ReefCharacters

Your character lives on the server. Every time the game saves your character (every 30 minutes, when you log out, when you die), a copy goes to the server; when you join, the server copy is what you play with. Nobody can bring an inventory from another server or from an edited save.

Install on the server and on every client. The server refuses a client that does not run the same version (Jötunn network compatibility). Players on The Reef get it through the TheReef modpack.

What it does

• Your character is stored on the server under your Steam account and character name, and sent back to you when you join. Your local save is overwritten with the server copy at every join, so what you see is what the server has.
• One character per Steam account on the server (server admins are exempt). You keep playing the character you created there.
• A new player must create a new character for the server. A character that has already played elsewhere is refused when the server has no copy of it — that is the whole point of the mod.
• Rolling backups on the server: a dated copy before every overwrite, 25 kept per character (server setting).
• Dedicated to the server: a character used on this server carries the server's map and spawn data in its file. Use a separate character for your solo worlds. The first time the mod overwrites a local file that already had progress, it keeps a one-time copy next to it (<name>.fch.beforereef).

Messages you may see when joining

• "This server keeps one character per Steam account." — you already have a character here; log in with that one.
• "Your character already has progress but the server has no copy of it." — create a new character for this server.
• "The server copy of your character could not be read." — tell the admin; nothing was changed on your side.
• "The server did not send your character in time." — try again; if it repeats, tell the admin.

Coming from ServerCharacters

Nothing to do. The files on the server are the same (characters_local/Steam_<id>_<name>.fch, the game's own save format): every character stored under ServerCharacters is read as it is. Remove ServerCharacters from the profile; the two refuse to load together.

Settings

BepInEx/config/reef.characters.cfg — server: Backups to keep (25), One character per account (true); client: Profile timeout (20 s).

Changelog

0.1.0 — 2026-09-11

• First build. Characters stored on the server (same files and format as ServerCharacters 1.4.16, so existing characters are read as they are), sent back at every join, pushed after every save, one character per Steam account, 25 rolling backups per character, refusal of a client without the mod. Valheim 1.0.7, Jötunn 2.30.0.
• Not yet proven on the bench (see the design document in the server repository, docs/reefcharacters-v0.md §6).