Elite Creatures Reborn

Creatures spawn with more stars and mutations, traits that change how a fight goes; bosses take an aspect instead.

Features

Difficulty: Easy to Extreme; new biomes start gentle, cleared ones keep hardening.
Stars: up to eight on Extreme, or off for another mod's.
World tiers: each boss's first defeat makes stars and mutations more common.
Mutations: one per creature, named on the nameplate (below).
Boss aspects: one per fight (below).
Breeding: tamed young inherit mutations and stars.
Loot: four drop modes, rules per creature; bosses drop a trophy for every player.
Boss damage board: who did how much.
Boss hints: bosses point the way to the traders and the ancient forge.
Death recap: F10 replays the seconds before each death.
Respawning: cleared camps, dungeons and chests can refill (off by default).
Works with PackPanel, GrindstoneSkills' Husbandry and Elite Creatures Pack.

Mutations

Mad: far faster, half health.
Bloated: double health, explodes after it dies.
Cloaked: invisible until you are within 10 m.
Splintering: splits into two weaker copies when killed.
Leeching: regenerates and heals from the damage it deals.
Warding: reflects part of each hit and knocks you back.
Plated: armoured while healthy, hits harder as the armour breaks.
Miasmic: trails poison clouds.
Devouring: eats weaker creatures and keeps their health and damage.
Thieving: steals an item each hit; kill it to get them back.
Gilded: runs from you; triple loot and a coin purse.
Blinking: reappears behind you every 30 seconds.
Relentless: chases you up to 150 m; sneaking does not hide you.
Juggernaut: never staggers or is knocked back.
Screecher: a big hit makes it shriek, deafening you and stopping magic.
Frostbound: a chilling aura and slippery ice trails; frost heals it.
Mudbound: leaves slowing mud where it walks.
Corrodent: wears your armour down three times as fast.
Cloning: leaves a harmless decoy and fights on unseen.
Flamebound: leaves burning ground that sets you on fire.
Piercing, Howling and Binding (off by default): hits ignore 15% of your armour; calls nearby creatures to fight you; leaves roots that hold you for a second.

Boss aspects

Shown at the altar before you offer. About one fight in five has none; every aspect pays extra loot.

Reflective: part of each hit comes back to you.
Shielded: takes less damage from arrows and bolts.
Mending: regenerates during the fight.
Summoner: calls creatures of its biome as it loses health.
Elementalist / Enraged: more elemental / physical damage.
Twin: two bosses sharing one health pool.
Tethered: two linked bosses, faster as their health drifts apart.
Phantom: splits into copies and hides among them.
Adaptive: resists whichever damage type hits it most.
Fixated: marks one player and hits them harder.
Stormbound: lightning strikes circles under every player.
Gravitic: drags everyone in, then slams.
Colossal: bigger and tougher; its shockwaves knock you down.
Brutal: heavy blows throw you 20 m.
Nightfall: a storming night with tornadoes that hunt you.
Echoing: a ghost repeats its every move 15 seconds later.
Portalbound: the Elder and Bonemass throw through portals.
Bountiful: two more aspects at once, and all their loot.

Install

Needed on the server and every client. Install with r2modman or the Thunderstore app, or put EliteCreaturesReborn.dll in BepInEx/plugins. Remove other star mods, or set creature stars: false.

Configuration

BepInEx/config/gglasgow.elitecreaturesreborn.cfg and BepInEx/config/creature_rules.yml (the rules). Both apply without a restart; the server's rules bind every player. Console: elite tier, damage and deaths for everyone, the other elite commands for admins. In detail: reference.

Links

Discord: https://discord.gg/DrFUyfuXzT

Bugs and ideas: https://github.com/geraldjglasgow/ValheimMods/issues (name the mod and version). Licence: GPL-3.0.

Shout outs

The BepInEx and Harmony teams, for the tools every Valheim mod stands on.
Iron Gate Studio, for Valheim.
Thunderstore, for hosting this page.
The Valheim modding community, for the hard work and dedication that keeps enhancing an already great game.
Every modder who keeps their mods open source so others can collaborate, learn and build on them.