Skywind Special Edition Traditional Installation Guide 

This guide goes through the steps necessary to successfully set up Skywind for development and testing. Read each section carefully to ensure a smooth install. Have fun!


Please note that we follow the principle of least privilege in order to prevent leaks. This means unless your work requires access to the build, you will not have the necessary Discord role to access the build download. If you think you need build access, please ask your team lead to discuss.

1: Managing Your Skyrim Installation

To begin, you will need a clean installation of Skyrim Special Edition. This can be most easily done through Steam.

Coding only: Extract the papyrus source scripts, found in Data\scripts.zip (or here if you lost them somehow).

Special Edition, not Oldrim.

2: Installing Skywind

Once Skyrim is installed, you're ready to install the base Skywind build.

1. Locate the #builds Discord channel. Contact a team lead if you do not have access to this.

2. Download the latest FULL Build. This contains an entire build, but will not always be fully up to date.

Note: If the full build is split to multiple archives (meshes, textures etc.), make sure to download and extract each one.

An example of what the latest FULL build would look like. Because this is a full build, we can ignore everything before it.

3. Use 7-Zip to extract the files and drop them into your Skyrim Special Edition “Data” folder. (Yes, 7-Zip. No, not something else.)

Overwrite any files already in your Data folder. This includes overwriting the base Skyrim.esm, Update.esm, etc.

Skyrim SE Data Folder 

4. Download and install each subsequent Update Build (in order). Again, overwrite any existing files.

An example update build.

5. Download and install ALL hotfixes to the update build, in the order they are posted.


Additionally, follow any relevant instructions posted in #builds_and_changelogs about installing the particular hotfixes. Sometimes you may need to delete a folder first.

An example hotfix to the update build.


So, for example, if the most recent posts in #builds_and_changelogs look like this:

...then you would download only what is underlined, in order from old to new. Update builds typically include previous hotfixes so you only need the hotfixes after the last build.

3: Installing Tools

Next up we need to install the dev tools you will need to actually work on Skywind. 

First install the Creation Kit. This is most easily done through Steam just like installing the base game.


Next, download the following archive, Skywind Toolkit. This contains everything necessary to work on Skywind and includes:


Once downloaded, extract the files to the root Skyrim folder (the folder where SkyrimSE.exe is located). NOT the data folder.


(Optional) You can get the fresh CK INI files from here if needed:
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WYm8K0A6R06ns-04rkLZnKRESUCA3KhC/


QA Dept Only: Download the QA toolkit and extract it in the root folder of your game installation. Optionally, you can install it via Mod Organizer like any other add-on.


Note: If you need to write any papyrus scripts using SKSE functions, make sure to move the SKSE source scripts from the Scripts/Source folder to the Source/Scripts folder, overwriting as necessary.

4. Activating and Launching

1. The next step is to activate the Skywind.esm and SkyUI_SE.esp files. This can be done by using a tool such as the Nexus Mod Manager or Mod Organizer 2, or editing plugins.txt directly. It cannot be enabled properly using the in-game mod menu.


2. You are now ready to launch the game! First, launch the game normally once (through Steam), just so that the launcher appears and your graphics settings are initialized. You can close this without actually starting the game.


After that, always launch Skywind through SKSE using the skse64_loader application or by selecting SKSE in your mod manager.


3. You are now also ready to work on Skywind in the CK! When you start working on your plugin, be sure to only load the stripped Skyrim.esm and Skywind.esm. Do NOT load Update.esm or any DLC masters, or your work may have to be thrown out!

Your load order should have Skywind.esm in the 05 slot, and SkyUI_SE.esp in the 06 slot.

5. Optional: Stop Steam from upgrading Skyrim and the Creation Kit

If you never want Skyrim or Ck to update go here: 


%\steamlibrary\steamapps (wherever that might be on your computer) 


Each game corresponds to an appmanifest file and ID.  Steam IDs for Skyrim and CK are:


Right click the files and set them as read only. If you start Skyrim/CK you might get an error message that Steam couldn't update them, but that's the point. The applications will still run as expected.