🐦 BIRDUP!

Take a crow's-eye view of Valheim! 🌲

Balanced for short bursts of exploration: a full charge gives 15 seconds of normal flight and takes 60 seconds to refill from empty. Flight is a little boost for your travels, with walking still part of the adventure.

🎮 Spread your wings

Using the default controls:

• G → Bird form to transform; Return to Viking to change back.
• Space to take off, aim to steer, and hold Shift to fly faster.
• Descend toward the ground or press Ctrl to approach a landing.

Want a shortcut? Bind Bird form — BIRDUP in Settings → Keyboard & Mouse. The same key changes you into and out of bird form. New installs start unbound.

Flying always moves forward, builds momentum, and respects solid obstacles. Climb a little slower, dive a little faster—and watch those branches!

⚡ A little lift, then a breather

Energy drains only during flight. Rest on the ground or return to human form to recharge. Sprinting uses 15% more energy, and running out returns you to Viking form.

Enjoy a tiny feather puff when transforming! Your overhead name, healthbar, and live map marker are hidden from other players while you're a bird.

📦 Install

BIRDUP 0.1.2 · Beta · Valheim 1.0.17

Requires BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2351 and Jotunn 2.30.2. For multiplayer, install the same BIRDUP version on the server and every client.

For manual installation, close Valheim and copy the download's BepInEx folder into your game or mod-manager profile. HearthSort is optional; replace or remove an older combined build before adding BIRDUP.

Full controls and upgrade notes are in docs. Live multiplayer and settings-menu checks remain on the beta checklist.

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.