ImpactfulSkills

This mod aims to make progression in Valheim, especially skill related progression feel impactful and meaningful.

In the base game, many skills have a significant impact on how powerful your character is, but that is often not felt due to the slow progression and no milestones that provide feedback.

This mod aims to fix that by providing additional functionality, benefits, or bonuses that occur as you level up.

Reporting issues or feedback

Got a bug to report or just want to chat about the mod? Drop by the discord or github.

Skills and Effects

All of the below effects are configurable! Want it to be more powerful or less powerful? Its easy to modify through the config file or an in-game config editor!

Woodcutting

Woodcutting now improves the amount of wood you get from trees and bushes. Along with the amount of seeds, and resin you get.

Woodcutting also gives you increased chop damage, which makes it faster to cut down trees.

Woodcutting 0	Woodcutting 50	Woodcutting 100

Mining (Pickaxes)

Pickaxes now improves the amount of ore and stone you get from mining things. Along with providing an AOE mining effect (which strengthens as you level up) when you get to the requisite level (default 50).

Pickaxes 0	Pickaxes 50	Pickaxes 100

Gathering (Farming)

Gathering increases the bonus number of items you can harvest from any plant. This is partly influenced by luck, and partly influenced by your level. Additionally at a high level of gathering you gain AOE harvesting (default 50) which increases in range with your skill. Gathering skill also increase the range at which you can harvest with the scythe.

Farming 0	Farming 50	Farming 100

Weapon Skills

All weapon skills now give a corresponding reduction to their stamina cost that is configurable (default 50% at level 100). Vanilla provides a bonus of 33% at level 100, which is somewhat hidden. This makes it configurable and visibile on item tooltips. Parrying provides a tiny bit of bonus XP.

WeaponSkill 0	WeaponSkill 50	WeaponSkill 100

Sneaking

Increases speed based on your sneaking skill.

• Level 50 (configurable) of sneaking starts applying a reduction to your noise generated (similar to how the troll armor works).

Sneak 0	Sneak 50	Sneak 100

Run

The run skill now increases your movement speed when running. Instead of only reducing stamina cost to run.

Run 0	Run 50	Run 100

Voyager (new skill)

Voyager increases your potential speed when sailing in a boat. Along with increasing your ability to handle close hauling, when sailing almost against the wind. Provides a bonus to your rowing speed that scales with player skill also.

• Innate - Multiple players on a boat each provide a small bonus to boat speed (scales with everyones skill levels)
• 25 - Paddle speed increased (scales with level)
• 35 - Damage done to boat reduced (scales with level)
• 50 - Reduces penalty from sailing almost against the wind (scales with level)
• 75 - Boat does not recieve damage from impact

Voyager 0	Voyager 50	Voyager 100

Jump

Jumping now increases your jump height and distance (configurable). Jumping also increases the distance you can fall before taking fall damage. Jump also reduces the damage you take from falling.

Jump 0	Jump 50	Jump 100

hauling (new skill)

Hauling provides a way to gain innate carry weight, and move large amounts of goods easier.

Hauling is trained by moving goods around: pulling a loaded cart, or covering ground on foot while your inventory is heavily loaded (by default, carrying at least 275 weight). Walking counts just as much as running, and the heavier you are the faster it trains - including when you are over your carry limit, which trains hauling faster than anything else.

Hauling 0	Hauling 50	Hauling 100

Cooking

Cooking now causes eaten food to decay slower, allowing it to provide its full bonus for longer.

Cooking several foods in a row builds a streak. Every food you cook adds 10% more cooking XP to the next one, up to double XP, so settling in for a real cooking session is worth far more than making one thing whenever you happen to walk past the cauldron. Crafting at the cauldron counts each item of a multicraft, and taking cooked food off a cooking station or oven counts too. The streak only ends after two minutes without cooking - gathering more ingredients or crafting something else in between does not break it.

Eating trains cooking as well. Every meal grants a little cooking XP based on the health, stamina and eitr it provides, so a hearty meal teaches more than a handful of berries.

Fishing

Catching a big fish is finally worth something

Now the quality of the fish carries through to the recipe. A quality 5 anglerfish makes 5 fish wraps instead of 1, and the fish based mead bases scale the same way.

Crafting also no longer raids your best catch: recipes now always spend the lowest quality fish that can cover the cost, so a rare fish is only used when it is the only one you are carrying. The crafting panel shows what you will actually get before you commit to the craft.

Recipes that turn fish into gear reward you differently - see Crafting below.

Crafting

A handful of items carry a quality level that has nothing to do with upgrades: every fish has one, and so does every base Ashlands weapon you have poured resources into. Spend one of those on a recipe that produces equipment and the quality now carries through to what you make, instead of being thrown away.

The quality you get is the average quality of the ingredients you spent, rounded down, and it still respects your crafting station - a level 1 workbench cannot turn out level 4 gear no matter how good your fish were. Twelve prize fish make an upgraded fishing hat; twelve scraps make the same hat the base game gives you. Infusing an Ashlands weapon carries its stars over rather than resetting it to one, which in the base game quietly destroys every upgrade you had put into it.

The crafting panel shows the quality you are about to get before you press craft, and crafting always spends the lowest quality ingredient that covers the recipe, so your best one is only ever used when it is the only one you have.

Blood Magic

Blood magic now gives XP for the shield for damage taken, in addition to 1 xp when the shield is broken.

Animal Whisper (new skill)

Taming reduces the amount of time it takes to tame creatures. It also multiplies the loot you get from slaughtering tamed creatures, removing the need for massive creature farms. The bonus scales off what the animal would actually have dropped, so it accounts for its star level, the world resource rate, and any loot changes from other mods. Breeding gives XP

Knowledge Sharing

Expertise in one area of knowledge now allows you to gain skills faster in other areas. Being the best builder in the group no longer means you will never level your combat skills. Changing your primary weapon type now takes considerably less time.

Roadmap ideas

Please note these are not ordered or guaranteed to be implemented, but are ideas that are being considered. I am also always happy to talk ideas and suggestions in the discord!

• Skill announcements, when gaining a skill level that gives you a specific bonus
• Animal whisper allows taming 1 creature permenantly for your character (lvl 100?)
• Localization for all languages

Suggested Mods to pair with

• Cartography Skill - A way to increase your exploration radius
• Deathlink - Makes item loss, equipment loss and skill loss on death configurable
• FortifySkillsRedux - Provides a system to prevent skill degredation but still provides risk.