Hearthkeeper

Version 1.0.3 — Experimental Multiplayer Safety Hotfix

This hotfix addresses an issue in Hearthkeeper 1.0.2 where portions of the experimental cooperative chest-payment system could interfere with ordinary crafting and building, even when the experimental feature was disabled.

The experimental payment system has been further isolated behind its dedicated opt-in configuration setting.

Experimental Multiplayer Chest Payments

This feature remains disabled by default and is not considered stable or ready for general gameplay.

With ExperimentalMultiplayerChestPayments = false, experimental multiplayer payment handling should remain inactive, allowing normal Hearthkeeper crafting and building to operate independently.

The hotfix addresses experimental payment guards, remote chest requests, networking, and material handling that could previously affect players who had not opted in.

Players do not need to enable this experimental feature to use Hearthkeeper's normal nearby-chest crafting and building functionality.

If you choose to help test experimental multiplayer chest payments, your assistance would be greatly appreciated! Please share feedback, issues, or observations through my Discord support server or by sending me a direct message on Discord.

For normal gameplay, leave ExperimentalMultiplayerChestPayments disabled.

Version 1.0.2 — Inventory, Equipment, and Multiplayer Improvements

Hearthkeeper 1.0.2 continues improvements to inventory handling, Equips +, storage transfers, and compatibility with Valheim's native systems and other mods.

This release includes additional equipment and inventory safeguards, Restock improvements, expanded multiplayer diagnostics, and ongoing work toward safer cooperative crafting and building.

Obsolete compatibility integration for Equipment and Quick Slots has been retired. Development is focusing on native Valheim behavior and compatibility with Path of Valheim and Epic Loot.

⚠️ Experimental Multiplayer Feature — Testing Only

Cooperative Chest Payments (Experimental)

Hearthkeeper includes an experimental feature that attempts to allow players to craft and build using materials stored in a chest currently open by another player.

This feature is disabled by default and is not yet considered stable or ready for general gameplay.

If you choose to help test this experimental feature, your assistance would be greatly appreciated! Please share any feedback, issues, or observations through my Discord support server or by sending me a direct message on Discord. Your feedback will help improve the feature as development continues.

Important testing precautions:

• The host, acting player, and chest owner must all enable the experimental feature.
• Test with disposable materials and backed-up characters and worlds.
• Do not change the setting while a payment is in progress.
• Unexpected payment failures or inventory inconsistencies may occur during testing.

For normal gameplay, leave ExperimentalMultiplayerChestPayments disabled.

All other Hearthkeeper features can be used without enabling this experimental option.

Version 1.0.1 — Hotfix

Hearthkeeper 1.0.1 improves compatibility with mods that alter Valheim's normal death/tombstone behavior, adds safer and independently configurable consumable stack-size rules, protects existing oversized stacks when limits are reduced, and expands diagnostic support for ongoing multiplayer compatibility testing.

Dedicated-server and broader multiplayer stability work is still in development. All players in a multiplayer session should currently use the same Hearthkeeper version and relevant configuration.

Version 1.0.0

Hearthkeeper is an inventory, storage, equipment, and base-supply utility for Valheim.

It expands Valheim's normal storage and inventory systems with automatic storage, chest consolidation, Restock, nearby crafting supplies, livestock feeding, automatic refueling, configurable chest rules and sizes, visual chest labels, optional stack-size adjustments, and the optional Equips + dedicated Equipment and Extra-slot system.

Hearthkeeper is designed to use Valheim's existing inventory, container, equipment, crafting, item-use, repair, upgrade, feeding, and processing systems wherever practical rather than replacing them with separate simulations.

A quick note about updates: When I push a new Hearthkeeper build, there may occasionally be a short period where the mod disappears from Thunderstore or r2modman while the update is being processed or reviewed. If that happens, don't panic — it should return once the update is cleared.

Support and bug reports: MaddCatter365's Discord

Features

Storage and sorting

• Store Matching sends matching player inventory items to nearby eligible chests.
• Store All sends eligible player inventory items into the currently open chest.
• Consolidate Chests combines matching stock among nearby chests.
• Consolidation prefers the chest already holding the greatest quantity of each item, with distance used to break ties.
• Sort Inventory arranges the player's ordinary inventory.
• Sort This Chest arranges the currently open chest.
• Optional timed automatic consolidation and chest sorting.
• Loaded ground drops can be automatically stored in nearby matching chests.
• Hotbar, equipped items, protected slots, reserves, and Hearthkeeper's dedicated Equipment cells are respected.

Chest rules

Each chest can have its own Hearthkeeper rules.

Available controls include:

• Reserve — Off, one item, one dynamic stack, or a custom quantity.
• Manual Reserve Lock — prevents ordinary transfers below the reserved amount.
• Accept Automatic Storage — allows Hearthkeeper's automatic storage systems to deposit into the chest.
• Crafting / Restock Supply — allows eligible items to be used for nearby crafting, building, and personal Restock.
• Livestock Feed — allows appropriate food to be supplied to nearby hungry tameable creatures.
• Fuel Chest — designates the chest for automatic-refueling supply behavior.

Fuel Chests are kept separate from incompatible warehouse roles such as livestock feeding and crafting / Restock supply.

Reserved quantities are respected by Hearthkeeper's automatic withdrawals.

Crafting and building

Nearby eligible chests can contribute materials to Valheim's normal crafting and building systems.

Hearthkeeper does not bypass ordinary recipe, crafting-station, DLC, ward, placement, or other native requirements. It only extends the pool of eligible materials.

Crafting range is independently configurable up to 100 metres.

Player Restock

Individual player inventory slots can be marked for Restock.

• Left Alt + Right Click marks or unmarks a managed stack.
• Each marked slot manages one stack.
• Multiple stacks of the same item can be managed by marking multiple slots.
• The default behavior refills a marked stack whenever it is not full.
• An advanced refill threshold is available through configuration.
• Restock can run automatically or manually.
• If a scheduled check is skipped because an inventory interface is open, Hearthkeeper performs an immediate check after the interface closes.
• An optional food and drink Restock target allows you to limit how many consumables are automatically replenished, rather than always refilling to the item's maximum stack size.

Livestock feeding

Feed-enabled chests can supply hungry tameable creatures that use Valheim's normal food system.

Hearthkeeper respects normal hunger, taming, ownership, and food eligibility rules.

Feed chests are protected from warehouse behavior that would immediately take the food back.

Automatic refueling

Automatic refueling is disabled by default and configured under:

14 Automatic Refueling

Supported categories include:

• Fires and hearths.
• Player-built torches.
• Kilns.
• Smelters.
• Blast furnaces.
• Windmills.
• Spinning wheels.
• Eitr refineries.
• Compatible modded devices using Valheim's standard Fireplace or Smelter components.

Fuel, processing inputs, thresholds, refill targets, range, timing, and per-cycle limits are configurable.

Individual supported devices can also be excluded from or returned to automatic refueling.

Chest sizes and scrolling

Hearthkeeper can enlarge supported player storage while preserving existing contents.

Default vanilla chest tiers include:

• Wooden chest — 7x4.
• Personal chest — 7x5.
• Reinforced chest — 9x6.
• Black-metal chest — 10x8.
• Ashwood chest — 10x8.

Larger inventories use horizontal and vertical scrolling where needed.

Chest resizing is growth-safe: Hearthkeeper does not silently shrink a chest that has previously been enlarged.

Chest names and visual feedback

Custom chest names can be displayed directly on supported chest surfaces.

The labels include:

• Front and lid placement where appropriate.
• Distance limits.
• Facing checks.
• Obstruction checks.
• Configurable size.
• Configurable Valheim-inspired colour choices.
• Adjustable lettering glow.

Hearthkeeper can also briefly illuminate a chest when it receives items through automatic storage.

Chest-name colour and Activity Glow colour are configured separately.

Stack Sizes

Hearthkeeper includes an optional configurable stack-size system.

Stack Sizes is disabled by default.

Settings are available under:

13 Stack Sizes

Available options include:

• Enable / disable
• Stack-size multiplier
• Maximum stack size
• Per-item overrides

Stack-size adjustments support materials, food, meads, potions, ammunition, and other eligible stackable items.

Equipment, armor, clothing, accessories, and non-throwing weapons are excluded from stacking adjustments. Throwing weapons and ammunition may remain stackable where supported.

Existing oversized stacks

Hearthkeeper includes load-time safeguards for existing oversized saved stacks when stack limits are reduced or Stack Sizes is disabled.

An existing stack above its current maximum is preserved and can naturally decrease through normal use, but it cannot grow beyond the configured limit.

If Hearthkeeper itself is removed, it can no longer provide this load-time protection. Before uninstalling Hearthkeeper, reduce oversized stacks to limits that Valheim or your remaining stack-size mods can safely support.

Avoid running another stack-size mod simultaneously unless compatibility has been specifically verified.

Equips +

Equips + is disabled by default.

It can be enabled under:

15 Equips +

Equips + adds Hearthkeeper's own dedicated inventory for equipment and additional carried items.

Dedicated Equipment slots

The Equipment row contains:

• Head
• Shoulders
• Chest
• Legs
• Utility
• Trinket
• Main Hand
• Off Hand

Equipment cells are type-restricted. Items that do not belong in a particular Equipment cell are rejected, including invalid items that Valheim might otherwise attempt to move into that cell during an occupied-inventory swap.

Extra slots

Hearthkeeper also provides 1–8 configurable Extra slots.

Extra slots are general-purpose storage rather than equipment-restricted cells.

The default number of Extra slots is 6.

Equips + hotkeys

Dedicated-slot hotkeys are configurable under:

10 Hotkeys

Default bindings are:

• Left Shift + 1 — Main Hand.
• Left Shift + 2 — Off Hand.
• Left Shift + 3 — Extra Slot 1.
• Left Shift + 4 — Extra Slot 2.
• Left Shift + 5 — Extra Slot 3.
• Left Shift + 6 — Extra Slot 4.
• Left Shift + 7 — Extra Slot 5.
• Left Shift + 8 — Extra Slot 6.
• Left Shift + 9 — Extra Slot 7 when enabled.
• Left Shift + 0 — Extra Slot 8 when enabled.

Keys and modifiers can be rebound independently.

Extra slots can hold ordinary items, including compatible food, mead, ammunition, tools, weapons, shields, bows, torches, and other usable items.

Hearthkeeper routes supported actions through Valheim's native item-use and equipment behavior wherever possible.

HUD display

Hearthkeeper provides native-style HUD previews for its dedicated slots.

• Main Hand and Off Hand appear with a compact hotbar-style preview.
• Extra-slot contents can appear beside the Guardian Power area.
• Configured positions remain stable rather than compacting around empty slots.

Persistence and character preview

Dedicated items are persisted separately from the player's normal inventory.

Hearthkeeper restores their dedicated positions across normal save/load and world transitions.

Supported equipment can also appear on the character shown in Valheim's character-selection menu without moving those items back into ordinary player inventory.

Dedicated equipment participates in normal Valheim equipment behavior, including repair, upgrades, ammunition handling, carry weight, death handling, and tombstone recovery where applicable.

Important Equips + safety notice

Hearthkeeper shows an Equips + safety notice on the Valheim startup menu by default.

The popup includes an option to stop showing it. The notice can later be re-enabled through configuration.

Before disabling Equips + or removing Hearthkeeper, manually move your items out of Hearthkeeper's dedicated Equipment and Extra slots and back into ordinary inventory storage.

If Equips + is disabled while items are still stored there, those items remain in Hearthkeeper's dedicated inventory but may be hidden and unavailable until the feature is enabled again.

Avoid running multiple mods that provide overlapping dedicated equipment or extra-slot systems unless compatibility has specifically been confirmed.

Controls

Default general Hearthkeeper controls:

• F6 — Store Matching.
• F7 — Consolidate Chests while inventory is open.
• F8 — Sort Inventory while inventory is open.
• F9 — Toggle automatic refueling for the supported device under the crosshair.
• F10 — Manual Restock.

All of these can be rebound under:

10 Hotkeys

Hotkeys are suppressed while typing, using menus or the console, teleporting, dead, or in a cutscene.

Installation

Hearthkeeper requires BepInExPack Valheim.

Install through a Thunderstore-compatible mod manager, or place:

Hearthkeeper.dll

inside:

BepInEx/plugins/Hearthkeeper/

The current configuration file is created at:

BepInEx/config/MaddCatter365.Hearthkeeper.cfg

Hearthkeeper includes migration support for older configuration and persistent-data identifiers where applicable.

For multiplayer, all players should use the same Hearthkeeper version and compatible configuration.

Configuration

Major configuration sections in 1.0.2 include:

01 General
02 Ground Storage
03 Inventory Storage
04 Crafting and Building
05 Consolidation
06 Livestock Feed
07 New Chest Defaults
08 Chest Sizes
09 Compatibility
10 Hotkeys
11 Interface
12 Chest Activity Glow
13 Stack Sizes
14 Automatic Refueling
15 Equips +
16 Player Restock
17 Diagnostics

Diagnostics are disabled by default.

Enable them only when additional troubleshooting information is needed.

Compatibility

Hearthkeeper is primarily designed for systems built around Valheim's standard:

• Inventory
• Container
• ZNetView
• Fireplace
• Smelter
• equipment
• crafting
• item-use systems

Completely custom inventory, equipment, storage, crafting, or processing systems may require specific compatibility support.

Avoid running multiple mods that perform the same automatic storage, chest resizing, feeding, refueling, stack-size, or dedicated-equipment functions unless compatibility has been confirmed.

Tested alongside Hearthkeeper 1.0.0 development

Compatibility and regression testing has included:

• Valheim 1.0.20
• Multiplayer ownership behavior.
• Save/load and world re-entry.
• Death and tombstone recovery.
• Character-selection equipment preview.
• Native repair.
• Dedicated-item upgrades.
• Dedicated ammunition and item use.
• Adventure Backpacks 2.4.0
  • equipped backpack behavior
  • nested carried weight
  • storage interaction
• AreaPickup 1.0.1
  • area pickup/harvesting
  • player inventory delivery
  • Hearthkeeper livestock feeding
  • normal processing-device operation

Compatibility with a tested version does not guarantee compatibility with every future version of that mod.

Things being tested

Hearthkeeper has received extensive development and gameplay testing, but it interacts with several of Valheim's inventory, UI, equipment, save, and automation systems. Compatibility and regression testing will continue as new Valheim and third-party mod updates are released.

Normal post-release gameplay will continue to watch for:

• Unusual combinations of inventory or equipment mods.
• Modded items with custom equip or upgrade behavior.
• Additional modded storage and processing pieces.
• Rare drag-and-drop or inventory-swap edge cases.
• Future Valheim updates that alter inventory, equipment, UI, crafting, or save behavior.

If you find a problem, a BepInEx log from the affected session is extremely helpful when reporting it.

Support and bug reports:

MaddCatter365's Discord

Clean-origin and AI disclosure

Hearthkeeper was written as a new implementation from user-authored functional requirements using Valheim, Unity, BepInEx, and Harmony APIs.

It contains no code, assets, text, configuration, or package identity copied from AzuAutoStore, GorilaChestMod, AutoFeed, or other storage mods.

Development used OpenAI tools for code generation, review, documentation, and package icon artwork.

Select Thunderstore's AI Generated category when publishing, as required by Thunderstore's disclosure policy.

Privacy

Hearthkeeper makes no web requests and collects no data.

It writes its BepInEx configuration and the small amounts of persistent state required for Hearthkeeper's chest rules, sizing, device settings, Restock behavior, and dedicated inventory features.

License and support

Hearthkeeper is distributed under the MaddCatter365 Noncommercial Mod License included with the package.

Forks or alterations require appropriate credit and must follow the included license terms.

Support and bug reports:

MaddCatter365's Discord