Skyrim's Survival Mode Is No Longer Free After Today

Just a quick heads up for those of you who own a copy of Skyrim Special Edition: the hardcore Survival Mode Bethesda has crafted as an exclusive offering for its new Creation Club service will no longer be free after today. Once the sun sets on October 10, the module will cost 500 credits, which translates to about five American dollars.

Though that isn't very much in the grand scheme of things, free is always better, right? Back when Survival Mode went live with the launch of the Creation Club, Bethesda promised that it would be free to claim through October 10. Everyone who takes advantage of that offer will have access to Survival Mode forever, so this isn't a "free trial" in really any sense.

Skyrim Special Edition's Survival Mode changes much of the title's core gameplay. Temperature, hunger, and sleep are all things that will need to be managed, and failing to manage them properly will limit your abilities if not kill you outright. Fast travel has also been disabled, meaning that you'll be limited to horses and carriages if you want to travel faster than walking speed.

Of course, that's just the start of a broad list of changes found in Skyrim's Survival Mode. All of them come together to make your Skyrim playthroughs significantly more difficult, as the world itself becomes something of an enemy. If you're a glutton for punishment, it certainly sounds like Skyrim's Survival Mode is for you.

Creation Club has garnered its fair share of criticism from the Skyrim faithful. Many are taking issue with Survival Mode specifically, as they argue that a similar experience is already offered through free mods. Presumably, Bethesda's own Survival Mode will go a bit deeper than those existing mods, but we'll leave that up for you to decide. Are you going to give Skyrim's Survival Mode a download? Head down to the comments section and let us know!