Valheim Rarity

Turn crafted equipment into long-term progression. Valheim Rarity adds a dedicated Rarity Forge where quality-1 tools, weapons, shields, and armor advance through six colored tiers. Every upgrade shows its exact stat changes and complete material cost before you commit.

Rarity is deliberate: ordinary crafting, loot, pickup, and vanilla workbench upgrades never grant it. An item becomes rare only when a player upgrades it at the Rarity Forge.

Unique features

• Six ordered tiers: Uncommon, Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and Mythic.
• Dedicated station: a separate placeable Rarity Forge with a custom model, icon, animated coal beds, flames, smoke, and interaction lighting. The vanilla Forge is unchanged.
• Accurate previews: see the colored item name, next-tier border, exact before/after stats, and owned/required resources.
• Recipe-based payment: each step costs three times the original quality-1 recipe by default, with global and per-tier configuration.
• Strict eligibility: only quality-1 equipment with an enabled, usable crafting recipe appears. Vanilla-upgraded and recipe-less items are hidden.
• Controlled elements: Legendary and Mythic weapons can gain Fire, Lightning, or Poison. Armor and shields gain the matching resistance. Tools never receive mod elemental effects.
• Modded equipment support: standard Valheim item and recipe registrations work without a vanilla-only allowlist.
• Two layouts: compact Selector view is the default; Traditional view supplies an alphabetized, vanilla-speed scrolling item list. Both fit stats and costs without detail scrolling.
• Server authority: every gameplay, rarity, station, UI, and resource setting synchronizes from the server and is admin controlled.

Default progression

Each operation advances one tier. The complete display name receives the prefix and color, such as Rare Flint Sword. Native quality stays unchanged. Durability percentage, variant, crafter, equipped state, and other custom metadata are preserved.

Damage scaling includes combat, chopping, and pickaxe damage. Attack speed, weight, tool tier, stamina cost, and eitr cost are unchanged. All multipliers, colors, elements, and cost scales are configurable.

Rarity Forge and costs

The station unlocks when a character first discovers an Iron ingot. It appears in the Hammer menu and requires a nearby workbench plus 10 Wood, 4 Stone, 4 Coal, and 6 Iron by default.

Its own framed window opens at the character crafting panel's position and size. Selector view uses previous/next buttons; Traditional view displays an alphabetized equipment list. Both use the same safe transaction and preview.

Every rarity step costs original crafting recipe x 3 by default. An item crafted from 10 Wood and 4 Iron therefore costs 30 Wood and 12 Iron per step. Fractional configured results round up. Alternative ingredients can be selected, and resource prefab identity prevents similarly named mod materials from being charged by mistake.

An item is available only when it is supported equipment, has native quality 1, has an enabled usable recipe, is not excluded, and its resources can be resolved. The whole payment is validated before anything is consumed.

Elemental behavior

Legendary and Mythic weapons can receive one configured element: Fire, Lightning, or Poison. Default elemental damage is 25% of the boosted combat damage. Armor and shields receive the matching resistance while equipped and preserve stronger existing resistance.

Tools are always excluded from the mod's elemental bonuses. Existing elemental stats supplied by Valheim or another mod remain intact.

Dependencies

Install these on every client and dedicated/listen server:

1. Valheim
2. BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350 or a compatible newer 5.4 release
3. Jotunn 2.30.1 or a compatible newer release
4. Valheim Rarity 4.4.0, with the same version everywhere

Epic Loot is not required. This release does not ship or use Epic Loot code or artwork.

Client and single-player installation

Mod manager

1. Create or select a Valheim profile in r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager.
2. Install Valheim Rarity. The manifest installs BepInExPack Valheim and Jotunn.
3. Start Valheim with Start modded.

Manual

1. Close Valheim and install BepInExPack Valheim in the game directory.
2. Install Jotunn in BepInEx/plugins.
3. Extract the manual Valheim Rarity archive into the game directory and merge BepInEx.
4. Confirm the DLL is at BepInEx/plugins/ValheimRarity/ValheimRarity.dll; remove old duplicate copies.
5. Launch once. The active config appears at BepInEx/config/laugh.valheim.rarity.cfg.

Dedicated server installation

Mod manager

1. Install Valheim Rarity in the server profile and deploy the complete profile to the server.
2. Install the same mod and dependency versions in every player's client profile.
3. Start the server once, stop it, and customize its generated config if desired.

Manual

1. Stop the server and install BepInExPack Valheim in its Valheim directory.
2. Put Jotunn in the server's BepInEx/plugins folder.
3. Extract the manual archive into the server directory and merge BepInEx.
4. Confirm BepInEx/plugins/ValheimRarity/ValheimRarity.dll exists and remove older copies.
5. Install matching versions on all clients, start the server, and check BepInEx/LogOutput.log for load errors.

A player hosting through the game client is a listen server. Install the client package normally; that host's synchronized config controls the session.

Configuration and administration

All settings are server authoritative. Server file edits reload live and synchronize to connected players. Local client values return after disconnecting.

Admins can also use the console:

rarity_config list
rarity_config Resources CraftingCostMultiplier 3
rarity_config Rarity_Rare DamageMultiplier 4
rarity_config reload

Read SERVER-CONFIGURATION.md for permissions, commands, and multiplayer checks. CONFIGURATION.md documents every option and modded-item override. The included Configuration/laugh.valheim.rarity.cfg.example is a reference and never overwrites the active config.

Compatibility, updates, and removal

Modded equipment works when it uses standard Valheim ItemData, ItemType, and enabled recipe registration. Extra-equipment/tool lists, exclusions, and prefab resource overrides cover nonstandard cases. Mods that replace stat getters, inventory drawing, item serialization, or recipe behavior may need a compatibility patch, and multiple stat mods can compound bonuses.

To update, stop the game/server, replace the DLL, and keep one copy. Keep all clients and the server on the same release. Existing v2-v4 station upgrades remain valid.

Placed Rarity Forges and upgraded-item metadata require the mod. Before removing it, dismantle stations and make a world/character backup. For support, provide the Valheim Rarity, Valheim, BepInEx, and Jotunn versions; the affected item prefab; relevant config; and BepInEx/LogOutput.log.

Credits and notice

Valheim Rarity is an unofficial community mod and is not affiliated with Iron Gate Studio or Coffee Stain Publishing. Valheim names, game assets, and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Modding Valheim is unsupported by its developers and is done at the user's own risk.

See THIRD-PARTY-ASSETS.md for the asset record and LICENSE-NOTICE.md for distribution terms.