SmarterHoe

A comprehensive, precision terrain-editing overhaul for the Valheim hoe.

SmarterHoe equips you with a professional suite of terraforming and agriculture tools — from all Cultivator abilities and progression-gated crop planting built directly into the hoe, to laser-flat plateau leveling, multi-waypoint spline road carving, full multi-step undo/redo, 3D previews, 9-language localization, and server-authoritative dedicated server synchronization — all while staying fully balanced for survival play.

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🌟 Features

🌾 Full Cultivator Integration & Intelligent Farming Grid All Cultivator abilities and plantables are now integrated directly into the Hoe — no more swapping tools or wasting inventory slots!

• Intelligent Farming Grid System (F8): Plant crops, vegetables, and sapling rows in neat, organized grids with a single click.
• Automatic Healthy Spacing: Automatically calculates safe growth distance dynamically based on each crop's growRadius. Crops planted in the grid will never fail to mature or complain with "Needs more space".
• Adjustable Grid Radius: Press Q (or hold Alt) and scroll your mouse wheel, or use [ and ], to adjust grid radius with live HUD dimensions (1x1, 3x3, 5x5, etc.).
• Visual Color-Coded Previews & Boundary: 🟢 Green: Valid planting spot & seeds available. 🟡 Yellow: Valid spot, but out of seeds. 🔴 Red: Blocked, uncultivated, wrong biome, or underwater.
• Proximity Row Snapping: Snaps the grid to align with nearby existing crop rows of the same type. Hold Shift to bypass snapping for freeform placement.
• Mass Area Harvesting (Shift + E): Press Shift + E while aiming at crops or empty ground to harvest all mature crops and pickables in a configurable radius (default: 5m). Harvested items are automatically vacuumed directly into your inventory!
• Harvest Filter & Auto-Replant (C): Press C to cycle between All Pickables, Replantable Crops only, or specific detected crops. Enable EnableHarvestReplant in config to immediately replant harvested fields in place!
• AzuCraftyBoxes & Nearby Chest Support: Batch planting, single-crop placement, and area harvest replanting seamlessly pull seeds and vegetables from nearby chests and containers (with AzuCraftyBoxes integration).
• Square vs. Circle Grid Geometry (G): Toggle between rectangular grid and circular planting patterns. Rotate the grid with scroll wheel or arrow keys.
• Batch Crop Undo & Refund (Ctrl+Z): Made a mistake or misclicked? Press Ctrl+Z to cleanly remove all newly planted crops from the world and refund the seeds directly back to your inventory.
• Cultivate & Replant on the Hoe: Till fertile soil (Cultivate) and restore lush meadow grass (Replant) directly from the Hoe's right-click build menu.
• Square Brush & Large-Scale Tilling: Scale cultivation radius up to 20m, or switch to the Square Brush (G) with custom rotation to create perfectly aligned, razor-sharp farming beds.
• Continuous Hold-to-Sweep Farming: Hold down left-click to continuously till soil or regrow grass as you walk across the landscape.
• All Vanilla & Modded Crops: Plant carrots, seed carrots, turnips, seed turnips, onions, seed onions, barley, flax, Jotun puffs, Magecaps, Smoke puffs, Fiddleheads, Vineberries, and tree saplings, plus crops from farming mods (PlantEverything, OdinCrops, etc.).
• Strict Progression & Discovery Gating: Players will never see or plant any crop or sapling they have not yet discovered in the world. Only when seeds or materials are discovered do the corresponding plants appear in the Hoe build menu.

📏 Measure Mode — In-Game 3D Laser Tape & Ruler (N) With the Hoe or Cultivator equipped, press N to measure between any two points in the world:

• Point A to Point B: First press sets Point A with a cyan 3D ring; second press sets Point B and locks the measurement; third press or Esc clears.
• Live 3D Ruler: Displays a live line connecting your aim point in real-time.
• Full Elevation & Slope Diagnostics: Displays 3D distance, horizontal distance, height delta ($\Delta h$), slope angle in degrees, and road grade percentage right on your HUD.

⏪ Multi-Step Undo & Redo System (Alt+Z / Alt+Y) Made a mistake, cut too deep, or over-flattened a hillside? Press Alt+Z (or Ctrl+Z) to undo previous terrain changes step-by-step. Press Alt+Y (or Ctrl+Y / Shift+Alt+Z) to redo.

• Universal tool coverage: Works on Altitude Leveling, Instant Plateau, Soften, Restore Nature, Spline Ramps, vanilla Raise Earth, Mud Roads, Paved Stone Roads, Cultivate, and Replant.
• Continuous sweep grouping: Holding left-click to drag-level or pave groups the entire continuous stroke into a single atomic undo entry.
• Smart Waypoint step-back: Pressing the Undo key while ramp waypoints are active automatically steps back the most recent waypoint first before reverting terrain.
• Full texture & grass restoration: Undoing fully restores dirt, grass, and stone paint masks and synchronizes clutter in real time.

🔒 Altitude Lock — Laser-Flat Ground Press L to toggle locking your elevation. Every subsequent hoe click levels terrain to that exact height, guaranteeing a perfectly flat surface across hills and slopes.

• Snap to Building Floors: Aim at any placed wood or stone floor piece and press Middle Mouse Button to snap the locked altitude to that floor's exact height.
• Hold-to-Repeat Elevation Tuning: Hold down PageUp or PageDown to smoothly and rapidly adjust elevation without spamming buttons. Features a small delay before continuous movement begins to prevent accidental overshooting on single taps. Hold Shift for a 5x speed multiplier.

⬛ Instant Plateau — 1-Click Razor-Flat Flattening A dedicated hoe build-menu tool that instantly flattens the entire brush area to the elevation directly under your cursor in a single click. Eliminates gradual multi-click leveling and stepped ridges.

〰️ Smooth Ramp — Multi-Waypoint Road Auto-Carver Place waypoints (K) across rugged terrain to plot out a mountain trail or highway. Press H to instantly auto-carve a smooth, graded road corridor through all waypoints using Catmull-Rom spline interpolation.

• Cart-Friendliness Color Guide: Live 3D spine dynamically indicates slope steepness: 🟢 Green: ≤20° — Cart-Friendly (✓) 🟡 Yellow: 20–25° — Steep for Carts (!) 🔴 Red: >25° — Too Steep for Carts (✗)
• Shift+Carve: Hold Shift while pressing H to auto-carve the entire road directly in paved cobblestone.

🔄 True Square & Circle Brushes (Oriented Deformation) Press G to toggle between circular and square brush geometry.

• True Rotated Square Alignment: Square brush rotates smoothly using your mouse wheel or arrow keys (Left Arrow / Right Arrow). Fixed vanilla Valheim's axis-aligned diamond distortion so raised and leveled terrain aligns with the yellow indicator box.
• Press Home to instantly reset square rotation back to 0° (North).

🌀 Soften & ↩️ Restore Terrain

• Soften Terrain: Gently blends sharp ridges and cliff creases into natural, smooth transitions without flattening the terrain to a plane.
• Restore Terrain: Resets terrain within the brush radius back to its original unmodified world-gen state — erases all digging, leveling deltas, and paint modifications.

🪓 Clear Debris Instantly removes trees, logs, stumps, rocks, boulders, and bushes within the hoe radius. In Balanced Survival mode, requires an Axe for trees and a Pickaxe for rocks — preventing progression bypass while eliminating manual clutter.

📐 Extended Reach & 8m Limit Bypass

• Extended Hoe Reach: (20m default, configurable 5m–50m) Terraform comfortably without constantly jogging forward; automatically restores vanilla reach upon unequipping.
• Bypass 8m Height Limit: Removes Valheim's restrictive ±8m height clamp, allowing you to level deep canyons or raise towering mountain citadels up to a configurable limit (default: 50m).

🔼 Adjustable Raise Height & 3D Volumetric Preview

• Press E to enter Height Mode; scroll the mouse wheel to adjust single-click raise elevation (0.05m to 8.0m per click).
• Press Q to enter Area Mode; scroll the mouse wheel to adjust brush radius (0.5m to 20m).
• 3D Translucent Preview: Displays a live 3D translucent cylinder (or rotated cube box when Square brush is active) showing the exact raise volume and height before clicking, color-coded by reach.
• Camera Zoom Suppression: Prevents third-person camera jumping while scrolling to adjust brush radius or raise height.

💡 Dynamic In-Game Build Menu Tooltips Hover over or select any tool in the Hoe or Cultivator build menu to see a concise, color-coded control guide right inside the piece description:

• Real-Time Dynamic Keybinds: Tooltips display your current active keybinds dynamically read from configuration. If you rebind any key (via config file or live with F1 Configuration Manager), the build menu updates immediately!
• Live Tool Parameters: View active brush radius, raise step, locked altitude, ramp width, and farming grid status at a glance.
• Universal Coverage: Available for Level Ground, Raise Ground, Instant Plateau, Level (Locked Altitude), Smooth Ramp, Soften Terrain, Restore Terrain, Clear Debris, Paved Road, Cultivate, Replant, and all crops/saplings.
• Full Multi-Language Support: Fully localized across English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Polish, and Swedish.

🌐 Multi-Language Localization Automatically detects your active Valheim language. Custom tool names, hover descriptions, cart slope ratings, and HUD notifications are natively translated into: English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, and Swedish.

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⚖️ Balanced Survival Mode

SmarterHoe is balanced by default for survival gameplay — all terrain operations realistically cost resources and stamina just like vanilla building:

• Dynamic Stone (Raise Ground): Proportionally scales with both Brush Area and Raise Height. Raising a towering 4m plateau costs realistically more than a 0.5m mound.
• Dynamic Stone (Paved Road): Proportionally scales with the cobblestone surface area paved.
• Live HUD Sync: Build menu dynamically displays exact stone count required. Placement ghost and 3D preview turn red when stone is insufficient.
• Stamina & Durability: Drained per operation; exhaustion halts clearing mid-sweep. Hoe and tools wear down; broken tools block operations.
• Progression Locked: Workbench proximity required for raising earth; Stonecutter required for paving. Axe/Pickaxe required for clearing debris.

🛠️ Freebuild Creative Mode

Press B (configurable) at any time to toggle into Freebuild Creative Mode:

• 0 Resources: No stone or materials ever required or deducted.
• 0 Crafting Stations: Terraform anywhere without needing nearby workbenches or stonecutters.
• 0 Durability & Stamina: Unlimited terraforming without exhaustion.
• Clean HUD: Stone requirements automatically vanish from the build bar.
• Note: Server owners can lock cost mode to Balanced Survival via ServerSync.

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⌨️ Controls & Hotkeys Summary

Hotkey	Action	Notes
F8	Toggle Farming Grid	Turns multi-crop grid planting on/off
Q / Alt+Scroll / [ ]	Adjust Grid Radius	Changes grid planting footprint (1x1, 3x3, 5x5...)
Shift (Hold)	Freeform Crop Placement	Bypasses crop row snapping
Shift + E	Mass Area Harvest	Harvests all mature crops & pickables in radius (default: 5m)
G	Toggle Grid Shape	Switch crop grid between Square and Circle
Alt+Z / Ctrl+Z	Undo Action	Reverts last operation or batch planting & refunds seeds
Alt+Y / Ctrl+Y	Redo Terrain Action	Redoes last undone terrain modification
Q	Select Area Mode	Mouse wheel scroll resizes brush radius
E	Select Height Mode	Mouse wheel scroll adjusts raise height (0.05m – 8.0m)
L	Toggle Altitude Lock	Levels terrain to fixed elevation
Middle Mouse	Snap Altitude Lock	Aim at any placed piece to match its floor height
PageUp / PageDn	Adjust Locked Altitude	Tap or hold down for rapid smooth movement
Shift + PgUp/PgDn	5x Rapid Altitude Tuning	Multiplies elevation change rate by 5x
K	Place Ramp Waypoint	Places Point A, B, C... (or clears when done)
H	Auto-Carve Ramp Road	Carves along spline corridor. Hold Shift for Paved Stone
Backspace	Undo Last Waypoint	Removes most recent waypoint
[ / ]	Adjust Ramp Width	Changes road corridor width (1m – 20m)
Alt + [ / ]	Adjust Brush Radius	Changes leveling/brush radius (also Alt + Scroll)
P	Cycle Ramp Paint Mode	Cobblestone, Dirt, Keep Grass, Cultivated, Match Tool
G	Toggle Brush Shape	Switch between Circle and Square
Mouse Scroll	Rotate Square Brush	Rotates square brush when active
Left/Right Arrow	Rotate Square	Rotates square brush counter-clockwise / clockwise
Home	Reset Square Rotation	Snaps square rotation back to 0° (North)
N	Measure Mode (Laser Tape)	Point A -> Point B ruler: distance, elevation ($\Delta h$), slope, and grade
C	Cycle Harvest Filter	All Pickables -> Replantable Crops only -> Specific crop types
U	Restore Terrain	Revert terrain to original world-generation

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💻 Console Commands (F5)

Open the Valheim in-game console with F5 (requires -console Steam launch option).

Command	Arguments	Description
resetterrain	[radius=10]	Reverts digging/leveling to natural world-gen state (supports Undo)
remove_forestry	[radius=10]	Clears trees, logs, stumps, and bushes within radius
cleardebris	[radius=10]	Clears rocks, boulders, and obstacles within radius
smarterhoe_undo	None	Undoes the last terrain modification
smarterhoe_redo	None	Redoes the last undone terrain modification

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⚙️ Configuration

Config file: BepInEx/config/com.jubaroo.smarterhoe.cfg All settings are configurable in-game using the BepInEx Configuration Manager (F1) or by editing the config file directly. Synced settings are enforced by the server.

Click to view all configuration options

Setting	Default	Synced?	Description
Lock Configuration	true	Yes	Locks configuration to server authority
CostMode	BalancedSurvival	Yes	BalancedSurvival or Freebuild
HoeReach	20	Yes	Maximum placement reach (meters)
MaxBrushRadius	20	Yes	Maximum brush radius (meters)
AllowBeyondGameLimit	true	Yes	Allows terraforming beyond ±8m ceiling/floor
MaxTerrainDelta	50	Yes	Maximum elevation delta from natural terrain
DefaultRaiseHeight	0.5	No	Default height added per raise
RaiseScrollStep	0.5	No	Height increment per mouse wheel step
MinRaise / MaxRaise	0.05 / 8.0	Yes	Min/Max selectable raise height
SuppressCameraZoom	true	No	Prevents zooming while adjusting hoe
Language	Auto	No	Auto detects language or choose specific
EnableUndo	true	Yes	Enable multi-step terrain undo and redo
MaxUndoSteps	15	Yes	Max undo history snapshots stored (1 to 50)
InstantFlatten	true	Yes	Instantly level 100% of terrain in brush
StonePerCubicMeter	0.25	Yes	Stone cost per cubic meter raised
StonePerPavedSquare	0.03	Yes	Stone cost per square meter paved
RequireCraftingStation	true	Yes	Require Workbench/Stonecutter
RequireToolsForDebris	true	Yes	Require Axe/Pickaxe for clearing
DynamicSlopeColoring	true	No	Color-code ramp guide by cart-friendliness
EnableFarmingGrid	true	No	Enable grid planting system for crops and saplings
FarmingGridRadius	2.5	No	Default radius for farming grid planting
SnapToExistingCrops	true	No	Automatically align crop grid with existing crop rows
SpacingMultiplier	1.0	No	Multiplier for safe crop spacing
EnableAreaHarvest	true	No	Enables Shift+E mass harvesting of crops/pickables
AreaHarvestRadius	5.0	No	Radius in meters for Shift+E area harvest (1.0 to 20.0m)
AreaHarvestAutoPickup	true	No	Instantly vacuum collected items into player inventory
HarvestRequiresFarmingTool	false	No	Require Hoe or Cultivator equipped for area harvest
AreaHarvestKey	E	No	Key used with Shift for mass harvesting
EnableDebugLogging	false	No	Logs all user actions and tool diagnostics to console and BepInEx log

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🖥️ Dedicated Server Support & ServerSync

SmarterHoe features seamless ServerSync integration with full server-authoritative configuration.

• Server Authority: Server owners can enforce balance rules (CostMode, reach limits, radius, tools required). Admins listed in adminlist.txt are automatically exempt and can adjust settings in real-time.
• Client-Optional: You can safely join any vanilla or community server with SmarterHoe installed on your client. Local settings will apply without getting you kicked. Players without SmarterHoe can also join dedicated servers running this mod.

🤝 Compatibility

• Multiplayer: Modifies Valheim's native TerrainComp heightmaps and ZDO networks; all players see changes in real time.
• Dedicated Servers: Fully supported with headless optimizations.
• Known Conflicts: Mods that also patch Player.UpdatePlacementGhost or deeply override hoe piece behavior may conflict.

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🏆 Credits

Built by Jubaroo. Valheim terrain system research inspired by the broader Valheim modding community.

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📦 Installation Instructions

Prerequisite: You must have BepInExPack Valheim installed before installing SmarterHoe.

Using a Mod Manager (Recommended):

1. Open your preferred Valheim mod manager.
2. Click the Install with Mod Manager (or similar) button on this page, or search for "SmarterHoe" within the manager's download interface.
3. Ensure any prerequisites (like BepInEx) are enabled.
4. Launch the game via the mod manager.

Manual Installation:

1. Click the Manual Download button on this page.
2. Extract the downloaded .zip archive.
3. Move the com.jubaroo.smarterhoe.dll file into your Valheim\BepInEx\plugins\ folder.
4. Launch the game.