Bethesda Game Studios announced a new Survival Mode for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition. If you own the Special Edition on Steam you can opt in to the beta right now. Survival Mode will be added to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One “early next month.”
Here’s how to access the Survival Mode beta on Steam:
- Log into Steam.
- Right Click on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition in your Library.
- Select Properties.
- Select Betas.
- A drop down menu will appear. Select the available beta option
- Select OK.
- Wait for the game to update.
Survival Mode will be free for one week when it launches. Then it will be added to Bethesda’s controversial paid mod program, Creation Club, which was announced earlier this year at E3.
Survival Mode adds lots of challenging new features and gameplay quirks aimed to make Skyrim play more like an open-world Survival-Crafting game, which have become popular in the last few years.
Here are a few of the major changes Survival Mode includes:
- Hunger – You’ll need to eat food to live, or risk some nasty penalties. You’ll also need to cook food to avoid food poisoning.
- Disease – Speaking of food poisoning, diseases are much more harsh. You’ll have to donate money at a shrine to cure them.
- Fatigue – You need to regularly sleep in a bed or suffer numerous penalties to magicka and stamina.
- Temperature – Skryim is generally a cold place, and that will be reflected in this new mode. You can die from exposure. Campfires become your lifeline.
- Fast Travel – Disabled. Pay for carriages and boats, or get a horse. Long journeys will leave you fatigued.
- Health Regen – Disabled. Need food, potions, and spells to gain health.
- Leveling – You’ll need to sleep in a bed to level up, as in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
- Carry Weight – This one hurts. Carry weight has been significantly reduced, and encumbrance will cause fatigue.
The one bright spot in this harsh new mode – vampires and werewolves can feed on victims to restore hunger, and are more resistant to the cold weather. Embrace your dark side!
The Creation Club has been met with some harsh criticisms from the large Skyrim and Fallout fanbase. It’s a way for Bethesda to host mods on their website rather than the Steam Workshop, and make sure all mods are compatible, localized, and (mostly) bug-free. But mods have traditionally been purely community driven and curated, with the best modders often receiveing donations or even setting up Patreon accounts.
Much of what this Survival Mode adds can be found in an old mod called Frostfall, for example.
Skyrim Survival Mode is set to launch in Early October. Grab it while it’s free in the first week.
