Skyrim: SE without Anniversary Edition

[Fardaza]

If I play Skyrim: SE without the Anniversary Edition:

1- What happens?
2- Do I have to upgrade? (I don't think so.)
3- Are my mods busted?
4- Can I still use Vortex to manage my mods?
5- Anything else I need to know?

I'm afraid to play again for fear that nothing will work properly.

Thanks for your advice and help!

[hepcat]

If you play with the anniversary edition, expect broken mods. But with just the SE edition, you should be fine. You’re not forced to upgrade to the anniversary edition.

[Max Peck]

A patch for Skyrim Anniversary Edition is here to fix black screens and break your mods

A patch for Skyrim means different things to different people. For some the reaction is "Oh good, this should fix that issue I've been having." For many others it's "Oh no, this is gonna break absolutely everything."

Today's patch for Skyrim, version 1.6.323, is mostly to address the black screen issue occuring when some players tried to launch the game or load modded saves. But the same patch may wind up sidelining your mods, just like the Skyrim Anniversary Edition did when it launched on November 11.

The problem is, since Skyrim Anniversary Edition isn't a separate entity to Skyrim Special Edition, but is instead an "upgrade," that means if an Anniversary Edition issue is patched, that patch is also applied to the Special Edition. And any Skyrim patch means some mods will have compatibility issues until they're updated for the new version. So even if you didn't buy the Anniversary Edition upgrade, today's patch might bust your mods. Again.