EpicLoot Progression Fix

An opinionated add-on for EpicLoot, with balance changes and fixes intended to make Valheim less grindy, more engaging and more difficult than the default configuration. It combines crafting-based progression, tougher encounters, combat changes and practical improvements to equipment, inventory and building.

Built for original EpicLoot 0.14.13 and Valheim 1.0.20. EpicLoot’s original DLL and assets stay intact.

Terrain paint and vegetation-clearing modifiers use the game's texture-only refresh when loading and unloading, avoiding redundant terrain mesh rebuilds. Height changes and creature simulation keep their existing behavior.

Installation

Install the same add-on version on the server and every client. The three required packages are BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351, Jotunn 2.30.2 and EpicLoot 0.14.13; a package manager also installs their dependencies, including JsonDotNET. No optional mod is required for the add-on to initialize.

Optional integrations accept the exact plugin versions below. An absent integration omits its related features. An installed unsupported version can prevent the whole gameplay patch set from initializing; optional does not mean any version is supported. Look for Gameplay patches failed in BepInEx/LogOutput.log: version errors name the mod, required version and installed version. Correct the installation before playing.

Balance and everyday play

• Flat health, stamina and eitr bonuses enter before their multipliers. Conversions use each source’s modified pool before conversions, without circular feedback, then receive the destination’s modifiers once. Eitr conversions still need an existing eitr pool.
• Regeneration bonuses and penalties add together, with one zero floor. Bulk has no health cap and applies its full matching regeneration penalty; positive bonuses can offset Bulk, Freezing, Puke and Berserker. Fixed equipment restoration uses the corresponding final factor once; percentage restoration keeps its own calculation. Natural recovery timing and activity restrictions remain separate.
• Flat carry bonuses, belts and skill contributions receive nighttime and heavy-gear percentages before Travel Light and the world multiplier. Duelist’s block contribution receives block percentages before native Blocking skill and parry scaling. Inspiration receives ordinary XP modifiers once and retains its level-up limit without recursive procs.
• Shields have stronger block stats and parries, players can withstand more stagger, and the default player parry window is 0.375 seconds. Block can cancel an attack’s windup or recovery without creating faster attacks or refunding costs already paid. Air Jump handles landing, low steps and recovery from water; free jumps need no reserve.
• Melee swings, projectile splash and eligible area attacks award skill experience per distinct target. Crafting awards it per completed craft. Thrown tools retain their harvesting tier, swings work from ship decks, and ranged hits stop counting destroyed barriers or dead targets.
• Tames do not damage player buildings or trample crops. Hungry tames search 30 meters for food, fed tames regenerate faster, and breeding ranges are wider. Bird nests no longer retaliate like beehives.
• Mistwalker uses dragon tears instead of wisps. Refinement recipes use the correct idols, with readable gear lists and odds. Smelting can require the appropriate boss defeats. Intricate Keys and compatible etched runes stack; long quantities fit their inventory cells.
• Comfort reaches 20 meters by default. Only bed sleepers receive the skipped-night Rested buff. Lasting consumables can be refreshed near expiry, while recovery-mead cooldowns remain separate. Dropped items last three world-hours by default.
• Fires remain visible through their loaded range, and actual flames draw clearly through mist. Mist-clearing weapons use Better Wisps when installed. Ship and land camera limits, snow-lantern light, floating-ice collision damage and creature ownership/loading ranges are configurable.
• Carts gain health from their builder’s crafting skill. Ctrl-removal dismantles vehicles with their materials and cargo. Ore support follows connected sections; grounded construction avoids redundant support checks. Northern grave recovery is deliberately limited to identifiable, unmixed original spills.
• Creature spawning, ownership and object loading cover a wider useful area while preserving saved objects and personal graphics preferences. Distant ice supports creatures, renewable plants resume overdue growth, and diving Leviathans remain visible through the loaded range.

EpicLoot fixes and improvements

Progression, loot and encounters

• Crafting history gates enchanted equipment progression, including unidentified equipment, purchased treasure and the player granted access to a location chest. Hovering or loading a chest does not roll its loot. Existing opened chests keep their contents.
• Bounties complete on the main target, retain species-appropriate equipment, and offer improved placement and Andvaranaut guidance. Bounty targets keep their boss display and overhead health bar.
• Riches, fractional Luck and Lucky Loot use the shared equipment-bonus radius. Equipment changes update loot contributions promptly. Lucky Loot preserves protected native equipment quantities and stays within its material budget; configurable character exclusions can prevent oozer loot multiplication.
• Creature rarity ceilings and high-rarity equipment shares are configurable. Boss rewards, unidentified items, equipment and materials retain their applicable progression rules.

Equipment, runes and shardstones

• With Show Enchant Selection Chance enabled, Augment shows the chance of an affix appearing at least once in the offered choices at the current table level, with keep-original at 100% and a separate fresh-roll chance. Duplicate retries, fixed-effect removal and early stopping are included. Percentages are correctly rounded or shown as a bounded range under uniform random draws; numeric improvement is a different event. The original roller is unchanged. New-choice probabilities require the verified Windows x64 Unity 6000.0.75f1 binary; other builds retain the list with an unavailable message.
• Conflicting affixes, runes and shardstones are checked consistently in socketing, swaps, augments and etching. Replacing an effect evaluates what remains. Compatible stones stay; incompatible stones return when an augment requires it. Existing saved gear repairs on load without rerolling affixes or duplicating returns.
• A socketed Indestructible rune may temporarily override a durability affix; removing it restores durability use. Combat wear respects protected armor. Recall retains the original weapon through death and ownership changes, and waiting for its return no longer triggers an empty-handed kick.
• Rune extraction preserves numeric power and remembers previously applied extraction bonuses. Matching runes stack with their metadata; fixed-effect runes use their useful tier. Rune labels show effect, strength and quantity.
• Socket columns and favorites survive reopening and saving. Ctrl-click, drag swaps and numbered socket shortcuts handle full bags and compatible stacks. An open socket panel uses its current contents when checking compatibility.
• Shardstone tooltips show fixed socket values without hiding legitimate enchantment or rune ranges. Harvesting stones retain fractional contributions, which combine before rounding down to extra rolls. Calculated ranged-skill bonuses appear once.

Combat effects and displays

• Armor bonuses combine across worn gear. Blocking is applied after armor, and block, parry, resistance, critical-health and resource displays follow the effective gameplay calculations.
• Ammo Conservation rolls per projectile; cancelled queued bow releases keep ammunition. Ammunition tooltips are consistent across inventory, storage and crafting. A single three-kill bow release can play the triple-kill cue.
• Summoned bats pursue valid targets and assist their owner. Corpse Rot and other hit/kill effects retain attribution across poison, burning, spirit, lightning, summons and remote creature ownership. Each death is credited once.
• Fire-rate effects, noise reduction, ranged-skill bonuses, mead effects, harvesting and stagger duration follow their intended calculations. Bloodletting payments no longer flash like incoming damage. Broken fuling-shaman shields stop blocking later hits immediately.
• The raven book opens on a live Active effects page, with resources, regeneration, armor, block, movement, skills, current equipment effects and timers. Shift details explain sets and conditional effects. Table lists retain scroll position, result windows close predictably, and previews show each value’s own change.
• Health bars, taming progress and damage text remain useful at longer ranges. Terrain and real dungeon barriers still obstruct bars; nearby alerted attackers remain identifiable. Skill notices have their own row beside pickup messages.

StarLevelSystem integration

• Existing star chances, size limits and nova damage remain consistent with native world modifiers. Bounty creatures use ordinary scaling; seals retain their natural coloration. SoulEater’s damage growth has a configurable cap.
• Boss stars depend on the summoner’s personal boss kills and survive multi-phase transitions. Nemesis minibosses reach their player without reconnecting. Hunting packs use shuffled biome decks and mark their spawned offspring, including multiplied and splitting creatures.
• Ashlands and Deep North creatures retain the intended sight, pursuit and combat pressure. Creature stat commands require authenticated server administration; ownership relays preserve native authority.
• Interior resets leave dungeon exteriors, belongings and occupied interiors intact. Timers start on actual entry and include server downtime. Morkhalla’s saved Malicious Ice and the Jotun invasion remain untouched. Unknown saved prefab identities stop only the affected reset and are reported clearly.
• Placed dungeon enemies return with the interior reset; active nests and other spawners continue normally. This pack configures weekly resets and its dungeon list. Without StarLevelSystem, the reset integration is inactive.

Crafting and storage integrations

• AAA_Crafting gets consistent amount resets, recipe-change cancellation, favorites indicators and an uncrafted-equipment filter. Its Max correction additionally requires AzuCraftyBoxes and uses actual costs and current chest supply.
• AzuCraftyBoxes includes the player’s attached cart, supports Ctrl-click material collection from the build menu and avoids needless searches for already-full stations. With Quick Stack, nearby transfers honor pulling modes and excluded chests; direct chest actions remain available.
• Quick Stack handles complete stack weights, protected favorites, rune stacks and dragon eggs. Its keyboard/mouse binding lives in the game’s personal controls and works with building tools. Favorite state follows individual equipment and sockets where appropriate.
• EquipmentAndQuickSlots integrates with grave recovery, carry capacity and recall slots. MultiUserChest supports direct hotbar transfers, refreshed consumables and readable stack labels. Full bags refuse transfers that cannot fit.
• Table upgrades pay before requesting the level. Refused or unanswered upgrades return paid materials, dropping overflow at the player’s feet. Construction remembers the refundable materials actually paid, including discounted and free builds. Salvage junk protects favorites and rechecks payment after its countdown.
• Materials still held in character saves from versions 0.1.283–0.1.285 return on the next load; spent construction and accepted table payments stay spent. A reply that never reached the saved character cannot be reconstructed. Recovery does not promise protection from every abrupt crash.

StoreAndCraft 1.6.0 was checked separately from AzuCraftyBoxes: ordinary crafting, upgrades, single-ingredient recipes, material conversion, salvage and table upgrades work with nearby supply, including server-owned chests. The add-on refreshes its nearby snapshot before EpicLoot queries it, preventing stale unavailable buttons. Ordinary crafting respects its LeaveOneItem setting; its EpicLoot provider can spend the last material. Refused upgrades return their paid materials, including overflow beside a full bag. These checks do not establish compatibility with AzuCraftyBoxes installed alongside it, simultaneous withdrawals by separate players, or its other automation features.

Optional integrations

These are plugin versions read from the supported packages. “Both” means server and clients; the side column describes this pack’s installation. Client-only integrations do not add server requirements. This pack obtains AAA_Crafting, AzuCraftyBoxes and ServerCharacters from Hexium.

Optional mod	Version	Related features	Side
AAA_Crafting	2.1.11	Batch controls, filters; Max also needs AzuCraftyBoxes	Both
AzuCraftyBoxes	1.8.28	Chest supply, attached carts, material collection, station capacity	Both
StoreAndCraft	1.6.0	Fresh nearby supply for EpicLoot queries; native provider handles payments	Both
Quick Stack Store Sort Trash Restock	1.4.16	Favorites, sorting, restocking and personal controls	Both
EquipmentAndQuickSlots	3.1.3	Equipment rows, graves, carry and recall slots	Both
MultiUserChest	0.6.2	Chest hotbar transfers, consumables and stack labels	Both
ServerCharacters	1.4.17	Enrollment, verified saves, private activity records	Both
StarLevelSystem	1.26.3	Stars, Nemesis, creature balance and interior resets	Both
Drop That	3.1.7	Synchronized drop tables and star loot rolls	Both
SkilledCarryWeight	1.6.1	Effective skill levels and complete carry subtotals	Both
QuickCart	1.0.1	Detach-first, reticle-based cart key	Both
ItemStacksItemWeights	1.1.1	Rune, mead-base, trader and reward stacks	Both
Sailing	1.1.12	Sailing death penalty and ship health compatibility	Both
Better Wisps	1.0.44	Held-weapon mist clearing	Both
FortifySkillsReborn	1.7.1	XP handling and skill notices	Both
NoSmokeStayLit	2.4.2	Kept-lit fires and refill behavior	Both
PlantEverything	1.21.3	Plant timer compatibility	Both
PlantEasily	2.3.0	Personal grid modifier and shared area-harvest radius	Client
BetterUI ForeverMaintained	2.5.13	Plant timers, armor, cooking, rune labels and skill notices	Client
FedoHud	1.1.2	Profile-local HUD positioning and optional crop/hive icons	Client
ComfortMe	1.3.1	Comfort range, room panel, upgrade chips and build actions	Client
Ammo Count by aedenthorn Fixed	0.5.1	Ammunition counter layout	Client
Venture Logout Tweaks	1.0.0	Prevent stale effects carrying through a dead-character save	Client
Dyrr	1.4.2	Durable world bindings and readable refusal reasons	Both
DiscordBot_AWL	1.4.9	Server-wide chat relay, achievements and online status	Both
DiscordConnector	3.1.3	Death records and scheduled reports	Server

Server and presentation

Normal chat reaches the server’s players without forced capitals; whispers remain local. With DiscordBot, the custom status shows the online count and complete character names, with a compact overflow count. Discord credentials and routing belong in the server’s own configuration.

With ServerCharacters, private currency and item-activity journals record income, transfers, pickups, crafting and equipment history on the dedicated server. They are not public leaderboards. Verified character saves and world saves protect normal shutdowns. Persistent world bindings and first-join enrollment keep their existing recovery safeguards.

Plant timers, personal planting controls, FedoHud positioning, ComfortMe actions and the skill-notification row have separate optional integrations. Picking up ordinary loot does not auto-equip it. Friendly-fire choices persist, and Hugin’s hot-water warning follows the character’s own exposure.

Configuration and pack settings

The add-on’s settings are in BepInEx/config/valheim.epiclootprogressionfix.cfg. Gameplay settings marked [Synced with Server] follow the server. Camera zoom, damage-text range, sound volume and personal controls stay local. The server send rate and Death leaderboard settings are server-only and require a restart.

Death reports default to English, UTC and hour 6. Their eight text settings cover both titles, omitted-row labels, the empty report, total, missing names and unknown causes. Blank text uses the English default; long text is shortened to fit Discord’s limit. A skipped report hour runs at the first valid minute, and a repeated hour runs once at its first occurrence. An invalid explicit zone is an error. Dry run previews both reports without contacting Discord and uses separate delivery state.

The standalone package does not include this personal pack’s package lists or config overrides. The pack separately supplies EpicLoot recipes, rarity and drop tables, shardstone strengths and conflicts, English tooltip wording, weekly dungeon lists, Nemesis decks, personal control defaults, a fourfold floating-ice collision multiplier, and Polish death reports scheduled in Europe/Warsaw. Those settings are not all standalone defaults; edit the pack sources before generating an import.

Back up saves before changing mods and fix initialization errors before playing. Before removing this add-on, load and save characters and containers that may contain legacy Starter Gear; unloaded inventories and old backups can still need its migration support. Remove it from server and clients together.

Credits

EpicLoot is by RandyKnapp. Built with AI assistance. Source is included in src/; release notes are in CHANGELOG.md.