Skeleton Commander

A Valheim mod (BepInEx 5) for tracking and commanding the skeletons summoned with the Dead Raiser staff. The mod is client-side only and affects only the skeletons you summoned.

Client-side: only the players who want to use the mod need to install it. It is not required on dedicated servers or by other players, who also see the weapon chosen for your skeletons.

Features

• Minimap pins – each of your skeletons gets a map pin with the skeleton trophy icon, updated every 0.5 s. On the large map the pin label shows its state: following or staying.
• HUD counter – below the minimap: how many skeletons you have and how many are following you or staying. Optionally a detailed, numbered list: name, weapon (bow or sword & shield), HP (colored by health), distance and state. Skeletons are sorted newest first, so the oldest one is at the bottom; the numbers match the chat list. Each part of the HUD can be hidden in the config. The HUD is part of the game's interface, so the inventory and menus cover it like the minimap.
• Health bars – always visible above your skeletons' heads (up to 40 m by default), colored by HP: green above 60%, yellow above 30%, red below.
• Glow – a subtle light around your skeletons so they are easy to tell apart.
• Death notifications – an on-screen message when one of your skeletons dies.
• Summon loadout – choose whether newly summoned skeletons get a sword and shield or a bow (random by default), in the config or with a hotkey. With SwordAndShield a new skeleton always gets a shield, never just a sword. The weapon stays the same after reloading and is the same for other players.
• Summon limit fix – skeletons told to stay count toward the Dead Raiser's summon limit, so you cannot exceed it by leaving skeletons behind (the oldest one is dismissed instead, as in vanilla).
• Commands and hotkeys – follow, stay and dismiss for all skeletons at once, or only for the one you are aiming at (the hover text shows the hotkeys).

Requirements

• Valheim (PC)
• BepInExPack Valheim (BepInEx 5)

Installation

With a mod manager (recommended)

Install SkeletonCommander from Thunderstore with r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager; BepInExPack Valheim is installed with it.

Manually

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim following its instructions and start the game once so BepInEx creates its folders.
2. Copy SkeletonCommander.dll to:

   <Valheim folder>/BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonCommander/
   

3. Start the game. On first launch the config file BepInEx/config/michal.valheim.skeletoncommander.cfg is created.

To uninstall, delete the BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonCommander/ folder (and optionally the .cfg file).

The mod used to be called Skeleton Tracker. When upgrading, delete the old BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonTracker/ folder; your settings are taken over from the old config file.

Controls

Hotkeys

Hotkey (default)	Action
Left Alt + F	skeletons follow you
Left Alt + G	skeletons stay in place
Left Alt + H	dismiss skeletons
Left Alt + J	list skeletons in chat
Left Alt + K	switch the weapons of your next summoned skeletons (Random → SwordAndShield → Bow)

When you aim at one of your skeletons, the Follow / Stay / Dismiss hotkeys affect only that skeleton (the key hints appear in its hover text). Hotkeys are ignored while typing in chat and in menus, the inventory and the large map.

Hotkeys also work while you hold other keys, e.g. while running. While a hotkey's modifier is held (Left Alt by default), the game ignores that hotkey's key, so Left Alt + F / G do not also trigger the Forsaken power or the emote wheel.

Chat commands

Type in chat (Enter), or in the F5 console without the slash:

Command	Action
/sk or /sk list	numbered list of skeletons (newest first): name, weapon, HP, distance, state
/sk follow	all skeletons follow you
/sk stay	all skeletons stay in place
/sk dismiss	dismiss all skeletons

The commands do not require devcommands.

Commands affect skeletons in the area loaded by the game (near the player).

Configuration

File: BepInEx/config/michal.valheim.skeletoncommander.cfg. Changes to the file take effect after restarting the game; with ConfigurationManager (F1 by default) you can change them in-game.

Section	Option	Default	Description
Hotkeys	Follow	F + LeftAlt	follow hotkey
Hotkeys	Stay	G + LeftAlt	stay hotkey
Hotkeys	Dismiss	H + LeftAlt	dismiss hotkey
Hotkeys	List	J + LeftAlt	list-in-chat hotkey
Hotkeys	CycleNextSummonLoadout	K + LeftAlt	hotkey switching Summon.NextSummonLoadout
Summon	NextSummonLoadout	Random	weapons of the skeletons you summon next: Random, SwordAndShield or Bow
Notifications	Death	true	message when a skeleton dies
HUD	ShowCounter	true	skeleton counter below the minimap
HUD	ShowDetails	true	detailed skeleton list below the counter
HUD	ShowStateSummary	true	following / staying counts next to the counter
HUD	ShowName	true	skeleton names in the detailed list
HUD	ShowWeapon	true	weapons in the detailed list
HUD	ShowHealth	true	HP in the detailed list
HUD	ShowDistance	true	distance from you in the detailed list
HUD	ShowState	true	following / staying in the detailed list
HUD	CounterPositionY	0.3	vertical counter position (0 = top, 1 = bottom of the screen)
HUD	FontSize	18	HUD font size; the whole box scales with it (10–40)
HealthBars	AlwaysShow	true	health bars always visible
HealthBars	MaxDistance	40	health bar visibility range (10–100 m)
HealthBars	ColorByHealth	true	color health bars by HP
Glow	Enabled	true	glow around skeletons
Glow	Color	66D9FFFF	glow color (RGBA, hex)
Glow	Intensity	1.2	glow brightness (0–5)
Glow	Range	3	glow range (0.5–10 m)

Hotkeys are written as the main key followed by modifiers, e.g. F + LeftAlt. Key names are Unity KeyCode values (e.g. Keypad1, F7, Mouse3); None disables the hotkey.

Building from source

Requires the .NET SDK (the project targets netstandard2.1).

1. Copy the game and BepInEx libraries into the lib/ folder (they are not part of the repository):

   • from <Valheim>/valheim_Data/Managed/: assembly_valheim.dll, assembly_utils.dll, assembly_guiutils.dll, Splatform.dll, UnityEngine.dll, UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll, UnityEngine.TextRenderingModule.dll, UnityEngine.UI.dll, UnityEngine.UIModule.dll, Unity.TextMeshPro.dll, Unity.InputSystem.dll
   • from <Valheim>/BepInEx/core/: BepInEx.dll, 0Harmony.dll

2. Build:

   dotnet build
   

   After compiling, the DLL is copied automatically to the plugins folder set by the ValheimPluginsDir property in SkeletonCommander.csproj. You can pass a different path when building:

   dotnet build -p:ValheimPluginsDir=/path/to/Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonCommander/
   

   A Release build also creates the Thunderstore package bin/thunderstore/SkeletonCommander-<version>.zip (manifest from thunderstore/manifest.json, version from PluginVersion in SkeletonCommanderPlugin.cs):

   dotnet build -c Release
   

License

MIT