This is an early development build intended for testing. Expect bugs, rough edges, and incomplete features. Saves should be safe, but back up your world before installing. Feedback and bug reports are greatly appreciated. You're helping shape the mod by testing it now!

Offline Companions adds persistent NPC allies to Valheim. A companion automatically spawns with you when you enter a new world for the first time. Additional companions can be purchased from Haldor's shop for 2,000 coins if the optional Trader Overhaul mod is installed, or spawned via console commands.

Companions come with their own inventory, equipment, stamina, food system, voice lines, and custom AI. They aren't pets or tames, they're teammates. Customize their appearance, gear them up with weapons and armor, feed them food for bonus stats, and command them through a radial wheel or point-and-click hotkey system. They'll fight beside you, gather resources, forage for food, manage your smelting operation, haul your cart, repair their own gear, sit by the fire with you, and sleep in beds when you tell them to.

When a companion dies, they leave behind a tombstone. They'll respawn after a short time and automatically walk to their tombstone to recover their items.

Everything persists across sessions, zone transitions, server restarts, and player deaths.

Starter Companion

A companion automatically spawns with you when you enter a new world for the first time. Each character gets one free companion per world. Disable this with the SpawnStarterCompanion config setting.

Purchase (Optional)

Install Trader Overhaul to unlock the Companions tab in Haldor's shop and recruit additional companions. Each costs 2,000 coins from your bank balance. Customize their gender, hair, beard, skin tone, and hair color in the 3D preview before confirming. This dependency is optional — the mod works fully without it.

Interact

Tap E on your companion to open their inventory panel. Manage gear, feed food, rename them. Hold E (or X on gamepad) to open the radial command wheel for quick access to all action modes and toggles.

Command

Point your crosshair at objects in the world and press the command hotkey to issue contextual orders. The companion figures out what to do based on what you're looking at.

Hold E (keyboard) or X (gamepad) on a companion to open the radial command wheel. Move the mouse or gamepad stick to highlight an option, then click or press E to select. You can select multiple options before closing. Press Escape or B to close.

The companion's name is shown in the center. Active toggles show their current ON/OFF state.

Gather modes are mutually exclusive. Selecting a gather mode switches away from the previous one. Tapping an active gather mode deselects it. Follow is an independent toggle that can be combined with any mode.

Tap E on a companion to open the inventory panel alongside the standard inventory GUI. The panel shows:

• Name field - rename your companion (persists in save)
• 5x6 inventory grid (30 slots, 300 weight capacity) - drag items in and out, view durability bars, equipped items highlighted in blue
• 3 food slots - showing active food effects and remaining duration

Companions auto-equip the best gear from their inventory: best weapon, shield, chest, legs, helmet, shoulder, and utility item. Items equip one at a time with proper animation. Broken items (0 durability) are skipped and unequipped.

Right-click an item to use/equip it. Right-click food to feed it to the companion. Drag items between your inventory and theirs using vanilla drag-and-drop.

Companions run on a custom AI system (CompanionAI) built from scratch on top of Valheim's BaseAI pathfinding. This is not a repurposed MonsterAI. It's a purpose-built AI loop designed specifically for companion behavior.

Follow & Formation

When following you, each companion is assigned a formation slot. Multiple companions spread out around you instead of stacking on top of each other. When far away (>15m), they sprint straight to you; when close, they maintain formation offset. They use vanilla pathfinding and navigation mesh for movement.

Target Management

Companions scan for enemies every 2-6 seconds depending on distance from you. Once they lock onto a target, they commit and won't bounce between enemies. A directed target from the command hotkey locks for 10 seconds. In gather modes, targeting is suppressed unless an enemy enters self-defense range (10m).

Sleep & Wake

Companions support Valheim's sleep/wake RPC system. They can be directed to sleep in beds and will wake automatically when enemies approach.

Stuck Detection

Built-in stuck detection nudges companions clear of furniture colliders, beds, and chairs that block pathfinding. Door handling detects when a companion is stuck behind a closed door and automatically opens, passes through, and closes it.

Stay Home Patrol

When Stay Home is active, the AI switches from following you to patrolling the home position. Combined with gather modes, they'll autonomously harvest resources near home without you being present.

Companions use a defensive-first combat system. They actively scan for incoming threats and react before attacking.

Melee Combat

• Threat detection - scans nearby enemies for attack animations and incoming projectiles
• Shield blocking - raises shield when threats are active, holds block through the attack
• Perfect parry - every timed block is a perfect parry (block timer reset on impact)
• Counter-attacks - drops shield and strikes immediately after blocking
• Power attacks - delivers a heavy attack when an enemy is staggered (3s cooldown)
• Dodge - sidesteps perpendicular to incoming attacks when stamina allows

Ranged Combat

• Equips a bow when the target is beyond 20m, switches back to melee under 12m
• Arrows are aimed at the target's center mass with velocity leading (aims ahead of moving targets) and gravity compensation (aims higher for arrow drop)

Combat Behavior

• Retreats when health drops below 30% or stamina below 15%
• Re-engages after recovering above 50% health and 30% stamina
• Retreat distance is 12m from the target
• Tools and pickaxes are never used in combat. Auto-equip forces a switch to a proper weapon

Stamina System

Companions have their own stamina pool (base 25 + food bonus) with regeneration. Stamina is consumed by attacks, blocking, running, and swimming. When stamina hits zero, attacks fail and blocks don't hold.

The radial menu has an inner ring with four combat stances that control how companions fight. Move the mouse closer to the center of the radial wheel to select a stance. The active stance is highlighted and persists across sessions.

Stances affect all combat parameters: target acquisition, retreat thresholds, dodge timing, block behavior, power attack cooldowns, flanking distance, and formation spacing.

Set a companion to Gather Wood, Gather Stone, Gather Ore, or Forage via the radial wheel or directed command. They'll autonomously find, walk to, and harvest nearby resources.

Gather Behavior

• Wood - chops trees, fallen logs, and stumps. Prioritizes fallen logs and stumps over standing trees (3x distance penalty on standing trees).
• Stone - mines rock formations (MineRock, MineRock5).
• Ore - mines ore deposits (pickaxe-vulnerable destructibles that are chop-immune).
• Forage - walks to and picks berry bushes, mushrooms, flowers, dandelions, branches, and stones. No tool required.

Smart Tool Use

The companion automatically equips the best matching tool from their inventory. Axe for wood, pickaxe for stone and ore. The tool stays equipped until gathering stops.

Drop Collection

After destroying a resource, the companion scans within 8m for item drops and picks them all up before moving to the next target.

Overweight

Gathering stops automatically at 298/300 weight. The companion reverts to Follow mode and announces they're overweight.

Self-Defense

If an enemy enters within 10m during gathering, the companion pauses to fight, then resumes gathering once the threat is gone.

Point at a specific tree, rock, or ore node and press the command hotkey to direct the companion straight to it.

Set a companion to Smelt via the radial wheel and they'll autonomously manage nearby kilns and furnaces. Place them near your smelting setup with chests of ore and fuel, and they'll handle the rest.

How It Works

The companion continuously scans for smelters within 25m and keeps them running:

1. Refill kilns first (they produce charcoal for furnaces)
2. Refill furnaces with smart priority: ore first when fuel is adequate, fuel when critically low
3. Collect smelted output (bars, coal) from ground drops and queued output
4. Deposit output into nearby chests with available space

Smart Behavior

• Inventory-first: if the companion already has fuel or ore in their inventory, they go straight to the smelter instead of visiting a chest
• Chest animations: opening and closing chests plays the proper animation and sound effects
• Smelter effects: inserting fuel or ore plays the smelter's sound effects and feeding animation
• Correct positioning: the AI navigates to the correct interaction side of each smelter (fuel side, ore side, output side)
• Carry limits: up to 20 ore or 40 fuel per trip to prevent overweighting

Combine with Stay Home

Set Stay Home + Smelt and the companion will manage your smelting operation autonomously near their home position. Perfect for unattended base smelting while you're out exploring.

Companions will pause smelting to fight any enemies that enter self-defense range, then resume when the threat is gone.

Point your crosshair at objects in the world and press the command hotkey to issue contextual orders. All owned commandable companions receive the command simultaneously.

Long press the command hotkey (0.4s) to recall all companions. Cancels everything and restores follow mode. They'll say "Coming!" and head straight to you.

The command hotkey must be configured in the BepInEx config file. Works on both keyboard and gamepad.

Toggle Stay Home in the radial to anchor a companion near their home position. Use Set Home to mark where they should stay. They'll patrol within range instead of following you.

Combine Stay Home + Gather mode and they'll harvest resources near home autonomously. When their inventory fills up (298 weight), direct them to a chest and they'll walk over and deposit everything except equipped gear, food, and weapons, then go right back to gathering.

Toggle Wander to control patrol range:

• Wander ON - roams up to 50m around home
• Wander OFF - stays exactly at the home point

Perfect for base-side wood farms and mining outposts. Set them up and leave.

Companions periodically scan their equipped gear. When any item drops below 50% durability, they'll walk to the nearest compatible crafting station (workbench, forge, etc.) and repair everything they can.

Point at a specific crafting station and press the command hotkey to direct them there immediately, regardless of durability threshold.

Companions have three food slots that work exactly like player food. Same bonuses, same burn timers, same front-loaded curve.

• Base health: 25 HP + food bonus
• Base stamina: 25 + food bonus
• Food provides health regen, stamina regen, and Eitr bonuses
• Companions auto-consume food from their inventory when a slot is empty
• Meads are used automatically - health meads when below 50% HP, stamina meads when below 25% stamina (10s cooldown)
• Status effects from food and meads are applied on consumption

Feed food by right-clicking consumables in the companion's inventory, or let auto-consume handle it. They'll speak up when hungry.

Companion gear works like player gear:

• Weapons lose durability on every attack. When broken, they're unequipped automatically.
• Armor absorbs damage and loses durability when hit. Full vanilla armor reduction formula applies.
• Durability bars appear on inventory slots and overhead when looking at the companion.
• Broken items are skipped by auto-equip and must be repaired at a crafting station.

Companions detect when they're stuck behind a closed door and automatically open it, walk through, and close it behind them. They also proactively scan for doors when circling a building trying to reach you.

Respects ward protection and locked doors. Companions won't open doors they shouldn't.

You can also point at a door and press the command hotkey to tell them to open it directly.

Campfire Sitting

When you sit by a burning campfire (using the sit emote), nearby companions in Follow mode will join you. They walk to the fire and sit down facing it. They'll stand up if you do, if enemies appear, or if the fire goes out.

Point at a fireplace and press the command hotkey to explicitly tell them to sit.

Bed Sleeping

Point at a bed and press the command hotkey to tell companions to sleep. They'll walk to the bed, lie down, and stay asleep until you wake them (same command again) or enemies appear.

Resting Benefits

While sitting or sleeping, companions heal 2 HP/sec and their stamina regeneration is doubled.

Companions have context-aware speech that triggers every 20-40 seconds, with a 5-second cooldown between lines. Speech can be overhead text, voice audio, or both, configured independently per gender.

Voice Audio

Male voice audio clips are included with the mod and play automatically. Place additional or custom MP3 files in Audio/MaleCompanion/{Category}/ and Audio/FemaleCompanion/{Category}/ alongside the plugin DLL. Categories: Action, Combat, Follow, Forage, Gather, Hungry, Idle, Overweight, Repair, Smelt. If a female voice pack is missing clips for a category, male clips are used as fallback.

Speech Lines

Text lines are loaded from speech.json (auto-generated on first run). Edit this file to customize what companions say. Lines are shared across all companions regardless of gender.

Config Options

Each directed command type (attack, sit, sleep, repair, deposit, etc.) also triggers its own immediate speech line.

When looking at a companion, the vanilla enemy HUD is extended with extra stat bars below the health bar:

• Yellow bar - current stamina
• Brown bar - current inventory weight (percentage of 300 max carry weight)

The weight bar fills as the companion's inventory gets heavier, giving you an at-a-glance indicator of when they're getting full. This lets you check a companion's status from a distance without opening their inventory.

Everything about a companion is stored in ZDO and persists across:

• Game sessions and server restarts
• Zone transitions and area loading
• Player deaths and respawns

Saved state includes: appearance, name, inventory, equipment, action mode, home position, all toggle states, food timers, and ownership. Follow targets are automatically restored after player respawn.

1. Install BepInEx for Valheim
2. Download the latest release from Releases
3. Extract to BepInEx/plugins/Companions/
4. (Optional) Install Trader Overhaul to purchase additional companions from Haldor's shop
5. Launch the game

• Trader Overhaul is optional. If installed, the Companions tab is injected into its custom trader UI for purchasing additional companions
• Companions use a custom HC_Companion prefab registered at startup
• Other NPC / follower mods should be compatible unless they patch BaseAI broadly
• Multiplayer: companions are owned by the spawning player via ZDO ownership. Other players cannot interact with companions they don't own

Built on BepInEx and Harmony
Optionally integrates with Trader Overhaul for trader UI