Co-op Skyrim play is now possible thanks to a mod. How to install and set up

On July 8, 2022 was the release of the Skyrim Together: Reborn modification that allows gamers to play Skyrim in a party mode with 2 to 8 members. During the first weekend after the release, the mod download counter hit over 50,000, and now it’s over 176,000.

AIN.Capital played a while Skyrim Together: Reborn. And now we want to share our experience of cooperative playing and explain to you in detail how to install and set it up.

About co-op Skyrim play

The Skyrim Together: Reborn project allows to play Skyrim in a cooperative mode with a team of up to 8 friends at once. Theoretically, it can support 30 players and more, but the modification developers don’t recommend playing over 8 people at a server simultaneously.

The test showed that all NPCs, including draugrs, dragons, or spiders, normally move and react aggressively to all players in a party. The quests also work, but there is an essential requirement — you should have one lead player who will talk to relevant NPCs, take and complete their quests, and the rest of the team must listen to it and follow the leader. However, after the leader contacts an NPC, all team members get the same quest and its marker.

So even though one player is genuinely playing a leader, still, there can be problems with solving some quests. For example, you can see that one player’s got a mission completed and starts a new one, but the rest are not and are “stuck” at a certain stage, so they can’t proceed. In such a case, there is a console command setstage (yeap, the server supports the console in the co-op mode).

Since all dungeons in Skyrim have been designed for only one Dovahkiin, the experience (and level-up) for it was set for one player. For example, if there are eight of you gaining exp as a single Dovah, it will take you an eternity to farm and skill up your characters. So, the server automatically multiplies the exp by the number of team members, and everyone gets the same amount.

Basically, it looks like that: One of your comrades kills a dragon with a sword, levels his “one-hand” perk up, and you also get the level-up of the perk you used right before the kill.

The cooperative mode has a few bugs: some quests can fail to complete; draugrs can sometimes not arise from their graves; dragons can die in the sky, and the home of warm winds looks unique for each player.

But it means nothing for those who really dreamed of a Skyrim multiplayer. Now you can play with friends, kill enemies, and share the loot while discussing who will have a better bow or a magic robe. In general, it works and problems are rare, but you can quickly fix them through the console.

How to install Skyrim Together: Reborn

To play Skyrim Together: Reborn, you need Skyrim Special Edition 1.6 or later. You do not need the paid Anniversary Upgrade mod pack. The developers recommend playing without it.

VR, console, Legendary Edition, Gamepass, and Skyrim Special Edition 1.5. do not work. Windows 7 systems and processors without AES/AES-NI instructions also do not work.

In general, the instructions for installing and running Skyrim Together: Reborn are as follows:

• Make sure you have the latest Special Edition update installed.
• Download and install the Vortex Mod Manager (link on Nexus).

• Make sure you have Skyrim detected in Vortex. If you not, just rescan the library.
• ST: Reborn requires you to download another mod – Address Library. You need to download the All in one (Anniversary Edition) version using the MOD MANAGER DOWNLOAD button to install it with Vortex.
• Next, you have to download ST: Reborn using the MOD MANAGER DOWNLOAD button.

• After installing and enabling the mod, you should find SkyrimTogether.exe in the Skyrim folder at \Games\The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim\Data\SkyrimTogetherReborn\. Both the game setup file (SkyrimTogether.exe) and the server setup file (SkyrimTogetherServer.exe) are there.
• To start the game, you need to start the server. After that, start Skyrim Together: Reborn.

• In the game, you have to tap F2 or right ctrl to get to the server connection menu. When playing through a local network (or through servers like Hamachi Tunngle), enter the server IP address corresponding IPv4 computer on which the server is running.
• When everyone is connected — you can start playing. The only thing left is to meet in one place, for example in Whiterun or Helgen.