Rootbound Witch

Runtime requirements: BepInEx, Jotunn, and ADARC-BackpacksValheim1Compat. The compatibility package installs the official Smoothbrain Backpacks 1.3.8 dependency and applies the required Valheim 1.0 repairs before it is loaded.

Rootbound Witch is a restriction-led Valheim transformation. It is not a collection of free buffs: one armour set becomes the player's entire equipment pilgrimage, plant magic replaces ordinary progression, the forest recognizes the wearer, and every major gift has a cost.

Forest eitr food

• Mossbread and Bilberry Mash establish the early-game plant-magic food path.
• Rootbound Shortcake is the Deep North capstone. It inherits Frosted Sweetbread's live appearance and crafting gate but rewrites the meal into an extreme mage trade: 0 health, 120 eitr and 70 stamina for 30 minutes. It provides no health regeneration.

The remaining biome steps are intentionally available for a fuller one-food-per-biome progression rather than silently inventing recipes or balance values for the player.

This is the first local trial build for the current Valheim 1.0 client. It does not replace vanilla Root armour or modify a world save.

Required on every machine

• Valheim 1.0
• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350
• Jötunn 2.30.0
• ADARC Backpacks Valheim 1 Compatibility 1.0.4 (which installs the official Smoothbrain Backpacks 1.3.8 package)
• Rootbound Witch 0.4.22

Install the same package on the dedicated server and every joining client. MagicPlugin 2.1.9 and DvergerStaves 1.0.9 are optional visual/attack-source integrations: when present, the Crook borrows their appropriate reclaimed-staff body or secondary-cast architecture; otherwise it falls back to live vanilla sources.

The Rootbound equipment tree

The Mask, Harness and Leggings are separate items cloned from vanilla Root armour. They begin at Plains-level protection and persist through four growths instead of being replaced by later armour.

Growth	Target tier	Armour per piece	Full-set armour	Upgrade material family
1	Plains	26	78	Draugr-village remains
2	Mistlands	32	96	Carapace, soft tissue and refined eitr
3	Ashlands	38	114	Ask hide, celestial feather and charred bone
4	Deep North	44	132	Frost core, timberwood and moose hide

Petrified harvesting tools

The complete-set metal refusal no longer creates a solo progression dead end. Two purpose-built tools carry universal harvesting clearance from their first growth and use the live Blackmetal counterpart's damage and durability curves:

• PetrifiedRootPick uses the Antler Pickaxe silhouette, with its pale antler fossilized into walnut-brown root.
• PetrifiedRootAxe uses the Bronze Axe silhouette, but its blade is rendered as non-metallic corewood with a restrained wood grain.

Neither recipe contains metal, so both remain legal while Rootbound. Their unusually high tool tier decides which deposits and trees may be harvested, while their Blackmetal-class working damage prevents later-biome marble and timber from becoming multi-minute chores. Damage and durability retain ordinary four-quality scaling through upgrades made from Mistlands, Ashlands and Deep North materials.

Each piece grants quality-aware static eitr and eitr regeneration. A complete set:

• makes Greydwarves and Greylings treat the wearer as kin;
• makes Dvergers attack on sight from growth two onward;
• at growth two, rejects the Wet status entirely and projects +20 comfort once throughout the same 50-metre social field;
• rejects metal equipment and animal food;
• increases fire damage received;
• heals near living trees, then changes allegiance to Deep North cold at growth four;
• regenerates stamina faster in its home biomes;
• withers on worked stone and black marble;
• roots a motionless wearer briefly; the hold restores health only while no weapon is held in either hand;
• prevents falling-tree impact damage;
• permits exactly one additional jump before landing;
• removes five Running and five Jumping levels when the wearer personally kills a creature whose live drops contain meat;
• at growth three, chars the armour and equipped Overgrowth crown to dark walnut and carries only a sparse ember drift;
• at growth four, turns to white permafrost moss over frost-grey skin, gains restrained blue-white crystal growths made from the vanilla ice-staff material, ignores frost damage, and becomes still more vulnerable to fire.

Rootbound Overgrowth

RootboundOvergrowth moves the accepted Bog Witch branch crown out of the automatic set effect and into a real, removable shoulder-slot item. The Lox-cape donor supplies ordinary mountain frost protection, but its cloth model is removed: only the extracted upper- and lower-back branch geometry is rendered. The crown is not a fourth set requirement and may be equipped or removed without breaking Rootbound kinship.

Its first growth uses the same Draugr-remains origin as the armour, allowing a metal-refusing solo witch to cross the Mountains without depending on a Wolf or Lox cape. Later upgrades follow the Mistlands, Ashlands and Deep North material ladder. At quality three its branches char to dark walnut and shed a few small embers. At quality four the embers extinguish and its complete geometry bleaches to the same permafrost white. A compact ZDO state preserves the equipped/removed, ordinary, charred and permafrost crown states for remote players.

Borrowed Root: the multiplayer field

The complete set emits a 50-metre field. Every other living player inside it receives Borrowed Root, doubling stamina regeneration. The emitting wearer never receives their own aura.

The complete set also contracts its wearer's rendered body and fitted Rootbound Overgrowth to 72% scale. The owner publishes only the equipped tier; every Rootbound client reconstructs the same stature, so other players see the small forest entity too. This is a visual phenotype only: collision, camera, reach, movement statistics and mount mechanics remain vanilla-sized, and players not wearing all three armour pieces are never resized. The late presentation pass composes with Shapekeys and other appearance mods instead of repeatedly multiplying their scale.

At quality four, that same remote presentation includes the white armour, frost-grey skin, ice-crystal accents, permafrost crown and—when equipped—the whitened Rootbound Satchel. None of these cosmetic material changes are written into the character save.

If at least one other player is inside the field, the wearer moves at 85% speed. This is one flat cost and never stacks with recipient count. Two Rootbound wearers may receive one another's fields, but no source can buff itself.

At minimum set quality two, the same 50-metre area contributes exactly +20 comfort to the wearer and every nearby player. Multiple Rootbound sources do not stack the comfort bonus. The quality-two wearer also refuses Valheim's Wet status at the environment-effect boundary, so rain and immersion cannot impose its stamina/health-regeneration penalties while the complete set remains equipped.

Rootbound Crook

The Crook is a dead Surtling staff visibly reclaimed by a low-poly constricting root, bark knots, asymmetric tendrils and sprouts that distort the old shaft. Its light and ember emission are removed, its core is recoloured as lifeless stone, and the live Staff of the Wild projectile becomes translucent black-green mould dust.

• Primary attack: copied from the live StaffGreenRoots item, but every cast germinates three roots in a triangular formation and costs eitr only—never health.
• Secondary attack/right bumper: 25 thin native Elder vines emitted from the moving staff tip at 0.1-second intervals and steered by live camera LOS. Every vine uses the same explicit 80 blunt + 80 poison packet as the primary before quality growth and returns 4 health on connection.
• Quality two or higher marks its wielder as a forest threat to Dvergers.

The former standalone Crookbound Root is retired. Its other useful half now belongs to the armour: while the complete-set wearer is overencumbered, the next damaging enemy hit raises 24 allied brown Elder roots across 25 metres. The hardened roots have twice their former base health, last 30 seconds, return 20% of outgoing damage, and cannot trigger another field until the configurable 30-second guard expires.

Frosted Root

FrostedRoot is the Crook's Deep North sister weapon. It consumes one Rootbound Crook plus FrostCore and Frostwood at first growth, removes the Surtling core geometry entirely, and turns the reclaimed wood, root coil and sprouts into visibly pale snowbound material.

• Both attacks retain the ordinary empty fireball-throw gesture; the hand emits no false summon effect.
• Primary attack: six live Moder ice projectiles fall from 20 metres above the aimed point at triple the former speed.
• Secondary attack/right bumper: Eikthyr's genuine antler shockwave, fired from the player's live camera line of sight using Crookbound Root's proven aim contract. It remaps the primary's complete quality-aware packet from frost + pierce into lightning + spirit: 125 lightning + 85 spirit at quality one, with the same +20 lightning per growth. The direct victim and two jumps are guaranteed; there is then a 75% chance of a fourth victim and, only if that succeeds, a 50% chance of a fifth. Each hop searches within 18 metres and one cast costs 65 eitr.
• Primary base damage per shard: 125 frost + 85 pierce at quality one.
• Upgrade damage: +20 frost damage at each quality above the first, for +60 over the live Deep North baseline at quality four.
• Maximum quality: four; every growth remains in the Deep North material family.

Rootbound Charm

The charm is built from the live Jormundling trinket body and replaces its effect with:

• +40 Elemental Magic;
• +40 Blood Magic;
• +40 maximum eitr;
• feather fall (terminal fall speed and fall damage protection);
• a seven-minute Forsaken-power cooldown when the power is activated while the charm is equipped.

Forsaken-power duration is not changed.

Rootbound Wisp

RootboundWisp is a direct Wisplight continuation. It preserves the live Wisplight's light and mist-clearing behaviour, remains in Valheim's Utility slot, and adds exactly 150 maximum carry weight by default. The Rootbound Charm remains in the separate Trinket slot, so both can stay equipped together. Its workbench conversion consumes one Wisplight and three Roots; the vanilla Wisplight is not modified.

Mycelial Crook

MycelialCrook is the third reclaimed staff. Its Surtling core is removed and replaced by a softly glowing yellow mushroom crown.

• Primary attack throws the red mushroom itself, then plants a persistent, harvestable red mushroom on the directly aimed surface.
• Secondary attack uses the same throwing gesture and plants a persistent yellow mushroom. Its object remains recognizably yellow, while its gentler illumination copies Valheim's live campfire colour, intensity, falloff and shadow profile across a 60-metre radius rather than emitting the former hard synthetic-yellow glare.
• Both casts are non-damaging and cost eitr only.
• The workbench recipe consumes one Rootbound Crook, ten red mushrooms, ten yellow mushrooms and ten Sap.

Tearbound Trollstav

TearboundTrollstav is the deliberately punishing Deep North capstone. Its Rootbound Crook frame carries only the Trollstav's live red-head geometry, drained into a dull, opaque, non-emissive crown; the old Surtling core is removed beneath it.

• Primary attack calls 24 genuine Obliterator lightning effects in a low-clumping distribution across a 25-metre aimed field; the first strike is guaranteed at exact LOS. The lightning is recoloured red and each strike deals 150 lightning, 150 fire, 75 spirit, 50 blunt and 50 pierce inside its impact radius at quality one. One storm costs 110 eitr. The caster, allied players, tamed creatures and allied summons are protected; hostile characters, environmental objects and built structures are valid targets. The deliberate exception is the caster's own Tearbound trolls, allowing the LOS strike to retire them manually.
• Maximum quality is four. Every upgrade adds 10 lightning, 10 fire, 10 spirit, 10 blunt and 10 pierce to both the character and structure packets, reaching +30 in every channel at quality four.
• Secondary attack retains the live Trollstav projectile-and-impact delivery graph, but its spawn node is rewritten to produce exactly one flameless, owner-bound allied skeletal troll. Every cast costs 75 eitr plus 75% of the caster's current—not maximum—health, and repeat casts deliberately stack into an army. A five-second arrival shield prevents its own meteor from removing half its health. Each troll follows and fights for its caster, carries no drops, cannot aggro its owner, respects the same 15-metre minimum follow distance as Moder and the Charter Abomination, and remains ordinarily killable by that owner for manual dismissal.
• The level-four Galdr-table recipe is exactly 3 Bell Fragments, 3 Bloodstones, 3 Iolite, 10 Thunderstones, 10 Black Cores, 65 Refined Eitr and 25 Yagluth Drops.

Bog Witch and Kvastur

While the complete armour set is worn, the Bog Witch offers a Rootbound Kvastur Scroll for 350 coins.

• Primary attack summons one owned Kvastur companion. Summoning again replaces the player's earlier companion.
• Secondary attack/right bumper uses a live axe's downward-strike control path and executes only that player's owned companion through Valheim's ordinary death lifecycle.
• Summoned Kvastur have no loot table and cannot be used to multiply drops.
• Ownership is stored on the networked summon so players cannot recall one another's broom.
• Summon and recall input executes only on the attacking player's owning client. Other peers receive the resulting network creature but never create additional hostile copies.

Buying the Kvastur scroll also records a persistent, per-character forest-recognition key. Once recognized, the same full-set shopper can buy a Rootbound Galdr Charter for 750 coins. Buying the charter permanently exposes personal-inventory copies of every currently loaded recipe whose base craft requirement equals the highest live Galdr-table level. The Charter itself also controls one strengthened Abomination companion, so it remains a functional instrument after purchase rather than inert proof of the unlock.

• The charter preserves the source recipe's output and ingredient requirements.
• The original Galdr-table recipe is not removed or modified.
• Hand copies appear only while crafting without a station; the inventory item does not need to remain carried after purchase.
• The loaded recipe table is inspected dynamically, allowing compatible modded Galdr recipes to participate.
• The same Charter layer follows live animal ingredients through the loaded recipe graph and reclaims each raw meat or meat-containing food into exactly one Sap.
• Merely spawning or otherwise possessing either purchased item repairs its corresponding character key for testing and migration.
• Charter primary attack costs 85 eitr and summons one owner-bound, two-star Abomination with a 4,800-health target, Mistlands vision, heavy resistances and 20 health regenerated per second.
• Charter secondary attack uses the same live axe downward-strike control path and executes only that player's Abomination. A living Abomination blocks and refunds another primary summon, its drops are removed, and it does not consume the player's separate Kvastur slot.
• Outside combat the Abomination spawns beyond and follows no closer than 15 metres. Its vanilla standing click-groans remain intact, while the repetitive ambient grunt is suppressed only during movement.
• The Abomination carries a permanent Living Yoke fitted from Valheim's live saddle controller. Its Charter bearer may interact to mount and steer it with ordinary riding controls; other players cannot take control or remove the yoke. While mounted, primary attack commands its native arm sweep and secondary attack commands its centered ground smash; jump remains the ordinary dismount control. Follow-distance enforcement pauses while occupied.
• The Charter also exposes RootboundModerSigil only in its stationless personal-inventory recipe layer. It costs one Howling Cavern Cultist trophy, one Smouldering Tomb Skeleton trophy and one Sealed Tower berserker-bros trophy.
• Sigil primary attack calls one owner-bound, non-boss lesser Moder with 1,800 health and 45% of live Moder damage; the familiar axe-strike secondary recalls only the caller's Moder. A living Moder blocks and refunds another primary summon. It has no drops, boss HUD, defeat key or boss event, keeps a 15-metre following boundary, and suppresses its repetitive voice while out of combat.
• Kvastur follows the same strict one-living-companion rule: primary refuses and refunds a duplicate while secondary recalls the existing summon.
• The Charter also exposes the stationless RootboundGreydwarfWarbandScroll. Primary spends 65 eitr and fires ten audited copies of the vanilla Trollstav's flaming meteor delivery, each rewritten to contain one ordinary level-three Greydwarf instead of a troll; repeat casts deliberately stack. Secondary executes at most ten nearest regular Greydwarfs within 50 metres per cast. The scroll does not tame or change their faction: full Rootbound kinship is what makes the warband friendly.
• The Charter's RootboundGjallAerostatScroll costs ten Gjall trophies, 40 refined eitr and one Rootbound Wisp. It calls one owner-bound half-scale Gjall; another primary summon is refused and refunded until the axe-strike secondary recalls it.
• Its Aerostat Yoke uses Valheim's live saddle network path. Ordinary movement steers horizontally at 3.5 m/s, held Use (E / controller A) rises, held Crouch descends, mounted primary commands the Gjall's native fireball, and Jump dismounts. Its own AI cannot take over while occupied.

Rootbound Satchel

The mod uses Smoothbrain Backpacks' supported external-YAML interface and does not redistribute its models or code. On load it installs the namespaced Backpacks.RootboundWitch.generated.yml, enables external YAML, and asks Backpacks to reload it.

The satchel starts at 4x3 slots with 80% carried weight and grows through 5x3, 5x4 and 6x4 using Mistlands, Ashlands and Deep North materials. Its recipe begins with Draugr remains, leather scraps and fine wood.

Trial protocol

Use a disposable local character/world first. Verify content in this order:

1. Confirm the BepInEx log contains Rootbound content registered and no Rootbound exception.
2. Spawn or craft all Rootbound items; inspect recipes at every quality. Spawn PetrifiedRootPick and PetrifiedRootAxe, confirm the full set accepts them, then test each against ordinary and latest-biome resources.
3. Equip the complete set and check Greydwarf neutrality, metal/meat refusal and the double jump. Take root while armed and unarmed; the hold must persist in both cases, but only empty hands may restore health.
4. Bring one second player across the 50 m boundary; verify only the receiver gets Borrowed Root and the wearer slows exactly once.
5. Upgrade the set or Crook to quality two and verify Dverger hostility.
6. Test Rootbound Crook primary and secondary on a disposable hostile creature. Confirm the first launches three roots and the second launches 25 LOS-steered Elder vines; the ledger must show 80 blunt + 80 poison for every projectile at quality one. Then become overencumbered in the full armour set, take an enemy hit, and verify one 24-root field appears, its roots survive twice as much punishment, and another field cannot appear for 30 seconds.
7. Spawn FrostedRoot; verify six fast Moder shards on primary, each beginning at 125 frost + 85 pierce, and the aimed Eikthyr lightning chain on secondary. At quality one its ledger must read 125 lightning + 85 spirit; qualities two through four add 20 lightning each. Test three clustered enemies for guaranteed coverage, then larger groups for the 75% fourth and conditional 50% fifth jumps inside 18 metres.
8. Spawn RootboundWisp; equip it beside the Rootbound Charm and full armour, then verify ordinary Wisplight behaviour and exactly +150 carry capacity without losing the Charm effect.
9. Spawn MycelialCrook; throw both mushroom types, harvest them, relog, and verify the unharvested yellow plant persists and lights the room.
10. Buy and summon Kvastur with two different player IDs; verify another primary cast is refused and refunded while it lives, then use the axe-like downward secondary strike and verify it kills only the caller's Kvastur.
11. After buying Kvastur, close and reopen the Bog Witch store; buy the Galdr Charter and verify only the highest-level Galdr recipes appear in inventory crafting with unchanged costs.
12. Equip the Charter: primary should summon one strengthened Abomination for 85 eitr; another primary should be refused and refunded until the axe-like secondary kills it. Verify it follows, fights Mistlands creatures, regenerates and drops nothing. Interact with the Living Yoke, ride and steer it; right trigger/primary should perform the native arm sweep, right bumper/secondary should perform the centered ground smash, and jump should dismount. Then verify a second player cannot mount, command or remove it.
13. With the Charter key, verify RootboundModerSigil appears in personal crafting only when no station is active and requires the three Hildir-site trophies. Summon, attempt and fail to duplicate, fight beside and recall Moder; confirm no boss bar, event, key or drops.
14. Spawn RootboundGreydwarfWarbandScroll; primary-cast twice and verify twenty separate flaming Trollstav meteors deliver twenty level-three regular Greydwarfs, with no troll hidden in any impact. With full-set kinship active, verify they remain ordinary allied forest creatures. Secondary-cast once and confirm at most ten within 50 metres die; cast again to clear the next ten.
15. Spawn RootboundGjallAerostatScroll; summon the half-scale Gjall and verify a second primary is refused and refunded. Mount through the Aerostat Yoke, steer horizontally, hold Use to rise, hold Crouch to descend, fire with primary and dismount with Jump. Verify secondary recall works after dismounting.
16. Activate a Forsaken power with and without the charm and compare cooldowns.
17. Spawn RootboundOvergrowth, equip and remove it at qualities one and four while a second client watches. Verify the cloth donor never appears; the branch crown follows animation and disappears remotely; complete-set stature is 72% on both screens; and tier four reproduces white armour, frost-grey skin, ice crystals, permafrost crown and the whitened equipped Rootbound Satchel for the observer. Confirm the cape protects against Mountain cold without becoming a fourth set requirement.
18. Spawn TearboundTrollstav. Aim the primary into a disposable hostile field and verify the first of 24 red strikes lands exactly at LOS while the remainder cover the aimed 25-metre area. Upgrade it through quality four and verify each damage channel rises by 10 per growth. Use secondary and verify the Trollstav delivery yields one full-health allied flameless troll on every peer, repeat casts stack, and an aimed primary or ordinary projectile can still kill the owner's trolls manually.
19. Test logout/reconnect, portal travel and server restart before using the package on the live realm.

Configuration is synchronized by Jötunn. The mod deliberately performs no automatic profile installation and no save migration.