Nornforged

Every craft has a fate. Make the next one yours.

248 perks · Permanent item rolls · Reforge & salvage · Perk-driven equipment VFX

Nornforged gives newly crafted weapons, tools and wearable equipment their own Fateprint: saved perks, strengths and rarity. A modest item can land an exceptional perk. A rare item still has to earn its place in your build.

By RYN · Version 0.4.5 · Early access · Prepared for local release testing

What's new · Start playing · Updates · Help

New in 0.4.5

Know your weapon. 47 new specializations make each weapon family more distinct: extend a sword thrust, improve partial-draw arrows, build a dual-axe combo, strengthen a protective shield or gain control over a harpoon line.

Every addition checks for the native action it changes. Gear Score now understands the new mechanics, and older direct-damage perks correctly leave damage over time alone. Existing rolls and rarity odds stay unchanged.

See PERK-EXPANSION-0.4.5.md for the full list and RELEASE-VERIFICATION-0.4.5.md for tested scope. The package is prepared locally and has not been publicly uploaded.

Equipment effects

Let your perks show. Authored fire, frost, lightning, poison and spirit effects follow the original equipment models, combining surface effects with restrained particles on weapons and moving armor regions.

The effect comes from perk strength, not rarity or perk count. An excellent fire perk can awaken a simple axe; high rarity alone never adds a glow. Choose your intensity locally, or use reduced effects.

The inherited 0.4.3 effects include Windows and Linux shader bundles. Linux rendering still needs in-game validation, and the previous candidate's outstanding visual and multiplayer review limits remain.

One item. A new fate.

Craft it. Each eligible new craft rolls independently, from penalties to twelve perks. Repairs, upgrades, storage and trading preserve the result. Existing equipment stays Unrated until deliberately reforged.

Reforge it. Open the native Reforge tab beside Craft and Upgrade. Drag in an unequipped item, review the cost and press the raven-and-hammer Roll button. Discover perks one at a time as the icon and Gear Score change together. Show all skips the reveal.

Keep the upgrades. Rolling immediately replaces the entire fate and can make the item worse. Quality, crafter and durability percentage stay; the old fate cannot be kept. Drag an idle item back or choose Clear item to return it.

Use ordinary materials. Reforge costs 75.00% of quality-1 base materials, combined and rounded up per ingredient. Equipment ingredients become their underlying materials. Optional AzuCraftyBoxes support draws from accessible nearby native chests after your inventory. No extra currency or station.

Salvage carefully. Preview the refund, then confirm permanent removal. The default return is 20.00% of recoverable base ingredients, rounded down. Upgrades and rarity do not increase it.

Know your equipment

One perk per row. Hover for mechanics, quality and saved odds. Hold Shift to compare equipped gear; press F6 for the full inspector.
Gear Score with a foundation. Progression, upgrades and practical perk values determine the score. Rarity alone adds nothing. See item scores on hover and your equipped total with the inventory.
Readable odds. A perk's Drop value means the chance of that quality or better after receiving that perk. Rarity chance is separate.
Useful placement. Sustained bonuses such as carry capacity roll on worn gear. Existing saved perks remain unchanged.
Optional damage ledger. Press F9 for damage and perk contributions. Its HUD meter hides while interactive windows are open.

Start playing

Install through your mod manager with BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350+ and Jötunn 2.30.0+. Tested with Valheim 1.0.16.
Launch the modded game and craft equipment at an ordinary station, or finish an equipment cast in the Frost Foundry.
Hover your new item to discover its fate. Unequip it and visit its required usable station when you want to Reforge.

For manual installation, place both included DLLs in BepInEx/plugins/Nornforged/. Configuration is created on first launch.

Multiplayer and updates

Close the game/server before updating. Use the same 0.4.5 package and dependencies on the server and every client. Gameplay settings come from the server; visual, sound and interface preferences remain local.

Back up saves, BepInEx/NornforgedData/ and BepInEx/NornforgedBackups/, and preserve customized config. From 0.2.9 or earlier, also retain BepInEx/config/Nornforged/authority/ for migration. Follow the included update guide before changing an established world.

Guides and help

The download includes CHANGELOG.md and docs/Nornforged/: FORGE.md, PERKS.md, GEAR-SCORE.md, COMPARISON.md, VISUALS.md and UPDATE-RECOVERY.md. These cover mechanics, settings, compatibility and recovery. Never delete saved authority data to repair an item; include BepInEx/LogOutput.log with bug reports.

Thank you, MrReeD, for reporting the Frost Foundry issue and the earlier Berserkir Axes material and shield-style recipe issues, and everyone helping test Nornforged.

Original mod and artwork: MIT license. Valheim and dependencies retain their respective licenses.