Realistic Running

Realistic Running makes Valheim movement feel faster, heavier, and more physical without turning every journey into a punishment. Sprinting builds from a normal run into a faster full pace, while hard exertion gradually narrows your peripheral vision, adds a rising heartbeat, and leaves you needing a short recovery after pushing too far.

It is designed to work on its own, and to fit the wider Scavengers survival setup when used alongside You're Cold, You're Tired, You're Injured, and You're Hungry.

What it changes

• Smooth acceleration and deceleration without sluggish turning.
• Lower backward and sideways movement speed.
• A configurable sprint build-up leading to a faster full sprint.
• Exertion that rises during sustained sprinting and recovers while walking or resting.
• Terrain effects: uphill running costs more; downhill travel receives a small benefit.
• Wet, cold, and freezing conditions make running more demanding.
• Optional compatibility with leg injuries and hunger movement penalties.
• Progressive tunnel vision, peripheral haze, camera sway, wind rush, depth of field, and heartbeat feedback as exhaustion builds.
• An exhausted jog state after sprinting near empty stamina.

Escape safety

This version includes safeguards so a bad combination of weather, terrain, exertion, and compatible survival penalties stays difficult without creating a permanent no-sprint lock.

• Combined sprint-drain effects are capped.
• The forced exhausted-jog period is temporary.
• Once that short period ends, a player can attempt a costly sprint again at the configured emergency stamina threshold, even while full exertion recovery continues.

Compatibility

Realistic Running works by itself.

When installed, it can also cooperate with:

• You're Hungry for movement and run-drain composition.
• You're Injured for leg injury movement and exertion effects.

These links are optional. Realistic Running does not require either mod.

Controls

• F8 — writes movement, exertion, terrain, weather, and compatibility diagnostics to BepInEx/LogOutput.log.

Configuration

After first launch, settings are created at:

BepInEx/config/com.marccunningham.survivalmovementexertion.cfg

Important settings include sprint speed, stamina drain, terrain/weather effects, visual intensity, heartbeat settings, exhausted-jog duration, the emergency sprint threshold, and the combined run-drain safety cap.

Optional heartbeat audio

The mod works without an audio file. To use heartbeat sounds, place a compatible WAV file named:

heartbeat_double.wav

inside an assets folder beside the Realistic Running DLL.

Example:

BepInEx/plugins/RealisticRunning/assets/heartbeat_double.wav

Installation

1. Install BepInEx for Valheim.
2. Place RealisticRunning.dll in your BepInEx plugins folder.
3. Launch Valheim once to generate the config file.
4. Adjust settings only after testing the default balance.

Notes for existing users

The public name is now Realistic Running.

The internal plugin GUID and compatibility bridge remain unchanged so existing config values and optional links with You're Hungry continue to work.