Modders have put an awful lot of effort into making sure Skyrim has continually evolved and expanded in the years since it was first released into the world.
Many have focused on changing the game by overhauling iconic quests, revamping menus, and adding interesting new mechanics to it, with a few even going as far as re-creating areas from previous Elder Scrolls games or giving players the ability to run around Tamriel as Batman.
For those who’ve played through its main story and fulfilled their destiny as Dragonborn a thousand times, a new mod, which seeks to make defeating Alduin a little bit more interesting and possibly a lot more difficult, might be worth adding to your load order.
Need an extra reason to acquire all of those dragon priest masks during your next trip to Skyrim?
The mod in question is called ‘Cult of the World Eater - Dragon Priests Buff Alduin’, and is the work of modder Maleficus32. Some of their previous work has made it possible to heal any guards who’ve taken an arrow to the knee defending their cities and brought the interesting hobby of cow-tipping to Tamriel.
This time, inspired by a Reddit post from user Vantadvst, they’ve decided to tether Alduin’s power level to his foremost undead followers, the eight uniquely-named dragon priests you can find lurking at the end of dungeons throughout the province.
With the mod installed, all of the base game's priests, from Hevnoraak to Volsung, become linked to a health or magic-based buff applied to the world-eater, giving you a lot more incentive to hunt them all down and dispel these boons before reaching either of the fights with Skyrim’s big baddie.
If you’re in the mood for an interesting challenge, you could also leave the priests be in order to try and take down an ultra-buffed Alduin, whose 3500 additional health points, 90% magic resistance and passive healing ability might finally provide the Elden Ring or Dark Souls-esque final boss encounter some veteran players have been longing for.
If that’s your goal, you’ll probably be glad to learn that you can safely team Maleficus32’s mod with the uber-popular ‘Deadly Dragons’ in order to make that battle in the afterlife even more strenuous.
Even if it isn’t, you’ll definitely want to grab powerofthree and sasnikol’s ‘Spell Perk Item Distributor (SPID)’, plus all of its requirements, in order to get things working as they should.
Regardless of whether you’re now rooting through old saves to pick out an incredibly powerful build that you can emulate to take on the legendary lizard, make sure to follow us for more updates on The Elder Scrolls 6 and the interesting world of Skyrim modding. You can also check out our mods of the month for December 2022.