EpicGuns
Bow-compatible firearms: 1911, Black Forest shotgun with buckshot and dragons breath, and Swamp assault rifle.EpicGuns 0.4.0
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 |
| Forest Shotgun | Black Forest / Forge 1 | 15 Bronze, 15 Tin | 60 total pierce across 12 pellets | One shell, 1.8-second base reload |
| Swamp Assault Rifle | 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 rifle adds a gas tube, vented handguard, charging handle, and segmented magazine. These are procedural models, with a supporting left-hand pose and a size-safety fallback. 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 Rifle Cartridges | 1 Iron, 1 Copper, 2 Coal | Dedicated rifle rounds |
Both 12-gauge recipes use Forge 1; rifle cartridges use Forge 2. 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-0.4.0.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. Existing 1911 settings and prefab names are preserved. 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. 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
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 the original procedural shotgun and rifle reports. ASSET_PROMPTS.md records the built-in image-generation prompts and saved assets.