HerdBell

Tamed animals kept fed near a Herd bell slowly build up a yield of their own materials: hides, pelts, feathers, scales. Ring the bell to collect it.

Most tamed animals only give materials when they are killed. HerdBell turns a pen into a ranch, in the style of Palworld: grown, fed animals near a Herd bell build up a yield over time, and ringing the bell brings in the whole herd's yield. No slaughter is needed, and crops become animal feed.

Features

• Yields from fed animals. Each tamed, grown animal kept fed within 20 m of a Herd bell builds up one yield per 15 minutes of fed time. Tougher creatures take longer, based on their health (a lox about twice as long). Each star adds 25%.
• Storage. An animal holds up to 4 yields until the bell is rung. Optionally, animals drop each yield at their feet when it is ready, for auto-pickup chests.
• Yields at your feet. Ringing the bell drops the herd's yields right at your own feet, at the height you stand at: in a cave or basement dug under the ground they land down there with you, not on the land above.
• Herd ledger. The bell lists each kind of animal in reach, with yields ready and animals hungry or young. An animal shows its yield and progress, or why it is not producing.
• A yield for every tameable creature. 77 creatures have a ready-made yield of things they could shed, grow back or gather: hides, scales, feathers, bones, resin. No trophies and no meat (apart from a neck's tail), so meat stays the reward for hunting.
• Gentler star drops. The game doubles kill drops per star: 8x at 3 stars, 1024x at the 10 stars breeding mods allow. HerdBell makes them grow like the bell's yields instead: 1.25x at 1 star, 2x at 4, 3.5x at 10. Drops that only come some of the time keep their chance; trophies and one-per-player drops are left alone.
• Looks above 2 stars. The game has no look for 3 stars and up, so such creatures look starless. HerdBell keeps the 2-star look and makes them 6% bigger per star above 2, up to 1.5 times the 2-star size, on your own screen.

How to use

1. Build a Herd bell with the Hammer (Misc tab, needs a Workbench): a post with a bronze bell that swings and rings. Default cost: 6 Wood, 2 Bronze, 2 Leather scraps.
2. Keep tamed, grown animals within 20 m of the bell, and keep them fed.
3. Look at the bell for the herd ledger, or at an animal for its progress.
4. Ring the bell. Everything the animals in its reach have ready drops at your feet, also in caves and basements.

Key	Action
E	Ring the bell (the game's Use key; needs access to any ward covering the bell)

Configuration

Settings are in BepInEx/config/anwo.HerdBell.cfg and can be changed in game with a configuration manager.

1 - Ranch

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Needs a herd bell	true	Server	Animals only build up a yield within reach of a bell. Off: every tamed animal yields anywhere
Bell reach	20	Server	How far a bell reaches, in metres (5-60)
Only while fed	true	Server	Animals only build up a yield while fed. Off: yields are free
Minutes per yield	15	Server	Fed minutes near a bell for one yield of a small animal (1-240), in world time
Big creatures yield slower	true	Server	Tougher creatures take longer per yield, based on their health
Max stored yields	4	Server	Yields an animal holds before it waits for the bell (1-20)
Bonus per star	0.25	Server	Extra amount per star, as a share (0-2); also used by Like the bell
Drop automatically	false	Server	Animals drop each yield at their feet as soon as it is ready
Bell recipe	Wood:6,Bronze:2,LeatherScraps:2	Server	Cost of a bell, as Item:Amount pairs with prefab names (as in the game's files); applies without a restart

2 - Products

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Bosses yield	false	Server	Lets tamed bosses yield (their entries under 4 - Creature yields)
Product overrides	(empty)	Server	Yields for creatures with no entry under 4 - Creature yields: Creature = Item min-max chance%, ...; NextCreature = ...
Excluded items	Meat, Trophy, NeckTail, Fish, Coins, HardAntler, CryptKey, Wishbone, DragonTear, YagluthDrop, QueenDrop, FaderDrop	Server	A creature's own drops whose names contain any of these words are never yielded

3 - Display

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Show yield on animals	true	Client	Shows what an animal yields and its progress when you look at it
Bell volume	0.8	Client	Volume of the bell (0-1)
Looks above 2 stars	Bigger	Client	Bigger, SameAsTwoStars (2-star look and size) or AsInTheGame; shows on creatures that load after a change
Bigger per star	0.06	Client	With Bigger: growth per star above 2, as a share of the 2-star size (0-0.5)
Biggest size	1.5	Client	With Bigger: the largest size, compared with the 2-star size (1-3)

4 - Creature yields

One setting per creature (77 in all), named after its prefab name (as in the game's files), each with its own default. For example:

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Boar	LeatherScraps 1-2	Server	What a tamed boar yields
Wolf	WolfPelt 1, WolfFang 1 25%	Server	What a tamed wolf yields
Neck	NeckTail 1	Server	What a tamed neck yields (the tail grows back)
Eikthyr	DeerHide 2-3, HardAntler 1 25%	Server	What a tamed Eikthyr yields, with Bosses yield on

• Format: Item min-max chance% with item prefab names, separated by commas, such as TrollHide 1-3, Coal 1 50%. The amount defaults to 1 and the chance to 100%.
• Empty: the creature's own material drops minus Excluded items (or its Product overrides entry). none: nothing.
• Each item rolls its own chance; if none comes up, the likeliest item is given, so a yield is never empty.
• Variants use their base creature's entry: a Draugr archer yields like a Draugr.
• Bosses (Eikthyr, The Elder, Bonemass, Moder, Yagluth, The Queen, Fader) only yield with Bosses yield on.

5 - Star drops

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Gentler star drops	true	Server	Kill drops grow gently with stars. Off: the game's doubling per star
Like the bell	true	Server	Kill drops grow by Bonus per star per star. Off: the curve set by the two settings below
Wild creatures too	true	Server	Wild creatures' kill drops change too. Off: only tamed creatures' drops change
Stars that double	2	Server	With Like the bell off: drops double per star up to this many stars (0-5)
Extra per star	1	Server	With Like the bell off: each further star adds this many starless drops' worth (0-10); 5x at 3 stars, 12x at 10

6 - Collecting

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Yields drop at your feet	true	Client	Ringing the bell drops the yields at your own feet, a little in front of you and at the height you stand at, kept out of walls and rock; also in caves, basements, upper floors and on bridges. Off: between you and the bell, lifted onto the top of the land (under the ground, that is the land above the cave)

Multiplayer

• Everyone needs HerdBell, including a dedicated server. The first two parts of the version must match (any 1.0.x with any 1.0.x). Jotunn checks this when a player joins and refuses a mismatch or a missing mod.
• The host sets the rules. Every Server setting comes from the host or dedicated server, and a changed bell recipe reaches every player without a restart. Display and Collecting settings are each player's own.
• Everyone sees the same herd. Yields are counted by the game that runs the animal, as for beehives, and stored on the animal. Any player with access to the bell can ring it, and the yields land where the ringer's own Yields drop at your feet says, also when another player's game runs the animals.

Compatibility

• Taming and breeding mods (LetMeTameYou, Procreation Plus, PortablePals): every creature that can be tamed builds up a yield.
• Feeding troughs: an animal fed from a trough counts as fed (the game's own feeding time is used).
• PenPosts: animals a bell can still collect from keep eating in a full pen.
• Drop mods such as Drop That: the gentler star drops are applied after their changes.
• CLLC and other mods that size creatures by stars may fight over the size; set Looks above 2 stars to AsInTheGame.
• ZenRedecorate can move the bell; its reach moves with it.

Patches: CharacterDrop.GenerateDropList (late postfix), LevelEffects (star looks), Tameable (hover text).

Uninstalling

The bells no longer load (the game logs them as missing). Yields stored on animals stay saved and come back if the mod is installed again. Kill drops and creature looks return to the game's own. Nothing else in the world is touched.

About

Made with Claude (Anthropic's AI model) and tagged AI Generated, as Thunderstore's rules ask. Built for Valheim 1.0.17 (Deep North; also 1.0.16) with BepInEx 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2.

Found a bug or a clash with another mod, or have an idea? Tell us on GitHub. For a bug, attach your BepInEx/LogOutput.log from the game where it happened.