Odin's Stagger Home

The fire is warm, the mead is gone, and home is... somewhere over that hill. Odin has seen you try to find it before. He'd rather take you by the elbow.

Press \ and your viking sets off home on their own:

• Home, by the game's own idea of home. Your bed, or where you last spawned if you haven't got one, or the world's starting stones. Pick which in Destination.
• Back to where your thread began. With Odin's Thread installed, Odin heads for the start of your trail by the most direct way the ground allows, not the wiggly way you came. Your bed wins if it's closer.
• Walk, run, or a bit of both. Mix runs until you're puffed, walks until you're not, and runs again.
• The full experience. With Odin's Drunk Cam 0.1.4 or later installed, the world sways gently all the way home, mead or no mead. Drunk Cam's own off switch always wins.
• Round the water, over the logs. It hops what's knee-high, goes round what isn't, and never goes for a swim.
• Yours again in an instant. Touch a movement key, swing, block, jump, dodge or crouch, and you're in charge.
• Unbothered by the locals. Get noticed by something with teeth, or take a hit, and Odin remarks on it and keeps walking. "Something's taken an interest. Odin's ignoring it." Rather stop and deal with it yourself? Set OnDanger to HandBack.
• A remark on the way out and on the doorstep, because Odin has opinions. "Left foot. Right foot. 340 m to your bed."

No item, no map pins, nothing to set up. Press the key, keep your hands off the keyboard, and try not to sing.

How Odin finds the way

The same way the game's creatures do. Valheim maps where a body can walk around you, and a Greydwarf uses that map to come round your wall. Odin uses it to take you round the rocks, the trees and the corner of the longhouse, with water marked as no-go. The game only maps the ground near you, so Odin plans the trip a leg at a time, about 35 metres at once, and looks again every second or two. The first leg can take a moment while the game catches up.

On top of that he keeps an eye on the ground just ahead:

• Knee-high in the way? A log, a low wall, a rock step: you hop it. Anything taller, he goes round.
• Water ahead? If it's deep enough to swim, he stops and finds another way. Shallow paddling is fine. He never jumps a stream; he goes round, however long round is.
• A drop ahead? Anything more than 4 metres, where the game starts charging for the landing, and he finds another way down.
• Too steep? Anything steeper than 38°, the point where the game slides you back down, and he goes round it. No scrabbling up a hillside you just slid down.
• Stuck? A hop if there's something to hop, a step back, a try to one side, then a fresh plan from where you are, going round sideways first. After three goes he gives up, says so, and hands you back.
• In the water anyway? He steers you to the nearest bank, and lets go once you're on it.

Your bed, your last spawn point and the starting stones are read from the game itself, so they're always the ones the game would use.

With Odin's Thread

If you have Odin's Thread, Odin reads your trail from its file (nothing else needed) and finds where its current stretch began: your last login, respawn or portal trip, stopping at a death or portal mark. What he does with it is ThreadRoute:

• StartPoint (the default). That spot is where you're going; the trail itself is ignored. Odin plans the most direct way there, leg by leg, the same as for your bed. The slope you slid down on the way out doesn't come into it.
• FollowTrail. Odin walks the trail itself back, step by step, cutting corners where he can. The first time it gets him stuck, he gives up on the trail and heads straight for its start.
• Off. Thread is ignored; Odin heads for Destination.

With CloserHomeWins on (the default), if your Destination is closer than the start of your thread, you go there instead. No thread file, or you're far from your trail: Destination it is. Thread writes its file once a minute, so the last minute of your walk isn't in it yet.

With Odin's Drunk Cam

If you have Odin's Drunk Cam, the camera sways while Odin walks you home, about as much as one mead, and more if you've had the real thing. It stops when the walk does. If you've switched Drunk Cam off (its Enabled setting, or F4), it stays off: Odin asks, Drunk Cam decides. Don't want it? Set DrunkCamWhileWalking to false. The sway needs Odin's Drunk Cam 0.1.4 or later; with an older one, nothing sways and nothing breaks.

Client-side only

Only you need it. It walks your own viking, exactly as your keys would: no new items, prefabs, network messages or world data. Works in single-player, on dedicated servers and with friends who don't have it.

Configuration

Settings live in BepInEx/config/hevyh2o.valheim.odinsstaggerhome.cfg. If you have a Configuration Manager mod installed, you can also change them in game (usually F1); this mod doesn't need one.

Things to know

• It's an escort, not a taxi. No portals, no boats, no doors: a closed door or gate stops the route in front of it. Open it and press the key again.
• Menus pause it. With the menu, chat or console open, you stand still and wait. Close it and off you go again.
• It won't jump streams. Not in this version. How far a jump carries depends on your skill, your gear, your load and your stamina, and Odin won't bet your pack on a guess.
• Odin doesn't stop for trouble. By default, a hit or a curious Greydwarf gets a remark, not a halt: he keeps walking, and the trouble may well follow you home. Press any key to take over and deal with it, or set OnDanger to HandBack.
• Running home trains your legs. The game raises Run and Jump as usual while Odin does the steering. Odin considers this a perk.
• The sway is for show. Drunk Cam only moves the camera; you walk the same straight-ish line either way.
• Not an auto-run. Auto-run mods (BetterAutoRun, Enhanced Movement) keep you going in a straight line or along a road. Odin's Stagger Home goes somewhere: home. If another mod turns auto-run on, Odin lets go.
• Your eyes only. Nobody else needs the mod, and nobody else sees anything but you walking home in a reasonably straight line.
• Found a bug or have an idea? Tell Odin in Odin's Tavern. The ravens read every note; your BepInEx\LogOutput.log helps them read faster.

Also from Odin's tavern

Odin's Long Drop: at a ledge or mid-fall, the drop and the damage the landing will do, beside your crosshair. Odin walks you round the cliffs; Long Drop is for when you walk yourself.

Odin's Thread: a faint trail on your map and minimap of every step you took, fading with age, with your deaths and portal hops marked. Install it and Odin walks you home the way you came.

Odin's Nudge: alt-tabbed while something eats you? Odin flashes the taskbar and knocks when you're hurt, an enemy closes in, a raid starts or chat says your name. Handy if you put the kettle on while Odin walks you home.

Odin's Latch: Odin shuts the doors you opened when it matters: an enemy close, nightfall or a raid at your base. One gets you to the door, the other shuts it behind you.

Odin's Second Hand: bow out and an enemy close, Odin swaps in your best melee weapon for it, and hands the bow back once it's gone. For whatever made Odin let go of your elbow.

Odin's Free Refills: no stamina costs while the coast is clear, normal costs once a threat is near. With both, Mix hardly ever needs to walk.

Odin's Wanted Posters: look at a creature and press E for its health, weaknesses and drops. Worth a look at whatever just interrupted the walk home.

Odin's Almanac: press K for a forecast of the next weather changes in your biome. Odin walks just as well in the rain; you just arrive wetter.

Odin's Saga: sleep or log out and Odin reads you the saga of your day; press J for a lifetime of deeds. "Was walked home" is not a deed. Odin checked.

Odin's Hearth: press N at home for your comfort level and the cheapest piece to build next. Somewhere worth being walked back to.

Odin's Pantry: press P for your foods, what you could cook right now, and Odin's pick for your biome. More stamina, more running, less walking.

Odin's Raven Returns: after you die, a raven guards your grave; press H to see where it is and what killed you. For the walks home that ended early.

Odin's Drunk Cam: drink a mead and the world sways; the more meads, the more it sways. The reason you needed walking home in the first place.

Odin's Weapon Memories: every weapon remembers what it has done and earns a name from it. Your boots remember every step home. They're not saying.

Odin's Stone Whispers: Odin whispers when a Rock or Mysterious Rock is near; press 9 and he turns your gaze to it. Pick it up before you press the key, not after.

Odin's Dusk Horn: a low horn before nightfall, and press Home for the time to dark and the way to your bed. When the horn goes, press the other key.

Odin's Knot: log out and Odin asks what you were doing; log back in and he reads it back. Press ' to retie it. "Got walked home" is a perfectly good knot.