ScissorLift

Skip the long ramps: a fuel-powered scissor lift carries you, your tamed animals and your cargo up to 8 m, then drives to wherever you need it next.

At a glance

• E up, Shift + E down. A 2 × 2 m plank deck rises on crossed iron arms and stops smoothly wherever you tell it.
• Everyone rides. Players, tamed animals and dropped items on the deck travel with it, without being thrown off at the top.
• Drive it. Take the stick on the deck and roll the lift on four wheels, turning in a circle about 3 m across, and raise or lower the deck without letting go of the stick.
• Real hydraulics. A pump burns Coal, one for every 5 m of lifting or driving; going down is free. Fill it like a smelter, or straight from nearby chests with AzuCraftyBoxes.
• Safe by design. It stops short of roofs, beams and anyone underneath, and the hammer can't take it down while someone stands on it.
• Mind the slopes. Raise the deck too high on sloping ground and it tips over, riders and all, with a warning as it leans.
• Fits your build. It snaps under a 2 × 2 m hole in a floor and keeps its height through logouts and restarts, the same for every player.

Needs Jotunn. Everyone on the server needs ScissorLift, the host included. AzuCraftyBoxes is optional.

Features

The lift

• Built to work. A plank deck with a dark wooden rim and iron corners, on crossed iron arms with a bolt at every pivot. Two bronze rams push the lowest X open and the rest follow.
• Taller lifts, more arms. Two X stages up to 3.4 m, three up to 5 m, five up to 8 m, ten up to 16 m.
• Its own height. Each lift has its own top height, from 1 m up to the host's limit (8 m by default). A new lift goes to 4 m.
• Smooth ride. 1 m/s by default, with a gentle start and stop at each end. Either key stops it mid-way, like a real lift's buttons.
• Walk on. While the deck is all the way down, invisible ramps on the front, left and right let you walk on instead of jumping.
• A lever on the ground. A lever by the pump calls the lift up or down from below.

Riding and safety

• Stops for what is in the way. It halts 5 cm short of a roof or beam above the deck, the lever or a rider's head, and of anyone standing under it. Clear the way and press again to carry on.
• Safe to stand on. The hammer can't remove a lift while someone stands on the deck.
• Ward-aware. Using a lift or changing its height needs the permission of any ward covering it.

Fuel and oil

• A pump that burns fuel. Behind the base stands a wooden pump with a bronze oil tank, a firebox and a chimney. Going up and driving burn Coal (one for every 5 m); going down is free. Low on fuel, it goes as far as the fuel takes it.
• Fuel like any station. E on the pump puts in one Coal, and holding E keeps adding at the game's own pace. The hover and messages read like a smelter's (Lift pump (Coal 7/20), Added Coal, It's full).
• Fuel from chests. With AzuCraftyBoxes installed, a press with no Coal on you takes one from a chest nearby, by AzuCraftyBoxes' own rules. Its fill-all key fills the pump in one go (unless that key is Shift).
• Oil. A new material, made at the workbench from Resin. Each lift takes some to build.

Driving

• Take the stick. Forward and back at 0.5 m/s, 1 m/s with Shift. The front wheels steer like a cart's.
• Deck up and down on the move. Hold E or Q to raise or lower the deck without letting go of the stick. The lift pauses while the deck moves and rolls on when it stops.
• Key hints. Small hints at the bottom right show the driving keys, in the game's own style.
• Handles rough ground. Each wheel rolls up steps of up to 35 cm and down dips of up to 60 cm, and the lift leans with the ground. It stops at edges, deep drops, deep water and anything in the way.

Tipping over

On sloping ground a lift leans, and the higher its deck, the gentler the slope it can stand. With the deck folded it stands on slopes over 50 degrees; at 2 m about 24; at 4 m about 13; at 8 m about 7. It is steadiest backwards, where the pump props it. Too high or too steep, and it falls over, deck and riders and all; fall damage is the game's own. Players nearby are warned as it leans. A fallen lift lies on its side until someone stands it up again with E.

Sound and messages

• An iron clank when it starts and stops and a wooden creak while it moves (the game's own gate and cart sounds).
• Soft, fast beeps while a wheel is off the ground as it drives or moves its deck. A steady driving beep can be turned on.
• Its messages (no fuel, deck at the top and the like) show small in the top left corner, like the game's own notes.

How to use

The Scissor lift is in the Hammer's Misc tab and needs a Workbench. Default cost: 10 Fine wood, 10 Wood, 6 Iron and 2 Oil. Make Oil at the Workbench from 3 Resin.

1. Build it on the ground or a floor. Its corners snap to floor corners, so it lines up under a 2 × 2 m hole above. Leave a little room at the back for the pump (the building ghost shows it).
2. Set its height: Shift + E on the pump.
3. Fuel it: E on the pump, or hold E to fill it (it holds 20). Coal from your hotbar works too.
4. Ride it: walk onto the folded deck and press E. Shift + E brings it down; either key stops it.
5. Call it from below with the lever by the pump.
6. Drive it: stand on the deck, look at the stick and press E. Jump to let go. Mind slopes with the deck up.

Key	Action
E on a lift	Go up to its top height
Shift + E on a lift	Go down
E or Shift + E while it moves	Stop
E on the pump	Add one fuel (hold to keep adding)
Shift + E on the pump	Set its top height
E on the stick, standing on the deck	Take the stick: forward and back drive, left and right steer
Shift while driving	Drive faster
Hold E / Q while driving	Deck up / down (the lift waits while the deck moves)
Jump while driving	Let go of the stick
E on a fallen lift	Stand it up again

Looking at a lift shows the deck's height, its top height, its fuel and what the keys do.

• A taller lift folds a little higher: 0.37 m with two stages, 0.44 m with three, 0.57 m with five.
• Nothing can be built on the deck, as on ships and carts. A piece built in the lift's way stops it there.
• It can't drive while the deck is up through a hole in a floor.

Configuration

Settings are in BepInEx/config/anwo.ScissorLift.cfg and can be changed in game with a configuration manager. The config file has the full description of each setting.

1 - Lifts

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lift recipe	FineWood:10,Wood:10,Iron:6	Server	Cost of a lift as Item:Amount prefab pairs; applies without a restart
Highest lift	8	Server	How high any lift's deck can go, in metres (2-16)
Lift speed	1	Server	Metres per second (0.25-2.5), with a gentle start and stop
Lifts fall over	true	Server	Lifts fall over when the deck is too high for the slope. Off: they never fall
Top heaviness	1	Server	How high a lift's weight sits, as a share of the deck's height (0.2-1.5). Higher: it falls over on gentler slopes

2 - Sound

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lift sound volume	0.7	Client	Volume of the creak and clanks (0-1). 0: silent
Steady beeps while driving	false	Client	On: a steady beep while a lift drives
Fast beeps with a wheel off the ground	true	Client	Fast beeps while a wheel is off the ground and the lift drives, moves its deck or someone holds its stick
Beep volume	0.5	Client	Volume of the beeps (0-1). 0: no beeps

3 - Fuel and oil

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lifts need fuel	true	Server	Lifts burn fuel going up and driving (going down is free). Off: no fuel needed
Fuel item	Coal	Server	What the pumps burn, by prefab name. An item that doesn't exist means no fuel is needed
Metres per fuel	5	Server	How far one fuel item takes a lift, up and driving together (0.5-100)
Pump holds	20	Server	Fuel items a pump holds (1-200)
Fuel from nearby chests	true	Server	With AzuCraftyBoxes, the pump takes fuel from nearby chests once you carry none, by AzuCraftyBoxes' rules. Does nothing without it
Fill the pump like a station	true	Client	E adds one fuel a press and holding E keeps adding, like a smelter. Off: one press puts in as much as fits
Oil to build a lift	2	Server	Oil a new lift costs on top of its recipe (0-50)
Oil recipe	Resin:3	Server	Cost of one Oil at the Workbench as Item:Amount pairs; applies without a restart

4 - Driving

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Lifts can be driven	true	Server	The stick on the deck drives the lift on its wheels. Off: lifts stay where they are built
Driving speed	0.5	Server	Metres per second (0.1-1.5)
Fast driving speed	1	Server	Speed while holding Shift (0.1-3)
Steering angle	50	Server	How far the front wheels turn, in degrees (20-60). 50 turns in a circle about 3 m across, 35 about 5 m
Deck keys while driving	true	Client	Hold the deck keys while driving to move the deck; a use press then doesn't let go of the stick. Jump lets go
Deck up key	E	Client	Held while driving: deck up
Deck down key	Q	Client	Held while driving: deck down
Key hints while driving	true	Client	Key hints at the bottom right while you hold the stick. Off: the keys are told once a session in the corner

5 - Getting on

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Ramps onto the deck	true	Client	Invisible ramps onto the folded deck from the front, left and right

6 - Screen

Setting	Default	Scope	Description
Messages in the middle of the screen	false	Client	On: lift messages show big in the middle of the screen. Off: small in the top left corner

Multiplayer

• Everyone needs ScissorLift, the host or dedicated server included. Jotunn turns away a player without it, and the first two parts of the version must match (any 1.3.x with any 1.3.x).
• The host sets the rules. Every Server setting comes from the host, and a changed recipe reaches every player without a restart. Sounds, beeps and keys are each player's own.
• Everyone sees the same lift. Each lift saves where its deck is going, so every player sees it move the same way. The player nearest to it decides when it stops or falls over; while someone drives, their game moves it and everyone else's follows.

Compatibility

• Riding uses the game's own physics: the deck is a moving body, like the leviathan players stand on. No riding code is patched.
• Driving uses the game's own steering, like a ship's helm.
• AzuCraftyBoxes (optional): its settings decide what comes from chests.
• Zen.ModLib: its Alternate Interact key (Q by default) lowers the deck while you drive without letting go of the stick; off the stick it works as Shift + E.
• The invisible ramps sit on the game's own layer for invisible walls, so they don't catch the crosshair, hits or arrows.
• A lift moved by a moving mod (such as ZenRedecorate) takes its deck along.
• Pieces placed on the deck by building mods that ignore the game's rules stay where they were built; the deck stops when it reaches them.

Patches: Piece.CanBeRemoved, Player.StopDoodadControl (only while you drive and hold a deck key), Player.Update (only marks the game's own use press) and KeyHints.UpdateHints (the driving hints).

Uninstalling

Take your lifts down with the hammer first to get the materials back. Without the mod, lifts don't load (their materials are lost) and Oil in chests and inventories is gone. Nothing else in the world is changed.

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.