Ore Finder

Points you to the ore veins around you in Valheim 1.0, and to dungeon entrances, monster spawners, ancient roots and rare pickables. Every second the mod looks for ore within a configurable radius (20 m by default) and for the other targets within 40 m. The first time something comes into range it gets a screen arrow with its name and distance, a coloured light, a vertical beam and a glow, for 10 seconds by default, plus a pin on the map. Each find is shown once, so walking past a deposit you already know does not nag you.

Only real ore counts: copper and tin deposits, silver veins, iron scrap piles, flametal. Plain rocks, obsidian and black marble are ignored unless you list them. Press F9 to turn the finder on and off.

Client-side: install it on every player's game that should use it. Nothing is needed on the server, and players without the mod can play on the same server.

Source, issues and releases: github.com/egor-muindor/ValheimMods.

Features

• Screen arrow: an arrow with the ore name and distance is drawn over the vein while it is in view. When the vein is behind you or outside the screen, the arrow sits at the screen edge and points towards it.
• Vein highlight: a pulsing point light in the ore's colour (orange for copper, blue-grey for tin, white for silver, rust for iron, red for flametal), a 30 m vertical beam and an emissive tint on the vein itself. Everything fades out at the end of the highlight.
• Once per vein: a vein is highlighted the first time it enters the radius and not again, until you leave the world or run orefinder reset.
• Ore list: look for every ore, or only the ones you name.
• Map pin: a dot pin named after the ore, saved with your map, for every found vein. Nothing is added when another pin is already nearby, so your own pins and re-found veins do not pile up.
• Your own names: call the ores what you like, for example one letter each so the map stays readable. Off by default.
• Hidden ores need the Wishbone: silver veins and the scrap piles the Wishbone reacts to are only found while you carry it, like in the game.
• More than ores: entrances of crypts, caves and mines (with their own map pin icon), monster spawners (greydwarf nests, bone and body piles, surtling spawners and other respawning spawn points, with a hammer pin), ancient roots for the sap extractor, pickables you list (dragon eggs, Jotun puffs, Magecap, Fiddlehead, Volture eggs by default) and trees you list by their wood.
• Each group on its own switch: ores, dungeon entrances, roots and spawners can be turned on and off separately, in the config, from the console (orefinder dungeons off) or with their own hotkeys.
• Toggle key: F9 by default, configurable, with modifiers if you like. The state is saved to the config file.

Installation

Requires BepInEx 5.

• With a mod manager (r2modman, Thunderstore Mod Manager): install as usual.
• By hand: unzip the release and copy the plugins/OreFinder folder into BepInEx/plugins, so the mod ends up at BepInEx/plugins/OreFinder/OreFinder.dll.

The config file BepInEx/config/muindor.OreFinder.cfg is created on first launch.

Configuration

Server

Install the mod on a dedicated server, or on the machine hosting the session, and turn ConfigPriority on to keep a party in step: every client that also has Ore Finder then looks for the same things and writes the same names on the map. The server decides the whole of Detection, Targets, Hidden, Names and Map, plus Enabled - so a shared map ends up with one set of pin names and icons instead of one per player. Those settings are marked [synced] in the generated .cfg.

The keys and the look of the highlight (Highlight, the toggle keys, IsDebug) stay each player's own. While the server decides Enabled or a group switch, the toggle keys and orefinder on|off|ores|dungeons|spawners|roots say so and change nothing.

This never makes the mod required on either side:

• Players without it are unaffected. The mod is not part of the game's version check, so it never blocks a connection either way.
• A player with it can still join a server that does not have it, or one that leaves ConfigPriority off, and keeps their own settings.
• The client's .cfg is never written to. The server's values live in memory for as long as the connection lasts and are dropped when it ends.
• Changing a setting on a running server sends it to the connected players right away.

General

Detection

Highlight

Targets

Hidden

Names

Map

What counts as ore

With an empty Ores list, a mineable object is ore when one of the items it drops has the word Ore or Scrap in its name: CopperOre, TinOre, SilverOre, IronScrap, FlametalOre, FlametalOreNew, and the Deep North's GoldOre (Petrified Tissue). Anything a game update adds with such a name is picked up automatically. LeatherScraps and ShieldCore do not qualify, and neither do Stone, Obsidian, BlackMarble or Softtissue.

With a list, an object is ore when one of its drops or its own prefab name is in the list. Names are case-insensitive and $item_ localisation keys are accepted. The list replaces the rule: to get every ore plus obsidian, list all of them:

Ores = CopperOre, TinOre, SilverOre, IronScrap, FlametalOre, FlametalOreNew, Obsidian

Console command

orefinder status   # show the active settings, where they come from, and the counters
orefinder on       # turn the finder on (same as the toggle key)
orefinder off      # turn it off
orefinder reset    # forget the veins already shown, so they are highlighted again
orefinder reload   # re-read the config file

orefinder ores off        # stop looking for ores, keep the other targets
orefinder dungeons on     # look for dungeon entrances again
orefinder spawners        # flip the spawner search
orefinder roots off

The group commands change FindOres, Dungeons, Spawners and Roots in the config, like the hotkeys do, unless the server decides them. Pickables and trees are lists; empty the list to turn them off.

How it works

Once per ScanInterval the mod walks the objects the game has loaded around the player (ZNetScene's instance table) and keeps the ones within Radius. Each object's prefab is classified once, through its drop table: MineRock5 (copper, silver, flametal), MineRock (tin, obsidian) and DropOnDestroyed (scrap piles). An untouched copper or silver deposit is a plain Destructible that turns into the mineable MineRock5 on the first hit, so the finder also looks at what a destructible spawns when destroyed. Veins are remembered by their network id and position: a partly mined deposit is still the same vein, and so is the rock that replaces an intact deposit after the first hit.

Hidden ores are recognised the way the game does it: the object (or what it turns into) carries a Beacon component, which is what the Wishbone's finder effect listens for. The Wishbone check looks at the inventory once per scan.

The other targets are recognised by their components too, so nothing is hardcoded to a list of prefabs: a root is a ResourceRoot, a spawner is a SpawnArea (nests, piles) or a CreatureSpawner with a respawn time, a pickable is a Pickable whose item is in the list (its picked state is read from the object, so picked ones wait until they regrow), and a tree is a TreeBase whose log chain (TreeLog and its sub-logs) drops a listed wood.

Dungeon entrances take a detour. A door is a Teleport trigger, but the game does not spawn it as a network object: a location is spawned in two parts, every ZNetView on its own and everything else as one plain object under the location's LocationProxy (which is a network object). The doors are in the second part, so they never appear in the instance table. The finder looks at every proxy within TargetRadius + 50 m (a proxy stands at the location's centre, the door can be some way out), takes the teleports under it that are not inside the interior (the game keeps interiors above 3000 m; the exits are there) and marks each door by its own position. The door is named after its enter text (Burial Chambers, Sunken Crypt, ...) or, without one, after the location.

The highlight does not touch the vein's game object: the light and beam are separate objects, and the glow is a material property block that is cleared when the highlight ends. Map pins go through Minimap.AddPin like your own pins and are saved with the map. The screen markers are drawn with IMGUI, so no canvas or font asset is needed. The only Harmony patch is Terminal.InitTerminal, for the console command.

Compatibility

• Works alongside any mod: nothing of the game is patched except the console command registration.
• Modded ores are found when their ore item's prefab name contains the word Ore or Scrap; otherwise add them to Ores.
• The toggle key is checked through the game's input layer (ZInput), so it works with the same keys the game accepts.

License

MIT

Changelog

1.3.0 - 2026-09-16

• Optional server configuration. A server that also runs OreFinder and turns the new Server.ConfigPriority on decides Enabled and the whole of Detection, Targets, Hidden, Names and Map for the players who have the mod, so a party looks for the same things and a shared map ends up with one set of pin names and icons instead of one per player. The settings that travel are marked [synced] in the config file.
• The toggle keys, the Highlight section and IsDebug stay each player's own and are never sent. While the server decides Enabled or a group switch, the toggle keys and orefinder on|off|ores|dungeons|spawners|roots say so and change nothing.
• The mod stays optional on both sides: it is not part of the game's version check, players without it are unaffected, and it keeps working on servers that do not have it or that leave ConfigPriority off.
• The client's config file is never written to. The server's values live in memory for as long as the connection lasts and are dropped when it ends; a setting changed on a running server is sent to the connected players right away.
• orefinder status and orefinder reload say where the active settings come from.

1.2.0 - 2026-09-12

• Fixed: dungeon entrances were never found. The doors are not network objects: the game spawns them, with the rest of a location's non-networked parts, as one object under the location's proxy, so the scan of loaded network objects never saw them. The finder now looks under every location proxy nearby and marks each door by its own position. Location proxies are looked at from TargetRadius + 50 m, because a proxy stands at the location's centre and the door can be some way out. A door without an enter text is named after its location.
• New: monster spawners. Spawners (on by default) finds greydwarf nests, evil bone piles, body piles and the like (SpawnArea), plus the invisible spawn points that respawn their creature (CreatureSpawner with a respawn time: surtling spawners at fire geysers, the respawning points in ruins and camps). Spawn points that fire only once are skipped. They get a red highlight and a hammer map pin (SpawnerPin); the name is the creature's ("Greydwarf spawner"), initials GS with custom names.
• New: each group on its own switch. FindOres turns the ore search off while the other targets stay on; orefinder ores|dungeons|roots|spawners [on|off] flips a group from the console (no on/off = toggle); OresToggleKey, DungeonsToggleKey and SpawnersToggleKey (unset by default) do the same with a key. Turning a group off removes its highlights at once.
• Changed: orefinder status lists the groups that are on ("targets: ores, dungeon entrances, ...") and the ore list separately.
• Changed: no map pin for a find inside a dungeon (the interior's coordinates point at nothing on the map); the arrow, light and beam still show.

1.1.1 - 2026-09-12

• Defaults checked against the game's ID list: Pickables now lists the pickable objects by their exact prefab names (Pickable_DragonEgg, Pickable_Mushroom_JotunPuffs, Pickable_Mushroom_Magecap, Pickable_Fiddlehead, Pickable_VoltureEgg); item names still work too. The short names for Magecap and Fiddlehead are keyed the same way.
• Deep North: the new ore item GoldOre (Petrified Tissue, smelts into Bloodgold) is found by the ore rule; its short name is B. Frostwood (Timberwood) is a valid entry for Trees.

1.1.0 - 2026-09-12

• New targets besides ores, each with the same arrow, light, beam and map pin: dungeon entrances (any door with an Enter prompt: burial chambers, sunken crypts, troll caves, frost caves, infested mines, ...), ancient roots, and pickables from the Pickables list (dragon eggs, Jotun puffs, Magecap, Fiddlehead, Volture eggs by default). Trees can be listed by their wood in Trees (empty by default). Non-ore targets use their own TargetRadius (40 m).
• Map pin icons per group: OrePin (dot), DungeonPin (house), OtherPin (dot), any of the five player pin icons.
• Custom names: targets without a pair in Names get the initials of their name (Burial Chambers = BC, Dragon egg = DE). Names now also carries MushroomMagecap=Mc, Fiddlehead=Fh, $item_ancientroot=YR.

1.0.3 - 2026-09-12

• New: hidden ores need the Wishbone. Veins the game marks for the Wishbone (silver veins, scrap piles with a beacon) are only found while the Wishbone is in your inventory; WishboneNeeded can require it equipped instead, or drop the requirement. Veins skipped for lack of the Wishbone are found later once you carry it.

1.0.2 - 2026-09-12

• New: your own names for the ores. CustomNames (off by default) switches the screen marker, the message and the map pin to the names from Names, which comes pre-filled with one-letter names: CopperOre=C, TinOre=T, SilverOre=S, IronScrap=I, FlametalOre=F, FlametalOreNew=F, Obsidian=O.

1.0.1 - 2026-09-12

• Fixed: intact copper and silver deposits were only found after the first hit. An untouched deposit is a plain destructible that turns into the mineable rock when hit; the finder now looks through that as well. The rock that appears after the first hit is recognised as the same vein and not highlighted again.
• New: a map pin (dot with the ore name, saved with your map) for every found vein, MapPin in the config. No pin is added when any other pin is within MapPinSpacing metres (10 by default).

1.0.0 - 2026-09-12

First release, built against the Valheim 1.0.12 assemblies.

• Scans a configurable radius (default 20 m) around the player every second and highlights each ore vein the first time it comes into range.
• Screen arrow with the ore name and distance: over the vein while it is in view, at the screen edge pointing towards it otherwise.
• The vein itself gets a coloured pulsing light, a vertical beam and an emissive tint for a configurable time (default 10 s).
• Ores are recognised by what they drop, so plain rocks are ignored; the Ores setting narrows the search to a list of items or prefabs.
• Toggle key (default F9), saved to the config; console command orefinder status|on|off|reset|reload.