ElementalOverhaul
Fire, frost, poison, lightning and spirit status effects drawn on the creature's body instead of stacked particle clouds, with unique looks for element combos and all five at once. Client-side and fully configurable.ElementalOverhaul
Hitting something with a multi-element weapon in vanilla Valheim stacks one big particle cloud and one glow light per element on the target. With three elements it's a blur.
ElementalOverhaul replaces those clouds with effects drawn on the creature's body:
| Element | Look |
|---|---|
| Fire | The game's own flames licking off the body, charred skin, smouldering heat patches, flickering firelight |
| Frost | A cold tint, a frost crust on upward faces, fine ice cracks, slow glints, falling flakes |
| Poison | Wandering veins with pulses travelling up the body, swelling and popping bubbles, drips |
| Lightning | Jagged arcs crawling over the body in short bursts, with the creature's light flashing in sync |
| Spirit | A hollow, darkened body with a teal rim and rising wisps |
Each element uses a different part of the look (surface, glow, rim, bursts), so several at once still read clearly. Stacked elements share one brightness budget, one particle budget and one light.
Combos
Two elements together get their own effect instead of a blend. Each can be switched off in the config.
| Combo | Elements |
|---|---|
| Steam | fire + frost |
| Overload | fire + lightning |
| Toxic Burn | fire + poison |
| Ghost Fire | fire + spirit |
| Conductive Ice | frost + lightning |
| Frozen Veins | frost + poison |
| Wraith Chill | frost + spirit |
| Corrosive Sparks | lightning + poison |
| Soul Lightning | lightning + spirit |
| Blight | poison + spirit |
All five elements on one creature trigger Ragnarok: a darkened body split by fractures cycling through every element's colour, with shockwave rings rising up the body.
Configuration
Everything lives in BepInEx/config/ElementalOverhaul.cfg (or the r2modman config editor), in sections Global, Fire, Frost, Poison, Lightning, Spirit and Combos: colours, brightness, pattern sizes, speeds, particle counts and more. Changes apply in game as soon as the file is saved, no restart needed.
Useful ones:
General.Mode:Overhaul(default) orQuiet, which keeps the vanilla effects but makes them smaller. Needs a restart.General.LightMultiplier: how bright the creature's glow light is.Global.ShellCount: layers drawn just above the skin for flames, ice, haze and aura. Each one costs an extra draw of the creature; set 0 if big fights get slow.Combos.Enabled,Combos.Replace, and anEnabledswitch per combo.
Compatibility
- Purely visual and client-side. Safe in multiplayer; other players don't need it.
- Windows (DirectX 11 and Vulkan), native Linux (Vulkan), and Linux through Proton.
- macOS: the skin effects aren't available; particles and light still work.
- Draugr and Seekers have meshes the game doesn't allow emitting from, so their particles come from around the body instead of its surface.
Feedback
This is a beta. If an effect looks wrong on a particular creature or in a particular light, a screenshot helps a lot. Source and issues: https://github.com/dev-kreg/ValheimElementalOverhaul