AiFree

Monsters don't stop just because you left.

In vanilla Valheim, monster AI freezes the moment you move too far away — enemy factions stop fighting each other, tamed wolves stand idle while your base burns, and the world around you silently pauses the instant you step through a portal.

AiFree removes that limitation.

What It Does

AI Timeout Removal

Vanilla Valheim monsters abandon their current target after 30 seconds of not sensing it.
AiFree prevents this: as long as the target is alive, the monster never gives up.

• Two enemy factions mid-battle? They keep fighting.
• A troll chasing a deer into the woods? It follows through.
• Your tamed wolf cornered by greylings? It keeps defending.

When the target dies, the AI clears normally — no zombie behavior, no infinite aggro loops.

Zone Loading (Portal Coverage)

When you portal to another area, Valheim unloads the old zone — stopping all AI completely.
AiFree pins the zone of any actively-fighting monster in memory, keeping it simulated even when you're on the other side of the world.

• Portal away mid-raid: the raid plays out for real.
• Leave your tamed creatures at home: they'll actually fight back.
• Come back to find the aftermath, not a freeze-frame.

Troll Wall-Block Fix

Vanilla melee hit detection stops at the first collider a swing connects with. If a wall sits between a Troll and a player within its swing range, the wall silently absorbs the hit and the player behind it takes nothing — even though the Troll's club should have crushed through.

AiFree adds a supplemental check: if a player in range was blocked from the Troll's attack by a wall, the Troll's own weapon damage is applied directly to that player. The original wall-damage logic is untouched — this only fills in the case vanilla misses.

• Fixed behavior, no config toggle.
• Scoped to Troll only for now (easy to extend to other large monsters later).

Configuration

Located in BepInEx/config/captain.aifree.cfg

Compatibility

• BepInEx 5.4.x required
• No known conflicts with other AI mods
• Works in singleplayer and dedicated servers
• Safe to add/remove mid-save

How It Works (Technical)

MonsterAI patch — UpdateTarget() Prefix
Resets m_timeSinceSensedTargetCreature to 0 before the 30-second check fires, as long as the target character is alive. Uses AccessTools.Field for private field access.

ZNetScene patch — RemoveObjects() Prefix
Before the engine destroys out-of-range GameObjects, adds any actively-fighting monster's ZDO (and its target's ZDO) to the currentNearObjects list. This earmarks them as "near" — preventing destruction and keeping the AI update loop running.

Attack patch — OnAttackTrigger() Postfix (Troll only)
After the original melee hit detection runs, checks every player within the Troll's attack range and forward arc. If a piece/piece_nonsolid collider blocks the straight line between the attack origin and a player, that player was the one vanilla's raycast-and-break logic missed — the Troll's weapon damage (ItemDrop.ItemData.GetDamage(), never hardcoded) is applied to them directly via Character.Damage(). All Attack-type field/method access goes through AccessTools (this DLL build doesn't fully expose Attack members, even ones marked public in decompiled source — calling them directly throws MethodAccessException/FieldAccessException and can stall other monsters' updates).

Changelog

v1.1.0

• Troll — Fixed melee attacks being silently absorbed by walls instead of reaching players standing behind them within range.

v1.0.0

• Initial release: AI Timeout Removal, Zone Loading (Portal Coverage).

Source

Author: Captain
GitHub: https://github.com/KorCaptain