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Released as the fifth main installment in the Elder Scrolls series, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is one of the best-selling games from Bethesda. However, despite receiving critical acclaim from the community, Skyrim is not exactly well-polished: reports of bugs have appeared since day one. While Bethesda manages to improve its game via patches, several bugs nonetheless persist and the lingering “level up” text is a prime example. Unsurprisingly, discussions about causes and solutions of Skyrim “level up” stuck on screen pop up from time to time in forums of Elder Scrolls fans.
An Overview Of The Situation
Annoyed by the “Level Up” text that blocks a part of your screen but cannot get rid of it? Then this article is for you. Down below is an in-depth analysis that contains everything you must keep in mind about the stuck text.
What Might Have Gone Wrong
Players could come across various bugs in Skyrim but if the “level up” text refuse to go away after a few moments, consider these possibilities
Hiccups
As Skyrim is an addictive game, people may play it for long periods and still want to take on more quests. That being said, the nature of Skyrim means it can run smoothly for multiple hours then act up out of the blue. Certain hiccups resolve by themselves over time but players have to take action in a number of cases to address the hiccups. Hence, to be thorough, you should give hiccups some thought if you notice the “level up” text lingering on the screen.
Resolution
So your gaming display is a 4K model and you play Skyrim at the highest resolution? In that case, you need to take resolution into account as you troubleshoot the issue of Skyrim “level up” stuck on screen.
Back when the original version of Skyrim came out, 4K was a little-known resolution. Today, Skyrim players have the option of playing the latest versions of the game on 4K displays but that can lead to graphic problems. Needless to say, if the game runs into graphic problems, onscreen texts inevitably go haywire and “level up” is not an exception. On the bright side, if resolution is responsible for the stuck text, you don’t have to do much to get the screen back to normal.
Mods
In general, by modding Skyrim, you could customize your experience with the game and that is ok for most of the time. Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that after the installation concludes, mods automatically modify features of Skyrim. If you run multiple mods simultaneously, there is a very good chance that you would end up breaking the game at one point. As a result, it’s strongly recommended that you add mods to your list of suspects for good measure.
Corruption
Nowadays, Skyrim is available on quite a few platforms and for those who wish to play the game on PC, Steam is a great choice. By logging into Steam, people should be able to play Skyrim on any computer and that is convenient by all accounts. However, Steam games remain vulnerable to a couple of errors and the corruption of files is one of them. Naturally, if its files become corrupted for some reason, Skyrim is going to malfunction.
Obsolescence
Generally speaking, if Skyrim players equip their computers with solid graphics cards, they could enjoy the game at high resolutions. Still, since graphics cards cannot work by themselves, people must download software (drivers, companion applications and so on) to support them. If you keep the support software of your graphics card up-to-date, you would have no trouble optimizing the way Skyrim presents itself. On the other hand, if you neglect the software updates, it’s only a matter of time before issues like text bugs appear.
Ways To Get Rid Of The Text
All in all, Skyrim “level up” stuck on screen is an annoying bug but it’s not unsolvable. If the “level up” text lingers on the screen for more than a minute, it’s widely advised that you try out the following fixes.
Quit The Game
To avoid losing progress, you should head to a safe location, open the menu and save at the earliest opportunity. Next, proceed to scroll down the menu then select Exit to quit the game. In the case that you play Skyrim on PC, you could also use the Alt + F4 shortcut to close the game. Assuming that the “level up” text is stuck on screen due to hiccups, it’s going to vanish the next time you launch the game.
Lower The Resolution
You like playing games on your 4K display but resolution is not the top priority to you? Then it’s suggested that you lower the resolution of the display and see how things turn out. For your information, 4K-capable displays on the market could show stuff in lower solutions when a need arises. You could choose whatever you want but it’s noteworthy that in terms of balance, 1920×1080 is the best solution for a game like Skyrim.
Note: It’s possible to play Skyrim on 4K displays and circumvent the stuck text at the same time by installing certain mods. For instance, the “Level up Text Fix” mod of alasdairhurst works wonders at dismissing the stuck text in most of the cases. Besides that, the “SkyUI” mod of SkyUI Team could prevent the “level up” text from hanging around as well. Regardless of the mod you chose, you need to stick to well-known websites as a precaution.
Uninstall Mods
To put it plainly, uninstalling mods that you don’t need not only improves performance of Skyrim but also addresses various oddities. Because of that, if you have a hard time dismissing “level up” text, it’s a good idea to remove some of the mods. While uninstalling mods, you should pay special attention to those that change the HUD as they may be responsible for the stuck text. After you finish uninstalling mods, launch Skyrim and determine whether the screen is back to normal.
Verify Integrity Of Game Files
If you suspect corruption to be behind the stuck text while you play Skyrim on Steam, you must verify integrity of game files at once. The verification is going to compare the files on your computer with those on Steam servers. If differences exist, files on your computer would be changed to match their server counterparts but your saved data stays untouched. To initiate the verification, you need to go through the following steps:
- Step 1: Close Skyrim, restart your computer and launch Steam
- Step 2: Go to Library, look for Skyrim and right-click it
- Step 3: Select Properties on the dropdown menu
- Step 4: Click the Local Files tab and select Verify integrity of game files
- Step 5: When the verification wraps up, launch Skyrim and see the result
Check Out The Software
Take a bit of time to make sure that the software of your graphics card is up-to-date. For instance, if your computer uses an NVIDIA graphics card, you should launch GeForce Experience and see if an update is available. By updating supporting software, you could remove a wide range of in-game graphic problems including stuck texts. The time it takes to install updates varies between cases so be patient and let the update process concludes properly.
Is There A Way To Avoid All The Bugs In Skyrim?
In spite of the patches, Skyrim is still buggy in its vanilla state which prevents players from getting the most out of the game. Nonetheless, you would be able to have a good time with the game by installing mods tailored to eliminate bugs. Some of the best mods in the category include USSEP, PowerOfThree’s Tweaks, Scrambled Bugs, etc. Noteworthily, the mods cost nothing to use so you don’t have to worry about expenses.
Can I Disable “Level Up” Text Permanently?
Yes, you can. Here is what you need to do: Go to the Data folder of Skyrim, double-click Interface and open the Translate_ENGLISH.txt file using Text Editor. Next, look for the line that starts with “$LEVEL UP” then leave an underscore following it. (Lowpricebud) If you don’t mess up anywhere, the lines should look like the below.
- $Level Progress Level Progress
- $LEVEL UP _
- $Light Fade Light Fade
How Come The Game Keeps Telling Me To Level Up But There Is No Option For It?
There is a mode called “Survival Mode” that provides a new set of challenges to Skyrim players. If you opt to play in Survival Mode, you cannot level up anywhere you want. Instead, you have to sleep in a bed to level up your character.
Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s.
Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he’d stop emailing them asking for more work. Since 2019, he started providing game reviews & tips for Grateful Dead Game. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He’s also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.