If you’ve ever felt that the economy of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim isn’t complex enough for your liking, the new Gilded Road mod will be right up your alley. Designed by user Vuszu, the mod introduces a more dynamic buying and selling system where things like merchant and location determine the value of items.
Mods are certainly nothing new in the Skyrim community, having been around for essentially the game’s entire lifespan, and they’ve gotten increasingly niche and complex in that time. Over the years, users have designed everything from entirely new worlds to a thriving rat population meant to enhance realism. Realism mods are a favorite for many users who feel they enhance overall immersion. Creator Vuszu has even delved into them before, previously releasing a mod that adds realistic boats.
The impetus behind The Gilded Road makes sense: The economy of Skyrim is static and quite nonsensical. The mod’s description points out that “a common potato costs the same in the bountiful fields of Whiterun as it does on a distant, icy shore.” To combat this, The Gilded Road implements a multifaceted supply and demand system that feels much more logical, and also makes it easier for players to earn gold — if they’re willing to work for it, that is.
Players must buy low where items are abundant, then travel to areas to flip them for a profit. In Whiterun, for example, food is very cheap, meaning that if you take a load of potatoes and cheese wheels to the frozen land of Winterhold, you’ll be swimming in gold. There’s more to it than location, too. Who you sell to matters — some merchants have certain things they’ll pay extra for, like blacksmiths and ore, and selling to more experienced shopkeepers will also net more profit.
Vuszu says they “didn’t design this to be a ‘Get Rich Quick’ cheat mod,” instead balancing it for mid-to-late game. Players can’t simply roll into any shop and walk out with heaps of gold; in fact, they won’t truly start to see that many benefits from the system until they reach around level 50 in Speechcraft. That being said, the mod does come with a difficulty modifier, and the creator even included nine new in-game books to guide you about the Skyrim economy. Whether you make things easier is up to you — as General Tullius once said, “Skyrim’s harshness has a way of carving a man down to his true self.”
