BoostDrop

Per-player configurable boosts for Valheim multiplayer.

BoostDrop lets a server give different players different multipliers for gathering, creature loot, bosses, chests, combat damage, plant growth and skill XP while keeping the permission/grant files private on the server.

Multiplayer requirement: install the same BoostDrop version on the dedicated server and on every client.

Main features

• Different multipliers per player: x1, x1.5, x2, x5, etc.
• Global, group and individual player rules.
• Temporary grants with automatic expiration.
• Category-specific multipliers.
• Item and creature-specific overrides.
• Server-authoritative permissions and admin actions.
• Runtime YAML/config reloads without restarting the server.
• Admin GUI with F8.
• Admin console commands.
• Jötunn ConfigSync for synchronized server settings.
• Multiplayer attribution designed to remain correct when Valheim moves network ownership between nearby players.

How reward ownership works

BoostDrop does not use the ZDO/network owner as the reward owner.

For creatures, bosses, mineable resources and trees, BoostDrop tracks damage caused by real players. The player with the highest accumulated effective damage supplies the reward multiplier.

Example:

Player A: x5 -> 700 effective damage
Player B: x2 -> 300 effective damage

Reward policy: Player A (x5)

The result does not depend on who is closest, who owns the network object or who happens to be simulating it.

If a damage event is not attributable to a real Player, BoostDrop does not invent an attacker. The game remains vanilla for that path. If a non-player event is the final damaging event, the reward remains vanilla.

Pickables use the routed player that actually performed the pick action. Loose ground resources use the player that actually performs the pickup, and already-processed drops are marked so they cannot be multiplied a second time.

Supported categories

For YAML backward compatibility, the plant-growth category is still serialized under the legacy key farming.

Requirements

BoostDrop 2.1.1 requires:

• Valheim + BepInEx
• denikson-BepInExPack_Valheim-5.4.2350
• ValheimModding-Jotunn-2.30.0

Installation

Mod manager

Install BoostDrop and make sure the same version is installed on:

• the dedicated server;
• every player client.

Manual installation

Copy the plugin files into:

Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/BoostDrop/

For a dedicated server, use the server's own BepInEx/plugins directory.

Do not distribute the private server permission/grant YAML files to clients.

Server files

BoostDrop uses these server-only files under BepInEx/config/:

BoostDrop_permissions.yaml
BoostDrop_grants.yaml

BoostDrop_permissions.yaml stores static rules.

BoostDrop_grants.yaml stores temporary grants created by admin commands or the admin GUI.

Clients receive only resolved runtime policy data needed for gameplay, never the raw permission/grant YAML database.

Simple permission example

defaultMultiplier: 1.0

userIds:
  76561198000000001: 2.0
  76561198000000002: 1.5

Groups

defaultMultiplier: 1.0

groups:
  vip:
    multiplier: 2.0
    players:
      - Odin
    userIds:
      - 76561198000000001

Per-player category rules

playerDetails:
  Odin:
    userId: 76561198000000001
    multiplier: 2.0
    categories:
      mining: 3.0
      wood: 2.0
      fishing: 1.5
      pickable: 2.0
      mobDrop: 2.5
      bossDrop: 3.0
      chestLoot: 2.0
      combatDamage: 1.5
      farming: 2.0
      skillXP: 2.0

An explicit 1.0 can be used to keep a category/item vanilla while a broader rule is boosted.

Item overrides

playerDetails:
  Odin:
    userId: 76561198000000001
    multiplier: 2.0
    items:
      Coins: 1.0

Creature-specific rules

playerDetails:
  Odin:
    userId: 76561198000000001
    multiplier: 2.0
    mobs:
      Troll:
        multiplier: 3.0
        items:
          TrollHide: 4.0
          Coins: 1.0

Temporary boosts

boostdrop grant <player|SteamID64> <multiplier> [duration] [category]

Examples:

boostdrop grant Odin 2 7d all
boostdrop grant Odin 1.5 48h mining
boostdrop grant 76561198000000001 3 30m mobdrop
boostdrop grant 76561198000000001 2 permanent all

Supported durations:

30m        30 minutes
12h        12 hours
7d         7 days
2w         2 weeks
permanent  no expiration

A number without a suffix is interpreted as days.

Admin commands

boostdrop grant <player|SteamID64> <multiplier> [duration] [category]
boostdrop revoke <player|SteamID64> [all|category]
boostdrop check <player|SteamID64>
boostdrop list
boostdrop reload
boostdrop cleanup
boostdrop perf
boostdrop gui
boostdrop me

boostdrop me shows only your own effective policy.

boostdrop perf shows lightweight runtime counters such as tracked targets, contributors, policy cache usage and checkpoint writes. It does not enable per-hit logging.

Administrative mutations are revalidated by the server.

Admin GUI

Press F8 to open the BoostDrop admin GUI.

Server admins can grant/update/revoke boosts, inspect rules, list grants, reload YAML files and clean expired grants.

The hotkey can be changed in the local BoostDrop client configuration.

Decimal multipliers

Decimal multipliers are supported.

Example:

4 items at x1.5 -> 6 items

For single-item quantities, the fractional part uses probabilistic rounding so long-term output remains close to the configured multiplier.

Hot reload

BoostDrop watches its server permission/grant files by default.

After editing BoostDrop_permissions.yaml, the server can apply the new rules without a full restart. You can also force it with:

boostdrop reload

Runtime config changes are applied after Jötunn synchronization completes. Changing permission/grant paths rebuilds the file watchers automatically.

Performance design

BoostDrop 2.1.1 was refactored for large multiplayer servers:

• no global player scan for every hit;
• no YAML read for every hit;
• no BoostDrop RPC for every hit;
• no per-entity Update() component;
• no ZDO write for every hit;
• damage contribution is an in-memory dictionary update;
• contribution persistence is compact and checkpointed in batches;
• the leading contributor is maintained incrementally;
• stale targets are cleaned incrementally with a hard safety cap;
• resolved player policies are cached;
• individual policy changes use runtime deltas rather than rebuilding every client state when possible;
• file-watcher echoes from BoostDrop's own grant writes are suppressed.

Important multiplayer notes

• Server and clients must use the same BoostDrop version.
• Server and clients should use compatible Jötunn versions.
• BoostDrop 2.1.1 is a client + server mod.
• Do not distribute BoostDrop_permissions.yaml or BoostDrop_grants.yaml to players.
• Nearby players do not automatically share a multiplier.
• Network ownership does not decide reward attribution.

Updating from an older version

1. Stop the server and clients.
2. Replace the old BoostDrop DLL everywhere.
3. Keep your existing permission file unless the changelog says otherwise.
4. Start the server.
5. Start clients using the same BoostDrop version.

The old YAML key farming remains accepted for plant growth compatibility. The previously exposed placeholder building category was removed because it did not implement real building-cost behavior.

Troubleshooting

My multiplier is not being applied

Run:

boostdrop me

Admins can inspect another player with:

boostdrop check <player|SteamID64>

I changed the YAML but nothing changed

Run:

boostdrop reload

Also verify that you edited the YAML inside the server's BepInEx/config folder.

F8 does nothing

Verify that:

• EnableAdminGui is enabled;
• your account is recognized by Valheim as a server admin;
• the client is running the same BoostDrop/Jötunn setup as the server.

Two nearby players have different multipliers

That is supported. Creature/tree/mining rewards use the highest valid player damage contribution, while pickables use the actual routed picker.

2.1.1 highlights

• Refactored damage attribution into a dynamic contributor ledger suitable for 30+ players.
• Strict player-only damage attribution; no proximity/network-owner guessing.
• Effective-damage correction using target HP before/after the hit when available.
• Batched contribution checkpoints instead of ZDO writes per hit.
• Correct vanilla fallback for non-player final damage, including ownership migration checkpoints.
• Effective policy cache and runtime identity directory.
• Snapshot + delta runtime policy synchronization.
• Sender-authoritative pickable attribution.
• One-time processed markers for chest loot and loose drops.
• Reworked reward context cleanup with generation tokens/finalizers.
• Robust YAML watcher restart/debounce/retry behavior.
• Removed the unused Building placeholder category.
• Renamed Farming behavior to PlantGrowth internally while keeping the legacy YAML alias.
• Added boostdrop perf diagnostics without per-hit logging.

License

BoostDrop is distributed under the license included with the package.

Changelog

2.1.1

• Fixed Windows build failure caused by a missing BoostDrop.Models import in GroundPickupService.
• Fixed nullable warnings in Jotunn configuration synchronization and GameObject result handling.
• Hardened build-boostdrop.ps1: native dotnet restore/build failures now stop immediately instead of continuing to Copy-Item and reporting a misleading missing-DLL error.
• No gameplay-rule change from 2.1.0; this is a build/validation fix for the P0-P2 refactor.

2.1.0

• Refactored damage attribution into a dynamic Dictionary-based contribution ledger designed for 30+ players without fixed contributor slots.
• Damage attribution now accepts only a real Player resolved directly from HitData; network owner, nearby players and local-player guessing are never used as combat attribution.
• Added effective-damage correction from target HP before/after the hit when a compatible health accessor is available; overkill is clamped to remaining health.
• Removed per-hit ZDO writes. Contributions stay in RAM and are persisted through compact, budgeted checkpoints (350 ms cadence, bounded targets per pass).
• Added checkpoint migration handling so network ownership changes do not decide reward identity.
• Non-player final damage keeps the reward vanilla, including targets that already carried a checkpoint from a previous owner.
• Separated contribution data from player policy data. Config/YAML/grant reloads no longer erase an in-progress boss/resource contribution ledger.
• Added EffectivePolicyCache so group/YAML/grant resolution is not performed in the damage hot path.
• Added RuntimeIdentityDirectory that keeps peer UID, runtime player ID and platform user ID separate.
• Added initial runtime-policy snapshots plus compact per-player deltas for joins/grants/revokes/disconnects.
• Fixed reconnect/stale identity collisions and policy-cache removal for disconnected peers.
• Reworked Pickable/PickableItem attribution to use the routed RPC sender rather than current ZDO owner/local player.
• Reworked loose ground pickup with a one-time processed marker to prevent drop/pickup multiplication exploits.
• Reworked chest loot to use a persistent ZDO processed marker instead of an unbounded static HashSet.
• Reworked DropBoostContext into a generation-token reward context with exception finalizers, preventing leaked nested contexts after Harmony failures.
• Added watcher restart/debounce/retry behavior and last-known-good YAML preservation.
• Suppressed watcher echoes caused by BoostDrop's own grant-file writes, avoiding redundant full reload/snapshot traffic.
• Removed the unimplemented Building placeholder category.
• Renamed Farming behavior internally to PlantGrowth; legacy YAML farming remains supported for compatibility.
• Added boostdrop perf counters for contribution tracking, checkpointing, policy cache and policy network traffic without per-hit logging.
• Updated source/build/package metadata to 2.1.0 and included the 256x256 BoostDrop icon.

2.0.4

• Replaced last-hit/network-owner creature attribution with a cumulative damage contribution ledger. The highest-damage Player receives the reward policy.
• Strict vanilla fallback: if the current damage attacker is not a real Player, BoostDrop does not attribute that hit; a non-player killing hit leaves the resulting reward vanilla.
• Mining/wood damage paths now use the same contribution model for MineRock, MineRock5, TreeBase, TreeLog and supported Destructible targets.
• ZDO/network ownership is never used as reward ownership. Nearby players can own the network object without stealing another player's multiplier.
• Added a resolved runtime policy directory so a client that currently owns a world object can apply the winning remote player's policy without any per-hit BoostDrop RPC. Raw permissions/grants YAML remains server-only.
• Damage totals are checkpointed compactly in the target ZDO so ownership migration does not erase earlier contributors; ZDO owner is transport/state only, never reward identity.
• Runtime Player.GetPlayerID() is reported during the existing policy request only as a lookup key; the server still resolves the effective policy from the authenticated peer identity. Contributor name is persisted once per target/player as a fallback.
• Hot-path optimization: O(1) dictionary updates per eligible hit, leader maintained incrementally, no player scans/YAML reads/RPCs/log strings per hit, no per-entity Update.
• Contribution cleanup is global, incremental (128 targets/minute tick), 10-minute stale timeout and an 8192-target safety cap.
• Runtime policy changes/grants invalidate in-memory policy caches; persisted damage totals remain attached to the target and are re-evaluated with the current policy.
• Build helper defaults to F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim dedicated server; BUILD-2.0.4.bat uses that script default instead of overriding it.

2.0.3

• Fixed live configuration updates becoming inconsistent until a server restart. Runtime policy refresh is now delayed until Jotunn configuration synchronization completes.
• Reworked YAML hot reload to wait for a quiet filesystem window, retry partial saves, preserve last-known-good permissions/grants on parse failures, and restart watchers when paths/settings change.
• Fixed dedicated-server player attribution: routed peer UID is resolved to the correct platform ID/name instead of falling back to an unrelated Player object.
• Fixed per-player multipliers leaking/collapsing so players with different x values are evaluated independently.
• Fixed Pickable and PickableItem on Valheim 1.0.x by resolving RPC_Pick sender identity directly on the authoritative instance.
• Prevented double multiplication of Pickable extra drops.
• Item/mob overrides are now evaluated even when the category base multiplier is x1.
• Added deterministic context cleanup across config/network lifecycle changes and Harmony exception finalizers so failed patched methods cannot poison the next event.
• Build helper now defaults to C:\\ValheimServer, removes the stale machine-specific active props file, and no longer contains the accidental trailing /ini token.

2.0.2

• Valheim 1.0.7 network compatibility: removed BoostDrop's dependency on Jotunn.Entities.CustomRPC for policy/admin traffic.
• Personalized policy request/push now uses Valheim's native ZRoutedRpc.Register<ZPackage> and InvokeRoutedRPC directly.
• Admin GUI request/response now also uses native ZRoutedRpc.
• No BoostDrop network path uses ZRoutedRpc.Everybody; every packet is addressed to the concrete server/client peer UID.
• RPC registration is bound to the current ZRoutedRpc instance and automatically re-registers after reconnect/world changes.
• Preserved the privacy boundary: clients receive only their own resolved effective policy, never the permissions/grants YAML.
• Preserved server-side admin validation and sender validation for policy/admin responses.
• Fixes the runtime failure MissingFieldException: Field not found: .ZRoutedRpc.Everybody originating from Jotunn 2.29.2 CustomRPC.SendPackage on Valheim 1.0.7.

2.0.1

• Fixed dedicated-server online player resolution. Grants/checks/policy sync now resolve connected users from ZNetPeer instead of requiring a remote Player GameObject on the server.
• Steam/platform identity is read from the peer socket host identity used by Valheim's admin/ban lists; name-based fallback remains available.
• Grant/Update and Revoke immediately push the recalculated personalized policy to the connected target peer.
• Initial client policy requests no longer fail when the dedicated server has no instantiated remote Player object.
• Client no longer compares SteamID64 policy identity against Player.GetPlayerID() (they are not the same identity domain).
• Added verbose policy-send logging when EnableLogging=true.

Build tooling fix (2026-09-04)

• Linux build discovers Jotunn.dll recursively under BepInEx/plugins.
• Linux build passes the real Valheim/BepInEx/Jotunn paths to MSBuild, overriding stale Windows BuildLocal.props.
• Project paths use cross-platform separators and include Unity UI support modules when present.

2.0.0

• Refeito o modelo de rede para cliente + servidor com autoridade do servidor.
• Jötunn passou a ser dependência obrigatória.
• Config funcional usa Jötunn ConfigSync/admin-only; servidor prevalece sobre clientes comuns.
• Removido o antigo sync do YAML completo (BoostDrop_SyncPermissions).
• BoostDrop_permissions.yaml agora é estritamente privado do servidor.
• Novo BoostDrop_grants.yaml, também privado do servidor, para permissões temporárias.
• Cliente recebe somente sua própria política efetiva já resolvida, em memória.
• RPC de política aceita dados apenas do peer real do servidor.
• RPC de administração aceita ações apenas de peers que o servidor confirma em adminlist.txt.
• Nova GUI admin em F8 com grant/update, revoke, check, list, reload e cleanup.
• Novos comandos boostdrop grant/revoke/check/list/reload/cleanup/gui/me e aliases com ponto.
• Grants temporários aceitam 30m, 12h, 7d, 2w, número puro em dias, permanent e data ISO/UTC.
• Multiplicadores agora suportam decimais com arredondamento probabilístico da fração.
• Nova categoria mobdrop, com override por mob e por item.
• Mantidas mining, wood, fishing e pickable.
• Removidos hooks genéricos de ItemDrop/pickup para impedir exploit de jogar stack no chão e multiplicar ao pegar novamente.
• Refeito o watcher de YAML para executar reload/sync na thread principal.
• YAML until inválido falha fechado: regra não fica ativa/permanente por erro de digitação.
• Preservada compatibilidade com userIds, players, playerDetails, groups, categories, items e until da 1.x.
• YamlDotNet local é usada no build quando disponível, com fallback para NuGet.

1.2.1

• Fix crítico: servidor dedicado + PlayFab — pedras/árvores pertencem ao cliente (ZDO owner); DropTable.GetDropList corre no cliente, não no servidor. Boost passa a aplicar também no cliente remoto (Player.m_localPlayer).
• Comandos boostdrop.check passam a escrever no LogOutput.log (além do chat).

1.2.0

• Fix: servidor dedicado + PlayFab — resolução do jogador via HitData.m_attacker, GetConnectedPeers, nome do peer e fallback com 1 jogador online.
• Fix: Destructible.RPC_Damage passa a propagar o sender.

1.1.0

• Categorias mineração, lenha, pesca e colheita.
• YAML expandido com grupos, playerDetails, itens e until.
• Reload automático e comandos básicos.

1.0.0

• Versão inicial: boost por jogador em mineração e lenha.

2.0.0 buildfix2

• Fixed compilation against the stock Valheim 0.221.12 dedicated-server assemblies (non-publicized).
• Replaced private CharacterDrop.m_character access with GetComponent<Character>() / parent lookup.
• Replaced private ZRoutedRpc.GetServerPeerID() access with public ZNet.GetServerPeer()?.m_uid resolution.
• Tightened nullable handling in drop/config/grant parsing paths.