Tootsalot's Valhalla Overhaul
A 79-mod Valheim overhaul focused on expanded progression, new content, and quality of life, with hand-tuned configs for balanced gameplay that rewards skill investment without trivializing the experience. All gameplay configs are server-synced so the host's settings apply to all connected players.
Mods In Development
One custom BepInEx plugins are currently in development to replace third-party mods in this pack with purpose-built alternatives:
ValhallaPerformance is an ambitious custom plugin intended to fully replace ValheimPerformanceOverhaul, Smoke_Collision, and VBNetTweaks. It covers ten systems: Boot, Smoke, Lights, Culling, Pieces, Memory, Network, Render, TarPit, and Log. Currently in active testing.
Once these plugins are stable, they will replace their upstream counterparts in the modpack and reduce external dependencies.
What This Pack Does
Expanded Skill System. 16 new and reworked skills via the Smoothbrain suite (Vitality, Tenacity, Evasion, PackHorse, Cooking, Farming, Foraging, Ranching, Mining, Lumberjacking, Building, Blacksmithing, Exploration, Sailing, Backpacks, Endurance). SmartSkills ties them together with catch-up mechanics and death recovery. TargetPortal lets you teleport to any portal by name instead of needing matched tags.
Passive Boss Powers. PassivePowers makes defeated boss powers always active at reduced strength, with the option to burst-activate them at full power on a cooldown. Up to 2 boss powers can be active simultaneously.
Server Characters. ServerCharacters stores character saves server-side, preventing item duplication and gear transfers between servers. SmoothSave improves world saving performance. ServerSideMap shares explored map data between all players on the server.
New Weapons & Armor. The full Therzie suite (Warfare, Armory, Wizardry, WarfareFireAndIce) adds hundreds of new craftable weapons, shields, armor sets, and a magic system with crossbows, throwing axes, war pikes, bastard swords, and more across every tier from flint to flametal.
Archery & Combat. BowsBeforeHoes overhauls bow mechanics with quiver support, arrow recovery, and improved aiming. SaveCrossbowState remembers your crossbow's loaded state when swapping weapons. ReliableBlock fixes vanilla's inconsistent parry/block behavior so blocks always register when you have stamina. WieldEquipmentWhileSwimming lets you keep your gear out in the water.
New Creatures & Raids. Monstrum and MonstrumDeepNorth populate the world with new enemies and tameable wildlife including bears (with bear steak, jerky, saddles, rugs, and trophies) and foxes. Custom Raids with Monstrum and Wizardry raid packs add event variety throughout progression.
Expanded World. More World Locations adds dozens of new points of interest across all biomes including shrines, waystones, taverns, blacksmiths, material vendors, and skill trainers. RtDBiomes reworks biome generation. Foglands tweaks the Foglands biome.
Swimming & Diving. VikingsDoSwim adds underwater diving, swim speed scaling by skill level, and configurable stamina mechanics for a complete aquatic experience.
Cooking & Food. CookingAdditions adds 23 new foods, tomatoes, chili peppers, salt deposits, new cooking stations (griller, curing rack, crusher), and a food preparation table. Pairs with Smoothbrain Cooking skill for enhanced food crafting progression.
Horses. OdinHorse adds tameable and rideable horses that spawn in Meadows during clear weather. They drop horse meat, horse hide, and trophies. Comes with horse saddle, saddlebags, horse cart, armor sets (Drapmadr, Skogarmadr), and decorative pieces. Faction set to AnimalsVeg so horses are passive wildlife that flee from players like deer.
Animals. SeaAnimals populates the ocean with sharks, orcas, dolphins, crocodiles, turtles, seals, jellyfish, and penguins, with tameable mounts (orca, dolphin, crocodile, white shark) and new cooked meats. Majestic Chickens roam meadows at deer-like frequency with rare color variants. Wagon adds a pull cart for hauling materials.
Ships. OdinShip adds new ship types and naval content for ocean exploration and travel.
Lighting. GammaOfNightLights makes nights meaningfully darker. CircletExtended turns the dverger circlet into an upgradeable helmet with configurable light properties, built-in demister at higher tiers, and the ability to stun enemies with overloaded light.
Base Building & Automation. LazyVikings automates smelters, kilns, cooking stations, and more. Basements adds underground building. OdinArchitect expands building pieces. OdinBanners adds decorative banners. MissingPieces fills gaps in vanilla's building system with dozens of additional pieces. FineWoodPieces adds fine wood building options and harvestable reeds. GlassPieces adds glass windows, doors, and a glass collector. PlantEverything expands plantable items. CraftyBoxes lets you craft from nearby containers. Quick Stack handles inventory sorting.
Storage. Smoothbrain Backpacks adds a craftable backpack with a dedicated equipment slot, auto-fill, and upgrade progression. Balanced with weight reduction and slot caps.
Performance. StartupAccelerator speeds up game boot by deferring Harmony patches and merging localization. ValheimPerformanceOverhaul reduces CPU/GPU load via light culling, AI throttling, distance culling, piece sleep management, object pooling, and frame budget protection, especially impactful on large bases and busy servers. SmoothSave reduces save lag by spreading ZDO copies across frames. VBNetTweaks optimizes multiplayer networking. (Note: ValheimPerformanceOverhaul, Smoke_Collision, and VBNetTweaks are being replaced by ValhallaPerformance. See Mods In Development above.)
Quality of Life. Extended inventory, speedy paths, recycling, multi-user chests, Pinnacle map pins with quick-pin shortcuts and icon customization, return scrolls, loading screen art, and more.
Server Sync
All gameplay-affecting configs use ServerSync with Lock Configuration = On. When playing multiplayer, the host/server's config values override client settings. This means you only need to configure the server and all players will use the same balance settings automatically. Client-only settings (keybinds, UI preferences, camera controls) remain local.
ServerCharacters enforces server-side character saves. ServerSideMap shares explored map data and map markers between all players.
Balanced Config Changes
All configs have been hand-tuned from their defaults.
Standardized Death Penalties
All skills lose 2-3% on death. Gathering skills lose 2%, combat and utility skills lose 3%. Swimming is exempt.
Toned-Down Scaling
- Resource yield multipliers (mining, farming, lumberjacking, foraging): 2x > 1.75x
- Mining/lumberjacking damage multipliers: 3x > 2.5x
- Cooking food bonuses (health, stamina): 1.3x > 1.2x
- Cooking eitr bonus: 1.3x > 1.15x
- Vitality base HP multiplier: 2x > 1.5x
- Endurance max stamina bonus: 75 > 50
- Endurance stamina regen: 10 > 7
- Exploration movement speed: 15% > 10%
- Sailing exploration radius: 5x > 3x
- Sailing ship HP: 2x > 1.5x
Progression Gates Adjusted
- Blacksmithing extra upgrade level: skill 80 > 90
- Building free materials: skill 50 > 70
- Farming ignore biome: skill 50 > 65
- Exploration cartography read: skill 40 > 25 (lowered for co-op)
- Exploration treasure multiplication: skill 50 > 60
- Cooking skill interval: 5 > 10 (prevents food inventory bloat)
SmartSkills Tuning
- Skill recovery bonus: 100% > 75%
- Weapon catch-up bonus: 50% > 30%
- Sneak bonus damage: 50% > 35%
Backpack Balancing (Smoothbrain Backpacks)
- Slot rows: 3,3,4,4,4 > 3,3,3,4,4 (slower early scaling)
- Slot columns: 5,6,5,6,7 > 4,5,5,5,6 (cap at 24 slots instead of 28)
- Item weight inside backpack: 100% > 75%
Passive Boss Powers
- Maximum simultaneous powers: 2 (default)
- Active burst cooldown: 600s (10 minutes)
- Active burst duration: 30s
- Power loss after burst: 180s (3 minutes with no passive effect)
Horse Behavior (OdinHorse)
- Creature faction: ForestMonsters > AnimalsVeg (passive, flees from players like deer)
- Spawn chance: 15%, day only, clear weather, Meadows
- Max per area: 1, group size: 1-2
- Hunt player: Off
- Tameable with berries, carrots, cloudberries, barley
Creature Spawn Balancing
Majestic Chickens. Tuned to deer-like frequency:
- Spawn chance: 50% | Max per area: 3 | Group size: 1-2 | Interval: 600s
- Rare variants remain at 1%
Bears. Handled entirely by Monstrum with their full content chain (steaks, jerky, saddles, rugs, trophies). Spawn rates are Monstrum defaults.
Portal System (TargetPortal)
- Portal name length: 10 > 25 | Default mode: Private > Public
Server Map
- Map sharing: enabled | Marker sharing: enabled
Container & Crafting Range
- CraftyBoxes range: 20m > 15m
- PetPantry feed cooldown: 10s > 30s
- Basement max nesting: 5 > 3
Recycling
- Recycle return rate: 100% > 50%
QoL Buffs
- LazyVikings automation radius: 5m > 8m
- LazyVikings kiln threshold: 0 > 100
- Mining explosion chance: 1% > 3%
- Cooking bonus craft chance: 0% > 15%
- Farming random rotation: Off > On
Biome Identity
- SpeedyPaths stone/marble/iron speed: 1.4x > 1.3x
- Swamp: 0.9x speed, 1.15x stamina drain
- Mistlands: 0.95x speed, 1.1x stamina drain
Load Order
Mods are ordered in the manifest by boot priority:
- BepInEx > StartupAccelerator > Jotunn > YamlDotNet > JsonDotNET (frameworks and boot optimization)
- UI and inventory mods (MyLittleUI, AzuEPI, AAA_Crafting, containers, Quick Stack, CraftyBoxes, Recycle)
- Smoothbrain skills in order: Vitality > VitalityFix > Tenacity through Sailing > SmartSkills
- Smoothbrain systems after SmartSkills: Backpacks > TargetPortal > PassivePowers > ServerCharacters > SmoothSave
- ServerSideMap after ServerCharacters
- Therzie suite: Warfare > Armory > Wizardry > Monstrum > WarfareFireAndIce > MonstrumDeepNorth
- Raids: Custom_Raids > Monstrum_Raids > Wizardry_Raids
- World gen: More World Locations > RtDBiomes > Foglands
- Animals: OdinHorse > SeaAnimals > MajesticChickens > Wagon
- Player systems: Endurance > CookingAdditions > BowsBeforeHoes > SaveCrossbowState > ReliableBlock > VikingsDoSwim > WieldEquipmentWhileSwimming
- QoL/automation: ReturnScroll > VBNetTweaks > ValheimPerformanceOverhaul > OdinShip > LazyVikings > PetPantry > SpeedyPaths
- Lighting: CircletExtended > (GammaOfNightLights loads later in visual tier)
- Building: Basements > OdinArchitect > OdinBanners > MissingPieces > FineWoodPieces > GlassPieces > MyPitsDontLeak
- PlantEverything (late, modifies many prefabs)
- Visual/map: Pinnacle > Smoke_Collision > GammaOfNightLights
- Loading screens: Intermission > OfficialArtLoadingScreens
Installation
- Install r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager
- Create a new Valheim profile
- Import the modpack or install mods in the order listed in
manifest.json
- Extract
config.zip into your profile's BepInEx/ folder, overwriting existing configs
- Launch the game through the mod manager
- For servers: Install the same mods and extract
config.zip on the server. All ServerSync configs will push to clients automatically.
Known Conflicts & Notes
SmarterContainers vs AzuCraftyBoxes vs Quick_Stack. All three touch container interactions. If you get double-deposits, disable SmarterContainers first.
Smoothbrain Cooking + CookingAdditions. Complementary. Smoothbrain Cooking handles skill-based food scaling; CookingAdditions adds new items and stations.
OdinHorse. Faction set to AnimalsVeg so horses are passive. They spawn in Meadows during clear days at 15% chance. They drop horse meat, hide, and trophies. Content includes saddle, saddlebags, cart, two armor sets, and decorative pieces.
MissingPieces + OdinArchitect + FineWoodPieces + GlassPieces. All add building pieces. They coexist and their pieces appear in the hammer menu under appropriate categories.
Farming (Smoothbrain) vs PlantEverything. They coexist but check PlantEverything's grid settings if spacing looks off.
BowsBeforeHoes + Warfare. Both add ranged content. If you see duplicate quiver slots, check BowsBeforeHoes' quiver settings.
VikingsDoSwim + WieldEquipmentWhileSwimming. Both by blacks7ar, designed to coexist.
CircletExtended + GammaOfNightLights. Companion mods by shudnal. Load CircletExtended first.
More World Locations + RtDBiomes. Both modify world generation. Compatible but require a new world for full effect.
SeaAnimals. Adds ocean creatures and tameable aquatic mounts. Maritime Saddle required for riding. Config sync is still in development per the mod author, so verify server settings manually.
ServerCharacters + SmoothSave. Both by Smoothbrain, designed to work together. SmoothSave handles performance, ServerCharacters handles security.
ServerSideMap. Shares map exploration and markers between all players. New players joining will receive the server's combined map data.
PackHorse + Smoothbrain Backpacks. Both increase carry capacity. Backpack weight is 75% specifically to account for PackHorse stacking.
Config Regeneration Note. Some configs get regenerated to defaults when the game boots with new mod versions. Always re-extract the config.zip after updating mods.
RtDBiomes. Intentionally pinned to 3.0.0. Later versions introduce anti-bypass incompatibility checks and require NoArbitraryIncompatibilityFlag to work around them. Because the newer update provides only marginal real improvement, I am not adding an extra dependency just to move past 3.0.0.
Usage, Sharing & Legal
This modpack is a free, non-commercial community project. It generates zero revenue and is not monetized in any way. No donations are solicited and no paywalls exist. It is published solely to give the Valheim community access to a balanced, well-ordered setup without hours of tweaking.
How this modpack works: This pack does not redistribute, rebundle, or modify any third-party mod files. All mods are listed as dependencies in manifest.json and are downloaded directly from each author's own Thunderstore listing by the mod manager at install time. The only original content in this package is the curated load order, hand-tuned config files, and documentation, all of which are the original work of Tootsalot.
Feel free to use, modify, or build on any of the configs and load order here. All I ask is that you credit Tootsalot as the original source if you redistribute or reference the configs in your own pack.
Notice to mod authors: This pack exists to support and drive downloads to your work, not to compete with it. If you have concerns about how your mod is referenced, please reach out and I'm happy to discuss it. However, any bad-faith takedown attempts, fraudulent DMCA claims, or other abusive actions targeting this modpack will be treated seriously and defended against through all available channels, including formal counter-notice and, if necessary, legal action.
Contact: [email protected]
Credits
Built with mods by Azumatt, Smoothbrain, Therzie, CookieMilk, blacks7ar, Advize, JewelHeim, ASharpPen, Soloredis, shudnal, MSchmoecker, Goldenrevolver, Roses, Nextek, OdinPlus, VitByr, Marlthon, Skarif, ComfyMods, baxhax, JereKuusela, do_the_dew, Korppis, warpalicious, BentoG, Mydayyy, and the Valheim modding community.
