🏟️ Quad's Arena

The Arena: a stone colosseum in your world where you fight waves of monsters and champions for the crowd, for gold and for glory, or duel your friends (PvP), like the arena in the first Fable.

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✨ Features

What is in it

• The Arena builds itself: the first time the world runs with the mod, it finds flat ground near the middle of the world, clear of everyone's buildings, levels it, clears the trees and puts up a colosseum made of the game's own stone. It is marked on the map, and it is the same for everyone. It cannot be broken, and nothing of it is saved but the levelled ground.
• Arena Waystones (hammer, Misc) take you to its forecourt and back. There stands the Hall of Fame: a stone statue of the champion of each contest (the best run of the Long Road, the Champion Bout, the Endless Horde and Today's Trial in the world), with their names. The Arena Master takes your name at his desk.
• The Long Road: from the Meadows to the Ashlands, three rounds in each land (two fighters, then three, then its champion with one at its side; never more than two out at once), as far as you can get. The Arena Master holds everything you carry while you fight. You start in the plainest Meadows gear from a chest that rises in the ring, with whatever weapon the armourer hands you (a knife, an axe, a club, a spear or a bow), and keep it, building it up piece by piece: after every round a reward chest holds a free upgrade (up to the land you are in, the weakest piece first; between lands one of the next land's) and between lands the Armourer stands in the ring, selling upgrades as far as your coin goes (or another kind of weapon), fresh food and meads in the game's own trader window; the crowd throws you gear too. Fighting is hungry work: food burns faster in the ring, and the kitchen's meals are leftovers. The fighters drop coins (no loot): spend them, or walk out with them. Champions drop their trophy. Each land you beat adds its spoils to your prize (metal, hides and rarer things, far better deeper in: in full the first time you beat it each week), and you walk out with the Arena's Blessing for about a day of the world (faster health and stamina back, harder blows), stronger the further you got. You get your own things back when you come out, or when you rise again if you fall (then what you picked up is lost).
• Today's Trial: one land picked for the day, with its weapon and rules, in the arena's gear; the first time you win it each day it pays half as much again, twice the land's spoils and three each of its best meads.
• With your own gear: a Champion Bout (one champion, a head taller, as strong as its land allows) or the Endless Horde (wave after wave until you fall or take your purse), against a land your world has reached.
• Each contest costs an entry fee (your first fight is free). The arena's fighters never drop loot.
• You walk in through the main gate and the tunnel; the grate rises, then shuts behind you. The creatures come out of pens behind the grates round the ring. The floor has mounds and dips, and each land brings its own cover: ruins, pillars or stakes. Between lands a platform rises in the middle, with the reward chest on it.
• The crowd fills the stands, turns to watch you, cheers, boos, waves flags and sends a wave round the stands; the announcer calls every round, combo and champion. Their favour grows with kills, quick kills, parries, flawless rounds and close calls, and raises the prize.
• Play to the crowd: the arena's meals are leftovers (they start part spent), so the crowd's gifts matter. Their gifts sail over the bars and land on the paved border by the wall, below whoever threw them, with a glow where they came down. Excited, they throw you fresh food and small meads; roaring, the land's best food, bigger meads, arrows and bombs; ecstatic, strong meads, and now and then an upgrade for the gear you wear. Emotes in the ring please them (more with a foe close by, or just after a kill) and they answer in kind; cower and they laugh. Now and then they chant for something (a flex, a roar, a kill now, a perfect parry, not a scratch): answer in time and they go wild.
• Rules make it harder and worth more: bare fists, no food or potions, hard, and against the clock. Stake coins on yourself in a Champion Bout or a trial and a win pays them double.
• Every round you clear adds to your purse; between rounds you can take it and leave. Win and it is paid with a bonus, plus the champion's trophy and, in a Champion Bout (or every fifth wave of the Endless Horde), the land's spoils, in full for three paid wins a day. Spoils come only from lands your world has reached (else their worth in coins), so the arena never takes you past a boss. Give up mid-round, run out of time or leave the ring and you get half. Whatever you win (a duel's pot too), the Arena Master holds for you: speak to him at his desk in the forecourt to collect it. It is kept with your character, so only you can collect it, and it waits for you if you leave the game or fall first. What the fighters dropped and you did not pick up is gathered into it.
• Win a whole contest and it is a show: the crowd on its feet, fireworks over the stands, your name called, and the gate opening for you to walk out, to collect your prize from the Arena Master.
• Death is real: fall and the purse and stake are lost. You rise again in the forecourt; with your own gear, your tombstone waits for you there.
• Watch: other players climb the stairs in the arches beside the main gate to the stands (or take the waystone up), see the fight and hear the announcer, with a bar at the top of the screen of who is fighting, the round and the crowd's mood (the announcer tells the stands what happens, the fighter what to do). The main gate opens only for a fighter, and the Arena Master's guards show anyone else off the fighting floor.
• Duels: challenge another player at the Arena Master's desk, both put up a wager and walk into the ring, each taken to their own end of it; after a countdown PvP comes on for the fight (and goes back as it was after). The first to drop to a fifth of their health loses (nobody dies in a duel); the winner takes the pot less a tenth.
• In the ring the bar at the top shows the crowd, the round and a row of what you would walk out with now (coins, spoils, trophies), a gold "+" rising from whatever grows, what a win would add, and a champion's own health bar. Between rounds it says what comes next, how to start it now (the challenge emote) and how to leave (the yield key twice).
• Your titles (Pit Rat to Legend of the Arena), wins and records are kept on your character, and the Arena Master's History shows your last fights, how they ended and what they paid, beside this week's Long Road, today's paid wins and the Arena's Blessing.

Everyone in the world needs it installed (the waystone is a building piece, and everyone needs the arena to see it). Restart after installing.

Crowd sounds from OpenGameArt: "Free Crowd Cheering Sounds" by Gregor Quendel (CC-BY 4.0) and "Crowd Shouting" by StarNinjas (CC0).

📸 Screenshots

The ring: banners, torches and a full house behind the bars

The Hall of Fame: a champion in stone on their plinth

The forecourt and the Arena Master's desk

Between lands: the platform, its braziers and the reward chest

From above: the colosseum, its forecourt and gateway

🎮 How to use

Key	What it does
E at the Arena Master	Collect your prize, pick a contest (the Long Road, a Champion Bout, the Endless Horde, today's trial), duel a player, see the champions and your history
Backspace twice	In a contest: before the first round, back out (your fee and stake back); between rounds, leave with your winnings; in a round, give up for half
Challenge emote	Between rounds (or while arming): the next round starts now (ReadyKey in the settings does it too, unset by default)

🧩 Other mods

Goes well with

Companion	Bounty Board	Quiver	Dungeons	Parkour

Known clashes: none known.

For mod makers: Arena has a small read-only API, Arena.Api: whether a contest is on and who is fighting, where the arena and its stands are, and how the last contest ended, on every player's game. See arena-api.md.

Found a clash with another mod? Tell us which one and what happened.

👥 Multiplayer

Who needs it: Everyone, and the host above all: a game without the mod deletes the pieces when their area loads. Restart after installing or updating them.

The host's game picks where the Arena stands and saves it with the world: on a dedicated server, the server needs the mod or no Arena is ever placed. Each game draws the colosseum itself, so players without the mod see no Arena. A fight is shared with the players nearby (announcer, crowd, gates), so watchers see the same fight. Duels need the mod on both players' games.

The host decides: rewards, entry fee, the fighters' health and damage, whether death is real, respawning at the Arena, tiers, gifts, leftover meals and hunger in the ring. While you play on their world their values replace yours (your file isn't changed); a host without the mod leaves everyone their own.

🌍 Languages

English, Русский (Russian), Deutsch (German), 简体中文 (Chinese), Português do Brasil (Portuguese), Español (Spanish), Français (French), Polski (Polish), Türkçe (Turkish), Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese). It follows the game's own language setting.

The translations were made with AI, so a few words may be off. To correct one, or to add your language, put a file in BepInEx/config/translations/com.quad.arena/ named after the game's name for the language (German.json, Italian.json, Japanese.json...) with only the lines you change, copied from English.json (it wins over the built-in one). Or tell us the better words and we'll put them in for everyone.

⚙️ Settings

In BepInEx/config/com.quad.arena.cfg, made the first time the game runs with the mod. r2modman and Thunderstore Mod Manager edit it under Config editor.

Arena

Setting	Default	What it does
RewardPercent	100	How big the prizes are (percent). In multiplayer the server's value applies.
DeathIsReal	true	You can die in a contest. Your tombstone is carried just outside the ring for you to collect, and the purse and stake are lost. Off: beaten, you are carried out at a third of your health with half your purse. (Duels never kill.) In multiplayer the server's value applies.
EntryFeePercent	100	How much it costs to enter a contest (percent of the usual: 150 coins for the Long Road; today's trial 60, a Champion Bout 50 and the Endless Horde 40 in the Meadows, more in each land after). The first fight of a character is free. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
FoeHealthPercent	100	How much health the arena's fighters have (percent of the usual), champions too, in every contest. 200 takes twice the beating. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
FoeDamagePercent	100	How hard the arena's fighters hit (percent of the usual), champions too, in every contest. On top of the game's own difficulty. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
MaxStake	500	The most a player may stake on themselves in a Champion Bout or today's trial (coins; a win pays it double, so a high limit pays out more). The Arena Master's slider goes from nothing up to this, or what you carry. 0: no stakes. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
MaxWager	1000	The most each player may wager on a duel (coins; the winner takes both less a tenth, so nothing new is made). The slider goes up to this, or what you carry. 0: no wagers. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
RespawnAtArena	true	Fall in a contest and you rise again in the arena's forecourt (not at your bed). In multiplayer the server's value applies.
MapPin	true	The Arena is marked on your map.
AllTiers	false	Every land's fighters can be chosen in a Champion Bout or the Endless Horde at once (normally each opens as you beat the boss before it). For trying them out: the arena still pays metals and trophies only from lands your world has reached, today's trial stays among them, and what the crowd throws from a land your world has not reached is only lent (it goes back after the fight). In multiplayer the server's value applies.
YieldKey	Backspace	Press twice to leave a contest: before it begins you back out with your fee back; between rounds you walk out with your winnings; in a round you give up (at a lower rate).
ReadyKey	``	Press to end a break between rounds (or the arming) at once: the next round starts in 3 seconds. None by default: the challenge emote does it too, and Shift+E at the Armourer.

Building

Setting	Default	What it does
WaystoneCost	Wood:20, Stone:12, Flint:6, LeatherScraps:6, Resin:6	What an Arena Waystone costs to build with the hammer (at a workbench). Item prefab names and amounts, separated by commas, like FineWood:12, BronzeNails:30 (Claude Tools' prefabs <text> shows exact names). A cost with a mistake in it keeps the last good one. [Synced with Server]

Crowd

Setting	Default	What it does
Gifts	true	When the crowd likes you it throws you things now and then: food and meads, then arrows, bombs and strong meads, and (on the arena's steel) the next land's weapon, more often and better the more they love you. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
LeftoverMeals	70	On the arena's steel: how much of its time one of the kitchen's meals (yesterday's leftovers) has left once eaten, percent. 100 is a fresh meal. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
RingHunger	1.6	On the arena's steel: how many times faster food burns (fighting is hungry work), so a fresh meal lasts about a land and the crowd's gifts matter. 1 is as outside. In multiplayer the server's value applies.
Spectators	true	A crowd fills the stands during a fight.
FullHouse	30	How full the stands are during a fight (percent of the seats). Fewer is lighter on the frame rate.
Announcer	true	The announcer's calls across the top of the screen.
OwnSounds	true	Play your own crowd sounds from BepInEx/config/Arena/crowd (.ogg, .mp3 or .wav): a file named like one of the arena's (crowd_cheer...) replaces it, any other is a voice from the stands, heard now and then when the crowd cheers (see readme.txt there). Off: only the arena's own.
Volume	0.5	How loud the crowd is.

🤖 Made with AI

Made with the help of Claude (Anthropic), with Claude Code: designed, written and checked together, and tried in the game.

💬 Join us on Discord

Come hang out with the people who make and play these mods. In the Quads Lab Discord you can:

• 🛠️ Get help and report bugs straight to us
• 👀 See new mods first, and help test them before they're released
• 🗳️ Suggest ideas and vote on what we make next
• 🏰 Share your builds, bases and arena runs
• 🤖 Talk AI coding and vibe coding with people building things with AI, the way these mods are made

Join the Quads Lab Discord →

🧪 About Quads Lab

Quads Lab is where Quad H (HardHeadHackerHead) builds software with AI, of every kind: these Valheim mods are one of its projects. Each mod is designed by a player, written with Claude Code and tested in our own world, with bobisme as our tester.

• 🌐 quadslab.io
• 🧰 All Quads Lab mods on Thunderstore
• 💻 Source code on GitHub
• 💬 Discord
• ☕ Buy me a coffee
• 🐞 Found a bug? Open an issue on GitHub

☕ Support my mods

Every Quads Lab mod is free, and it stays that way. If one of them made your game better and you'd like to say thanks, a coffee helps me make new mods and keep improving the ones you already play. It's 100% optional, and always appreciated!

☕ Buy me a coffee →

📜 Recent changes

• 0.5.2 Fix: trees, rocks and bushes were left standing inside the arena. Now everything the world grew on the arena's ground is taken away (not only the kinds you can chop or mine), a big rock goes when any of it lies on the arena (not only when its middle does), and the ground is looked over again every 15 seconds while you are near. Trees around the arena stay, even where their crowns lean over the wall. Bets: the stake on yourself and a duel's wager are set with a slider at the Arena Master, from nothing up to all you carry, as far as the server allows: two new settings, MaxStake (default 500, as before) and MaxWager (default 1000, was 250), up to 100000 each; 0 turns them off.
• 0.5.1 Make the arena as brutal as you like: two new settings, FoeHealthPercent and FoeDamagePercent (Arena section, 25 to 1000, default 100), set how much health the arena's fighters have and how hard they hit, champions too, in every contest; in multiplayer the server's values apply. Your own crowd: put sound files (.ogg, .mp3 or .wav) in BepInEx/config/Arena/crowd and the stands shout them now and then when they cheer, more often the more they love you (record "Keep going, brother!" in your own language); a file named like one of the arena's sounds (crowd_cheer, crowd_ambience...) replaces it. Only you hear your own sounds; a readme.txt in that folder lists the names, and Crowd, OwnSounds turns them off. New language: Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt), with thanks to the player who translated its first lines.
• 0.5.0 A big update. Prizes: what you win waits with the Arena Master, on his Prize tab (only yours, take what you like); fewer coins, and instead each land's spoils (its metal, hides and rarer things, only from lands your world has reached): the Long Road pays a land's spoils in full the first time you beat it each week, Today's Trial on its first win of the day, a Champion Bout and every fifth wave of the Endless Horde for three paid wins a day; and the Long Road sends you out with the Arena's Blessing, stronger the further you got. Fairer fights: on the Long Road never more than two fighters out at once, smaller rounds, no flyers or elites among them, champions no stronger than their land's own big creatures, gear that keeps pace (a free upgrade after every round, cheaper upgrades, better pieces put on as you take them), kinder food; the Endless Horde climbs instead of hitting walls; players watching no longer make the fight harder. A new HUD: a panel at the top with the round, the crowd, the foes, a champion's health and your winnings as they grow, and between rounds the clock, what comes next and the keys to start now (the challenge emote) or leave. The Arena Master's window has your History, this week's record and the Blessing. Smoother: the arena's fires make no smoke and cast no shadows, the crowd's capes hang still, no more searches of everything loaded. Also: the crowd's gifts land by the wall and are cleared after the fight, the bars along the stands follow the wall, backing out before the first round gives your fee back, and the Hall of Champions scores the run, not its coins (details: docs/arena-0.5.0-notes.md on GitHub).

Every change is on the Changelog tab.