NewtCraftBoxes

Craft, build and upgrade using the materials stored in the chests around you — no more running back and forth to empty boxes into your inventory.

Stand near your storage, open the workbench or pick a piece in the hammer menu, and NewtCraftBoxes counts what is in your nearby chests, carts and ships as if it were in your pockets. When you craft or build, whatever your inventory is missing is taken straight from those containers.

Built for Valheim 1.0, safe in multiplayer and designed to stay light even in large bases.

Quick start

1. Install with r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager (BepInExPack Valheim comes with it).
2. Start the game, stand near your chests and open the workbench or the hammer menu.
3. Requirements now show available/required (e.g. 34/10) — craft and build as usual.

No setup is needed: it works out of the box with sensible defaults (20 m range). Optionally install Official BepInEx ConfigurationManager to change settings in game with F1.

---

Features

Crafting and building from containers

• Works for building (hammer, hoe, cultivator), crafting at any station and upgrading items.
• Your inventory is always used first; only the missing amount is taken from containers, nearest container first.
• Correct with craft ×N (multi-craft), Valheim 1.0 upgrade rules, crafting stations, item quality and world level. The game itself decides what a recipe needs; the mod only supplies what your inventory lacks, so recipes behave exactly like vanilla.
• Requirement slots show available/required (for example 34/10), counting your inventory plus nearby containers.

Which containers are used

• Any container within range (default 20 m): chests, barrels, and the storage of carts and ships.
• Modded containers work too, as long as they use the game's normal container system.
• Automatically ignored:
  • chests opened by another player at that moment,
  • private chests that aren't yours and containers inside a ward you don't have access to,
  • dungeon / treasure chests (not built by a player) and tombstones.

Multiplayer safe

• Before taking items, the mod takes network ownership of the chest and reloads its latest contents, so every player sees the items disappear — no duplicated or reappearing items.
• Client-side: only players who want the feature need to install it. No server install required; players without the mod are not affected.

Per-container rules

• Choose which items may never be pulled from a given kind of container (for example: never use the coins in your wood chests, or never touch anything in personal chests).
• Reusable groups of items, plus built-in groups such as Food, Ores, Metals, Trophy, All…
• The rules file reloads live while the game is running.

Lightweight and robust

• Nearby containers are rescanned only when you move or at a configurable interval; item counts are cached and refreshed the moment a chest's contents change. (Automated test: 2 000 loaded chests ≈ 0.06 ms per frame.)
• Each feature is installed independently: if a future game update changes something, only that feature is disabled and the reason is written to the log — the game and the rest of the mod keep working.
• Hotkey to switch the mod on/off in game (optional).

---

Installation

Requirements

• Valheim 1.0 or newer (PC).
• BepInExPack Valheim — installed automatically by mod managers.
• Not compatible with crossplay servers (Valheim disables BepInEx mods when crossplay is enabled).

Option A — Mod manager (Thunderstore Mod Manager or r2modman) — recommended

1. Install r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager.
2. Select Valheim and choose (or create) a profile.
3. Go to Online, search for NewtCraftBoxes (by Anatta Labs) and click Download. BepInExPack Valheim is installed with it.
4. Click Start modded. Always start the game from the mod manager, not from Steam.

Installing from a .zip file (a friend sent you the mod): in the mod manager open Settings → Profile → Import local mod, select NewtCraftBoxes-X.Y.Z.zip, then Start modded.

Option B — Manual installation

1. Install BepInEx (skip if you already have it):
   • Download BepInExPack Valheim.
   • Open the zip, go into the BepInExPack_Valheim folder and copy everything inside it into your Valheim folder (Steam → right-click Valheim → Manage → Browse local files). You should end up with Valheim/BepInEx/ and Valheim/winhttp.dll next to valheim.exe.
   • Start the game once and close it, so BepInEx creates its folders.
   • Linux / Steam Deck: set the Steam launch options to ./start_game_bepinex.sh %command%.
2. Install the mod: open NewtCraftBoxes-X.Y.Z.zip and copy plugins/NewtCraftBoxes.dll to Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/NewtCraftBoxes/NewtCraftBoxes.dll (create the folder).
3. Start the game. Valheim/BepInEx/LogOutput.log should contain: NewtCraftBoxes X.Y.Z loaded (9/9 patch groups active).

Only use one "craft from containers" mod at a time — two of them would both take items.

Updating and uninstalling

• Mod manager: use Update or Uninstall on the mod.
• Manual: replace or delete BepInEx/plugins/NewtCraftBoxes/. Your settings are kept in BepInEx/config/ (delete newton.newtcraftboxes.cfg and newton.NewtCraftBoxes.yml to reset them).

---

Configuration

The settings file is created on first start: BepInEx/config/newton.newtcraftboxes.cfg

• In a mod manager: Config editor → BepInEx\config\newton.newtcraftboxes.cfg → Edit Config, change values, Save. Start the game once first so the file exists.
• In game: install Official BepInEx ConfigurationManager, press F1 and open the NewtCraftBoxes section; changes apply immediately.
• Editing the file by hand: close the game first; changes are read on next start.

Example (newton.newtcraftboxes.cfg, only the lines you change):

[1 - General]
Range = 40
ToggleKey = F8

[5 - Debug]
DebugLogging = false

Settings

Section	Setting	Default	What it does
1 - General	Enabled	true	Master switch. false turns the mod off completely.
1 - General	Range	20	Maximum distance in meters (1–100) between you and a container for it to be used.
1 - General	ToggleKey	(none)	Hotkey to switch the mod on/off while playing. A message is shown in the center of the screen. Examples: F8, LeftControl + G.
2 - Containers	OnlyPlayerBuilt	true	Ignore containers not built by a player (dungeon and treasure chests).
2 - Containers	IncludeShipsAndCarts	true	Also use the storage of carts and ships.
2 - Containers	RespectWards	true	Skip containers inside a ward you don't have access to.
2 - Containers	SkipContainersInUse	true	Skip chests another player currently has open. Keep enabled in multiplayer.
2 - Containers	TakeNetworkOwnership	true	Take network ownership of a chest before removing items. Required for correct multiplayer sync; only disable to troubleshoot.
3 - Performance	RefreshInterval	0.5	Seconds between rescans of nearby containers while standing still (0.1–5). Item counts update instantly regardless. Raise it if you have a huge base and a slow PC.
4 - UI	ShowAvailableAmount	true	Show available/required on requirement slots when containers contribute.
5 - Debug	DebugLogging	false	Write detailed information to BepInEx/LogOutput.log (for example, which container items were taken from).

Container rules (optional)

BepInEx/config/newton.NewtCraftBoxes.yml — created on first start with commented examples. Saved changes are applied immediately, even with the game running.

By default every item can be pulled from every container. The rules file lets you restrict that per container type:

# Reusable lists of item prefab names (case sensitive)
groups:
  Valuables:
    - Coins
    - Ruby
    - Amber
    - AmberPearl

# Personal chests: never pull anything from them
piece_chest_private:
  exclude:
    - All

# Wood chests: don't use valuables or food... except coins
piece_chest_wood:
  exclude:
    - Valuables
    - Food
  includeOverride:
    - Coins

How it works:

• The top-level key is the container prefab name. Common ones: piece_chest_wood (wood chest), piece_chest (reinforced chest), piece_chest_private (personal chest), piece_chest_blackmetal (black metal chest), piece_chest_barrel (barrel). Turn on DebugLogging to see the name of any container in the log when items are taken from it.
• exclude: items or groups that must not be pulled from that container type.
• includeOverride: items or groups that are always allowed, even if excluded. It wins over exclude.
• Items are written as prefab names (for example Wood, Bronze, TrophyDeer). See the item list.
• Use 2 spaces for indentation (no tabs). If the file has an error, the log shows the line number and the previous rules stay active.

Built-in groups (always available, calculated from the game's item list, including items from other mods):

Group	Contents
All	Every item
Food / Potion	Food with health and stamina / consumables with health only (meads)
Fish	Fish
Swords, Axes, Clubs, Knives, Pickaxes, Polearms, Spears, Bows, Crossbows	Weapons by skill
Equipment	Torches
Trophy / Boss Trophy	Creature trophies / boss trophies
Ores / Metals	Anything smelted in the smelter or blast furnace / what they produce
Woods	Wood types (anything accepted by the charcoal kiln, plus ancient bark)
Seeds / Crops	Plantable items that yield one / several items when harvested

---

Compatibility

• Client-side: install it only on the players who want it. Dedicated servers don't need it, and players without the mod can play on the same server normally.
• Other "craft from containers" mods (for example AzuCraftyBoxes): use only one of them — two would both take items.
• Modded containers built on the game's normal container system (chests, carts, ships from other mods) are supported automatically.
• Crossplay servers are not supported (the game disables BepInEx mods when crossplay is on).

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Nothing happens	Did you start the game with Start modded? Does BepInEx/LogOutput.log contain NewtCraftBoxes … loaded? Is Enabled true, and wasn't the mod switched off with the ToggleKey?
A specific chest is not used	Distance (Range), is it open by someone else, is it inside a ward, is it a personal chest of another player, is it excluded in the rules file?
Log says fewer than 9/9 patch groups active	A game update changed something. The rest keeps working; please report it with your LogOutput.log.
Items taken twice / from the wrong place	Make sure no other "craft from containers" mod is installed.

Finding the log: in r2modman / Thunderstore Mod Manager use Settings → Debugging → Browse profile folder and open BepInEx/LogOutput.log; for a manual install it is Valheim/BepInEx/LogOutput.log. To report a problem, set DebugLogging = true, reproduce it, and send that file to Anatta Labs.

---

Credits

Made by Anatta Labs. The package icon was created with the help of AI image generation.

For developers

• Build against your game and create the package: .\scripts\pack.ps1 -ValheimDir "<Valheim folder>" [-Install]
• Automated tests (no game needed, Linux/macOS/WSL with .NET SDK 8 and Mono): ./build.sh
• Versioning (SemVer, single source in Version.props) and release steps: docs/RELEASING.md

License

MIT — see LICENSE.