SpecialAttack

Adds unique special attacks to every weapon category in Valheim — swords, axes, clubs, sledgehammers, atgeirs, spears, knives, bare fists/fist weapons, bows, and crossbows — each with cooldown tracking, configurable damage multipliers, visual/audio feedback, and an optional custom activation key (see the table below for the full weapon-by-weapon list). On top of that, several weapon-independent extras: a configurable dodge-roll replacement (Quickstep), a standalone dedicated-key dash (Dash) that works regardless of equipped weapon, and the ability to cancel an in-progress melee swing into a normal block (Guard Cancel). Crossbows and bows get extra depth beyond their own special attack — reload improvements and skill XP tuning for crossbows, and arrow embedding/recovery/gravity tuning for bows. All cooldowns are shown on a configurable on-screen HUD, and every value in the mod is configurable via the BepInEx config file.

Special Attacks by Weapon

Weapon detection is done by vanilla skill type + item type (and, for Bastard Sword/Crescent Wave, by prefab name) — no specific mod required for most weapons. Bastard Sword itself only exists if you have the Warfare mod installed (see "Optional integrations" below).

How It Works

• Secondary attack key triggers specials by default — each has its own cooldown
• Optionally bind a custom key (SpecialAttackKey) to separate specials from vanilla secondary attacks
  • Custom key pressed → special attack only (no secondary swing)
  • Custom key pressed while on cooldown → nothing happens
  • Secondary attack key → always vanilla secondary attack
• Cooldown icons appear on your HUD
• All values are fully configurable via the BepInEx config file

Optional integrations (not required dependencies)

SpecialAttack does not require any other mod to function. If the following mods are installed, a couple of features use them automatically — with no integration installed, the affected feature simply falls back to its vanilla equivalent:

• Warfare (Therzie) — recommended, but entirely optional. If installed:
  • Crescent Wave can trigger on the Bastard Sword (a Warfare weapon; without Warfare this weapon doesn't exist, so Crescent Wave never fires).
  • Spiral Thrust will play Warfare's Warpike secondary-attack motion (SpiralThrust.MotionName, default WarpikeSecondary_TW) for the spin thrust. Without Warfare (or if the motion can't be found), it plays the Atgeir's own secondary attack motion instead — the hit detection and extra-hit logic work identically either way.
  • Without Warfare installed, every other weapon category and special attack in this mod works exactly the same — Warfare only adds the Bastard Sword itself and the alternate Spiral Thrust motion.

Configuration

Edit BepInEx/config/com.specialattack.plugin.cfg after first launch.

[General]

[Hud]

[SwordChain] — 1H Sword

[QuadSlash] — 2H Sword (Claymore / THSwordKrom / Gold & Slayer variants)

[CrescentWave] — Bastard Sword (Warfare weapon)

At higher Swords skill, the same swing fires more than one crescent. The weapon's own secondary-attack swing still only plays once — the first crescent fires immediately (exactly as before), and any additional ones from the skill bracket below are fired in sequence afterward, ChainInterval seconds apart, all reusing the exact position/direction/damage/size/speed/ range/effects/sound captured at the moment the first one fired (not recalculated per extra shot). Each crescent still does its own independent hit detection, so the same monster can be hit by more than one of them (hit tracking to prevent a single crescent re-hitting the same target is unchanged). Cooldown is still spent only once per swing, at the same point as before (when the first crescent is confirmed to fire). If the player dies, staggers, switches weapons, teleports, or guard-cancels the swing while later crescents are still pending, those remaining ones are skipped.

[SpearPin] — Spear

Cooldown is consumed the instant the spear actually leaves your hand (the real thrown projectile is created) — not on landing a hit. A miss, hitting terrain/water/a player, or hitting a monster that's already pinned all still spend it, same as a successful pin; the cooldown HUD icon appears starting from that same throw moment, and the same activation effect every other special plays also fires right there at your position. If the throw itself never happens (not enough stamina, etc. — this is vanilla's own primary attack this special rides on, not something this mod intercepts and replaces), nothing is spent and no effect plays.

[ImpactBurst] — Battleaxe (2H Axe)

The thrown axe always ends up as a pickup-able dropped item right where it lands — whether that's open ground, wherever it hits a monster (after the AoE burst goes off), or water — there's no separate "embeds and stays" case like [HatchetHook]. A map marker can mark that landing spot, on your own map only, reusing the same map-marker system [HatchetHook]/[SpearPin] already use for their own dropped weapons — same pin shape/name/removal rules (picked up or despawned makes it disappear).

[HatchetHook] — 1H Axe

Secondary attack is fully replaced by a throw (no vanilla melee swing happens at all) — the axe embeds in whatever it hits instead of exploding like Impact Burst. Throw damage is the weapon's own damage (quality + skill applied); the embedded axe has no time limit and stays until the target dies or you pull it out.

[ConcussionBlow] — 1H Club/Mace

The weapon's own motion/damage/multi-hit is completely untouched — this only adds a forced stagger + brief lockout on top, gated by target size and Clubs skill level. Bosses are always excluded.

[Aftershock] — Sledgehammer / 2H Mace

The weapon's own ground-slam swing is untouched; the shockwaves are a purely additive follow-up from the same impact point.

[SpinningSweep] — Battle Hammer (Clubs + Two-Handed, excluding Sledgehammers)

[SpiralThrust] — Polearm / Atgeir

Does not intercept the secondary attack — the weapon's own motion, hit detection, and multi-hit are untouched. Only this swing's attack instance has its AttackType switched to a horizontal spin, and every monster actually hit receives extra follow-up hits over time.

[SmokeVanish] — Knife / Dagger

[Quickstep] — dodge roll replacement (all weapons, per-category toggle below)

Ported from sighsorry's SecondaryAttacks with the author's permission — see Credits. Default values match the original mod's fixed constants.

[Quickstep - Weapons] — per weapon-category toggle

[Dash] — dedicated-key dash (independent of equipped weapon and of the special attacks above)

A short straight-line dash on its own dedicated key. Dashes toward your held movement direction if any, otherwise toward where the camera is looking, turning to face that direction first like a roll. On ground it hugs the terrain (re-sampled every frame within a tight height window so it can't latch onto a ceiling or the floor above in a dungeon); while swimming it stays at a fixed horizontal height. Only usable while grounded or swimming — airborne presses do nothing. Getting teleported or otherwise moved mid-dash stops it immediately, and it's ignored for a short grace period right after teleporting. Works with any weapon (or none) and never blocks attacks or other special attacks — dashing doesn't interrupt a swing or vice versa. Plays the shared activation effect once per dash. Does nothing while on cooldown, out of stamina, below skill level, a UI is open, dead, or attached to something (ship helm, chair, saddle).

[GuardCancel] — cancel an in-progress melee swing into a block (independent of weapon/special attacks above)

Normally you can't block while mid-swing — vanilla only lets you block once the swing animation finishes. With this enabled, pressing the vanilla block key (including gamepad) while attacking with a melee weapon (Unarmed, Knives, Swords, Axes, Clubs, Polearms, Spears — bows, crossbows, staves, pickaxes and tools are excluded) immediately cancels the swing — no damage is dealt, no ammo/durability/resources are consumed for that swing, and any of this mod's own ongoing combo (QuadSlash/SwordChain/Spinning Sweep) is stopped cleanly — and drops you into a completely normal vanilla block using your equipped shield's own block animation, with full vanilla blocking/parry timing, block-stamina cost, and block+jump dodge. Hold the key to keep blocking, release it to drop block, exactly like vanilla. Does nothing while you're not mid-swing (vanilla block behaves exactly as usual), while the weapon isn't a melee weapon, or below the configured Blocking skill level.

[TranquilizerBolt] — Crossbow-only special attack (tranquilizer bolt)

A toggle triggered like any other special attack: pressing it reloads (full vanilla reload animation/timing, see [Crossbow]) into a tranquilizer bolt if one isn't currently loaded (subject to cooldown/ammo/skill conditions), or back to a normal bolt with no condition/cooldown if one is. Either swap can be interrupted exactly like any other reload, cancelling it. Ammo consumption and the shot's own flight are 100% vanilla once fired. On a non-boss hit against a creature with a corpse (most creatures; corpse-less ones like Blobs/Skeletons are excluded), the bolt deals zero damage/knockback/stagger — after SleepDelay the target falls asleep: its AI stops, it turns invisible, and a physics-driven ragdoll stand-in (the creature's own death-ragdoll, or a simpler fallback) takes its place, continuously repositioned under wherever the real (hidden) creature's name/ health bar should follow. The stand-in — its bone colliders plus an extra tracking hit-sphere (HitSphereScale) — is the only thing hittable while asleep; hits on it forward to the real creature. Any other hit while asleep always lands as a backstab. A repeat tranquilizer hit doesn't wake or damage the target — it extends the sleep timer by another SleepDuration (capped at MaxSleepDuration), shown as a floating number above the stand-in (ShowTimer). The target wakes when the timer runs out or, if WakeOnDamage, the instant it takes real damage (bonus applied first) — a tranquilizer hit itself never wakes it. On waking, the real creature reappears at the stand-in's current ground position, or the last confirmed-solid-ground position if the stand-in rolled somewhere unsafe (beyond WakeMaxDrop). Falling asleep mid-swing safely cancels the creature's in-progress attack; a sleeping creature's own attacks are also ignored as an extra safety net. Death while asleep proceeds like any vanilla kill. Swapping back to a normal bolt always works immediately, even mid-cooldown (the cooldown only gates the tranquilizer direction); two crossbows each keep their own loaded-bolt-type correctly. The stand-in/ timer/crosshair icon are local-only visuals, but the sleep/backstab/ position logic itself is handled correctly for whichever client owns the creature in multiplayer. A small tinted icon (IndicatorEnable/ IndicatorColor) shows near the crosshair while a tranquilizer bolt is loaded.

[Crossbow] — reload improvements + skill XP (applies to crossbows only)

Reload-related improvements, each gated by its own Crossbows skill level, plus Crossbows skill XP tuning. KeepLoadedLevel keeps a loaded (unfired) normal bolt loaded through holstering, inventory swaps, and relogging — below the required level it's lost exactly like vanilla; a loaded tranquilizer bolt is always kept regardless of this level. MoveReloadLevel/DodgeReloadLevel stop running/jumping or dodge-rolling (Quickstep included) from interrupting an in-progress reload (normal or tranquilizer-swap alike) — vanilla normally cancels the reload outright the instant any of those happen. ReloadOverride replaces vanilla's own Crossbows-skill reload-time scaling with a straight line between ReloadTimeLv1 (skill 1) and ReloadTimeLv100 (skill 100) — e.g. 6s/2s means skill 50 reloads in about 4s; set ReloadOverride to false to leave vanilla's own scaling alone. SkillXpMultiplier multiplies all Crossbows skill XP gains (vanilla on-hit XP included) by this amount; the three Xp* entries below are additional XP sources (only while a crossbow is equipped), each using the same unit vanilla itself uses for a single hit's worth of XP (which defaults to 1.0) — these also get multiplied by SkillXpMultiplier.

[HuntersVolley] — Bow-only special attack (multi-arrow volley)

A ready/cancel toggle bound only to the dedicated SpecialAttackKey (set one in [General]) — never the vanilla secondary-attack key, and never interrupts an in-progress bow draw. Press while a bow is equipped to arm it (icon near the crosshair); press again to cancel — no cooldown or ammo cost either way. Switching to a different bow keeps the armed state; switching to a non-bow weapon cancels it silently. Arming requires Enable, Bows skill ≥ MinSkillLevel, not on cooldown, and at least 2 arrows; cancelling is always allowed.

Once armed, your next bow shot fires a horizontal fan of arrows instead of one — the count is read from your Bows skill against the Lv0..Lv4 / Count0..Count4 brackets below, each arrow offset by SpreadAngle degrees, every arrow (including vanilla's own) multiplied by DamagePerArrow. If you don't have enough arrows it fires as many as you have (1 arrow = a plain normal shot, no changes); with a "no resource cost" cheat/mod active, the full bracket fires regardless of arrow count at no ammo cost. Each arrow gets its own independent copy of the shot's full data (re-run through vanilla's own Projectile.Setup) so embedding/recovery (see [ArrowEmbed]) sees every arrow, not just the first. The armed state clears and Cooldown starts the instant a volley (or fallback single shot) fires.

[ArrowEmbed] — arrow embedding + recovery + gravity (all bow shots, Hunter's Volley included)

Any arrow fired from a bow (normal shots and Hunter's Volley alike) that hits a monster sticks into it at the hit point, using the flying arrow's own in-flight orientation so it embeds nose-first, attached to the nearest bone so it follows the monster's movement — a local-only visual. Up to EmbedMax arrows per monster are shown at once (oldest removed first past that), all cleaned up on death/despawn. Hit tracking always runs regardless of Enable. On death, each landed arrow independently rolls a recovery chance that scales linearly with your Bows skill between RecoverChancePercentLv0 and RecoverChancePercentLv100.

Arrows that miss and hit terrain/trees/buildings (not water) also get a chance to become a pickup-able item where they landed, scaling the same way between MissRecoverChancePercentLv0 and MissRecoverChancePercentLv100 — only for arrows you fired.

Arrow gravity can also be reduced at higher Bows skill for flatter, longer-ranged shots: GravityOverride multiplies vanilla's own per-arrow gravity between GravityLv1 (level 1) and GravityLv100 (level 100). Applies to every bow arrow; crossbow bolts are unaffected.

Older builds stored recovery chance as a 0–1 fraction under RecoverChanceLv0/RecoverChanceLv100 — those keys are no longer read: if your config file still has them, they're harmless leftovers, and the new RecoverChancePercentLv0/RecoverChancePercentLv100 keys (percent, 0–100) start over at their defaults.

[DoomFist] — Unarmed (bare fists) and Fist/Claw weapons

Triggered like any other special attack while unarmed or wielding a fist/claw weapon. The swing's own secondary-attack animation is replaced with the Knife's secondary-attack motion (the Knife itself and its Smoke Vanish are unaffected — only the animation trigger is borrowed), and melee hit detection for that swing is disabled entirely. Cooldown is spent the instant the swing starts (win or miss), scaling from CooldownLv1 to CooldownLv100 across Unarmed skill level 1–100. Stamina cost is untouched.

At the swing's hit-trigger point, a single area attack fires at a point ImpactDistance in front of you (snapped to ground height) — everyone within Radius is hit once, using normal vanilla melee target rules (no self-hit, no friendly/tame hits unless PvP). Damage is the weapon's own damage (bare fists use vanilla Fists damage) × DamageMult; knockback is the weapon's own push force × KnockbackMult, directed outward — bosses take damage but no knockback. Unarmed skill XP is granted once per swing if something was hit. The impact plays Aftershock's own shockwave effect/sound, resized to Radius.

[MagicBolt] — shared weapon list for Twin Cast and Repulse

A single config shared by both [TwinCast] and [Repulse] below — identifies which staves they apply to, by prefab name (comma-separated, no (Clone) suffix), same convention as every other weapon-list config in this mod (e.g. [ConcussionBlow] LargeMonsters). Defaults to the 4 vanilla single-shot staves. Add prefab names here to extend either feature to modded staves.

[TwinCast] — passive double-cast for [MagicBolt] staves

A passive on your normal primary cast with a [MagicBolt] staff: once your skill in that staff's magic type (Elemental or Blood) reaches MinLevel, every primary cast has a chance to fire a second, identical projectile a short moment (Delay) after the first — aimed wherever you're looking at that later instant, not where you were aiming when the first shot left. The chance scales linearly from ChanceAtMin% at MinLevel up to ChanceAt100% (default 80%) at skill level 100 (levels above 100 stay at ChanceAt100%). The extra shot deals identical damage/effects to the first (no penalty), including the full StaffClusterbomb splinter-shrapnel behavior, and by default costs no extra Eitr — CostsEitr can make it consume the staff's own casting cost again (skipped if you don't have enough).

[Repulse] — special attack for [MagicBolt] staves (ground-slam knockback + damage)

Pressing the special-attack key with a [MagicBolt] staff equipped (skill in that staff's magic type ≥ MinLevel, enough Eitr — the staff's own primary-cast cost × EitrMult — and not on cooldown) slams the staff into the ground (borrowing the Staff of Protection's own ground-slam motion; none of these 4 staves have a real secondary attack of their own) and hits everything within Radius with knockback and, if DamageMult > 0, damage. Cooldown and Eitr are both spent the instant it starts, whether or not anything's actually in range; if any gate fails, nothing happens at all — no partial cost. Other players and tamed animals are never hit; bosses take damage but are never knocked back.

While the motion plays, your facing is locked to the direction your camera was aimed when triggered, and both your turn rate and move speed are slowed to the vanilla Staff of Protection's own ground-slam rate (read live from its attack data; MoveSpeedFactor/RotationSpeedFactor can override either directly). The lock releases when the motion ends normally, on death/stagger/dodge-roll/teleport, or after LockMaxDuration seconds (scaled to your animation speed) as a safety net.

The actual hit lands on the ground-slam clip's real animation hit-frame (vanilla's own OnAttackTrigger/Hit event, same as every other attack), so timing stays correct even if your attack speed changes; if that event never arrives before LockMaxDuration runs out, the hit is cancelled with no refund. Damage uses the equipped staff's own weapon damage (element split preserved) × DamageMult, with StaggerMult scaling stagger on top. Knockback scales in 3 steps by skill level (LevelTier1/2/3 → KnockbackLv30/50/70). At the hit, the staff's own projectile hit-effect (or a shared fallback) plays RingPoints times evenly around you, rippling out from your feet to Radius over RippleDuration seconds.

[Railgun] — passive for Dundr (StaffLightning, the reload-type lightning staff)

Dundr fires by loading once and then unleashing all of its shots (vanilla: 12) in one spread the instant you pull the trigger — it needs reloading again immediately after, win or miss. This passive touches three things about that cycle:

Keep loaded — at KeepLoadedLevel skill or higher, switching away from Dundr (to another weapon, or holstering entirely) no longer makes you reload it again the next time you draw it — the exact item you had loaded stays loaded. Below that level, it behaves exactly like vanilla (reload lost on switch). This never affects other reload weapons like crossbows — it's gated strictly to the Weapons list.

More bolts — the total shot count scales up to MaxMult× (default 2×) the vanilla count (rounded to the nearest whole bolt overall, not per-shot — e.g. at a 2.5× multiplier a normal 12-bolt volley becomes 30 bolts, not 24), scaling up by 1× every LevelStep levels, at no extra Eitr cost. Each extra bolt deals identical damage/effects to a normal one.

Tighter spread — every bolt in the shot (the original vanilla ones and the extra ones) narrows toward a single point as your skill goes up: the spread angle scales from SpreadAtMin× Dundr's own base spread at level 0 down to SpreadAt100× at level 100 (linear). If Dundr's own base spread is 0, BaseSpread degrees is used as the starting point instead. At level 0, SpreadAtMin defaults to 1.0, so the spread amount is identical to vanilla's own — it's only from there upward that the whole volley starts converging into more of a pinpoint railgun blast.

[StormField] — special attack for Dundr (load a storm shell, fire it like a normal shot)

Works as a two-step "special shell" like a crossbow's Tranquilizer Bolt, not an instant-fire key. Pressing the special-attack key (Elemental Magic ≥ MinLevel) plays Dundr's normal vanilla reload and loads a storm shell instead of a normal one, replacing any bolt already chambered or mid-reload; the key does nothing if that Dundr is already on cooldown or already chambered, and an interrupted reload (dodge/stagger/swap) spends nothing. Once loaded, the shell sits chambered (shown by a small icon+label, IndicatorEnable) until your next ordinary left-click fires it — that shot goes out exactly like [Railgun] would (extra bolts/tightened spread included), except every bolt deals zero damage/knockback/stagger. The moment any bolt hits anything, a storm zone appears there (snapped to the target's feet if it hit one), the shell is consumed, and that Dundr's own cooldown starts (each Dundr tracks its cooldown independently, saved on the weapon itself — survives reconnects, swaps, and pickup). A chambered-but-unfired shell isn't on a cooldown timer yet, but it permanently occupies one of [SkillLimit]'s shared slots from the moment it finishes loading until it's fired (then the slot carries straight into the firing cooldown) — so stockpiling loaded Dundrs can't dodge the shared limit.

The zone lasts Duration seconds, pulsing every PulseInterval seconds (first strike immediate), each pulse dealing DamageMult× Dundr's per-bolt damage and StaggerMult× stagger (0 by default) to every valid enemy within Radius. Players and tamed animals are never targeted; bosses can be hit. Adrenaline is granted once per zone, not per pulse. Only one bolt per volley can ever trigger a zone.

If [Railgun]'s KeepLoadedLevel is met, swapping away from and back to that Dundr keeps the chambered shell too; below that level, swapping drops the reload (and the shell) like vanilla.

Each pulse replays Dundr's own vanilla hit-spark effect at the zone's center and at VfxRingPoints points around the ring at Radius, auto-sized to match (VfxScale as a manual multiplier on top), with smoke/fog particles filtered out by default (VfxRemoveSmoke) so it reads as a clean strike, and laid flat against sloped terrain (VfxFlatten). A separate ground-following ring outline shows the true Radius for the zone's whole duration (ShowRing, RingColor).

Firing Dundr (bolt or shell) grants Adrenaline on every shot regardless of whether it hits anything — that's vanilla's own behavior for this weapon, left untouched on purpose.

Unlike every other special attack, the shared cooldown HUD shows every Dundr in your inventory (hotbar or bag, equipped or not) that's on cooldown or still chambered, not just the one in your hand — each slot labeled with its hotbar number or HudBagLabel, the currently-equipped one highlighted. Chests and other external storage are never counted. A chambered-but-unfired shell shows HudLoadedLabel in place of a countdown, switching over automatically to a normal shrinking countdown once fired.

[GlacialBreath] — special attack for the Staff of Frost (a channeled cold breath)

Hold SpecialAttackKey (requires Elemental Magic ≥ MinLevel, at least 1 Eitr, not mid-swing) to drain all your current Eitr and channel Moder's own cold-breath effect forward for up to Duration seconds — release the key to stop early. The staff's own ice-shard shot never fires. Your camera and character facing (mouse and movement keys) are locked to the direction you were looking when you activated it, so what you see always matches where the breath is actually hitting; you can't move, jump, or dodge-roll while breathing, aside from a small constant backward push (Recoil). Dying, teleporting, mounting, or swapping weapons ends it immediately, same as releasing the key.

Every TickInterval seconds, everything within a Range-long, Width-wide straight corridor in front of you is hit simultaneously (line-of-sight required — targets behind cover are skipped). Each tick deals DamagePerEitr × the Eitr you had on activation as pure Frost damage (applying vanilla's own frost slow/freeze automatically) plus StaggerMult× stagger (0 by default). Players and tamed animals are never targeted; bosses take damage but no knockback. Adrenaline is granted once per activation, not per tick. Cooldown starts the instant breathing ends, however it ended.

The breath's visual size is a flat VfxScale multiplier, with VfxRotationOffsetX/Y/Z to correct its aim if the effect's own "forward" axis doesn't match by default.

While breathing, a cosmetic pair of icy wings can attach to your back (no gameplay effect) — built once from a Drake's wing geometry, automatically extracted, re-centered, and rescaled to WingSpan. Off by default (ShowWings) since the angle/shape are still being tuned; turn on WingPreview to see live wing-shape changes while holding the staff without needing to breathe. If a usable Drake mesh can't be built, it falls back to an older wing mesh, then to a looping ice-particle effect, so ShowWings never silently shows nothing.

[NatureMend] — special attack for the Staff of the Wild (heal yourself + nearby allies over time)

Activates on the special-attack key while the Staff of the Wild is equipped (Elemental Magic ≥ MinLevel, Eitr > 0, not mid-swing or already healing — anything else does nothing at all). It consumes all your current Eitr (E) and borrows [Repulse]'s exact ground-slam motion (same slowed movement/turning, no root projectile). At the moment the staff touches the ground, the heal target list locks in for good: you (always), tamed animals, friendly summons, and other players if HealPlayers is on — hostile monsters and bosses are never included. Targets keep being healed for the whole duration even if they wander outside Radius afterward; nobody who shows up after the lock moment is added. If the motion is interrupted or its animation event never fires, MotionTimeout (scaled to your animation speed) starts the heal anyway so spent Eitr is never wasted — death is the only exception.

Once healing starts you're completely free to move, fight, or swap weapons — it's a background timer, not a locked stance. The total heal per target (E × HealMult) is split evenly across Ticks ticks (one every TickInterval seconds) using real vanilla heal numbers, capped at max health. Dying or teleporting ends the effect for everyone immediately. Cooldown starts when healing ends, and the shared cooldown HUD shows the remaining heal time while it's still in progress.

A green glow effect plays once where you started (plus a smaller tick effect on each target by default), both using the Dvergr mage's own ally-heal visual with its actual healing logic stripped out (so only this mod's own ticks ever heal anyone). A custom Vfx/TickVfx prefab is rejected automatically (logged once) if it turns out to be a monster/item/ building instead of a harmless effect.

[SkillLimit] — shared cooldown slot limit across every active special attack

Stops you from swapping between weapons to chain-fire special attacks back-to-back. It counts how many of the special attacks below are currently on cooldown (or mid-channel/mid-heal, for Repulse/StormField/NatureMend/ Glacial Breath) across every weapon you own, not just the one in hand. At MaxActive, starting one more does exactly nothing — the same silent no-op each attack already falls back to on its own cooldown.

Counted (18): SpinningSweep, ConcussionBlow, QuadSlash, SmokeVanish, Aftershock, ImpactBurst, SpearPin, SwordChain, SpiralThrust, CrescentWave, HatchetHook, TranquilizerBolt, Hunter's Volley, DoomFist, Repulse, Glacial Breath, NatureMend, and Storm Field. Storm Field is counted per Dundr item instance (two Dundrs on cooldown = 2 toward the limit), and a Dundr occupies a slot the moment its shell finishes chambering, even before firing — so stockpiling loaded Dundrs still can't push past the limit. Not counted: Dash, Quickstep, GuardCancel, Twin Cast, Railgun's passive, and arrow embedding/recovery — none have a shared slot to spend.

The check happens once, the moment you try to start the attack (for Storm Field, that's when loading begins). If that attack is already on its own cooldown, this limit is never even checked, so you never see two different block reasons at once.

When blocked, a floating message appears above your own head (updating in place rather than stacking) and a small "current/limit" counter shows above the shared cooldown HUD whenever the count is above zero.

[ThrowTuning] — throw speed/gravity scaling by skill level (spears and axes)

Scales a thrown weapon's initial projectile speed and gravity for a single throw, based on the relevant skill level — the underlying projectile prefab's own values are never modified, only the one projectile actually thrown. Spear throws (the vanilla secondary attack, and by extension [SpearPin] — it reacts to that same throw rather than firing its own, so one setting covers both) scale with your Spears skill level; axe throws ([HatchetHook] and [ImpactBurst]) scale with your Axes skill level. Each scales independently between its own ...Lv1 (skill level 1) and ...Lv100 (skill level 100) value, interpolating linearly in between. Bows, crossbows, staves, and monster projectiles are all unaffected — this only touches spear and axe throws.

[MotionInspector] — debug tool for picking animation triggers (off by default)

A development-only tool for figuring out the exact animation trigger name to use when wiring up a new special attack — not a gameplay feature, and disabled by default (Enable=false means every hook it adds is a no-op, with no effect on or overhead for any existing special). While on, a toggle key shows a small text readout in the top-left corner (pure debug text, not styled to match vanilla) listing, for your own character: every Animator layer's current clip and progress (plus whichever clip it's blending into, if a transition is in progress), the last 10 animation triggers fired with how long ago, your currently equipped weapon, and — if you're mid-swing — that swing's m_attackAnimation value and whether it's the primary or secondary attack. A separate key dumps your entire Animator's parameter list (triggers listed separately) and every clip in its controller, plus every weapon in the game's primary/secondary m_attackAnimation values, to a text file for reference. A third key fires an arbitrary trigger by name on your own character to preview it — pure animation, no damage, no stamina cost, same as an existing SetTrigger call elsewhere in this mod; an unrecognized name just shows an on-screen message instead of doing anything.

Requirements

• BepInExPack Valheim

No other mod is required. See "Optional integrations" above for what changes if Warfare is also installed.

Credits

• Some special attacks in this mod were inspired by, or adapted from, sighsorry's SecondaryAttacks, used and modified with the author's permission. Many thanks to sighsorry.
• Quickstep is ported from SecondaryAttacks (QuickstepSystem.cs, originally licensed under GPL-3.0). Core dash physics/stamina/animation-transition/invincibility logic follows the original; see the attribution comment at the top of Quickstep.cs for the changes made when porting it into this project.
• Hunter's Volley's fixed-fan multi-arrow spread pattern is based on the barrage-firing approach in SecondaryAttacks (SecondaryAttackManager.ProjectileRuntime.cs, FireBarrage/SpawnBarrageShot), used with the author's permission; see the attribution comment at the top of HuntersVolley.cs.
• Dash is an original feature designed and implemented for this mod.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for the full version history.