The Shack Pack

A vanilla+ quality-of-life pack for The Viking Shack server, built for Valheim 1.0 (Deep North).

It's less tedium, the same Valheim: inventory, building, farming, map and UI conveniences. Combat, mobs and difficulty are left vanilla, and the pack adds no new items, creatures or biomes.

Install

1. Install r2modman, pick Valheim, and create a new profile.
2. Online tab → search The Shack Pack → Download. Every mod installs at the exact version the server uses.
3. Click Start modded.
   • Linux (native Valheim): the first time, r2modman shows a Steam launch option. Copy it into Steam → Valheim → Properties → Launch Options. A normal Steam launch stays vanilla.
4. In Valheim: Join Game → Community tab → search The Viking Shack and connect, or use Join IP with the address your server admin gave you. Same password either way.
   • To keep it in Favorites, add the server by its public address. Valheim never checks the status of favorites with a home-network address (192.168.x.x), so those always show a red X even when the server is up.

Updating

• When the pack updates, select The Shack Pack in your installed mods and click its Update button.
• Never use "Update all": it moves mods past the versions the server runs, and the server will refuse the connection.
• Update when the server does. Most updates need the same pack version as the server: since 1.0.5, an older pack can't join (the game lists the mismatched mods).
• The pack ships some settings files, which are listed below. Updating the pack resets those files to the pack's values.

What's included

Inventory & storage

• Quick Stack - Store - Sort - Trash - Restock: stack to nearby chests, sort, restock, trash.
• MultiUserChest: several players can use one chest at once.
• CraftFromContainers: craft and build using materials in chests within 20 m.
• SmartPickup: smarter auto-pickup modes.
• Equipment and Quick Slots: separate armor slots plus 3 quick slots.
• QSS EAQS Bridge: stops sort from touching your armor and quick slots.
• Pull Toggle: switch automatic pulling off for a single chest or machine (press I, or use the button in the chest window).

Building

• ComfyGizmo: precise 3-axis rotation.
• Extra Snap Points Made Easy: more snap points and manual snapping.
• Classic Snap: switch back to the game's own snap points, with Q/E picking Top/Bottom/Edge.
• Venture Area Repair: repair everything nearby at once, at the same cost.
• Shack Magic Cam: a free build camera within workbench range (Y). Our replacement for Cartur's Build Camera, which was pulled from Thunderstore; it works the same.
• Shack Better Paths: the hoe's Pathen grades an even slope from your feet to where you aim: flat across, edges blended into the ground, no steps between clicks. Paved road then paints stone over your paths without changing their shape, only where there's already path (1 stone per 2 m). In the build camera, each click connects to your last one. Shift: vanilla Pathen, or a round patch of paving.
• SearsCatalog: a resizable build menu with multi-word search.
• Shack Comfort Ascended: your whole house shares its comfort. Comfort objects under a roof within 10 m of each other link into a chain, and anywhere under the roof within 10 m of the chain you get the whole chain's comfort (still the best of each kind, so never above the game's maximum). Look at a comfort object to see the links as moving dots (hammer out for rugs and banners). The build menu marks pieces that give comfort with a gold +N.

Crafting

• Shack Recycler: a Recycle tab at the workbench, forge and stonecutter turns gear, tools, arrows, bolts, bombs, nails and bronze back into their materials: everything they cost, upgrades included. Each station recycles what it crafts. Gear asks Yes / No first. It never gives back more than an item cost to make. Only things you know how to craft can be recycled.
  • A Research tab at the workbench uses up something you can't craft yet; research it 5 times to learn its recipe. Food and meads count too.
• Shack Workbench Pack: a workbench you carry. Craft it at a workbench (10 Wood + 2 Deer hide) and upgrade it there like gear, up to level 5 (each upgrade costs what the matching workbench upgrade does). It weighs 30 and slows you 15% while it's in your inventory. Wear it (utility slot) and press Tab to craft from your back, or set it down anywhere as a small workbench (its hotbar key, or U while worn). Shift + E packs it back up.
  • A Forge backpack (crafted and upgraded at a forge, up to level 7) rides in your bag (30, another 15% slower) and goes down beside the bench as a small forge of its level. Shift + E on either packs up both.
  • It has durability (100, +50 per level): each craft, upgrade or repair at it uses 1. Repair it at another workbench of at least its level.
  • A real stonecutter's Craft tab has Backpack stonecutter: it packs a stonecutter into the backpack (10 heavier) so you can build stone around it. Recycling the backpack gives the stonecutter back as materials.

Farming & production

• PlantEasily: grid planting and bulk harvest, with the same seed and stamina cost.
• OttoFuel: smelters, kilns, fires and torches take fuel and ore from nearby chests.
• AutoFeedRedux: tames eat from nearby chests.
• No Lossy Cooking Stations: lag no longer eats your food or ore.
• ZenBeehive: open hives like a chest.

Map & travel

• XPortalNetworks: pick a portal destination from a list. New portals are public, so anyone can use them; open a portal with E to make it private.
• Better Cartography Table: private and public pins.
• Pinnacle: pin search, edit and filter.
• Dude, Where's My Portal: auto-pins your portals.
• Portal Peek: look into a portal and see where it goes. A portal shows a place once you've been there (stand by its destination portal for a few seconds). Ctrl + F8 re-records the portal you're standing by.
• PortalPeek XPN Bridge: makes Portal Peek work with XPortalNetworks' one-way links, and keeps a day and a night view of each portal.
• AutoRemoveDeathPin: clears the death pin when you loot your tombstone.
• HUDCompass: a compass bar, plus ship, cart and portal markers on the map. Name a cart or ship with Shift+E.
• LivingMap: your bases, roads, fields and cleared forest show on the map and minimap as you build. Zoom in on the map for a detailed view. It draws what's around places you've been, and remembers it.

UI & stability

• My Little UI: clock, timers, durability and more.
• Configuration Manager: the in-game settings menu (F1).
• ValheimCommunityPatch: bug fixes only.
• OdinSaves: saves your character every 15 minutes (the base game saves with the world, every 30).
• Detailed Levels: exact skill progress.
• Chatter: a better chat window.
• StopChoppyAudio: fixes audio stutter.
• AchievementEnabler: Steam achievements while modded.
• Better Sleep Bruh: the more players in bed, the faster the night passes. Everyone in bed skips to morning as usual. Pillow icons show who's sleeping.

Libraries: BepInExPack, Jotunn, Conditional Config Sync, YamlDotNet, JsonDotNET, Zen.ModLib.

Keys

Key	Does
F1	Mod settings menu
Z / B / N	Quick slots 1–3
O / P / L / Delete	Sort / quick stack / restock / trash
Y	Build camera (near a workbench)
Shift + scroll / Alt + scroll	Gizmo: rotate on the red / blue axis
K / J	Gizmo: reset rotation / select target piece
CapsLock	Snap mode: Classic → Auto → Manual
Q / E (Classic mode, building)	Pick the snap point: Top / Bottom / Edge
F7, [ and ]	Manual+ snap mode, cycle snap points
F3 / F4	Grid snap / grid precision
F8 / F10 / F6	PlantEasily on/off / snapping / auto-replant (cultivator)
Ctrl + F8 (by a portal)	Portal Peek: re-record this portal's view now
Right Ctrl + arrow keys	PlantEasily grid size (cultivator)
Left Shift + E	Bulk harvest
Shift + E or H	Alternate interact (remove a saddle, rename a tame)
Shift + E on a cart or ship's rudder	Name it (shows on the map)
I (looking at a chest or machine, or with a chest open)	Pull Toggle: resource pulling on/off for that chest or machine
Shift + click Recycle	Recycle the whole stack (a plain click recycles one craft's worth)
Shift + click (hoe)	Pathen: vanilla Pathen (paints dirt only). Paved road: a round patch of paving
U (workbench pack worn or in your bag)	Set it down as a small workbench
Shift + E on a set-down workbench pack	Pack it back up
Right Ctrl + click an item	Link the item in chat
Tab (map open)	Pin list
F9	Skill levels
Alt + U	Toggle compass

The pack's keys were chosen so mods don't clash with each other or with vanilla Valheim. You can change any of them in F1.

Settings changed from the mods' defaults

These keep the game vanilla:

• OttoFuel: blast furnace only takes its normal ores; ballistas don't auto-reload.
• CraftFromContainers: doesn't pull fuel or ore into stations; OttoFuel handles that. It reaches chests within 20 m (the mod's default is 10).
• Build camera: vanilla pickup range (2 m); the Wisplight's mist range stays at vanilla while building.
• AutoFeedRedux: feeding chests aren't protected from monsters.
• ZenBeehive: respects wards.
• My Little UI: weather and wind forecasts are off.
• AutoFeedRedux and XPortalNetworks: error reporting is off.
• XPortalNetworks: new portals start public (the mod defaults to private).
• My Little UI: chat item links use Right Ctrl + click (the default Left Alt + click clashed with favoriting).
• Zen.ModLib: H is an extra alternate-interact key, and vanilla Shift+E still works.
• Better Sleep Bruh: beds follow the base game's sleep rules (afternoon or night), and error reporting is off. Its timer protection for mead, crops and berry bushes is off (it could stop mead from ever finishing), so those speed up during a faster night like with the base game's sleep.
• OdinSaves: saves your character every 15 minutes instead of 5 (each save makes the game hitch briefly).
• Portal Peek: Medium quality, a view refreshes at most once per in-game day, 512 MB memory budget (its defaults are heavier).

Known issues

• Gizmo stops rotating after you leave a world and join again. Restart the game.
• Equipment and Quick Slots stores data in your character. Before you ever remove it, empty its armor and quick slots, or those items stay hidden until you reinstall it.
• AchievementEnabler clears the "cheated" flag on characters and items. That can't be undone.

Pack assembled with the help of an AI assistant (Claude). The QSS EAQS Bridge, Classic Snap, Pull Toggle, Shack Recycler, Shack Magic Cam, Shack Better Paths, Shack Workbench Pack, PortalPeek XPN Bridge and Shack Comfort Ascended mods were written with its help.