Goo's Combat Overhaul
Goo's Combat Overhaul is a configurable Valheim combat-feel overhaul focused on making weapon classes more distinct, responsive, and satisfying while preserving the structure of vanilla combat.
The mod adjusts combat behavior by weapon category and attack type. It can tune hyperarmor, counter damage, stagger power, hit-stop, animation speed, attack movement, lunge/root-motion scaling, attack rotation, base damage, backstab damage, PvP behavior, stamina/eitr behavior, movement behavior, blocking, shield behavior, magic/staff behavior, and equipment values.
Fresh installs use Goo's curated preset by default. Players can reapply Goo's preset, reset the mod back to vanilla/no-op behavior, or manually tune each weapon category.
A configuration manager is recommended for convenience because most of the mod's balance values are intended to be adjusted and tested in game, but it is not required as a dependency.
Core Features
- Weapon-specific combat tuning
- Separate Primary1 / Primary2 / Primary3 / Primary4 / Secondary melee attack settings where the weapon actually has those attacks
- Base damage multipliers with tooltip updates
- Backstab damage-rate tuning with tooltip updates
- Per-attack airborne damage multipliers
- Running-attack support for supported melee weapons
- Two-handed axe jump-attack support
- Lunge/root-motion tuning
- Attack movement and attack rotation control
- Balanced hyperarmor system
- Counter-damage system
- Hit-stop / hit-freeze control
- Stagger, knockback, and PvP modifier tuning
- PvP hitstun/stagger-duration tuning
- PvP block-break threshold tuning
- Armor base-armor multipliers with tooltip updates
- Equipment movement modifier overrides
- Shield, parry, block stamina, block force, block armor, and block-break tuning
- Buckler / medium shield / tower shield-specific block tuning
- Staff-specific combat, eitr, projectile, shield, and block tuning
- StaffShield shield-health and active-shield tuning
- Negative stamina system
- Stamina regeneration curve options
- Player movement, stamina, eitr, carry weight, fall damage, size, and base-stat tuning
- Bow and crossbow projectile-speed / spread tuning
- PvP test dummy debug tool
- Goo preset reapply button
- Vanilla reset button
- Master runtime enable/disable switch
Supported weapon categories include:
- One-handed swords
- One-handed axes
- Clubs and maces
- Knives
- Spears
- Atgeirs
- Two-handed swords
- Two-handed axes
- Sledges
- Pickaxes
- Dual axes
- Bows
- Crossbows
- Magic/staff weapons
- Unarmed
- Other mod weapons that share a supported internal category
How Weapon Tuning Works
Most melee weapon settings are split into:
- Primary1 = first normal/light attack in a chain
- Primary2 = second normal/light attack in a chain
- Primary3 = third normal/light attack in a chain
- Primary4 = fourth normal/light attack in a chain, where the weapon actually has one
- Secondary = heavy/special attack
Running attacks and special jump attacks are configured inside their corresponding weapon-category sections.
Weapon categories can tune:
- Base damage
- Backstab damage rate
- Attack-slot damage multipliers
- Chop and pickaxe utility damage
- Stagger multipliers
- Stamina multipliers
- Animation speed
- Attack movement
- Lunge/root-motion scaling
- Attack rotation
- Hyperarmor mode
- Damage, stagger, and knockback taken during hyperarmor
- Counter-damage eligibility
- Hit-stop behavior
- PvP damage, stagger, knockback, stagger duration, and block-break scaling
- Block armor, block force, parry bonus, block stamina consumption, and block-break threshold
The goal is not to make every weapon stronger in the same way. The goal is to give different weapon classes stronger identities.
Goo's Preset
Goo's preset is the default combat-overhaul setup. It applies the intended balance values automatically on a fresh install.
In general:
- Heavy weapons receive stronger commitment tools.
- Some heavy attacks gain hyperarmor or knockback resistance.
- Some weak or clunky attacks gain animation-speed improvements.
- Some attacks gain stronger stagger identity.
- Counter damage rewards well-timed attacks against enemies during their attack animations.
- Melee attacks can turn more naturally during windup.
- Rotation can be locked after the attack trigger so attacks still require commitment.
- Hit freeze is preserved or reduced depending on weapon feel.
- Negative stamina allows committed actions to overdraw stamina, but only while current stamina is still above 0.
- Player stamina, eitr, movement, and blocking systems are tuned without turning the mod into a raw-stat cheat mod.
Preset system defaults include:
- Negative stamina enabled with a
-50 stamina floor.
- Stamina recovery rate set to
1.5x.
- Stamina regen curve set to
Vanilla.
- Max carry weight base value set to
450.
- Jump stamina consumption set to
0.5x.
- Crouch stamina consumption set to
0x.
- Fall damage start height set to
8m.
- Armor movement penalties removed by default.
- Weapon, shield, pickaxe, and hammer movement penalties preserved unless configured.
- Melee-weapon PvP knockback set to
0.1x.
- Weapon, shield, and staff Block Force set to
0x.
You can reapply Goo's preset at any time with:
ApplyGoosSettings = true
This rewrites combat/balance config values back to Goo's preset, saves the config, and then turns itself back off.
Reset to Vanilla
The mod includes a vanilla reset option:
ResetToVanilla = true
This resets combat and balance values to vanilla/no-op behavior while keeping the mod installed.
Use this if you want to start over, compare vanilla behavior, or manually rebuild your own preset.
This reset affects combat/balance settings. It does not wipe every general/debug option.
ApplyModOptions
ApplyModOptions = true
This is the master runtime switch.
When enabled, the mod reads and applies the current config.
When disabled, the mod stops applying its combat changes and clears active runtime effects.
This does not rewrite the config. It only turns the mod's functionality on or off.
Config Migration
Configs older than 1.0.5 are archived out of the active config path so old stale entries do not clutter the in-game configuration page.
Configs from 1.0.5, 1.0.6, and 1.0.7 preserve overlapping user-tuned values and add new 1.0.8 values with defaults. If you want Goo's full current ruleset, use SetToGooRuleset = true.
Notes
Some experimental staff-spawn PvP targeting options are still marked as beta in the config because spawned entity targeting depends on Valheim's underlying prefab behavior.
Config Version
The current config schema version is 1.0.9.
Configs older than 1.0.5 are archived out of the active config path so old stale entries do not clutter the in-game configuration page. Configs from 1.0.5, 1.0.6, and 1.0.7 preserve overlapping user-tuned values and add new 1.0.8 values with defaults. Use SetToGooRuleset = true to apply Goo's full current ruleset.
