Clan Wars

Build a home, choose your allies, and decide when to go to war.

Clan Wars adds clan territory, diplomacy, trading and organised player battles to Valheim. Form a clan with friends, protect your settlement, and establish smaller camps as you explore. Trade with allied clans, scout rival bases, or compete for powerful relics that remain in the world.

You do not have to start fighting as soon as you join. By default, new clans are Peaceful and cannot be raided. Your leader decides whether the clan enters the war, and each member separately chooses whether to take part in combat.

Join the Clan Wars community on Discord

Your main controls are in the clan panel, opened with F6, and the War Map, a new view on Valheim's map. Start by joining or founding a clan, then build a Clan Ward to claim a home for it. The sections below explain each feature as you need it.

The numbers below are default settings. Your server may use different limits, distances and timers. Open Rules in the clan panel to see the settings you are playing with.

Contents: Before you join · Founding a clan · Clan colours · The clan panel · Who you can fight · Ranks · Alliances · Clan Wards & bases · Clan Outposts · Finding bases & Scout Ravens · Raids · Breaking in · The War Map · Trade · Odin-Sent Relics · Moshpits & battles · Death & respawning · Languages · For server owners

Before you join

What you need installed

Clan Wars must be installed on the server and every player's game.

Use Thunderstore Mod Manager or r2modman to create a profile and install BepInExPack Valheim and Clan Wars. Add Valheim Plus if your server asks for it, then launch with Start modded. Your Valheim game version must also match the server's. Missing or mismatched required mods prevent you from joining.

Fresh characters only

Bring a new character for this server. On its first visit, it may have only the starting rag tunic and torch, no forsaken power, and no skill above level 1.

Keep that character's progress on this server. Returning with equipment, improved items, powers or skills gained in another world can prevent it from joining again. A refused character is not changed or stripped of items; the connection screen explains the reason.

Founding a clan

A clan is your group of players, sharing a name, territory and diplomacy. Press F6, open Roster, and either accept an invitation or create your own clan.

To create one, enter a full name and a unique tag of 2–5 letters or digits. The tag appears before members' names. Choose an available clan colour, then press Found clan.

The founder becomes Leader. Use Invite to choose a clanless player who is online. They accept with Join on their Roster tab; an invitation does not reserve a place.

Once you have a clan, build a Clan Ward from the Hammer menu to claim your first base. You can settle and trade while remaining Peaceful.

Clan colours

Choose one of fifteen colours to represent your clan. Each colour can belong to only one clan on the server; colours already taken are unavailable.

Your clan colour appears on members' capes, shields, armour, helmets and weapons, and on your Clan Wards. Equipment keeps its underlying material appearance. Capturing a Ward changes it to your colour.

The appearance follows the player, rather than permanently dyeing the item. Looting a rival's shield does not keep their colour, and leaving a clan removes its colour from your equipment. Relics and beards keep their own appearance.

The Leader can use Change on the Roster tab to choose another available colour. The old colour then becomes available to other clans. A clan with no colour can choose one there too.

The clan panel

Press F6 or the inventory's Open Clan UI button. Press Esc to close it. While the panel is open, the mouse is free and your character does not move. Use the mouse wheel to scroll long lists.

Logs and Rules sit beside Close. View on War Map takes you from a listed base or relic to its map location. Actions use the panel, map and chest windows; there are no chat commands to memorise.

Who you can fight

Clan Wars separates your clan's war status from your personal choice to fight.

• Peaceful clan: new clans start here. Their Wards and Outposts are shielded from raids.
• Warbound clan: the Leader permanently enters the clan into the war with Enter the War, or by starting its first valid raid. The clan can then be raided when the other raid requirements are met.
• Peaceful member: joining a Warbound clan does not automatically make you a fighter.
• Combatant: choose Join the War to permanently opt into combat once your clan is Warbound.

Peaceful members cannot damage other players or be damaged by them. They do not count toward raid presence or capture, are moved out of active raid territory, and cannot carry or equip Odin-Sent Relics. If their clan is attacked, they receive a notice explaining how to join the war if they wish.

Servers can disable this Peaceful/Warbound system. With it enabled, the following clan relationships apply to players who have joined combat:

Names use relationship colours: green for your clan, blue for allies, red for rivals and grey for clanless players.

A peaceful spawn. The area within 50 m of the world spawn protects players from PvP. Attacks cannot cross its boundary. A dome marks the area and can be walked through.

Creatures are different. Clan protection does not make a clanmate's tame harmless. Tames, summons and traps can still hurt you outside the special protected areas. Tames and summons cannot attack through the spawn sanctuary or a shielded camp, or damage claimed structures.

Player damage otherwise follows Valheim's armour and resistance rules, with any damage multiplier chosen by the server. Bows and crossbows have their own multiplier, and arrows and bolts never stagger a player.

Ranks

Each rank includes the permissions of the rank below it.

There is one Leader. During a raid, members of the participating clans and their allies cannot leave, be kicked or disband their clans.

By default, a Leader inactive for 72 hours becomes an Officer. The longest-serving eligible Officer takes over, or the longest-serving Member if there is no Officer. Offline members can be chosen; a one-person clan keeps its Leader.

A clan with no member activity for 7 days is retired. Its members become clanless and its name and tag become available again. Its Wards and Outpost Flags are removed and bed claims cleared, but beds, ordinary buildings, containers, items, portals, ships and carts remain. There is no gradual building decay. Servers can change or disable either inactivity timer.

Alliances

An alliance is an agreement between two clans. It prevents friendly fire between them, allows them to help one another in raids, and lets them open trade routes.

Both Leaders must agree: one sends an offer from Diplomacy, and the other accepts it. Allies still do not gain general access to each other's claimed buildings or storage.

Ending an alliance immediately ends its protection and closes its trade routes. Goods already offered for trade are returned. Two clans fighting each other in a raid cannot form an alliance until it ends.

Clan Wards & bases

A Clan Ward claims a 150 m radius for your clan. Build it free from the Hammer menu. It looks like a larger Ward, is always active, and belongs to the whole clan rather than its builder. An ordinary Valheim Ward remains a personal Ward.

Where a Ward may stand

A Ward's territory cannot overlap a moshpit's protective dome. An invalid Ward is removed and you are told which placement rule it broke, without revealing a hidden rival base.

How many Wards

Your clan starts with room for 3 Wards. Capturing a Ward raises your limit by one; losing one lowers it by one, never below three. A Ward built beyond your allowance does not claim land. Check Bases to see your current holdings.

What a claim protects

A claim is the territory protected by a Ward or Outpost. Outsiders—including allies—cannot build, remove pieces, dig, level ground, open chests or doors, use portals, or claim beds inside your Ward's territory. They cannot damage it except as allowed during a raid on that base. Anything an outsider still manages to build there is taken down by the server within a second or so, without a refund.

Crafting stations in a base are available to its clan and allies. Monsters can still attack your base; a claim is not protection from Valheim's world.

Each Clan Ward also has a five-slot feather store. Interact with the Ward to open it and stock feathers for Scout Raven flights. Long Ward names appear above the chest controls and item grid.

Clan Outposts

A Clan Outpost is a smaller camp away from your main base. Build a free Clan Outpost Flag to claim a 60 m radius. You do not need a crafting station to place it.

Outposts protect your camp from outsiders' building, dismantling and storage access. Like bases, they must be discovered before a rival can raid them.

Camp raids differ from main-base raids:

• A member of the defending clan must be online, but can be anywhere on the server.
• The opening five-minute shield gives defenders time to arrive. Only the camp's clan can enter; damage and capture are paused until the shield lifts.
• Attackers then compete for the smaller capture zone within the remaining raid time.

Capturing a camp transfers its territory and trade posts. You may keep a captured camp even if it puts you over your allowance, but cannot place more Flags until you are within the limit. Destroying the Flag releases its land without removing the buildings. Neither side can dismantle the Flag with the Hammer during a raid.

Building means holding ground

Build settlements on your clan's claimed land. In the wilderness, everyone can still place a Campfire, Workbench, wooden Cooking Station and bed for travelling and survival. Other building pieces are unavailable until the land belongs to your clan.

Chests on ground nobody holds

Player-built chests on unclaimed ground stay locked until a clan claims the area again. This also applies when a Ward or Flag is destroyed. Beds and the chests generated in ruins are unaffected by this chest-access rule.

Finding bases & Scout Ravens

Your clan needs to discover a target before raiding it. Coming within 200 m reveals a base to your clan. A Scout Raven is a scouting flight you can send to search for Clan Wards at a distance.

Discoveries are shared with your whole clan and marked on the War Map. They do not uncover terrain or reveal players inside the base.

Sending a Raven

1. Open the War Map and right-click the area to search. Left click only selects bases, camps and relics.
2. Choose a departure Ward and a search radius: 250 m, 500 m or 1 km.
3. Check the feather cost and send the Raven. Feathers come from that Ward's store.
4. Wait for its return to learn which Clan Wards it found in the search circle.

Each clan has 3 Ravens. Only Officers and the Leader can send them. A flight costs 10 feathers per kilometre to the search area, multiplied by 1, 1.25 or 1.5 for the three search sizes. Travel takes 5 minutes per kilometre each way.

Ravens search only the chosen circle, not the route they fly. They find Wards, not players, buildings or terrain, and cannot be sent again until they return.

Raids

A raid is a timed fight over a discovered rival base. Start it from the War Map by selecting a target and choosing Initiate Raid. Hitting a protected base does not start a raid.

Only a Leader can start a Peaceful clan's first raid; later raids may also be started by Officers. Peaceful clans cannot be targeted. Neither participating clan can already be in a raid, the clans cannot be allies, and the defender cannot have post-raid protection.

Defenders must be online. For a main base, a member of the defending clan must be online and within 250 m of its Ward. An ally does not count. Outposts only require a defending member somewhere online. Peaceful members do not count toward raid presence or capture.

1. The raid begins. Both clans receive a centre-screen announcement.
2. Attack that base. The attackers have 30 minutes and may damage only the targeted base.
3. Control the Ward. Hold its 50 m capture zone for 5 minutes of progress to capture it. Eligible living players count for their side, including allies of only that side. More attackers advance capture; more defenders reverse it. Equal numbers or an empty zone pause it.
4. Capture or defend. A captured Ward and its territory change hands. Bed claims inside the base are cleared, but the beds remain. If time runs out first, the defenders win and raid damage stops.

Destroying the Ward also ends the raid in the attackers' favour, but leaves the land unclaimed. The defending side cannot destroy its own Ward, and it cannot be dismantled with the Hammer during the raid.

Afterward, only the defending clan receives two hours of protection. Offline time counts. Attackers can begin another valid raid immediately. A protected clan may attack, but gives up its own protection when that raid successfully starts; a refused attempt does not remove it.

The on-screen raid display shows time, capture progress and nearby fighters. The War Map also shows the capture zone. Server owners can change or disable post-raid protection.

Breaking in

Raid damage depends on the weapon and building material. Ordinary weapons work, but siege equipment is much more effective against strong walls.

These percentages are the share of normal weapon damage dealt to structures during the raid. Furniture takes half that amount.

Fire arrows

Fire arrows can ignite wooden walls, fortifications and furniture during a raid. Fire damages the piece over time and rain puts it out. The fire stays on the piece hit rather than spreading to neighbours. Inside a claim, this fire damage works only during a raid on that base.

The War Map

Open Valheim's map and choose Normal Map or War Map at the top.

The Normal Map is for exploration and your usual pins. The War Map shows clan territory and discoveries, Ravens, trade routes and caravans, raids, relics and duel arenas, along with the world spawn and the boss altars you have found. Switching views does not reveal unexplored terrain.

Your location and map pings are shared only with your own clan. Allies, rivals and clanless players do not receive your live position, including during raids.

• Select a Ward or Outpost for details, or use View on War Map from the clan panel.
• Follow caravan pins as they travel between trade posts.
• Select a relic pin to see its information.
• During a raid, its marker replaces the target's usual marker.
• War Map pins also appear on the minimap.
• Boss Vegvisirs open the Normal Map to show their boss location.
• Valheim's own raid is marked only for the clan whose ground it falls on, and for anyone standing in it.

Trade

A trade post is a chest registered for exchanging goods with an allied clan. A trade route connects the two clans' posts, and a caravan is the shipment travelling between them.

Each clan may register 3 posts. Open a chest you built on your clan's claimed land, press Set trade post, and give it a unique name. Graves, dungeon chests, wilderness chests and chests on another clan's land cannot be trade posts.

Once both allies have a post, open a route from Trade. Travel time follows the distance between the selected chests: 5 minutes per kilometre by default.

Making a trade

1. Open a registered chest or its row in Trade, then select Initiate trade and choose an ally.
2. Choose what to send and what you want in return from the two chest inventories.
3. Your offered goods are removed and held safely while the other clan decides.
4. An Officer of the other clan accepts, declines or sends a counter-offer with different terms.
5. Once agreed, two caravans set off, one in each direction.
6. Each shipment automatically unloads into its destination chest when it arrives.

Only stackable materials, food and ammunition can be traded this way. Weapons, armour, tools and relics cannot. An offer can contain up to 5 item types and 9,999 of each in each direction. You do not have to stand at a chest to answer an offer.

A counter-offer does not move more goods until agreed. Cancelling or declining returns held goods, as does ending the alliance or route.

Leave room for deliveries. A caravan unloads its whole shipment or waits for space and tries again. A full chest does not prevent retirement.

A retired or disbanded clan loses its trade goods. Goods it put up in offers and caravans still on their way to it are destroyed. Goods another clan put up in an offer with it go back to that clan.

Odin-Sent Relics

Odin-Sent Relics are ten unique wearable treasures: five improve combat, and five help with gathering, crafting or travel. Boss victories send them into the world for players to find and contest.

Only one of each relic exists. A boss can send a replacement only after that relic is gone and at least 3 hours have passed since its last gift. Peaceful members must join the war before carrying or wearing relics.

It falls from the sky

A relic arrives as a visible meteor and leaves a shallow crater. Its impact clears trees, rocks and ordinary buildings within 10 m, but spares people, creatures, loose items, graves, ships, carts, portals and Clan Wards.

Odin guards it

A protective dome keeps a new relic out of reach for 6 hours for a Military relic or 3 hours for an Economic relic. It fades during the final five minutes. Until protection ends, the War Map shows an approximate area rather than the exact spot.

Everyone is notified when the relic becomes available. When someone first claims it, nearby players hear Odin speak.

Loose relics hover

Unclaimed or dropped relics hover above the ground or water with light and sound to help you spot them. Pick them up where they float.

Wearing one

• Equip a relic in the trinket slot to receive its effect.
• Wear one at a time; equipping another replaces it.
• Carry at most two, including the one you wear.
• A worn relic is visible around your character's neck.
• Relics remain visible on the War Map, including when carried, stored or left in a grave.

Helmet, chest, leg armour and cape weighing 20 kg or more together count as heavy armour; less counts as light.

Relics belong to the world. Logging out leaves a carried relic where you stood. Dying leaves it in your grave, or on the ground if the world's death settings keep or remove your items. Relics cannot be placed on armour stands or taken to another world with your character.

Moshpits & battles

A moshpit is a protected arena for agreed one-on-one duels. Five appear in the Plains, marked on the War Map. Each surrounds a large Vegvisir, the standing stone you use to challenge a player.

Fight a rival, an ally or a clanmate. These battles are a separate consensual way to fight.

1. Challenge: use the arena's Vegvisir and choose an online player.
2. Accept: the other player has 30 minutes to answer from Battles.
3. Meet: after acceptance, both players have 30 minutes to come within 25 m of the stone and press Commence.
4. Duel: an arrow marks your opponent. Only the two participants can damage one another.
5. Finish: the first to fall loses, dropping their belongings as on death but keeping all skills.

The arena's 72 m protective dome blocks other player combat and attacks crossing its edge. Several separate duels can take place in one arena at the same time. Clan territory cannot overlap the dome.

Leaving the arena or disconnecting during a duel counts as a loss; if you disconnect, the death is applied when you return. Your personal Battle Log records your results even if you change clans.

Clan battles

A clan battle is an agreed fight between two clans for a wager, arranged at a cartography table built on your own land. Any clan with a table can challenge any other clan with one — allies and Peaceful clans included. Nothing is lost on the field, so there is nothing to protect anyone from.

The table has a small chest at its right-hand end. Look at the table and press F4 to open your clan's battles.

1. Wager: put what you are staking in the top row of the table's chest — or nothing, and fight for the win alone. The bottom row is where winnings are laid; it is never taken.
2. Challenge: pick the clan, how many fighters each side brings, and which of your clan go. Only members who are online can be chosen. An officer or the leader does this.
3. They answer: the other clan puts up a wager of its own. You see it, then take it or walk away.
4. Commence: once both clans are ready, everyone chosen is taken to a neutral field.
5. Fight: 15 minutes. The clan with the most kills takes both wagers. Level is a draw and each wager goes home.

Each clan starts on its own guarded ground at one end of the field — yours is green, theirs is red. No attack crosses either. You can walk out of yours, but nobody can walk in, and standing in it for more than 30 seconds puts you just outside it.

Falling costs you nothing: no gravestone, nothing dropped, no lost skills, no corpse run, and your food and Forsaken power are kept. You wait 10 seconds on your clan's ground and are back in the fight. Ground you cross during a battle stays under the fog of war on your map.

Winnings arrive in the bottom row of your table's chest. If there is no space, you are told to make some — nothing is lost, and they are put there as soon as you clear a slot. Log out mid-battle and you return to it; if it finished without you, you come back to your cartography table.

Death & respawning

After death, the map opens on where you fell. Select a claimed bed or the world spawn by clicking its pin on the map or picking it from the list (the map moves to show it). Your choice turns green; then press Respawn here at the bottom of the panel. The bed must still exist and belong to you. If a raid cleared its claim, you cannot use it to respawn inside the captured base.

Beds can be claimed without a roof, making outdoor camps useful on long journeys. Sleeping through the night still needs shelter.

You may keep 15 claimed beds. Claim a sixteenth and your oldest claim is released — the bed stays standing, it simply belongs to nobody until someone claims it again. After you wake in a bed it rests for 5 minutes and cannot be used to respawn again until that passes. The world spawn never rests.

Playing with a controller

The clan panel, the War Map and the respawn map can all be driven with a gamepad, and the on-screen hints use the buttons of the pad in your hands. Move with the left stick or the d-pad, choose with the south button, go back with the east one, change tab with the shoulder buttons, scroll with the right stick, and close with the right trigger. Typing opens Valheim's own on-screen keyboard.

In your inventory, the shoulder buttons cycle onto the Open Clan UI button like any other window.

Languages

Clan Wars follows your selected Valheim language and responds when you change it. English, French and Polish are included; missing translations fall back to English.

Menus, relic descriptions, hover prompts, map labels and Clan Wars announcements use your language. Player and clan names, custom place names and countdown numbers stay as written. The Scout Raven feathers prompt keeps your keyboard or controller binding visible.

Server owners can choose the language of new automatic Ward and Outpost names separately. Changing it does not rename existing places or change anyone's menu language.

For server owners

Install the same Clan Wars version on the server and every player's game. Valheim Plus remains optional; if you use it, read the included compatibility guide before changing its settings.

Settings are in BepInEx/config/ClanWarsConfig.cfg, with descriptions beside them. The server sets the gameplay rules for everyone. Tell players when you change defaults, especially clan sizes, territory distances, raid protection and inactivity timers.

• Raid protection: RaidCooldownSeconds defaults to 7200 (2 hours); 0 disables it.
• Leader succession: LeaderInactivityDuration defaults to 259200 (72 hours); 0 disables it.
• Clan retirement: ClanAbandonmentDuration defaults to 604800 (7 days); 0 disables it.
• Automatic place names: [Server] DefaultLanguage defaults to English; French and Polish are supported with English fallback. Existing names remain unchanged when you change it.

Changing inactivity durations adjusts existing timers rather than restarting them. Older saves receive a full configured grace period when activity records are missing. Back up the world and its clan data together; clan records are stored in BepInEx/ClanWars/<world>.clans.json.

Opening the Field Manual and the Valheim Plus Conflict Sheet

The download includes two browser-readable guides in its docs folder. Share them with players or keep them handy while setting up the server.

1. In Thunderstore Mod Manager or r2modman, open Settings → Browse profile folder, then BepInEx/plugins/Host-ClanWars/docs.
2. For a manual installation, open the Clan Wars download or the mod's folder under BepInEx/plugins, then open docs.
3. Open Clan Wars Field Manual.html for the player guide.
4. Open Valheim Plus Conflict Sheet.html for settings that can interfere with Clan Wars when both mods are installed.

Admins and testers who need to join with existing equipment can be listed in ExemptPlayers using the same player IDs as adminlist.txt.