Odin's Weapon Memories

Work in progress. This mod is new and still being tested, especially in multiplayer. Names, thresholds and wording may change between versions, and the memories already on your weapons are kept when they do. Found a problem? Type weaponmemory in the F5 console (or /weaponmemory in chat) while holding the weapon, and include what it prints when you report it.

A blade that has felled forty trolls is not the same blade it was at the forge. Odin knows it. Now your weapons do too.

Every weapon remembers what it has done: what it killed and where, how often it struck true, the trees it felled, the blows it turned aside, and the times its bearer fell holding it. From all of that, it earns a name.

Legend names

A weapon's name is built from four parts, each earned in its own way:

[Renown or trait] [Element] [Weapon] [of the ...]

• Storied Frost Greataxe of the Troll's Bane
• Unerring Shadow Longbow of the Hunt
• Unblooded Hewer of the Woodpile
• Ill-fated Mire Seax of Many Graves
• Legendary Ember Staff of Moder's Fall

Part	Earned from
Renown	Total kills: Blooded (5), Seasoned (25), Storied (75), Fabled (200), Legendary (500). A weapon used but never blooded is Unblooded.
Trait	How it was used. It replaces renown until Fabled. Unerring or Wayward (accuracy), Silent (kills on creatures that never saw you), Merciless (single-blow kills), Defiant (kills at death's door), Moonlit (night kills), Proven (starred foes), Steadfast and Unyielding (blocks and perfect parries), Ill-fated (bearers who died holding it).
Element	The weapon's own fire, frost, lightning, poison or spirit damage (Ember, Frost, Storm, Venom, Hallowed). A plain weapon takes on the land it did most of its killing in: Verdant, Shadow, Mire, Rime, Sunscorched, Mist, Ashen, Glacial, Tidal.
Weapon	A plain word for its kind (Blade, Hewer, Maul, Seax, Longbow, Arbalest, Sceptre...), always the same word for the same weapon.
Suffix	The proudest thing it has done: a boss it felled (of Moder's Fall), its trade (of the Woodpile, of the Quarry), the hunt (of the Hunt for deer, boar and the like), its favourite foe (of Troll-Felling, of the Troll's Bane, of the Troll-Scourge at 10/50/150 kills), or a feat (of the Far Mark for a 60 m kill shot).

A new weapon keeps its ordinary name until it has earned a renown, trait or suffix. A message in the middle of the screen marks each new name.

Prefer the plain style? Set NameStyle = Epithet for "Iron Sword, Troll-Feller".

Shields

Shields remember the blows they turned aside instead of kills: how many, from whom, where, and how many were perfect parries. Their names follow the same pattern:

• Battered Shadow Linden-board of the Greydwarf-Ward (60 blocks, mostly Greydwarfs)
• Unyielding Mire Linden-board of the Draugr-Wall (30 perfect parries)
• Storied Mire Wall of the Bonemass-Ward (a tower shield that held against Bonemass)
• Legendary Tidal Targe of the Skeleton's Despair (1200 blocks)

Renown for shields: Dented (10 blocks), Battered (50), Storied (150), Fabled (400), Legendary (1000).

The maker's engraving

Every weapon carries its maker's name for good: the character who crafted it, engraved the moment it leaves the workbench. (A weapon that was found rather than crafted takes the name of the first character to wield it.) The tooltip shows it as a faint engraving or a strange inscription.

The engraving never changes, however many hands the weapon passes through. Anyone with the mod sees the same name. That stays true after someone else upgrades the weapon, even though vanilla's own "Crafted by" line switches to the upgrader. The engraving travels unseen through players without the mod, too (except through their upgrades; see below).

When a weapon changes hands

The name belongs to the weapon's namer, the first bearer to earn it one (usually its maker).

• By default (LaterBearers = KeepNamersName) the name stays as its namer left it. New bearers' kills are still counted and shown ("Kills since it left Ragnar's hands: 12"), but the legend is the namer's.
• Or (LaterBearers = EvolveWithNewBearer) every bearer's deeds keep shaping the name, and the tooltip remembers what it was once called.

The tooltip

Hover over the weapon to see its story:

• its name, and what it was forged as (the real item)
• total kills and how often it struck true
• its top foes
• its deeds: bosses felled, unseen kills, longest shot, parries, axe-strokes on wood, bearers fallen...
• the maker's engraving, and who named it

What counts

• Only the killing blow. The weapon that dealt the final hit gets the kill. If a friend finishes off your troll, it's their kill, not yours.
• Bows, crossbows and staffs count. Arrows, bolts, fireballs and their splash damage are traced back to the weapon that fired them. Every shot and swing counts towards accuracy.
• Burning and poison count when they finish a creature off: the kill goes to the last weapon you hit it with.
• Every kind of creature counts, modded ones included. Players don't. Starred creatures count as their kind ("Troll", whatever the stars).
• Trees, logs and rock count as work for the weapon that struck them.
• Which weapons remember is up to you, kind by kind (see [Weapons] below). By default: swords, axes, clubs and maces, spears, polearms, knives, shields, bows, crossbows, and elemental and blood magic staffs. Pickaxes, fist weapons, torches and other mods' oddities are off until you turn them on. Tools and thrown spears never count (see Things to know).

Cosmetic, client-side, and it stays with the weapon

Client-side only. The mod never adds items, prefabs, network messages or world data. It works in single player and on any server, and nobody else needs it. Everything happens on your own computer.

The memories live on the weapon itself, in the item's own custom data field that Valheim saves with every item. Drop it, store it in a chest, hand it to a friend, repair it or log out, and the memories go with it.

The weapon's real name is never changed. Its legend name is worked out each time the tooltip or hover text is drawn. Underneath, the item is a perfectly ordinary Iron Sword.

Cosmetic by default. There is an optional, small damage bonus (see below). It is off unless you turn it on.

Trading and sharing weapons

Both players have the mod: hand the weapon over (drop it or put it in a chest) and the new owner sees its name, engraving and full story. From then on it counts their deeds on top of the old ones. Whether those deeds change the name is up to LaterBearers (see above).

The other player doesn't have the mod: they get a perfectly normal weapon. Same name, same stats, same tooltip as any other. The memories ride along unseen in the item's data, and Valheim keeps them through their drops, chests, repairs and saves. Give the weapon back, or install the mod, and its name and engraving are there again.

One catch: upgrading at a workbench without the mod erases the memories. Vanilla upgrades by swapping in a brand-new item, which leaves the custom data behind. With the mod installed, the memories are carried over to the upgraded weapon.

Configuration

Settings live in BepInEx/config/hevyh2o.valheim.odinsweaponmemories.cfg. If you have a Configuration Manager mod installed, you can also change them in game (usually F1); this mod doesn't need one.

Setting	Default	Controls
Enabled	true	Turn the mod on or off. When off, nothing is counted or shown, but memories already on weapons are kept.
AnnounceEpithets	true	Message on screen when a weapon earns a new name or epithet.
TopFoes	3	How many kinds of creature the tooltip lists.
NameStyle	Legend	Legend: a whole name earned from use. Epithet: the item's name plus one epithet ("Iron Sword, Troll-Feller").
LaterBearers	KeepNamersName	KeepNamersName: the name stays as its namer left it. EvolveWithNewBearer: every bearer keeps shaping it.
ShowEngraving	true	Show the maker's name as an engraving in the tooltip.
Tier1Kills / Tier1Title	10 / {0}-Feller	Kills of one kind for the first tier (legend suffix of X-Felling). The title is used in Epithet style; {0} is the creature's name. 0 kills turns a tier off.
Tier2Kills / Tier2Title	50 / Bane of the {0}	Second tier (of the X's Bane).
Tier3Kills / Tier3Title	150 / Scourge of the {0}	Third tier (of the X-Scourge).
[Weapons] Swords, Axes, Clubs, Spears, Polearms, Knives, Shields, Bows, Crossbows, ElementalMagic, BloodMagic	true	Which kinds of weapon remember their deeds and earn names. Clubs covers maces and sledges.
[Weapons] Pickaxes, Unarmed, Torches, Other	false	Off by default. Unarmed is fist weapons (knuckles, claws); Other is any weapon training a skill not listed, e.g. from other mods.
DamageBonus	false	Optional. When on, a weapon deals a little more damage to kinds of creature it has an epithet for.
DamageBonusPerTier	2	Extra damage in percent per epithet tier (so +2% / +4% / +6%). Capped at 5% per tier.
LogKills	false	Write every remembered kill to the BepInEx log. For testing.

Changing the style, thresholds or titles renames every weapon at once. The counts themselves are never touched, so you can switch back and forth.

Things to know

• Thrown spears don't count when thrown. A thrown spear leaves your inventory, and the one you pick up is a new copy. Stabbing kills count as normal.
• On servers, two kinds of kill. When your game is in charge of a creature (always in single player, usually when you hunt alone), the mod sees the exact killing blow. When another player's game is in charge of it, the mod counts a kill when your hit was strong enough to finish it and the creature died right after. Very rarely, a kill-steal in the same moment could go either way.
• Weapons from before you installed the mod start with a clean slate. Their maker's engraving is the crafter the game already knows.
• Everyone with the mod sees the same name. It's worked out the same way on every machine, unless someone has changed their naming settings.
• Turning the damage bonus on is your call. It's off by default so the mod stays fair on any server.

Also from Odin's tavern

Odin's Free Refills: no stamina costs while the coast is clear. Walk home from the hunt without stopping for breath.

Odin's Wanted Posters: look at a creature and press E to see its health, weaknesses and drops. The poster tells you what it is; the weapon remembers how many you've put down.

Odin's Almanac: press K for a forecast of the next weather changes in your biome. Pick a clear night for the troll hunt.

Odin's Saga: sleep or log out and Odin reads you the saga of your day; press J for a lifetime of deeds. The saga remembers what you did; the weapon remembers what it did.

Odin's Hearth: press N at home to see your comfort level, what's counting, and the cheapest piece to build next. Somewhere to hang the Troll-Feller.

Odin's Pantry: press P to see your foods, what you could cook right now, and Odin's best three- food pick for your biome. Eat well before you earn the next epithet.

Odin's Raven Returns: after you die, a raven guards your grave; press H to see where it is, what killed you and what's still waiting there. Your Troll-Feller is probably in that grave.

Odin's Drunk Cam: drink a mead and the world sways; the more meads, the more it sways. Purely visual, with an intensity slider and an off key. For toasting the Troll-Feller.