Melee Buff (Outward BepInEx Plugin)
This plugin gives players:
- 2x physical damage dealt while a melee weapon is equipped and Max Mana is below 50.
- 50% less damage taken from all sources while a melee weapon is equipped and Max Mana is below 50.
- +1 HP per second regeneration, +15% movement speed, and +25% stamina regen rate under the same conditions.
- A cyan MELEE BUFF ACTIVE box at the bottom-left while conditions are active.
- With SideLoader installed, the mod also registers a real status
MeleeBuff_Active so you can get a vanilla buff-bar icon (from Icons\MeleeBuff_Status.png next to the DLL — packaged zips include this; export your logo from assets/logo.svg if you want a custom PNG).
Not seeing any “status”?
- Load into the world (not main menu / character screen) with melee equipped and max mana below 50 — the overlay only shows when all conditions pass.
- Use Melee Buff 1.5.0+ and ensure SideLoader is installed if you want the buff icon row (Thunderstore manifest lists it as a dependency).
- Check
BepInEx\LogOutput.log for Melee Buff init, SideLoader: custom status registered, and any SideLoader apply warnings.
SideLoader details (buff bar icon)
- On boot the plugin reflects
SL_StatusEffect.ApplyTemplate() and registers MeleeBuff_Active, cloning a vanilla status (Warm by default — constant SideLoaderCloneTargetStatusId in Plugin.cs). If ApplyTemplate fails (wrong id for your game version), change that string to another vanilla status name or see OSLDocs.
- The plugin tries to clear clone
SubEffects lists so the dummy status should not copy vanilla mechanics; combat effects remain from this plugin’s Harmony logic only. If you still see extra stats, adjust the clone target or define the status in SideLoader XML yourself and disable the C# registration (fork / comment StartCoroutine(SideLoaderStatusRegistrationCoroutine)).
What this project contains
Plugin.cs: BepInEx + Harmony plugin with runtime patching and reflection-based checks.MeleeBuff.csproj: project file for building MeleeBuff.dll.assets/logo.svg: mod logo you can use in release pages/manifests.icon.png: Thunderstore icon (must be 256×256 PNG).resize-icon.ps1: rescales icon.png to 256×256 (run after swapping in a larger image).package-thunderstore.ps1: build + normalize icon + zip for Thunderstore upload.
Thunderstore icon (256×256)
Thunderstore requires icon.png to be exactly 256×256. If you drop in a larger image:
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\resize-icon.ps1
package-thunderstore.ps1 also resizes icon.png to 256×256 automatically before zipping.
If you still get a GDI+ error, close anything that has icon.png open (preview tab, image editor), then run the script again.
Build
- Install the .NET SDK (7+ is fine for building this project).
- From this folder, run (replace path with your install location):
dotnet restore
dotnet build -c Release -p:OutwardDir="C:\Games\Outward"
Output DLL will be at:
bin\Release\net472\MeleeBuff.dll
Install in Outward
-
Install BepInEx and SideLoader for Outward (Thunderstore / r2modman will pull both).
-
Copy MeleeBuff.dll and the Icons folder (with MeleeBuff_Status.png) into the same BepInEx\plugins\ tree as the DLL (the png must be at ...\plugins\Icons\MeleeBuff_Status.png relative to the DLL directory). Thunderstore zips already lay this out under plugins\.
-
Launch the game once.
-
Check logs:
<OutwardFolder>\BepInEx\LogOutput.log
You should see Melee Buff initialization and patch counts.
Notes
- Outward updates/mod stacks can rename internal methods and members. This plugin is implemented with defensive reflection to reduce breakage.
- If your specific game version uses different method names for damage paths, the plugin may need small patch-target adjustments in
Plugin.cs.
