Valheim Nav Compass

BepInEx mod for Valheim that adds a scrolling compass strip to the top of the HUD, showing cardinal directions and the bearing/distance to map pins you've manually marked - like the navigation compass in many other open-world games. This is not auto-pathfinding, just a visual direction indicator.

Unofficial mod. This is a fan-made mod, not affiliated with or endorsed by Iron Gate. It marks your game as modded (the game shows this in the main menu), as Iron Gate asks mod authors to do.

Screenshots

How to use

Open the map and click a pin to cycle its state:

1. Unmarked (default)
2. Strikethrough (the game's own built-in "checked" mark)
3. Circled (a thin light-blue ring, added by this mod) - this pin now shows up on the compass strip
4. Click again -> back to unmarked

Works on any pin, including ones the game places automatically (bosses, trader/shop markers, etc.) - not just ones you placed yourself. You can track multiple pins at once. Marked pins are saved per-world in BepInEx\config\NavCompass\ and survive a game restart and mod updates. A mark stays even while its pin is temporarily off the map (e.g. a category hidden in Auto Waypoints) and comes back with it; it is removed only when you delete the pin yourself.

Under each tracked pin's icon the compass shows the distance, and the pin's name when it has one (translated like on the map). With Auto Waypoints installed, the name follows its label settings: if a pin's label is hidden on the map, the compass shows just the distance. Nav Compass works on its own too - Auto Waypoints is optional.

Look

The compass strip is styled to match the game's own UI: it sits in the same wooden frame as the in-game windows, and the main directions (N, E, S, W) are carved-wood letters in Valheim's Norse font (north is tinted red so it stands out). All of these graphics are taken from your installed game at runtime - the mod itself ships no game assets. If any of them can't be found, the compass falls back to a plain look instead of failing.

Requirements

• Valheim (tested on 1.0.15)
• BepInEx 5.4.x

Installation (players)

1. Install BepInEx for Valheim if you haven't already (see link above, or use r2modman).
2. Download NavCompass.dll from the latest release.
3. Drop it into <Valheim install folder>\BepInEx\plugins\NavCompass\.
4. Launch the game, mark a pin on the map, close the map.

Upgrading from 0.1.x: the DLL used to be called Mod6-NavCompass.dll. Delete the old BepInEx\plugins\Mod6-NavCompass\ folder after installing the new version - your marked pins are copied over automatically the first time you load each world.

Building from source

Requires the .NET 8 SDK (or newer) and a local Valheim install with BepInEx installed.

git clone https://github.com/Ab5oluteZer0/valheim-nav-compass.git
cd valheim-nav-compass
dotnet build -c Release -p:ValheimPath="C:\Path\To\Valheim"

If you don't pass -p:ValheimPath, the build looks for a VALHEIM_PATH environment variable, then falls back to the default Steam location (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Valheim).

The build automatically copies the built DLL into <Valheim>\BepInEx\plugins\NavCompass\ for quick in-game testing.

Notes on how it works (and a few gotchas found along the way)

• Pin marking does not reuse Minimap.GetClosestPin - that method requires pin.m_save == true, which excludes non-saveable pins like shop/trader markers. This mod re-implements the closest-pin lookup without that restriction.
• PinData.m_checked is the game's own field for the red "strikethrough" look (not a checkmark, despite the name) and is toggled automatically on every map click - this mod explicitly overwrites it after each click to fit its own 3-state cycle.
• Deleting a marked pin from the map (right-click -> remove) is detected every frame and cleans up the mod's own tracking state, so it doesn't get stuck showing a pin that no longer exists.
• Any Update() loop that builds UI dynamically should be wrapped in a try/catch with a "disable after first error" guard - an uncaught exception thrown every frame floods the BepInEx log and tanks FPS by itself.

Support

All my mods are free and will stay free. If you enjoy them and want to say thanks, you can leave a voluntary tip via PayPal - it doesn't unlock anything, it just helps me keep making mods.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.