Skyrim Loot

Pros

• Load order optimization
• Simple and fast

Cons

• None

Take control of your plugins for Skyrim and other Creation Engine games with LOOT.

LOOT is an acronym that stands for load order optimization tool. It works with Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it’s designed to work with most Creation Engine games. This includes Skyrim Special Edition, TES IV: Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, including the VR edition.

What all of these games share in common is that they are highly moddable. Each game has a thriving mod community. These mods, which players can pick and choose, can enhance graphics, fix bugs, add game features, add quests and other game content and much more.

Adding a lot of mods to Skyrim or any of the Creation Engine games does open the door for incompatibilities and other issues. One of the easiest ways to introduce issues is to not have the main game files as well as the mods load in the appropriate manner, which is where LOOT comes in.

When you run LOOT, it will detect all of the game files and mod files that are set to run with the game. It will then inspect all of these files to determine which ones should have priority. It will also look for plugins that may overwrite aspects of other plugins, and after acquiring and analyzing all of this data, it will set not just the appropriate load order but the optimal load order for that particular collection of mods.

When LOOT has finished running, it provides you information about your plugin collection. It will list warnings about potential conflicts. It will indicate which plugins are dirty, which means that they have dirty references that can be cleaned. Cleaned plugins can result in faster loading, smoother gameplay and less chance of corrupted saves.

While it may sound like a lot going on—and it surely is behind the scenes—it works very fast. Most scans are completed in seconds, and even if you have dozens or hundreds of plugins, it should never take more than a minute or two. You also only have to run the program once—or at least until you add more mods. Then, just run it again. The program is rather small, so there shouldn’t be much issue keeping it around even if you’re not going to use it often.

Note that Loot also comes with extensive documentation. If you want to understand how to force plugin priority, edit plugin metadata or something else, this is a good place to start. You’ll also find additional resources as well as an entire community online.

Pros

• Load order optimization
• Simple and fast

Cons

• None