Blackreach - Omni-guides/Tuxborn GitHub Wiki

This page goes over changes made by Tuxborn's various mods to Blackreach.

General changes and recommendations

A bunch of mods in the Tuxborn load order change overall environmental details of Blackreach, such as the sound ambiance, the appearance of the giant mushrooms, etc. It will still fundamentally look the same, but with a lot more detail than how it looks in the vanilla base game.

You should find Falmer settlements a bit more numerous, and you may even find little details you can discover by examining such areas closely.

Falmer servants will be a lot more numerous in Tuxborn than in the base game, particularly down in Blackreach. They will also have a lot more lines! So you may want to think about whether this will change your plans on where you want to go in Blackreach, if combat with the Falmer servants seems inappropriate to you for your character.

Given that there are multiple mods that send you down to Blackreach, we recommend that you overlap the relevant stages of those mods' quests with the section of the main quest that sends you there, or else arrange to do them after that part of the main quest. That way you'll have a guaranteed attunement sphere to enter Blackreach at your convenience.

Blackreach Paper Map for FWMF

Blackreach, like everywhere else in the game, has a different map in Tuxborn. Most notably, the paper map we're using marks locations of crimson nirnroot. So it should be a lot easier in Tuxborn to run around and grab all of the crimson nirnroot you need for the side quest A Return To Your Roots.

Interesting NPCs

One of the quests available in Interesting NPCs, The Teleportation Machine, has action in Blackreach. Partway through this quest, you'll need to visit the War Quarters to find a couple of necessary items.

There is a separate Interesting NPCs side quest in the War Quarters as well, where you can attempt to repair a Dwemer relic.

JK's Sinderion's Field Laboratory

Assuming that your first access to Blackreach is via Alftand, Sinderion's Field Laboratory is likely to be the very first thing you'll visit in the zone. JK's Sinderion's Field Laboratory overhauls this building, making it larger, and adding some extra amenities.

If you're so inclined, you can also use several activators in the place to clean it up, including removing poor Sinderion's remains. And you can use it as a small player home for however long you need to be in Blackreach.

Note that Sinderion's lab is a locale where you can get a second attunement sphere. It is worth your time to take it, just so you will have an extra one. The spheres are displayable in the LOTD museum, so taking the one in the lab will let you have one to display, and one to use as you see fit for the rest of your playthrough.

Legacy of the Dragonborn

Tuxborn still has the base game thing that if you use Unrelenting Force on the huge yellow globe hanging over all of Blackreach, you can summon the dragon Vulthuryol. The fight itself is not any different from any other dragon fight. In Tuxborn, you will still not get any context for why doing this will summon a dragon, either.

Nonetheless, museum completists should consider doing it anyway. Killing Vulthuryol will drop some scales you can use to make a display in the Gallery of Natural Science in your museum.

LOTD also adds an important item you'll want to look for in the Silent Ruin. This is "Complex Dwemer Components", an item you'll need to create Delrune's Dwemer Compass, one of the various Means of teleportation in Tuxborn.

Multiple followers

Several of our custom followers have considerable commentary about Blackreach. Gore, Remiel, Lucien, Lydia, and Xelzaz are all notable examples of this, and Xel even has a custom side quest. (See below for more on this.)

Skyrim Sewers 4

This mod adds a new access point into Blackreach, which you can reach by entering the Windhelm Subterrane and following it to the Tunnels of Trnazcht. You will find a Dwemer mechanism similar to ones in Alftand, Raldbthar, and Mzinchaleft, which can be activated by an attunement sphere.

When you come down through the Tunnels of Trnazcht, you will be at a point about midway along the eastern edge of the Blackreach map.

‼️ Important warning about this mod's changes ‼️

It is unknown at this time whether Skyrim Sewers 4 provides you a means to get an extra attunement sphere. The only known ways in the base game to get one are:

1. Talk to Septimus Signus as part of the main quest
2. Find the extra one in Sinderion's Field Laboratory, which you will not be able to access until you're in Blackreach anyway

So unless Skyrim Sewers 4 provides another attunement sphere, you will not be able to use the Tunnels of Trnazcht until you advance the main quest far enough along to talk to Septimus. We'll update this page if we confirm the mod does have a sphere of its own.

And one more important note about this: if you haven't come down the Tunnels of Trnazcht from the surface, and used an attunement sphere to activate the necessary stairwell, the door on the Blackreach side WILL NOT WORK. Opening the door and going through it will throw you into a void space! So if you see this door in Blackreach, leave it be!

Ouroboros is aware of this issue but is currently not able to fix it. So all players are advised to avoid using this door in Blackreach unless you've already come down to that door from the opposite side, which will link up the door correctly.

Tools of Kagrenac

When you're running the quest for Tools of Kagrenac, Silent Ruin is important here as well. With that quest active, upon entry into this ruin, you should immediately see a portal. Enter that portal to proceed to the final location for the quest.

The portal should not be present if you're not currently running Tools of Kagrenac.

Note also that this portal sits right on top of Delrune's remains and the Complex Dwemer Components added in by LOTD. So you might want to go through the portal and finish up running Tools of Kagrenac first, then come back out and get the components, as well as Delrune's journal and other items out of the backpack.

Xelzaz

Xelzaz has a side quest involving crimson nirnroot and mushroom samples in Blackreach. Look for him to have relevant dialogue about this if you bring him down to Blackreach with you, as soon as you start gathering crimson nirnroot.

If you agree to help him gather mushroom samples, you'll get quest markers on five places to do this, in places that also spawn crimson nirnroot.

These mushroom samples are activatable even if you don't have Xelzaz as a follower. And they will be marked as quest items in your inventory. So you should leave these be if you're not running Xel, since you won't have any way of using or getting rid of them.