Build Hotbar

Keep your favourite building pieces close at hand with a keyboard hotbar or a paged controller radial. A standalone client-side Valheim mod with built-in keyboard and controller settings.

Download on Hexium | Download on Thunderstore

Getting started

Equip a hammer or another building tool. The hotbar activates automatically in new configurations. Existing users keep their activation preference; enable Auto activate on equip in Settings if desired. F6 toggles keyboard hotbar activation.

Eight slots and three saved rows are available by default. Keyboard and controller share the same saved pieces.

Controller

Hold Square (PlayStation) / X (Xbox) to open the radial, point the left stick at a slot, then release Square/X to select the highlighted piece. Letting the stick return to centre keeps the highlight. Selecting a piece does not place it.

Assign from the build menu: highlight a building piece, hold R2/RT to open the radial, aim at a slot with the left stick, then release R2/RT to save. Click the left stick to deselect the target if you do not want to save anything. Build-menu navigation is paused while you choose the slot.

Controller settings: press D-pad down from the radial, or Options/Menu from the normal build menu. Use the D-pad to navigate and adjust settings, Cross/A to edit, and Circle/B to go back. Change opening and additional save combinations, stick deadzone, menu sizes and more. An optional toggle mode uses Cross/A to confirm instead of releasing the opening shortcut.

The horizontal hotbar hides while using a controller. Control hints use the game's button icons and appear at the bottom. Normal snapping and rotation controls remain available outside the radial.

Keyboard and mouse

Open the build menu and hover over a piece, then press Shift plus a slot key to save it. With no menu item hovered, this saves your currently selected building piece instead.

Open the building menu to access Settings, Enable/Disable and collapse controls. Drag the title to move the hotbar. Keyboard bindings are configurable; click a binding and press a key, Escape to cancel or Backspace to unbind. Bottom control hints reflect your bindings.

Make it yours

• Choose 1–8 slots per row and 1–12 rows. Reducing rows or slots preserves hidden assignments.
• Scale the horizontal hotbar and radial independently from 50% to 200%. Menus fit within the available screen space.
• Set automatic activation on equip, bar position, collapsed appearance and mouse-wheel paging direction.
• Changes save immediately. Saved pieces are separate for each building piece table and shared across characters/worlds within your mod profile.

Putting away or changing the building tool resets activation. Normal material requirements and building restrictions still apply. Collapse only changes appearance; use Disable or F6 to turn keyboard building shortcuts off.

For screenshots, keep the radial open and press an in-game screenshot key. Keyboard input no longer dismisses it. Losing game focus still cancels the radial.

Screenshots

Controller settings | Keyboard settings

Screenshots are hosted online and displayed on the mod pages, keeping them out of the download. They show a customised profile; defaults are eight slots, three rows and 100% menu sizes. The additional save shortcut shown in controller settings is customised; R2/RT always saves while the normal radial is open.

Installation and updating

Install with your mod manager and launch modded. Each player who wants the hotbar installs it locally; the server does not need it. BepInEx is required.

For manual installation, close the game and copy plugins/BuildHotbar into BepInEx/plugins. Keep only one BuildHotbar.dll installed.

Updating from 0.8.0 preserves saved pieces and settings, including your existing auto-activation preference. Configuration remains at BepInEx/config/ValheimEnthusiestKakimaki.BuildHotbar.cfg. No test-profile configuration is included in the release.

Reporting issues

Open an issue with your Valheim and mod versions, whether you use keyboard or controller, the building tool, steps to reproduce, and what you expected to happen. Include other building or UI mods and relevant log entries. Screenshots help with layout and selection problems.

Browse existing issues before reporting a problem.

Development

GitHub source | Building and testing

Source code, tests and build instructions are available in the GitHub repository. Downloads contain the plugin and package documentation only, with no source archives, scripts or screenshots.

To build the source, install the .NET SDK and .NET Framework 4.8 targeting pack. Place BepInEx.dll and 0Harmony.dll from BepInEx/core in tools/, then run:

dotnet build BuildHotbar.csproj -c Release -p:GameManaged="YOUR_VALHEIM/valheim_Data/Managed"

Output: bin/Release/net48/BuildHotbar.dll. Run Test-Wheel.ps1 for the selection, paging, binding and scaling checks. Release 0.9.4 removes the nested source archive and updates version metadata. Saved pieces, settings and gameplay are unchanged.

License

Created by ValheimEnthusiestKakimaki / KakimakiDev. GNU GPL v3.

Changelog

0.9.4

• Remove the nested source ZIP from downloads as requested by Thunderstore moderation. Source and tests remain available on GitHub.
• Keep screenshots hosted online and retain the GitHub source, issue-reporting and license links.
• Packaging and version metadata update only. No gameplay or configuration changes.

0.9.2

• Remove screenshots from downloads; display online-hosted images on the mod pages instead.
• Add the GitHub source URL, issue-reporting links, development link and license link.
• Packaging, documentation and version metadata update only. No gameplay or configuration changes.

0.9.1

• Fix outdated left-stick API calls that caused missing-method errors with the current Valheim version.
• Preserve existing settings, saved pieces and controller behaviour.
• Fully restart Valheim after updating so the corrected DLL replaces the version loaded in memory.

0.9.0

• Add a paged controller radial: hold Square/X, aim with the left stick and release the opening shortcut to select. The last highlight stays selected when the stick returns to centre.
• Save the current piece with R2/RT and clear a slot with L2/LT while the radial is open. Hold R2/RT in the build menu to assign its highlighted piece to a radial slot; click the left stick to deselect the target.
• Add controller-accessible settings, configurable opening/save combinations and an optional toggle-and-confirm mode.
• Prevent movement, camera rotation and build-menu navigation while selecting radial slots. Debounce D-pad paging.
• Add native button icons and contextual bottom control hints for controller and keyboard. Hide irrelevant placement hints while the build menu is open.
• Refresh the PC hotbar and add borderless translucent backgrounds to both menus. Hide the horizontal bar while a controller is active and remove radial slot numbers.
• Add independent horizontal hotbar and radial size settings from 50% to 200%, fitted to the screen.
• Enable auto activation on equip by default for new configurations. Existing activation preferences and saved slots are preserved.
• Keep an open controller radial and its hints visible when a keyboard screenshot key changes the active input device.

0.8.0

• Rename the DLL, project, namespace and plugin class to BuildHotbar.
• Use ValheimEnthusiestKakimaki.BuildHotbar for the plugin, patches and configuration.
• Start with fresh settings and saved slots; no legacy configuration migration.
• Remove the obsolete row-scroll modifier setting; use the configurable row-scroll key.
• Update standalone installation instructions and package naming.