Valheim Mastery — Public Beta

20 connected skills. A new combat progression. Slayer contracts. Mastery capes.

Inspired by Old School RuneScape (OSRS): level-based progression, skillcapes, Slayer contracts and long-term mastery, adapted to Valheim's survival and co-op gameplay. Valheim Mastery is an independent fan-made mod, not affiliated with or endorsed by Jagex.

Build a character through combat, gathering, production and exploration. Every Mastery skill progresses from level 1 to 100, with unlocks, milestones and a dedicated skillcape. The Max Cape combines all skillcape bonuses after mastering all twenty skills.

This is an early public beta with German and English gameplay text. Mastery follows Valheim's language setting; other languages currently use English.

What is included?

• Combat styles, accuracy, max hits and equipment requirements. Accuracy failures become 25% glancing hits; successful parries remain damage-free. Immunities and arrows that physically miss are separate from accuracy rolls.
• Base stamina, health and Eitr progression; movement and swimming through Agility.
• Resource tiers, production milestones, material-saving chances, farming grids, additional cultivatable plants and natural ore/tree regeneration.
• Hunter carcass processing and lethal baited traps. Traps currently require contact: bait does not attract animals yet.
• Slayer contracts, two-player shared tasks, completion and streak tokens, prestige upgrades, reward crates, weapons and unlockable helmet styles.
• An Ancient Staff with four Eitr-powered Barrage spells and area effects.
• Twenty skillcapes and eight styles of the animated Max Cape.
• Freeform Construction, building-area projects, work orders and area repair. Prebuilt village blueprints are temporarily disabled. Saved plans remain dormant; already built pieces are preserved.

Install

1. Use a fresh Valheim profile in a Thunderstore-compatible mod manager.
2. Install this package and its declared BepInEx dependency, then launch modded.
3. For the first beta session, use a new character and test world, or back up your character, world and existing mod configuration before loading them.
4. Open the skill window and click a Mastery skill to inspect its milestones.

Tested against Windows / Steam Valheim 1.0.15, using BepInExPack_Valheim 5.4.2350. The plugin also accepts 1.0.14, but the current release checks were run against 1.0.15. Other operating systems are unverified.

The core mod does not require BetterUI, Jotunn or Equipment and Quick Slots. With Equipment and Quick Slots, the quiver can use additional inventory cells. Without it, equip the quiver by right-clicking it; ammunition stays in the main inventory.

For manual installation, install BepInEx separately and copy this archive's plugins/ValheimMastery/ folder into BepInEx/plugins/.

Progression and configuration

Fresh installations use XP x1. All twenty skills share the same thresholds: level 100 requires 1,439,116 XP. Approximately 10 hours of relevant activity per skill is a balancing target, not a measured completion-time guarantee.

After the first launch, close the game and edit BepInEx/config/org.valheim.mastery.cfg:

[Progression]
CombatXpMultiplier = 1

Despite its historical name, this setting controls all Mastery skills and the integrated native/mod skill XP paths. For faster testing, set it to 5. The host controls the multiplayer multiplier. Existing settings are not replaced by this package. The development XP slider is not included in this release.

Anonymous balancing telemetry is stored locally under BepInEx/ValheimMastery/balancing. It records XP sources, active-time windows, outputs, perk procs and resource/combat samples; multipliers are normalized back to x1 for comparison. It does not transmit data or record player/world names, chat, peer IDs or coordinates. Set Diagnostics.EnableBalanceTelemetry = false to disable future recording.

Existing Mastery progress is retained. Compatible existing vanilla and legacy mod skill levels are imported once where a matching migration exists; genuinely new skills begin at level 1. Loading an existing character can perform that migration, so make the backup before the first Mastery session.

Controls

Controls are configurable. The Max Cape keeps the same contextual controls; Q activates only the selected sense. Auto-run is unbound by the mod.

Multiplayer beta

Every player must use the same Mastery release and compatible game version. Internal TEST builds are not interchangeable with public RELEASE builds.

Slayer co-op is explicitly started for two players at the board. Join before the first kill; qualifying nearby participants receive the same Slayer kill XP. Tokens are awarded at completion. Both players must be alive and within the required 70 m completion range to receive the shared completion reward.

Owner changes, reconnects and long sessions still need broader live testing. Dedicated servers are experimental and are not advertised as fully validated.

Slayer's host-side ledger is stored in BepInEx/config/ValheimMastery/slayer-<world-id>.json. Back up this directory along with character and world saves; replacing only the DLL does not reset it.

Compatibility and updates

Do not run the replaced Smoothbrain Mining, Lumberjacking, Blacksmithing, Farming, Foraging, Cooking or Sailing plugins alongside Mastery. Their known plugin IDs are declared incompatible. Back up first, then disable those plugins; Mastery can read supported legacy progress without their DLLs being loaded.

BetterArchery, other combat overhauls, additional skill-replacement plugins and SkillBonusTooltips are outside the supported starting setup. Begin with the core mod and add optional UI/comfort mods only after it works.

Close Valheim before updating. Do not load the same character in a vanilla session as an uninstall test: this mod adds saved progress, items and world objects. Restore a pre-Mastery backup for a clean rollback.

Known limits

• Village blueprint placement and terrain preparation are intentionally paused.
• Baited traps do not lure wildlife.
• Languages other than German and English currently fall back to English.
• The 10-hour progression target needs real playtime feedback.
• Genuine two-machine long-session, reconnect and dedicated-server coverage is incomplete. Controlled network-handler checks are not equivalent to that.
• Third-party enemy/content mods may need explicit compatibility work.
• An earlier audit identified a conditional incoming status-effect ordering issue; a zero-damage result does not promise removal of pre-existing status effects.

The current release passed 168 core checks in both build variants and 360 controlled native runtime checks. The language implementation passed 38 additional native checks in 0.16.15. Native checks used only BepInEx, Mastery and isolated audit helpers.

Useful beta feedback

Include the Mastery and Valheim versions, XP multiplier, installed mods, whether you were host/client, exact reproduction steps and expected/actual behaviour. For balance feedback, add your skill level, activity and rough duration.

Attach only the relevant log excerpt from BepInEx/LogOutput.log; remove private server details and personal paths first. FEEDBACK.md contains a template.

Deutsch

Öffentliche Beta mit allen 20 Skills, Slayer, Ancient-Zaubern und Skillcapes. Inspiriert von Old School RuneScape (OSRS). Die Spieloberfläche folgt der Valheim-Sprache: Deutsch oder Englisch. Frische Installationen starten mit XP x1; der Host kann den Faktor in der Config ändern. Alle Mitspieler brauchen denselben Release. Dorf-Baupläne sind vorerst deaktiviert, freies Bauen bleibt aktiv. Bitte vor der ersten Nutzung bestehende Charaktere, Welten und die Mastery-Konfiguration sichern. Fehler und Balancing sind weiterhin zu erwarten.

Unofficial fan-made mod. Not affiliated with Iron Gate, Coffee Stain or Jagex. See NOTICE.md for asset and compatibility attribution.

Changelog

0.16.28 — XP balance

Changed

• Attack and Strength XP from actual melee damage increased threefold. Defence, Hitpoints, the shared level thresholds and existing character XP are unchanged.
• Smithing work XP and smelting XP increased, with more XP for higher-tier output. Crafting work XP also increased.
• The 1–100 time target remains a balancing target; these changes need long-session player feedback.

Feedback

• Report bugs and balance results at https://github.com/guenthnermarco-afk/Valheim-Mastery-Installer/issues/new/choose.

0.16.27 — Equipment and set bonuses

Fixed

• Any equipped Mastery skill cape or Max Cape completes the four-piece Troll set alongside the three Troll armor pieces.
• Root and Lox set bonuses now improve bow accuracy and damage in Mastery combat. The Fenris set improves unarmed accuracy and damage. These bonuses apply only to the matching weapon type.
• The Harvester set improves cultivated crop yields, and the Fishing Hat improves Fishing skill effects. Their existing native bonuses remain active.

Changed

• Equipment bonuses affect performance only while worn; they do not change saved levels, experience, recipe access, or milestone unlocks.
• The Bronze Axe crafting requirement is Smithing 1; its Attack 10 wielding requirement is unchanged.

0.16.26 — Skill window compatibility

Fixed

• BetterUI integration now keeps the twenty Mastery rows stable when reopening the skill window and removes overlapping native rows.
• Existing BetterUI configurations are adjusted automatically to use the compatible skill renderer.

Changed

• Skill text and progress bars refresh only when their values change. Existing character progress is unchanged.

0.16.23 — Construction and skill window correction

Fixed

• The basic stone campfire now requires Construction 1 instead of 20; other stone structures keep their normal level requirements.
• When BetterUI is installed, Mastery owns the skill rows so BetterUI does not repeatedly destroy and recreate them. Unchanged XP bars are no longer reset during each UI refresh.

0.16.22 — Hunter baited trap lure

Added

• Baited traps now draw nearby wild boars and hares from up to 18 metres using their normal pathfinding; capture still occurs on contact.
• Tamed, farm-bred and cheated animals remain excluded. Birds are not lured.

0.16.21 — Public documentation correction

Fixed

• Documentation now reflects the nominal ten-hour progression target.

0.16.20 — Smooth shared curve and ten-hour balancing

Changed

• Rebalances all twenty skills to a nominal 9–11 active hours at XP x1.
• Uses one smoother level curve from 58 XP at level 2 to 1,439,116 XP at level 100.
• Migrates existing characters while preserving their level and relative progress within that level.
• Applies the configured XP multiplier exactly once.

0.16.19 — Correct bear equipment tiers

Fixed

• Paws of the Bear and the normal Bear Set now use Black Forest Mastery tiers: Crafting/Attack/Defence level 10.
• Undead bear equipment now follows its Plains origin: Smithing 50 and Attack/Defence 40.
• Cooked bear meat and pulled bear now unlock with Black Forest cooking at level 10.

0.16.18 — Bear claw progression

Changed

• Bear claw weapons now use level 70 production requirements, aligned with their level 70 Attack tier, instead of adding a near-mastery level 90 gate.
• Skill-locked production recipes remain out of the crafting list until the required level is reached, then use Valheim's normal one-time discovery flow.

0.16.17 — Local balancing telemetry

Added

• Records all twenty skills' credited XP with source, levels, multiplier and an x1-normalized value.
• Adds 30/120/300-second activity estimates, exact Agility credit time and live session summaries with projected x1 hours to level 100.
• Records yield/material/bonus procs, Slayer completions, sense usefulness, combat outcomes and periodic HP/stamina/Eitr samples.
• Files stay local and exclude player/world names, chat, peer IDs and coordinates.
• Adds a multi-session aggregation tool for skill, source, proc and resource reports.

0.16.16 — Construction floor tracking

Fixed

• New construction no longer inherits a rebuild penalty from unrelated demolition.
• Precise site tracking distinguishes closely stacked floor shelves.
• Rebuilding the same piece at the same site retains reduced XP and no project credit.
• Previously uncredited legacy parts can recover into their still-active project after loading, subject to ownership, area and placement-time checks. Existing XP is not retroactively increased; duplicate receipts and later projects cannot reuse parts.

0.16.15 — German and English public beta

Added

• Public name: Valheim Mastery, with explicit Old School RuneScape inspiration.
• German and English skill windows, milestones, boards, items, tooltips and messages.
• Language follows Valheim; unsupported languages fall back to English.
• Shared network messages are displayed in each recipient's language.
• Existing item identities, saves, progression and XP settings are preserved.

0.16.14 — Initial public beta candidate

Added

• All twenty Mastery skills and their shared level 1–100 progression.
• Combat, production, exploration, Slayer contracts and mastery rewards.
• Includes recent quiver, skill-display, recipe, cape and Slayer equipment fixes.
• Accuracy failures use glancing damage; sensing cooldowns were reduced.
• Quartermaster increases both base completion tokens and streak rewards.
• Baited traps kill wild boars, hares and landed birds on contact; no lure yet.
• Village blueprints are paused while layouts and existing world data are retained.
• Public package defaults to XP x1 on a fresh configuration and preserves existing settings.