PoeTweaks

Custom tweaks for the poe Valheim playthrough: separate combat/noncombat XP rates, combat boosts when trained skill progress is below the enemy's native biome tier, plus peak-based skill retention and recovery. Combat and noncombat rates start at 2×. Dummy XP uses a further 0.2×; each enemy star adds 1× to the star multiplier (zero/one/two stars use 1×/2×/3×). There are no flat biome multipliers.

Install the same mod version on the server and every client. Requires BepInExPack_Valheim 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2; mod managers install these dependencies automatically. Jotunn enforces PoeTweaks' mod/version requirements and synchronizes all gameplay settings. Clients do not need to edit or export those settings in r2modman. This mod replaces FortifySkillsReborn and SkillCatchUp for this playthrough; remove those mods from the profile to avoid applying both implementations.

The generated server configuration is BepInEx/config/valde.poe.tweaks.cfg. In this repository, maintain server settings through overrides/bepinex/valde.poe.tweaks.cfg; the importer copies overrides onto the generated mod pack. Run the next manual ./setup.py import to apply those overrides and restart the server. Building this package does not install or publish it.

Experience settings

[Experience] contains five server-synced settings:

The repository sets native global skill gain to 100%. Category rates apply once to each native XP award, including new skills with no remembered peak and skill XP awarded by summons to their owner. Combat/noncombat use the same classification as retention below. Noncombat receives no target/biome bonus. Defaults give ordinary noncombat XP 2× and dummy combat XP 2 × 0.2 = 0.4× before recovery and vanilla buffs. Disabling Enabled returns category and target adjustments to 1×, while retaining the separate recovery feature.

Land biomes use eight ascending tiers. Their expected skill levels are evenly spaced from 12.5 to 100:

For a classified land enemy, combat XP uses:

expectedBiome = 8 × trainedSkillProgress / 100
biomeBonus = max(1, 1 + nativeBiomeTier - expectedBiome)
targetMultiplier = biomeBonus × (1 + stars × BonusPerStar)

Trained skill progress includes the XP bar and excludes equipment/status skill bonuses. For Plains enemies, skill 0 gets 6×, skill 50 gets 2×, and skill 62.5+ gets 1× before other modifiers. Being half a biome behind adds 0.5×. Classification uses the enemy prefab, so a swamp enemy retains its swamp tier outside the swamp. Unknown or modded enemies, players and tamed targets receive no biome/star bonus. Ocean enemies receive no biome bonus but retain the independent star setting. Training dummies and archery targets use DummyMultiplier without a biome or star bonus. The former [Experience biomes] flat-rate settings have been removed.

Combat weapons (melee, ranged, and magic), summoned combat skill XP, and blocking use these biome/dummy rates in addition to their category multiplier. Noncombat skills receive their category multiplier and the recovery bonus described below. Multi-target attacks use the highest combined biome/star/dummy target multiplier, calculated using the actual awarded skill's trained progress, while retaining the game's XP event count. Area-spell XP is deferred until the hit batch completes; a failed batch does not award its deferred XP. Trigger-based area hits retain their immediate XP event.

Skill retention and recovery

[Skill recovery] has five server-synced settings:

Combat means Swords, Knives, Clubs, Polearms, Spears, Blocking, Axes, Bows, ElementalMagic, BloodMagic, Unarmed and Crossbows. Every other skill, including WoodCutting and modded skills outside that list, uses noncombat retention. The recovery curve applies to all skills, with the same three curve settings and the appropriate category's retained floor.

For the default settings, recovery scales linearly from 10× at 35% of peak to 3× at 90% of peak, then linearly to 1× at the peak. At or above the peak, XP uses 1× recovery. Below the floor, recovery stays at 10×. For a peak of 60, the three anchors are level 21 at 10×, level 54 at 3× and level 60 at 1×. If retention reaches/exceeds the knee, or the knee is set to 100%, the middle anchor collapses: recovery tapers directly from StartMultiplier at the floor to 1× at the peak. Retention of 100% restores the peak on death.

Each skill's peak is its highest trained level including partial XP progress, without equipment or status-effect bonuses. New records start from the character's current skills; historical levels lost before installing this mod cannot be reconstructed. Peaks never decrease, including after repeated deaths. The mod stores them in the character's native custom data under valde.poe.tweaks.skill-peaks.v1, so they survive save/load and server restarts. Back up character saves as well as the server world. Missing modded skills keep their saved peak and are restored only when their skill definition is available.

Every local player death resets known skills to the configured percentage of their peak and clears their XP accumulators. This includes deaths during the native no-skill-drain period. Native item deletion and world flags stay intact, including Hardcore's item rules. There is no separately earned fortified level.

Recovery multiplies the category and biome/dummy/star XP rates. Native global XP and other existing XP modifiers still apply. Blood-shield break XP has no enemy target, so receives recovery without a biome bonus. Native XP still grants at most one level per award and discards overflow; large stacked multipliers can waste XP on individual awards.

Death audio

The bundled seven-second Ahhhhhh Sound Effect by FreeSoundSamples plays once when the local player dies. No runtime download is required. Two settings under [Death audio] synchronize from the server:

Playback uses each client's SFX/master volume and has no distance attenuation. Dedicated servers do not load or play the clip.

Build

Requires the existing server/game assemblies under data/ (including the game's Newtonsoft.Json) and Jotunn under pack/. These files are compile references only and are not included in the package.

From the repository root:

nix develop path:.
dotnet restore mods/PoeTweaks/PoeTweaks.csproj --locked-mode
dotnet build mods/PoeTweaks/PoeTweaks.csproj -c Release --no-restore
dotnet build mods/PoeTweaks/PoeTweaks.csproj -c Release --no-restore -t:Package

The package is written to mods/PoeTweaks/dist/PoeTweaks-0.1.0.zip. It contains the plugin DLL, bundled death.wav, manifest, README, and icon; it does not contain client configuration or game libraries.

Tests

From the repository root:

dotnet restore mods/PoeTweaks/tests/PoeTweaks.Tests.csproj --locked-mode
dotnet build mods/PoeTweaks/tests/PoeTweaks.Tests.csproj -c Release --no-restore
mono mods/PoeTweaks/tests/bin/Release/net462/PoeTweaks.Tests.exe --noresult --workers=0

Tests exercise XP calculations and nested target scopes, retention and recovery curve boundaries, monotonic peak tracking and native JSON persistence. They validate compiled game references and pass real Jotunn synchronization packets through independent server/client config instances. Initial packets and subsequent updates override client values without changing local-only settings, including under different number cultures. Tests do not run Valheim gameplay or a live client connection. Death-audio tests cover audience/radius boundaries, the local owned death transition, and compiled native audio/network references.

Disk edits require restarting/reloading the mod; no file watcher is installed. Editing an override requires the next ./setup.py import, not just a restart, because the importer copies overrides into pack/.