Beasts of Burden

AWL Gaming maintained compatibility fork for current Valheim releases.

Beasts of Burden was originally created by jcleveland. AWL Gaming maintains this fork because the original 1.0.4 release no longer works with the current Valheim 1.0 API. AWL Gaming does not claim authorship of the upstream implementation or gameplay design.

What it does

• Lets eligible tamed animals pull the vanilla cart.
• Supports the original tameable follow/command behavior.
• Keeps normal player cart attachment as the fallback.
• Preserves the original BepInEx plugin GUID and configuration compatibility.

AWL 1.0.6 maintained release

• 1.0.6 keeps the validated 1.0.5 gameplay implementation and adds the standard AWL Gaming storefront badge; gameplay behavior is unchanged.
• Updated the original 1.0.4 implementation for current Valheim 1.0 APIs.
• Updated current Vagon, Character, and BaseAI access paths.
• Added null-safe handling around stale or missing attachment state.
• Runtime-tested with a real vanilla cart and a tamed boar: Vagon.CanAttach accepted the animal, the cart created a live joint to it, and animal attachment retained the correct non-player InUse state.
• Builds cleanly against the current AWL Valheim runtime with BepInEx 5.4.23.5 and Harmony 2.9.0.

Installation

Install on both the server and every client that connects to it. The Thunderstore/Hexium package will install the DLL through your mod manager. For manual installation, place BeastsOfBurden.dll under BepInEx/plugins/.

AWL maintenance and support

• AWL Gaming website: https://awlgaming.net
• Maintained source: https://github.com/AWL-Gaming/BeastsOfBurden
• Bug reports for this maintained build: https://github.com/AWL-Gaming/BeastsOfBurden/issues
• Optional support for AWL compatibility maintenance and testing: https://patreon.awlgaming.net

Support is optional and is for AWL's compatibility, testing, packaging, and maintenance work on this fork. The mod remains available regardless of support.

Original project and attribution

• Original author: jcleveland
• Original source: https://github.com/jcleveland/clevels-valheim-mods/tree/master/BeastsOfBurden
• Original Thunderstore package: https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/clevel/BeastsOfBurden/

The upstream repository did not contain a license file or an explicit redistribution/derivative-work grant when this maintenance fork was prepared. NOTICE.md records that status transparently. AWL Gaming does not claim that the absence of a license grants rights.

Source and build

The maintained source is public in the AWL repository above. Build requirements are .NET Framework 4.7.2 targeting support, BepInEx core assemblies, and current Valheim managed assemblies.

dotnet build .\BeastsOfBurden\BeastsOfBurden.csproj -c Release

Changelog

1.0.6 - 2026-09-13

Changed

• Added the standard AWL Gaming badge to the package icon for consistent storefront presentation.
• Bumped package and plugin version metadata to 1.0.6; gameplay behavior is unchanged from the validated 1.0.5 build.

1.0.5 - 2026-09-13

Fixed

• Restored compatibility with the current Valheim 1.0 Vagon, Character, and BaseAI APIs.
• Restored cart attachment to eligible tamed animals using the current vanilla attachment path.
• Preserved player attachment fallback and correct cart InUse behavior.
• Added null-safe handling for stale or missing attachment joints and character network views.

Build

• Replaced obsolete machine-specific project references with a portable .NET Framework 4.7.2 project driven by explicit BepInEx and Valheim reference paths.

1.0.4 - 2021-04-19

Upstream release. See README_UPSTREAM.md and the original repository for the historical changelog.