Subtle Shield

Subtle Shield is a small client-side Valheim mod that makes the Staff of Protection bubble less visually intrusive while keeping the vanilla effect recognizable.

The default preset uses a darker, translucent bubble and a taller, narrower shape so the shield blocks less of your view during play.

Default preset

• Color: RGBA (0.20, 0.00, 0.00, 0.30)
• Scale: (1.50, 2.40, 1.50)
• Local position: (0.00, 0.00, 0.00)

This mod changes visuals only. It does not change shield strength, duration, protection values, combat logic, or networking behavior.

Live configuration

Subtle Shield uses normal BepInEx configuration entries, so compatible in-game config managers can edit it while Valheim is running.

General

• Enable custom shield VFX

Turning this off restores the captured vanilla shield appearance while the mod remains loaded.

Color

• Red
• Green
• Blue
• Opacity

Size

• Width
• Height
• Depth

Position

• Horizontal offset
• Vertical offset
• Forward offset

Changes are reapplied to the Staff of Protection shield prefab and to currently active shield instances.

The config file is created at:

BepInEx/config/com.soulfulrebel.subtleshield.cfg

Installation

Install through Thunderstore/r2modman, or place SubtleShield.dll in:

BepInEx/plugins/SubtleShield/

Only BepInEx is required.

Multiplayer

Subtle Shield is visual and client-side. Other players do not need it installed. Each player sees the bubble according to their own local configuration.

Building from source

Open PowerShell/Terminal in the source folder and run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\build.ps1 -ValheimDir "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim" -BepInExDir "C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\r2modmanPlus-local\Valheim\profiles\YOURPROFILE\BepInEx" -Install

To create a Thunderstore-ready release zip:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File .\package.ps1 -ValheimDir "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim" -BepInExDir "C:\Users\YOU\AppData\Roaming\r2modmanPlus-local\Valheim\profiles\YOURPROFILE\BepInEx"

The finished upload file is placed in dist/.

Build prerequisites: .NET SDK, .NET Framework 4.8 targeting pack, a local Valheim installation, and BepInEx 5. External config-file edits require a config reload or game restart; live changes use a compatible in-game config manager.

Changelog

1.0.0

• Initial public release of Subtle Shield.
• Less visually intrusive default Staff of Protection bubble.
• Live-configurable color, opacity, scale, and local position.
• Enable/disable toggle that restores the vanilla appearance.
• Client-side visual-only behavior.
• Thunderstore packaging support.
• Replace the obsolete Unity object lookup with an unsorted scan.
• Validate release version consistency during packaging.