EpicGuns 0.5.0

Three configurable Valheim firearms using the Bows skill and Bow item category, with custom models, icons, ammunition, and sounds. Requires BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350 and Jotunn 2.30.2. Epic Loot is optional.

Weapons and recipes

Weapon	Tier / station	Crafting materials	Default damage	Firing
1911	Black Forest / Forge 1	8 Bronze, 4 Fine Wood, 2 Deer Hide	22 weapon + 18 ammo pierce	One round, 1-second base reload
Pump Action	Black Forest / Forge 1	15 Bronze, 15 Tin	60 total pierce across 12 pellets	One shell, 1.8-second base reload
M16	Swamp / Forge 2	20 Iron, 10 Fine Wood, 5 Leather Scraps	18 weapon + 10 ammo pierce per bullet	3-round automatic burst, 0.12 seconds between rounds, 1.1-second base reload

Damage values are before skill, armor, resistance, and magic modifiers. A shotgun pellet deals 5 base pierce, not 60. Spread makes the shotgun most effective nearby. Valheim applies armor separately to each hit. Both new weapons have four quality levels; shotgun upgrades add 6 total pierce and rifle upgrades add 3 pierce per bullet per level.

The shotgun uses a blued-steel barrel, bronze fittings, ribbed walnut pump, stock, trigger guard, sights, receiver pins, and ejection port. The M16 has a fixed polymer stock, open carry handle, ribbed handguard, front sight tower, flash hider, and gently curved magazine. The overhauled 1911 has a slim chamfered slide, flush muzzle, swept walnut grip, open curved trigger guard, serrations, safety controls, hammer, and screws. These are procedural models with a size-safety fallback; long guns use a supporting left-hand pose. They use the existing firing animation; there is no animated pump cycle or detachable-magazine reload.

Ammunition

Recipe output	Materials	Effect
20 .45 ACP	1 Copper, 2 Coal, 1 Resin	Existing pistol ammunition
10 × 12 Gauge Buckshot	1 Copper, 1 Coal	12 pellets, 60 combined base pierce
10 × 12 Gauge Dragon's Breath	2 Copper, 2 Coal	12 pellets, 60 pierce plus 15 fire at default quality
30 × 556	1 Iron, 1 Copper, 2 Coal	Standard M16 rounds
20 × .45 ACP AP	2 Copper, 2 Coal, 1 Resin	+6 pierce; 46 combined base pierce
20 × .45 ACP Hollow Point	2 Copper, 2 Coal, 1 Resin	40 combined base pierce +6 blunt
30 × 556 AP	2 Iron, 1 Copper, 2 Coal	+5 pierce; 33 combined base pierce
30 × 556 Hollow Point	1 Iron, 2 Copper, 2 Coal	28 combined base pierce +5 blunt

All .45 ACP and 12-gauge recipes use Forge 1; all 556 recipes use Forge 2. AP and hollow-point bonuses and crafting costs are configurable. AP supplies extra pierce damage using normal armor/resistance rules. Hollow points retain standard pierce and add blunt damage. Select the desired compatible ammo in your inventory. Dragon's breath adds fire equal to 25% of the final pierce damage, including weapon quality and damage modifiers. Its flying pellets have orange/yellow flame trails and fading wisps. Fire damage follows Valheim's burning and resistance rules. The new ammo icons match the existing three-cartridge, gold-outline style; shells have flat crimped tops, and dragon shells have flame markings.

One shotgun shot consumes one shell. Rifle bursts consume one cartridge per bullet through Valheim's normal ammo-selection method, preserving Epic Loot ammo conservation. An incomplete ammo stack fires only the available rounds; switching weapons or interrupting an attack can cancel the rest of a burst. Burst rounds and interval are configurable. This release uses burst fire rather than a magazine-based continuous automatic-fire system.

Installation and configuration

Import dist/EpicGuns-0.5.0.zip as a local mod in your mod manager, or extract its BepInEx directories into your profile/game folder. Replace the prior EpicGuns installation so only one EpicGuns DLL is loaded. The source ZIP is for development.

Install the same version on the server and every client. All existing item prefab IDs, ammo-family IDs, and configuration section names are preserved, so saved weapons and ammo remain valid. Only display names change: Forest Shotgun → Pump Action, Swamp Assault Rifle → M16, Rifle Cartridge → 556. Existing [Shotgun], [Assault Rifle], and [Rifle Ammo] config sections still control the renamed items. No dependency DLLs are bundled and no existing configuration file is overwritten.

After first launch, edit BepInEx/config/com.triston.epicguns.cfg. See CONFIGURATION.md for all new defaults. Gameplay settings and recipe amounts use Jotunn's server synchronization; local audio, aim, tracers, and flame visuals remain client-side. Restart after hand-editing the file. Changes made through a config manager update registered balance and recipe values; existing projectiles/attacks finish with their current state, and visual changes apply to newly spawned effects.

Modpack compatibility

The packaged Epic Loot patch adds the shotgun to Bows / defeated_gdking and the rifle to Bows / defeated_bonemass, matching the existing Testing profile's Black Forest and Swamp lists. Weapons keep Bows skill and the Bow item category for compatible magic effects. Long guns temporarily use the two-handed equipment path when equipping, then immediately restore their Bow category. This avoids DualWield's one-handed equipment branch.

The original pistol remains one-handed. Shotgun normalization divides all incoming damage and skill gain across the configured base pellet count, so bonus projectiles from multishot can still increase total damage. There are no global bow damage changes. Firearms each accept only their own ammo family.

Gunshot effect prefabs and projectiles are network registered, including the updated 1911 report. The pistol sound was rebuilt with a dry broadband crack, pressure body, and short outdoor reflections, without a pitched synth tail. Pump Action plays an opening "chk" when reloading actually starts and a closing "chk" when it completes; cancelled reloads do not play the completion sound. Pump audio has its own local volume and enable setting. Visual/audio code skips dedicated servers. The update was compiled against the locally installed game and profile dependencies; selected Epic Loot and DualWield code paths were inspected. Full modpack, multiplayer, visual, and listening tests in a running game remain required. See VALIDATION.md.

Console spawning

spawn EpicGuns_1911
spawn EpicGuns_45ACP 100
spawn EpicGuns_Shotgun
spawn EpicGuns_Buckshot 100
spawn EpicGuns_DragonBreath 100
spawn EpicGuns_AssaultRifle
spawn EpicGuns_RifleAmmo 100
spawn EpicGuns_45ACP_AP 100
spawn EpicGuns_45ACP_HP 100
spawn EpicGuns_556_AP 100
spawn EpicGuns_556_HP 100

Building

Requires .NET SDK 8 or newer for the plugin (.NET Standard 2.1). The optional validation harness uses SDK 10.

./build.ps1 -EpicGunsManaged 'D:/SteamLibrary/steamapps/common/Valheim/valheim_Data/Managed' -EpicGunsBepInEx 'C:/path/to/profile/BepInEx/core' -EpicGunsJotunn 'C:/path/to/profile/BepInEx/plugins/ValheimModding-Jotunn'

The script creates the plugin and assets in src/bin/Release/netstandard2.1, install/source ZIPs, build log, and SHA-256 checksums in dist. Compiler intermediates are kept in a fresh temporary directory. tools/build-audio.ps1 regenerates all procedural gunshot and pump-cycling sounds. ASSET_PROMPTS.md records the built-in image-generation prompts and saved assets.