Balrond Monster Mayhem — BETA

Current development version: 1.2.0
Game: Valheim 1.0
Status: BETA — multiplayer, procedural miniboss runtime, optional AI assistance and newly authored assets still require dedicated-server/in-game verification.

Monster Mayhem is now an essential component of the Balrond Absolute Overhaul (BAO) experience. It is the creature, spawning, event, drop, taming and boss-combat module of the BAO mod suite. The BAO package also contains documentation covering Monster Mayhem and the larger mod-suite integration.

THIS MOD DOES NO LONGER WORK ON IT OWN AND REQUIRES Balrond Absolute Overhaul (BAO)

Required dependencies: Balrond Absolute Overhaul and Balrond Humanoid Randomizer. Both are declared as hard BepInEx dependencies. Install compatible versions on the server and on participating clients.

BETA notice: Back up worlds and characters before updating. Features involving new boss attacks, networked VFX, new spawns and world transitions may still have bugs. A successful source check is not a substitute for gameplay and dedicated-server testing.

What Monster Mayhem changes

Monster Mayhem expands Valheim's creatures and combat encounters while keeping separate ownership for BAO's world locations and item/content systems.

• Creatures and variants: additional animals, monsters, juveniles and dangerous biome encounters; new creature spawner prefabs and stat/resistance profiles.
• World spawns and events: a curated SpawnSystem overhaul, biome-specific encounters, raid/event changes and preservation of vanilla Deep North persistent-event gates.
• Boss fights: HP-gated authored attacks, Enrage effects, modest nearby-player scaling, disengaged regeneration and battle curses.
• Taming and breeding: vanilla-based taming, diet and feeding behavior, offspring, incubation, growth and creature-control stances.
• Minor Mutations: optional lightweight per-creature traits with synchronized ZDO state; two distinct forced mutations for promoted minibosses.
• Procedural minibosses (experimental, OFF by default): rare named versions of allowlisted wild creatures with extra native levels, boss UI and per-instance identity.
• AI navigation: conditional door/climb/ledge support, target hysteresis and obstruction targeting using native attacks.
• OdinHorse: conditional exclusions for the horse and offspring from BMM tame/movement adapters, without disabling BMM mount inventories on Lox and Asksvin.
• Multiplayer-first systems: server-synchronized gameplay configuration, owner-authoritative runtime changes and dedicated development diagnostics.

Creature item/prefab IDs and actual content availability depend on the matching Monster Mayhem and BAO assets. The _bal suffix is common in the Balrond suite and does not by itself prove that the object belongs to Monster Mayhem.

Installation and dependencies

1. Install Balrond Absolute Overhaul (BAO) and Balrond Humanoid Randomizer before Monster Mayhem. They are required dependencies, not optional recommendations.
2. Install Balrond Monster Mayhem 1.2.0 and its matching AssetBundle. Server and clients should use matching compatible mod versions.
3. Launch the game once to generate configuration files. For multiplayer, configure gameplay values on the host/dedicated server.
4. Test on a backed-up world. New worlds can generate new content naturally; existing explored areas may require world-upgrade procedures described in BAO's documentation. Monster Mayhem does not own Troll Cave / Bear Cave world-location edits.

Monster Mayhem does not replace Humanoid Randomizer: Humanoid Randomizer owns humanoid variants, variant equipment/attacks/animators and star-display presentation; Monster Mayhem owns creature gameplay rules, HP/resistances, final drop handling and its own boss attacks.

Configuration and ServerSync

Monster Mayhem now has a real configuration system. The earlier README statements that the mod has no config or ServerSync are obsolete.

Config file (BepInEx standard location):

BepInEx/config/balrond.astafaraios.BalrondMonsterMayhem.cfg

Gameplay configuration is synchronized through ServerSync. The server is authoritative when Lock Configuration is enabled (default: true). Debug/reporting controls are local developer settings and are not gameplay-authoritative.

Section	What it controls
00 - Server	Server config lock
10 - Creature Systems	Creature stat/drop and resistance rules; spawns, random events, generated spawners, egg hatching and growth
20 - Boss Combat	Boss scaling, regeneration, battle curses, phase gates, Enrage and developer test overrides
12 - Monster AI	Door interaction, BMM climbing, ledge descent, optional path recovery, target stability and destructible obstacle targeting
13 - Procedural Minibosses	Experimental promotion, allowlist, per-star chance, separation, world-center safety radius and outdoor scale
30 - Creature Taming	Taming, feeding from containers, stance behavior and MonsterAI Fear stabilization
31 - Deer	Deer taming/breeding configuration
32 - Hare	Hare taming/breeding/growth configuration
33 - Seal	Seal taming/breeding/growth configuration
34 - Kvastur	Buildable decorative Kvastur and its behavior
35 - Creature Performance	Safe idle/far-AI throttling for tame creatures
40 - Minor Mutations	Mutation chance, stat bonuses and exclusions
90 - Diagnostics	Local Debug Mode, verbose logs, report generation, identity checks and filters

Some registration, prefab, spawning and scene-level changes require restarting the game/server; editing a config entry does not necessarily rebuild ObjectDB, ZNetScene or existing world lists live.

Production logging vs. developer diagnostics

Normal mode is intended to show a concise startup summary and actionable warnings/errors, not individual AltBiome/SpawnData rows, routine creature spawner registrations or verbose attack registration details.

[90 - Diagnostics]
Debug Mode = false
Verbose Diagnostic Logging = false

Developers can enable Debug Mode (and optionally Verbose Diagnostic Logging and report generation) for detailed runtime information. Read-only reports are written under BepInEx/config/BalrondMonsterMayhem-diagnostics/. Do not enable extensive diagnostics on a normal live server unless investigating an issue.

Boss combat and phase progression

Boss skills use the Valheim ItemDrop attack definitions and native AI health-range gates. The code registering an attack is not the same as verifying that its Unity prefab and complete behavior exist. Unavailable authored attacks are disabled instead of replaced with a fallback.

Boss HP threshold	Behavior
75% HP	First available new attack becomes eligible; Enrage for 6 seconds (default)
50% HP	Further authored attacks become eligible; Enrage for another 6 seconds
25% HP	Permanent Enrage until the boss dies; no further new attack is required

Enrage adds +10% outgoing damage by default (server configurable); transient and permanent bonuses do not stack. The final transition displays “Boss is now angry” to participating nearby players. The VFX uses vfx_bmm_boss_enrage and should remain attached/scaled with the boss. The same VFX is used by the short and permanent status, so a fixed six-second lifetime on the shared Unity prefab is not suitable. Verify cleanup on death and network-owner changes in runtime tests.

Boss (vanilla prefab)	New attack at 75%	New attack(s) at 50%
Eikthyr (Eikthyr)	Thunder Orbs	Lightning Marks
The Elder (gd_king)	Entangle Field	Spore Cloud, Interruptible Heal
Bonemass (Bonemass)	Globules	Sludge Fields
Moder (Dragon)	Freezing Wind	—
Yagluth (GoblinKing)	Flame Pillars	Solar Swarm
Seeker Queen (SeekerQueen)	Large Egg	Flies Debuff
Fader (Fader)	—	—

Not yet supplied / inactive: BMM_Moder_GlacialStormColumns_Attack, BMM_Bonemass_DecayAura_Attack, BMM_SeekerQueen_AcidGround_Attack and BMM_Fader_SoulfirePressure_Attack. These have no active attack rules until their proper assets are added. Other attack effects, projectiles and special mechanics remain subject to in-game verification.

There are two startup-registered status effects for Enrage: SE_BMM_BossEnrageBurst (short duration) and SE_BMM_BossEnrage (permanent). They are registered during ObjectDB initialization rather than generated mid-fight. Monster Mayhem also supports a central list for custom monster status assets, including SE_Elder_heal_bal; registering a status does not automatically make a boss apply it.

Creature features and taming

Tameable control stances

The current stance model is capability-based. Alt + Use cycles through the actions available to the creature:

Stance	Behavior
Roam	Normal local wandering; defensive retaliation only
Stay	Remain near the current position; defensive retaliation only
Follow	Follow the player without proactively hunting enemies
Guard	Defend an anchored area and return to it
Protect	Follow and support the player in combat; only for combat-capable tames

Not every species supports every stance. Eggs and juvenile animals have restrictions appropriate to their movement type. Monster Mayhem extends vanilla Tameable behavior rather than replacing it wholesale.

Breeding, incubation and growth

The original Monster Mayhem breeding guide covers pairs such as Neck/Neck Brute, Boar/Hog, Deer/Stag, Leech/Primal Leech and Seeker/Seeker Brute, along with eggs and juvenile growth chains. Exact timings, population limits, food lists and availability may change with the current synchronized configuration and prefab setup; the historical README tables should not be treated as authoritative values for 1.2.0.

Some examples of supported or authored growth paths include:

Juvenile / egg	Possible result
DeerFawn_bal	Deer or Stag
Bunny_bal	Hare
Neck Tadpole	Neck or Neck Brute
Piglet	Boar or Hog
Serpentling	Serpent
Leech Larva	Leech or Primal Leech
Seeker Brood	Seeker or Seeker Brute
Crow Nestling	Giant Crow

Breeding/hatching must not be confused with taming: several hatched creatures are deliberately not tameable. Deer, Hare and Seal have explicit configuration sections. Goat resource production, diets and creature-specific growth remain part of the broader animal system.

Minor Mutations

Mutations are optional and chosen once per creature instance, then stored in ZDO. An ordinary creature receives at most one natural mutation. Experimental procedural minibosses instead receive two distinct forced mutations:

• Robust: more maximum health (default +20%).
• Ferocious: more outgoing damage (default +10%).
• Swift: increased movement speed (default +5%).
• Resistant: improves one eligible normal damage resistance by a single step.

Default chance is 5% plus 5 percentage points per displayed star; both are configurable. Mutated creatures may have a subtle visual-only scale increase. Normal boss mutation rolls require the corresponding progression boss to have been defeated at least once; forced procedural-miniboss mutations are separate. FrozenKing (FrozenKing, FrozenKing_p2, FrozenKing_p3) is explicitly excluded from mutations.

World spawns, Deep North and drops

• The global Golden Master defines 281 spawn entries (81 edits and 200 authored additions). Later supplemental additions are kept separate from this historical baseline.
• Existing vanilla rows are edited in place; native list/index identity and persistent-event requirements are preserved.
• Deep North persistent events (such as jotun_invasion) remain separate from legacy RandomEvent raids and should not be flattened into them.
• Custom generated Spawner_<CreatureId> prefabs are registered at scene startup, not spawned or re-registered ad hoc during ordinary gameplay.
• CharacterDrop uses in-place edits and append-only additions. Missing referenced item prefabs are skipped without unrelated fallback items.
• Trophy drops are capped at one item total per creature, including under world quantity modifiers; eligible wild creatures at level 3+ receive a trophy if a valid trophy row exists. Ordinary level 1–2 creatures retain their native configured chance.
• GreylingBeeKeeper_bal loot was adjusted in 1.2.0: QueenBee 20%, Honey (1–2) 65%, BeeWax_bal 45%. Other authored BeeKeeper drops and spawns were not changed by that balance fix.
• TrollMother_bal belongs to the standalone BalrondTrollMother mod and is not registered or spawned by BMM.

Ordinary AI movement and procedural minibosses (1.2.0)

The 12 - Monster AI configuration section controls native-AI assistance. BMM tries to recover eligible wild creatures from some blocked paths, may temporarily attack a blocking construction with a valid StaticTarget, and supports BMM-owned climbing with safe ledge descent. Not every object with WearNTear/Destructible has the required native attack target. Climbing yields to BAO if BAO's separate legacy climbing feature is active. Experimental path recovery is disabled by default.

The 13 - Procedural Minibosses feature is experimental and disabled by default. It uses 44 configured prefab IDs, but eligibility is conditional on the actual prefab's components and role. Ordinary level-1 creatures never promote; chance is 1% per original star by default, and success adds three levels up to seven. A miniboss gets a distinct generated name, exactly two different mutations and boss health UI, while retaining native attacks. Promoted tame-capable wild animals have their instance-only taming and breeding controls removed; original species prefabs remain untouched.

No new prefab clones, new attack definitions or additional world-event scheduler are created. The default world-origin exclusion is 1000 m, with an 80 m best-effort separation among loaded minibosses. Outdoor model size gains an extra 25% over native level visuals by default, but this BMM bonus is suppressed at Y >= 2000 for dungeon spawns. Regular boss phase curses do not apply to these encounters.

mm_miniboss_spawn <prefabID> is a local-host developer command with TAB completion over the allowlist. It forces one eligible new instance for testing, independently of natural chance and center radius. A Debug Mode setting and local-host authority are required. mm_spawn is a read-only spawn-registry inspector, not a creature creation command.

Developer tools and troubleshooting

Useful terminal commands (with developer/debug requirements where applicable):

mm_help
mm_status
mm_diag
mm_monster <prefabId>
mm_spawn <prefabId|spawnName>
mm_weather
mm_ai
mm_miniboss_spawn <allowlistedPrefabID>
mm_event <eventId>
mm_boss <bossPrefabId>
mm_mutations
mm_boss_test <bossPrefabId> <attackPrefabId> on|off
mm_boss_test status
mm_boss_test clear

mm_miniboss_spawn is host-only (local world host with a player); it cannot spawn through a remote dedicated-server client. mm_weather reports readiness of optional weather-hazard prefabs; it does not prove actual weather gates or asset effects are working.

mm_boss_test is a host-only development override. It removes the HP gate for the chosen attack, but still respects normal AI target selection, range, animation and cooldown conditions. It is not a production cheat/forced animation command. Runtime reports and full verbose audit logging are intended for developers.

Translations: JSON language files are stored in BepInEx/config/BalrondMonsterMayhem-translation/. Copy English.json to a supported locale name (for example Polish.json) and translate string values while keeping their keys unchanged. Translation files are client-local and are not automatically synchronized as gameplay config.

Existing worlds: Back up the world. New unexplored zones generally generate content under the current world rules; already generated areas may need world maintenance. Use the BAO documentation for currently supported world-location upgrade guidance; old README commands attributed to Monster Mayhem for Troll Cave relocation are no longer the appropriate ownership boundary.

Performance: The mod includes tame-AI throttling and avoids routine verbose logs in production. FPS, allocations and network performance must still be profiled under actual large farms and multiplayer workloads; static tests do not guarantee stable frame times.

Build/developer note: Source-only packages may omit the real balrondmonsters AssetBundle and local publicized assemblies. Passing static validations does not prove that the DLL builds or that missing content is available in game.

Current prefab registry

The 75 active IDs below are declared in NameList/MonsterList.cs in the verified BMM 1.2.0 source. This is a load registry, not the procedural-miniboss allowlist and not proof that every asset is present in the installed AssetBundle or has a natural spawn. Inactive/dormant entries are deliberately omitted. TrollMother_bal is owned by its standalone mod.

Show active creature prefab IDs (75)

• BonemassWisp_bal
• YagluthWisp_bal
• TentaRootSlow_bal
• Ghost_bal
• SkeletonElite_bal
• GiantBat_bal
• BlobAcid_bal
• MossRootStatic_bal
• Goleming_bal
• FrostDrake_bal
• WildWisp_bal
• Elk_bal
• CorruptedWisp_bal
• CorpseCollector_bal
• Bunny_bal
• AshlandsGolem_bal
• DeerFawn_bal
• NeckTadpole_bal
• Fenring_Brute_bal
• Fox_bal
• Penguin_bal
• Ell_bal
• LostSoul_bal
• LeechLarva_bal
• BjornCub_bal
• VoltureNestling_bal
• CrowNestling_bal
• CrabSea_bal
• CrabStone_bal
• DarkBat_bal
• Habrok_bal
• HabrokBirb_bal
• TrollOutcast_bal
• TrollBrute_bal
• Frostbjorn_bal
• FrostbjornBrown_bal
• Deathsquito_bal
• GhostYagluth_bal
• GiantCrow_bal
• GoatKid_bal
• Goat_bal
• goblin_skeleton_bal
• Greydwarf_Crusher_bal
• Greydwarf_Frozen_bal
• Greydwarf_Moss_bal
• Greydwarf_Scorched_bal
• GreylingBeeKeeper_bal
• GreylingElite_bal
• Hog_bal
• LeechPrimal_bal
• MossRoot_bal
• Moth_bal
• NeckBrute_bal
• Serpentling_bal
• Shark_bal
• StagGhost_bal
• Stag_bal
• Stormdrake_bal
• TrollUndead_bal
• Fox_cub_bal
• PolarBear_bal
• BullFrog_bal
• SerpentBlood_bal
• SerpentlingBlood_bal
• DeepSeaSerpent_bal
• ElkCalf_bal
• GiantSnake_bal
• BoarUndead_bal
• WolfUndead_bal
• HatchlingUndead_bal
• Bloodling_bal
• CrabForest_bal
• SeekerDrone_bal
• SeekerSpitter_bal
• Greydwarf_Hag_bal

Community and support

• Community: Balrond's Den (Discord)
• Support: Ko-fi
• Companion documentation: refer to the current Balrond Absolute Overhaul (BAO) documentation for the full mod-suite integration, related content and world-location ownership.
• Release history: see CHANGELOG.md, newest version first.

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Monster Mayhem is a BETA release and remains under active development. Please report reproducible issues with the version, relevant configuration, world/server type and logs.