Top 21 Best Daggerfall Unity Mods [2024]

Contrary to popular belief, did you know that there are actually four other Elder Scrolls games besides Skyrim? It’s true!

Daggerfall was the second installment in the series, and it’s back back back back back again thanks to Daggerfall Unity!

Daggerfall Unity is a fan-made project that recreates the original game using modern technology, allowing us to experience the world of Tamriel like never before. With its improved visuals, streamlined gameplay, and mod support, you can step back in time without suffering quite so hard with old tech.

Best Mods for Daggerfall Unity

So, what are the best mods available for Daggerfall Unity? That’s a tough question to answer since there are so many great entries. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite 21 mods that you can use to supercharge your game and get more out of it.

21. Real Grass

Finally! One can only tolerate fake grass for so long.

Real Grass is a must-have mod for Daggerfall Unity if you like lush plant-filled environments.

As its name implies, this mod adds realistic grass and other groundcover details to your game, giving it a much more immersive and believable atmosphere over the wonky older-style art assets.

The environment of a game is often overlooked, but this mod will definitely bring a nice visual bump and make playing the game that much more enjoyable.

20. Travel Options

Getting around expansive video game worlds can be a challenge, especially if you don’t want to waste your time walking everywhere.

Travel Options is a mod that adds fast travel options to the game, allowing you to easily move around without having to trudge through every single town and ruin.

It might not seem like much on paper, but it’ll be a godsend for anyone who likes to explore.

Even if you don’t want to straight-up fast travel, this mod lets you accelerate time according to your preferences.

19. Better Ambience

Adding immersion to an aged game like Daggerfall is a real feat, in our opinion.

Better Ambience is a mod that actually does it quite well.

Imagine having exciting camera shake effects, echoing footsteps, detailed weather, and dungeon sound effects that bring the feeling of being underground to life; doesn’t that sound sick?

That’s what this mod does.

It puts a little bit of modern-day graphical and audio flair into the game without going too overboard.

18. Basic Roads

Name a successful civilization without roads. We’ll wait.

Basic Roads is a mod that adds roads to the world of Daggerfall, connecting the multitude of cities, villages, and other major points of interest.

It’s an underrated but highly useful addition, especially for those of us who like to get around quickly or find distant locales with ease.

From the creator of Travel Options, this mod makes it easy to navigate the world in a believable way without having to check a map over and over.

17. No Rush Main Quest

This mod is a godsend. We would shove this mod into the base game if we could go back in time to 1996 when the original Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall was released.

No Rush Main Quest gets rid of all the real-time timers from the main questline of the game. You can make your way through them at your own pace, like an Education Connection degree.

Time restraints in RPGs are a divisive topic. A lot of players love them, while others hate them vehemently.

If you’re in the latter camp, this mod is a must-have.

16. Lively Cities

We know 1996 was a different time in gaming. There are a lot of things you can forgive older games for.

That doesn’t mean we should fix them!

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that a lot of the settlements in Daggerfall feel barren, with no life to them at all.

This mod, Lively Cities, breathes some vitality into the game world by introducing new NPCs to the outside streets and areas of towns to make them feel organic and populated.

Walking through streets populated with townspeople, you’ll feel like a bonafide adventurer.

15. Windmills of Daggerfall

There isn’t much else to say.

This mod adds windmills back into the landscape of Daggerfall Unity, complete with animations for the blades as they spin in the breeze.

Fantastic.

You’ll be able to enter them, and villagers won’t run straight into them anymore!

Don’t sleep on this mod.

The countryside is a lot more fun and colorful, with animated windmills that come with sounds and seasonal models.

Do the windmills offer much in the way of gameplay? Not really. That doesn’t stop us from enjoying them for what they are, though!

14. Fixed Dungeon Exteriors

Gaming has come a long way. Now, we have the technology to make the exterior of dungeons look like something that makes sense instead of endless nondescript mounds.

This mod updates the outside entrances of the game’s dungeons to resemble what they are on the inside.

Is that dungeon a castle? It will look like a castle in the overworld.

Maybe it’s a prison; it will look like a prison.

It isn’t the biggest deal, having every dungeon look like some little cave from the outside, but this mod adds a nice degree of polish.

13. Distant Terrain

Blow your world wide open with this mod.

The Distant Terrain mod for Daggerfall Unity boosts the view distance and adds low-res models in the distance to illustrate far-off landscapes.

Plus, it touches up the way the horizon appears.

This mod makes the world feel expansive and alive by allowing you to see further and feel smaller as compared to the land under your feet.

Much of the environment feels brand new with this mod installed.

12. Bestiary

Delve into the lore of Daggerfall with this mod.

Bestiary adds a catalog of the enemies you’ll encounter as you explore this vintage version of Tamriel.

Look into an enemy’s name, backstory, combat style, and more from one easy window.

The demos for Daggerfall suggested this would be a base game feature, but that never came to fruition.

This mod creator has finished what the official devs started, in a way.

Even if you have texture replacements or other visual mods, the Bestiary will update to reflect that.

If you’re someone who has to switch windows to Google stuff, this mod could be a serious time-saver.

11. World Tooltips

Do you want to know what the Dwarven Ruins ahead of you are called?

World Tooltips adds a feature that would definitely be present if it had been made in the 21st century.

It’s an easy way to identify what’s right in front of your face.

If you’re looking for something specific, like a door, building in a town, NPC, or any other type of object the player can interact with, you’ll see a helpful tip describing what it is and what you can do!

The tooltip will tell you all you need to know!

10. Handpainted Model Replacements

If you’re looking to give Bethesda’s classic RPG a modern-ish makeover, then look no further.

This mod replaces more than 400 in-game models and 2D textures with optimized higher-quality versions that feature high-resolution textures in a handpainted style.

With this mod activated, you’ll be able to bring new life and vibrancy to an old game.

The name is fitting; it really feels like a fresh coat of paint.

There are also a few regional variants of existing models that have been added, adding an unexpected lore element to this model pack.

9. Airships

This custom vehicle is a freakin’ blast in Daggerfall Unity.

Airships are flying vessels that have fully-functional controls for players to take around the world through the skies.

The mod comes with auto-generated air traffic, so you aren’t the only ship among the clouds.

You can also set the price of an airship to zero, removing any barrier to entry.

These Airships are mobile fortresses that keep you safe from threats while traveling and serve as a place to store your loot completely out of reach.

8. Decorator

With this mod, your home or ship will never look dull again!

You can entirely customize your spaces with decorations like paintings and statues and add functional items, including alchemy tables and spell makers, or even have a bit of fun with odd additions like glowing cows that serve as containers for all your loot.

Plus, you can also add lighting to any object to create the perfect ambiance in your space.

Who said decorating wasn’t the point of Elder Scrolls?

7. Taverns

Tavers are the heart and soul of any good roleplaying game set in a Middle Ages style setting.

When we think about these places, we imagine the warm glow of firelight, the smell of ale and roasted meat, and the sounds of spritely music and boisterous laughter.

A place with rough-hewn wooden tables and benches where adventurers gather to share tales of their exploits and spend their hard-earned coin on food and drink.

This mod brings Daggerfall’s taverns closer to this ideal by adding a lot more details and variety between locations to the taverns of Tamriel.

6. Vanilla Enhanced

Prepare to be awe-struck by Daggerfall’s stunning graphical overhaul mod!

This mod makes the classic game look sharp with remastered visuals and skies while holding on to the original pixel-y charm we’ve grown so fond of.

Vanilla Enhanced brings double-resolution textures and flats for the terrain, over 1,000 more villager variants, almost as many humanoid enemy variants, and more improvements across the environment and selection of NPCs.

5. Warm Ashes

Random enemy encounters are an archetypical part of the RPG format. They keep us on our toes and offer a chance to gain levels, loot, and experience.

Warm Ashes adds these unpredictable combat events to Daggerfall Unity!

This mod adds encounters randomly throughout the game.

You may run into some bandits when you discover a new dungeon location, or you might be challenged by beasts at a moment’s notice in the wilderness. The unpredictability is the fun of it all!

There are even impressive siege-style battle events that feature enemy in-fighting and custom mechanics.

4. Archaeologists

A whole new guild in the world of Daggerfall!

This mod adds the Archaeologist guild to the game, a group dedicated to studying the history of the continent, documenting its inhabitants, and scouting out all the dungeons dotted across the land.

When you decide to become an Archaeologist, you’ll receive a new device called the locator that will aid you in your deep dives into dungeons.

Through this new set of activities, the often underappreciated language skill gets a whole new use! It wasn’t a waste training that up after all.

The guild also offers combat training for hand-to-hand and teleportation potion recipes.

3. Climates and Calories

Let’s turn Daggerfall Unity into a survival game!

This mod adds new mechanics based on survivalism, like hunger, thirst, the need for rest, and proper clothing requirements.

Water takes on a whole new relevance.

Being wet can lower your temperature, leading to disaster in cold weather but salvation in hot weather. Even metal armor will rust if you don’t get dry by a campfire!

Climates and Calories practically changes the genre of the game with all the new considerations it adds.

2. Roleplay and Realism

This mod pack is the ultimate choice for those seeking out immersive roleplay and hard realism.

This special set of mods comes with a variety of options, from clickable beds and usable bandages to advanced archery and weapon speed limits – providing players with the opportunity to really customize their gameplay experience and personal narrative within the game world.

Players can choose to enable or disable modules within the mod settings as they wish, so it’s fully up to them which of the over a dozen changes they want at any given time.

So why not see just how far you can take your Daggerfall Unity experience?

What will your story be?

1. Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack

For the number one spot, it had to be a mod that offered a ton of well-designed custom gameplay and story content, and this mod delivers.

The Daggerfall Unity Quest Pack adds over 150 new custom-made quests to the guilds of Tamriel.

For those of us who have 100% completion in the base game, this gives us plenty more to do.

Each quest is fully fleshed out, with story motivation and new dialogue from the NPCs. You’ll never get bored exploring the world of Daggerfall again!

These are some of the best mods to put into Daggerfall Unity to extend the life of this revived classic.

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