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Offline Companions Reborn
Persistent NPC companions that fight, gather, farm, fish, hunt, cook, smelt and look after your base — acting like another player. Valheim 1.0 rework of ProfMags' Offline Companions; full credit to ProfMags for the original.
| Date uploaded | 2 weeks ago |
| Version | 1.5.1 |
| Download link | Maddhattr-Offline_Companions_Reborn-1.5.1.zip |
| Downloads | 674 |
| Dependency string | Maddhattr-Offline_Companions_Reborn-1.5.1 |
This mod requires the following mods to function
denikson-BepInExPack_Valheim
BepInEx pack for Valheim. Preconfigured with the correct entry point for mods and preferred defaults for the community.
Preferred version: 5.4.2351README
Offline Companions Reborn
A Valheim 1.0 update of Offline Companions by ProfMags.
All credit for the original concept, design, and the original code goes to ProfMags. This update started because the original mod predates Valheim 1.0 and needed API fixes to keep working. It has since grown into a large rework of how companions move, work and think, aiming to make them act like another player rather than a bot. If you're not on Valheim 1.0, or ProfMags ships an official 1.0 update, use the original mod instead — go show it (and them) some love.
Please go check out ProfMags' other work too: Thunderstore profile · Patreon
Found a bug? Please report it with your BepInEx
LogOutput.log(inBepInEx/inside your Valheim or mod-manager profile folder) — companions log what they're doing and why, which makes problems much easier to track down.
Recent Highlights (v1.5.1)
This is a big update. With working jobs! The short version:
- New movement. Companions find their own way around your base like a player: opening and closing doors as they go, lining up with doorways, hopping steps, dropping off ledges, jumping streams and small gaps, and walking around water instead of swimming when the dry way isn't much longer.
- Idle behaviour. A companion whose job has nothing to do no longer just stands there. It does small chores nearby, sits down, wanders over to check on stations and chests, or comes over for a chat — and gets straight back to work the moment there's something to do.
- Repair and Restock. A new job that keeps your base running: repairs damaged building pieces with a hammer, keeps fires, torches, braziers and hot tubs fuelled, empties beehives, stacks surplus wood and stone into piles, and sorts your chests.
- Cooking. Cooks and brews at every kind of cooking station like a player: cauldron, prep table, mead ketill, spit, iron cooking station, oven and fermenters, keeping its own fires lit and brewing the meads you'll need for the next boss first.
- Gathering works like Hunt. With Follow on, Wood, Stone, Ore and Forage only go for what's close to you as you travel. With Follow off they work an area. Early in the game they also pick up branches, stones and flint by hand.
- Your orders come first. Every order you give takes priority over the companion's job, and the job picks up where it left off afterwards.
- Multiplayer. A companion always treats its owner as its player, even when another player's game happens to be running it. It uses chests safely (no lost or duplicated items) and respects wards and private chests.
- Companion recovery (1.5.1). Your game keeps a roster of your companions. General > ShowCompanionRoster shows whether each one is Alive, Dead, Lost or Unknown, and General > RecoverLostCompanion brings a lost one back with its gear. Or build Odin's Shrine (cheap, early game) to see them and bring one back.
- Cleaned-up settings. The config file has been reorganised into clear sections with plain-language descriptions. Settings you'd already changed are carried over automatically.
See CHANGELOG.md for the version-by-version detail.
Support
If you like this mod and would like to support its ongoing development or any of my other work: Patreon · Buy Maddhattr a Coffee.
What This Mod Does
Offline Companions Reborn adds persistent NPC allies to Valheim. A companion is offered to you the first time you enter a world. Ways to get more companions are coming soon.
Companions aren't pets — they're teammates with their own inventory, gear, food, stamina, skills and speech. Point them at your work and they'll actually do it: fight beside you, chop wood, mine, forage, farm, fish, hunt, cook and brew, run your smelters, look after your base, haul your cart, sit by the fire, sleep in beds, and follow you through portals.
Everything (appearance, inventory, gear, job, home, skills, ownership) is saved with the world and survives sessions, zone changes, server restarts and deaths.
Click a section below for the details. For the full picture, see the Companion Guide (GUIDE.md) and the Settings Reference (CONFIGURATION.md), included with the mod and on GitHub.
Commanding your companions
- Tap the interact key on a companion to open its panel: inventory, gear, food and name.
- Hold the interact key to open the command wheel. Pick a job, switch Follow on or off, set its home, and toggle Wander, Pickup and Command. The inner ring holds the combat stances.
- Point and command: aim at something and press the command key (
Zby default). Companions work out what you mean from context:- an enemy — attack it
- a resource — gather it
- a cart — haul it
- a ship — board it
- a bed — sleep in it
- a fire — sit by it
- a door — open it
- a chest — put their things in it
- a crafting station — repair their gear there
- a tombstone — recover it
- the ground — walk there
- Hold the command key to call nearby companions to you. Keep holding for a couple of seconds to recall every companion at any distance.
- Your orders come first. While a companion carries out an order, its job waits, then picks up where it left off.
- Set Home marks where a companion lives. It claims a bed nearby, brings tools back there, empties its bags there and works around it.
Combat
Companions fight with a defensive-minded combat AI. They raise a shield and block incoming hits, parry and counter-attack, and switch to their best blocking shield when several enemies attack at once. They pick their weapon based on the enemy they're facing — its actual weaknesses and resistances — rather than raw damage. They also open with a torch against fire-weak enemies.
Bows and crossbows are used when the companion carries the matching ammo. They load and fire crossbows properly, and switch to melee when an enemy closes in.
Companions don't pick fights with creatures minding their own business. By default they attack a creature once it has noticed you or them. With [Combat] EngageOnNotice off, they wait until it's actually coming for you. Anything that attacks them is always fought back. Below a set health level they fight defensively, and at very low health they run.
Combat stances (inner ring of the command wheel; on a controller, push the stick partway toward one):
| Stance | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Balanced | Picks melee or ranged depending on the situation |
| Passive | Never starts a fight; just follows or works |
| Ranged | Prefers a bow or crossbow and keeps its distance |
| Melee | Sticks to melee weapons |
After a fight, a companion goes over and picks up what the kill dropped (with Pickup on).
Gathering: Wood, Stone, Ore and Forage
- With Follow on, a gathering companion works like Hunt. It goes for trees, rocks or plants close to you (10 m by default) as you travel, and otherwise follows you. Forage is about the berries you happen to walk past, not clearing the whole area.
- With Follow off, it works an area: around home if it was started near home, otherwise around where you left it.
- What and how much: gather lists and amounts decide what it collects and stops at — wood types, stone and flint, each ore, each forage item. Items not on the list are left on the ground. Amounts count what's in its pack plus the chests at home.
- Early game: with no bronze axe anywhere and no forge to make one, the Wood and Stone jobs also pick up branches, stones and flint lying around.
- Safety: it steps aside from falling trees and won't fell trees right next to your buildings. Certain trees can be left alone entirely (Oak by default).
- Full pack: it unloads into a chest. Away from home it can also use a cart or ship nearby. If there's nowhere to unload, it can drop junk it doesn't need.
Hunting and Fishing
Hunt
- Goes after creatures that drop meat, until it has enough of each kind of meat. Tamed animals, bosses and companions are never hunted.
- Sneaks up on skittish game like deer to catch them off guard.
- Shoots birds for feathers (bow or crossbow needed).
- Picks up the drops, and brings the catch home when its pack is full.
- With Follow on it hunts near you; with Follow off, around where it was set to work.
Fish
- Casts with a rod and bait, picking the best bait for the fish nearby.
- Waits for a bite, strikes, and reels the fish in while watching the line.
- Brings the catch home when its pack is full.
- Each kind of fish has a target, so it stops when you have enough.
Farming
- Picks ripe crops, working down the rows, and stores the harvest.
- Replants in the farm zones you mark out with the farm zone editor (
Left Alt+Zby default). A zone can be set to a particular crop or to "any". - Keeps a seed reserve. It grows seed plants (carrots, turnips, onions…) alongside crops to build the stock back up, and never plants your last seeds.
- Plants in small blocks of each crop and never plants tree saplings in an "any" zone.
- Respects wards, like a player building.
Smelting and Cooking
Smelt
- Keeps kilns, smelters, furnaces and the like fed with ore and fuel from nearby chests (and the chests at home).
- Collects the output and stores it.
- With no fuel in the chests, it can take down a wood pile with a hammer and use that.
Cook
- Uses every kind of cooking station like a player: cauldron, food preparation table, mead ketill, spit and cooking station, iron cooking station, oven, fermenters and beehives. Each one can be switched off in the settings.
- Cooks until each food reaches its target and always leaves a reserve of ingredients for you.
- Brews mead bases in batches, fills and taps fermenters, and puts cooked food with food of the same kind. Mead making can be switched off.
- Brews for your progress: mead bases are prioritised by the last boss you beat, to get you ready for the next one.
- Keeps the fires under its cooking stations and the oven fuelled — just enough to cook with.
Repair and Restock (looking after your base)
A job for the companion you leave at home (or at an outpost). It keeps an area running on its own, as long as you (or another player) are close enough for the game to keep that area loaded — companions in unloaded areas freeze until someone comes back:
- Repair: fixes damaged building pieces with a hammer, one swing at a time like a player. It needs the right crafting station nearby and ward access.
- Restock: keeps campfires, hearths, braziers, torches, sconces and hot tubs fuelled. Each kind can be switched on or off.
- Beehives: empties them and puts the honey away.
- Piles: stacks surplus wood, stone and the like from the chests into piles next to the piles you've already built, keeping a set amount in the chests for building. When the chests run low, it takes a pile down to refill them.
- Sorting: sorts the chests like with like, carrying each item to the chest that already holds the most of it.
It fetches what it needs (a hammer, fuel) from the chests and puts leftovers back. If you send it somewhere, it waits there a little while before going back to its chores.
When there's nothing to do (idle behaviour)
When a companion's job runs out of work and it isn't following you, it idles near its job instead of standing still. It might:
- do small chores nearby: repair a piece, top up a fire, collect honey, put away what it's carrying
- sit down on a chair or bench (or the ground) for a while
- wander over to check on a station or chest
- go over to you or another companion and chat
Now and then it tells you why it's idle ("Waiting for the crops to grow."). It gets straight back to work the moment the job has something to do. It also stops idling for a fight, an order, bedtime, or you opening its menu.
Gear, tools and repair
- Each companion has a full inventory and equips the best weapon, shield and armor it's carrying. Durability works like a player's.
- Tools: jobs fetch the tool they need (axe, pickaxe, cultivator, rod and bait, hammer…) from the chests at home and put borrowed ones back afterwards. A broken tool is repaired or replaced.
- Gear repair: worn gear is taken to a crafting station a player could use (roof and fire where needed). At home this happens a bit sooner. An item no station nearby can repair is left alone for a while instead of being tried over and over.
- Bags: when you change a companion's job, or it comes home, it empties what it picked up into the chests.
Food, rest, beds and death
- Food: companions eat from up to three food slots like a player, from their own inventory. They drink healing and stamina meads when they need them.
- Rest: they get the Rested buff by a fire, and when you sit down near a fire, companions nearby sit down with you.
- Beds: each companion claims a bed like a player, which shows its name. It goes to bed at night (and when you do), then back to its job in the morning.
- Death: a companion that dies leaves a tombstone that stays on your map until it's emptied. It comes back after a while at its bed (or next to you) and collects its own gear when it's near its tombstone.
- Death penalty: what it loses on death follows your world's setting by default, and can be changed.
Multiplayer
- Your companion stays yours. In multiplayer, the game sometimes hands a companion to whichever nearby player's computer it likes. A companion still treats its owner as its player: it follows you, sleeps when you sleep, and carries out your orders, whoever's game is running it.
- Chests are safe to share. A companion won't use a chest someone has open, another player's private chest, or a chest behind a ward it can't open. Items it moves are saved properly, with no losses or duplicates.
- Credit goes to the owner. Crops and piles a companion makes count as built by its owner.
- Night skip: companions hold the night skip (up to 30 s) while they walk to bed.
- Install it everywhere. On a dedicated server, the server needs the mod too. A server or host without it deletes companions it loads (especially near the world spawn). A deleted companion can be brought back with General > RecoverLostCompanion (see the guide), but it's better not to lose it.
Settings
All settings are in BepInEx/config/Maddhattr.OfflineCompanionsReborn.cfg. They can also be changed in game with the settings panel (F8 by default). Each setting has a plain-language description.
They're grouped into: General, Controls, Follow, Movement, Combat, Food, Stamina, Rest, Death, Looting, Gear Repair, one section per job (Gathering, Hunting, Fishing, Farming, Smelting, Cooking, Repair and Restock), Idle, Speech, and Advanced (fine-tuning most players won't need).
List settings (what to gather, cook, hunt, plant…) all use the same format:
*= everythingName= this one-Name= never this oneName:Number= this one, with its own amount
The names you can use are written to OfflineCompanionsReborn.Cooking.txt, .Hunting.txt and .Fishing.txt in the config folder at startup.
Updating from an older version? Your changed settings are carried over to their new names automatically the first time you load in.
Installation
Install with a mod manager (recommended), or manually drop Companions.dll into your BepInEx/plugins/ folder.
Multiplayer: every player needs the mod, and so does a dedicated server. A server without it deletes companions.
Remove ProfMags' original Offline Companions first. It doesn't work on Valheim 1.0, and Reborn won't start while it's installed (the BepInEx log says so).
Requires: BepInEx and Harmony — both pulled in automatically by BepInExPack.
Future Plans
- Keep developing the companion AI so it behaves more like another player.
- More multiplayer features.
- A review of skills and stats (health, regen, stamina, skill gains) against a player's.
- Combat improvements.
- A full ship and cart review.
- Outposts: a way for companions to treat a second base like home.
- Smarter chest organisation (ore near the smelter, food near the cooking stations…).
- Add a way to recruit companions from Haldor's shop.
Source
The full source code is on GitHub: MaddhattrRocks/Offline-Companions-Reborn.
License
MIT — see LICENSE. This is the same license the original Offline Companions mod is released under; this update keeps ProfMags' copyright notice in place per the license terms, alongside the additional changes made here.
Disclaimer
This is an unofficial, community update made to keep a great mod working on Valheim 1.0. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by ProfMags. If ProfMags ever wants this taken down, merged, or handled differently, just ask — happy to work it out.
Parts of the code for this mod have been updated and created using AI tools to assist. This is done with specific instruction, code review, and rigorous and repeat testing before releasing a new version. AI tools just allow the work to be done faster and have no impact on creative direction.
CHANGELOG
Changelog
All notable changes to this fork of ProfMags' Offline Companions. Versions before 1.4.0 are the original mod (see ProfMags' Thunderstore page for that history) plus the initial batch of Valheim 1.0 API-compatibility fixes that let the mod load and run at all on 1.0.
1.5.6
- Combat: full combos, parries and blocks by chance (better with skill), spacing and going in on an opening, flanking, finishing blows, stamina kept for blocking.
- Bows drawn like a player (draw time, partial draws); Ranged stance carries the bow; Balanced takes the bow for enemies melee can't reach.
- Fights: only enemies in sight, no doors opened mid-fight, defensive in dungeons, no swimming after enemies, back to you past 35 m (Combat LeashFromYou), unreachable enemies let go and picked up again once reachable.
- Fixed ticks: a latched tick is fought first with full combos.
- Safer movement: spike walls avoided, fight moves stay off ledges, water and fire; follows you through dungeon doors even mid-fight.
- Fixed getting on and off boats: jumps aboard, or swims and wades to the ladder; walks to a seat (or the one you point at); gets off with you. No teleporting.
- Swimming uses stamina like the player (Stamina SwimDrainAtSkill0).
- Odin's Shrine: summon more companions for coins; recover lost or unsummoned companions; menus in the game's look.
- Collects honey from a beehive via command.
- Fixed the overhead stamina bar turning grey after a portal.
- Fixed a companion warping to you when you got off a ship.
- Companions eat again with 3 minutes of food left (Food > EatAgainMinutes); follow you indoors to a chair up to 8 m away.
1.5.5
Speech overhaul: companions talk less, and what they say and show tells you what they're doing and why not.
- Status: look at a companion and a line under its name says what it's doing ("Wood - chopping Beech", "Repair and Restock - fuelling the Hearth", "Mead - filling a fermenter") and, when its job is stuck, why (General > ShowStatus).
- Status: a stuck job goes through its reasons in turn, with the numbers from your settings - "Wood 512/500 - at the limit.", "Copper deposit needs a better pickaxe.", "Raw meat 104/100 - enough.", "No bait for Pike (Fishing bait).", "No wood for the Charcoal kiln.", "Mead - Honey 0/30 for Frost resistance mead." (the recipe's 10 plus the 20 kept back), "No Turnip seeds to plant.", "No Resin for the fires."
- Speech: much less small talk - every 1.5-3 minutes instead of 15-30 seconds (Speech > Chatter: Off, Rare, Normal, Often; Speech > Enabled turns all speech off).
- Speech: small talk fits what it's doing and where it is - job lines only while working that job, fight lines only in a fight, home lines at home, travelling lines away from home, lines for the biome, night, rain and cold, nothing while it sleeps, sits, swims or sails.
- Speech: it says what it's off to do ("Fetching an axe.", "Putting a cultivator back.", "Off to bed.") and gives the real reason when it has nothing to do.
- Speech: new lines for things it used to give up on silently - no way to reach you, chests full, a tool it needs (any tool), no station to fix its gear, a lost spear, prey that got away, no hunting in the Passive stance.
- Speech: replies to your orders come at once; problems aren't lost to small talk and aren't repeated for 5 minutes; hungry, worn-gear, no-bed and heavy-pack remarks at most every 10 minutes, and "no bed" only at night at home.
- Speech: a problem a companion runs into while you're out of earshot shows top left with its name (Speech > FarAwayMessages).
- Messages: when one of your companions dies, the middle of the screen says so, with the biome and how far away (Speech > AnnounceDeath); when no companion takes your order (Command off, too far) a short message top left says so.
- speech.json has a new layout with tags per line ([home], [night], [rain], [blackforest]...). Your old file is kept next to it (speech.v1.json / speech.v2.json) and replaced by the new lines.
- Death (GitHub issue #17): a revived companion gets its gear before fighting again. Death > RespawnStance = RecoverFirst (default): it comes back Passive with Pickup off, goes for its tombstone when it's safe (waiting by you while enemies are after it, but finishing the trip once it's nearer its gear than you), fights back only when attacked with a weapon in hand, puts its gear on, eats, then goes back to its old stance. Passive: stays Passive. Keep: as before.
- Stance keys (issue #17): Controls > PassiveKey, BalancedKey, RangedKey, MeleeKey (unbound by default) - the companion you're looking at, or everyone in RecallRange with Command on.
- Death (issue #16): a companion that comes back by itself says where ("Saber is back - at its bed (Meadows, 850 m from you)"), and the roster and Odin's Shrine show where each living companion is. Death > RespawnAtPlayer: it always comes back next to you.
- Fixed: a companion's farm zones were lost when it died and came back, or was recovered. They now come back with it.
- Farming: ground you've tilled with a cultivator counts as an "Any" zone - it plants the PlantAny crops there, never inside a zone you set (Farming > PlantTilledGround).
- Farming: no more planting under eaves or against walls (where crops never grow), and no more trying to reach tilled ground it can't walk to (Farming > UnreachableSpotMemory).
- Farming without zones no longer keeps announcing "no farm zones"; "All done farming" at most every 10 minutes.
- Fixed: companions walked through the edge of the hearth's flames and stepped up onto it - which damages the hearth, as it does when a player stands in it. Routes, idle spots and follow spots now keep clear of fires.
- Water: in shallow water (the swamp) companions wade instead of hopping in and out; they jump only when the jump lands them on dry land, or to save a swim.
- Fixed: shooting at a bird, a companion often hit the hillside - it now aims at the bird and only shoots with a clear line to it.
- Following indoors: no more stuttering out of the door and back; a companion that sat down stays seated while you move about within 10 m (Follow > SitStayRange).
- Fishing: the log names the stamina food it takes along.
- Fixed: key settings in the F8 panel can be set again (a click starts "Press a key...", Esc cancels).
1.5.4
- Hunting: with a spear to throw at a deer (and another weapon in its pack), a companion sneaks only to throwing distance, stops and throws, instead of walking right up and stabbing it. New setting Hunting > ThrowStandoff (10 m; it throws from anywhere within ThrowRange, 12 m).
- Hunting: a companion with a spear as its only weapon throws it too once a deer (or other timid game) has noticed it, then lets the animal go and fetches the spear before hunting on.
- Hunting: a companion waits for the stamina a throw needs instead of closing in to stab, and the log says why it isn't throwing yet.
- Hunting: sneaking costs stamina like a player's, so a companion sneaking up on prey stops crouched to get its breath back when low (Hunting > SneakRestStamina 30%, carries on at SneakResumeStamina 60%).
- Hunting: a companion walks quietly (no running) up to prey that hasn't noticed it and only crouches within 20 m of it (Hunting > SneakFrom), like a player, instead of sneaking all the way.
- Hunting: if a much closer animal turns up before a companion has struck at its prey (closer by at least 5 m and under 60% of the distance - Hunting > SwitchCloserBy and SwitchShare), it goes for that one instead.
- Sneaking costs less stamina as a companion's Sneak skill goes up, the same way it does for a player (up to 75% less).
- Fixed: a companion that took a while sneaking up on prey (resting on the way) gave up on it after a minute without attacking, ignored that animal for a minute and went after one further away. Hunting now allows 3 minutes, and the log says when and why a target is given up.
- Hunting: while sneaking a companion wades shallow water and walks round instead of jumping, which stood it up, made noise and spent stamina (it only hops a step it's really stuck on).
- Hunting: chasing prey that bolted, a companion only runs while it has stamina to spare and jogs otherwise (Hunting > ChaseRunStamina 30%), so it doesn't reach the prey with an empty stamina bar.
- Fixed: ordering a companion to attack a deer (or other harmless game) did nothing - it dropped it straight away as "not a threat". The order now starts a hunt: it sneaks up and throws a spear like on the Hunt job.
- Hunting: with Follow on, a companion looks for prey up to 40 m from you (was 25 m - Hunting > FollowRange), closer to what you can see yourself.
- Melee: companions swing once they are a little inside their weapon's reach (Advanced > MeleeReachMargin, 0.2 m), not right at its edge where hits are hit-or-miss (user test: a stab at an unaware deer from the very edge of the spear's reach missed).
- Melee: companions aim a swing or stab at the middle of the target instead of its top (it went over a low animal's back), step back before swinging when standing right on top of it (Advanced > MeleeTooClose 0.3 m), and only stab once they face the target squarely.
- Log (debug): every melee swing, shot and spear throw is logged with distance, height and facing, followed by whether it hit (and for how much) or missed - to track down missed attacks.
- Fixed: after switching the job (e.g. turning Hunt off) a companion kept walking back to a chest for a tool the new job doesn't use, even after you called it back.
- Tools: take a tool out of a companion's pack (e.g. its bow) and it works without it for this job instead of going home for another one. Picking the job again lets it fetch tools again.
1.5.3
- Ladders: a tower of short ladders with landings between is now planned as one climb - the companion works out the whole chain at the start and goes from each ladder's top straight to the next one's foot without stopping. Chains that worked are remembered for a while, so after a fall (or the next time) it gets straight back on.
- Fixed: after loading in, a companion with Follow off followed you anyway (the return-to-you step on load switched follow on and never switched it back properly). It now leaves companions with Follow off alone.
- Ladders: a companion walks into a ladder and lets it lift it, like a player, and only hops when that doesn't work; it finishes each ladder on the landing before turning for the next one (it used to turn early and walk off the side).
- Ladders: a companion lines up square in front of each ladder first (like a doorway), walks straight into it and is bumped up it every half second just like you; only when it's really stuck does it hop.
- Fixed: going up a tower of ladders, a companion could walk or hop off the open side of a landing (a 9 m fall). The usual edge check now applies on ladder landings, and it never hops towards an edge.
- Fixed: a companion with nothing to do walked off - back towards where it was first spawned or last brought back, or to its home point up to 60 m away - even right after you sent it somewhere. It now waits and idles where it is, and around home only when it's at home.
- Quieter log: a cornered, fleeing companion logs once every few seconds instead of every moment.
- Ladders: companions walk up ladders instead of running, and when low on stamina they get their breath back on a landing before the next ladder (never part way up).
- Fixed: a companion with a melee weapon swung at an enemy a floor above it (hitting the ladder in between) instead of climbing up to it. Melee range now counts height, and on its way up a ladder it finishes the climb before it fights.
- Fixed: at the top of a ladder a companion could carry on walking the ladder's way and out through an opening in a tower wall (a 10 m fall). It now stops at the ladder's top end or the edge of the landing and turns for the next ladder.
- Fixed: after falling off a chain of ladders a companion couldn't find the first ladder again ("no ladder found" right beside it).
- Fixed: following your path up a tower, a companion could jump up onto a wall top beside the path and fall off the other side.
- Ladders: going down a tower of ladders works the same way - planned once, then down each ladder from its top to its foot and straight on to the next, instead of stopping short of each bottom.
- Companions recognise ladders that are part of the world (a ruined tower's), not only ones you built, so they can climb to an enemy at the top.
- Quieter log: the weapon-choice lines during fights are now debug-only.
- Fixed: at the top of a ladder a companion leapt onto the floor next to it and could carry straight on over a small floor and off the far side. It now steps off onto a floor that is level and close, looks first the way the ladder faces, and only takes spots with real footing.
- Fixed: on a sloping ladder a companion walked on past its top end while making sure the climb was over, ending up off to the side of the next ladder. It now stops there, and checks for a drop only as far as the next ladder's foot.
- Ladders: at the top of one ladder a companion that still has further to climb goes straight for the next ladder instead of stepping off first, and walks round a small opening to reach it (only a drop of over 4 m stops it).
- Ladders: a companion walks all the way to the foot of a ladder before pushing into it, instead of pushing in from beside it and walking along its edge; a narrow opening on the way no longer makes it give the ladder up.
- Ladders: walking to the next ladder a companion keeps to the floor - if the straight line would cut across the open side of a narrow floor, it goes round the corner instead, and only gives the ladder up when there is no floor all the way.
- Ladders: floor and edge checks look at a foot-sized area, so the gaps between a stair-like ladder's rungs no longer read as an edge or "no floor".
- Ladders: a companion pressed against a wall beside a ladder stops trying to get closer after a moment and climbs on from where it is.
- Fixed: at the top of a ladder a companion already at your height could jump up onto a wall top and over the side (an 11 m fall). It only jumps up when you're higher, and never onto something with a harmful drop just past it.
- Ladders: smoother climbing up a chain of ladders - shorter pauses on each landing (it steps on to the next ladder sooner), and while it waits at the top it turns towards the next ladder.
- Fixed: a companion only looked for the next ladder when its target was more than 2 m up, so with an enemy exactly one floor up it stepped off instead and could fall. Now from 1.5 m.
- Fixed: after a fall a companion wouldn't use the ladders it had just climbed again ("no ladder found" right beside them).
- Follow: a companion standing right beside the path you took steps onto it there, instead of walking round to where you last were on its level (which could mean going round a hole).
1.5.2
- Fixed: hunting with a melee weapon (spear, axe, knife - no bow ready) - the companion stopped 20 m away and swung at the air. It now sneaks up and strikes.
- Hunters throw their spear at skittish game (deer, hares...) when they have another weapon in their pack, then go and pick it back up.
- New [Hunting] ThrowSpear (on) and ThrowRange (12 m).
- Fixed: a spear counted as a ranged weapon (its long AI range is the throw), so a companion stabbed at the air from far off. Melee weapons now close to their real reach.
- A companion's thrown spears, arrows and bolts lead a running target and aim a little high for the drop, like a player.
- Fixed: following you, a companion could jump a stream and straight back when your path changed; it now wades or goes round instead of jumping back within a few seconds.
- Fixed: a creature it can't reach in deep water (a crocodile watching from the river) made a companion stand still, starting and dropping the fight over and over. It now leaves it unless it's attacked.
- Fixed: arrows were picked as a "bow" when the companion had arrows but no bow.
- Fixed: a companion out hunting far from home gave up its bed because the bed wasn't loaded; it only looks for its bed when it's nearby.
- Companions climb wooden ladders (push into them and hop up, like a player) to follow you up a tower or reach something on a platform, and jump from the top onto a ledge (or up onto a wall top and on to the floor) when the ladder stops short.
- Ladders stacked on top of each other are climbed as one tall ladder, all the way to the top.
- Companions jump onto a ladder whose bottom is off the ground, or when walking into it doesn't lift them, like a player, and try another way after 4 jumps that don't get them on.
- Ladder choice: companions pick a ladder whose foot is on their level and that they can walk to, and whose top gets them closest to where they are going; they climb a chain of short ladders one after another and leave a ladder alone for a while if it keeps getting them nowhere.
- Ladders: a ladder foot close by is walked to straight, without stepping off the edge of a small floor; a companion that falls off on the way looks again from where it lands instead of jumping at the ladder from below.
- Companions stop at the edge of a drop that would hurt (over 3 m, not into deep water) instead of walking off it, whether following, fighting or working, and look for a ladder or a safe way down instead.
- Gap jumps over a drop that would hurt need room to spare (80% of the companion's jump), and a companion never steps off the top of a ladder over such a drop.
- Follow: when you go up or down somewhere the companion can't find its own way (a narrow tower of ladders), it follows the exact path you took, ladders and jumps included - except a drop that would cost it more than 30% of its health.
- Follow: a companion on another floor from you keeps working its way to you (ladders included) instead of counting as "close enough" and idling, and never stops in the middle of a climb.
- Companions no longer try to jump onto a ladder from under a floor: a ladder that starts from a floor above them is climbed from that floor once they get up there.
- Ladders: companions walk round to the foot of a ladder instead of into the wall beside it, and skip a ladder that didn't get them up for a few minutes.
- Companions take fall damage like a player (none up to 4 m; Feather Fall works for them too).
- Companions go back down the ladder they came up. Only with no other way down do they jump down a drop: up to 8 m and never one costing more than 30% of their health. New [Movement] StuckDrop.
- When stuck just below where it needs to be, a companion jumps up onto something it can stand on nearby, like a player; it no longer steps backwards off a high ledge when stuck.
- Companions can use the game's use-to-climb ladders to reach something up out of reach.
1.5.1
- Fixed: a companion that died while you were dead too (for example both drowning at sea) left no tombstone and never came back - it now leaves its tombstone and respawns as normal, wherever you respawn.
- Fixed: a companion whose respawn time came while its tombstone was far away could be respawned again and again (one every second) - it now comes back once.
- README and guide: on a dedicated server the server needs the mod too - a server without it deletes companions.
- New companion roster: your game saves each companion's gear and settings every minute and when you log out or quit, per world.
- New [General] ShowCompanionRoster: lists your companions as Alive, Dead, Lost or Unknown.
- New [General] RecoverLostCompanion: brings a Lost companion back next to you (an Unknown one asks you to confirm).
- A recovered companion's old copy is removed if it turns up later, and its old tombstone no longer respawns it.
- New [Advanced] RosterSaveInterval (60 s): how often the roster is saved.
- New Odin's Shrine (hammer, Misc, at a workbench: 10 stone, 5 wood, 3 greydwarf eyes): shows your companions and their status in the game's message window, and offers to bring back a lost one.
- Fixed: a companion looked for a free bed about every 30 minutes instead of every 30 seconds (at night it still looked every few seconds).
- Fixed: a companion kept saying it had no bed after it had found one, until the next night.
- A bed claimed by a companion that no longer exists is free again (single player and host).
- The log now says why a companion couldn't find a bed to claim.
- Fixed: a companion could lose its bed when you loaded in, if the bed hadn't appeared yet - it now waits up to a minute for it.
- A companion can use a bed of its owner's that isn't the owner's spawn point, so clicking its bed by accident no longer takes it away. Once you make it your spawn point, the companion gives it up straight away.
- New [Death] ShrineBuildable, ShrineRecipe and ShrineModel (Tombstone or Ward): turn the shrine off, change its cost or its look.
1.5.0
- Major release: everything from 1.4.86 to 1.4.156 below (new movement, idle behaviour, Repair and Restock, cooking, gathering like Hunt, orders first, multiplayer ownership and chest safety, cleaned-up settings), plus the new Companion Guide (GUIDE.md) and Settings Reference (CONFIGURATION.md).
Older versions
The full history, including 1.4.0 – 1.4.156 and every detail of each version, is in CHANGELOG-full.md on GitHub.
