Set Up Skills

Puts every hard-coded player-skill number in Valheim into a config file. Built against Valheim 1.0.x and BepInEx 5.4.23.

The example that motivated the mod: a bow takes 2.50 s to draw at Bows 0 and 0.50 s at Bows 100, and nothing in the game lets you change that. With this mod:

[Bows]
DrawTimeMultAtSkill0 = 1.2     ## 2.5 * 1.2 = 3.00 s at skill 0
DrawTimeMultAtSkill100 = 0.4   ## 2.5 * 0.4 = 1.00 s at skill 100

Config file: BepInEx/config/neocor.SetUpSkills.cfg. Edits take effect on the next reload — the file is watched, so on a server you can retune without restarting it.

📖 WIKI.md is the full configuration guide: every setting explained in plain language, the vanilla numbers in tables, ready-made presets, and troubleshooting. Every setting also carries its own explanation as a comment inside the generated .cfg.

Install

The mod must be on every client. Valheim computes all skill effects on the machine that owns the player: Character.GetSkillFactor() returns 0 for anything that is not the local Player, and the methods that consume it (Player.UpdateAttackBowDraw, Player.CheckRun, ItemDrop.ItemData.GetDrawStaminaDrain, Attack.FireProjectileBurst, ...) only ever run there. Damage is rolled on the attacker's client and only the result is sent over the wire. A server-only install would change nothing.

Installing it on the server as well is optional but recommended: the server then hands its config to every client that has the mod, so everyone plays on the same balance. See Server sync. Players without the mod can still join; they simply keep vanilla values.

How the settings are layered

Layer B — endpoint knobs (the usual way in)

Each of these replaces one vanilla constant. The defaults are the vanilla values, so an untouched config file is bit-for-bit vanilla.

Layer A — per-skill curve ([Curve])

Three values per skill, for all 24 skills:

[Curve]
Bows.Level0Factor = 0      ## what the skill is worth at level 0
Bows.Level100Factor = 1    ## ...and at level 100
Bows.Exponent = 1          ## 1 = linear, >1 = back-loaded, <1 = front-loaded

This remaps the skill factor itself, so it reaches everything that skill touches — including the effects driven by values stored in the prefabs, which Layer B cannot reach: swim stamina, fishing stamina, farming harvest radius, crafting speed and bonus-yield chance, placement durability, and riding.

Layer A and Layer B compose. Layer A decides how fast the benefit accrues with level; Layer B decides where it ends up. Setting Bows.Level100Factor = 0.75 with default Layer B gives a draw time of Lerp(2.5, 0.5, 0.75) = 1.0 s at skill 100 — the same result as the example at the top, but it also scales bow damage by the same token. Use Layer B when you want one effect, Layer A when you want the whole skill.

Layer C — experience ([Experience])

The level cap stays at 100. Raising it would mean rewriting Skills.Skill.Raise and the level / 100 divisor, which touches save data, so it is deliberately out of scope.

Server sync

With [ServerSync] ServerIsAuthority = true (the default, only read on a server), the server sends its whole config to each client as it connects, over a routed RPC named SetUpSkills_Config. The client applies it in memory only — its own .cfg on disk is never written to, and the local values come back the moment it disconnects. Editing the config file on a running server reloads it and re-pushes to everyone already connected.

A client never sends config anywhere, and a server never accepts config from a client.

How it is patched

Each patch is installed on its own. If a game update renames a method or moves a constant, that one effect falls back to vanilla and a warning appears in the log — the rest keeps working. Set [General] IsDebug = true to see the computed values and which transpilers hit.

[General] Enabled = false returns every knob to its vanilla default without unloading anything, which is also what happens to transpiled code (it cannot be un-patched at runtime, so it looks up the vanilla constant instead).

Building

With the .NET SDK:

dotnet build SetUpSkills\SetUpSkills.csproj -c Release

Override the game path with -p:ValheimPath="C:\Path\To\Valheim" if it is not on G:.

Without an SDK, build.ps1 finds a C# compiler on its own and package.ps1 produces the Thunderstore zip:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File SetUpSkills\build.ps1
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File SetUpSkills\package.ps1

That fallback path can land on C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\csc.exe, which only understands C# 5. The source currently stays inside that subset — no string interpolation, no nameof, no ?., no expression-bodied members — so both build routes work. Drop the restriction only if you also stop using build.ps1.