A modder has brought the genius Nemesis System from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor to Skyrim. This means you can set yourself up for revenge against the dragon (or Madcrab, or whatever) that killed you.
cyclonics Shadow of Skyrim: Nemesis and the Alternative Death System mod Turns almost any enemy that kills you into a Nemesis. This Nemesis gains a unique name, increases strength, steals (and sometimes uses) weapons, and inflicts debuffs. The only way to remove that debuff and restore your equipment is to seek out and kill your nemesis. Handily, the mod creates quests in your log so you can easily track your revenge.
The mod’s design attempts to tie a situational story to the nemesis. For example, if slain by an Argonian Vampire, he may become known as “Breaks-Many-Shields”, and as part of his status upgrade he may be given the Shield-Breaker buff. Debuffs received from encounters may also render shields unusable. And since Breaks-Many-Shields is a vampire, nemesis can be found in vampire lairs as part of his quest for revenge.
As the title suggests, this system requires Skyrim to use a different approach to death. Instead of being killed and forced to reload, death instead resurrects you in the world. This means that no Nemesis data is lost and helps keep the system flowing.
You can have up to 5 nemesis at once, but Syclonix wisely limits them to enemies within 25 levels of you to prevent you from getting nemesis you don’t have a chance to kill. Also, quest-related or essential characters cannot be nemesis.
Syclonix has stated that Shadow of Skyrim is a “nod” to Shadow of Mordor rather than a copy of the actual Nemesis system. Their inspirations also include roguelikes, Crusader Kings and more modern RPG trait systems. They say it does not infringe Warner Bros. Nemesis system patent.
For even cooler Elder Scrolls upgrades, check out the Skyrim co-op mod, which has been downloaded over 80,000 times since its recent release.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK news and features editor.
