Nexus Page · Installation · Gameplay Guide · Configuration · Changelog
- Preamble
- Installation
- Updating
- Before You Start
- Configuration
- Issues
Septimus is an extended version of The Phoenix Flavor with lots of new items, quests, visual tweaks and optional survival elements all built on top of the fantastic base that Phoenix has created. It also has full Anniversary Edition support including all the new creation club content for those eager to get right into the new content.
Septimus seeks to modify Skyrim in the least intrusive possible way attempting to keep what makes the vanilla game great, while introducing new and fun things to find and do. You can find a summary of all Gameplay Changes on a dedicated page here.
Support is offered in TPF Discord server's #sep-support channel and in the Bugs section of this page according to the Bugs section of the list's documentation. If you have any questions following the add-on's instructions or if you find a typo or any other mistake in the documentation, feel free to report in TPF Discord server's #sep-support channel.
You can browse the full list contents here if you want to know exactly what you're getting.
Installation is handled through Wabbajack with a one-click install of the modlist. There are some pre-installation steps which must be followed for first time users so please pay attention to those.
These steps are only needed if you install the Modlist for the first time. If you are updating the Modlist, jump straight to Updating.
I doubt you need to do this since you likely already have this installed. This package is required for MO2 and you can download it from Microsoft. Download the x64 version under "Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019". Direct link if you can't find it.
Please ensure you have .NET v5.0 installed. Download the desktop app installer and console app x64 from Microsoft here https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/5.0/runtime.
If you have your Steam library in Program Files, read this to put it somewhere else.
I will not provide support to people with Skyrim in their Program Files folder.
Locations like Documents, Downloads, Desktop, or OneDrive are NOT fine. The best location would be C:\SteamLibrary if you have a single drive, or whichever Drive Letter you have on your main Games drive. Such a location is also called the "root of the drive."
SSE is still being updated by Bethesda (they only add Creation Club content). Whenever the game updates, the entire modding community goes silent for the next one or two weeks because some mods need to be updated to the latest game runtime version.
To ensure that Steam does not automatically update the game for you, head over to the Properties window, navigate to the Updates tab and change Automatic updates to Only update this game when I launch it. You should also disable the Steam Cloud while you're at it.
Just do it. This entire Modlist is in English and 99% of all mods you will find are also in English. I highly recommend playing the game in English and I will not give support to people with a non-English game.
Open the Steam Properties window, navigate to the Language tab and select English from the dropdown menu.
I highly recommend uninstalling the game through Steam, deleting the game folder, and reinstalling it. You should also clean up the Skyrim Special Edition folder in Documents/My Games/ by deleting the contents in it.
THIS is approximately what a clean Skyrim install should look like after shredding or cleaning it manually.
This list fully supports anniversary edition and all creation club content. Make sure your game is fully up to date in steam. It will automatically be patched by Wabbajack to work out of the box, but requires the latest game files.
After you have done everything above and got a clean SSE installation ready, start the Launcher and open the Options menu.
- Leave the quality to what Skyrim sets it to, but you can lower it if you wish.
- Set the Aspect Ratio and Resolution to your monitor's native values
- Check Windowed Mode and Borderless
Start the game and exit once you're in the main menu.
Download the release to a working folder. This folder must not be in a common folder like your Desktop, Downloads or Program Files folder. It's best to create a Wabbajack folder near the root level of your drive like C:/Wabbajack.
Grab the latest release of Wabbajack from here and place the Wabbajack.exe file in the working folder.
The download and installation process can take a little while (an hour or more) depending on your system specs. Wabbajack will calculate the amount of threads it will use at the start of the installation. To have the highest amount of threads and thus the fastest speed, it is advised to have the working folder on an SSD.
- Download the latest release of
Septimusfrom the Wabbajack Browse Modlists page - Create a folder for the List at the root of your drive (like the Wabbajack folder) called "Septimus"
- Open the Septimus .wabbajack file and select the created folder in 3. as your installation folder
- Go back to your drive, and create a new folder, called "Wabbajack Downloads Folder". This specific folder can be on a different drive if you wish
- Select the created folder in step 3 as your downloads folder
- Click the Go/Begin button and wait for Wabbajack to finish
- Set up creation club content for anniversary edition profile with instructions here
There are a lot of different scenarios where Wabbajack will produce an error. I recommend re-running Wabbajack before posting anything. Wabbajack will continue where it left off so you lose no progress.
Could not download x:
If a mod updated and the old files got deleted, it is impossible to download them. In this case, just wait until I update the Modlist.
Some files are known to be problematic, it is likely those are the ones that failed. You can download them manually from their source and place the archives AS IS in the downloads folder.
x is not a whitelisted download:
This can happen when I update the modlist. Check if a new update is available and wait if there is none.
Wabbajack could not find my game folder:
Wabbajack will not work with a pirated version of the game. If you own the game on Steam, go back to the Pre-Installation step.
Unlike regular Skyrim installation or some other Wabbajack Lists, Septimus comes with the Stock Game Feature, basically, it's a copy of a Skyrim installation located within your installation folder, cleaned and with everything but an ENB in it. It allows you to not worry about conflicting files with Vortex or other Wabbajack lists. Thus, after Wabbajack completes, you need not to move anything to your regular Skyrim Installation.
There are more steps though, so please keep following the next steps to setup the game optimally.
Bigger Skyrim modlists need a lot of memory, and when there is not enough available it may fail allocating more. To fix this, you'll want to have a bigger pagefile. A pagefile is a file on your disk Windows will use when there is not enough RAM available. Never disable the pagefile - this may lead to various issues on your system, such as this Skyrim crash.
If you've never touched the pagefile, perform the following steps to prevent from memory crashes:
- Press Windows + R on your keyboard and enter
sysdm.cpl ,3 - Under the Performance section, press 'Settings'
- Go to the Advanced tab at the top, and at the Virtual memory section press 'Change...'
- Disable 'Automatically manage paging file size for all drives'
- If you have more than one drive, try enabling it for at least one more drive as a backup (make sure it has a decent bit of free space, like 15GB). Set the size to 'System managed size'. Otherwise, set a custom size for the drive it's currently on and increase the maximum size to be at least 20GB.
If this Modlist receives an update, please check the changelog before doing anything. Always backup your saves or start a new game after updating.
Wabbajack will delete all files that are not part of the Modlist when updating!
This means that any additional mods you have installed on top of the Modlist will be deleted. Your saves will be kept, but please check each update changelog to see if the update is save compatible. Your downloads folder will not be touched!
Updating is like installing. You only have to make sure that you select the same path and tick the overwrite existing Modlist button.
Check the following items before starting the game (they are easy to miss)
- Take a brief look at the gameplay guide for info on gameplay changes
- Make sure you have done the post-install steps for creation club content
- Choose the ENB Preset you want (if you want one) from the enb configuration page
If you wish to further customize by changing the ENB preset, adding in creation club content, changing dodge keys, or swapping optional mods you can visit the Configuration page for more info.
Find an issue? Feel free to report it here with as much info as you can (screenshots are great).