Librum uses a slew of mods to improve the combat experience overall, with a strong focus on making each fight (within reason) a dangerous and harrowing experience.

For general combat, Librum combines its many new VR options with Blade and Blunt, Vigor - Enhanced Combat, Mortal Enemies, Skyrim Revamped - Complete Enemy Overhaul, Know Your Enemy, and Morrowloot Ultimate. The former two mods add an element of dynamism to combat – instead of standing and swinging your Touch controllers wildly (or spamming the LMB), you will need to duck, weave, and carefully time both your attacks and your blocks. Knowing when to press your advantage and attack when an enemy is staggered or off-balance will grant significant damage bonuses – but these bonuses also apply to your opponents, so make every attack count and don’t leave yourself vulnerable!

Managing your Stamina (and therefore carry weight, thanks to Cobb Encumbrance) is more important than ever, and you will be rewarded for learning how each weapon handles in terms of speed and reach. Blocking will consume stamina first (before overflowing into health) and may not always be the best option compared to dodging and positioning. Vigor also introduces the concept of “Poise” which is a hidden stat that’s based off of your armor weight and stamina total. As you lose health your poise will decrease, and when it reaches 0 you’ll be staggered and your Stamina reduced based on how far past 0 poise was surpassed.

Know Your Enemy and Morrowloot Ultimate step in before you’ve even started a fight, with the latter deleveling all enemies, so you’ll have to make sure you’re properly prepared to be wherever you’re going. The former drastically changes enemies’ resistances and weaknesses, forcing you to plan in advance before a difficult fight. It adds a variety of traits to armor and creatures to provide different resistance levels to various attack types – for example, arrows will be able to pierce through most light armors, but will be significantly weaker against metal/heavy armors. These changes combined with AI tweaks and minor mods (like Multiple Floors Sandboxing) will make any fight a life-or-death experience that rewards careful planning and intelligence. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to combat.

Potions are no longer instantaneous and spammable, instead drawing their effects out over 10 seconds. No longer can you pause the game seconds before a power attack hits you and spring back to full health to survive the hit! Potions have also been distributed to most NPCs, and they will use them intelligently to restore their health/magicka/stamina, boost resistances, and utilize invisibility.

Pay close attention to the passive bonuses given through Legacy and remember that they now apply to NPCs as well as the player. NPCs have also had Standing Stone passives distributed to them through Curse of the Firmament, potentially creating some tricky and unpredictable combinations to overcome. If you’re fighting an Orc and they suddenly burst into ‘flames’ and dramatically increase in power, that’s Legacy at work.

Combining nicely with these AI and combat tweaks, Librum adds several new classes of weapons through Heavy Armory and other, smaller weapon mods. You can now wield anything from spears and tridents to staves and clubs, and all of the new weapons control smoothly under VR. In particular, a spear will “feel” like a spear, instead of the slightly-more-awkward-sword it was consigned to being in 2D Skyrim. You can also throw any of these weapons, allowing you to finally play the javelineer you’ve dreamed of.

Special attention has been given to wild animals, combining SkyTEST - Realistic Animals and Predators with Savage Skyrim. Animals will go about normal animal behaviors: hunting prey, running from predators or competing with other predators, raising cubs, and finding mates. Bears will hibernate in the winter, animals will search for food and water, and, importantly, they will not report your crimes. There will also be significantly more variety in different animals, with many animals now sporting different colorations.

Savage Skyrim goes one step further, however, combining the several graphical mods from Rougeshot over the years. Many enemies now have more unique, more characteristic, and (often) more terrifying body structures. Dragons and vampire lords have gotten larger wings; Dwemer constructs, spriggans, and spiders have become more imposing; and many other animals and creatures have undergone similar changes.

Of course, dragon combat still forms the foundation of Librum, and dragons are not excluded from our tweaks here. Firstly, there is now a much wider variety of dragon types available, thanks to Splendor and Diverse Dragons Collection. They have all each been given unique names through Zim’s Dragon Improvements, and they all talk to you during your fights. Along with changes to make dragon combat more difficult and dynamic, this combination turns each dragon fight into a unique boss fight, rather than another generic Skyrim opponent.

Finally, Librum turns Skyrim’s half-baked sneaking mechanic into a stealth experience worthy of the Thief franchise. With the many thoroughly researched changes from Realistic AI Detection, you will now need to use darkness and silence to your advantage. Many dungeons have undergone significant lighting improvements, which you need to make use of as you sneak around enemies’ now-more-realistic detection skills. Speaking of the Thief franchise, Librum adds many new tools of the trade to aspiring rogues, courtesy of Sneak Tools. You can now knock unsuspecting opponents out with your bare hands or a blackjack, ignite and extinguish light sources with fire/frost magic or fire/water arrows, and better navigate your environment with rope arrows. You can also set things ablaze after hitting them with oil arrows, fool opponents with noisemaker arrows, and conceal your identity with various masks and hoods (a la Grey Cowl of Nocturnal).

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