MuchBetterTames

A Valheim mod that makes tamed creatures smarter, more useful, and reliable companions.

MuchBetterTames introduces companion commands, automatic teleportation, survival mechanics, progression, and improved multiplayer synchronization.

Features

Companion Commands

• Follow / Stay: Press E on a tamed creature to toggle between following and staying.
• Group Command: Press Shift + E on a tamed creature to command all nearby tames.
• Global Command: Press G to toggle following for all tamed creatures.
• Follow ownership is saved with each creature and restored after teleportation or reloading.

Automatic Teleportation

• Companions automatically teleport to you when they get too far away or become stuck for too long.
• Teleport destinations are always behind the player.
• Ground, walls, and positioning are checked to prevent unsafe teleport locations.
• During combat, the teleport distance increases to 90 meters.
• Following companions are also teleported after using portals or respawning.
• The server searches for following companions across the entire world, including unloaded areas.
• Large creatures can be excluded from dungeon teleportation. By default, this applies to Lox. The exclusion list is configurable.

Companion Survival

• No Permanent Death: Fatal damage knocks your companion unconscious instead of killing it.
• While unconscious, the creature is invulnerable.
• Recovery takes 45 seconds, reduced by 15% per star.
• Recovery is twice as fast when a player is within 15 meters.
• Press E to provide first aid and reduce recovery time by 5 seconds per interaction.
• Recovery continues even when the creature is unloaded.
• After recovering, the creature gets 30% health and resumes following you.

Automatic Health Regeneration

• Outside combat: 0.8% of maximum health per second.
• During combat: 0.1% of maximum health per second.
• Well-fed creatures regenerate 1.5x faster.
• Hungry creatures regenerate at 0.5x speed.

Taming Information

Wild creatures display additional taming information in their hover text:

• Remaining taming time.
• Total taming time.
• Taming progress in percent.
• Warning when taming is paused due to hunger.

Stars & Experience

Tamed creatures can earn up to 2 stars through combat.

• Experience is awarded based on enemy maximum health, level, and boss bonus.
• The creature that gets the kill receives 100% XP.
• Other companions belonging to the same owner within 30 meters receive 25% XP.
• Player kills grant 25% XP to their following companions.
• 1st star: 300 XP.
• 2nd star: 1,000 XP.
• Leveling up restores full health and triggers a visual effect and speech bubble.
• Stars and experience are displayed in the creature's hover text.

Improved Defense

• Wild creatures become enemies to your companions as soon as they attack a player or another tame.
• This also works between creatures of the same species (e.g. Wolf vs. Wolf).
• Applies to all types of tamed creatures.

Multiplayer Support

• All gameplay rules are synchronized by the server.
• Only key bindings, language, and timer display settings are client-side.
• BepInEx and Jotunn must be installed on the server and all clients.

Controller Support

• Shift + E corresponds to LB + A.
• The global group command can be assigned to a configurable controller button.
• Default controller command: D-Pad Down.

Controls

Action	Keyboard	Controller
Toggle follow / stay	E	—
Group follow / stay	Shift + E	LB + A
Global follow / stay	G	D-Pad Down
First aid	E while unconscious	—

Controller bindings can be configured.

Requirements

• Valheim
• BepInEx
• Jotunn

Important: BepInEx and Jotunn must be installed on both the server and all connected clients.

Installation

1. Install BepInEx for Valheim.
2. Install Jotunn.
3. Extract the MuchBetterTames mod files.
4. Place the compiled plugin DLL into your BepInEx/plugins folder.
5. Make sure all players and the server have the required dependencies and mod installed.

Configuration

The mod provides configurable settings, including the list of creatures excluded from dungeon teleportation and controller bindings.

Configuration files are generated by BepInEx after the first launch.

Building from Source

Requirements

• .NET SDK
• Valheim game installation
• BepInEx
• Jotunn

Build Instructions

1. Open the .csproj file.
2. Update the ValheimDir path to your Valheim installation directory.
3. Run:

dotnet build -c Release

The compiled plugin will be generated in the build output directory.

Troubleshooting

If something doesn't work as expected, check:

BepInEx/LogOutput.log

The log contains information about errors, compatibility issues, and runtime problems.

Development Status

The mod has been implemented, but has not yet been compiled or tested in-game due to missing Valheim game DLLs in the development environment.

Some game API interactions use reflection and exception handling to improve compatibility, but method signatures may still require adjustments after the first build.

MuchBetterTames – Better companions, better adventures.