So You Installed Some Skyrim Mods – How Do You Check Your Load Order?
As an avid Skyrim fan who loves enhancing my game with mods, one of the first things I learned is the importance of LOAD ORDER. This refers to the sequence that mods load during startup – which dictates which mods win out when there are conflicts. Having your mods ordered improperly can result in crashes, save corruption, or just things not working as expected.
Trust me, after spending hours modding, nothing kills the buzz faster than booting up Skyrim only to have it immediately CTD (crash to desktop) on you!
So how do you make sure your meticulously chosen mods play nice together? Checking your load order is the key. In this guide, I‘ll cover all the tools available to view and organize your mods, why load order matters so much, and some best practices every modder should know!
Accessing Your Mod Load Order
There are a three easy ways to check load order:
Via Skyrim‘s Launcher
You can view plugin order right in the vanilla launcher! Just open it up and go to "Data Files" – you‘ll see all your mods neatly stacked. Keep in mind this is just esps/esms; other mod types won‘t show.
Upsides: Simple and handy to get a quick look
- Downsides: Can‘t change order here; limited info
Through Mod Organizers (MO2, Vortex, etc.)
Specialized tools like Mod Organizer 2 have dedicated tabs showing current load order among other mod metadata.
Upsides: Full plugin list visibility; can easily rearrange
- Downsides: Only shows mods installed through that tool
LOOT Load Order Sorting Tool
LOOT is the gold standard for analyzing load order. It highlights issues, gives warnings, and auto-sorts your full load order.
Upsides: See problems at a glance; automatic sorting
- Downsides: Requires setup; mostly handles plugins
So check in your mod tools! With over 230 mods installed myself, I constantly review through Vortex to make sure things look right.
Why Your Load Order Matters
Now you may be wondering… why does order even matter?
Well in a nutshell – load order determines which assets, scripts, and other modded content "wins out" when there are conflicts between mods altering the same things.
If two mods edit Whiterun‘s guard outfits, the one lower in your load order will override anything the higher mod changed. That can lead to some weird mish-mashes!
But more importantly, improper load order can seriously mess up your game‘s stability. If a mod lists another one as a requirement, but doesn‘t load after it, you‘ll CTD every time. Certain mods like engine fixes and unofficial patches need to be loaded super early.
Getting things out of order can mean anything from small annoyances to your game not even booting up properly. Trust me, you want it right!
Best Practices for Organizing Your Mods
So what are some good rules of thumb when sorting your load order?
The general guideline professional modders follow is:
- Major overhauls & frameworks early – Big foundational mods first
- Main additions underneath – Quests, followers, etc next
- Gameplay tweaks after – Perk changes, combat mods, etc
- Content addons last – Weapons, armors, cosmetics, etc
- Patches at the very end – Any compatibility patches newest
Of course, always defer to the specific mod page instructions when available. They‘ll call out special load order needs or dependencies there.
But lacking guidance, the above framework helps minimize issues arising from conflicts or demanding mods not getting priority.
Using LOOT to Auto-Sort Your Plugins
Manually organizing a mod list takes forever… that‘s why tools like LOOT are so popular in the community.
LOOT analyzes all your plugins based on community data, applying an optimized sort order and helpfully flagging specific issues it detects.
It catches things like:
- Missing masters
- Deprecated mods
- Known incompatibilities
- Dangerously out-of-order entries
Rather than spend hours sorting yourself, let LOOT handle the bulk of the work optimizing your 250+ mod order for you!
Note that LOOT mainly handles plugins; other mod types require separate consideration. Double-check meshes, textures, etc line up properly after.
| Mod Manager | LOOT Integration |
|---|---|
| Vortex | Full |
| MO2 | Full |
| NMM | Limited |
After Auto-Sorting – Manual Adjustments
Sometimes LOOT doesn‘t have the full context or my personal preferences for order differ from the community consensus.
In those cases, I carefully review its changes and make manual tweaks after the fact ensure my stability and enjoyment.
For example, certain follower mods I love using together CTD unless I override their face resources personally. So despite LOOT correctly sorting the plugins, I‘ll reorder those textures lower to fix it.
As you build experience, you‘ll learn the exceptions to work around like this. Until then, use LOOT‘s order as a 95% perfect starting point!
Closing Thoughts
And there you have it – a comprehensive guide going deep on managing your Skyrim mod load order!
As with all ambitious modding, take backups along the way and test often as you add new pieces. Always scout reported issues and dependency chains before installing the next exciting mod.
But approach load order adjustment as an ongoing process rather than a one-time fix. Your lineup will shift and evolve constantly as your modlist grows into the glorious monstrosity all dragonborn inevitably end up with!
Hopefully with these tools and some best practices in hand, you‘ll dodge the crashes and tortured saves so many reckless modders suffer and instead enjoy beautifying Skyrim to your heart‘s content!
Did I miss your favorite load order trick or do you have questions? Let me know in the comments!
