Goo's Combat Overhaul v1.0.0

Goo's Combat Overhaul is a configurable Valheim combat-feel overhaul focused on making weapon classes more distinct, responsive, and satisfying while preserving the structure of vanilla combat.

The mod adjusts combat behavior by weapon category rather than simply inflating damage numbers. It can tune hyperarmor, counter damage, stagger power, hit-stop, animation speed, attack rotation, knockback resistance, PvP damage, and other combat values for different weapon types and attack types.

The default install uses Goo's curated combat-overhaul preset. Players can also reset the config back to vanilla/no-op behavior or manually tune each weapon category.

Core Features

• Weapon-specific combat tuning
• Separate light/heavy attack settings
• Balanced hyperarmor system
• Counter-damage system
• Hit-stop / hit-freeze control
• Animation-speed tuning
• Attack rotation control
• Stagger multiplier tuning
• Knockback resistance tuning
• PvP damage modifiers
• Goo preset reapply button
• Vanilla reset button
• Master runtime enable/disable switch

Supported weapon categories include:

• One-handed swords
• One-handed axes
• Clubs and maces
• Knives
• Spears
• Atgeirs
• Two-handed swords
• Two-handed axes
• Sledges
• Dual axes
• Bows
• Crossbows
• Magic weapons
• Unarmed
• Other/fallback weapons

How the Mod Works

Goo's Combat Overhaul changes combat behavior by weapon category.

Most settings are split into:

• Primary = normal/light attack
• Secondary = heavy/special attack

Each weapon category can have different values for:

• Damage multiplier
• Stagger multiplier
• Animation speed
• Attack movement
• Attack rotation
• Hyperarmor mode
• Damage taken during hyperarmor
• Stagger taken during hyperarmor
• Knockback taken during hyperarmor
• Counter-damage eligibility
• Hit-stop behavior
• PvP damage scaling

The goal is not to make every weapon stronger in the same way. The goal is to give different weapon classes stronger identities.

Goo's Preset

Goo's preset is the default combat-overhaul setup. It applies my intended balance changes automatically on a fresh install.

The preset is designed to make weapon classes feel more distinct while keeping Valheim's combat rhythm intact.

In general:

• Heavy weapons receive stronger commitment tools.
• Some heavy attacks gain hyperarmor or knockback resistance.
• Some weak or clunky attacks gain animation-speed improvements.
• Some attacks gain stronger stagger identity.
• Counter damage rewards well-timed attacks against enemies during their attack animations.
• Melee attacks can turn more naturally during windup.
• Rotation is locked after the attack is released, so attacks still require commitment.
• Hit freeze is preserved or removed depending on weapon feel.

You can reapply Goo's preset at any time with:

ApplyGoosSettings = true This rewrites the config back to Goo's intended values, saves the config, and then turns itself back off.

Reset to Vanilla The mod includes a vanilla reset option: ResetToVanilla = true This resets combat values to vanilla/no-op behavior while keeping the mod installed. Use this if you want to start over, compare vanilla behavior, or manually rebuild your own preset. This reset affects combat/balance settings. It does not wipe every general/debug option.

ApplyModOptions ApplyModOptions = true This is the master runtime switch. When enabled, the mod reads and applies the current config. When disabled, the mod stops applying its combat changes and clears active runtime effects. This does not rewrite the config. It only turns the mod's functionality on or off.

Balanced Hyperarmor Balanced is the main hyperarmor mode used by Goo's preset. Hyperarmor means an attack can resist interruption while it is being performed. Depending on the weapon settings, hyperarmor can affect: Incoming damage Incoming stagger Incoming knockback Balanced hyperarmor is designed to protect the committed part of an attack without protecting the full recovery. In practice: Attack begins → Balanced hyperarmor starts

Swing / hit event happens → Balanced hyperarmor ends

Recovery frames → no hyperarmor This makes heavy attacks more reliable, but still punishable if they miss. Balanced mode is different from full-animation hyperarmor: FullAnimation: Protects windup, swing, and recovery.

Balanced: Protects windup and swing, but not recovery. Full-animation hyperarmor can make whiffed attacks too safe. Balanced mode gives commitment protection without removing punishment.

Hyperarmor Values Hyperarmor has separate values for damage, stagger, and knockback. Example: DamageTakenMultiplierDuringHyperArmor = 0.70 StaggerTakenMultiplierDuringHyperArmor = 0 KnockbackTakenMultiplierDuringHyperArmor = 0 This means: Take 70% damage Take no stagger Take no knockback A value of 1 means vanilla/no resistance. A value of 0 means full immunity for that specific effect. Some one-handed heavy attacks in Goo's preset only receive knockback resistance. That means they are harder to physically shove out of the attack, but they do not get free damage reduction or stagger immunity.

Counter Damage Counter damage rewards hitting an enemy during its attack animation. If counter damage is enabled for your weapon attack, the mod checks whether the target is currently in a real attack state. If so, your hit receives a counter-damage multiplier. This is meant to reward timing and spacing, not random damage spam. Counter damage can also play a short parry-style sound when it activates.

Hit-Stop / Hit Freeze Valheim briefly freezes the attacker's animation when a melee hit connects. This gives attacks impact, but it can also make some weapons feel sticky or sluggish. This mod can preserve, reduce, or remove that hit freeze depending on the weapon category. In Goo's preset, hit freeze is kept where it improves impact and removed where it makes the weapon feel worse.

Attack Rotation Goo's preset gives melee attacks better turning control during windup. This means you can aim an attack more naturally before the swing is released. However, once the attack trigger happens, rotation is locked through recovery. This prevents unrealistic mid-swing correction. In simple terms: Before the swing releases: You can turn normally.

After the swing releases: You cannot turn until recovery ends. This makes attacks feel responsive without becoming too forgiving. Dual axes heavy attacks and atgeir heavy attacks are excluded from this specific rotation behavior by default, because their attack identity depends more on commitment and positioning.

One-Handed Axe Heavy Attack Goo's preset gives one-handed axe heavy attacks a stronger identity. By default, the one-handed axe heavy attack has: Hit freeze enabled Increased stagger power Faster animation speed Balanced hyperarmor Knockback resistance only No hyperarmor damage reduction No hyperarmor stagger immunity This makes axe heavy attacks better at creating stagger pressure without making them overly defensive.

Design Rationale Valheim's armor system is highly sensitive to incoming damage size. When enemy damage is multiplied too aggressively, many attacks pass key armor breakpoints. Heavy armor then loses value, and melee defense scales poorly on higher difficulties. Valheim's melee combat also depends on stagger thresholds. Blocking, parrying, and weapon stagger create safe punish windows. Raw enemy damage scaling disrupts this rhythm by making more attacks break through blocks and stagger the player. At the same time, player damage penalties make it harder to stagger enemies back. For these reasons, difficulty is better increased through enemy density, aggression, raid pressure, and progression pressure rather than heavy enemy damage multipliers. This preserves Valheim's melee rhythm while still making combat harder.

Configuration Almost every feature is configurable. You can: Use Goo's default preset. Reapply Goo's preset after editing. Reset everything to vanilla/no-op behavior. Disable the mod's runtime effects without changing your config. Tune individual weapon categories manually. Adjust light and heavy attacks separately. Disable individual systems you do not want. The main general controls are: ApplyModOptions = true ApplyGoosSettings = false ResetToVanilla = false Recommended use: ApplyModOptions: Use this to enable/disable the mod's effects.

ApplyGoosSettings: Use this to restore Goo's preset.

ResetToVanilla: Use this to return the config to vanilla/no-op behavior.

Multiplayer For consistent behavior, all players in a multiplayer session should use the same mod version and preferably the same config. This is especially important for: Damage Stagger Hyperarmor Counter damage Animation timing Attack rotation PvP behavior Recommended multiplayer setup: All clients install the same version. Host/server and players use the same config.

Installation Install with a mod manager such as r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager. Manual install:

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim.
2. Place GooCombatOverhaul.dll into: BepInEx/plugins/GooCombatOverhaul/
3. Launch the game once to generate the config.
4. Edit the config if desired.

Notes This mod is highly configurable. If you dislike a specific balance choice, you can usually change it directly in the config.

Fresh installs use Goo's combat-overhaul preset by default. If you want vanilla behavior while keeping the mod installed, use: ResetToVanilla = true

If you later want to return to the intended preset, use: ApplyGoosSettings = true

The mod has been tested over a hundred times, but bugs can still exist. Feel free to share your feedbacks with me and I will update this mod within my abilities.

1.4.0 - Official multiplayer sync, damage-curve, parry, sledge, throwable, and magic expansion

Multiplayer and authority

• Added host-authoritative gameplay-config synchronization for listen servers and dedicated servers. Guests read synchronized host values through an in-memory runtime overlay; guest config files and guest-local stored values are not overwritten.
• Added complete host snapshots on connection, live config deltas after host changes, safe restoration of local values after disconnect/sync disable, and warning-only fallback behavior for invalid payloads or version/protocol mismatches.
• Added forced host/guest version-mismatch notices showing both mod and config versions.
• Added Limit Guests Authority, allowing the host or dedicated server to block non-host guests from using GCO debug/god mode, debug flight, no-cost, ghost mode, debug healing, Rested controls, and PvP test-dummy manipulation.
• Kept diagnostic logging client-local and available even when guest debug authority is restricted.

Damage, stagger, stealth, and hit processing

• Added separately configurable alternate damage curves for incoming PvE damage to players and outgoing PvP damage against players/PvP test dummies. Goo's Ruleset enables both curves; Reset to Vanilla disables them.
• Applied the PvP curve after applicable attack, PvP, Sneak, Flank, Counter Damage, and other pre-armor damage modifiers so burst attacks are normalized from their complete pre-armor result.
• Added successful Sneak-attack skill XP controls, including base XP, optional scaling from the final Sneak multiplier, and a separate ranged XP multiplier.
• Added separate per-attack Hit Through Mobs and Hit Through Walls controls for ordinary melee, running, and jump attacks.
• When Multi-Target Damage Penalty is enabled, effective Hit Through Mobs is now disabled. The stored Hit Through Mobs value is preserved and becomes active again if the penalty is disabled.
• Added independent controls for whether player and non-player characters preserve their facing direction when staggered.
• Improved Flank feedback priority so the Flank ding suppresses the same-hit native stagger-critical ding and takes priority over the Counter Damage ding.
• Updated Sneak and Flank tooltip output and added configurable lightning-chain tooltip information where applicable.

Blocking and parry

• Added Can Parry for every weapon/tool blocking category, Unarmed, every shield type, and every staff blocker. Disabling it removes timed-parry resolution while preserving ordinary blocking.
• Added functional tower-shield parrying when Can Parry is explicitly enabled, using Valheim's native timed-block capability gate.
• Added separate PvE/PvP controls for whether parrying direct ranged/projectile attacks or standalone AOE attacks staggers the attacker.
• Added rounded whole-number Guard Boost tooltip output.
• Preserved existing parry bonus, parry-window, stamina, adrenaline, PvP, and block-category multipliers on top of the new capability controls.

Sledges and attack movement

• Added an optional beta alternate sledge moveset, disabled by Goo's Ruleset by default.
• Alternate Primary1, Primary2, and Running attacks use dedicated SledgeAlt settings and direct melee hit rays; Primary3 retains the native sledge AOE slam; Secondary uses the real two-handed-axe secondary melee attack rather than a sledge AOE.
• Set alternate Primary1, Primary2, and Running authored hit-ray range to 2.4 m and angle to 135°, with existing global and per-attack modifiers stacking afterward.
• Added independent SledgeAlt configuration for damage, stagger, resources, animation/recovery, hyperarmor, hit-stop, movement, rotation, lunge, PvP, knockback, noise, hit rays, multi-target behavior, destruction, and staggered-enemy damage.
• Alternate Secondary movement now resolves additively as (native 2H Axe secondary movement + configured SledgeAlt Secondary movement) × global attack-movement multiplier.
• Restored native sledge swing/start sounds for the alternate moveset. Primary3 retains its native slam trigger and visual presentation, while alternate-moveset impacts use a two-handed-axe hit effect.
• Added category-level Sledge slam AOE-radius tuning. It changes the native damage/hit-detection radius without resizing particles or authored visual effects.
• Goo's Ruleset now uses 1.5x normal and alternate Sledge base damage, 1.5x Sledge stamina cost across supported attacks, and 1.0x alternate normal/running PvE hit-stop duration.
• Reworked player attack-movement handling to resolve from Valheim's live Humanoid.GetAttackSpeedFactorMovement() path without mutating player Attack.m_speedFactor, preventing stale movement values after attacks end.
• Added complete Sledge feature-application coverage for hyperarmor, counter damage, hit-stop, movement/lunge, rotation, hit rays, and multi-target behavior.

Ranged, throwables, magic, and summons

• Added a dedicated Throwables section for native bomb-style projectiles such as Ooze Bombs, with stamina-consumption, damage, projectile-speed, and throw-animation-speed multipliers.
• Excluded throwable direct hits and lingering AOE damage from GCO Flank bonuses and Flank sound-priority processing.
• Added per-staff projectile-speed controls for Staff of Embers, Staff of Frost, Staff of Fracturing, Staff of the Wild, and Dundr.
• Added Staff of Embers fireball impact-AOE radius tuning through the projectile's native impact radius, with spawned-AOE/collider handling retained for compatible alternate projectiles. Particle size is not changed.
• Added Crossbow and Dundr recoil-strength multipliers.
• Added optional extra lightning impact visuals plus separate Himmin Afl and Dundr lightning-chain gameplay chances.
• Reworked Staff of the Wild vine limits into per-caster enforcement without periodic scans; excess vines remove the oldest authoritative vine owned by that caster.
• Simplified Dead Raiser summon-cap handling to use Valheim's native per-owner tameable-cap path instead of redundant GCO runtime cap rewrites.
• Added bow draw rotation-factor tuning and roll-distance tuning.

Balance and weapon defaults

• Set Two-Handed Sword and Two-Handed Axe normal, running, and jump attack stamina-cost multipliers to 1.5x by Goo default.
• Set Two-Handed Axe Primary2 damage to 2.0x by Goo default, matching its heavy primary-chain identity.
• Updated Atgeir running-attack movement to 3.0x and Atgeir ordinary/running/jump hit-ray thickness to 2.0x by Goo default.
• Updated Unarmed running-attack lunge to 2.0x.
• Updated Staff of Frost PvP damage to 0.8x, Dundr recoil to 0x, Dundr stagger to 2.0x, and Crossbow recoil to 1.0x by Goo default.
• Added or corrected independent SledgeAlt defaults so applying the Goo preset no longer copies live Two-Handed Axe user settings.

Config, commands, diagnostics, and migration

• Bumped the Thunderstore manifest to 1.4.0, matching the plugin and config schema.
• Expanded the flat gco_* console tree so every bound config entry has a primary compact command path and an exact full-path fallback under All.
• Added a dedicated Resources command branch, removed command-list/autocomplete truncation, bound previously missing debug entries, and added startup audits for command coverage, one-shot action coverage, and gameplay-feature application toggles.
• Fixed branch-level run reachability for Reset to Vanilla and Debug Mode Add Rested, while preventing persistent PvP dummy settings from being misclassified as runnable actions.
• Added targeted alternate-sledge, ranged, multiplayer-sync, movement, attack-lifecycle, and config-migration diagnostics without introducing constant scans or polling.
• Removed startup warning spam from command-name collision handling and inherited-private-field lookup while preserving deterministic command registration and runtime field resolution.
• Fresh config files use Goo's Ruleset.
• When an older config version is detected, every compatible existing value is inherited. Newly added entries and individual entries that cannot be inherited or parsed use Reset to Vanilla values; one failed entry no longer causes the rest of the config to be replaced. Sync Config in Multiplayer is enabled after every older-version migration.
• Same-version config files remain untouched on startup.
• Reset to Vanilla restores ordinary native systems to vanilla/no-op behavior while preserving stored values for mod-added running attacks, jump attacks, alternate movesets, and Debug-section settings; those mod-added attacks/movesets are disabled instead.
• Updated the README for the new multiplayer, migration, damage-curve, Sneak/Flank, stagger, Better Free Aim, parry, sledge, throwable, magic, summon, command, armor, and movement behavior while preserving its existing organization.

1.3.3 Pickaxe hitray fix

• Fixed a bug that made pickaxe's hitrays horizontal.

1.3.0 - Official hit-ray, enemy, stamina, blocking, and combat-tuning patch

• Bumped the mod/config schema and manifest version to 1.3.0.
• Added staggered-PvE-enemy damage controls in the Staggering and per-weapon/tool Stagger sections. The final player damage bonus against staggered PvE enemies resolves as global x local, replacing Valheim's normal staggered-enemy damage result instead of multiplying it again.
• Added stealth tuning coverage, including attack-noise tuning plus global and local backstab damage multipliers for normal attacks, running attacks, and jump attacks. Goo's Ruleset uses a 2x global backstab multiplier, 3x local backstab multipliers for knives, dual knives, and unarmed attacks, and 1x local backstab multipliers for most other supported weapons. Backstab, staggered-enemy, flanking, and counter-damage bonuses also receive stack-control behavior.
• Added flanking damage controls with separate PvE/PvP rear-angle settings and optional feedback effects. Goo's Ruleset uses a narrower 90° PvP flank angle by default.
• Retuned Goo hit-ray defaults while keeping modded/unsupported attack slots at vanilla/no-op hit-ray values by default. Two-handed axes, dual axes, knives, dual knives, unarmed attacks, one-handed axes, and selected heavy/vertical attacks receive curated Goo hit-ray shape values.
• Added prefab-specific hit-ray range multipliers for vanilla one-handed swords and spears. These stack with global and per-attack hit-ray range multipliers and with player size. Existing config migration fills these entries at 1.0x; Goo prefab-length values are applied only by Apply Goo's Ruleset or by fresh config creation.
• Added additive hit-ray thickness in meters for one-handed axe secondary attacks and one-handed axe jump attacks.
• Added player-size and enemy-size hit-ray scaling so melee attack range, size/thickness, height, and offset scale proportionally with configured character size.
• Added enemy attack hit-ray controls for range, size/thickness, height, and offset. Final enemy hit-ray fields resolve as vanilla value × enemy hit-ray multiplier × enemy size multiplier.
• Added a generic enemy speed multiplier that scales enemy movement speed and stacks with enemy attack/movement animation-speed multipliers.
• Added enemy post-hit-ray rotation locking so enemy attacks can stop turning after their hit ray/hitbox event until the attack ends.
• Added negative-stamina action gating. Goo's ruleset now uses RequireCostWithinFloor, preventing players from starting a full-cost action unless the action can fit within NegativeStaminaFloor. The old positive-only behavior remains available as PositiveOnlyLegacy.
• Added optional Souls-like block stamina calculation for weapons, tools, shields, and staffs. Tower shields use it by Goo default, with stamina cost based on stagger damage, effective block armor, configured base rate, and the block-break threshold.
• Replaced generic blocked-hit damage tuning with per-damage-type blocked-hit multipliers for global, weapon/tool, shield, and staff blocking layers.
• Added effective block-angle controls, including Goo's tower-shield default that broadens effective blocking coverage.
• Added Staff of Frost/Dundr projectile-speed tuning, spear projectile-speed tuning, spear loyalty mode, and harpoon rope-strength tuning. Goo's Ruleset sets spear projectile speed to 1.5x, keeps spear loyalty disabled by default, and exposes harpoon rope-strength tuning.
• Added Staff of the Wild and Dead Raiser spawn controls, including spawn caps, size/attack-speed/level controls, and PvP targeting toggles where applicable.
• Added full enemy/weapon debug improvements, including combat-debug-gated Add Rested control with default key O, while preserving debug keybinds during Reset to Vanilla, Apply Goo's Ruleset, and migration.
• Hardened hit-stop behavior so GCO animation-speed reapplication no longer overwrites Valheim's active FreezeFrame hit-stop sentinel.
• Changed root-motion lunge scaling to affect only positive forward movement. Backward, sideways, and vertical root motion are preserved so lunge multipliers do not amplify retreating recovery movement.
• Updated Goo default one-handed axe tuning, including faster primaries, adjusted recovery speeds, jump/running attack tuning, secondary chop damage restored to 1.0x, and Primary1/Primary2/Primary3 hit-ray height tuning.
• Updated Goo default spear lunge so all vanilla spear attack slots use 2.0x lunge.
• Updated Goo default atgeir attack movement so primary and secondary attacks use 1.0x attack movement.
• Improved config ordering and registered previously missing debug/config entries so the config UI, flat gco_* console command tree, and config-change broadcast path cover the newly exposed settings.
• Updated config migration behavior for 1.3.0: same-version configs are left untouched; compatible older configs receive safe/no-op gap-fill values for newly added entries unless the feature requires a Goo-specific migration default; configs from 1.0.4 or older are still archived and regenerated.
• Updated the README to document the new hit-ray, enemy, stamina, debug, lunge, and preset behavior without rewriting the full document.

1.2.1 - Official console-command, debug-tool, resource, durability, and destruction patch

• Bumped the mod/config schema and manifest version to 1.2.1.
• Fixed an AAA_Crafting/Auga compatibility crash by restricting non-character destructible reflection patching to Valheim's own IDestructible assembly and safely skipping unloadable types.
• Added flat gco_* in-game console commands with list, get, set, reset, applypreset, run, and save support for GCO config and action entries.
• Added vanilla-autocomplete-friendly command names such as gco_set_2HSwords, gco_get_Debug, and gco_run_Debug. Feature paths are compressed into one underscore-separated argument, such as destruction_Primary1_DamageToBuildings, so Valheim autocomplete can cover commands and feature keys without inserting long broken chains.
• Added branch-specific list/get/set/reset/applypreset/run commands for general settings, debug tools, player/enemy/PvP systems, magic, blocking, and weapon/tool categories. Preset application intentionally excludes the Debug section.
• Added multiplayer disclosure messages for GCO setting changes, preset applications, and debug-tool toggles.
• Added [General] Broadcast Config Changes, disabled by Goo's ruleset by default. Turning this setting off still sends one final disclosure message before further broadcast messages are suppressed.
• Added [General] Roll, a one-button roll keybind. Goo's ruleset defaults it to X; the roll direction follows current movement input, supports diagonals, and rolls backward when no movement input is held. ResetToVanilla disables the keybind.
• Added Goo Combat Debug Mode, which uses Valheim's native god mode for local testing while enabled and forces debug fly, no-placement-cost, and ghost mode off when disabled. GCO debug fly and ghost controls do not enable Valheim's vanilla debugmode flag.
• Added debug-gated hotkeys and one-shot buttons for debug fly, no-placement-cost, ghost mode, and manual debug healing. Default keys are Z, N, G, and H, and the hotkeys use physical-key detection so simultaneous movement input such as W/A/S/D does not block them. Added Debug-section enable/disable switches for the debug-fly, no-placement-cost, and ghost-mode controls; disabling one also forces that GCO-controlled state off.
• Goo/vanilla preset application preserves Debug-section entries, including combat debug mode, debug logging, verbose debug logging, PvP dummy controls, debug-control enable switches, and debug hotkeys.
• Added VerboseDebugLogging in the Debug section. When enabled together with DebugLogging, it enables all categorized debug channels and prints a throttled detailed local-player state snapshot covering resources, movement input, attack runtime state, weapon category, blocking/dodging, and GCO debug toggle states.
• Added NoConsumption for local testing so food, meads/potions, arrows/bolts, ammo, bait-style attack resources, and similar consumables can be used without spending the item/resource.
• Added permanent food, permanent mead, and permanent rested-buff options while preserving their healing/regeneration behavior.
• Added food healing-rate and mead stamina/eitr/health-regeneration bonus multipliers.
• Added global and per-gear unbreakable options, durability consumption-rate controls, base durability multipliers, and final max-durability multipliers for weapons, tools, shields, armor, and other durability-using gear.
• Updated durability tooltips so ordinary nonzero durability multipliers are reflected by Valheim's normal durability line, while explicit unbreakable behavior is shown as Unbreakable.
• Added [Enemies] EnemyDamageToBuildingsMultiplier; Goo's ruleset defaults enemy damage to Valheim WearNTear buildings/pieces to 0.2x, while ResetToVanilla restores 1.0x.
• Added [Player] PlayerDamageToBuildingsMultiplier, defaulting to vanilla/no-op 1.0x.
• Added global and per weapon/tool/shield/staff parry-window time multipliers. 1.0x preserves Valheim's normal timed-block window, larger values make parries more forgiving, and 0x can disable timed parries for the affected blocking layer.
• Added per-weapon/tool Destruction sections for normal attack slots, running attacks, and jump attacks to control player damage against Valheim WearNTear buildings/pieces.
• Added config migration gap-fill for new 1.2.1 entries while preserving the existing migration rule: same-version configs do not rewrite, compatible older configs keep existing values except for newly added entries, and configs from 1.0.4 or older are archived and regenerated.
• Fixed 1.2.1 migration so it no longer overwrites the pre-existing DebugLogging setting when upgrading from older compatible configs.
• Reduced Goo's horizontal hit-ray thickness bonus from +0.25x to +0.15x.
• Expanded the README's multiplayer fairness warning to cover local gameplay settings such as damage, animation speed, stamina, durability, resources, building damage, commands, and debug tools.

1.2.0 - Official special-attack, block-cancel, run-blocking, and combat-feel expansion

• Bumped the mod/config schema and manifest version to 1.2.0.
• Added targeted 1.2.0 config migration so configs from 1.1.0 receive Goo defaults only for newly added 1.2.0 entries, while same-version configs do not rewrite, clean, scan, or save on normal startup.
• Optimized startup config handling by evaluating the config version before expensive migration/cleanup work. Same-version startup still binds runtime config entries, but no longer runs orphan cleanup, stale-entry cleanup, version rewrites, or config saves.
• Removed beta/internal release artifacts from the official package; official documentation now records only the net user-visible delta.
• Separated running-attack and jump-attack tuning from the normal primary/secondary attack slots they reuse internally. Special attacks now have their own damage, stagger, stamina, attack speed, recovery speed, movement, lunge, rotation, hyperarmor, counter, hit-stop, utility-damage, PvP, noise, hit-ray, multi-target, adrenaline, and block-cancel settings where applicable.
• Added recovery-animation-speed support for running attacks and jump attacks.
• Added per-attack block canceling for normal melee attacks, running attacks, and jump attacks. Block cancel modes are Disabled, BeforeHitbox, AfterHitbox, and FullAnimation.
• Goo's ruleset now sets melee block canceling to AfterHitbox by default with 1.0x block-cancel animation speed. This allows a defensive transition after the hitbox without automatically speeding attacks up.
• Reworked block cancel input so it uses a fresh block request during the active attack instead of held-block state. Holding block after canceling one attack should no longer accelerate or cancel the next attack automatically.
• Block cancel no longer aborts attacks. It accelerates/finishes the attack flow instead of calling Valheim's attack-abort path, preventing permanent hit-stop/frozen-animation states when canceling during hit-stop.
• Block cancel preserves Valheim's normal combo-chain behavior; it does not forcibly rewrite the next combo step.
• Added hit-stop freeze hardening so block-cancel/recovery-speed logic does not preserve Valheim's frozen hit-stop animator speed as the restore target.
• Added per-attack PvP hyperarmor multipliers for melee weapons, including PvP damage taken, PvP stagger taken, and PvP knockback taken during hyperarmor.
• Added per-attack PvP counter-damage multipliers for melee weapons, including running and jump attacks.
• Added direct running-while-blocking support for weapons, shields, and staffs. When enabled, holding Run while actively blocking allows run-style movement and uses Valheim's normal run stamina cost.
• Goo's ruleset enables running while blocking for weapons, bucklers, medium shields, and staff blocks; tower shields remain excluded by default.
• Goo's ruleset sets running-while-blocking movement speed to 0.7x for enabled weapons, bucklers, medium shields, and staffs. Tower shields keep run-blocking disabled.
• Added per-weapon blocking movement-speed support and fixed blocking movement-speed resolution so the active blocking item/category is used instead of only the currently classified attack weapon.
• Goo's ruleset keeps global blocking movement speed at 1.0x and gives tower shields 0.5x damage taken while blocking.
• Reworked attack movement handling after testing: standard attacks scale Valheim's live attack movement, while 2H axe normal attacks and 2H axe running attacks use the direct movement-factor path needed for that moveset.
• Goo's ruleset sets normal primary attack movement to 0x for melee categories except knives and dual knives, which keep 1.0x primary movement for dagger identity. 2H axe secondary keeps 0.2x direct movement.
• Goo's ruleset sets all melee attack adrenaline multipliers to 2.0x, including configured running/jump attacks.
• Added chain-safe running attack behavior: GCO no longer substitutes a running attack when the player is already inside an attack animation, so queued/chained attacks remain normal chain attacks.
• Goo's ruleset sets all running-attack velocity gates to 5.
• Added and tuned running attacks for supported melee categories while leaving knives and dual knives disabled by Goo default. Knife and dual-knife running-attack metadata remains configurable if manually enabled.
• Goo's ruleset running attack tuning now includes: 2H sword uses Primary3 with 0.7x damage, 1.0x movement, and 2.0x lunge; 2H axe uses Primary2 with 1.0x damage, 0.9x movement, and 0x lunge; 1H axe uses Primary3 with 0.7x damage, 3.0x movement, and 3.0x lunge; 1H sword uses Primary3 with 0.7x damage, 3.0x movement, and 1.3x lunge; clubs/maces use Primary3 with 0.7x damage, 3.0x movement, and 1.3x lunge; atgeirs use Primary2 with 1.0x damage and 3.0x lunge; unarmed running attacks use 2.0x movement and 1.0x lunge.
• Goo's ruleset disables running attacks for one-handed knives and dual knives by default, while keeping their configurable Primary3 running-attack setup available for manual use.
• Added/finalized jump attack tuning. Dual Axes jump attack now uses Primary4 and deals 0.45x damage by Goo default.
• Goo's ruleset gives 2H axe Primary3 5.0x hit-stop duration and gives 2H axe jump attacks 5.0x PvP hit-stop duration.
• Goo's ruleset sets Dual Axes secondary lunge to 0.9x and spear Primary1 lunge to 1.0x.
• Fixed special-attack value leakage so running/jump attack values no longer silently inherit normal Primary2/Primary3 tuning for unrelated features.
• Expanded global scalar controls for attack movement, lunge distance, attack rotation, hit-stop, PvP hit-stop, animation speed, recovery speed, PvP knockback, blocking damage/knockback, hit rays, and AI noise. These global controls stack with per-weapon/per-attack values and default to 1.0x unless Goo's ruleset explicitly changes them.
• Added/expanded per-weapon feature sections so large weapon configs are grouped by gameplay system: damage, staggering, hyperarmor, hit-stop, counter damage, resources, attack movement and lunge, animation, attack rotation, PvP damage, knockback, blocking and parry, hit ray, AI noise, and special attacks.
• Added broader staff and shield block options to match weapon block tuning, including block damage taken, knockback taken, PvP block-break, and run-blocking behavior.
• Preserved ResetToVanilla behavior: vanilla reset restores new 1.2.0 systems to disabled/no-op values where possible, while Goo's ruleset reapplies the curated 1.2.0 defaults.

1.1.0 - Official hit-ray, multi-target, config-readability, and staff-spawn tuning patch

• Bumped the mod/config schema version to 1.1.0.
• Added targeted 1.1.0 config migration so configs older than 1.1.0 receive Goo defaults for newly added 1.1.0 hit-ray, AI-noise, multi-target, and staff-spawn controls without rewriting older user-tuned settings.
• Reworked config option names to use readable spaced labels, with migration from old compact keys where possible.
• Added per-attack AI aggro/noise controls for attack-start noise and attack-hit noise while leaving Goo's defaults at vanilla/no-op 1x.
• Added per-attack melee hit-ray controls for ray-based melee attacks: start height, offset, range, angle, thickness, and horizontal/vertical hitbox type.
• Added hit-ray support for normal melee attacks, running attacks, and jump attacks. Airborne attack bonuses do not independently alter hit-ray settings.
• Excluded sledges from hit-ray tuning because sledges use Valheim's AOE-style attack system rather than ordinary melee hit rays.
• Added per-attack multi-target damage-penalty toggles for supported melee attacks, reduced to simple Enabled / Disabled choices.
• Updated ResetToVanilla multi-target behavior to restore Valheim's vanilla no-penalty family: all sword attacks, 2H axe primary-chain attacks, Dual Axes, and atgeir secondary.
• Updated Goo's ruleset multi-target behavior so swords and axes stay free of multi-target falloff, selected vertical attacks are also falloff-free, and spear primary keeps Valheim's multi-target falloff despite its new vertical hitbox.
• Tuned Goo's melee hit-ray defaults to better match weapon visuals and reduce phantom reach, including updated spear primary range/type, 1H sword and 2H sword vertical attacks, club/mace vertical attacks, 1H axe primary thickness, 2H axe vertical/running/primary attack values, and Dual Axes primary/secondary hit-ray values.
• Added StaffGreenRoots / Staff of the Wild spawned-vine level control.
• Added StaffSkeleton / Dead Raiser spawned-skeleton size, attack-speed, and level controls.
• Cleaned stale hit-ray config keys, obsolete hitbox option names, sledge hit-ray entries, and earlier compact config entries after migration.

1.0.9 - Official staff, PvP, player-size, food-rule, and attack-role cleanup patch

• Finalized Player Size config naming and made player size also scale player-owned melee attack reach/range by applying the size multiplier to cloned attack hitbox/range fields.
• Fixed attack-role modifier leakage for nonstandard movesets such as Dual Axes, Spears, and Unarmed by restoring provisional attack-field tweaks and reapplying the correct values after Valheim confirms the authoritative primary/secondary role.
• Removed Unarmed Primary3 support because unarmed only has two primary-chain attacks.
• Retuned unarmed by Goo's ruleset: Primary1 PvP damage 1.0x, Primary1 animation speed 1.2x, Primary2 PvP damage 0.7x, Primary2 animation speed 1.2x, Primary2 lunge distance 1.5x, Secondary PvP damage 1.3x, and Secondary animation speed 1.3x.
• Goo's ruleset now requires 1.0s minimum airborne time before airborne attack bonuses or special jump attacks trigger.
• Goo's ruleset now sets 2H sword secondary PvP damage to 0.40x, 2H sword running-attack PvP damage to 0.75x, and 2H sword jump-attack PvP damage to 0.60x.
• Added spear throw projectile-speed tuning; Goo's ruleset sets spear throw projectile speed to 1.2x.
• Added StaffSkeleton damage and PvP damage multipliers.
• Finalized Dead Raiser / StaffSkeleton summon-cap config naming and fixed summon-cap control so the cap is resolved from the Dead Raiser item quality instead of the spawned skeleton creature level.
• Added Dead Raiser / StaffSkeleton quality-4 summon-cap support.
• Improved StaffGreenRoots / Staff of the Wild spawned-character logic so root/vine size and speed tweaks only apply to confirmed StaffGreenRoots spawns and cannot stack repeatedly on the same spawned character.
• Replaced the old bounded staff-spawn scene sweep with direct staff-spawn origin propagation through the active SpawnAbility coroutine, Character.Awake, projectiles, and AOEs.
• Added StaffLightning and StaffIceShards projectile-speed tuning.
• Goo's ruleset now sets StaffIceShards spread to 0.5x.
• Added Player.MustEatUniqueFood. Goo's ruleset disables it, allowing duplicate foods in multiple food slots; ResetToVanilla restores Valheim's unique-food requirement.
• Updated the PvP test dummy: default health 250, default armor 150, and full-heal countdown starts only after the dummy has been attacked. PvP dummy hit logging is now disabled by default.
• Improved attack debug logging with attack hashes and authoritative role-correction messages to make modifier-leak issues easier to verify.
• Cleaned stale duplicate config reset lines, obsolete helper methods, old player-size and summon-cap config keys, and stale default wording left from the v1.0.9 development cycle.

1.0.8 - Official balance cleanup and config-history fix

• Bumped the mod/config schema version to 1.0.8.
• Fixed the release changelog packaging mistake by preserving older changelog history instead of replacing the whole changelog file.
• Removed the obsolete standalone [Magic] movement config surface. Staffs now use staff-specific config sections.
• Removed the obsolete general [Shields] config surface. Shields now use buckler, medium-shield, and tower-shield sections.
• Goo's ruleset now sets mace/club secondary attack animation speed to 1.3x.
• Goo's ruleset now sets bow projectile speed to 1.1x.
• Bows, crossbows, and direct-attack staffs now use 0x PvP knockback by Goo's ruleset.
• Fireball staff PvP stagger is now 10x by Goo's ruleset.
• Unarmed Primary1 PvP damage is now 1.3x.
• Unarmed Primary2 PvP damage is now 1.4x.
• Clubs/maces now use 0.7x general knockback by Goo's ruleset.
• Bucklers, medium shields, and tower shields now use 1.1x general block-break threshold by Goo's ruleset.
• Dead Raiser / StaffSkeleton now has HealthConsumptionRate, matching the StaffShield-style cast health-cost tuning surface.
• Added MaxVinesSpawned to Staff of the Wild / StaffGreenRoots, defaulting to Valheim's vanilla 10.
• Added Dead Raiser / StaffSkeleton beta spawn-cap config values: BaseSpawnCapLevel1Beta = 1, BaseSpawnCapLevel2Beta = 2, and BaseSpawnCapLevel3Beta = 3. These remain Beta because Valheim still appears to enforce a hard skeleton summon cap of 3.
• Added stale cleanup for removed standalone Magic and general Shields config keys.

1.0.7 - Official PvP, staff, blocking, and attack-context stability patch

• Fixed attack modifier leakage between attacks of the same weapon. Primary, secondary, running, jump, and chain attacks now use stricter attack-role context so one attack's modifiers should not carry into the next attack.
• Fixed the sledge/pickaxe category mixup. Pickaxes now have their own category instead of inheriting sledge behavior through shared moveset logic.
• Fixed one-handed sword secondary/heavy attack animation-speed scaling so small multipliers no longer behave like extreme speed changes.
• Fixed PvP knockback not applying correctly. PvP knockback now uses the same outgoing modifier path as normal knockback and PvP damage.
• Removed the Beta label from PvP knockback config names because the PvP knockback path is now functional.
• Goo's ruleset now sets melee-weapon PvP knockback to 0.1x.
• Reworked Goo's PvP stagger ruleset:
  • Tier 1 PvP stagger power is now 5x.
  • Tier 2 PvP stagger power is now 10x.
  • Tier 3 PvP stagger power is now 20x.
  • Unarmed secondary PvP stagger power is now 999x.
• Added PvP stagger-duration / hitstun tuning for attacks.
• Added PvP block-break threshold tuning for weapons, shields, and staffs.
• Restored PvP block armor defaults to vanilla/no-op 1x.
• Added separate shield-type config sections for bucklers, medium shields, and tower shields.
• Added weapon and shield support for Block Force, Parry Bonus, PvP Parry Bonus, PvP Block Force, and PvP Block Break Threshold tuning.
• Goo's ruleset now sets general Block Force to 0x for weapons, shields, and staffs.
• General Block Force and Parry Bonus now update tooltips. PvP-only block/parry stats do not update tooltips.
• Block Force at 0x is hidden from item tooltips.
• Added staff-specific config sections for direct-attack and utility staffs.
• Added staff block tuning, staff attack movement, and staff attack rotation configuration.
• Added StaffShield active-shield tuning for cast health cost, stagger mitigation, knockback mitigation, and active-shield parry bonus.
• Added staff projectile controls for Dundr / StaffLightning and Staff of Frost / StaffIceShards.
• Added Staff of the Wild vine damage, size, and attack-speed options.
• Added experimental PvP targeting toggles for Staff of the Wild and Dead Raiser spawned entities.
• Added PlayerBaseEitr and PlayerBaseEitrRegenRate.
• Fixed base eitr so added eitr is not repeatedly removed by Valheim's periodic max-eitr refresh.
• Added DoMaxDamage in the Player section. When enabled, player attacks use the maximum skill-scaled damage value, and weapon tooltips show the max effective value instead of a damage range.
• Removed the broken KeepStaminaBarVisible feature and its stale behavior.
• Added a PvP test dummy debug tool based on Valheim's TrainingDummy prefab.
• Config migration now archives configs older than 1.0.5 out of the active config path while preserving/migrating overlapping 1.0.5 and 1.0.6 values.

1.0.6 - Feedback route, removed mod configuration menu dependency

• Removed mod configuration menu from the mod's dependencies.
• Added a reddit page in the README so that users can leave feedbacks for the mod.
• The config version remains unchanged, so old configs will not be overwritten.

1.0.5 - Official running, jump, airborne, utility-damage, sledge, and poise patch

• Added configurable RunningAttackMinimumVelocity speed gates for supported running attacks. Goo's ruleset uses a 3.0 minimum velocity gate for supported running attacks.
• Added RunningAttackUsed, allowing running attacks to use Primary1, Primary2, Primary3, or Secondary when that attack slot exists for the weapon.
• Retuned Goo's running attacks: two-handed swords, one-handed swords, one-handed axes, and clubs/maces use 0.7x running-attack damage; running attacks use BeforeHitbox movement so recovery movement is forced to 0 after the hitbox emerges.
• Expanded special jump-attack support to supported weapon categories, with jump attacks taking priority over running attacks. Goo's ruleset uses 0x jump-attack lunge and requires 0.4s airborne time.
• Added per-attack airborne damage, stagger, and rotation multipliers. Categories without a Goo-enabled special jump attack receive 1.3x airborne damage by Goo's ruleset.
• Added per-attack chop and pickaxe damage multipliers. Goo's ruleset disables airborne chop damage so airborne attacks do not accelerate tree chopping.
• Retuned sledges as a single-primary-attack heavy weapon: 1.5x base damage, 2x stagger, 1.5x animation speed, 0.9x knockback, 0.9x PvP knockback, 1.5x stamina consumption, and an -8% movement penalty by Goo's ruleset.
• Set two-handed swords, two-handed axes, one-handed axes, and clubs/maces to stronger stagger defaults, with one-handed axe secondary attacks retaining 3x stagger.
• Set two-handed axe base damage back to 1.0x by Goo's ruleset while preserving its dedicated Primary1 attack damage modifier.
• Renamed attack movement config keys to AttackMovementModifier and RunningAttackMovementModifier for attack movement multipliers; stale old attack-movement entries are cleared by config cleanup.
• Added player jog-speed, player base-rotation, experimental player size, player/enemy poise, stagger-decay speed, and non-staggering-hit stagger-decay cooldown controls.
• Added enemy controls for stagger dealt, knockback dealt, attack animation speed, movement animation speed, size, generic rotation, and attack rotation.
• BetterFreeAim now also affects blocking: while blocking with movement input, the mod suppresses Valheim's crosshair-facing block rotation and keeps the player facing movement direction without moving the camera/crosshair.
• Replaced ApplyGoosSettings with SetToGooRuleset.
• Configs older than 1.0.5 are refreshed to Goo's current ruleset once and stale entries are cleared.

1.0.4 - Documentation typo fix

• Fixed package/documentation typos; no gameplay changes.

1.0.3 - Official weapon baseline, airborne, armor, shield, and PvP tuning patch

• Added BaseDamageMultiplier for every weapon category. It scales the weapon's full outgoing damage package, including elemental, chop, and pickaxe channels when present, and updates displayed tooltip damage.
• Added final-value BackstabDamageRate by weapon category. Tooltip backstab lines update through this value, with vanilla-style defaults such as 6x for knives.
• Primary and secondary DamageRateMultiplier settings now function as runtime attack/motion-value modifiers instead of directly changing tooltip damage.
• Added per-attack-slot AirborneDamageMultiplier for player-owned combat melee attacks initiated mid-air. Swimming does not count, tools/Other are excluded, and Goo preset uses 1.12x.
• Added non-character destructible damage coverage so configured outgoing player damage modifiers also apply to trees, rocks, pieces, and other destructibles through their HitData damage channels.
• Added two-handed axe jump attack support. When enabled, a two-handed axe primary attack initiated airborne and not swimming uses the finisher-blow chain animation with its own modifier set; jump attack takes priority over running attack.
• Updated two-handed axe running attacks to use the second primary-chain attack. Goo preset gives this running attack 0.8x damage, 0x lunge, and 0.6x PvP damage.
• One-handed axes, one-handed swords, and clubs/maces use 0.7x running-attack damage by Goo preset while remaining user-editable.
• Added PvP-only knockback force multipliers for normal, running, and jump attacks. Goo preset sets PvP knockback to 0 while leaving general/PvE knockback unchanged.
• Added armor base-armor multipliers grouped under [Armor], classified by vanilla movement penalty: light/no-penalty, medium -2%, and heavy -5%. Armor tooltips update through these values.
• Expanded shield tuning under [Shields], including block power, deflection force, timed-block/parry bonus, block stamina use, block-break threshold, and movement modifier.
• Made block stamina consumption and block-break threshold configurable by active blocking weapon/shield type.
• Refined BetterFreeAim so chained attacks do not receive repeated direction snaps while a character is already in an attack animation.
• Goo preset updates: two-handed swords and two-handed axes use 1.25x base damage, two-handed axe Primary1 uses 2x attack damage, unarmed Primary1/Primary2/Primary3 use 2x animation speed, fall damage starts at 8m, and combat melee attacks initiated mid-air use 1.12x airborne damage.
• Added config-version handling so configs older than 1.0.3 are refreshed to Goo's current preset once and stale entries are cleared.

1.0.2 - Official weapon-chain, lunge, running-attack, and PvP tuning patch

• Added Primary1 / Primary2 / Primary3 / Secondary attack-slot config support for melee weapon chains, allowing normal primary-chain attacks to be tuned separately.
• Added melee lunge-distance/root-motion multipliers with configurable application modes: BeforeHitbox and FullAnimation. Goo preset uses BeforeHitbox by default.
• Added running attacks for supported melee weapons. Running attacks can use their own damage, stagger, stamina, animation-speed, PvP damage, PvP stagger, knockback, adrenaline, and lunge multipliers.
• Dual Axes running attacks now use Primary1 for stability while still receiving running-attack-specific modifiers.
• Added per-attack knockback-force multipliers and an enemy knockback-force multiplier.
• Added per-attack PvP stagger multipliers. Goo preset uses high melee PvP stagger while keeping ranged/magic PvP stagger neutral.
• Goo preset now sets melee PvP damage to 0.6x and ranged/magic PvP damage to 0.3x.
• Replaced the old equipment movement-penalty toggle model with direct movement modifier overrides. Goo preset removes armor movement penalties, sets two-handed axes to -8%, and sets tower shields to -5%.
• Movement modifier tooltips now hide the movement line when the final configured value is 0.
• Goo preset damage/stagger refinements: two-handed swords and two-handed axes receive updated damage/stagger identity, with two-handed axes keeping hit-stop enabled by default.
• Removed the confusing public ActiveHitboxFrames hyperarmor path and related active-hitbox duration config entries.
• Removed stale ranged/magic configs that did not contribute useful behavior, keeping only functional ranged/magic options.
• Added a run-drain toggle so Goo preset can prevent extra held-run stamina drain during attacks and while airborne.
• README, manifest, and changelog updated for the official 1.0.2 release.

1.0.1 - Official player systems and movement patch

• Added negative stamina support for all stamina-consuming actions: actions are allowed only when current stamina is strictly above 0, and spending clamps to the configured negative floor instead of vanilla 0. Goo preset enables this with a -50 floor.
• Fixed negative stamina so it regenerates upward normally instead of being snapped back to 0 by vanilla max-stamina refreshes.
• HUD-facing stamina reads are clamped to show 0 while internal stamina is negative.
• Added player-system config entries for base health/stamina/armor, max carry weight, jump/run/roll/crouch stamina rates, roll animation speed, stamina recovery, stamina regen curve, healing rate, fall damage tuning, player movement speed multipliers, and jump-force multiplier.
• Goo preset player defaults: max carry weight 450, jump stamina consumption 0.5x, crouch stamina consumption 0x, stamina recovery rate 1.2x, stamina regen curve Vanilla, and fall-damage start height 10m.
• Added stamina regen curve modes: Vanilla, Constant, and Reverted. Constant is a flat 9 stamina/sec before recovery/status/global multipliers.
• Added bow draw/spread and crossbow reload-time configs. Dundr-specific controls are intentionally excluded for now.
• Added block stamina consumption and block-break threshold configs.
• Added player movement multipliers for run speed, walk speed, crouch speed, and jump force.
• Added armor/weapon movement-penalty toggles. Goo preset disables negative movement penalties from armor/capes/utility/trinkets while preserving weapon/shield/tool movement penalties. Positive movement bonuses still apply.
• Movement-penalty tooltips now mirror the gameplay toggle by hiding disabled negative movement-penalty lines for the relevant item category.
• Replaced the old arbitrary Movement.AttackMovementSpeedActiveWindowSeconds timer with Movement.AttackMovementTiming. Default UntilAttackTrigger applies attack movement during windup and restores at Valheim's real OnAttackTrigger, keeping recovery punishable. FullAttackAnimation keeps the movement multiplier until attack cleanup.
• Moved bow configs under [Bows] and crossbow reload under [Crossbows].
• Removed the counter-damage ding feature and all ding playback calls for stability. Counter damage itself remains unchanged.
• Improved and throttled categorized debug logging for player systems, negative stamina, ranged tuning, blocking, and movement testing.

1.0.0 - First official release