Criteria: Encounter Type, Encounter AI, Compatibility with other Mods Listed and Level of Increased Difficulty.

Artwork by GhostAgent

The Sands of Time by tonycubed2 and the SoT Team

Of course it would be stupid of us to not feature our own mod on our own site showcasing a mod-list that we put together for you. So, here we are! Seriously though, if you haven't already, you should give the Sands of Time (SoT) a try. Click here to head to over to the Nexus, or here to enter our main site to find out all the details.

Artwork by GhostAgent

Genesis - Dynamically Increased Enemy Spawns and Enhanced Loot by the SoT Team

A wonderful little compliment to the SoT mod. In fact, Genesis used to be a feature of our Sands of Time mod, but was so highly requested to be pulled out and made available as a standalone, we had no choice but to do so. (Ok so we had a choice, but since we're nice, we decided to oblige all of you.) Genesis makes dungeons (and only dungeons) more difficult by dynamically adding in extra bad guys and nasty guards. For example, a treasure chest will have a specially assigned guard given to it and that guard will change with each play-through of that dungeon. So the element of surprise is always there. This particular mod has been dubbed the "lite" version of Sands of Time, so for those of you that don't like our main mod, this is an alternative that should suffice. For those of you that love the main mod, this will happily work along side it.

RECOMMENDED: We recommend using Genesis along with our other mod, Eternal Darkness - Redone (see the "Environmental / Atmospheric" section), to enhance the creepiness factor.

Artwork by GhostAgent

Populated Skyrim - Hell Edition by the SoT Team

he famous "Populated" series was a brilliant set of mods created by Erkeil and his team that fleshed out Skyrim by adding NPCs in towns, prisons, forts, caverns, caves, roads and so on. It, unlike our mod, placed NPCs statically instead of dynamically which is easier on the Skyrim engine. The added NPCs created a nice atmosphere by adding life to an empty world, and the increased enemies in the dungeons made for a nice challenge. The mods took off and received immediate praise. Eventually Erkeil and his team retired from modding and gave permission for anyone to take over their mods and do with them as they wish. There are numerous re-released versions of Erkeil's Populated Mods--some with added content and some without. The opportunity seemed to good to pass up, so our team decided to absorb his mods and add our own flair. We have released his series of mods independently, and also as an all-in-one merged version. The merged version is what we have dubbed the "Hell Edition", and all the independent mods are available on the Hell Edition's Nexus page. If you are interested in an increased challenge and a more lifelike Skyrim, then this mod is a good choice for you.

Fun Fact: Genesis was our original unique take on adding extra NPCs to dungeons (and truthfully, Erkeil's mods and our own were in competition to one another) and using the two together could be over-kill for your game. If you want to use Genesis and still have additional NPCs wandering around on the surface world, we would suggest to NOT use the Hell Edition of the mod. Instead, use the independent versions of the mod and skip out on the "Forts Towers and Places" as well as the "Dungeons Caves and Ruins" mods.

OBIS - Organized Bandits In Skyrim by Indigoblade

This mod adds unique and awesome (and hard) bandits into the world of Skyrim--which on its own has very bland and dull bandits. Further, SoT's mod creator, tonycubed2 and Indigoblade work together to ensure maximum cohesion when using the two mods together. If you always felt that the (supposedly) brutal bandits of Skyrim were......sort of angry "my parents never hugged me as a child" pushovers, then OBIS is the solution you've been looking for.

NOTE: If using SoT, be sure to place OBIS AFTER SoT in your load order. Don't ask, just do.

Skyrim Immersive Creatures by the very awesome lifestorock

You will be treated to some of the most beautiful and terrifying creatures you could ever imagine once this mod is activated in your game. It adds creatures to the leveled lists as well as in hand-placed special and unique areas. Also, the mod is customizable with a very easy to understand MCM menu.

Monster Mod maintained by Ironman5000 (created by Dogtown1)

This will add many more nasty ghouls for you to encounter on your exploits. It adds all the monsters to the leveled lists so encountering them is as simple as possible--just install and enjoy. The monsters are all very unique and are very impressive. The majority could easily fall in the "horror" category;
they fit right in with typical (and epic) rpg encounters.

NOTE: If you use both Skyrim Immersive Creatures and Monster Mod, you will need to create a bashed patch. If you are not familiar with what a bashed patch is or how to create one, it would be best to stick with just one of either of those mods until you are more comfortable with the advanced modding utilities.

Deadly Dragons by 3jiou

This mod makes dragons truly fearsome by increasing their damage and health levels. It makes them very deadly--probably where the author of the mod got the name from.

WARNING: Do NOT install the additional Deadly Monsters add-on. It is known to have issues playing nicely with other mods.

OUR RECOMMEND SETTINGS: Change the Dragon difficulty--through MCM menu--to "Expert")

Dragon Combat Overhaul by the meme-loving Apollodown

This mod will stomp the living daylight out of you. It adds some very unique (and aggressive) AI to the dragons. They will fly more and shake their surroundings when swooshing (actual word) down low. This works 100% in tandem with Deadly Dragons and when fighting a dragon with these two mods together......you'll be in for one of the most epic fights you've ever been in.

DFB - Random Encounters - MCM another mod from the all too awesome lifestorock

This mod adds a multitude of lore-friendly encounters all over the vast lands of Skyrim. Using this along with any other encounter mod will guarantee that you'll never have a dull day.

NOTE: Using this with other encounter mods will produce many enemy spawns. You'll need to ensure your weak and insignificant computer can handle the extra spawns and optimizing your game is highly recommended.

Northern Encounters by i73fi

The north part of Skyrim (apart from being frigid cold--thanks to Frostfall--see [Survivalist]) is sort of lonely and boring. Adding Northern Encounters will add much needed (albeit) dangerous life to the northern areas of the game. The mod's encounters are lore friendly and it is rich with content. This one is particularly fun for the explorer types out there.

FUN FACT: Use along with Frostfall for a truly difficult time.

Extra Guards by jayr848

When using mods (like the above) that adds extra bad guys, there is a higher risk of the various towns being attacked (since Bethesda likes barren settlements), therefore it is a good idea to increase the guards in settled areas to help fight off various enemies that decide it should be pretty easy taknig out a couple of guards and claiming the settlement for themselves. Hence, we recommend Extra Guards. They will fight off random attacks and further, they provide more flesh-kindling for when the Dragons come! (Yay!) Even Further, they make stealing and being a criminal much more difficult since there are always eyes watching.

RECOMMENDED: We recommend using the "lite" version of the mod.

NOTE: The author copies over guards from the primary holds, so for example you will hear comments from the guards in Riverwood regarding places in Whiterun. To us, this is a non-issue, just think of it as Whiterun sending guards to Riverwood--of course they would talk about things and events in Whiterun. So it fits in fine, but for you anal souls out there, it might be an issue.

NOTICE from CrushBoss (optimization guru):

Newer users to modding should only choose one or two of the above to use in their game. Adding too many mods that make similar alterations can stress your game and cause freezing or crashing. Using two or more of the above mods together require tweaking and 3rd party utilities which should be reserved for those comfortable with modding their games.