of invertebrates like crabs and chaurus, or even worn by trolls, huskies and skeletons.
Resistances: Blade (x0.5); Blunt (x0.75); Arrows (x0.25).

Big
Large creatures ranging from bears and trolls to giants and mammoths benefit from thermal inertia and general bulkiness.
Resistances: Fire (25%); Frost (25%); Axes (x0.75); Blunt (x0.5); Arrows (x0.75).

Brittle
Brittle creatures, like invertebrates, skeletons and those made of ice, will shatter when struck with blunt weapons or arrows.
Weaknesses: Blunt (x1.5); Arrows (x1.25).

Dwarven machine
Being made of steam powered metal gives dwarven machines many resistances, but also a key weaknesses to frost.
Immunities: Shock; Poison; Disease.
Resistances: Fire (50%); Blade (x0.25); Axes (x0.75); Arrows (x0.25).
Weaknesses: Frost (25%).

Fat
The thick insulation of trolls, horkers and other wild animals provides ample defense.
Resistances: Fire (50%); Frost (50%); Axes (x0.75); Blunt (x0.5).

Fire elemental
Creatures affiliated with fire are immune to fire, but weak to frost.
Immunities: Fire.
Weaknesses: Frost (25%).

Furred
The fur coats of many wild animals protects against the cold.
Resistances: Frost (50%)

Ghostly
Ghosts are immune to most physical damage.
Immunities: Physical attacks, except silver, daedric, dragonbone, stahlrim, dawnguard, bound and ghostly weapons.
Note (1) NPCs still deal half physical damage to ghosts even with regular weapons. This is to get around issues where quests trap you and a bunch of NPCs in a room full of ghosts, and also to stop the player abusing ghostly summons. (2) NPCs with the ghostly trait don't get any other traits except for the three elemental traits if appropriate.

Ice elemental
Creatures affiliated with frost are immune to frost, but weak to fire.
Immunities: Frost.
Weaknesses: Fire (25%).

Plant
Spriggans' wooden bodies are resistant to shock and blunt blows, but weak to fire, axes and disease.
Resistances: Shock (50%); Blunt (x0.5).
Weaknesses: Fire (25%); Axes (x1.5); Disease (50%).

Rocky
Creatures made from living rock or ash are highly resistant to physical damage.
Resistances: Fire (25%); Shock (50%); Blade (x0.25); Axes (x0.75); Arrows (x0.25).

Skeletal
Having no flesh provides a multitude of resistances.
Immunities: Poison; Disease.
Resistances: Fire (75%); Shock (75%); Blade (x0.5); Axes (x0.75); Arrows (x0.1).

Small
Small creatures are physically frail and vulnerable to temperature changes.
Weaknesses: Fire (25%); Frost (25%); Arrows (x1.5).

Shock elemental
Creature affiliated with electricity are immune to shock.
Immunities: Shock.

Supernatural
Creatures not of this plane are immune to all worldly poisons and disease.
Immunities: Poison; Disease.

Strong willed
The mental fortitude of spriggans, hagravens, vampires and other magical beings protects against spells.
Resistances: Fire (25%); Frost (25%); Shock (25%).

Troll kin
Trolls have a crippling weakness to fire.
Weaknesses: Fire (50%).

Undead
The undead have many resistances, but can be dismembered with axes.
Immunities: Poison; Disease.
Resistances: Shock (50%); Blade (x0.75); Blunt (x0.25); Arrows (x0.25).
Weaknesses: Axes (x1.25).

Vascular
The powerful hearts of predators like trolls, bears and sabre cats quickly spread poisons throughout their body and make them vulnerable to bleeding.
Weaknesses: Poison (100%).

Venomous
Venomous creatures are naturally immune to poison.
Immunities: Poison.





A series of 21 books are added to loot lists that unlock new enemy weaknesses that the player can exploit. Eighteen of them concern the above traits, while the remaining three reveal "hidden" traits that otherwise have no effect. The books can be found in boss chests across Skyrim, and are categorized as basic, magical or advanced. Any book can be found anywhere, but bandit, imperial and Stormcloak chests are more likely to contain basic or advanced books, while mage, forsworn, hagraven and vampire chests are more likely to contain magical books. The books are rare though, so happy hunting!

Vol. 1: Furred creatures are 25% weaker to fire.
Vol. 2: Fat creatures take double damage from arrows.
Vol. 3: Big creatures take 25% more damage from blades.
Vol. 4: Small creatures take 50% more damage from blunt weapons.
Vol. 5: Armored creatures take 25% more damage from blunt weapons.
Vol. 6: Dwarven machines are 25% weaker to frost and take 50% more damage from blunt weapons.
Vol. 7: The undead take 25% more damage from axes and blades.
Vol. 8: Venomous creatures lose their poison immunity.
Vol. 9: Fire and ice elementals are 25% weaker to their opposing element, shock elementals lose their shock immunity.
Vol. 10: Plants are 50% weaker to frost.
Vol. 11: Unlocks hidden trait "vile", disease carrying creatures are 25% weaker to frost.
Vol. 12: Skeletons lose their shock resistance and take 25% more damage from blunt weapons.
Vol. 13: Trolls are 50% weaker to fire.
Vol. 14: Unlocks hidden trait "weak willed", domesticated creatures, the undead and summons are 25% weaker to all elements.
Vol. 15: Strong willed creatures take 50% more damage from blunt weapons.
Vol. 16: Unlocks hidden trait "cave dwelling", creatures that live underground are 25% weaker to fire.
Vol. 17: Vascular creatures take 25% more damage from blades.
Vol. 18: Aquatic creatures are 50% weaker to frost.
Vol. 19: Brittle creatures take 50% more damage from axes.
Vol. 20: Supernatural creatures are 50% weaker to shock.
Vol. 21: Rocky creatures are 50% weaker to frost.

Creatures

The player is given the spell "inspect creature" to see a target enemy's traits, but some examples, including the combined effects of different traits, are shown below, with hidden traits in parentheses:

Ash spawn: rocky, supernatural, (weak willed).
Immunities: disease, poison, 
Resistances: fire (-25%), shock (-50%), blade (x0.25), axe (x0.75), arrows (x0.25), 
Ash spawn are tough - unless you find some books - and ash guardians are big too, so even harder.

Bear: big, furred, vascular.
Resistances: fire (-25%), frost (-75%), axe (x0.75), blunt (x0.5), arrows (x0.75), 
Weaknesses: poison (+100%), 
Most predators are furred and vascular. Many snow varieties are fat, but some, like wolves, are not big.

Chaurus: armored, brittle, venomous, (cave dwelling, vile). 
Immunities: poison, 
Resistances: blade (x0.5), arrows (x0.3125), 
Weaknesses: blunt (x1.125), 
Reapers are big, and fledglings small. Note charuses have two of the hidden traits.

Draugr: undead, (vile, cave dwelling, weak willed). 
Immunities: disease, poison, 
Resistances: shock (-50%), blade (x0.75), blunt (x0.25), arrows (x0.25), 
Weaknesses: axe (x1.25), 
Note that aside from undead, all draugr traits are hidden. Hulking draugr are also big.

Dwarven sphere: dwarven machine.
Immunities: Shock; Poison; Disease.
Resistances: Fire (50%); Blade (x0.25); Axes (x0.75); Arrows (x0.25).
Weaknesses: Frost (25%).
Centurions are also big, so much tougher, while spiders are small and so frailer. The forgemaster is a fire elemental.

Falmer: vascular, venomous (cave dwelling, vile).
Immunities: Poison.
Finding the books will unlock many potential weaknesses for falmer.

Flame atronach: fire elemental, supernatural, (weak willed).
Immunities: fire, disease, poison, 
Weaknesses: frost (+25%), 
All atronachs are supernatural and weak willed. While flame atronachs are quite frail, frost atronachs are big, and storm atronachs are rocky.

Skeleton: skeletal, brittle, (weak willed).
Immunities: disease, poison, 
Resistances: fire (-75%), shock (-75%), blade (x0.5), axe (x0.75), arrows (x0.125), 
Weaknesses: blunt (x1.5), 
Variants like bonemen are not weak willed, while some skeletons are armored.

Spider: armored, venomous, brittle, (vile).
Immunities: poison, 
Resistances: blade (x0.5), arrows (x0.3125). 
Weaknesses: blunt (x1.125), 
Spiders are typical of many invertebrates, though some, like mudcrabs, are aquatic.

Spriggan: plant, strong willed.
Resistances: frost (-25%), shock (-75%), blunt (x0.5), 
Weaknesses: fire (+25%), axe (x1.5), disease (+50%), 
Spriggans have mixed effects, burnt spriggans are fire elementals.

Troll: troll kin, furred, vascular.
Resistances: frost (-50%), 
Weaknesses: fire (+50%), poison (+100%), 
Trolls can be armored, and frost trolls are ice elementals.

Vampire: strong willed, undead, (cave dwelling).
Immunities: disease, poison, 
Resistances: fire (-25%), frost (-25%), shock (-75%), blade (x0.75), blunt (x0.25), arrows (x0.25), 
Weaknesses: axe (x1.25), 
Vampire beasts are big.

Technical Information

Installation, Updating and Uninstallation
Install through your mod manager of choice. Updating to v1.4.0 requires a new game, otherwise you can update at any time. To uninstall safely mid-game, delete "know_your_enemy_redux_DISTR.ini".

Requirements
SKSE and SPID.
The first five plugins in your load order must be Skyrim.esm, Update.esm, Dawnguard.esm, HearthFires.esm and Dragonborn.esm.

Performance Impact
None.

Configuration
Edit know_your_enemy_redux_DISTR.ini to change the allocation of traits. It is indexed by trait, with a race key at the top.

Compatibility
In general KYE-Redux is highly compatible, the most common issue is that KYE won't know what to do with mod added races (mod added NPCs that fall within vanilla races are fine). To apply KYE's traits to mod added races see the expansion patches available here.

Beyond this, a couple of minor compatibility issues are possible. They are resolved automatically in the patcher version of the mod, but not in Redux. Here's a summary:

• KYE Redux edits the abilities of vanilla enemy races to remove vanilla resistances and weaknesses. Other mods that change the passive magical effects of vanilla enemy races may edit the same records and so conflict with KYE Redux.
• Where mods add their own resistances and weaknesses (e.g. Bring your Silver, or Advanced Adversary Encounters) they will stack with KYE creating seriously tough enemies.
• Where mods add new elemental spells, they might not interact with KYE Redux's traits.
• CACO messes with poisons and poison resistance. If you use CACO and KYE Redux, CACO's undead poisons won't work against the undead.
  

Comparison with KYE Original

Synergistic mods

Know Your Enemy overhauls enemy defenses, but you'll probably want an enemy offense mod too. Skyrim Revamped - Complete Enemy Overhaul, Rogues 'n' Raiders and Draugr Upgrades and Improvements are all great options.

KYE favors breadth, but my character building mods Master of One, Legacy and Curse of the Firmament all favor specialization. Put them together and you get a fun challenge.

KYE gives you more reason to carry around multiple weapons, so why not show them off with a mod like Immersive Equipment Displays? You can also get a greater variety of weapons with a mod like heavy armory.

My other mods

Building Your Character - diverse and fun builds with strengths and weaknesses
Master of One - A perk overhaul that transforms perks from generic character progression into a means to craft unique and specialized builds.
Curse of the Firmament - A standing stones overhaul that emphasizes tough choices.
Legacy - A race overhaul that bring strengths and weaknesses to each race.
Acolyte - A progressive-yet-unobtrusive religion overhaul with a long path to divinity.

Enemies and Combat - challenging, varied and fair combat
Know Your Enemy (armor module, patcher version) - A resistance and weakness overhaul for enemies and armors.
Know Your Enemy 2 (armor module, integration patch) - An upgraded resistance overhaul: more damage types, more configuration, more polish.
NPC Stat Rescaler - A patcher that adjusts player and NPC stats for faster, fairer, and less spongy combat.
Enemy Releveler - A patcher that adjusts NPC levels to truly delevel the world.

Stats and stat growth - drawing out character growth to stave off premature godhood
Exhaustion - Incremental Fatigue - An ultra-lightweight injury/fatigue system.
Exercise - Incremental Growth - An add-on for Exhaustion that converts fatigue into stat growth.
Geometric Stat Growth - Stats grow by a configurable percentage on level up, instead of a fixed value.

Miscellanea
Challenging Spell Learning - Spell Tomes trigger a costly ritual you must pass to learn spells.
Trainers Galore - An expansion of the training system designed for "training only" leveling.
Pick Your Poison - An alchemical handbook to support strategic foraging.
Configurable Perks Per Level - An MCM to edit how many perk points you get on level up.
XP Editor - A patcher that adjusts xp gain and leveling.
Sightseer - Standing Stones - Guidebooks for the standing stones, collectibles to find, and a hidden quest to unite them.

Mod Lists
Thoughtful Skyrim - A small, gameplay-focussed modlist that rewards preparation and planning.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to everyone who helped with the original version of KYE. Thanks to powerofthree for SPID. Thanks to FinalCatalyst for feedback and suggestions.