Northern Gemcraft

Sitting on a pile of Ancient Coins and gemstones you can only sell? Put them to work.

The Deep North showers you with Ancient Coins and four kinds of gemstone: Grimvarn, Solryth, Veydris and Draumyx. Vanilla only lets you sell them. Northern Gemcraft lets you set those gems into your best armor and weapons at a fully upgraded black forge or Galdr table, and polish them with Ancient Coins. Each gem gives a small benefit and a smaller drawback. No new buildings, no new items: just a meaningful use for your Deep North loot that keeps the game's balance.

Requirements

• Valheim 1.0.20 or newer, with BepInExPack for Valheim.
• Multiplayer: install on the server and on every player (see Multiplayer).
• To use it in game:
  • a fully upgraded black forge (level 6, all extensions) or Galdr table (level 5, all extensions),
  • Ashlands-tier gear or better made at that station (Flametal, Ashlands weapons, Ashlands mage gear and staffs, and all Deep North gear),
  • Deep North gemstones and Ancient Coins.

Getting started

1. Find Ancient Coins and gemstones in the Deep North.
2. Discover enhancing: open the crafting menu of a fully upgraded black forge or Galdr table while you carry (or have picked up before) an Ancient Coin and a gemstone. You get a "Discovered: Enhancing" message for each gem you know. This happens once per character.
3. Open the ENHANCE tab next to CRAFT and UPGRADE at that station. It lists your eligible gear made at that station, one row per action:
   • Set a gem (gems you have discovered): one gemstone plus Ancient Coins. The item gets the gem at grade I.
   • Polish: more of the same gem plus more Ancient Coins, up to grade III. Each grade adds the gem's effects again.
   • Remove: Ancient Coins. The gem is destroyed (configurable).
4. Select a row, check the cost on the right, and press the button. The station-level icon shows the level enhancing needs.

Gems

Each gem has a benefit and a smaller drawback. Values are per grade; grade III gives three times as much.

Gem	On armor	On a weapon (while in hand)
Grimvarn (green)	+1% max health, -1% stamina regen	+10% durability, +1% stamina per attack
Solryth (orange)	+2% stamina regen, -0.5% max health	-3% stamina per attack, -5% durability
Veydris (purple)	+2% eitr regen, -1% stamina regen	-3% eitr per cast, -5% durability
Draumyx (black)	-1% physical damage taken, -0.5% movement speed	1% life steal, -2% health regen

• Armor (helmet, chest, legs, cape, shield) counts while worn, and all worn pieces add up.
• Weapons count while in your hands. Durability changes the item itself.
• Caps: a gem's main benefit (listed first) is capped for your whole kit: max health +10%, stamina regen +15%, eitr regen +15%, physical damage taken -8%. When a cap cuts a benefit, that gem's drawback is cut by the same share.
• Life steal heals you for a share of the damage you deal, up to the enemy's remaining health. Hitting players or tamed creatures heals nothing.

Costs

Step	Gems	Ancient Coins
Set (grade I)	1	20
Polish to II	+1 of the same gem	60
Polish to III	+2 of the same gem	150
Remove	-	30

One piece at grade III takes 4 gems and 230 Ancient Coins.

What you see in game

• Item tooltips show the gem and grade, with its effects: benefits in green, drawbacks in red.
• Tooltips also list your totals from all gems together, with each cap and whether it is reached.
• Weapons show their enhanced stamina and eitr cost in parentheses next to the normal value, e.g. Use eitr: 20 (17.4).
• The movement speed total includes gem effects.

Good to know

• Gems belong to the individual item, not to the item type.
• Saved with the item: gems last through logouts, and stay on the item in chests, on the ground, and in your tombstone when you die. Equip the item again and its gem works again.
• Upgrading an enhanced item keeps its gem.
• Mistlands and earlier gear, and other stations, can't take gems (by default).
• Nothing changes for players who never enhance anything.

Configuration

The config file is created the first time you start the game with the mod installed:

BepInEx/config/com.jonasd.valheim.northerngemcraft.cfg

• Mod manager (r2modman, Thunderstore Mod Manager, Gale): open your profile's config editor and pick com.jonasd.valheim.northerngemcraft.
• By hand: the BepInEx folder is in your Valheim folder, or in your mod manager profile folder. Open the file with any text editor.
• Dedicated server: edit the same file in the server's BepInEx/config folder.

The file is plain text: a [Section] heading, then one Name = value per line. Lines starting with # are explanations. Restart the game (or server) after editing it.

Costs (1 - Costs)

Setting	Default	What it does
MaxGrade	3	Highest grade (1 = no polishing)
SetCoins, PolishToIICoins, PolishToIIICoins, RemoveCoins	20, 60, 150, 30	Ancient Coins per step
SetGems, PolishToIIGems, PolishToIIIGems	1, 1, 2	Gems per step
RemoveReturnsGem	false	true = removing gives one gem back

Gem effects (2 - Gem effects)

Each gem has a list for armor and one for weapons, as Effect:value-per-grade, comma separated. The first entry is the main benefit. Change the numbers, swap effects between gems, or give a gem completely different effects.

GrimvarnOnArmor = MaxHealth:1, StaminaRegen:-1
SolrythOnArmor = StaminaRegen:2, MaxHealth:-0.5
VeydrisOnArmor = EitrRegen:2, StaminaRegen:-1
DraumyxOnArmor = PhysicalDamageTaken:-1, MoveSpeed:-0.5
GrimvarnOnWeapon = Durability:10, AttackStamina:1
SolrythOnWeapon = AttackStamina:-3, Durability:-5
VeydrisOnWeapon = EitrCost:-3, Durability:-5
DraumyxOnWeapon = LifeSteal:1, HealthRegen:-2
ArmorCaps = MaxHealth:10, StaminaRegen:15, EitrRegen:15, PhysicalDamageTaken:8

Values are percent with their natural sign: StaminaRegen:2 is +2%, AttackStamina:-3 is 3% less stamina per attack, and PhysicalDamageTaken:-1 is 1% less damage taken.

Effect	What it changes	Used by default
MaxHealth	max health	yes
HealthRegen	health regen	yes
StaminaRegen	stamina regen	yes
EitrRegen	eitr regen	yes
PhysicalDamageTaken	blunt, slash and pierce damage you take	yes
MoveSpeed	walk and run speed	yes
AttackStamina	stamina per attack	yes
EitrCost	eitr per cast	yes
LifeSteal	heals you for a share of the damage you deal	yes
Durability	the enhanced item's max durability	yes
CarryWeight	max carry weight (flat, not %)	no
RunStamina	stamina used while running	no
Damage	the enhanced weapon's damage	no

ArmorCaps caps the helpful total of a main benefit from all worn armor (PhysicalDamageTaken:8 means at most 8% less). Weapon effects are not capped. Entries the mod can't read are skipped and named in the BepInEx log.

General (3 - General)

Setting	Default	What it does
Stations	$piece_blackforge:max:3, $piece_magetable:max:2	Where enhancing works, as station:stationLevel:gearLevel. The station must be upgraded to at least stationLevel (max = fully upgraded in vanilla: black forge 6, Galdr table 5; extensions from other mods don't raise it). Only gear whose recipe needs at least gearLevel there can take a gem.
EnhanceableSlots	Helmet,Chest,Legs,Cape,Shield,Weapon	Which gear can hold a gem
Enabled	true	Turns the mod on or off
RequireOnClients	true	Server only: players without the mod (or with another version) can't join
LogDetails	false	Writes enhancements to the BepInEx log

Multiplayer

• Install on the server and every player.
• Server settings apply to everyone: the server sends its settings to every player, so all players enhance with the same costs and effects. LogDetails stays each player's own.
• No join without the mod: a server with the mod turns away players who don't have it, or have a different version, with the game's normal "Incompatible version" message. Turn this off with RequireOnClients = false in the server's config.
• Without the mod on the server: a player with the mod can still join servers without it. The mod then uses that player's own settings.
• Each player's own game: enhancing and effects run on each player's own game. Enhanced items can be traded and dropped like any other item.

Compatibility

• Adds no items, pieces or recipes, and doesn't change loot.
• Mods that change spawn tables or add station extensions don't affect it.
• Other mods that change the same stats (regen, carry weight, movement) stack with it.
• Gear sorting and crafting UI mods that replace the crafting panel may hide the ENHANCE tab.