Mod overview: Helgen Reborn - Omni-guides/Tuxborn GitHub Wiki

"What is this mod about?"

This mod, as you might guess from the title, follows a storyline that allows you to be a critical part of rebuilding Helgen following its destruction by Alduin at the very beginning of the game.

"How do I start Helgen Reborn?"

In our load order, you need to have the following requirements:

1. You need to have kicked off the main quest, at least enough that you've played through Bleak Falls Barrow
2. Helgen's initial bandits need to have spawned
3. You need to be at least level 20

If all of these things are true, then a book called "Helgen Reborn Guide" should appear in your inventory. You should also get a miscellaneous quest item "Someone is looking for you in Whiterun". You will need to go to the Drunken Huntsman to find an NPC named Patsy.

"What level is recommended to begin Helgen Reborn?"

Any level past 20 should be fine. However, you may not want to put this mod off until later in the game, otherwise, you may find it too easy. (With the possible exception of the Upper Embershard Mine boss; see the recommendations section below.)

Likewise, we don't recommend starting it earlier than 20, even though you can edit the starting requirements in the mod's MCM.

You can change the starting requirements as follows:

1. The level requirement is set to the mod author's recommended level 20, but you can raise or lower it, in a range of 2-81
2. Having a quest requirement is on by default, but you can turn this off by unchecking the relevant box
3. The options for quest requirement are the first three stages of the main quest, Unbound, Before the Storm, and Bleak Falls Barrow (we have it set to Bleak Falls Barrow by default)

"Helgen Reborn isn't starting for me, what do I do?"

First, make sure you've met the above requirements. For more detail on that, the mod author wrote the following in the Helgen Reborn Guide:

But before you speak to Marcus in my quest, I suggest you make sure the bandits that take over Helgen are enabled. They are enabled 4 days after the quest "Unbound" has been completed, but you must enter Whiterun to enable them. You will know for sure they are enabled by checking the gates leading into Helgen and if you have the spikes with the bloody body parts on them, you're good to go! If you do not, I suggest you wait somewhere for 4 days, then enter Whiterun through the main gate, NOT by fast traveling, then go back to Helgen to make sure they're enabled. If you've killed them before and they haven't re-spawned that's Ok. As long as you have the bloody spikes you're fine.

If you know the bandits are present in Helgen, then next, doublecheck that you didn't leave the Helgen Reborn Guide book somewhere. It is not a displayable LOTD object, so the main display station wouldn't have yanked it out of your inventory upon use. If you had it in your inventory without reading it, and happened to use either the Stash Supplies spell or the supply sorting chests available via LOTD to auto-stash things in your inventory, it might have gone into the Book Return slot in the museum. You may also find it sorted into the main shelves in the museum library.

If none of the above things work for you, you might also try this console command as a last resort:

setstage BalokHelgen01 5

"What followers are best to bring to Helgen Reborn?"

The mod has no particular constraints about this one way or another. And a lot of its quests weave well into other play, so whatever followers you prefer to run in general should be fine.

"What should I bring to run Helgen Reborn?"

See previous section. There aren't any particular gear requirements for the various stages of this questline. As long as you have decent gear and/or a decent follower squad, you will probably be fine.

"Does Helgen Reborn have any displayable LOTD artifacts?"

Helgen Reborn is supported in LOTD's official patches, so yes. A list of displayable items for this mod can be found on the Dragonborn Hall page on the LOTD wiki.

"What kind of weapons and armor are available in Helgen Reborn?"

The same things described in the LOTD link in the previous section, pretty much. Of most note is a heavy armor set called Hattu. You'll find a full set of this armor in the tower you're given as part of finishing the mod.

‼️ Known issue about the Hattu armor set ‼️

If you're running Tuxborn 1.1.3 or earlier, if you put on the helmet from the Hattu armor set, your head will disappear. As per Ouroboros this is a mesh issue. We'll doublecheck this issue in Tuxborn 1.2. Until we can confirm a fix, using the armor set, or at least the helmet, is not recommended.

Fortunately, these pieces are displayable, so you can just go ahead and put them in your museum.

"Does Helgen Reborn have a player home?"

Yes. A private tower in the rebuilt Helgen becomes available to you as a result of the mod's questline, which includes a custom display area. You'll get access to this tower as soon as you finish the quest called Changing of the Guard, in which you take the six guards you've recruited for the town on various missions to test their fighting skills.

The tower has multiple sections:

1. Ground level entrance
2. Upstairs where your bed and some safe storage containers are located
3. Access to a roof which includes a table to sit at
4. Lower level that contains a wide variety of storage, weapons plaques, mannequins, an enchanter table, and an alchemy table
5. A cavern level beneath that

The lower two levels of the tower are also set up to show dynamic displays based on quests you have concluded in the game. And you can engage one of the mod's NPCs to create trophies to display on those levels as well, if you wish. The NPC, Patsy, will give you a book that explains how that will work.

The tower doesn't have its own forge, smelter, armor workbench, or grindstone, but these should be readily available out in the town once it completes being rebuilt.

The display parts of the home may make it appealing to those who might not want to use the Safehouse in LOTD as a primary home base. The armory part of the tower's lower level is not quite as large as the East and West wings of the Armory in the museum, but it is large, and can contain a wide variety of gear if you want to store it there.

Be sure to check the various storage locations. Several of them have labels on them indicating their intended storage type (Heavy Armor, Light Armor, etc.), although this does not appear to block you from storing items of a different type in them.

"Are there any new followers in Helgen Reborn?"

There are multiple characters who'll act as temporary followers as you run this quest (the various NPCs you recruit as guards). There is only one true recruitable follower, though: Cienna. She is available as a follower after you finish the quest called Molon Labe, and is also a candidate for marriage.

We'll update this page if other followers are confirmed.

"What other custom items are in Helgen Reborn?"

A small number of items are noted on the LOTD display list linked to above. You can find a small list of other items on the TES Mods wiki page for Helgen Reborn, as well.

"What side quests are available in Helgen Reborn?"

Not much. Most of this mod's quest content is a straightforward progression through its main narrative.

You can, however, do the side quest involving bringing Patsy appropriate materials if you want him to put display trophies in the tower player home. And there is a side quest that involves being able to help Froki and Haming (the residents of Froki's Shack) move to the rebuilt Helgen.

"What happens when the town's reconstruction is complete?"

Once you finish the main quest action, for a few in-game days after that, you'll periodically get notifications that the town's reconstruction is progressing nicely.

Once all the reconstruction is done, then Helgen will be a functional town again, comparable in size to Riverwood. In addition to Helgen Keep and the private tower you've been given, Helgen's inn will be open again. And there will be a total of four stores, a general goods store, a smithy, an apothecary shop, and an enchanter shop.

"What are some other recommendations for running Helgen Reborn?"

Testing the guards

Once you progress to the point of needing to evaluate the town's guard candidates, you'll need to go to a variety of locations. Some of them are base game locations with extra space added in, and some are purely new locations added by the mod. Here are the known locations you'll need to hit as part of testing your guard candidates:

Guard candidate	Location	Base game or added by mod?
Wanan-Dun	Shriekwind Bastion	Base game
Joto	Brittleshin Pass	Base game
Herd	Upper Pinewatch Mine	Added by mod
Orianthi	Upper Embershard Mine	Added by mod
Sorian	Stadomaar	Added by mod
Kindrick	Skybound Watch	Base game

The TES Mods wiki page for Helgen Reborn says the mod apparently adds both Pinewatch Mine and Upper Pinewatch Mine. Upper Pinewatch Mine's entrance is near the bandit camp south-ish from Pinewatch itself, near the stream you need to cross on the way to Ancestor Glade. We can confirm successful completion of that quest by using this entrance, and we'll update appropriately if success is confirmed for the other entrance as well. Also, one of Helgen Reborn's LOTD relics can be found in this location, so be on the lookout for that.

Upper Embershard Mine appears to have no connection to the base game Embershard Mine location. Look for its entrance further up the slopes from Riverwood.

You'll likely already have Stadomaar on your map as a result of coming out of Bleak Falls Barrow, since its exit point is very near the exit point of Bleak Falls Barrow. However, running Sorian's evaluation does not want you to go to that same exit point to enter Stadomaar. Instead, you should go find the entrance which is not too far away from the northern entrance to Brittleshin Pass.

Another displayable LOTD relic, the Black Glass Claw, will appear in Stadomaar.

Lastly, there is another displayable relic inside Skybound Watch, the Circlet of Omnipotence, although that one is not connected to Helgen Reborn.

A couple additional notes about Upper Embershard Mine

This location is arguably the most difficult of the ones you'll need to visit, as the final boss will summon a lot of shade copies of himself and may overwhelm you if you're not prepared.

Once you've taken out the boss, you may also find that a glowing barrier is preventing you from exiting the chamber. This is known to repro outside of Tuxborn, as it's mentioned on the Helgen Reborn page on Nexus. The recommended approach for dealing with this, according to the mod author, is to use the tcl console command and just walk through the barrier.

(Steam Deck players, be sure to choose whatever means works for you on the Frequently Asked Questions: How to use console on Steam Deck page to use this solution if you need to.)