Modsmith Cycle

Modsmith Cycle provides a faster restart and troubleshooting 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.

Modsmith Cycle can also preserve the current BepInEx session log during shutdown. Recent logs are retained locally as LogOutput-1.txt and LogOutput-2.txt, with LogOutput-PendingSession.txt used during rotation. This makes it easier to compare recent sessions while testing and troubleshooting mods.

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.
• preserve recent BepInEx session logs locally to make troubleshooting between test sessions easier.

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

Version 1.0.0 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 1.0.0 and is planned for a future update.

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 1.0.16
• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351
• 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/MaddCatter365.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.
• Logging.BackupSessionLog — enabled by default; saves the current log before exit and advances the two backup slots at the next launch.
• 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 1.0.0 focuses on reliable modded restart, resume, and troubleshooting:

• 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.
• optional local BepInEx session-log history for troubleshooting.

Automatic remote guest reconnect is planned for a future update.

Dedicated-server restart support is out of scope.

1.0.0 changes

• Marks the first complete release of Modsmith Cycle's intended restart, resume, and troubleshooting workflow.
• Added optional BepInEx session-log backups for easier troubleshooting between test sessions.
• The current session log is preserved during normal game exit and before Save & Restart closes Valheim.
• Recent history is retained as LogOutput-1.txt and LogOutput-2.txt, with LogOutput-PendingSession.txt used safely during rotation.
• LogOutput-1.txt is the most recent previous session and LogOutput-2.txt is the older retained session.
• Added Logging.BackupSessionLog, enabled by default, to allow log-history creation and rotation to be disabled.
• Existing Test 1 backup names are migrated safely to the numbered log-history names on the first upgraded launch.
• Updated and revalidated Modsmith Cycle for Valheim 1.0.16 and BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351.
• Automatic remote-server guest reconnect remains planned for a future update and is not enabled in 1.0.0.

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. When Logging.BackupSessionLog is enabled, Modsmith Cycle creates local copies of the normal BepInEx LogOutput.log for troubleshooting. These backup files remain in the same BepInEx folder as LogOutput.log. Modsmith Cycle does not upload, transmit, or send these files anywhere.

The backup files remain on the user's computer unless the user manually copies, moves, uploads, or shares them. Because they are copies of the normal BepInEx session log, they may contain any diagnostic information that Valheim, BepInEx, or installed mods normally write to that log. Users should review logs before sharing them publicly.