Ward Cores

Wards protect the buildings in their range. Every ward holds an energy pool, and hits on pieces inside its radius are paid from that pool instead of from the pieces' health. The core installed in the ward sets the pool's size. The pool recharges over time, and Sap speeds that up.

How it works

• Each point of damage to a piece in range of an active ward costs the ward 1 energy instead of the piece's health. Protected pieces take hits without their weaknesses.
• Wards absorb hits from monsters, raids and players without access, and hits without an attacker such as fire and falling trees. Weather wear, collapse from missing support and hits by players with access stay vanilla.
• Overlapping wards split the cost evenly. When a ward can't pay its share, the others pay the rest.
• An area attack counts as one hit: each ward pays the average over the pieces it hit.
• A ward regains 1 % of its maximum per second, and a quarter of that for 5 s after each absorbed hit.
• Below 30 % charge, a ward lets part of each hit through, up to half when it is empty.
• A drained ward switches off, access protection included, and comes back on at 30 %. New wards and newly installed cores start empty, so a new ward is off for its first 30 s.

Floating numbers show the damage that reaches a piece and, in light blue with a ⚡, the energy the ward paid.

Cores

To install a core, look at a ward you have access to and press the core's hotbar key. Every ward starts with a built-in Surtling Core. Installing another core gives back the previous one, and installed cores drop when the ward is torn down or destroyed. A new core starts empty. Item tooltips show each core's "Ward Power".

Biome	Core	Max energy
Black Forest	Surtling Core (built-in)	600
Black Forest	Wooden Protection Idol	800
Black Forest	Bronze Protection Idol	1,000
Black Forest	Thunder Stone (sold by Haldor)	1,000
Swamp	Iron Protection Idol	1,200
Mountain	Frostcore	1,400
Mountain	Dragon Tear	1,600
Mountain	Silver Protection Idol	1,800
Plains	Torn Spirit	2,000
Plains	Black Metal Protection Idol	2,200
Mistlands	Wisp	2,400
Mistlands	Black Core	2,600
Mistlands	Black Marble Protection Idol	2,800
Ashlands	Molten Core	3,000
Ashlands	Embers	3,200
Ashlands	Flametal Protection Idol	3,400
Deep North	Liquid Frost	3,600
Deep North	Frostfire Essence	3,800
Deep North	Thunderblood Essence	3,800
Deep North	Bloodgold Protection Idol	4,000

Cores with an effect

Four cores do more than shield. Their settings are in [Thunder], [Fire] and [Frost], with a switch per core.

The Thunder Stone strikes the attacker with lightning once per attack, for half the damage the wards absorbed, and staggers it. It hits monsters and players without access; bosses are never staggered.

The Molten Core sets the attacker on fire once per attack, for half the absorbed damage, burning over 8 seconds. Further attacks add their own burns on top. Fire resistance counts, and the fire never spreads to your buildings.

The Frostcore chills hostile creatures in its radius, and players without access who have PvP on: 5 % slower each second, up to 60 %, scaled by frost resistance. Tamed animals, fleeing animals and bosses are left alone. The chill costs the ward nothing.

Liquid Frost chills like the Frostcore and also deals frost damage each second, 1 % of the target's max health. The ward pays half of the damage dealt from its energy.

Thunder Stone and Molten Core wards on the same attack share the payback instead of doubling it.

Sap

Players with access feed a ward Sap from the inventory with Shift+E. While Sap burns, the ward recharges an extra 1 % of its maximum per second. One Sap lasts 60 s, and a ward holds up to 50.

Hover text

Core: Dragon Tear
Charge: 1200 / 1600 - 75%
Sap: 4 / 50 - 3m 12s
Status: Ready - Protection 100%

The status is green at full protection, orange while the ward lets damage through, and red while it holds nothing. Texts are in English and German, following the game's language.

Settings

The settings are in BepInEx/config/valheim.wardcores.cfg. With a Configuration Manager (F1), the core list is a table with a searchable item picker.

Setting	Default	What it does
Cores › List	the table above	Prefab:MaxEnergy, comma separated. Items from other mods work by their prefab name.
Cores › BuiltIn	SurtlingCore	The core every ward carries until another is installed. It must also be in the list.
Energy › RechargePercentPerSecond	1	Percent of the maximum regained per second. 0 = wards recharge only while Sap burns.
Energy › RechargeCooldownSeconds	5	How long a ward recharges slower after absorbing a hit. 0 = no slowdown.
Energy › CooldownRechargeFactor	0.25	The share of the rate kept during that time. 0 = paused, 1 = no slowdown.
Energy › ReactivateAtPercent	30	The charge at which a drained ward switches back on.
Energy › BleedBelowPercent	30	Below this charge, a ward lets part of each hit through. 0 = never.
Energy › BleedMaxPercent	50	The most a ward lets through, reached when it is empty.
Energy › DamageToEnergyFactor	1	Energy paid per point of damage absorbed.
Energy › ToolDamageFactor	1	Share of chop and pickaxe damage that counts in hits on protected pieces.
Fuel › FuelItem	Sap	The item fed with Shift+E (prefab ID). Empty turns feeding off.
Fuel › FuelRechargePercentPerSecond	1	Extra recharge while fuel burns, in percent of the maximum per second.
Fuel › FuelSecondsPerItem	60	How long one fuel item burns.
Fuel › FuelCapacity	50	How many fuel items a ward holds.
Thunder › ThunderstoneEnabled	on	Whether wards running the Thunder Stone strike back. Off: it is a plain core. Whether it is a core at all is up to the list.
Thunder › RetaliationDamageFactor	0.5	Share of the absorbed damage the strike returns. 0 = stagger only, 1 = all of it.
Thunder › FullRetaliation	on	The strike counts what every covering ward absorbed. Off: only the Thunder Stone wards' part.
Thunder › StaggerAttackers	on	Whether the strike staggers the attacker.
Fire › MoltenCoreEnabled	on	Whether wards running the Molten Core burn attackers. Off: it is a plain core.
Fire › RetaliationDamageFactor	0.5	Share of the absorbed damage that comes back as fire.
Fire › FullRetaliation	on	The burn counts what every covering ward absorbed. Off: only the Molten Core wards' part.
Fire › BurnSeconds	8	How long each attack's burn lasts; the burns of several attacks run side by side.
Fire › MaxStacks	0	The most burns one attacker carries at once; a further attack replaces the oldest. 0 = no limit.
Frost › FrostcoreEnabled	on	Whether wards running the Frostcore chill attackers. Off: it is a plain core.
Frost › SlowPercent	60	The most a chill slows, before frost resistance; Frostcore and Liquid Frost alike.
Frost › SlowStepPercent	5	How much the chill grows each second inside the radius, and thaws each second outside.
Frost › LiquidFrostEnabled	on	Whether wards running the Liquid Frost chill and freeze attackers. Off: it is a plain core.
Frost › LiquidFrostDamagePercent	1	Frost damage per second, in percent of the target's max health.
Frost › LiquidFrostEnergyPerDamage	0.5	Energy paid per point of frost damage dealt.
Debug › LogAbsorb	off	Logs every absorbed hit, splash, strike, burn, chill step and feed. Local to each player.

Multiplayer

Every player and the server need Ward Cores in the same version. The server turns away anyone else, and a player with Ward Cores can't join a server without it. The server's settings apply to everyone, and only admins on its admin list can change them in F1.

Requirements

• BepInExPack Valheim
• Conditional Config Sync by shudnal, 1.0.10 or newer
• Recommended: Configuration Manager by shudnal, for the F1 core table

Tested with Valheim 1.0.17. If the game lacks something Ward Cores needs, it logs what is missing and stays off.

To install by hand, copy WardCores.dll into BepInEx/plugins and install the requirements. Removing the mod leaves installed cores inside their wards.