DreadRifts

By Ketanol · Version 0.1.5 · Early release

Build a rift gate and enter a sequence of PvE arena trials across Valheim's biomes. Fight enemy waves, defend an altar, defeat bosses and bring your expedition's loot home.

The current in-game interface is in Russian. English instructions are followed by a Russian guide below.

Features

• Eight biome stages, from Meadows to Deep North, with ten levels per stage.
• Enemy waves, altar defence, elite encounters and boss fights.
• Three difficulty settings, party scaling and readiness controls.
• Buildable gates, a gate guardian and reusable keys bound to their original gate.
• Shared expedition storage, personal rewards and repairs between battles.
• Saved expedition progress and individual departure and re-entry.
• A matching, permanently open gate inside the arena provides the return route.

The new round-by-round enemy count and star progression applies only to Meadows and Black Forest. Later biomes retain their previous combat balance.

Fallen participants wait up to 60 seconds, watching living allies (← / → switches targets). An ally clearing a wave or completing the level releases the remaining wait automatically. Arena music follows preparation, combat and boss phases and uses the normal game music volume.

Installation

Use Thunderstore Mod Manager or r2modman to install DreadRifts and its dependencies:

• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350.
• Jotunn 2.30.0.

Install the same DreadRifts version on the server and every player's client. Epic Loot is optional.

For manual installation, install the dependencies first, then copy plugins/DreadRifts/DreadRifts.dll from this ZIP into BepInEx/plugins/DreadRifts/. Replace an existing DreadRifts DLL rather than keeping a second copy.

Getting started

1. Defeat Eikthyr in the normal world to unlock the first trial stage.
2. Build the gate using the hammer's DreadRifts category near a workbench. It costs 60 Stone, 40 Wood, 10 Bone Fragments and 2 Surtling Cores. Allow enough level ground for the gate and its entrance.
3. Approach the gate, defeat its guardian and collect a key. Each participant needs their own key for these gates.
4. Interact with the gate and choose a difficulty to open it. Walk through the doorway and into the rift at the back to enter the arena. Opening the doors alone does not send anyone inside.
5. Stand together in the green floor circle for three seconds to start battle. Leaving cancels the countdown. After victory, enemy loot enters shared storage automatically; gather in the purple central circle to advance without a menu confirmation. F8 opens expedition controls and storage.

To leave between levels, turn back toward the open gate behind the arrival point and walk into its rift. Returning does not require a key. You can later re-enter through the original outside gate with its key and continue the expedition. Departure during combat is unavailable.

Later biome stages also require the corresponding world boss victory and completion of the preceding expedition stage.

Configuration and release status

The configuration file is BepInEx/config/ketanol.dreadrifts.cfg. It includes the expedition menu key, which defaults to F8, and a local effects intensity setting.

This is an early release, tested on Valheim 1.0.12. The earlier 0.1.1 gate and return-route check passed all 96 assertions. Version 0.1.5 builds successfully; its new arena flow awaits gameplay verification. A full playthrough with multiple real players, complete 80-level balance testing and broad compatibility testing remain in progress.

Русская инструкция

DreadRifts добавляет экспедиции с аренами: восемь биомов по десять уровней, волны врагов, защиту алтаря, элитных противников и боссов. Доступны три сложности, общий склад, личные награды, ремонт между боями и сохранение прогресса экспедиции.

Новый рост количества врагов и звёзд по раундам действует только в Лугах и Чёрном лесу. В остальных биомах сохранён прежний боевой баланс.

После смерти ожидание составляет 60 секунд. В это время можно наблюдать за союзниками; ← / → переключают цель. Если союзник зачищает волну или завершает уровень, оставшееся ожидание снимается автоматически. Музыка меняется между подготовкой, боем и боссом; громкость регулируется обычной настройкой музыки Valheim.

Установка

Установите мод через Thunderstore Mod Manager или r2modman вместе с BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350 и Jotunn 2.30.0. Одинаковая версия DreadRifts нужна на сервере и у каждого игрока. Epic Loot необязателен.

При ручной установке сначала установите зависимости, затем перенесите plugins/DreadRifts/DreadRifts.dll из архива в BepInEx/plugins/DreadRifts/. При обновлении замените прежнюю DLL, чтобы не осталось двух копий мода.

Как играть

1. Победите Эйктюра в обычном мире, чтобы открыть первый этап испытаний.
2. Постройте врата молотом из категории DreadRifts рядом с верстаком. Рецепт: 60 камня, 40 древесины, 10 обломков костей и 2 ядра суртлинга. Подготовьте достаточно ровного места для врат и входа.
3. Подойдите к вратам, победите хранителя и подберите ключ. Каждому участнику нужен свой ключ, связанный с этими вратами.
4. Взаимодействуйте с вратами и выберите сложность. Створки откроются. Пройдите через проём к разлому в глубине врат — он перенесёт вас на арену. Само открытие створок никого не переносит.
5. Встаньте всем отрядом в зелёный напольный круг на три секунды, чтобы начать бой. Выход отменяет отсчёт. После победы добыча врагов автоматически отправляется на склад; для перехода дальше соберитесь в фиолетовом круге у алтаря. Подтверждение в меню не нужно. F8 открывает управление экспедицией и склад.

Выход: между уровнями обернитесь к открытым вратам позади точки прибытия и войдите в разлом. Ключ для выхода не нужен. Вернуться в ту же экспедицию можно через исходные врата со своим ключом. Во время боя выйти нельзя.

Следующие этапы открываются после победы над соответствующим боссом обычного мира и прохождения предыдущего этапа экспедиции. Общий склад, личные награды и ремонт доступны через службы арены и меню экспедиции.

Настройки находятся в BepInEx/config/ketanol.dreadrifts.cfg: клавиша меню и интенсивность местных визуальных эффектов.

Статус: ранняя версия 0.1.5, проверенная на Valheim 1.0.12. Проверка входа и выхода через врата версии 0.1.1 прошла все 96 пунктов. Версия 0.1.5 успешно собрана; новая механика арены ожидает проверки в игре. Полное прохождение настоящей сетевой группой, баланс всех 80 уровней и проверка широкого набора других модов ещё продолжаются.

Credits

Created by Ketanol with substantial AI assistance in development and artwork. Built with BepInEx and Jotunn. Native Valheim prefabs are referenced from the installed game; game assemblies are not included in this package.

0.1.23

• Sample Ashlands candidates in the southern cap instead of wasting attempts at other latitudes.
• Add versioned terrain preparation for newly reserved Ashlands arenas: persist a level foundation and clear the lava mask inside the arena footprint.
• Allow shallow shore edges and uneven ground while retaining dry-centre, deep-water, biome, location, untouched-sector and player-property checks.
• Commit the site reservation before preparing the new foundation; prepare terrain one tile at a time.
• Stop searches after 90 seconds or the candidate limit, report exhaustion and add a server-validated retry with a different candidate sequence.
• Preserve existing fortress protection and existing arena terrain rules.
• No tests or game launches. User verification is required before publication.

0.1.22

• Separate saved-fortress recovery from new placement: no clearance or terrain levelling on recovery.
• Wait for native world loading before reconciling saved objects; retain support roots during startup.
• Restrict site clearance to recognized natural obstacles, excluding player provenance, structures, containers and loose items.
• Stop new placement over structures/containers before terraforming; remove automatic relocation outside the footprint.
• Persist site preparation completion to prevent repetition after interrupted placement.
• Recover surviving packed objects only, without resetting live furniture to an outdated manifest.
• Wait for physical fortress supports before restoring cargo; suspend local wear while recovering missing supports.
• Preserve Russian/English translations and update placement messages.
• Compiled against Jotunn 2.30.1. No tests or game launches; publication awaits user verification.

0.1.21

• Remove the global world-spawn lock while waiting for the expedition handshake.
• Allow native spawn when a saved expedition has no prepared checkpoint; keep progression and membership for background arena preparation.
• Preserve the known arena death countdown and wait for arena ground before deferred travel.
• Log native-spawn fallback and rate-limit handshake error diagnostics.
• Build against installed Jotunn 2.30.1; no game launches or tests.

0.1.20

• Separate the two fortress gates into independent saved network states.
• Create exactly two stationary controls per gate, one on either side; each pair operates only its own gate.
• Derive control anchors from the fortress template and validate server-side proximity to the requested gate.
• Preserve legacy shared gate state as the initial fallback for existing fortresses.
• Show localized open/close action text for the selected gate.
• Compiled only. No tests or game launches.

0.1.19

• Replace placement rejection for ordinary vegetation, rocks, drops and structures with bounded post-commit clearance.
• Move containers, items, equipment stands, supported production devices, vehicles, gravestones and portals outside the site while retaining native object data.
• Preserve ward, player and expedition/fortress-overlap protection; stop with an explanation if furniture cannot be moved safely.
• Remove the seven-metre terrain-height rejection. Persist a per-vertex foundation datum on native terrain compilers; retain normal terrain operations relative to the foundation and clear vegetation paint.
• Update English/Russian placement instructions to disclose automatic clearing and structure removal.
• Compiled with zero warnings/errors. No tests or game launches.

0.1.18

• Preserve placement rejection messages instead of overwriting them with a terrain-preparation notice.
• Reuse persisted terrain compilers; report waiting, preparation errors and successful completion.
• Add same-world packing and relocation of supported furniture, player structures, chest contents and loose items within the fortress footprint, retaining native objects instead of copying inventories.
• Add a saved cargo manifest, native-object reconciliation and recovery paths. Block unsupported objects and remote-owned live containers rather than forcibly taking ownership.
• Document multiplayer, cross-world, bed, timer and mod-compatibility limits. The new relocation paths have not been verified in game.
• Bundled screenshots remain unchanged; public README image hosting is still pending.
• Compiled only, with zero warnings and errors; no tests or game launches.

0.1.17

• Lowered service veil tops to prevent colour in upper window slits.
• Removed decorative runes and uneven outlines; repositioned icons and captions.
• Fit caption width to the visible opening before wall occlusion checks.
• Included arena combat imagery and clearly labelled arch concept art.
• Compiled only; no tests or game launches.

0.1.16

• Added five-second teammate rescue, battle reports and personal expedition perks.
• Infernal equipment now rolls Legendary 100%, Mythic 80% and Ancient 50%; removed its Epic guarantee.
• Added the cyan shop arch: gear, personal coin payment and shared-resource exchange for every participant.
• Added unique Charred Fortress blueprints, native geometry without the central tower or hostile/loot objects, terrain preview/levelling, operable gates, and owner pylon controls for moving and packing.
• Added durable fortress transfer reconciliation, including prepared operations from inactive expeditions.
• Updated English and Russian strings and release documentation.
• Compiled only; no tests or game launches.

Changelog

0.1.15

• Batch server tick/request mutations into background atomic writes; delay acknowledgements until both durable copies complete.
• Reuse committed wave tickets and native actor tags instead of saving the full expedition at each enemy arrival.
• Bound the native warehouse grid to 48 slots per page without a capacity limit. Keep Take All and Stack All operating across pages.
• Permit independent transfers while applied receipts await a shared character checkpoint; coalesce short bursts while retaining reservation and receipt recovery.
• Fill service arches using the entire black-backing footprint. Stop profile rays at its front face instead of sampling masonry behind it; accept wide lower openings.
• Keep dim service icons during combat, suspend nearby effects when the player is far away and cache stationary caption occlusion checks.
• No tests, game launches or FPS measurements. Native character disk/cloud checkpoint stalls remain possible.

0.1.14

• Replace per-drop collection messages with one persisted round summary after loot settles; retain immediate warehouse credit during combat.
• Capture new environmental item drops within the active arena; persist an exclusion flag on player-discarded items. Preserve unidentified pre-update drops.
• Replace loot's four full-world scans per second with native sector queries around occupied arenas. Track only expedition ballistas instead of two additional full-world scans per second.
• Index loot receipts and deserialize each new drop only once; disable capture components after publication and cap simultaneous flight effects at twelve.
• Update native warehouse rows after the prepared transfer is applied, retaining server reservation until durable commit. Skip unchanged paginated snapshots and reuse unchanged item objects on row updates.
• Remove map regeneration and achievement synchronization from inventory receipt checkpoints. Preserve native character writes, cloud checks and backups; log slow checkpoints at most once every thirty seconds.
• Cache successful terrain checks for two seconds and eliminate duplicate preparation calls.
• Avoid arena ambient-music lookup through uninitialized biome data, contain retries and suppress repeated exception floods. Initialize all particle velocity axes in the same curve mode.
• Production compilation only; no automated tests, game launches, gameplay verification or FPS measurements.

0.1.13

• Render service labels after world post-processing to prevent Swamp blur; hide labels behind walls, from the rear and while inventory/menu windows are open. Occlusion covers the full text bounds.
• Fit each recessed arch veil and rune border to the native stone opening; keep particles inside the lower opening.
• Replace the shared warehouse chest with a purple service arch using the same unlimited native inventory and stored items. Personal rewards keep their chest.
• Grant participants 10 minutes of native Rested at each new round. Preserve longer effects; repeated state updates and reconnects do not refresh the timer.
• Keep all ballista protections for players, summoned and tamed creatures.
• Production compilation only; no automated tests, game launches or gameplay verification.

0.1.12

• Add green upgrade, gold repair and red healing veils inside the existing entrance-side arches; replace the forge and healing pylon. Services are disabled during combat.
• Add a six-slot ballista shop. Each shared expedition upgrade costs 100 carried Coins and persists across levels and biomes.
• Install purchased native ballistas on six upper wall mounts, three per side. They fire during combat with automatic ammo and a four-second cooldown.
• Target only expedition enemies; filter projectile impacts to protect players, summons, tamed creatures and non-enemy objects.
• Extend durable inventory receipts with slot reservations and idempotent coin payment, including reconnect recovery.
• Add English/Russian service and shop labels.
• Compile only: no automated tests, game launches or gameplay verification.

0.1.11

• Send authenticated monster drops directly to shared storage during combat; retain atomic credit/removal ordering and the flight effect.

• Continue under the DreadRifts name, retaining save and plugin identities.

• Replace Infernal Mountains skeleton slots with drakes/cultists; add regular Infernal and rare Viking Plains lox.

• Track cleared progress and allow party travel to replay levels or the next frontier between battles.

• Allow difficulty edits during combat, with persisted per-wave spawn stats and a lowest-used difficulty snapshot for boss rewards.

• Add an interactable green healing pylon for use between battles.

• Apply authoritative warehouse row changes after transfers, reuse decoded items, and reject mixed-version listings.

• Move server warehouse and consolidation saves off the render thread behind a mutation barrier; retain durable acknowledgement ordering.

• Avoid serializing the whole minimap for every item in a transfer sequence; refresh at most once per 30 seconds in transfer saves, without suppressing ordinary saves.

• Update Russian and English text. Compile only; no automated tests, game launches or performance benchmarks.

0.1.10

• Rename the visible mod to Still a Viking? and add the approved skull-and-rift icon to the package and arena menu.
• Update the hammer category, gate/key display names and HUD branding.
• Keep the existing plugin GUID, assembly name, save paths, prefab identities and network identifiers to preserve continuity with DreadRifts.
• Include the automatic Russian/English localization from 0.1.9.
• Compile only; no automated or gameplay tests run.

0.1.9

• Add Russian and English localization, selected independently from each client’s Valheim language; use English for other languages.
• Localize arena menus, readiness circles, storage labels, tooltips, progress and server notifications on the receiving client.
• Refresh the arena interface when the game language changes; preserve native Valheim and EpicLoot item localization.
• Build only; no automated or gameplay tests run. Not published.

0.1.8

• Show the recorded biome and checkpoint level when attempting to withdraw from a warehouse locked after defeat, including Take All.
• Consolidate compatible stored resources incrementally, including existing single-unit coal drops. Preserve reserved entries and custom item data.
• Normalize irrelevant durability when comparing non-durable stackable items.
• Replace new boss material rewards with genuine EpicLoot Epic equipment plus independent Legendary/Mythic bonuses at the agreed difficulty rates.
• Select weapon/armor bases from EpicLoot's configured tables for the completed arena biome; Ancient remains a distinct, excluded rarity.
• Add versioned, once-only equipment grants to existing personal boss-reward records. Preserve existing items and defer unavailable generation without marking it complete.
• Build only; no game tests or automated tests were run.

0.1.7

• Replaced the custom warehouse window with Valheim's native chest interface, tooltips, drag-and-drop and stack-splitting dialog.
• Storage rows grow automatically with the contents; no fixed storage slot cap.
• Fixed withdrawals requiring an empty slot when compatible carried stacks still had room.
• Added partial deposits and withdrawals, keeping the remaining quantity in storage and preserving native item metadata.
• Added native Take All and batched Stack All actions; deposits onto compatible stored stacks consolidate when possible.
• Reused unchanged decoded items and skipped rebuilding unchanged contents during refresh.
• Kept authoritative server storage, item reservations and durable character receipts before commit.
• Production compilation only; gameplay tests were not run at the user's request.

0.1.6

• Replaced the package icon with the approved glowing rift and crossed axes.
• Added a chest-style warehouse window with item icons, quantities, item selection, drag-and-drop, Shift-click and double-click stack transfer.
• Added separate warehouse and character inventory grids with scrolling; storage has no fixed slot cap and only a bounded visible window is transferred/rendered.
• Preserve native item payloads, including quality, durability and enchantment data.
• Removed redundant character reloads and the extra save after commit acknowledgement. Native save success remains mandatory before warehouse commit.
• Quick resource deposits prepare one stack per frame and save up to eight receipts together; commit requests are processed one per frame.
• Cached receipt decoding and item previews, avoided repeated bulk-transfer UI rebuilds and unnecessary committed-transaction rewrites.

0.1.5

• Fixed endless arena preparation after digging or terrain damage.
• The server now re-levels damaged arena ground even when its terrain compiler already carries the arena preparation marker.
• Included checkpoint support in the repair decision so damage beneath the arrival point can recover too.
• Repair reuses the existing reserved arena and replicated native terrain data without resetting expedition progress.

0.1.4

• Added native arena music: ambient preparation, continuous wave combat music and biome boss themes in round 10. Uses installed clips and the game music volume.
• Reduced resurrection waiting time from 120 to 60 seconds.
• Added ally spectator view instead of the death blackout, with left/right arrow target selection and an arena overview when no ally remains.
• Clearing a wave or completing a round with a surviving ally releases fallen participants from the remaining resurrection wait.
• Preserved server authority, checkpoint spawning and existing inventory/skill protection.

0.1.3

• Restricted the new enemy counts, star progression, elite proportions and faster arch releases to Meadows and Black Forest.
• Restored the previous combat balance for every later biome.
• Kept automatic loot collection and physical readiness circles in all biomes.

0.1.2

• Added physical party readiness circles with a three-second countdown; leaving cancels readiness immediately.
• Start battles and advance after victory without interface confirmation. Arriving at a new arena requires fresh entry into its circle.
• Automatically deposit enemy loot into shared storage after victory, preserving native item data and enchantments. Personal carried items and personal rewards remain separate.
• Added brief visual loot streams toward the warehouse.
• Set solo Viking enemy totals for rounds 1–9 to 10/15/20/25/30/35/40/45/50; preserved difficulty and party scaling.
• Increased starred enemy proportions and arch release speed through the rounds; retained defence, elite and boss encounters.
• Preserved existing active combat spawn budgets when upgrading a save.

0.1.1

• Added the authored stone gate shell and its construction icon.
• Separated opening the outside gate from entering the arena. Each player enters by walking into the rear rift with a valid key for that gate.
• Kept the doorway and front vestibule freely walkable in both directions.
• Replaced the separate wooden arena exit portal with a matching, permanently open gate behind the arrival checkpoint.
• Added an individual return route through the arena gate without requiring a key, available between levels.
• Oriented arrival toward the arena and protected arrival, return and respawn from immediate repeated transfers.
• Kept arena services clear of the return gate, including on saved layouts.
• Included expedition trials, the central next-level circle, shared warehouse controls and personal rewards.
• Prepared the early-release package with English and Russian instructions.

The latest gate-route validation passed on Valheim 1.0.12. Full multiplayer playthrough and complete progression balance testing remain in progress.