TrollCompanion 0.2.8

Summon friendly trolls with the Trollstaff, keep their progress, and give them combat orders. Your companions always carry a club. Wild trolls remain unchanged.

Development release: full singleplayer, co-op, and dedicated-server testing is still in progress. Version 0.2.8 aims to make companions dominate ordinary Ashlands and Deep North enemies while keeping bosses as sustained fights. It raises default health and damage, compensates for part of ordinary enemies' resistance, and adds a separate boss damage multiplier. The release build, API checks, and 66 regression tests passed; these combat changes have not yet been tested in game. Placement checks and failure refunds from 0.2.7 remain included.

Features

• Ashlands trolls by default, with forest trolls available as an alternative.
• Native Trollstaff arrival and impact effects, without impact damage or terrain damage.
• A persistent roster for each character and world, including kill progress and current health.
• Attack-move, focus attack, hold position, follow, and recall commands.
• Configurable limits, progression, costs, combat stats, cooldowns, and protection settings.
• Early placement checks with a search for a suitable spot within 3 meters of the target.
• Optional, server-controlled refunds for confirmed technical spawn failures.
• Configurable resistance compensation against ordinary hostile creatures, with separate boss scaling.

Installation

Install the same TrollCompanion version on the server/host and every client. Client-only installation is not sufficient for multiplayer.

Dependencies:

• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351 or newer.
• Jotunn 2.30.2 or newer.

1. Stop Valheim and the server before replacing mod files.
2. Install through Thunderstore Mod Manager, or use Settings > Profile > Import local mod to import the ZIP into a test profile.
3. For a manual server installation, extract plugins/TrollCompanion.dll into the server's BepInEx/plugins/TrollCompanion folder. Keep only one copy of the plugin. When switching from a manual installation to the manager, remove the old manually copied DLL and its PDB first.
4. Start the server, then launch the client with mods enabled. Check both startup logs for Loading [TrollCompanion 0.2.8].

Keep your existing configuration and companion data when updating. The startup log still uses the message TrollCompanion geladen.

The local import package is TrollCompanion-0.2.8.zip.

Controls

Equip the Trollstaff to use these commands. Menus and text input block command hotkeys.

Input	Action
Left mouse button	Summon one available companion
Middle mouse button	Recall all your active companions
J while aiming at the ground	Move to that point, fight enemies along the way, then hold position
J while aiming at an enemy	Focus that enemy, then hold position when the order ends
H	Cancel the current order and follow you again
Right mouse button	Block as usual

Orders affect all your active companions. A new J command replaces the previous order. During attack-move, focus attack, and holding position, companions do not automatically catch up to you. H restores following and catch-up behavior.

Key bindings are configurable on each client. G remains available for Valheim's radial menu.

Default settings

Setting	Default
Companion type	Ashlands; Forest is optional
Active companion limit	2 at Blood Magic 0, 3 at 50, 4 at 100
First star	25 total eligible kills
Second star	75 total eligible kills
Maximum stars	2; configurable
Base health multiplier	10; 6000/12000/18000 maximum HP at 0/1/2 stars with default star scaling
Base club damage multiplier	6; ×6/×9/×12 at 0/1/2 stars with default star scaling
Resistance compensation	Restore 75% of damage lost to resistance against ordinary hostile creatures
Boss damage multiplier	0.5 on combat damage types, in addition to companion scaling; no resistance compensation
Blood Magic XP bonus	0.25 native skill-XP factor per eligible companion kill
Death cooldown	30 seconds at Blood Magic 0, falling linearly to 5 seconds at 100
Summoning costs	Native Trollstaff costs, with separate health and Eitr multipliers
Refund technical spawn failures	Enabled; requires confirmed failure
Command range	80 meters
Combat and pursuit radius	25 meters
Follow catch-up distance	100 meters

Both troll variants use the forest troll's base combat stats. Eligible kills belong to the companion that lands the final blow. Players, tamed animals, and other companions do not grant kill progress.

The inspected forest troll has 600 base HP. The default health multiplier of 10 and health-per-star value of 1 produce the maximum-health values above. Damage uses the verified forest troll club profiles, with a base multiplier of 6 and an additional 50% of that base per star. Existing configurations retain their saved health and damage multipliers.

Resistance compensation restores 75% of the damage that resistance would remove on ordinary body hits: a native damage coefficient of 0.5 becomes 0.875, and 0.25 becomes 0.8125. Weaknesses, immunity, ignored damage types, and special weak-spot mechanics retain their native behavior. Explicit weak-spot hits receive no resistance compensation. Creatures identified by the game as bosses also receive no compensation; their combat damage types use the additional 0.5 multiplier and their normal resistances still apply. Generic damage, chopping damage, and pickaxe damage are excluded from both target-specific rules.

The balance target still needs combat measurements. Attack reach, terrain, hit locations, time spent attacking, and flying targets can limit effectiveness.

Recall is free and preserves identity, progress, and current health. Recalled companions do not heal in storage. After a companion dies, its identity and progress remain; once the death cooldown expires, it can return at full health. Recall produces no loot, and actual death loot is disabled by default.

Companion attacks protect players, tamed animals, player structures, trees, and rocks by default. Protection settings are configurable. An axe is not included yet.

Configuration

Configuration file:

BepInEx/config/de.steve.valheim.trollcompanion.cfg

In multiplayer, gameplay settings come from the server/host. Change troll type, limits, progression, costs, stats, cooldowns, and protection there. Key bindings, messages, markers, and the optional combat log remain local.

Configuration keys currently use German names. Useful entries include:

Entry	Meaning	Default
Begleiter / Trolltyp	Companion variant	Ashlands
Begleiter / LimitNachBlutmagie	Blood Magic level and companion limit pairs	0:2,50:3,100:4
Kampf / GrundLebenMultiplikator	Multiplier applied to the common 600-HP base	10
Kampf / GrundSchadenMultiplikator	Multiplier applied to the shared club damage profile	6
Kampf / ResistenzDurchdringung	Fraction of resistance reduction restored against ordinary hostile creatures	0.75
Kampf / SchadenGegenBosseMultiplikator	Additional damage multiplier against game-identified bosses	0.5
Kosten / ErstattungBeiFehler	Refund actual paid Eitr and health after a confirmed technical spawn failure	true
Diagnose / Kampfprotokoll	Local log of actual HP changes for companion hits	false
Eingabe / Zielbefehl	Attack-move or focus command	J
Eingabe / Folgen	Follow command	H
Eingabe / Rueckruf	Recall command	Mouse2

Existing configuration values are preserved during updates. Change Trolltyp or key bindings explicitly if an older configuration still uses Forest or G. Variant changes apply on the next summon.

To adopt the new defaults on an existing server, explicitly set GrundLebenMultiplikator = 10 and GrundSchadenMultiplikator = 6 in its [Kampf] section. The new resistance and boss settings are also controlled by the server. Combat values are captured on summon and stored on the companion's network object, so changing its network owner does not change its balance. Updated settings apply on the next summon. Stored absolute health is retained, up to the new maximum; increasing maximum health does not grant free healing.

Enable [Diagnose] Kampfprotokoll = true locally when collecting combat measurements. It records actual HP changes for companion hits that reach native damage application; weapon diagnostics also identify native club profiles and damage types. Hits rejected earlier produce no entry, so a missing entry does not establish resistance. For multiplayer measurements, collect logs from the peer processing the damage.

Placement and failed casts

The same strict ground and clearance checks run before casting and before the companion appears. If the direct target is obstructed, the mod searches for a suitable nearby spot within 3 meters. The selected spot stays fixed through the casting animation, even if you move the camera. Rejected ground, water, steep slopes, and blocked space produce a specific message.

With [Kosten] ErstattungBeiFehler = true, a confirmed technical spawn failure refunds the Eitr and health actually deducted locally for that cast, once. A known local failure before sending the summon request can be refunded directly; after a request was sent, the server must confirm the failure. Early rejection before casting costs nothing. Death, recall, portal use, disconnecting, and leaving range do not qualify for refunds. A timeout alone is not confirmation of failure and does not trigger a refund. Native resource caps still apply, and a refund does not revive a dead player. Set the option to false to keep paid costs after technical failures as well.

Save data

The server/host stores companion data separately for each character and world:

BepInEx/config/TrollCompanion/worlds

Include this directory in server backups. Keep it when updating the mod.

Multiplayer troubleshooting

Since version 0.2.6, ZIP entries have a deterministic timestamp that changes with the plugin version. This addresses BepInEx reusing old cached plugin metadata after an update. Update the server/host and every client to 0.2.8, then restart them. Keep existing configuration and companion data; no reset is required.

Version 0.2.5 fixes a player-identity lookup that could leave clients at Begleiterbestand wird synchronisiert (companion roster synchronizing). Update the server and all clients together.

After connecting, check BepInEx/LogOutput.log for:

• Server: TrollCompanion-Handshake bestaetigt
• Client: erste Bestandsantwort vom Server empfangen

The first response may still report that the player's network object is arriving. If the wait persists, check the server log for TrollCompanion-Handshake wartet and its reason.

Earlier local logs show summons and a server roster response. These observations do not establish full multiplayer compatibility or validate the new 0.2.8 combat balance. In-game validation remains pending.

Changelog

See the Changelog tab on Thunderstore or CHANGELOG.md in the package for version history.