The Lyngvi Wardens

Four immortal skeletal Wardens who patrol, protect, resurrect, and grow stronger with your saga.

Death is not the end in Valheim.

Some warriors linger not because they fear the halls beyond, but because an oath still binds them to the living world. Four such souls now accompany your journey: Bodvar, Starkad, Orvar and Egil.

They patrol around you like an honor guard, automatically engage enemies, accompany you through interiors and dungeons, recover from wounds, and reform after death. Their strength follows your personal boss progression rather than whichever biome you happen to enter.

The Wardens

Bodvar — The Shield-Bearer

A hulking tank inspired by Bödvar Bjarki. Bodvar uses the Rancid Remains-style body, fights with a mace, and now carries a massive Nord Greatshield. His tank profile has been substantially reinforced in 1.1.0, including higher health, normalized defensive resistances and active blocking behaviour.

Role: Tank / frontline defender
Element: Poison

Starkad — The Berserker

A burning melee Warden inspired by Starkaðr. Starkad uses Brenna's skeletal form and a fixed flaming greatsword, trading defence for aggressive pressure.

Role: Berserker / melee damage
Element: Fire

Orvar — The Marksman

Inspired by Örvar-Oddr, Orvar is the long-range backline specialist. In 1.1.0 he reacts faster to the wider battle, keeps more distance from enemies, kites when threatened, and visually carries a proper Finewood Bow rather than the crooked skeleton bow.

Role: Sniper / ranged support
Element: Frost

Egil — The Skirmisher

A new fourth Warden inspired by the legendary archer Egil. Egil uses the Charred Marksman body from the Ashlands for a distinct silhouette, but his native endgame combat package is stripped away and replaced by the Wardens' own progression system. He fights as a mobile flanker and skirmisher rather than another stationary sniper.

Role: Skirmisher / mobile ranged support
Element: Lightning

Features

• Four persistent named companions: Bodvar, Starkad, Orvar and Egil.
• Autonomous honor-guard patrol behaviour around the player.
• Shared combat awareness so the backline joins fights faster.
• Distinct combat identities rather than four copies of the same follower AI.
• Bodvar actively blocks with a progression-scaled Nord Greatshield.
• Orvar maintains sniper distance and kites nearby threats.
• Egil circles, flanks and fights at a shorter skirmisher range.
• Fixed individual weapons and visual identities.
• Boss-progression-based scaling.
• 20-second resurrection after death.
• 2% maximum-health regeneration per second, including during combat.
• Dungeon/interior transfer support.
• Anti-stuck and emergency catch-up behaviour.
• No companion drops.

Progression

Entering a later biome early does not instantly power up the Wardens, and returning to an earlier biome later does not weaken them.

Requirements

• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2333 or newer compatible 5.4.23.x build
• Jötunn 2.30.1

Installation

Thunderstore / r2modman

Install The Lyngvi Wardens and its declared dependencies, then launch Valheim modded.

Manual installation

1. Install BepInExPack for Valheim.
2. Install Jötunn.
3. Place TheLyngviWardens.dll in Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/TheLyngviWardens/.
4. Launch Valheim through BepInEx.

Updating from 1.0.0

Install 1.1.0 over the previous release. The mod contains migration logic for the redesigned Bodvar and Orvar and adds Egil as the fourth Warden. Do not keep an old SoulboundCompanion.dll alongside TheLyngviWardens.dll.

Compatibility & Multiplayer

• Developed/tested around Valheim 1.0.12.
• Single-player is the primary tested environment.
• Hosted multiplayer and dedicated-server behaviour remain experimental until more extensive testing is completed.

Known limitations

• No configuration menu yet.
• Multiplayer/dedicated-server behaviour has not been exhaustively tested.
• Combat balance may continue to be tuned through playtesting.

Credits & Development

Created as an independent Valheim mod using BepInEx and Jötunn.

The Lyngvi Wardens was developed with substantial assistance from OpenAI ChatGPT, including programming, debugging, documentation, design iteration and packaging.

The Wardens are fictional Valheim companions inspired by figures from medieval Norse legendary literature and are not presented as historically exact adaptations.

Bug Reports

Please include your Valheim, BepInEx and Jötunn versions, whether you are playing single-player/hosted/dedicated, LogOutput.log, and what happened immediately before the issue.

Changelog

1.3.0

• Added a configurable summon/dismiss hotkey. Default: Left Alt + Z.
• Added wardens summon, wardens dismiss, wardens toggle, and wardens regroup console commands.
• Added per-character persistence for the summoned/dismissed state.
• Warden health percentage is stored when dismissed and restored when summoned again.
• Remaining resurrection time is preserved when a dead Warden is dismissed.
• Added player-to-Warden collision ignoring.
• Added Warden-to-Warden collision ignoring.
• Added compact interior collider profiles for Bodvar and Starkad.
• Bodvar and Starkad now use the standard Skeleton pathfinding agent.
• Added faster stuck detection and recovery inside interiors.
• Added manual Warden regrouping through the console command.
• Increased Bodvar's outdoor patrol range to 12–18 metres.
• Added an 8.5 metre peaceful personal-space threshold for Bodvar outdoors.
• Starkad retains the closer 8–14 metre melee patrol range.

1.2.0

• Changed Egil from the Charred Marksman body to a normal Skeleton body.
• Changed Egil to a Finewood Bow appearance.
• Increased Egil's firing frequency.
• Removed Egil's constant forced flanking loop.
• Reduced Egil's unnecessary side-to-side combat movement.
• Egil's custom movement now focuses mainly on retreating from close threats.
• Changed Orvar to a large Charred-style longbow appearance.
• Orvar's bow remains mechanically normalized for Warden balance.
• Added migration handling for the updated Orvar and Egil prefabs.

1.1.0

• Added Egil, the fourth Lyngvi Warden.
• Added Lightning elemental damage for Egil.
• Increased Bodvar's base health from 70 to 150.
• Replaced Bodvar's Bronze Buckler with a Nord Greatshield.
• Added active shield-blocking behaviour for Bodvar.
• Added progression-scaled shield block strength.
• Removed inherited Rancid Remains blunt and fire weaknesses from Bodvar.
• Improved Orvar's combat awareness.
• Added ranged kiting and minimum-distance behaviour.
• Changed Orvar to a Finewood Bow appearance.
• Added shared Warden threat awareness.
• Added distinct long-range Marksman and closer Skirmisher ranged roles.

1.0.0

• Initial public release of The Lyngvi Wardens.
• Added Bodvar, Starkad and Orvar.
• Added autonomous honor-guard patrol behaviour.
• Added character-based boss progression scaling.
• Added persistent companions.
• Added individual 20-second resurrection.
• Added 2% maximum-health regeneration per second.
• Added dungeon and interior transfer support.
• Added anti-stuck and emergency catch-up behaviour.
• Added fixed Warden loadouts.
• Added Poison, Fire and Frost elemental identities.