Skyrim Patch 1.9 Arrives on Consoles; Institutes Mandatory Dress Code for Couriers

The world of Skyrim is vast, sprawling, expansive, and buggy. Luckily, Bethesda has confirmed the console release of the long-awaited update 1.9, which adds a mountain of stability improvements as well as a couple new features. Those new feature being the Legendary difficulty setting and Legendary Skills, which allows players reset level 100 skills back down to level 15, returning their perks so the skills can be reused to affect character leveling. Which, basically, eliminates the overall level cap for the game so you can continue progressing skills to you heart’s content.

On the stability side of things, there are a number of fixes and improvements being made to the game, but I’ve cherry-picked a few of my favorites for your amusement. There are some locations and quest names listed so I guess that qualifies as minor spoilers, but I don’t think it’s anything players who’ve yet to complete the game will take offense too. These are but a few of the updates you’ll receive upon downloading patch 1.9:

• Fixed rare instance where Alduin would become invincible during “Alduin’s Bane”
• Fixed a rare issue where player could become stuck in Night Mother’s coffin during “Death Incarnate”
• The Dragon Infusion perk now works properly when taking Esbern’s Potion
• Gallus’ Encoded Journal is no longer a quest item after completing the Thieves Guild (thanks be to you, sweet merciful Bethesda!)
• Fixed issue with followers becoming over-encumbered after being repeatedly rehired
• Fixed issue with using shouts while in jail and having guards unlock the jail cell
• Fixed issue with being erroneously attacked while as a werewolf during “Ill Met By Moonlight”
• Fixed rare issue where a dragon could appear in the Mind of a Madman realm and kill the player
• Reduce percentage chance of getting a werewolf loading screen while player is a werewolf (Who thought this was a problem? Seriously?)
• Placing an unread Oghma Infinium on a bookshelf in the player’s house no longer allows the book to be reused again (c’est la vie)
• Fixed rare instance of couriers who would appear only dressed in a hat

There are obviously very important stability updates as well, but these are just some of the ones worth poking fun at. Especially that one down at the bottom. I fully expect to witness outcry from the nudist courier community for Bethesda choosing to shut own their freedom of “speech” by wearing as much, or as little, as they prefer. Think of all those poor couriers having to run across the scorching landscape during Skyrim’s brutal summers. Was it so wrong to give them the choice to run around in nothing but a small hat? If any one of my messages doesn’t get delivered on time due to the courier dying of heat stroke in his warm outfit, that blood is on your hands, Bethesda!

But seriously, 1.9 adds some much needed fixes to make the console experience run a lot smoother. While it can never really compare to the expansive PC community and all of their fantastic mods, the console experience just got a lot better.

Did anyone encounter a particularly game-breaking Skyrim bug that’s now been fixed? Would you consider revisiting the year-old title to try your hand at the new difficulty mode, or has your interest in Skyrim lessened over time? And who’s heartbroken over the loss of streaking couriers? Let us know in the comments below.