Winner of more than 200 Game of the Year Awards, Skyrim Special Edition brings the epic fantasy to life in stunning detail. The Special Edition includes the critically acclaimed game and add-ons with all-new features like remastered art and effects, volumetric god rays, dynamic depth of field, screen-space reflections, and more. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition is a 2016 remastered version of the 2011 game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls series. It was released for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on October 28th, 2016. It was also later released for the Nintendo Switch on November 17th, 2017.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition is a remastered version of Skyrim released in October 2016 and only available on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Special Edition is 64-bit and built on an updated version of the Creation Engine that Bethesda Game Studios used for Fallout 4. The remastered game features high-resolution textures, upgraded graphic effects including new shaders and volumetric god rays, and dynamic field-depth. Skyrim VR is a version based on Special Edition but only supports virtual reality headsets.

Special Edition includes all three official add-ons, Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn. An in-game mod browser is introduced, allowing players to download approved mods from Bethesda.net. This support is extended to players of the console versions for the first time in the series, although PS4 players cannot use mods with custom-made assets. The Creation Club offers paid official add-on content exclusive to the Special Edition.

Special Edition has all the original Patches installed, and there is ongoing patch support with the Special Edition Patch. For updated system requirements, see the official specifications.

• 1Differences from Classic Skyrim
• 2Bug Fixes
• 3Compatibility with Classic Skyrim

Differences from Classic Skyrim[edit]

Gameplay[edit]

• Saved games are now categorized for each character and grouped and displayed separately on the main menu.
  • Saving the game in a cell that has an underscore in its EditorID will cause saved games to not be categorized correctly. No such cells are present by default, but may be added by mods.
• Pressing the Esc key on PC now always opens the Journal instead of the System menu, even if this button is not configured to do so.
• Torturer's Hoods are now marked as playable and can be obtained as loot from the Torturer and generic Thief NPCs. They could not be obtained or used in the original release.
• Reverting from Beast Form will automatically reequip the items you were wearing before transformation. In the original release, your character would always be naked after reverting.
• You can no longer see whether you are far away or not from your next skill point on the Vampire Lord skills screen and on the Werewolf skill screen.
• When being arrested and paying a bounty in Winterhold stolen items are now confiscated, though they end up in the evidence chest in Dawnstar.
• Sprinting is now a toggle instead of holding the key
• Vampire attacks on settlements, a feature introduced with Dawnguard, have been permanently disabled.
• Achievements and trophies are tracked separately for Special Edition and do not carry over from the original game.
  • Achievements and trophies are disabled when the Special Edition is loaded with mods on both PC and console. However, the use of console commands does not disable them. Mods had no effect on achievement progress on the original release.
• Steam trading card support has been removed.
• Kinect Command support has been removed. Although this feature was present on Xbox 360, it has not been carried over to Xbox One.
• Certain locations such as the Ancestor Glade contain far more harvestable plants.
• Many new spawn points have been added where rabbits may appear. These rabbits will be replaced by hostile Bonewolves^CC or Zombies^CC if you have either the Bone Wolf or Plague of the Dead Creations installed, respectively.

Engine[edit]

• Skyrim Special Edition is 64-bit and has been updated to use DirectX 11, giving superior stability and performance compared to the original release. The game can utilize more than 4GB of memory without need for modifications.
• Havok physics and animations have been updated to 64-bit and use a different format to the original release
• Meshes use a different format to the original release
• Special Edition has a native option for borderless windowed mode in launcher settings.
• The game can support vastly more actors on-screen than the original release.
• Alt-Tab performs smoothly with the game and does not cause the visual issues that could occur in the original release.
• Loading screens are now 60 FPS.
• New engine and scripting functionality has been introduced to accommodate Creation Club content.
• A message of the day appears on the main menu advertising Creation Club content (introduced in Patch 1.5).

Graphics[edit]

• Volumetric god-rays have been added
• Screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO) is now supported.
• Rain and snow occlusion is now supported, and is an optional visual setting.
• Flow-based water shaders have been added and enabled for all bodies of water.
• Temporal anti-aliasing support (TSAA) has been added as an alternative visual option to Fast Approximate Anti-Aliasing (FXAA).
• Shadows now display in full resolution, no longer appear blocky or striped, and move smoothly instead of in increments.
• Trees and flora are in higher-resolution.
• The exterior worldspace features vastly more detail, e.g. extra grass, rocks and flora.
• Character generation now morphs between face archetypes instead of abruptly changing.
• A subtle sun flare effect has been added to light sources.
• Special Edition has warmer and more colorful visuals compared to the original release.

Audio[edit]

* Audio is severely compressed and consequently much lower quality than in the original release. This has been quickly fixed in the first update patch for Skyrim: Special Edition. Audio quality is now the same as in the original release.

Mods[edit]

• Special Edition introduces an in-game mod browser via Bethesda.net. The mod menu, displaying load order and allowing mods to be enabled or disabled, is now accessed from an in-game menu. The launcher mod menu has been removed.
  • Mods can be enabled and disabled at any time in-game, though the game will immediately reload all assets.
  • Console version players may download approved mods for the first time, though they must have an account at Bethesda.net.
    • PS4 support is limited and only allows the use of mods utilizing assets already included within the game. Custom assets are not permitted.
    • Xbox One users are limited to using up to 5GB of mods.
• Steam Workshop support has been removed in favor of using Bethesda.net.
• Creation Kit has been updated to 64-bit. The original Creation Kit is not compatible with Special Edition.
• Special Edition ESM and ESP plugins use a slightly different format to the original release. Plugins for the original release need to be updated in Creation Kit 64-bit to work correctly with Special Edition, and assets and archives must be updated to the new formats.
• The ESL format has been introduced for Special Edition with Patch 1.5. It is primarily used for Creation Club content, but can be used for custom mods as well. ESL files do not count towards the 255 plugin limit but do have other limitations.
• A lot of Creation Club content is implemented into the base game at some level, enabling modders to take advantage of certain new scripts and assets. An example of this is the root tunnel tileset from Saints & Seducers, which was added to the base game as a modder's resource.
  • As a result of this, some Creation Club-exclusive items can be obtained via console commands without actually owning or installing the relevant Creation. Examples of this are Rot Scale, Screaming Maw, and Thorn Hook.

Bug Fixes[edit]

Several issues from the original release of Skyrim and Dawnguard have been fixed for Special Edition.

Skyrim[edit]

• Fires no longer display a thin black line around them (issue originally introduced with Classic Patch 1.6).
• NPC lip movement is no longer desynchronized with their dialogue.
• Z-fighting issues on mountains in Whiterun Hold have been resolved.
• The Glass Helmet of Resurgence is now properly named and no longer mistakenly called 'Glass Armor of Resurgence'.
• 21 trees and shrubs have had their 3D positions corrected.
• Some textures that had visual issues have been fixed.

Dawnguard[edit]

• The boats at Icewater Jetty no longer overlap.
• Dawnguard.esm no longer strips A Daedra's Best Friend quest of most of its script properties.
• Wolf howl sounds can be heard again (fixed in Patch 1.5.39.)

Creation Kit 64-bit[edit]

• Argonians are now properly displayed in the Creation Kit instead of appearing as disembodied tongues and eyes.

Compatibility with Classic Skyrim[edit]

Save files[edit]

PC players can use unmodified save files from the original game by copying or moving the save file from the Skyrim user folder to the Skyrim Special Edition user folder. Some modded save games may function on Special Edition if all of its mod dependencies are present. If a 'This save relies on content that is no longer present' warning is displayed when loading a modded save from Skyrim on Special Edition, then that save must not be used at all and may crash the game upon attempting to load.

Characters from ported save files will not be displayed separately on the main load menu. This can be fixed by opening the console, typing the command showracemenu and then immediately saving changes.

Save files from Special Edition cannot be used at all in the classic version of the game.

Mods[edit]

Achievements are disabled when using mods. A warning will be displayed when loading a save with ESP plugins enabled, and future save files will be prefixed with [M] to denote it as a modded save file.

ESP and ESM files for Special Edition are not compatible with the original release. The game will not launch if a Special Edition plugin or BSA archive is in the Data folder. ESL files are ignored by the classic version of the game as it does not support the format.

Mods for the original release must be updated to function correctly on Special Edition, otherwise they may crash the game. Mods that edit exterior cells with water in them will also need to include additional water flow information to support the new shaders, otherwise water will not be displayed correctly.

Notes[edit]

• The add-ons Fall of the Space Core, Vol 1 and High Resolution Texture Pack are not officially available for Special Edition as Bethesda has not ported them.
  • The High Resolution Texture Pack is obsolete as the game comes packaged with higher-quality textures by default.
• Flow-based water shaders and screen space ambient occlusion were originally developed as part of the Game Jam.

Bugs[edit]

Skyrim Special Edition Console Commands

• Creep Clusters are misaligned when grown in a plot of Fertile Soil, making it very difficult to harvest them. See this page for tips.

See Also[edit]

• Skyrim VR — a virtual reality version of the Special Edition

Although Skyrim was released many years ago, it is still breaking the charts of the top grossing games and always keeps updated by Bethesda.

Now, there are four editions of Skyrim available: Standard, Legendary, Special, and VR.

And while it is easy to understand what the Standard and VR version is all about, you might question about the differences between Skyrim Legendary and Special Edition.

Therefore, to answer all of your questions, I have made this comparison of Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary.

So, after reading this article, you will have no doubts about which edition you should buy.

Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary. Differences

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition is a remastered version of Skyrim Legendary Edition which means that by buying the Special Edition, you will get all the additional content available in Legendary Edition such as Legendary difficulty mode, combat modes, Legendary skills, and all official DLCs with the following upgrades:

1. Improved Graphics

Firstly, Bethesda’s developers have enhanced the graphical game components of the Special Edition significantly, so if you are a fan of a quality picture, you will definitely like this one.

Moreover, unlike the Legendary Edition, it supports 4K for both PS4 Pro and PC.

2. PC Optimization

The second difference between Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary is that Special Edition supports 64-bit PCs.

Thus, if you are having a modern desktop, you will experience fewer crashes and bugs.

3. Console Mods

Lastly, in Special Edition, you can play user-created mods that had been blocked from PS4 by Sony a long time ago.

Also, it is much easier to make them yourself now.

Does Skyrim Special Edition Come With DLC?

Yes, Skyrim Special Edition comes with all official DLCs such as Dawnguard (fight the Vampire Lord or join him), Hearthfire (build your own home), and Dragonborn (tame the dragons).

Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary. Video

Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary. System Requirements

Skyrim Special Edition

Skyrim Special Edition Creation Kit

• Operating System: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)
• Processor: Intel i5-750/AMD Phenom II X4-945
• RAM: 8 GB
• Disk Space: 12 GB
• Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 470 1GB /AMD HD 7870 2GB
• Sound: DirectX compatible sound card

Skyrim Legendary Edition

• Operating System: Windows 7+/Vista/XP (32 or 64 bit)
• Processor: Dual Core 2.0GHz
• RAM: 2GB
• Disk Space: 6GB
• Graphics Card: Direct X 9.0 video card with 512 MB of RAM
• Sound: DirectX compatible sound card

Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary. Where to Buy?

Unfortunately, after the release of Special Edition, there is no more Skyrim Legendary Edition on Steam available and you can buy it only from the official Steam key resellers such as Green Man Gaming.

So, if you have a slow PC or you are a fan of a good old version of Skyrim, you can buy it here – https://fuzhy.com/get-steam-skyrim-legendary-edition.

Otherwise, you should go for a Special Edition which you can buy on Steam for $39.99 or on CDKeys (another verified Steam key reseller) for $13.89 – https://fuzhy.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim.

Conclusion

I hope my article was useful and now you know the difference between Skyrim Special Edition vs Legendary and you are ready to buy the best option for you.

If it is a Special Edition, you can find it on Steam.

In case you prefer Legendary, there is no way to buy it on Steam anymore, so click on the button below to buy it from the official Steam key reseller.