Hearthforge

One mod, a whole Valheim upgrade. Hearthforge by Organixxed adds a WoW-style HUD, a live settings panel (F7) and 65 modules for building, sailing, taming, farming and playing together. Every module can be switched on or off in F7, and most come with sliders, so you can keep the game as close to vanilla as you like.

Requirements

• Valheim 1.0.20 (network version 41)
• BepInExPack_Valheim 5.4.2351
• No Jötunn required.

Installation

Install with r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager. To install by hand, copy plugins/Hearthforge.dll to <Valheim>/BepInEx/plugins/. Multiplayer: install it on the server as well. Server-synced options (marked in F7) are then enforced for everyone, and server-authoritative features such as Homestead Move shipments run on the server.

Modules

Modules marked (off by default) must be switched on in F7 first.

Interface & HUD

• Warband HUD: WoW-style HUD with action bar, unit frames, buffs, minimap, map, bags and tooltips. Drag any frame after pressing F8.
• Equipped Glow: a soft gold glow on hotbar slots whose item is equipped.
• Targeting: cycle hostile targets with a key, with a target ring, a target frame and an optional soft lock.
• Gilded UI: gold filigree frames and gold accents on the game's own screens. The layout is unchanged.
• Cartographer: a parchment-style map with hillshade, soft coastlines, depth gradients and styled pins.
• Camera: a first-person view and a farther zoom-out, on foot and on ships.
• Graphics (off by default): client-only look controls (haze, fog, shadows, sun shaft strength and more) on top of the game's own settings. It doesn't change how far you can see.
• Swift Start: skip the startup logos and the new-character intro.
• Seed Preview: on Create New World, preview a seed's land, sea and height, and reroll seeds.

Travel & Exploration

• Bifrost: faster portal loading, with vanilla item restrictions kept. Map-click teleport is a server option and is off by default.
• Hearthstone: every character knows a Hearthstone spell (H). Channel home to your bed and take your tamed companions with you.
• Wayfinder: a bigger map reveal radius at sea.
• Tidewalker: swimming stamina and speed tuning, diving and rising, and you keep one-handed gear while you swim.
• Quiet Wishbone: turn the Wishbone's treasure ping down or off. The visual pulse stays.
• Wisp Sky Column: placed Wisp Torches clear the mist in a column all the way up to the sky.
• No Cave Fog: no fog inside caves you dig with Voxheim. Vanilla caves and dungeons keep theirs.
• Slope Assist (off by default): a server setting that lets you walk up steeper slopes for extra stamina.
• Meadows Anywhere (off by default): Meadows can appear far from spawn. This changes the terrain in existing worlds.

Ships & Sailing

• Seafarer: slightly faster rowing and an optional personal tailwind for the ship you steer.
• Shipwright: per-ship colours for hull, trim, shields and sail, plus custom sail images. Everyone sees them.
• Ship Salvage: take a ship apart with the hammer, after a confirmation. You get its full recipe and all its cargo back in one large floating Salvage Crate.
• Longship Harbor: a Harbor window at the workbench for Longship Upgrades. Upgrades are unlocked per player. Needs Longship Upgrades by shudnal.

Building & Base

• Interact While Building: press E on doors, chests, stations, beds and portals while a hammer, hoe or cultivator is out.
• Sign Styling: fonts, colours, gradients and icons for signs, with copy and paste.
• Ward Guard: a per-ward Keep Mobs Out toggle. No hostile spawns inside, and hostiles walk back out.
• Streamcraft: a hammer Water tab for ponds, rivers and waterfalls.
• Homestead Move (off by default): copy or pack up an area and rebuild it elsewhere at the normal building cost.
• Dvergr Masonry: Dvergr walls, beams, floors and furniture from a Dvergr hammer tab.
• Boss Stones: decorative boss trophy stones.
• Graveyard: grave crosses and markers for the hammer.
• Placeable Traders: place Haldor, Hildir or the Bog Witch once you've found them. Wares and prices stay the same.
• Yggdrasil Root: build an ancient root at home and tap it with a Sap Extractor at vanilla rates.
• Compact Stations: smaller windmills, blast furnaces, kilns, smelters and eitr refineries, with the same recipe and speed.
• Terrain Tools: server limits for terrain tools, plus a radius preview ring.
• Terrain Edit Limit (off by default): raise or lower the ground further than vanilla's ±8 m.
• Carved Trails (admin): carve a walkable switchback ramp between two points.
• Worldmend (admin): a hammer Reset tab that restores an area to its generated state.
• Admin Area Copy (admin): copy, paste or move an area with all its pieces and contents.

Farming & Production

• Greenhand: grow crops outside their native biome, more slowly.
• Greenhand · Bushes: plant berry bushes, fiddleheads and smoke puffs anywhere.
• Greenhand · Wilds: plant berry bushes, mushrooms and wild plants with the cultivator.
• Apiary & Harvest: beehives hold 8 honey, crops and berries show timers, and bees speed up nearby crops.
• Brewmaster: fermenters queue up to 5 batches, store finished mead and show a queue panel.
• Smeltery: smelter timers on hover, a blast furnace that smelts every ore, and an optional coal boost.
• Prospector: copper deposits pop whole after a few sections break, and part of the ore drops as tin.
• Everflame: fires, torches and ovens never run out of fuel. Smelters and kilns are unaffected.
• Bulk Load: fill a smelter, kiln, oven or fire in one go.
• Offline Progress: while the world is shut down, crops, fermenters, smelters, fires and tames keep working, for up to 2 hours.
• Woodcleaver: keep the axe combo going when you chop trees.

Tames

• Beastmaster: tames are pen-safe, don't stack up, and have Follow, Passive and Aggressive modes. Also includes smaller, faster loxes, faster taming and growing, breeding limits, pets that follow you through portals, and Tame Volume.

Inventory & Storage

• Storekeeper: Quick Stack to nearby chests, locked slots, and Ward Organize (sort every chest in a ward area).
• Quartermaster: craft, build and refuel from nearby chests, with a list of items it never pulls.
• Wanderer's Pack: a starting backpack with its own slots and lighter contents. It grows as you defeat bosses.
• Gatherer's Ward: the items you choose are never picked up automatically.
• Coin Purse: a trade-in slot that turns valuables into coins. Coins are weightless and stack without limit.

Gear & Character

• Warband Gear: a WoW-style equipment panel beside the inventory, with extra reserved rows.
• Runeforge Imbues: convert part of a weapon's physical damage into Frost, Blood, Lightning or Spirit at a station.
• Dyer's Wardrobe: dye your armor at the Armoire wardrobe. Other players see it. Needs Armoire by Advize.
• Well Fed: with 3 active foods, part of your gear's movement speed penalty is cancelled.
• Packbearer: a Hauling skill that raises carry capacity as you move under a heavy load.
• Hearthrest: become Rested faster, or instantly, by the fire.
• Death: keep your skills, gear and inventory when you die. On by default; it's a server setting.

Social & Server

• Warband Social: whispers, limited world chat, parties, raids and guilds. Type /social in chat for the full list.
• Saga Keeper: allow Steam achievements in a modded game. Cheats still block them.
• Jarl's Authority: turn on Valheim's dev commands from F7. In multiplayer, only the host or an admin can do this.

Controls

Hotkeys can be changed in F7. Shift+E means the game's alternate-use key (Shift by default) together with Use.

Improvements over vanilla

These are the things Hearthforge changes from the base game. Each one can be switched off in F7, except the game fix.

• Portals: vanilla always waits at least about 10 seconds (a 2 s fade plus an 8 s minimum). Bifrost ends the trip as soon as the destination has loaded. Item restrictions stay the same.
• Ship deconstruction: asks for confirmation, refunds the full recipe, and puts the materials and cargo in one floating crate instead of scattering them in the water.
• Sun shafts: the game's own sun shaft toggle is always respected, and a slider makes the rays softer or stronger.
• Offline time: production keeps running while the world is shut down (up to 2 hours). In vanilla, it stops.
• Tames: they don't damage your pens or crowd into one spot, they come through portals with you, and you can turn their sounds up or down.
• Chests: Quick Stack, crafting and building from nearby chests, and Ward Organize replace a lot of walking between chests.
• Stations and building: Bulk Load fills a station in one go, and you can use doors and chests without putting your hammer away.
• Resting and death: become Rested faster, and keep your skills and items when you die. Both are configurable.
• Game fix: treasure chests in crypts and similar places now remember that you've discovered them, so the discovery stat isn't counted again every time you open them.

Server flyer

Uninstalling

Run hf_prepare_uninstall in the console first. It moves items out of the extra slots and rows into the vanilla grid.

Latest changes (1.0.3)

• New logo, updated feature poster, controls guide and server flyer on this page.
• The code is unchanged from 1.0.0.

The full history is in CHANGELOG.md.

AI disclosure

Parts of this mod's code and documentation were written with the help of an AI coding assistant (Grok Bot). It was reviewed, built and play-tested by the author.

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Organixxed. All rights reserved. See LICENSE. You may use this mod through its official Thunderstore listing. Don't modify it or re-upload it.

Changelog

1.0.3

• New logo, feature poster and server flyer on the page. The code is unchanged.

1.0.2

• New logo.

1.0.1

• Expanded store page: full feature list, improvements over vanilla, controls guide and install steps.

1.0.0

• First public release of Hearthforge: 65 modules, all switchable in F7. See the README for highlights.