VikingMeals
Lower excessive ingredient costs AND cook larger batches. Light, Balanced and Generous presets, feast support, native Valheim menu and server-synced settings.Viking Meals
Smaller ingredient bills. Enough food to share. Viking Meals reduces excessive food-recipe costs and increases meal batch sizes. Balanced is enabled by default.
What's new in 1.1.0
The original 1.0.0 increased yields only. This update also reduces high ingredient quantities, covers feast-preparation recipes and supports direct ingredient costs on feast prefabs. All ordinary-food yield increases from 1.0.0 are retained.
Examples from Valheim 1.0.20 with Balanced:
| Recipe | Original ingredient bill | Viking Meals ingredient bill | Output: original → modded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Queen's Jam | 8 raspberries + 6 blueberries | 4 raspberries + 4 blueberries | 4 → 8 jam |
| Bread dough | 10 barley flour | 4 barley flour | 2 → 4 dough |
| Unbaked kale chips | 12 kale | 4 kale | 4 → 8 portions |
| Meadows feast preparation | 2 cooked deer meat + 5 cooked boar meat + 4 dandelions + 1 spice | 2 deer meat + 3 boar meat + 2 dandelions + 1 spice | Feast kit and feast servings unchanged |
| Swamp feast preparation | 8 sausages + 4 bloodbags + 2 turnip stew + 1 spice | 2 sausages + 3 bloodbags + 2 turnip stew + 1 spice | Feast kit and feast servings unchanged |
These are intentional gameplay balance rules, not real-world nutritional measurements. Recipes already using modest quantities keep those lower quantities.
Choose your appetite
| Preset | Meals | Soups, stews, broth and porridge |
|---|---|---|
| Light | 1.5x servings | 2x servings |
| Balanced — default | 2x servings | 3x servings |
| Generous | 3x servings | 4x servings |
Yields round up and normally stop at one inventory stack. A recipe already producing more than one stack automatically retains at least its original yield. Oven preparation recipes produce extra uncooked portions; baking itself remains one-to-one.
Each preset also limits the quantity of each ingredient in an eligible recipe:
| Ingredient group | Light maximum | Balanced maximum | Generous maximum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staples: berries, vegetables, grain, flour and other ingredients | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Protein: meat, fish, tails, entrails, bloodbags, blubber and eggs | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Prepared dishes used as ingredients | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Seasonings: thistle, dandelion, honey and spices | 3 | 2 | 1 |
A requirement below its limit is left alone. Positive requirements never become free; optional zero requirements remain zero. Protein-name classification takes precedence over prepared-dish classification. Explicit recipe overrides take precedence over automatic limits.
A compatible modded food recipe requiring 30 CookedMeat is reduced to 3 CookedMeat on Balanced, while receiving the normal yield increase. The audit did not find a 30-meat recipe in clean Valheim 1.0.20; this case was tested with a controlled modded-recipe fixture.
Coverage and progression
The live recipe audit covers normal food, uncooked oven foods, quality-based fish processing and nine feast-preparation recipes. Ordinary food yields match 1.0.0. Feast-kit output, placed-feast serving counts and fish-quality output formulas are preserved; their eligible ingredient requirements can now be reduced.
The mod detects edible recipe outputs, prepared items converted to food by loaded cooking stations, and materials required by loaded feast prefabs. Compatible modded recipes using those systems are included. Pot classification uses the output prefab name containing Soup, Stew, Broth or Porridge.
Health, stamina, eitr, food duration, unlocks, crafting stations and station levels stay unchanged. Simple spit cooking remains one-to-one. Mead bases, equipment, building materials and unrelated recipes are not rebalanced.
Native Valheim interface
Click Viking Meals at the main menu, or press F7 in game. The panel uses Valheim wood, Averia Serif text and native buttons, matching the JustQOL Viking mods. Escape or Close returns to the game.
Choose a preset at the main menu before starting a local world. In-world gameplay controls are read-only. The F7 shortcut is configurable.
Installation and updating
Install with Thunderstore Mod Manager or r2modman. Dependencies are BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2.
Manual installation: merge the package's BepInEx folder into the game directory. The plugin belongs at BepInEx/plugins/VikingMeals/VikingMeals.dll. Leave only one copy of this DLL installed.
Install Viking Meals 1.1.0 on the server and every client; 1.0.0 and 1.1.0 cannot mix. Existing preset selections and overrides are retained. The selected preset now applies ingredient limits automatically. Restart the server and clients after updating.
Server gameplay configuration is synchronized by Jotunn. Stop the server, edit its config, restart and reconnect clients after changes. This is not an anti-cheat guarantee against modified clients.
Configuration and recipe overrides
First launch creates BepInEx/config/com.justqol.vikingmeals.cfg.
[Server]
Enabled = true
Preset = Balanced
RecipeOverrides =
[Interface]
OpenMenu = F7
Overrides use prefab names and absolute quantities from 1 to 100, separated by semicolons:
RecipeOverrides = CarrotSoup=6;CarrotSoup:Carrot=2
This produces six carrot soups using two carrots, with other ingredients following the preset. An explicit ingredient override can exceed the automatic limit. Output overrides still respect stack limits. Feast-material ingredient overrides use the material prefab name, for example FeastMeadows_Material:CookedMeat=2. Direct-feast ingredient overrides use the feast prefab name. Feast-kit and quality-based output formulas are preserved even if an output override names them.
Duplicate or malformed overrides are rejected as a group; the chosen preset remains active without overrides and a warning is logged. Set Enabled = false and restart to restore original recipe yields and ingredient quantities. Removing the plugin and restarting also restores crafting. Already-crafted food remains in inventories; existing feast serving state is not rewritten.
Compatibility and verification
Built and tested against Valheim 1.0.20, Unity 6, BepInExPack 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2. Other mods rewriting the same recipes may conflict depending on load timing. Overrides that those mods apply after Viking Meals may win.
See VERIFICATION.md for exact tests and limitations. Live multiplayer/reconnect behavior, controller navigation and full graphical menu acceptance remain unverified. The ingredient audit and automated Unity crafting tests do not establish compatibility with every modpack.
For feedback, message goon4207 on Discord with game/mod versions, preset, affected recipe, other mods and relevant BepInEx errors.
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Code and documentation created with assistance from OpenAI Codex, under the project owner's direction. Icon is an original geometric bowl mark in the JustQOL palette.