Skyrim modders completely overhaul alchemy with brand new recipes and automatic ingredient effect learning

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 finding fresh ways to improve its combat or adding everything from interesting new quests, subtle immersive details and cosy player homes to it, with a few even going as re-creating dungeons from other Elder Scrolls games or serving giant sweetrolls to the province’s populace.

If you’re a big fan of scouring Skyrim’s wilds for fresh ingredients and then returning home to brew up an array of elixirs at your trusty alchemy lab, a couple of new mods definitely look worth adding to your shopping list of Daedra hearts and Spriggan sap.

Sick of your alchemist failing to remember the contents of the potion recipe they’ve just read?

The first of the mods in question is called ‘Alchemy Recipe Expansion (Base Game - DLC - Rare Curios - Improvements - Fixes)’, and is the work of modders DylanJamesWasTaken and Nightfallstorm. Some of the former’s previous work has helped to overhaul Skyrim’s audio, while the latter has helped to optimise the game’s script engine.

This time, they’ve teamed up to expand the pitiful pool of potion recipes found throughout the base game with over 50 fresh formulae, all of which are composed of unused ingredient combinations from Skyrim’s litany of DLCs, updates and creation club additions, which never received recipes of their own.

The instructional notes added by the mod are designed to be as balanced and lore-friendly as possible, while still straying beyond the confines of common potions and mundane ingredients that serve as the basis for most of the game’s existing recipes.

For example, rather than discovering a scrap that tells you the ingredients for a basic healing potion you’ve probably already made thousands of times, you might pick up a missive that’ll teach you how to make a valuable draught of spell absorption from rare plant life included in the creation club’s Rare Curios.

These new notes are also intended to work well alongside most existing alchemy overhauls, such as Simon Magus and DeltaRider’s ‘Apothecary - An Alchemy Overhaul’.

One mod that DylanJamesWasTaken and Nightfallstorm definitely recommend you pair them with is a second new mod produced mainly by Nightfallstorm, called ‘Recipe Auto-Learn’, which uses the Skyrim Script Extender to ensure that reading alchemy recipes will automatically add them to your character’s knowledge base.

Regardless of whether your Dragonborn is now angering their spouse by flooding the house with interesting aromas as they brew a fresh batch of philters, 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 January 2023 or our new series where we delve into the rich history of The Elder Scrolls 5’s setting: