Skyrim Chain Beasts SE/AE/VR

[MTB]

On 1/12/2026 at 9:23 PM, Devron666 said:

MTB, loving the mod - thank you for creating/maintaining!

 

Anyone know if the mobile beast (just have solo atm) is supposed to kill it's target? I don't see it trapping anything or way to ride it. I briefly see the little crab defenders pop up just before targets die, but mobile keeps trunking away at targets until dead.

 

Edit: did a self test from the mcm and that worked fine. Maybe the targets were just too low level? Were a few below my character at the location I tried mobile at.

Edit2: found an enemy that outlevelled me by 10 and that worked. So assuming is just a use on beefy targets spell.

 

Had a look and seems the Mobile Prison beasts do way more physical damage than intended. Likely not noticed before as the stamina damage was even more bugged so they would capture their victims before anyone got banged up too badly. Should be fixed in next version. 

[Thingolf]

Is it safe to uninstall this mod mid-save?

[MTB]

On 1/22/2026 at 8:55 PM, Thingolf said:

Is it safe to uninstall this mod mid-save?

 

Didn't you ask that before already? I have no new info since then: Afaik in general the advice is never to uninstall mods with esm/esp and scripts mid-game so my expectation is no.
The mod uses many scripts and eg the MM plugin adds scripts to potential mimics,. it adds factions to everyone that encounters beasts and it adds areas, NPCs, object(types), etc. I have no idea what will happen if the esm defining the faction / the scripts/ etc. are no longer there.

Best is to go back to a save prior to installing. If that is not an option: You can shut down the mod from the MCM.  That should prevent new activity from starting and, if you do decide to also remove the mod, potential loss of (player) gear.  (But maybe just shuting down the mod will be enough?) 

 

[Thingolf]

On 1/24/2026 at 12:59 PM, MTB said:

 

Didn't you ask that before already? I have no new info since then: Afaik in general the advice is never to uninstall mods with esm/esp and scripts mid-game so my expectation is no.
The mod uses many scripts and eg the MM plugin adds scripts to potential mimics,. it adds factions to everyone that encounters beasts and it adds areas, NPCs, object(types), etc. I have no idea what will happen if the esm defining the faction / the scripts/ etc. are no longer there.

Best is to go back to a save prior to installing. If that is not an option: You can shut down the mod from the MCM.  That should prevent new activity from starting and, if you do decide to also remove the mod, potential loss of (player) gear.  (But maybe just shuting down the mod will be enough?) 

 

Might have, could not find out if I had or not. Anyway, thx for the answer.

[DonQuiWho]

Hi

 

Does the 'Anvil' quest at Anga's Mill come from this mod?  

 

I use the anvil and it turns into a Mimic, which I can kill OK.  There also seems to be a wood block there that is also an SCB Mimic

 

Killing both of them still leaves me witha Journal Quest requirement to 'Kill the Beast' but whilst the marker is on the map, going to the spot that it implies the beast should be, there is nothing there

 

The SCB MCM does not show any quest completed either

 

Any help gratefully received!

 

DQW

[MTB]

On 1/28/2026 at 11:23 AM, DonQuiWho said:

Hi

 

Does the 'Anvil' quest at Anga's Mill come from this mod?  

 

I use the anvil and it turns into a Mimic, which I can kill OK.  There also seems to be a wood block there that is also an SCB Mimic

 

Killing both of them still leaves me witha Journal Quest requirement to 'Kill the Beast' but whilst the marker is on the map, going to the spot that it implies the beast should be, there is nothing there

 

The SCB MCM does not show any quest completed either

 

Any help gratefully received!

 

DQW

 

Spoiler

Killing them anvil mimic should advance the quest, but there's normally also a small entry part that leads you to the forge which you likely skipped by using the anvil first.

Maybe there's a bug that won't advance the quest in this case. Will have to check. Remainder is only

Spoiler

collect small reward if you helped fight it.

>The SCB MCM does not show any quest completed either

Don't think this tiny quest has its own achievement if you mean that.

 

[Zeen342]

Hello, I recently got into modding with Skyrim so this may be my fault in an unknown way but I did get help from someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to this kind of stuff.

 

For some reason this mod isn't activating animations correctly/ as intended. Any animations relating to being captured and transported are broken for me such as crawling, being wrapped up by a spider, or grabbed by a floating cage. On top of this the debug option to crawl is also broken only giving some healing visual effects and nothing else.

 

Also whenever a target is 'taken down' (dropped to the stamina requirement) by a beast what ensues is her being stripped of everything including previous bonds so there is a never ending cycle of her getting taken down equipping either the collar or ankle chains and unequipping the other and repeat.

 

I use pandora and ran it as well as body slider after I installed sexlab, after I installed the animation pack, and I after I installed chain beasts.

 

In game I register animations through sex lab in MCM and then Sex lab animation loader for ZAP.   I think that ZAP is installed correctly as exiting the X cross the animation appears to play smoothly with the actor undoing the restraints then falling to their knees.

 

 

If you have any idea as to what is causing this or need more information LMK

[MTB]

17 hours ago, Zeen342 said:

Hello, I recently got into modding with Skyrim so this may be my fault in an unknown way but I did get help from someone who knows what they are doing when it comes to this kind of stuff.

 

For some reason this mod isn't activating animations correctly/ as intended. Any animations relating to being captured and transported are broken for me such as crawling, being wrapped up by a spider, or grabbed by a floating cage. On top of this the debug option to crawl is also broken only giving some healing visual effects and nothing else.

 

Also whenever a target is 'taken down' (dropped to the stamina requirement) by a beast what ensues is her being stripped of everything including previous bonds so there is a never ending cycle of her getting taken down equipping either the collar or ankle chains and unequipping the other and repeat.

 

I use pandora and ran it as well as body slider after I installed sexlab, after I installed the animation pack, and I after I installed chain beasts.

 

In game I register animations through sex lab in MCM and then Sex lab animation loader for ZAP.   I think that ZAP is installed correctly as exiting the X cross the animation appears to play smoothly with the actor undoing the restraints then falling to their knees.

 

 

If you have any idea as to what is causing this or need more information LMK

 

Things that could cause issues with the animations:
- Conflicting mods like FNIS sexy move which override the walking set.
- Conflicting OAR mods with higher priority when using OAR version.
- Incorrect version (installing only update/patch not full version first, mixing(up)SE/LE or OAR for non OAR setup or visa versa). E.g. If in the patch you choose `OAR but not in the full file' (or visa versa) anims won't work even if there's no pandora errors.

So: Check version, check the Pandora output/log for errors/warnings and check that SCB animations were included (adds `alternate animations'(movement sets), furniture animations, idles, not sure how this shows up in Pandora but in FNIS it gives a list of `this mod with these animations counts included'). 

 

>Also whenever a target is 'taken down' (dropped to the stamina requirement) by a beast what ensues is her being stripped of everything including previous bonds so there is a never ending cycle of her getting taken down equipping either the collar or ankle chains and unequipping the other and repeat. 

I don't recall hearing that one before. The stripping should respect the SexLabNoStrip keyword, which the devices have.
If the ankle chains are added, the relevant ZAP keyword (on the collar) is being recognized but apparently not the SexLabNoStrip one. 
Is there any mod redefining that keyword?

>register animations through sex lab in MCM and then Sex lab animation loader for ZAP.  
This is not relevant for SCB as it does not add sexlabs/SLAL animations. (btw I think ZAP has it's own animation registration separate from SLAL.) 

 

That's all I can come up with atm.

[Zeen342]

3 hours ago, MTB said:

 

Things that could cause issues with the animations:
- Conflicting mods like FNIS sexy move which override the walking set.
- Conflicting OAR mods with higher priority when using OAR version.
- Incorrect version (installing only update/patch not full version first, mixing(up)SE/LE or OAR for non OAR setup or visa versa). E.g. If in the patch you choose `OAR but not in the full file' (or visa versa) anims won't work even if there's no pandora errors.

So: Check version, check the Pandora output/log for errors/warnings and check that SCB animations were included (adds `alternate animations'(movement sets), furniture animations, idles, not sure how this shows up in Pandora but in FNIS it gives a list of `this mod with these animations counts included'). 

 

>Also whenever a target is 'taken down' (dropped to the stamina requirement) by a beast what ensues is her being stripped of everything including previous bonds so there is a never ending cycle of her getting taken down equipping either the collar or ankle chains and unequipping the other and repeat. 

I don't recall hearing that one before. The stripping should respect the SexLabNoStrip keyword, which the devices have.
If the ankle chains are added, the relevant ZAP keyword (on the collar) is being recognized but apparently not the SexLabNoStrip one. 
Is there any mod redefining that keyword?

>register animations through sex lab in MCM and then Sex lab animation loader for ZAP.  
This is not relevant for SCB as it does not add sexlabs/SLAL animations. (btw I think ZAP has it's own animation registration separate from SLAL.) 

 

That's all I can come up with atm.

-I do not have anything that conflicts, as I am just trying to get SCB to work and maybe add some stuff on top of that in a later playthrough

-I do not use OAR, I am using Pandora, as it was an optional in the install requirements 

- I downloaded the 98 version, installed, selected the options that were relevant to my mods, then downloaded the 102 version and installed, then ran Pandora, then ran Bodyslide, and finally launched my game.

 

 

I did use  ZAP's register feature in it's MCM menu both before, after and without using SLAL's registering and still had the same issue, with test crawling still not working.

 

Is it possible I have the wrong load order? having SLAL above ZAZ causing issues? I did get some help to get SL up and running and they said that usually SLAL would handle registering all active animations.

 

 

UPDATE: got them to work, Installed OAR and reinstalled SCB with the OAR version. Its weird dual wielding animaiton frameworks but here we are

 

Edited February 2 by Zeen342
problem solved

[MTB]

On 2/2/2026 at 12:24 AM, Zeen342 said:

UPDATE: got them to work, Installed OAR and reinstalled SCB with the OAR version. Its weird dual wielding animaiton frameworks but here we are

 

Good that you got it to work. (FNIS and alternatives add new animations while OAR dynamically replaces existing ones so they do different things; not really that weird.)

Did a quick test as I never actually used Pandora. It's giving me issues with Zaz furnitures; some work (Xcross) others A-pose (Pillory - SCB struggle animations for that furniture however do work go figure, multirestraint), and with alternate animations (the crawling/riding that you mentioned).  Seems others are also having issues with it eg: 

 

 

I think I'll need to remove Pandora from the FNIS/NEMISIS/... list.  Recommend testing out the Zaz furniture, if those do work for you, combining it with the OAR version of SCB looks like an option.

 

[Durante]

Have you tried balancing the stamina drain? The mod seems more or less complete in feature, but it doesn't feel playable with how a monster hits you once, instantly poisons you and the stamina is gone in 2 seconds, you lose all items (game over). Then they just infinite aggro spam you until you're captured...

Edited February 5 by Durante

[MTB]

19 hours ago, Durante said:

Have you tried balancing

 

Nope not in the least.  (Well, maybe a little bit, but more in terms of features, options, base setting for some beasts.) With everyone having different preferences, play styles, mods, progression in this mod, etc. that would be an exercise is futility anyways.
Instead I've added a ton of setting in the MCM (eg in the >gameplay>difficulty category) to allow everyone to balance it to their own liking.

So yes, it may take some configuring to `play nicely', but that's what it is.

 

[Serverscrying]

On 1/21/2025 at 1:12 PM, Tysoncandles said:

I don't know how actively you monitor this compared to the LE version, but figured I'd let you know. There is a 1000% possibility it's because of the modlist I've built. Still, uniquely with the Unstable mine in Riverwood, when I activate it (I completely forgot I have the destroy mine spell lol, but that's fine), I think the massive amount of chain beast audio just absolutely implodes my sound. Requires a full restart to fix the issue. I'm running .90 SE.

 

Again, it might not be Chain Beasts, but this is the only time I've experienced my audio die in about a hundred hours in this list.

Hey a year old comment but have you managed to find the issue or fix this?
I am experiencing the same thing and at first I thought it's because of the number of chain beasts and it pretty much never happened again whenver I was encountering one or two chain beasts but now it's happening during the saving appearance quest with just that one chain beast.

[MTB]

On 3/1/2026 at 1:31 AM, Serverscrying said:

Hey a year old comment but have you managed to find the issue or fix this?
I am experiencing the same thing and at first I thought it's because of the number of chain beasts and it pretty much never happened again whenver I was encountering one or two chain beasts but now it's happening during the saving appearance quest with just that one chain beast.

 

I don't know if the OP found a solution. AFAIK (which I have to admit is not all that far) SCB doesn't do anything special wrt to sound effects. My best guess is that its just the system getting overloaded. Combined with lots of heavy mods SCB might contribute to script/engine load especially in larger beast battles (even if I've tried to minimize/be efficient).

 

You could try (re)moving the clinking chains sound loop (data\sound\fx\SkyrimChainBeasts.esm\Chain4_LP.wav) and/or the `vibe event' sound effect (data\sound\fx\SCB\Vibe01.wav) and see if that helps. 

 

[Seeker999]

Letting you know about a bug.

Sort of started, sort of ended the Caged quest. I'm on v. 10.2. The problem is that Pinepeak Cavern can be used by several radiant and other quests. I was trying to retrieve Meridia's Beacon which was in Pinepeak Cavern. But it's like there are 2 parallel Caverns, Mark can be in both but the chest isn't the same in both (or the contents are different). Mark was killed, used the movetoqt console command, there he was again. I have multiple followers, so the quest probably never would have gotten anywhere anyway before he was killed, but that's not the important thing. Potentially breaking multiple vanilla quests is.

[MTB]

11 hours ago, Seeker999 said:

Letting you know about a bug.

Sort of started, sort of ended the Caged quest. I'm on v. 10.2. The problem is that Pinepeak Cavern can be used by several radiant and other quests. I was trying to retrieve Meridia's Beacon which was in Pinepeak Cavern. But it's like there are 2 parallel Caverns, Mark can be in both but the chest isn't the same in both (or the contents are different). Mark was killed, used the movetoqt console command, there he was again. I have multiple followers, so the quest probably never would have gotten anywhere anyway before he was killed, but that's not the important thing. Potentially breaking multiple vanilla quests is.

 

There is a testing copy of Pinepeak but this should not be accessible. Maybe it's still being selected as a Radiant destination though? 
Your `move to quest target' was that to the beacon? Which then may have taken you to the testing copy which explains why mark('s twin brother) was there... 
If so I'll need to ensure that this test cell is not used for radiant quests... 

Edit: Attached an updated ESM that should prevent break of dawn (and any radiant quests that use `location-ref-type' style conditions) from selecting the test cell. (Of course only works if that radiant quest hasn't started already.)

 

SkyrimChainBeasts-PatchFor-LE102-extractToData.7z SkyrimChainBeasts-PatchFor-SE102-extractToData.7z

Edited April 18 by MTB
Added patch.

[Seeker999]

1 hour ago, MTB said:

Your `move to quest target' was that to the beacon?

Yes, it was to the chest with the beacon. I remember looking at it in the console and seeing the refid, but I don't recall if it was last updated by skyrim or scb. I'll dl your update to hopefully prevent other issues with the Pinepeak location. I've got the beacon; what do you want to bet that I'll never get it as a target destination again! 😉

Quick question, is Mark supposed to respawn after awhile or is he a one and done? After the back and forth I'm not sure.

Thank you.

[MTB]

On 4/18/2026 at 5:37 PM, Seeker999 said:

Quick question, is Mark supposed to respawn after awhile or is he a one and done? After the back and forth I'm not sure.

 

If I remember correctly he only respawns (actually his brother, also called Mark, Mark II if you will, shows up) if you get captured and sent to the cage after Mark is dead.

 

[Seeker999]

Hey, an FYI, some of your cells in Integration don't have locations assignedl I think it's XCLR Locations? I use a mod, Screenshot Helper NG, that titles the screenshots with the place and date/time the pic was taken. But there was no place name in the title for the Hall of Knowledge screenshot. Instead of 'Hall of Knowledge - Sundas, 3꞉07 AM, 19th of Rain's Hand, 4E 202' it would just be 'Sundas, 3꞉07 AM, 19th of Rain's Hand, 4E 202'. 

The author of Screenshot Helper NG did put out an update that uses the cell name as a backup if location names aren't found, but I thought you should know in case other mods look for the location information. The SCB cells I found are Octobrethern Cave, Mehrunes Dagon Cave, SCB Pit, Dream world, Hall of Knowledge, and Temple of Mara.

 

Still no quest has put anything else in Pinepeak.

[Spelltan]

Is there a way to prevent unreasonable, unfathomable, ungodly amounts of chained elephants spawning near Whiterun? So many spawned, the game is lagging real bad.

[MTB]

On 5/20/2026 at 11:39 AM, Spelltan said:

Is there a way to prevent unreasonable, unfathomable, ungodly amounts of chained elephants spawning near Whiterun? So many spawned, the game is lagging real bad.

 

Turn off `NPCs can trigger traps', in the MCM - that is most likely the cause for them appearing. (Won't get rid of the ones already there though.)

(off should be the default in the latest versions I think.)

[MTB]

On 4/24/2026 at 9:24 PM, Seeker999 said:

some of your cells in Integration don't have locations assigned

 

Added locations will publish as patch when I get a chance to convert from LE to SE.

[ghhz]

Where is the arena? where is the pit?
How do I complete the TJH quest?
it doesn't tell me anything at all

[LizDragon]

I'm stuck on the Mehrunes Dagon Aspect.

Also, how do I find the source of the mine in "Ambition of Mine"?

[Seeker999]

Recently, a crawler was taking me to be punished. Didn't take me to a pillory, or to the SS++ slave market. After travel time limit reached, screen faded to black and I was in a pillory in the Pit. 

1. Is this normal?
2. If it is normal, how do I get out once I've escaped the pillory?