RacesOfValheim

A comprehensive Valheim mod that allows you to play as different unique races, each offering distinct mechanics, visual transformations, and a deep progression system tailored to your journey in Valheim.

Features

This mod currently introduces 7 custom races:

1. Skeleton

• Stamina-less Combat: Skeletons do not consume stamina and do not use the stamina bar.
• Undead Diet: You cannot eat standard food. Instead, you gain maximum health automatically as you defeat Valheim's bosses to compensate for the lack of food buffs.

2. Skadi

• Ice Affinity: Gain unique resistance and affinity to the cold.
• Drake Form: Transform into a frost Drake, taking to the skies and attacking from above.
• Dragon Form: Evolve your form into the mighty Moder and, eventually, unleash the terrifying power of the Skeleton Dragon.

3. Fenrir

• Beast Form: Transform into a powerful wolf-like beast.
• Cultist Form: Transform into a Cultist to wield fire abilities.
• Progression: The beast and cultist forms evolve as you defeat Valheim's bosses, granting new abilities, cooldown reductions, and power scaling. Immune to fall damage in both forms.

4. Aswid

• The Vampire: A creature of the night with powerful life-draining abilities.
• Like a Bat out of Hell: Press G to transform into a bat, allowing you to fly over obstacles and travel quickly.
• Blood Magic: Block to channel a life-draining aura that saps the life of enemies in an area around you (doubled radius at night). Only available while in Bat or Mist form.
• Blood Magic Mastery: You can cast Blood Magic items with infinite Eitr, relying purely on their health costs.
• Benedictus et Afflictus: Your passive speed and jump bonuses double during the night.
• Undead Vigor: Like the skeleton, the Aswid has infinite stamina. You consume the lifeforce of fallen foes directly instead of eating standard food.

5. Furling

• Goblin Heritage: You play as a Goblin (Fuling). No beard, no hair (for males).
• Combat Mastery: All weapon and combat skills gain 2x XP permanently.
• Boss-Driven Progression: Each major boss defeat unlocks a new passive ability.

6. Trol

• Trol Heritage: Play as a massive Trol! You are natively 20% larger than a human.
• Immense Strength: Your carry weight is vastly increased and your armor naturally scales as you defeat bosses.
• Rock Throwing: You can hurl boulders at your enemies for massive physical damage.
• Tree Weaponry: At higher levels, transform into your True Form to rip logs directly out of trees and wield them as devastating weapons or throw them!

7. Draugh

• Born Dead, Buried Alive: An undead warrior of the swamps. Resistant to physical damage and poison, but weak to fire and spirit.
• Rotten Diet: You cannot stomach cooked food. Raw meat, eyes, entrails and blood are your entire menu, and they nourish you longer than they would the living.
• At Home in the Swamp: The undead of the swamps do not consider you an enemy, and water stops slowing you down entirely.
• Zombie Ritual: In the late game a fatal blow no longer kills you outright.

Installation (manual)

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim.
2. Install Jotunn.
3. Extract the contents of this mod into your BepInEx/plugins folder.

Race Progressions (Level-by-Level)

Trol Progression

• Base (No Bosses): +20% Size. +200 Max Carry Weight. Gain +3 Armor per boss defeated.
• Eikthyr: Increased XP gain for physical labor and blunt combat (Clubs, Unarmed, Axes, Pickaxes, WoodCutting).
• The Elder: Unlock Rock Throwing ability. +10% passive health regeneration.
• Bonemass: +5% Size. +50 Carry Weight. +10 Damage to Clubs/Unarmed. +10 Rock Throwing Damage. Unlocks a 4th Food Slot.
• Moder: Unlock True Form (Transformation ability).
• Yagluth: +5% Size. +50 Carry Weight. +10 Damage to Clubs/Unarmed. +5 Rock Throwing Damage. Unlocks a 5th Food Slot.
• The Queen: Unlock Log Weapon (in True Form, interact with trees to wield them as weapons). True Form size is massively increased (2.5x).
• Fader: Your wielded trees can now instantly smash through the toughest materials in the Ashlands.

Furling Progression

• Base (No Bosses): Goblin head model. All weapon & combat skills gain 2x XP permanently.
• Eikthyr: Master of Shadows - sounds -15m are suppressed (near-silent movement).
• The Elder: The Wickerman - -50% Fire & Poison damage; arrows gain bonus fire damage.
• Bonemass: Dance of the Dead - Crafting meads, bombs, and ammo yields double quantity.
• Moder: The Man/Woman on the Silver Mountain - doubles trophy drops from normal enemies within 25m, drops bonus gold from starred enemies, doubles ore mining yield.
• Yagluth: The King is Dead, Hail to the King/Queen - while in the Plains biome, ALL skills gain 2x XP (including magic). HUD status icon shown.
• The Queen: In the Mist He/She Was Standing - blue (Eitr) foods last twice as long.
• Fader: Through Fire and Flames - permanently on fire (visual only), immune to fire damage, physical attacks set targets on fire.

Aswid Progression

• Base (No Bosses): Benedictus et Afflictus. Progressive stats (+1 Armor, +2 Damage, +1% Speed, +1% Jump per boss killed). All passive bonuses are doubled at night! You can cast Blood Magic items with infinite Eitr, and your Blood Magic skill increases twice as fast. Physical kills automatically consume enemies (Vae Victis), granting Blood Magic XP.
• Eikthyr: Like a Bat out of Hell (Night only). Vampiric Aura (heal 20% on magic AoE damage).
• The Elder: Like a Bat out of Hell (Always active).
• Bonemass: Auspex (Aura reveals untamed creatures).
• Moder: Freezing Blood (Permanent immunity to Freezing and Poison).
• Yagluth: Dominate (U Key - Dominate non-tameable enemies). Eclipse (J Key - force night for 60s, daytime only, 15 min cooldown).
• The Queen: Weight of Shadows (H Key - Immune to physical/poison, double aura damage, weak to fire/frost/spirit. Breaks at sunrise).
• Fader: Asmund (Passive). Your hair and beard turn as dark as the abyss. You become 10% taller and gain a flat +30 to Physical Damage.

Skadi Progression

• Base (No Bosses): Immune to Cold, Bonus Frost Damage, 50% Frost Resistance.
• Eikthyr: Cold Spell (Middle Mouse).
• The Elder: Drake Form ('G' Key) (Cannot attack).
• Bonemass: Freezing to Cold. Drake Form ('G' Key) (Can attack).
• Moder: Moder Form ('H' Key) (1 min duration, 10 min cooldown).
• Yagluth: +50% Eitr Regen. Improved Cold Spell. Moder Form ('H' Key) (1 min duration, 5 min cooldown).
• The Queen: Moder Form ('H' Key) (Unlimited duration, no cooldown).
• Fader: Skeleton Dragon Form ('J' Key).

While transformed, Right Mouse toggles flight. You glide toward wherever you are aiming; hold W to power forward and climb. Let go and the form holds level for a couple of seconds before settling into a gentle descent. Timed forms show their remaining seconds, and their cooldown, as a Moder trophy icon beside the minimap.

Skeleton Progression

• Base (No Bosses): +50 Max Health. Undead Diet (Cannot eat mortal food, no stamina bar).
• Eikthyr: Poison Skeleton Model, Poison Immunity, 5% Lifesteal, +80 Max Health.
• The Elder: 10% Lifesteal, Auto-Stun on First Hit, +110 Max Health.
• Bonemass: 15% Lifesteal, Poison Attacks, +140 Max Health.
• Moder: Fire Skeleton Model, 20% Lifesteal, Fire Aura, Enhanced Regen, +170 Max Health.
• Yagluth: 25% Lifesteal, Auto Resurrect, +200 Max Health.
• The Queen: 30% Lifesteal, Summon on Kill (Max 3 Skeletons), +230 Max Health.
• Fader: 35% Lifesteal, Max 5 Summons, +275 Max Health.

Fenrir Progression

• Base (No Bosses): Progressive stats (+3 Armor, +5 Damage, -10% Fall Damage, +3% Speed, +3% Jump per boss killed).
• The Elder: Wolf Form (Night).
• Bonemass: Wolf Form (Day/Night). Ulv Form (Night).
• Moder: Ulv Form (Day/Night). Fenring Form (Night).
• Yagluth: Cultist Form (Night - 1 min duration, 10 min cooldown).
• The Queen: Fenring Form (Day/Night). Cultist Form (Night - 1 min duration, 5 min cooldown).
• Fader: Cultist Form (Day/Night).

Draugh Progression

• Base (No Bosses): Born Dead, Buried Alive. -20% Slash/Pierce/Blunt damage taken, +50% Fire/Spirit damage taken. Poison resistance. You can only eat raw flesh, eyes, entrails and blood, and it lasts 50% longer. Swamp undead ignore you.
• Eikthyr: Slowly We Rot - immune to Wet, greatly increased swim speed, and passive health regeneration while wet or swimming.
• The Elder: Toxic Trace - your physical attacks apply poison damage over time.
• Bonemass: Flesh and the Power It Holds - humanoid enemies drop Human Meat, which grants powerful buffs. Corpse Run buff permanently.
• Moder: At the Heart of Winter - a successful parry unleashes a freezing nova around you (20 second cooldown).
• Yagluth: Zombie Ritual - fatal damage no longer kills you. You enter a ghostly state, immune to all damage, while your Eitr drains rapidly. If it hits zero, you die for real. Raw food also starts providing Eitr.
• The Queen: Swarm of Terror - being struck in melee spawns 2 Seeker Broods to fight for you (9.5s lifetime, 10s cooldown).
• Fader: Steal Their Breath - landing a killing blow while in the Zombie Ritual ghost state restores 25% of your max health, stops the Eitr drain and brings you back to life.

The Race Menu Ward

A buildable ward (2 Wood, Hammer / Misc, no crafting station needed) that manages your race without the console. A first one is placed near the sacrificial stones of every new world.

Interact with it to reset your race, or to switch between World progression (your tier comes from the bosses this world has defeated) and Personal progression (your tier is stored on your character and travels with you between servers). In personal mode, offer a boss's secondary drop to the ward - Hard Antler, Crypt Key, Wishbone, Dragon Tear, Yagluth's thing, the Queen's carapace, Fader's relic - to claim that boss's tier.

Development & Feedback

This is a stable release of Races of Valheim, but the mod is actively in development! We plan to add more races, gameplay elements, and refine the mechanics in future updates. Any feedback, bug reports, or suggestions for new features are more than welcome. Please write to us on my Discord server: https://discord.gg/gbBEK2VTE

Changelog

v1.3.9

• Skadi / Aswid: Returning to human form no longer replays the spawn animation. Every dragon form, Bat Form and Mist Form used to drop you back into the get-up-off-the-ground clip you see when joining a world, because hiding the human body also switched off its animator - and Unity restarts an animator from its first state when it comes back. The body is now hidden without ever being switched off, so you return standing, mid-stride, in whatever pose you were already in.
• Multiplayer: A transformed Skadi's dragon now moves for everyone else. Other players saw the right model frozen in its idle pose, gliding around without ever beating a wing or taking a step; the remote copy now follows the flying, grounded and running states of the player it belongs to.
• Multiplayer: Remote Skadi flight works. A flying dragon used to be dragged down to the terrain on everyone else's screen no matter what altitude was actually being sent; other players now see you in the air where you really are. This and the Trol sizing below were the two known issues left open in 1.3.8.
• Multiplayer: Remote Trol sizing is fixed - the 1.3.8 known issue. Other players now see a Trol at the size their progression and True Form actually call for, easing smoothly between sizes instead of never updating at all.
• Aswid: Food buffs now survive death. Feeding is the whole of the Aswid diet, and losing every buff on a corpse run hit them far harder than a race that eats bread. Bukeperries still clear food normally when you want the slots back.
• General: Removed the [AswidDebug] logging that shipped in 1.3.8. It wrote a line for every aura tick on every enemy in radius, four times a second while channelling, and filled the BepInEx log for anyone playing an Aswid. Genuine failure warnings are kept.
• Aswid: Surtlings and Bears joined the menu, and the Greydwarf family finally has real nutrition - Greylings 20 HP, Greydwarves 25, Shamans 30 and Brutes 60, the last for a full 30 minutes. Health regeneration from prey now scales with how nourishing it was instead of being a flat trickle from everything.

v1.3.8

• NEW RACE - Draugh: Added the seventh playable race, the Draugh. An undead warrior of the swamps: -20% physical damage taken, +50% from fire and spirit, and a diet of raw flesh, eyes, entrails and blood that lasts 50% longer than cooked food would. Swamp undead do not attack you. Full progression across all 8 tiers, ending with Zombie Ritual and Steal Their Breath.
• NEW - Race Menu Ward: A cheap buildable ward (2 Wood) that manages your race without the console. Reset your race, or switch between the world's boss progression and a personal progression stored on your character, advanced by offering boss relics to the ward. One is placed near the sacrificial stones of every new world.
• Aswid: Fixed a bug where the Vampiric Aura's Mist Form modifier halved its damage instead of doubling it. Base aura damage also doubled, and Blood Magic scaling is now a flat bonus rather than a multiplier, so the skill adds up to +1 damage at level 100 regardless of the base.
• Aswid: The Greydwarf family is now edible - Greylings, Greydwarves, Brutes and Shamans all count as prey. Wood is back on the menu, boys.
• Aswid: The Auspex aura is far more visible. It now uses a real green light on each revealed creature instead of a repurposed green groundtorch, which was unreliable and often invisible.
• Aswid: Dominate/Taming moved from K to U.
• Aswid: Humanoid prey (Cultists, Fenrings, Fulings) now nourishes you for 20 minutes.
• Skadi: Dragon melee never dealt any damage at all - bite, claw and spin played an animation, charged eitr and did nothing. Melee now sweeps for targets properly and costs nothing, since it is the baseline attack that has to work at every tier.
• Skadi: Everything Skadi casts now runs on stamina instead of eitr. Eitr food only exists from the Mistlands on, while the Cold Spell unlocks at Eikthyr and the Drake at The Elder, so the old costs were either unpayable or silently ignored. Ranged volleys are charged per projectile - the sixty-shard breath no longer costs the same as a three-shard spit - and capped so the widest one stays castable.
• Skadi: The Cold Spell stopped borrowing the Staff of Frost's damage, which handed out Mistlands numbers from Eikthyr and multiplied them by every shard. It now scales with progression, and the improved cast spreads one damage budget across its shards: wider, not stronger.
• Skadi: Suppressed the kick that played over every cast - it was Valheim's own secondary attack, bound to the same Middle Mouse button.
• Skadi: Airborne Moder keeps its ranged attack on Middle Mouse just as on the ground, with no left-hand attack in the air. The Skeleton Dragon's airborne branch is gone, since that form cannot fly.
• Skadi: Ability cooldowns now show on the HUD, each with its own icon and a live countdown.
• Skadi: Rebalanced the tiers. Eikthyr was carrying three unlocks while later tiers carried little, so the Freezing-to-Cold conversion moves to Bonemass (alongside the Drake's attack) and eitr regeneration first appears at Yagluth with the improved Cold Spell. Eikthyr's old +20% eitr regen is dropped rather than relocated, since Yagluth already granted an undocumented +50%.
• Skadi: Filled in the compendium entry, which was still a placeholder. It now unfolds tier by tier with the real numbers, the form keybinds and the flight controls.
• General: The plugin version reported to BepInEx had been stuck at 1.3.2 for several releases. It now matches the packaged version.
• Known issue: Remote Trol sizing and remote Skadi flight are still wrong for other players in multiplayer. Instrumentation is in place but the fix is not done - your own view is unaffected.

v1.3.6

• Skadi: Complete overhaul of dragon flight! Your form now flies wherever you aim, pitch included, instead of the old free-camera noclip that needed Space and Ctrl to change altitude. Hold W to power forward and climb; let go and you hold level for a couple of seconds before settling into a natural glide.
• Skadi: Dragon forms now turn to face the direction they are actually flying, and touching down mid-flight no longer leaves you sliding forward forever.
• Skadi: Timed dragon forms finally expire on their own! Moder Form now honours its duration, and the cooldown that could never trigger before now works properly. Both the remaining seconds and the cooldown appear as a Moder trophy icon with a live countdown beside the minimap.
• Skadi: Fixed 'Freezing to Cold' (Eikthyr tier), which never did anything at all: Skadi's own frost resistance made Valheim skip the cold check entirely. Mountains now correctly leave you with Cold instead of Freezing.
• Skadi: The Cold Spell is now cast from chest height with a proper spellcasting gesture, instead of a kick aimed at the ground.
• Skadi: Drake Form attacks unlock the moment you reach the Bonemass tier, rather than only after transforming again.
• Skadi: resetrace now clears Skadi's Aura and its frost bonuses when switching away from the race.
• Multiplayer: Fixed a severe bug where other players saw a transformed Skadi's dragon model respawn every single frame, stacking thousands of copies and causing lag that only got worse and never cleared on its own. The transformed player saw nothing wrong on their own screen.
• General: Race abilities no longer fire while the map, inventory, a chest, the chat or a menu is open, so clicking an item inside a container no longer swings your transformed attack.
• Documentation: The Skadi progression list now states the keybind for each form, along with the flight controls.

v1.3.5

• Aswid: Added an Execution mechanic to Blood Magic (Vampiric Aura): Non-boss enemies that fall below 20% health while inside the aura are instantly killed and automatically devoured!
• Aswid: The Vampiric Aura's devour execution now flawlessly respects the Aswid's custom stomach limitations, including the ability to silently refresh duplicate blinking buffs when slots are fully occupied.
• Aswid: The Taming ability has been moved from the generic Interact key (E) to a dedicated keybind (K) to prevent accidental taming while interacting with the world.
• Skeleton: Finally removed the 'you could eat another bite' message! It now only appears occasionally to remind you of what the food of the living was like.

v1.3.4

• Aswid: Refined the Aswid's diet. Restored Ashlands creatures (except undead like Charred and Morgen) and enabled a 4th stomach slot exclusively for Aswid prey.
• Aswid: Added a keybind (I) to toggle the automatic devour on/off.
• Aswid: Fixed a bug where devouring a mob would fail if the player was still in an attack or movement animation.
• Aswid: Added a passive lifesteal scaling mechanic! You now heal for 2% of the physical damage dealt per boss defeated (up to 14% at endgame). This amount is doubled during the night!

v1.3.2

• Aswid: Blood Magic (Vampiric Aura) is now only active when blocking in Bat or Mist form. Base damage reduced by 50%.
• Aswid: Added thematic day/night transition messages ("what a horrible night to have a curse").
• Bugfix: Fixed an issue where the new automatic food consumption logic for Aswid physical kills failed to find the correct prefabs for basic animals like Deer and Boars.

v1.3.1

• NEW RACE - Trol: Added the sixth playable race, the Trol. Huge size, immense strength, rock throwing, and the ability to wield trees as weapons!
• Trol Combat: The Trol starts with increased size and carry weight, scaling stats as bosses are killed, and unlocking the ability to throw massive rocks at The Elder tier.
• Trol True Form: Unlocked at Moder, allowing you to transform. Once you defeat The Queen, you can look at trees while in True Form to rip a log out and use it as a massive 2-handed weapon!
• Trol Stomachs: As you progress, you unlock a 4th (Bonemass) and a 5th (Yagluth) stomach slot, allowing you to consume up to 5 foods simultaneously!
• Bugfixes: Fixed various item/food duplication bugs and polished the new eating logic to perfectly integrate with the native UI.

v1.3.0

• NEW RACE - Furling: Added the fifth playable race, the Furling (Goblin). Unique goblin head model, full progression tied to all 7 bosses.
• Furling - Eikthyr (Master of Shadows): Sounds below 15m range are suppressed, making you nearly silent at night or in dungeons.
• Furling - The Elder (The Wickerman): Gain -50% Fire and Poison damage resistance. Arrows gain bonus fire damage.
• Furling - Bonemass (Dance of the Dead): Crafting meads, bombs, and ammo yields double the quantity.
• Furling - Moder (The Man/Woman on the Silver Mountain): Trophy drops from normal enemies are doubled, starred enemies drop bonus coins, and ore mining yields are doubled.
• Furling - Yagluth (The King is Dead, Hail to the King/Queen): In the Plains biome, the 2x XP multiplier extends to ALL skills (including Elemental and Blood Magic). A HUD status icon appears in the top-right when active.
• Furling - The Queen (In the Mist He/She Was Standing): Eitr (blue) foods last twice as long for you.
• Furling - Fader (Through Fire and Flames): You are permanently wreathed in native fire flames (SE_Burning visual, no damage, no HUD warning). Full fire immunity. All physical attacks set targets on fire.
• Bugfix: Fixed MineRock.RPC_Damage - MineRock.RPC_Hit Harmony patch after a Valheim update renamed the method.

v1.2.0

• Multiplayer Sync: Fully implemented visual syncing for Aswid forms (Bat, Mist) and Skadi forms (Bear, Wolf, Hatchling, Fader) so other players can see your transformations in multiplayer!
• Aswid: Scrapped the Fader (Surtling) visual override; reaching the final progression state now makes the player 10% taller and adds a flat +30 physical damage bonus.
• Aswid: Defeating enemies with physical attacks in the final state now automatically consumes them if you have food slots available.
• General: Eradicated remaining localizations of the old "Strigoi" name.

v1.1.0

• Aswid: Passive abilities (Speed and Jump) are now properly doubled during the night.
• Aswid: New Enslavement Power (Yagluth tier)! Press E on non-tameable, non-boss enemies to enslave them for 60 seconds (15-min cooldown). Enslaved thralls fight alongside you and drop standard loot.
• Aswid: Edible thralls are automatically consumed upon death, granting you their lifeforce (Fader tier).
• Aswid: Complete overhaul of the Food system. Added Mistlands and Ashlands creatures to the consumption map. Accurately scaled food stats based on creature health.
• Aswid: Excluded undead and inorganic creatures (Skeletons, Draugrs, Golems, etc.) from being edible.
• Aswid: Added a dynamic green light effect to all forms (Bonemass tier).

v1.0.0

• Initial release with 4 distinct races.
• Added Aswid life-draining and night transformations.
• Complete progression system tied to Valheim's bosses.