MountedArchery

Firing a Deep North frostfire bow from the saddle of a galloping spirit moose

Draw, aim, loose, cast spells, all in the saddle. Bows, crossbows, thrown spears and the staffs that shoot something all work while you ride a Lox, Asksvin or Moose.

Note: this is mounted archery, not mounted melee. Swords, axes, clubs and other melee weapons still get you off the animal when you swing, just like vanilla.

How to Use

Get on your animal.
Ready your bow, crossbow, spear or staff and shoot while riding.
Keep steering, you won't be unmounted.
Ride over your thrown spear, or loot, to pick it up.

Firing back at a Fuling Berserker while riding away on a spirit moose

Fighting a Fuling Berserker with the Lightning Strike from the saddle of a spirit moose

Riding a spirit moose through scattered moose meat as it flies up to the rider; inset: the game's "Added Moose Meat x34"

Jumping, dodging or pressing E still gets you off, just like vanilla.

How Things Behave

Charging speeds your shots up. Your mount's speed carries into the shot: a spear or bomb thrown ahead at a gallop flies faster and farther instead of falling behind you, and arrows fly flatter.
Firing back while fleeing slows them down. A shot or throw behind you leaves slower and falls shorter, more so the faster you ride. Shots to the side stay vanilla.
Ride over loot to pick it up. Auto-pickup works from the saddle, just like vanilla.

Multiplayer

Client-side only. It reuses the game's own riding and shooting animations, so friends without the mod see you fire from the saddle, and their own attacks still throw them off their mount.

Compatibility

Built and tested for Valheim 1.0 (Deep North), on Linux; no OS-specific code.
It only changes what happens when you shoot from a saddle, so it shouldn't clash with other mods, except ones that also change riding or mounted combat.

Uninstalling

Nothing is saved, so just remove it.

Details