Here’s How To Mod Skyrim on a Switch

Mods and Elder Scrolls games are a match made in heaven. For years mods have been a privilege reserved only for the PC gaming community, this changed with Skyrim. Skyrim is available on numerous systems and almost all of them support modding, to a limited extent yes but something is always better than nothing. Back in 2017 Skyrim: Special Edition was ported to Nintendo Switch and became available to yet another community of gamers that wanted to experience Skyrim mods. Due to that, we’ve decided to prepare this guide about modding Skyrim on Nintendo Switch. Before we jump to the more complicated analysis of the issues let’s cover the basics first, can you mod Skyrim on Switch, and if you can, how? 

Are there mods for Skyrim on Nintendo Switch?

Although the selection is humble, there are mods for Skyrim on Nintendo Switch. The “science” of mods on Switch is really not that complicated considering the fact that most if not all mods for Skyrim can be converted to run with Switch Skyrim as well. This is however not a guarantee that the game will run well, it most probably won’t since the hardware abilities of Switch are far more limited than PC can provide you with and the vast majority of mods available were made with PCs in mind. 

All limitations and warnings aside, there are mods for Skyrim that you can install on Switch, Nexus mods has its own separate category for Nintendo Switch users. You can access the mod pages by following this link. 

As you can see there aren’t that many mods available but keep in mind that you can attempt to convert some of your beloved mods yourself. The amount of mods available is not surprising if you take into account that a community of people who are actually attempting to mod Skyrim on Switch is very small. 

We should also mention as well that the limit is placed on the number of mods that you can install on your Switch, up to 10 mods are allowed. It’s possible to merge mods however in order to accommodate more mods. 

If you plan on installing any kind of mod that requires SKSE (Skyrim Script Extender) on your Switch it will not work due to Nintendo Switch not supporting that kind of functionality. 

Now that we’ve covered the content part of our post it’s time to move onto the more technical side of things, how to actually get mods on your Switch. 

Things you should know before you attempt to mod Skyrim on Nintendo Switch 

Before you start modding Skyrim on Switch you should be aware that it’s not possible until you’re Switch has been modified, you need to “jailbreak” it first. This is done by installing custom firmware for example Atmosphere which is the most recommended custom firmware for mod support. 

You need to jailbreak your Nintendo Switch because mods are not supported by default by Nintendo. Nintendo frowns upon any kind of custom-made modification done to their devices, they like to keep their system closed since it ensures additional security and stability. 

Having said that, modifying your Switch to accommodate Skyrim mods can have some severe consequences. 

1. You run the risk of having your Switch hardbricked, this is a severe malfunction of your device, and it’s permanent.  
2. Your warranty is void the moment you decide to tamper with your Switch, and any damage resulting from the jailbreaking of your Switch or after will not be repaired and you will not have any consumer rights. This doesn’t seem fair but Nintendo is not the only company enforcing this, the device might work unpredictably or with errors if you tamper with it and they are not responsible for this if you are not using your devices according to the terms stated on the warranty.
3. Jailbreaking your Nintendo Switch can lead to your device being banned from Nintendo Network. Every time you connect online you run the risk of being discovered while using a modified device. This is not caused by Skyrim mods by any means, it’s simply because people usually jailbreak their devices to gain access to pirated games and Nintendo desperately wants to avoid this. This essentially means that you will not be able to play online games any longer unless you manage to work around this by using the Emunand Sysnand combo.  

With everything said, you should never ever tamper with your devices in a way that will void the warranty and result in your device being banned from the network.

How to install Skyrim Mods on Nintendo Switch? 

Once again we need to mention that altering your Switch in any unofficial way may break your device and result in your device being banned! However, if you already altered your Switch and installed custom firmware follow these steps to install Skyrim mods to your Switch

1. Download the selected mods you intend to 
2. Download NXModHelper by following this link, and install the helper by following the instructions on-screen
3. Connect your switch to your PC via a USB cable 
4. Extract all your downloaded mods into a single folder
5.  Run NXModHelper, select “Select Mod Folder” 
6. Load the folder that holds all your Skyrim mod files, your load order as well as the BSA files window should hold the names of the mods that you’ve selected
7. Click on the “Create Structure” button inside the NXModHelper
8. The program will create an “Output” folder in the specified location the next step is to transfer that output to your Nintendo Switch 
9. If you’ve connected your Switch to your PC now it’s the time to navigate to your Skyrim directory 
10. Enter your Nintendo Switch SD card via PC and navigate to the “Atmosphere” folder, from there enter the “Titles” folder, the path should look something like this: SD:/atmosphere/titles/01000A10041EA000/romfs
11. Move the contents of the “Output” folder to the destination folder
12. When the file transfer is finished disconnect your device from your PC and run the game, if you’ve done everything right the mods should be installed. 

Keep in mind that running mods on Skyrim for Switch can make your game laggy and unstable if you experience any kind of problems while running modded Skyrim it’s probably the best idea to remove the modded content altogether.

And that’s about it, if you’re interested in more mod-related content, make sure to check out our guide for modding Skyrim: Special Edition! Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!