Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 Update: What’s New

A brand new Skyrim Special Edition update is rolling out and this guide will take you through the most important things to know about the new Skyrim 1.5 update for Xbox One, PS4, and Windows PC.

Bethesda’s latest Skyrim update doesn’t come with a long list of bug fixes for lingering problems and bugs, but it does come with Creation Club, the controversial platform that launched on Fallout 4 in late August.

The company won’t release any new Skyrim DLC expansion packs, but Creation Club’s content will help keep Skyrim Special Edition fresh for the foreseeable future.

In order to deliver its Skyrim Creation Club to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC users, Bethesda’s pushed a brand new Skyrim Special Edition update, the first since the Skyrim Special Edition 1.4 patch in February.

The 1.5 patch is out of PC beta and available for all three platforms. Here are the most important things you need to know about the 1.5 patch release, Creation Club, Survival Mode, and more.

Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 Update Size

The Fallout 4 patch that delivered Creation Club was several GB, but the Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 update is a little smaller.

The Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 update is 975MB for the Xbox One. The download took about six minutes to complete over a high-speed network. It will take longer if you skipped previous Skyrim Special Edition updates.

Like the Fallout 4 update, this is a mandatory patch for all users and it’s required for those that want to download Creation Club content.

Those running out of space would be wise to clean up their hard drive before attempting the download.

Skyrim Creation Club

One of the biggest changes on board the Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 update is Creation Club. Again, if you want to download new content from this new store, you’ll need to download the 1.5 patch.

Bethesda’s controversial new Skyrim store was first announced back in June and it delivers new high quality content from Bethesda and outside developer partners.

The Skyrim Special Edition Creation Club features apparel, new creatures, gameplay tweaks, and weapons.

The company isn’t calling the new content DLC and Creation Club add-ons aren’t considered mods. Skyrim Special Edition mods will remain free while Creation Club content will cost real money.

• Survival Mode: 500 Credits (Free for a week)
• Divine Crusader: 500 Credits
• Ruin’s Edge: 400 Credits
• Plague of the Dead: 400 Credits
• Chryamere: 300 Credits
• Staff of Shergorath: 250 Credits
• Stendarr’s Hammer: 200 Credits
• Arcane Accessories: 100 Credits
• Arcane Archer Pack: 100 Credits

Bethesda and its partners will deliver brand new content throughout the year so be on the lookout for new additions to Creation Club in the weeks ahead.

Creation Club credits are purchased on the game store. On the PS4 and Xbox One Store in the United States, 750 credits costs $8.00, 1500 credits costs $15, 3000 credits costs $25, and 5,500 costs $40.

After installing the Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 update you’ll notice Creation Club in the game’s main menu. Selecting it will bring you to a new section where you can purchase new content as it arrives.

Bethesda supplied Fallout 4 players with 100 free credits and those playing Skyrim Special Edition also start with 100 credits.

Skyrim Survival Mode

The Skyrim 1.5 update delivers Bethesda’s Survival Mode. Survival Mode is free for Fallout 4, but Skyrim Special Edition players will have to pay for it after a week long trial.

In its announcement the company says “PC and console players will get Survival Mode free for one week once it launches on their preferred platform.”

This obviously isn’t sitting well with gamers who think it’s basically a carbon copy of the popular Frostfall survival mod.

This is the Skyrim Special Edition Survival Mode map.

For those unfamiliar with this game mode, Survival Mode presents challenges that aren’t present in the game’s current levels of difficulty. For the hardest challenge, gamers will want to try Survival with Legendary difficulty.

In Survival Mode, you’ll start to get hungry so you’ll need to cook food to keep your stamina. You’ll also battle Fatigue. Sleeping in a real bed is the only way to get the Well Rested bonus. Other highlights include:

• Fast Travel is disabled.
• Traveling in snowy or rainy areas will increase your Cold and Cold decreases your total available health.
• Warmth: The higher your warmth rating, the more slowly you will feel the effects of cold environments.
• Taking a swim in an ice-cold river can kill you.
• You no longer regenerate health.
• To level up, you must now sleep in a bed.
• Your carry weight has been significantly reduced.
• Creatures across the land now carry threatening new diseases, and previous diseases are now even more debilitating.
• Shrines no longer cure diseases for free; you must now make a gold offering in order to receive the shrine’s benefits.

Other Features

The Skyrim Special Edition 1.5 update also comes with a few other changes including a Message of the Day and support for the ESL file format. Patch version numbers and notes have also been added to the Mod Details page.

Bug Fixes

There are still a ton of issues plaguing Skyrim Special Edition but it looks like those dealing with problems will have to wait for another patch. The latest patch includes minor fixes to Bethesda.net functionality and that’s it.

It’s unclear when or even if Bethesda plans to deliver more substantial Skyrim Special Edition bug fix updates so you’ll want to take a look at our list of fixes for common Skyrim problems if you do run into trouble with the game and the 1.5 patch.

A Quality Map

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One of our favorite Skyrim mods for PC is now available for console.  A Quality World Map by IcePenguin is an essential mod for PC. And now that it's available for console, it's an essential mod for Xbox One. (It's not available for PS4 yet.) Bethesda's vanilla Skyrim map is decent enough but this mod takes it to the next level with improved textures and detailed roads. The developer has literally drawn out every single road in the game and needless to say, it's impressive. And useful.  For more info, take a look at the video below. Trust us, this one is very, very good. Give it a try today.

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