Skyrim: Are There Headshots or Any Other Locational Damages?

One of the most popular “classes” in Skyrim is stealth archer. If you’ve decided to go down this path you probably spend hours upon hours skulking in the shadows and looking for that perfect vantage point to deliver a clean and quick headshot. You do it, and nothing special happens, yeah sure you’ve drained some of the health from the NPC in question but that’s about it, well that and you’ve probably alerted the NPC to your presence. Today we’re going to discuss Skyrim’s locational damage or lack thereof. Let’s see are there headshots in Skyrim or any other locational damages? 

What is locational damage anyway? 

Locational damage is a pretty easy concept to understand. In games, locational damage means that certain body parts, vehicle parts, or various other object parts will take different damage according to the location of the hit. The concept was executed pretty well in the Fallout franchise, so it’s no wonder the fans were expecting to see it in Skyrim as well. 

It’s important to note that various kill cams implemented in Skyrim have nothing to do with locational damage. Various kill-cam moves, such as beheading, are triggered when the NPC’s health is so low it takes a single move to finish him. You can trigger the beheading kill-cam move by slashing your opponent’s feet. The location upon which you strike has nothing to do with kill cams. 

Skyrim was built on Creation Engine, which is a modified version of Gamebryo Engine on which Skyrim’s predecessors, as well as Fallout: New Vegas, were built. Likewise, Fallout 4 also used a modified Gamebryo Engine (Creation Engine). That means that, in theory, Skyrim’s engine could support locational damage, only it was never implemented. 

Are there mods that add locational damage to Skyrim? 

There are a few mods that implement locational damage to Skyrim. 

Locational Damage (SKSE Plugin) 

Locational Damage is a neat, lightweight SKSE plugin. This mod works by placing several “nodes” across a variety of NPC body parts such as the head, arms, foot, and heart. The mod then calculates the distance between the nodes and your hit. For example, if you hit near or directly on the “head node,” it will be considered a headshot, and extra damage will apply. You can download the mod from this link. 

Ultimate Combat

Ultimate Combat adds locational damage and many other features. In fact, it’s an overhaul of the combat system in general. Ultimate combat implements not only locational damage but location-specific effects as well.

For example, if you hit a spellcaster in the arm, he will have trouble casting spells, in the sense that his spells will cost more magicka to cast. The same goes for archers, archers hit in the arm will experience reduced accuracy. It’s a pretty neat mod, it recognizes several nodes as well, head arms, and feet. 

And that would be all, even if locational damage has never been implemented in Skyrim as you can see there are mods that implement it. 

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!