Skyrim: 9 Features That Need To Be in The Elder Scrolls 6 (2024)

Somewhat unbelievably, it's been over six years since Bethesda originally announced The Elder Scrolls 6, the highly anticipated sequel to Skyrim. Making a sequel to one of the best-selling video games of all time is clearly no easy task, and Bethesda doesn't seem to be in a rush.

While Bethesda has been incredibly tight-lipped about The Elder Scrolls 6's development so far, many fans are hoping a big announcement might be just around the corner. This means that there's never been a better time to take a look at what made Skyrim so successful and consider what features from that game Bethesda should keep.

9 A Dynamic World Map

An Easy-To-Miss Detail That Makes Skyrim Feel More Alive

While lots of gamers remember Skyrim as having a massive map, in reality, it's far from being the biggest map in an open-world game. What Skyrim does have, however, is a world map that is very pretty to look at.

Bethesda games are full of cool little details, and one detail many Skyrim players missed is that its world map is dynamic and shown in real-time. If the player looks up and can see clouds or fog, that weather is reflected on the map screen. Use the Clear Skies shout, and the clouds will clear on the map, too, allowing the player to see it more clearly. It's a small detail, but it's the kind of touch one would expect from a Skyrim sequel.

8 Companions

Followers Should Return, And They Should Be Given More Depth

In Skyrim, companions who aid the player on quests and in combat are known as followers. While most RPGs only feature a handful of companions, Skyrim has around 50 to choose from. That's a lot of choice, which is awesome.

The Elder Scrolls 6 absolutely needs to include plenty of companions, but the feature needs some tweaking. Many of Skyrim's companions were pretty bland and didn't have their own quests. To improve on this, Bethesda needs to look at RPGs with the best companion quests and take some notes. Most fans would rather have fewer, more interesting companions than 50 bland ones.

7 Let The Player Be A Vampire Or A Werewolf

Deepens Role-Playing Elements

Despite being a beloved RPG, one of the most common complaints about Skyrim is that it's not one of the best games for immersive roleplay. Instead, it's a massive sandbox where, all too often, players' choices lack any real weight or consequences. However, one thing Skyrim did get right with its role-playing was the implementation of Vampirism and Lycanthropy.

Both diseases added a ton of immersion to the Skyrim experience, especially being a vampire. While being a werewolf did little but add a cool transformation, being a vampire changed several aspects of the game and pretty much forced the player to roleplay as one. Bethesda should keep both diseases for The Elder Scrolls 6 and maybe add some more, as there are plenty of other transformations and supernatural entities that players would love to roleplay as.

6 Mounts

Horses Can Be Useful, But More Options Should Be Available In The Sequel

Mounted gameplay has been a staple of the series since Oblivion, so hopefully, it's a given that players will be able to use a horse to get around in The Elder Scrolls 6. That being said, Fallout still doesn't have mounts, and Starfield isn't any better, so fans shouldn't count their chickens before they're hatched.

Fingers crossed, Bethesda will take inspiration from the best mounts in gaming and give fans some more options. Horses are cool, but many players would also like to traverse via dragon. Likewise, maybe giant spiders could help players scale mountains, and rideable sea mammals could help players explore the game's oceans. While they're at it, Bethesda should work on mounted combat, too.

5 Joining Factions And Guilds

Optional Storylines That Add Depth To Skyrim's World

It might not necessarily feel like it when playing, but Skyrim actually features 15 factions for the player to join. There are the main two: the Imperials and the Stormcloaks, and then 13 other smaller factions, each with their own quest lines. Between them all, there's a lot of content for players to get through.

But not all Elder Scrolls fans were happy with how Bethesda implemented these factions. Rather than having ranks that the player works their way up through, most Skyrim factions just have a simple quest line to complete. Finishing this either puts the player in charge of the faction or rewards them with some nice loot. For The Elder Scrolls 6, Bethesda should combine the guilds of the older games with Skyrim's factions feature and let players work their way up through the organizations organically. This would feel much more rewarding than doing a few quests and suddenly being made Arch-Mage of Winterhold.

4 Random Encounters With World Bosses / Threats

Nowhere Should Be Safe

One of the best things about Skyrim is its dragon encounters. They're some of the best world boss battles in open-world games and ensure that nowhere in Skyrim ever feels 100% safe, not even its towns. They also ensure that trudging across the map never becomes dull, with even the strongest player easily getting caught off guard.

The Elder Scrolls 6 needs an equivalent threat. It doesn't have to be dragons; fans have been there and done that, but the game should include a dragon equivalent. Before Skyrim, Oblivion had a similar feature in the form of its Oblivion Gates, which were arguably even cooler.

3 Player-Owned Houses

Safe Spaces That Let Players Fully Unleash Their Creativity

After a long day of adventuring and raiding, it's nice for players to have a place to rest their feet. Skyrim had a total of 9 houses that the player could own, 6 pre-built and three that the player could build via Hearthfire's crafting system. Gaining access to a house usually required doing some quests and then forking over a heavy pouch of gold to the local jarl.

This is a feature The Elder Scrolls 6 needs to keep. Houses aren't just a place for hoarders to stash their items; they can add to the role-playing experience in a meaningful way. Like every feature mentioned so far, there's room for improvement. More customization options would be much appreciated, especially since Bethesda has already done most of the heavy lifting with Fallout 4's settlements feature.

2 Smithing / Alchemy / Spell Crafting

Crafting Should Stay, But It Should Be More Naturally Implemented

In Skyrim, players could smith weapons and armor, brew potions, cook, and even craft spells. This was one of the best open-world crafting systems because players had the choice to either jump headfirst into crafting or ignore it completely. Crafting was just one way to get awesome gear and spells.

Bethesda should keep this approach rather than forcing crafting upon players, as it did with the recent Fallout games and Starfield. Not everyone likes crafting or hunting for ingredients. While they are at it, they could also make some improvements, especially to spell crafting, which feels a little limited in Skyrim.

1 Baked In Mod Support

Additonal Content With Regular Patches

If there's one feature Bethesda could cut that would really anger Elder Scrolls fans, it's baked-in mod support. Bethesda made fans wait months for mod support when it came to Starfield, and many were not happy. The creation kit is a powerful tool, and The Elder Scrolls 6 needs to ship with it ready.

This mod support is vital for two reasons. Firstly, many of the best Skyrim mods add a lot of fun content to the game in the form of new gear, quests, and enemies. Who doesn't want to run around a medieval fantasy with a lightsaber? Secondly, Bethesda's big releases are infamously buggy. Without good mod support, fans will be left waiting for official patches. Skyrim is well over ten years old and still has game-breaking bugs. For most franchises, mod support is nice to have. For The Elder Scrolls, it's a must-have.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Platform(s)

PC , PlayStation 3 , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Nintendo Switch , Xbox 360 , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

November 11, 2011

Developer(s)

Bethesda Game Studios

Genre(s)

RPG , Action , Adventure