Skyrim 1.9 Now On PC

Today Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim's Patch 1.9 went live on the PC. This new title update provides a Legendary difficulty level and also effectively removes the level cap from the open-world RPG.

Legendary difficulty is exactly what it sounds like: it makes Skyrim harder. The specifics of the difficulty level weren't mentioned. The existing difficulties in the game change the damage done by the player and their enemies. Presumably the Legendary makes enemies as deadly as ever and make you hit like a noodle-armed choir boy.

The Legendary skills feature is similar to "Prestige" features in multiplayer shooters. A skill capped at 100 can be designed as "Legendary," which resets it back to 15 and removes perks. This allows you to skill up once again and therefore gain more levels. It's a way to make you feel like you're still progressing even after you've sunk dozens upon dozens of hours into the game.

Bethesda has loaded up Patch 1.9 with numerous changes as well. Some of them fix bugs that affect the main storyline or long quest chains. Sadly, it also fixes the hilarious bug which caused couriers to show up naked save for a hat. The full list of changes can be found here.

Patch 1.9 has been in beta for two weeks on Steam. Now it's available to all PC gamers. The update will download automatically when you boot up Steam. Bethesda estimates that 1.9 will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3 later in March.

The developer hasn't announced their plans after this patch. Rumor has it that they're making a Redguard-themed DLC pack, though.