SkillDrasil

A Valheim mod that replaces the vanilla skill system with a skill tree.

Website: https://rgb-outl4w.github.io/SkillDrasil/ (English / Русский)

Thunderstore: https://thunderstore.io/c/valheim/p/RGBOutl4w/SkillDrasil/ (install with r2modman / Thunderstore Mod Manager) · Changelog

Vanilla: repeat an action → that skill levels up; die → lose levels. SkillDrasil: actions still earn XP, but into five branches. Full branch XP = one point you choose where to spend.

How it works

• Masteries have 5 ranks. Each rank = 20 levels of that vanilla skill, so all vanilla skill effects still apply. Gear and mead skill bonuses still stack on top.
• Perks add new effects, two per tier. Tier N needs 3×N points already spent in the branch; some perks have 2–3 ranks. Mastery rank R needs 2×(R−1).
• Active abilities: one per branch (War Cry, Hunter's Mark, Völva's Chant, Gale Step, Tireless Toil), unlocked once you know a tier 1 perk of that branch. Cast with Alt + 1–5; cooldowns show bottom right. Effects on allies and enemies sync in multiplayer.
• Keystones need 15 points in their branch: a big build-defining bonus with a drawback. Only one keystone in the whole tree, so pick your identity (the Rune of Forgetting lets you choose again).
• Branch points come from using that branch's skills and are spent in that branch.
• Free points (spend anywhere) come from milestones: each boss defeated in the world, each new biome discovered.
• Death (when vanilla would drain skills): lose part of every branch's in-progress XP. Spent points are never lost. You respawn with Severed Roots for 10 minutes: masteries count one rank lower, tier 3 perks and your keystone are off. The "Death skills reset" world modifier wipes branch points instead (free points kept).
• Respec: craft a Rune of Forgetting at the workbench (10 Stone, 10 Resin, 5 Greydwarf Eye) and consume it.
• Open the tree with K (configurable) or the inventory's Skills button.

Existing characters and uninstalling

• The mod never writes vanilla skill levels. Tree data lives in its own key inside the character file.
• First load of an existing character: every full 20 vanilla levels in a skill becomes 1 point in that skill's branch.
• Uninstall: your vanilla skill levels are exactly what they were when you installed. Reinstall: your tree is back.
• Exception: Runes of Forgetting in your inventory disappear if you load the character without the mod.

Back up your characters before trying any mod: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\characters_local (local saves) or Steam\userdata\<id>\892970\remote\characters (Steam Cloud saves).

Multiplayer

Every player and the server must run SkillDrasil (same major.minor version). Jotunn rejects mismatched connections. Balance settings (Balance section) are set by the server and synced to clients.

Install

Requires BepInExPack Valheim and Jotunn. Easiest: install SkillDrasil on Thunderstore with r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager; dependencies come with it. Manual: put SkillDrasil.dll in BepInEx/plugins/SkillDrasil/.

Config (BepInEx/config/rgboutl4w.skilldrasil.cfg)

| Key | Default | | |---|---|---|---| | Progression.FirstPointXp | 60 | Branch XP for the first point; point n costs FirstPointXp × n^CostExponent (server-synced) | | Progression.CostExponent | 1.25 | 1 = linear, 1.5 = vanilla-like (slow). About 24k XP for 20 points in one branch (server-synced) | | Balance.SeveredRootsSeconds | 600 | Debuff duration (server-synced) | | Balance.PerkStrength | 1 | Scales every perk and keystone bonus, 0–3; drawbacks stay fixed (server-synced) | | Client.OpenTreeKey | K | | | Client.ShowPointsHint | true | HUD hint while you have unspent points | | Abilities.Modifier | LeftAlt | Hold and press an ability key to cast; number keys skip the hotbar while held | | Abilities.KeyWarrior … KeyArtisan | 1 … 5 | Ability key per branch | | Client.CheckForUpdates | true | On the main menu, ask GitHub for the latest release. Only a plain GET to api.github.com, nothing sent. |

Console (with devcommands): skilldrasil_points <n> adds free points.

Languages

English and Russian. The mod follows Valheim's language setting.

Build

1. Copy Environment.props.example to Environment.props and set your Valheim path.
2. dotnet build -c Release (copies the dll into your BepInEx plugins folder).
3. dotnet run --project tests/SelfCheck runs the core logic checks.
4. Icons: edit tools/icons.py, then python tools/icons.py (also refreshes the website's docs/icons) and tools/render-icons.ps1 (needs Edge) to rebuild assets/atlas.png.
5. Website: static files in docs/, served by GitHub Pages. Preview with python -m http.server 8765 --directory docs.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.