Nornforged — Fate at the Forge

Every successfully crafted piece of equipment receives its own permanent Fateprint: either normal Default equipment with no perks, or a rarity with compatible perks and independently rolled strengths. Craft with the ordinary interface and materials. No extra stations, currencies, rerolls or recipes are added.

Version 0.2.3 — Weapon surface glow targets the installed Valheim 1.0.15, BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350 (BepInEx assembly 5.4.23.5), HarmonyX 2.9.0.0 and Unity 6000.0.75f1. The current profile uses Jötunn 2.30.1; the declared minimum remains 2.30.0. Weapon effects from +6 now follow the actual native mesh in the hand, on the back and on the ground. Hover tooltips use compact descriptions with saved Perk Quality Scores. Armor auras, saved Fateprints, 201 perks and the corrected 0.2.2 rarity curve remain unchanged. See TESTING.md for executable evidence and remaining gameplay checks.

Install

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350 and Jötunn 2.30.1 in the game or mod-manager profile. Nornforged does not bundle those dependencies. See Jötunn's official project.
2. Close the game. Extract the release ZIP's BepInEx directory into that same game/profile directory. The two DLLs belong in BepInEx/plugins/Nornforged/.
3. For a new installation, copy the included BepInEx/config/Nornforged/gameplay.json. For an update, keep your existing configuration and authority directory. Exact, untouched 0.1.0, 0.2.0 and 0.2.1 gameplay defaults upgrade automatically with an atomic backup. Customized gameplay files are preserved; to apply this correction manually, set Common/Uncommon/Rare weights to 2500/1500/660 and ensure the full table totals 10,000. See CONFIGURATION.md. Missing configuration files are generated on startup.
4. Start through your mod manager or BepInEx-enabled game launcher. Open an ordinary crafting station and craft new equipment. Existing equipment remains Unrated.

For local single-player, the local host generates and signs the outcomes. For hosted multiplayer or a dedicated server, install the exact same Nornforged version and dependencies on the server and every client. Only the host/server gameplay configuration is used; clients receive it during the handshake. Client visual settings remain local. Do not copy the server's private authority key to clients.

Keep backups of the character, world, and BepInEx/config/Nornforged/authority/ together. The authority directory contains the signing key, configuration snapshots and committed receipts. Moving a server requires moving that directory too. A Fateprint from another signing authority is preserved but inactive; returning to its original authority restores it. See transaction and trust boundaries.

Play

• Craft a new weapon, tool, shield, armor piece, cape or supported accessory to roll its fate. Craftable fishing rods and mod-added equipment are supported when their recipes and capabilities qualify.
• Positive rarity rank equals perk count. Negative rank magnitude equals penalty count. A Worthless item still works and is never destroyed by its roll.
• 35% of new outcomes are normal Default items with zero perks, unchanged native stats, no added icon border or background and no special reveal/drop sound. This result is permanent through upgrades and recovery.
• Every non-Default rarity, including negative ranks, adds a rarity-colored icon border. Inventory icons show no perk counts or rank-number badges. Epic (+6) through Legendary (+8) add a static colored background; Mythic (+9) and above animate it. Transcendent (+12) adds its own aurora, four corner runes and four orbiting sparks.
• Transcendent has a 0.1% chance per eligible craft, with nine Standard and three randomly selected Ultra perks. There is no pity counter or guaranteed 1,000th craft.
• Strength is a separate roll for every numerical parameter. Common can have an excellent value; Transcendent can have modest values. Selected uncapped percentages gain wider maximum ranges at +9 / +10 / +11 / +12: 1.5× / 2× / 2.5× / 3× their ordinary maximum. Chances, cooldowns and bounded mechanics keep their limits.
• Upgrades, repair, trading and storage retain the original outcome. Percentage effects use the newly upgraded native baseline.
• Hover an item to read each perk in one compact paragraph: a colored bold name, neutral effect text and a subdued PQS percentage. Name colors are teal Standard, lilac Special, gold Ultra and rose penalties. PQS means Perk Quality Score, the arithmetic mean of that perk's independently saved parameter scores; it is not a probability or an estimate of total item power. Higher penalty PQS means greater severity. Press F6 while hovering inventory equipment for detailed triggers, exact parameter values, individual scores, current ranges, stacking rules and caps. Close with F6, Escape or Close. The panel keeps twelve-perk results readable without shrinking the text.
• The small DMG / SEC and TOTAL DMG meter keeps a rolling five-minute history, including idle time. Press F9 for per-perk totals and local window/display settings. The native character inventory also has a combat record panel. Drag the meter header while your cursor is free (inventory or F9 open); the guide, damage ledger and F6 window also have draggable titles. Positions are saved locally and kept within the screen.
• Normal damage numbers remain and display three decimals. Additional colored labels show each perk's included contribution: fire red, frost blue, poison green, lightning violet and spirit pale gold. They do not inflict or count extra damage. Damage-over-time is recorded when its ticks land; overkill counts only actual health removed. Shared mitigation is attributed proportionally.
• First world entry after an update opens a native-font early-access guide with compact rarity chances, tips and Developed by RYN. Reopen it with nornforged welcome.
• With Freyr's Garden, hold Left Shift while planting for a validated 3×3 layout. All nine positions and all nine seed costs must be valid; normal planting remains available without Shift.

The complete 201-perk catalog includes the rarity table, ranges and compatible-pool counts. Tools draw from deliberate work-oriented pools: hammers repair/build, hoes shape terrain, cultivators grow plants and fishing rods improve fishing. Combat-only effects are excluded from these tools. Wider independent rolls allow exceptional Ultra outcomes without a pity counter. EFFECTS.md defines actual triggers, baselines, exclusions and safeguards.

Your current mod profile

The current six-package profile contains Nornforged, Jotunn 2.30.1, AzuExtendedPlayerInventory 2.5.1, AzuAutoStore 3.1.6, AzuCraftyBoxes 1.8.22 and BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350. The inspected live profile has Nornforged 0.2.2; isolated candidate tests substitute 0.2.3 without changing it. EpicLoot and ImpactfulSkills are absent. Their optional adapters remain dormant; the old ingredient-quality/container-pulling conflict guard does not restrict this profile. See the current exact versions, hashes and test scope.

Azu equipment auto-equip and extra-slot recovery, AutoStore metadata preservation and native container-fed crafting remain supported. Fate-bearing equipment stays individual; pending outputs temporarily stay out of automatic transfers until their receipt arrives. The original larger modpack's audit is historical evidence only, not a claim about its later updated versions.

New rarity and strength curve

Default is 35%; Common +1 is 25%; Uncommon +2 is 15%; Rare +3 is 6.6%; +4 is 3%; +5 1.5%; +6 0.75%; +7 0.4%; +8 0.2%; +9 0.18%; +10 0.15%; +11 0.12%; +12 0.1%. The six negative ranks together retain 12%. The full table totals exactly 100%, with each positive rank less likely than the previous one. Each eligible craft rolls independently. These are crafting outcomes, not additional monster-loot drops.

Numerical strength is separate: 80% of rolls fall in the bottom 10% of the possible range, and the top 5% has only a 0.02% chance. Uncapped percentage bonuses have much higher potential maxima, while probabilities, cost reductions and other bounded mechanics retain meaningful limits. See the balance report in the documentation. Existing rolled values and already-prepared crafting transactions retain their original results.

Repairing a pending item from 0.1.0

The auto-equip fix follows the output through supported inventory movement and ItemData.Clone, including equipped references. It no longer requires a finished output to remain in the main inventory. Newly completed crafts retain a durable completion marker and retry their original receipt.

For an older item already stuck on Fateprint pending, keep it on its original character and authority, then use Recover pending items in the welcome guide or nornforged recover in the console. Recovery reuses the prepared transaction and its saved configuration; it never rerolls a completed Fateprint. Explicitly aborted new crafts are excluded. A missing original authority receipt cannot be recreated safely. Custom equipment mods that bypass every native inventory and equip path still need a combined-session test.

Configure and diagnose

Edit BepInEx/config/Nornforged/gameplay.json on the host/server while it is stopped, then restart. Rarity tables, strength bands, weights, ranges, extra exclusions, caps and item overrides are data-driven. Invalid tables are rejected, not normalized. Changes affect future rolls; stored values remain unchanged. Current execution caps still apply. See CONFIGURATION.md for examples and the distinction between permanent values and live policy.

Local settings are in BepInEx/config/rinor.nornforged.cfg: visual intensity, armor particles, reduced effects, animated inventory backgrounds, rarity sound volume, damage window (10–1800 seconds), HUD scale/position/refresh, perk-number lifetime/size and the first-entry guide. Weapon surface glow emits no added particles or trails; reduced mode freezes its animation. F9 offers common window presets and display toggles. The built-in console can be enabled with Valheim's -console launch option; press F5 and use:

nornforged status
nornforged inspect
nornforged validate
nornforged simulate 1000000
nornforged damage
nornforged welcome
nornforged recover

These inspect outcomes, open local panels, run an isolated rarity simulation or recover an existing pending transaction. They never grant new equipment or reroll a completed outcome. validate also checks all currently loaded eligible recipe pools. Consult BepInEx/LogOutput.log for rejected configuration, receipt or metadata diagnostics.

Build from source

Install the .NET 8 SDK or newer and the target game/dependencies above. Copy Local.Build.props.example to Local.Build.props, then set ValheimDir, BepInExDir and JotunnDir to your installation. Do not commit this machine-specific file or redistribute game assemblies.

./scripts/Build-Nornforged.ps1

This builds Release, runs core, crafting and damage-telemetry tests, checks Harmony signatures against the installed assemblies, and creates Nornforged-0.2.3.zip and Nornforged-0.2.3-source.zip in dist/, with Nornforged-0.2.3-SHA256.txt. -Dotnet 'C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe' selects an SDK explicitly. -SkipTests skips the automated suites only. The optional separate real-Unity startup test launches an isolated hidden game process and exits after its checks:

./scripts/Start-NornforgedSmoke.ps1 -Dotnet 'C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe'
# Optional real Unity camera renders of weapon surfaces, armor profiles and UI:
./scripts/Start-NornforgedSmoke.ps1 -Dotnet 'C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe' -RenderPreview
# Optional isolated copy of the supplied mod-manager profile:
./scripts/Start-NornforgedSmoke.ps1 -ModProfile '<profile path>' -RenderPreview

The smoke script requires a local Windows Valheim installation with Doorstop. It uses fresh test configuration/save directories under .local/ and does not alter an existing game/profile. Its test-only plugin is excluded from release ZIPs. This is a menu/startup and native-API test, not an automated playthrough.

Source modules and data contracts are documented in ARCHITECTURE.md. The original request is retained in PRODUCT-SPEC.md. Existing VikingChronicle workspace files are separate from this mod and are not packaged.

Visuals and licensing

World rarity effects begin at Epic (+6). Weapons and bows receive an unlit glow on their actual native mesh, with increasingly vivid surface patterns through +12: runic facets, forge lattice, stellar facets and prismatic aurora at +9–12. The same saved style follows native hand, back and ground models. Saved elemental perks determine the palette: frost shines icy blue, and fire plus frost creates a gradient with both colors. Actual saved percentages determine intensity; future roll ranges do not recolor existing outcomes. Armor keeps its original bounded flames, ribbons and coordinated set motif. Inventory borders and backgrounds retain rarity colors: backgrounds begin at +6, animate from +9, and gain a distinct aurora, corner runes and orbiting sparks at +12. Original tiered chimes accompany a new Fateprint reveal and an actual drop; loading saved ground items stays silent.

Weapon overlays retain native geometry, UVs and skinned poses and emit no particles. Unreadable or over-budget meshes retain the same geometry with a uniform pulse. Dedicated head, chest, leg, cape and accessory anchors support texture-only armor. Multiple visible pieces share an elemental palette and timing while retaining their own rank and strength. Native materials, lights and effects remain intact. Reduced mode freezes weapon animation and simplifies armor indicators. No external texture, sound recording or asset bundle is shipped. See VISUALS.md and DAMAGE-TELEMETRY.md. The package icon is original procedural artwork; regenerate it with scripts/New-NornforgedIcon.ps1.

Nornforged source and its original artwork are MIT licensed; see LICENSE. Valheim, Unity, BepInEx, Harmony, Jötunn and Newtonsoft.Json are independent dependencies with their own licenses. Their binaries are not redistributed here. No other mod's code or art is incorporated.

Uninstall

Close the game/server and remove BepInEx/plugins/Nornforged/. Keep the configuration/authority backup so a future reinstall can verify the same items. Base equipment remains ordinary equipment while the mod is absent; do not rely on another mod or save editor preserving unknown custom data. Remove configuration files only if you intentionally want to discard those backups. All players and the server must change the installed mod set together.

Read known limitations before deploying to an established shared world. Current evidence is in TESTING.md and the machine-readable text reports beside it.