After 13 years, Bethesda’s hit role-playing game is getting much smarter enemies thanks to a mod. We explain what’s changing
The world of Skyrim in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is inhabited by all kinds of creatures. Many of them are not particularly bright, and some have even caught an arrow in the knee, which could probably have been prevented.
A new mod for the role-playing game will make your life more difficult in the future. And this time that’s even to be understood positively, because the fan creation called NPCs Take Cover – Smarter Anti-Cheese AI
should make the fights against your enemies more challenging than in the vanilla version.
(Here you can find the mod at Nexusmods )
Smart AI for more dynamic battles
What does the mod change? The AI of all NPCs in Skyrim will be changed, but this should primarily affect the battles, after all, many other inhabitants in Skyrim only fulfill rudimentary tasks or act as quest givers, for which you really don’t need a degree from the Academy of Winterhold.
What does this teach the AI?  According to modder JaySerpa, your enemies will now actively react to your combat actions. For example, if you draw your bow and draw an arrow, potential targets will look for cover – much more effectively than in the unmodded game.
The modder has also uploaded a video in which you can see the changes in action:
In general, you should expect more agility in battles. For example, it is no longer possible to hide, so enemies will stand frozen and not look for you.
The good old Skyrim strategy of looking for a spot that the AI can’t reach and then calmly spiking it with arrows should no longer work – if only because your opponents have sought shelter, as already mentioned.
In addition, enemies will now automatically start fighting as soon as you draw your weapon or prepare a spell. In Skyrim Vanilla, the enemy AI waits dutifully until you deliver the first blow.
By the way, the mod is very well received below the YouTube video. Many users praise the smarter AI and the resulting better fights.
If you want to see for yourself, you can download the mod yourself. Installation is quick and easy: unzip the archive, move the files inside to your Skyrim installation folder and set the downloaded ESP file to active in the launcher.
