HearthBird

Become a crow from Valheim's native G radial menu. HearthBird is a standalone mod for every player; HearthSort is optional and independent.

Optionally bind Bird form — HearthBird in Settings → Keyboard & Mouse. Scroll to the bottom, click its empty binding box, press a key or mouse button, then choose OK. The shortcut toggles both into and out of bird form; the G-menu action remains available. It starts unbound. Native Delete clears it, Escape cancels capture, Back discards changes, and Reset controls returns it to unbound.

Press Jump to take off, aim to steer, hold Sprint to speed up, and descend or use Crouch to approach a landing. Flight always moves forward, builds momentum quickly, slows during climbs and accelerates during dives, with a hard speed limit. Select Return to Viking to change back.

The crow can stand and move on the ground. It uses a compact solid collider, with collision-aware flight and safe restoration of the human collider. Transformation adds a subtle feather puff.

Flight energy provides 15 seconds of normal flight and recharges from empty over 60 seconds while human or grounded. Sprint flight uses 15% more energy. The percentage meter sits above stamina and appears only in bird form below full energy. Charge persists through toggles and character saves, including existing charge from the older combined HearthSort mod.

Other players see the bird with overhead names, healthbars and hover labels hidden. Bird players also disappear from other players' map and minimap icons; normal sharing resumes in human form. Your own navigation arrow remains visible.

Install

Version: 0.1.1 beta. Built against Valheim 1.0.17.

Install the same HearthBird version on the server and every client. The package requires BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2. HearthSort is not required. For manual installation, close the game and copy the ZIP's BepInEx folder into the game or selected profile. Keep one HearthBird.dll at BepInEx/plugins/HearthBird/HearthBird.dll.

If you currently use a combined HearthSort build through 0.1.14, replace it with the sorting-only HearthSort 0.1.15 or remove it before enabling HearthBird. See docs/MIGRATION.md. Existing chest rules and settings stay with HearthSort.

Details and validation

Full controls, physics, networking and energy behavior are in docs/BIRD-FORM.md. Energy tracking is local; the server shares authenticated bird identities. Map hiding reuses those identities. No extra energy, clearance or map-visibility messages are added by the split.

Automated flight, input, energy, migration and installed-game contract checks pass. Independent and combined live multiplayer sessions still need verification. Startup checks all 17 bird hooks and logs:

Hearth Bird 0.1.1 loaded; all 17 bird hooks verified.

Changes

0.1.5 — Feathers down to earth

• Reset the feather clone's local position and rotation before activation. The native prefab's saved 51.4 m height otherwise placed the puff far above the player.
• Preserve the short feather burst, particle cap and transformation-only work.

0.1.4 — Feathers at last

• Fix the invisible transformation puff by loading Valheim's native feather prefab through Jotunn and caching the template.
• Preserve its feather texture and rotation, with a short nine-feather burst, clearer fade and a 12-particle cap.
• Keep the effect local to rendering clients and form changes, without new network messages or update callbacks.
• Warn once if the optional effect is unavailable, while allowing transformation to continue.

0.1.3 — Lighter flight

• Cache bird animators and their parameters on transformation instead of searching every frame.
• Reuse equipment-scan buffers, and change animation, visibility and landed-state values only when needed.
• Cap session cleanup at twice per second with no dictionary copies or catch-up bursts.
• Skip meter creation and drawing updates while it is hidden; energy still recharges normally.
• Keep responsive flight collision checks and the existing twice-per-second local clearance sampling.

0.1.2 — BIRDUP throughout

• Use BIRDUP for the plugin name, ID, DLL, namespace, source/project paths, network messages, runtime objects, packages and documentation.
• Rename the native settings entry to Bird form — BIRDUP and its input action to BIRDUPToggle. Carry over an existing chosen key while respecting a cleared or newer BIRDUP binding.
• Save local charge under the BIRDUP key and automatically read charge from previous standalone and combined releases. Keep prior identifiers only in compatibility code.
• Prevent the previous standalone plugin from loading alongside BIRDUP so each gameplay hook has one owner. Install matching BIRDUP builds on server and clients.

0.1.1 — native transformation binding

• Add an optional Bird form — BIRDUP entry at the bottom of Settings → Keyboard & Mouse. Clone Valheim's own binding row and use its capture dialog, local saving, Cancel/Back, Delete clearing and Reset controls behavior.
• Start unbound so each player chooses a key or mouse button. Retain the native G-menu toggle and gamepad controls.
• Toggle once per press through the existing server-authorized request; suppress hotkeys while typing, rebinding or using gameplay UI, without queuing a blocked press after closing it.
• Preserve existing control positions, extend only scroll content, and connect the new row to native keyboard/controller footer navigation. Add native field/API contracts and press/hold/focus regression checks.

0.1.0 — standalone bird transformation

• Extract all bird features from the combined HearthSort 0.1.14 into an independent mod with its own plugin ID, assembly, network messages and package. HearthSort is not required.
• Retain crow/seagull visuals, the G-menu toggle, immediate takeoff input, forward flight, sprint/pitch tuning, capped momentum and subtle transformation effect.
• Retain the compact solid bird capsule, bounded local clearance sampling and safe human restoration.
• Retain local saved flight energy, the percentage-only meter, 15-second normal flight, 60-second recharge and 15% extra sprint drain. Read the former character-save key automatically without refilling partial charge.
• Retain hidden overhead labels and other players' map/minimap markers. Existing sharing preferences and your own navigation arrow remain intact.
• Refuse to activate alongside the older combined HearthSort builds, which already contain bird hooks. Sorting-only HearthSort 0.1.15 and later are compatible.