KeenCombat
Adds a unique skill to every martial weapon and magic staff, with custom VFX, sounds, and full multiplayer sync. Updated for Deep North!
Version 1.0.0 — Updated for Valheim Deep North! Brand new skills for magic! Quashed bugs, full multiplayer sync, and more!
Adds a unique skill to every martial weapon AND magic staves (most) in Valheim!
How does this mod work? Since we needed another button for controller, this mod moves the Heavy Attack from its default button to a press and hold of the normal attack. This frees up the old Heavy Attack button for these unique skills!
Press Middle Mouse Button (or Right Trigger on controller) to activate your equipped weapon's unique skill!
Who is this mod for? Those looking to put a bit more action-combat into their Valheim experience. This mod is designed for players looking to add a new, unique take on Valheim's combat. Spend more time playing and less time preparing!
MARTIAL WEAPON SKILLS
Blink Strike (Sword): Dash forward in the direction the camera is facing, striking all enemies in your path.
Bulwark (Mace): Flex and fortify yourself, reducing incoming damage and regenerating health for a short time.
Frenzy (Axe / Dual Axe): Let out a battle roar (a cry many of you Vikings have heard before), temporarily boosting your attack speed and movement speed.
Falcon Blitz (Atgeir / Spear): Unleash a rapid six-hit flurry, locking yourself in place while striking everything in range.
Rapid Fire (Crossbow): Fire six bolts in quick succession in the direction you are aiming, consuming no ammunition.
Assassination (Knife): Vanish into the shadows with a familiar sound (to some of you). Enemies lose track of you. Press the skill button again to unleash a devastating backstab.
Whirlwind (2H Sword / 2H Axe): Spin twice in a devastating double sweep, carving through all enemies around you while moving forward.
Poison Mayhem (Dual Knife): Leap backward and drop a cluster of poison bombs at your original position, dealing direct and poison damage to all nearby enemies.
Onslaught (Fist): Launch into a ferocious forward combo, finishing with a powerful lunge that damages all enemies in a long line ahead.
Earthquake (2H Mace): Slam the ground and send four shockwaves rippling forward in sequence, dealing heavy damage to everything in their path.
Primal Rally (Bow): Call a wild beast to fight by your side. The creature summoned depends on your bow. The beast follows you, attacks your enemies, and despawns after one minute.
| Bow | Summon |
|---|---|
| Crude Bow | 2★ Neck |
| Finewood Bow | 2★ Boar (triple health) |
| Huntsman Bow | Bjørn |
| Draugr Fang | Abomination |
| Spinesnap | Lox |
| Ashlands Bow | Morgen |
| Ashlands Storm Bow | Fallen Valkyrie |
| Ashlands Root Bow | 1★ Asksvin |
| Ashlands Blood Bow | 2★ Fenring Cultist |
| Frostfire Bow | 2★ Stone Golem |
| Bloodlightning Bow | Morgen |
Larger creatures are scaled down to a more manageable size. Custom bow creature mappings (including size, damage and health) can be added in the configuration manager for full mod compatibility.
HOW TO EDIT THE PRIMAL RALLY SUMMONS IN THE CONFIGURATION MANAGER
You need to find the internal ID names for the weapon and creatures you want to edit. You can find those here: Item IDs | Valheim Wiki | Fandom
In your configuration manager (Azu's or Shudnal's):
MAGIC WEAPON SKILLS — NEW!
Staff skills cost Eitr instead of using a cooldown. Blood Magic skills also cost health — but never enough to kill you.
Meteor Strike (Staff of Embers): Call down a storm of meteors on your position for 12 seconds. Each meteor hits as hard as a fireball from the staff. You're slowed while you commit to the cast, so choose your ground wisely.
Ice Nova (Staff of Frost): Unleash a burst of frost that deals double frost damage and freezes nearby enemies in blocks of ice for 8 seconds. Frozen enemies can't move — but they can still swing if you get too close! When the ice shatters, they stay slowed for a few more seconds.
Ragnarök (Staff of Fracturing): Hold the skill button to charge, then release to fire. Charge for 2 seconds for two shots, or the full 3 seconds for three. A charge bar shows your power, and you move slower while channeling.
Regeneration (Staff of the Wild): Heal yourself and all nearby allies, tames and summons for 30% of their max health over 6 seconds.
Thunderstruck (Thunderblood Staff): Bathe yourself in electrical energy for 10 minutes. Any enemy that lingers within 30 meters of you is periodically struck by lightning from the sky. Passive wildlife and creatures you're still taming are never targeted.
Sanctuary (Staff of Protection): Raise a warding dome for 10 seconds. Enemies — and their arrows and spells — are slowed to a crawl while inside.
Charred Requiem (Dead Raiser): Sacrifice Eitr and blood to raise a Charred Archer that fights at your side for 10 minutes. Upgrading the staff lowers the cost, and at level 4 you raise two archers.
| Staff Level | Eitr | Health | Archers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80 | 30% | 1 |
| 2 | 75 | 25% | 1 |
| 3 | 65 | 25% | 1 |
| 4 | 60 | 25% | 2 |
The Staff of the Red Troll and Spirit Caller keep their vanilla behavior.
Magic Cost Scaling: All staff costs are balanced for a magic skill level of 100. Below that, costs rise by 1% for every 5 levels you're missing (up to +20% at level 1). Train your magic and your spells get cheaper! This can be adjusted or turned off in the config.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
Skill Tooltips — Hover over any weapon to see its skill, description, damage, costs and cooldown right in the tooltip. Eitr and health costs reflect your current magic skill level.
Multiplayer Sync — All skill animations, visual effects and sounds are shared with other players. Crowd-control skills like Ice Nova and Sanctuary work on every enemy, no matter who is nearest to it.
2H Mace Combo — Two-handed maces get a 3-hit combo for their normal attack, while the heavy attack is the full vanilla sledge slam. Works on all two-handed maces, including new and modded ones.
Fully Configurable — Cooldowns, damage, Eitr costs, radius, durations and more are adjustable via the Configuration Manager (F1 in-game).
Skill Compendium — All skills are documented in the in-game compendium under "Keen Combat Skills".
Auto Shield Equip — Automatically equips your best shield when drawing a one-handed weapon. Using a config manager you can enable or disable this feature. You can also choose to enable or disable it for axes or knives.
COMPATIBILITY
- Works with most other weapon and armor mods like Therzie's and WoW Weapons.
- Client-side only — no server installation required.
- All players in multiplayer should have the mod installed.
- Config is not synced from the server yet (will update this) — players should use matching config values.
RECOMMENDED MODS
- BepInEx Configuration Manager or Shudnal's Configuration Manager — for adjusting skill values in-game via F1/menu.
- Because one Viking's "easy" is another Viking's "hard", I do suggest adding these mods if you are an experienced player and find my mod makes the vanilla game too easy:
INSTALLATION
With a mod manager (recommended): Install with r2modman, or Gale — everything is set up for you automatically.
Manual install:
- Install BepInExPack Valheim
- Create a folder named
KeenCombatinsideBepInEx/plugins/ - Extract the zip's contents into that
KeenCombatfolder - Your
KeenCombatfolder should containKeenCombat.dll, theaudiofolder and theiconsfolder (the other files, likemanifest.json, are only used by mod managers and are harmless) - Launch the game!
Codebase GitHub Page https://github.com/BhimaJenkins/KeenCombat
Credits Mod by Bhima Jenkins. Built with BepInEx and HarmonyX.
Like the mod and want to support further development? Buy me a coffee at Ko-fi!