Modsmith Cycle

Modsmith Cycle provides a faster restart cycle for modded Valheim on Windows.

Open the Escape menu and choose SAVE & RESTART MODDED to save your game, close Valheim cleanly, relaunch through Steam with your active r2modman/BepInEx profile, and automatically return to the same character and local world.

What it does

Modsmith Cycle will:

• give you a short countdown with time to cancel;
• use Valheim's normal save-and-quit path;
• wait until Valheim has fully exited;
• ask Steam to relaunch Valheim through the same -applaunch 892970 route used by r2modman;
• preserve the active profile's Doorstop/BepInEx launch arguments;
• select the same character after relaunch;
• reopen the same local world automatically;
• restore the world's hosted-session settings when applicable so friends can reconnect normally.

The active mod profile is preserved through its launch arguments. Modsmith Cycle does not automate or click through the r2modman interface.

Version 0.1.6 continues to use Steam for the relaunch because launching Valheim.exe directly can result in an unmodded session.

In-game restart interface

Modsmith Cycle adds a native-style section to Valheim's Escape menu:

[ gold Valheim ornament ]

      SAVE & RESTART MODDED

During the restart countdown, the button changes to:

CANCEL RESTART (N)

A notice below the button confirms whether the restart is queued or cancelled.

The restart can also be triggered with the configured keyboard shortcut while the Escape menu is open.

Default shortcut:

Left Ctrl + F9

Local hosting behavior

• Local world: Modsmith Cycle reopens the same world with the same character.
• Locally hosted multiplayer world: hosted-session settings can be restored so friends can reconnect normally after the world returns.
• By default, a restart is blocked while another player remains connected.
• If friends are playing in your locally hosted world, have them return to the main menu before restarting.
• Each auto-resume uses a unique one-use token.
• Resume requests expire after a configurable amount of time.
• A detached helper waits for Valheim to fully exit before starting the replacement process.
• If character or world resolution fails, Modsmith Cycle stops safely at Valheim's menus.

Remote servers

Automatic guest reconnect to a remote server is not currently available in 0.1.6.

The configuration entry remains reserved for future hosted co-op / remote reconnect work, but currently returns the player to Valheim's menus instead of attempting an automatic remote reconnect.

Dedicated-server restart support is not part of Modsmith Cycle's scope.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11
• Valheim 1.0.15
• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350
• An active local-world or locally hosted Valheim session for automatic world resume

The small restart helper targets .NET Framework 4.8.

Installation

Keep both files together in the same plugin folder:

BepInEx/plugins/ModsmithCycle/ModsmithCycle.dll
BepInEx/plugins/ModsmithCycle/ModsmithCycle.Restarter.exe

Start Valheim with Start modded in r2modman.

Enter a world, press Escape, and choose SAVE & RESTART MODDED.

You can also use Left Ctrl + F9 while the Escape menu is open.

Configuration

Settings are written to:

BepInEx/config/MaddCatter.ModsmithCycle.cfg

Current settings include:

• Restart.CountdownSeconds — length of the cancel countdown.
• Restart.AutoResumeLocalWorld — when enabled, automatically reopens the previous local world.
• Restart.ResumeHostedSession — restores locally hosted-session settings so friends can reconnect.
• Restart.AutoReconnectRemoteServer — reserved for future remote-server reconnect support; currently disabled by default.
• Safety.RequireNoOtherPlayers — blocks restart while another player is still connected.
• Safety.MaximumResumeAgeSeconds — rejects stale resume requests.
• Hotkeys.Restart — restart shortcut used while the Escape menu is open.
• Compatibility.SteamExecutableOverride — optional full path to Steam.exe when automatic Steam detection cannot find a nonstandard installation.

Older configuration files may still contain settings from previous versions that Modsmith Cycle no longer uses.

Scope

Version 0.1.6 focuses on reliable local restart and resume:

• clean Valheim save and shutdown;
• Steam-based modded relaunch;
• active r2modman/BepInEx profile preservation;
• same-character restoration;
• same-local-world restoration;
• locally hosted-session restoration;
• native-style Escape-menu restart controls.

Automatic remote guest reconnect remains future work.

Dedicated-server restart support is out of scope.

0.1.6 hotfix

• Corrected the restart helper's launch-request reader to use the V2 format written by the plugin.
• Restored Steam/r2modman relaunch after Valheim completes its normal save and shutdown.
• The main plugin DLL is unchanged from 0.1.5; 0.1.6 replaces the mismatched helper that shipped in the 0.1.5 package.

0.1.5 changes

• Added and finalized the native-style SAVE & RESTART MODDED Escape-menu interface.
• Added a matching Valheim ornament and centered restart-status notices.
• Added stable countdown/cancel behavior directly through the native restart button.
• Removed temporary UI diagnostic code.
• Cleaned obsolete helper/plugin request fields.
• Removed stale cinematic-skip code and references.
• Kept unfinished remote-server reconnect functionality safely disabled.
• Revalidated character and local-world auto-resume on Valheim 1.0.15.
• Confirmed successful save, shutdown, relaunch, character restoration, and local-world restoration.

Support

For help, bug reports, or compatibility feedback, visit the Mod Support channel.

Privacy and networking

Modsmith Cycle makes no network requests of its own and collects no data.

The restart helper receives only the information needed to wait for the current Valheim process to exit and relaunch Steam with the preserved modded launch arguments.

The temporary resume marker stores the information needed to restore the previous character and local world and is consumed during the resume process.