Goo's Combat Overhaul

Goo's Combat Overhaul is a highly configurable combat overhaul for Valheim. It adds Souls-like combat mechanics, expands weapon identity, improves melee aggression, makes heavy weapons more usable, gives PvP more consistent damage behavior, and exposes detailed config options for damage, stagger, hyperarmor, counter damage, blocking, stamina, movement, hit-stop, ranged weapons, magic, summons, and more.

In short, the default Goo ruleset is built around more aggressive and expressive combat that reduces the tedious kiting-oriented feel of vanilla Valheim. Better Free Aim makes unlocked melee targeting feel much smoother, while the designated roll button gives Souls-like combat players the dedicated dodge input they usually expect immediately. Running and jump attacks are designed as commitment tools that let players engage more proactively instead of only waiting for enemies to attack first. Heavy melee weapons, which are often underwhelming in vanilla Valheim, are given tools such as hyperarmor and stronger stagger pressure to encourage commitment and aggression. Counter damage rewards well-timed attacks. Tower shields have block-break behavior closer to great shields in Dark Souls/Elden Ring, only breaking after an attack empties the stamina bar, which gives them a more distinct defensive playstyle. The mod also balances PvP damage on a per-attack basis to compensate for the extra advantage high-damage attacks can gain from Valheim’s armor-damage formula.

You can use the default Goo ruleset, reset toward vanilla behavior, or manually tune nearly every part of the system. Most settings are available both through the generated config file and through flat in-game gco_* console commands.

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Default Combat Identity

The default Goo ruleset generally follows these principles:

• Better Free Aim makes unlocked melee attacks follow player intent more smoothly
• the designated roll button provides a direct Souls-like dodge input
• heavy weapons get better commitment tools
• slower attacks can trade more safely through hyperarmor
• fast weapons stay precise and mobile
• running attacks improve chase potential
• jump attacks reward aggressive commitment
• PvP damage is more consistent and less random
• high single-shot PvP attacks are controlled
• blocking is more flexible but still resource-based
• tower shields remain heavy defensive tools
• magic and summons are configurable without ignoring melee balance
• building damage can be controlled separately from creature/player damage
• debug and command tools are available for testing without being overwritten by presets

The goal is not to make every weapon equally fast or equally safe. The goal is to make each weapon feel more deliberate, expressive, and worth using.

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Combat Quality of Life

Better Free Aim

Better Free Aim improves the way melee attacks follow the player’s intended look direction.

Vanilla Valheim can make unlocked melee combat feel clumsy because attacks may not line up cleanly with where the player is trying to aim, especially when movement, camera direction, and attack commitment fight each other. Better Free Aim makes the first committed attack feel smoother and more viable by letting attacks follow the player’s current aim more naturally.

This is especially important for a Souls-like combat feel because players need to trust that an unlocked attack will go where they intend. The feature makes aggressive melee engagement feel less awkward without turning every chained attack into a constantly retargeting spin.

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Designated Roll Button

The mod adds a dedicated roll keybind instead of forcing dodge/roll behavior to rely only on vanilla’s combined input flow.

The default designated roll key is X. Pressing it queues Valheim’s native dodge/roll directly. The roll direction follows current movement input, including diagonals, and rolls backward by default when no movement direction is held.

This is a major combat feel improvement for players coming from Souls-like action games, where a dedicated dodge button is expected. It makes defensive movement more deliberate, easier to access, and less dependent on awkward input combinations.

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Core Combat Features

Hyperarmor

Hyperarmor lets selected attacks resist interruption during part or all of the attack animation, depending on the configured setting.

This is one of the most important systems in the mod. Heavy weapons such as two-handed swords and two-handed axes are often underpowered in vanilla Valheim because they are extremely cumbersome and struggle to find a good window of commitment. Hyperarmor helps compensate for those slower attacks by giving selected heavy swings damage, stagger, and knockback resistance during the animation.

This does not make every heavy attack safe. The goal is to make commitment more reasonable. Occasional trades of blows should not be as punishing as they are in vanilla, but poor timing can still be punished, as players still take a fair yet reduced amount of damage.

Hyperarmor can reduce:

• damage taken
• stagger taken
• knockback taken

Some attacks can have strong hyperarmor, some can have light hyperarmor, and some can have none. Hyperarmor can be configured per weapon and per attack. PvP hyperarmor values can also be tuned separately, so a weapon can be durable in PvE without becoming unfair in PvP.

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Counter Damage

Counter damage rewards hitting an opponent during their attack animation.

This gives timing-based weapons a clearer identity. Pierce weapons, along with attacks that visually behave like thrusting or piercing attacks, can become more about timing and spacing instead of only raw damage.

A well-timed counter hit can be stronger than a normal hit, rewarding players who attack into the opponent’s opening instead of only waiting defensively. Counter damage gives certain weapons a more distinct playstyle: instead of simply swinging first or swinging harder, the player is rewarded for reading the enemy’s commitment and striking at the right time.

Counter damage can be configured per weapon and per attack. PvP counter damage can also be tuned separately.

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Running Attacks

Running attacks give melee weapons a better way to open a fight and chase enemies that are disengaging.

In vanilla, it can be hard to punish enemies or players who keep disengaging. Many melee attacks slow the attacker down or require the enemy to come back into range. Running attacks help melee weapons keep pressure on retreating targets and make combat less passive.

Running attacks also speed up the pace of combat. Instead of waiting for the enemy to approach, players can actively chase, pressure, and force engagement.

Running attacks can be configured per weapon type, including:

• whether the weapon has a running attack
• which attack slot the running attack uses
• required movement speed to trigger the attack
• damage multiplier
• stagger multiplier
• stamina cost multiplier
• movement speed
• lunge distance
• animation speed
• recovery speed
• hit-stop
• PvP damage
• PvP stagger
• block cancel behavior

Running attacks are tuned differently by weapon. Some are strong chase tools, while others are disabled or kept conservative.

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Jump Attacks

Jump attacks are high-commitment attacks that reward aggressive engagement.

They give players a powerful way to commit to a fight instead of always waiting for the enemy to attack first. A jump attack can start a fight, punish an opening, or force pressure with a strong forward commitment, making it versatile in combat.

Jump attacks fit the overall goal of the mod: rewarding aggression and active decision-making. The player is encouraged to create opportunities instead of only reacting passively.

Jump attacks can be configured separately from normal attacks, including:

• damage
• stagger
• stamina cost
• movement behavior
• lunge behavior
• animation speed
• recovery speed
• hit-stop
• PvP damage
• PvP stagger
• block cancel behavior

Dual axes have special jump attack tuning so the attack remains powerful without becoming too explosive.

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Block Canceling

Block canceling lets an attack transition toward blocking after a configured timing window.

The purpose is to give attacks a controlled defensive recovery option without removing commitment entirely. By default, Goo's Ruleset uses after-hitbox block canceling, meaning the attack must reach its active portion before it can transition toward block.

Supported block cancel modes:

• disabled
• before hitbox
• after hitbox
• full animation

Block canceling can be configured per weapon, per attack, and for running or jump attacks. It also has a configurable animation speed multiplier that controls how quickly the remaining attack animation is accelerated during the cancel.

Block canceling does not abort the attack animation. This helps avoid animation-state and hit-stop problems. The preset keeps block-cancel acceleration conservative because aggressive cancel acceleration can affect chained attacks.

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Hit-Stop / Hitlag

Hit-stop gives attacks more impact by briefly freezing or slowing animation when a hit connects. This is a feature that vanilla Valheim already has; the mod just makes it configurable.

This feature is meant to make weapon impact feel heavier and more physical, but using the same stop time for every weapon can feel uneven because weapons attack at very different speeds. Goo's Combat Overhaul makes hit-stop configurable so heavier attacks can have stronger impact while lighter attacks stay quicker and less disruptive.

Hit-stop can be configured globally, per weapon, per attack, and separately for PvP.

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Attack Movement

Attack movement controls how much movement is allowed during an attack.

This is important for weapon feel. Some attacks should be committed and stationary, while others should allow better movement or forward pressure. Goo's Combat Overhaul allows attack movement to be tuned per weapon and per attack.

Attack movement can affect:

• normal attacks
• secondary attacks
• running attacks
• jump attacks

This helps each weapon type feel different instead of forcing all attacks into the same movement style.

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Lunge Distance

Lunge controls how much an attack carries the character forward.

This is separate from normal attack movement. A weapon can have limited player movement but still lunge forward during the swing, or it can remain more freely movable without having a strong lunge. The mod’s preset is designed to make attacks feel more Souls-like by increasing deliberate lunge while reducing free attack movement.

Lunge scaling only multiplies positive forward animation root motion. Backward, sideways, and vertical root motion are preserved, so increasing lunge should not amplify retreating recovery movement.

Lunge tuning is especially important for:

• running attacks
• jump attacks
• heavy attacks
• short-range weapons
• chase tools

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Attack Animation Speed

Attack animation speed controls how quickly attacks play.

This can make very slow attacks more usable or slow down attacks that would otherwise become too strong. Animation speed is configurable per weapon and per attack.

Running attacks and jump attacks have separate animation speed support, so they do not have to inherit normal attack-slot tuning.

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Recovery Animation Speed

Recovery animation speed controls how quickly an attack finishes after its active portion.

This allows commitment to be tuned more precisely. An attack can have a strong hitbox but a long recovery, or a heavy swing can be made less punishing after the active part has already happened.

Running attacks and jump attacks have separate recovery speed support.

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Attack Rotation

Attack rotation controls how strongly a player can rotate during an attack.

This affects tracking. High rotation makes an attack easier to redirect after it starts, while low rotation makes the attack more committed and directional.

The mod can tune:

• player base rotation
• attack rotation
• airborne attack rotation
• enemy rotation
• rotation lock after the hitbox

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Stagger and Poise

The mod expands control over stagger behavior.

Stagger can be tuned for both outgoing and incoming interactions. This helps make combat feel more readable and gives different weapons clearer roles.

Configurable stagger-related systems include:

• attack stagger multiplier
• incoming stagger taken multiplier
• PvP stagger multiplier
• stagger decay speed
• stagger cooldown
• clearing stagger meter on stagger
• poise-like resistance behavior
• damage dealt to staggered PvE enemies

This allows heavy attacks to feel heavier, shields to feel more defensive, stagger punish windows to be more rewarding, and PvP stagger to be tuned separately from PvE.

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Damage to Staggered Enemies

Damage against staggered PvE enemies can be tuned separately from ordinary damage.

The Staggering config section includes a global damage-to-staggered-enemies multiplier, and weapon/tool stagger sections include local attack-slot multipliers. The final damage bonus is resolved as:

global multiplier × local weapon/attack multiplier

This is a direct final-result setting for staggered PvE enemy damage rather than an extra multiplier stacked on top of Valheim's normal staggered-target result. Goo's Ruleset defaults the global value to 2.0x, keeps most local weapon values at 1.0x, gives most secondary attacks a 1.5x local stagger punish value, and gives two-handed axe Primary 1 a 1.5x local value instead of boosting its secondary attack. Running and jump attacks have their own separate staggered-enemy damage multipliers.

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Damage Tuning

Damage can be configured globally, per weapon, and per attack.

The mod supports tuning for:

• normal weapon damage
• per-attack damage
• airborne attack damage
• running attack damage
• jump attack damage
• backstab damage
• chop damage
• pickaxe damage
• projectile damage
• staff damage
• PvP damage
• damage to staggered PvE enemies
• player and enemy damage to buildings
• per-weapon and per-tool damage to buildings

This lets weapons keep their PvE identity while being separately balanced for PvP.

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Damage to Buildings / Destruction

Building and placed-piece damage can be tuned separately from normal character damage.

The mod can adjust:

• global player damage to buildings
• global enemy damage to buildings
• per-weapon and per-tool damage to buildings
• per-attack building damage for primary, secondary, running, and jump attacks where those attacks are exposed

These settings apply to Valheim WearNTear buildings and placed pieces. They are useful when combat damage should stay high against creatures but lower against bases, walls, defenses, and other structures. Goo's Ruleset reduces enemy damage to buildings by default so raids and enemy attacks are less destructive to structures, while player building damage remains vanilla-like unless changed.

Weapon and tool destruction settings live in their own per-category sections, such as two-handed sword destruction, pickaxe destruction, and similar weapon/tool categories.

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Knockback Tuning

Knockback can be adjusted independently from damage and stagger.

This lets weapons feel heavier or lighter without only changing raw damage. Knockback can also be tuned for blocking, hyperarmor, and PvP interactions.

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Adrenaline Tuning

The mod supports adrenaline-related tuning for attacks and parries.

Adrenaline can reward aggressive play, successful parries, or specific attack types. Attack adrenaline rates can be tuned per weapon and per attack. Goo's heavy-weapon defaults keep all two-handed sword and two-handed axe attack variants at 2.0x attack adrenaline rate, including their configured running and jump attacks.

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PvP Damage

PvP damage is balanced separately from PvE damage in Goo's Combat Overhaul.

Many attacks that feel fair in PvE become too explosive in PvP because players have much smaller effective health pools than enemies, and because Valheim's armor formula makes high single-hit damage scale very aggressively.

Valheim's armor calculation is not always a simple flat reduction. When armor is high relative to the incoming hit, final damage is roughly:

damage² / (4 × armor)

This means small differences in raw damage can become much larger differences after armor is applied.

For example, against 40 armor:

30 raw damage → 30² / (4 × 40) = 900 / 160 = 5.625 final damage
40 raw damage → 40² / (4 × 40) = 1600 / 160 = 10 final damage

The raw damage only increased by about 33%, from 30 to 40. But the final post-armor damage increased by about 78%, from 5.625 to 10.

This is why random damage rolls are especially problematic in PvP. A weapon can feel inconsistent even when the raw damage difference looks small, because the armor formula can magnify that difference after mitigation.

Because of this, Goo's Combat Overhaul enables Always Do Max Damage in PvP by default. This removes random damage variance from PvP hits and makes player-versus-player damage more predictable, readable, and balanceable.

The same armor formula is also why Goo's Ruleset reduces the PvP damage of high single-shot attacks. High raw damage does not merely stay proportionally stronger after armor; it can become disproportionately stronger.

For example, again against 40 armor:

40 raw damage → 10 final damage
80 raw damage → 80² / (4 × 40) = 6400 / 160 = 40 final damage

The raw damage doubled from 40 to 80, but the final post-armor damage became four times higher, from 10 to 40.

That makes high single-shot attacks, such as heavy burst attacks, jump attacks, powerful secondary attacks, crossbows, and heavy-weapon attacks, much more dangerous in PvP than their raw numbers may suggest. Without PvP-specific reductions, these attacks can bypass too much of the intended armor protection and create sudden burst damage that is hard to react to. Bow damage is also reduced in the preset because bows have a strong range advantage.

Goo's Ruleset reduces PvP damage on many high single-shot attacks so they remain threatening without becoming instant-win burst tools. The goal is not to make PvP damage low across the board. The goal is to make heavy attacks, ranged attacks, jump attacks, and other burst options strong but still readable, survivable, and fair under Valheim's armor-damage system.

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Blocking and Defense

Blocking

Blocking can be tuned in far more detail than vanilla.

The mod can adjust:

• block armor
• block force
• block stamina usage
• block break behavior
• damage taken while blocking
• knockback taken while blocking
• movement speed while blocking
• running while blocking
• PvP block behavior

Weapons, bucklers, medium shields, tower shields, and staff shields can all have separate defensive identities.

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Parry

Parry behavior can be adjusted separately from normal blocking.

The mod can tune:

• parry bonus
• parry stamina behavior
• parry adrenaline
• parry window time multiplier
• PvP parry values

This lets bucklers and parry-focused setups remain distinct from tower shields and other defensive tools.

The parry window time multiplier controls how forgiving timed blocks/parries are without changing parry bonus strength. It is configurable globally and per weapon, tool, shield, and staff block category. Values stack: 1.0x keeps the normal Valheim timed-block window, 2.0x doubles it, 0.5x halves it, and 0x disables timed parries for that layer.

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Tower Shields

Tower shields are treated as heavy defensive tools.

Goo's Ruleset makes tower shields strong at defense, but more restricted in mobility. They are excluded from default running while blocking, preserving their identity as committed defensive equipment rather than aggressive chase tools.

Tower shields can also have unique values for:

• damage taken while blocking
• block force
• block stamina usage
• movement penalty
• PvP block behavior

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Running While Blocking

Running while blocking allows selected weapons and shields to run while actively blocking.

This makes normal weapon blocks, bucklers, medium shields, and staff blocks less passive. It improves mobility while still consuming normal running stamina.

By default, Goo's Ruleset enables running while blocking for most weapons and shields, but not tower shields.

Running while blocking can be configured by weapon or shield type.

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Stamina, Resources, and Player Tuning

Negative Stamina

Negative stamina allows stamina to go below zero.

This makes stamina feel more like a commitment system instead of a strict on/off gate. A player can overcommit, but doing so leaves them vulnerable until stamina recovers. NegativeStaminaActionGate controls whether an action must fit inside the configured floor before it can start. Goo's ruleset uses RequireCostWithinFloor, so a player cannot start a full-cost attack with only 1 stamina if that attack would exceed NegativeStaminaFloor.

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Stamina Recovery

Stamina recovery can be tuned globally.

The mod can adjust:

• stamina recovery speed
• stamina recovery curve
• stamina delay behavior
• stamina regeneration while blocking
• stamina costs for attacks
• stamina costs for jumping
• stamina costs for rolling
• stamina costs for crouching
• stamina costs for running

This gives players more control over combat pacing and resource pressure.

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Health, Eitr, and Healing

The mod can adjust player resource values and recovery behavior.

Configurable areas include:

• base health
• base stamina
• base eitr
• eitr regeneration
• healing rate
• carry weight

This allows the combat overhaul to affect the broader survival and progression feel.

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Player Movement

Player movement can be tuned through config.

The mod can adjust:

• walk speed
• run speed
• crouch speed
• swim speed
• jump force
• roll behavior
• equipment movement penalties
• blocking movement speed
• running while blocking speed

The default Goo ruleset is designed to make combat feel more responsive while still preserving commitment where it matters.

The General config section also includes the designated roll keybind described in Combat Quality of Life. It uses Valheim's native dodge/roll behavior while giving the player a direct, configurable roll input.

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Fall Damage

Fall damage can be adjusted.

Configurable values include:

• fall damage start height
• damage gained per meter
• maximum fall damage

This allows movement-heavy combat to be less punishing if desired.

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Food Tuning

Food behavior can be adjusted.

The mod can tune:

• health from food
• stamina from food
• eitr from food
• food duration
• food healing
• food uniqueness behavior
• permanent food buffs
• permanent mead buffs
• permanent rested buff
• no-consumption behavior for food, mead, ammo, bait-style resources, and similar consumables

This makes it possible to change how strongly food controls combat pacing.

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Consumables and Permanent Buffs

The mod can make selected resource systems less temporary if desired.

Configurable options include:

• permanent food buffs
• permanent mead buffs
• permanent rested buff
• food and mead recovery multipliers
• no-consumption behavior for food, meads, ammo, bait, and similar resources
• unique-food requirement behavior

These options are intended for players who want combat testing, sandbox tuning, or a less consumable-heavy progression loop. They can also be left at vanilla/no-op values if survival resource pressure should remain unchanged.

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Gear Durability

Gear durability can be tuned globally and per item.

The mod can adjust:

• global unbreakable gear behavior
• per-item unbreakable gear behavior
• global durability usage multiplier
• per-item durability usage multiplier
• base and maximum durability values where exposed

This allows equipment durability pressure to be reduced, increased, or disabled without changing weapon damage or combat identity.

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Weapon-Specific Features

Per-Weapon Tuning

Each weapon category can have its own combat identity.

Supported categories include:

• two-handed swords
• two-handed axes
• sledges
• pickaxes
• dual axes
• atgeirs
• one-handed swords
• one-handed axes
• clubs and maces
• knives
• dual knives
• spears
• bows
• crossbows
• magic weapons
• unarmed
• other weapons

Each category can have different values for damage, stagger, stamina, movement, lunge, animation speed, recovery speed, hit-stop, hyperarmor, counter damage, PvP damage, damage to buildings, knockback, blocking, parry, hit rays, stealth, and special attacks.

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Per-Attack Tuning

The mod can tune individual attack slots.

Supported attack slots include:

• Primary 1
• Primary 2
• Primary 3
• Primary 4 where supported
• Secondary
• Running attack
• Jump attack

This allows different parts of a combo to behave differently. For example, the first attack can be faster and safer, while a later attack can hit harder, lunge farther, have more hyperarmor, or deal different damage to buildings.

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Two-Handed Swords

Two-handed swords are tuned as heavy commitment weapons with stronger trading potential.

They benefit from hyperarmor, adjusted movement, running attack support, and PvP tuning. The goal is to make them feel powerful without making every swing safe.

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Two-Handed Axes

Two-handed axes are tuned as extremely heavy weapons with strong stagger, high commitment, and special movement handling.

They receive strong heavy-weapon support because vanilla two-handed axes can feel especially difficult to use safely. Their attacks are tuned carefully so they can commit and trade without becoming too mobile or too safe.

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Sledges

Sledges are tuned as heavy area-control weapons.

They can be adjusted for damage, stagger, stamina cost, animation speed, knockback, and PvP damage. The goal is to keep their crowd-control identity while preventing them from becoming too oppressive.

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Pickaxes

Pickaxes can receive combat tuning while still preserving their utility role.

The mod can adjust pickaxe damage, animation behavior, combat feel, and destruction damage against buildings or placed pieces.

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Dual Axes

Dual axes receive special support for their unique attack structure.

They can use special attack-slot tuning, jump attack tuning, PvP scaling, hit-stop, damage, stagger, hit-ray shape, and lunge changes. Dual axe jump attack damage is tuned separately to keep it strong but controlled. Goo's Ruleset gives dual axes wider general hit rays while keeping the secondary attack's hit ray narrower and taller so it behaves more like its intended focused strike.

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Atgeirs

Atgeirs can be tuned as reach weapons with strong spacing and crowd-control identity.

They benefit from attack-specific damage, stagger, counter damage, running attack behavior, and PvP tuning.

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One-Handed Swords

One-handed swords are tuned as versatile melee weapons.

They can use running attacks, counter damage, block canceling, and attack-specific tuning while keeping their generalist identity.

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One-Handed Axes

One-handed axes can be tuned for stronger melee identity beyond their utility use.

They can receive running attack support, damage tuning, stagger tuning, and movement/lunge adjustments.

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Clubs and Maces

Clubs and maces can be tuned for blunt-force identity.

They can have adjusted running attacks, lunge values, stagger, damage, PvP scaling, and blocking behavior.

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Knives and Dual Knives

Knives and dual knives are tuned as fast, mobile weapons.

They can retain higher movement during attacks compared to heavier weapons. Their damage, stamina, animation speed, movement, and PvP values can be configured separately.

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Spears

Spears are tuned to support thrusting, spacing, counter damage, and projectile behavior.

They can receive special tuning for spear throws, running attacks, lunge distance, counter damage, movement, projectile speed, and optional spear loyalty behavior. Spear loyalty can keep the thrown spear in the player's hand and suppress the thrown-spear pickup/drop behavior, while leaving the rest of the throw behavior such as stamina and durability unchanged. Goo's Ruleset keeps spear loyalty off by default while still exposing the option for players who want a returning-spear style.

Abyssal harpoons receive meaningful spear/harpoon support where valid, including damage, stagger, projectile behavior, and a rope-strength multiplier, while preserving vanilla backstab behavior.

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Unarmed

Unarmed combat can be tuned as its own weapon style.

The mod supports unarmed damage, stagger, movement, running attacks, lunge, block behavior, and PvP tuning.

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Ranged and Magic Features

Bows

Bows can be tuned separately from melee weapons.

The mod can adjust:

• draw speed
• stamina behavior
• projectile speed
• spread
• damage
• PvP damage

This allows bows to remain useful without making ranged PvP too bursty.

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Crossbows

Crossbows can be tuned separately from bows.

Configurable areas include:

• reload behavior
• projectile speed
• spread
• damage
• PvP damage

Crossbows often have high single-shot damage, so their PvP damage is especially important to tune under Valheim's armor system.

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Spears, Harpoons, and Thrown Projectiles

Spear throws can receive projectile speed and damage tuning. Goo's Ruleset sets spear projectile speed above vanilla by default for a more responsive throw. Optional spear loyalty can keep the thrown spear equipped instead of consuming it into a dropped projectile pickup.

Abyssal harpoons receive valid spear-style and harpoon-specific tuning, including projectile behavior and rope strength. This gives thrown weapon gameplay a clearer hybrid melee/ranged identity without forcing every spear or harpoon to behave identically.

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Magic Weapons and Staffs

Magic weapons and staffs have separate tuning support.

The mod can adjust:

• staff damage
• staff stagger
• eitr cost
• animation behavior
• projectile behavior
• PvP damage
• staff shield behavior
• summons

This lets Mistlands and Ashlands magic fit into the same combat pacing as melee and ranged weapons.

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Staff Shields

Staff shields can be configured separately from normal shields.

The mod can tune:

• staff shield health
• staff shield damage behavior
• staff shield mitigation
• blocking behavior
• running while blocking behavior
• parry window timing

This lets magical defensive tools have their own role instead of simply copying physical shield balance.

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Summons

The mod includes summon-related tuning.

Supported summon systems include:

• Dead Raiser skeleton controls
• Staff of the Wild vine controls
• summon limit behavior
• summon-related balance options

These settings allow magic summon gameplay to be tuned without relying only on vanilla restrictions.

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Hit Detection and Feedback

Hit Ray and Hitbox Tuning

The mod exposes hit ray and hitbox-related settings.

These settings can adjust how weapon attacks trace hits, including:

• range
• width
• height
• forward offset
• angle
• horizontal or vertical hitbox style

This is useful for attacks that visually appear to connect but miss, or for attacks that feel too generous. Goo's Ruleset includes weapon-specific hit-ray tuning, such as taller and wider two-handed axe Primary 1/Primary 2 swings, wider knife and dual-knife hit rays, wider unarmed primary hit rays, and specialized dual-axe hit-ray tuning. Running attacks copy the hit-ray preset of the attack slot they are configured to use. Modded attack slots stay at vanilla/no-op hit-ray values by default, and the mod avoids forcing hit-ray thickness onto modded weapons or attack setups that do not have a compatible hit-ray path.

One-handed swords and spears also have optional prefab-specific hit-ray range multipliers for vanilla weapon models. These are separate from attack-slot range multipliers, so final player melee range can stack as vanilla hit-ray range × global range × per-attack range × prefab-specific range × player size. Existing configs and migration gap-fill keep these prefab-specific values at 1.0x; applying Goo's Ruleset or creating a fresh config applies the curated Goo model-length presets.

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Multi-Target Damage

Multi-target behavior can be tuned.

This allows wide swings and cleaving attacks to keep their identity while preventing them from becoming too strong against groups.

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Stealth

Stealth-related attack attributes can be adjusted.

The mod can tune how much noise attacks make when they start or hit, which affects how enemies react to combat actions. It can also tune backstab damage through global and local per-weapon/per-attack multipliers. The tooltip backstab line uses the final configured multiplier in Valheim's vanilla-style format, so normal weapons, ranged weapons, staffs, tools, and other supported equipment show the same kind of updated information when the feature applies.

Goo's Ruleset uses a global backstab multiplier and local weapon multipliers. Most weapons use a low local value, while knives, dual knives, and unarmed attacks keep stronger stealth identity. ResetToVanilla restores vanilla/no-op style values instead of Goo's tuned defaults.

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Enemy Tuning

Enemy combat behavior can be adjusted.

The mod can tune:

• enemy damage
• enemy damage to buildings
• enemy stagger
• enemy knockback
• enemy size
• enemy movement
• generic enemy speed
• enemy attack animation speed
• enemy movement animation speed
• enemy attack hit-ray range, size, height, and offset
• difficulty-related values

This allows the combat overhaul to affect the full combat environment, not just the player. Enemy size also scales enemy melee hit-ray range, size/thickness, height, and offset proportionally, and the dedicated enemy hit-ray multipliers stack on top of that size scaling.

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Debug Tools

Debug tools are intended for private testing, balance work, and troubleshooting. They should not be treated as normal gameplay features unless everyone in a world agrees to use them.

Goo Combat Debug Mode uses Valheim's native god-mode behavior for the local player and gates debug-only controls such as debug fly, no-placement-cost, ghost mode, manual debug healing, adding or refreshing the Rested effect, and PvP dummy actions. GCO debug fly and ghost mode do not enable Valheim's vanilla debugmode flag, so they do not fight vanilla debug hotkeys when devcommands is enabled.

Debug keybinds are configurable and use physical-key detection. Holding normal movement input such as W, A, S, or D should not cover up a GCO debug hotkey. The default debug keys are Z for debug fly, N for no-placement-cost, G for ghost mode, H for debug healing, and O for adding or refreshing Rested. Hotkeys are ignored while chat, the console, or text-input prompts are active.

The Debug section includes separate enable switches for debug fly, no-placement-cost, and ghost mode. Turning one of these switches off prevents its keybind or button action from toggling that state, and also forces the current GCO-controlled state off. This allows Goo Combat Debug Mode to stay active for god mode or healing while disabling individual testing powers.

Debug logging can be enabled for troubleshooting. Verbose debug logging expands coverage with detailed throttled output for player resources, movement, velocity, current weapon, weapon category, active attack role, attack/block/dodge/grounded state, GCO debug states, and related combat/runtime information. Verbose logging is intentionally noisy and should normally be used only during short test sessions.

Presets intentionally preserve the Debug section. Applying Goo's Ruleset or Reset to Vanilla will not overwrite debug logging preferences, debug keybinds, debug toggle permissions, or PvP dummy testing settings.

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PvP Testing

PvP Test Dummy

The mod includes a PvP-style test dummy feature for balance testing.

The dummy can be used to test PvP-like damage and stagger behavior without needing another player to stand still for repeated testing. This is useful when tuning PvP damage, stagger, counter damage, armor interaction, and hit-stop.

The dummy can also be controlled through debug actions and flat gco_* console commands, including spawning, despawning, and resetting the test dummy where those actions are exposed.

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Presets and Config Tools

Goo Ruleset

The Goo ruleset applies the intended default combat overhaul and does not overwrite Debug-section settings.

It reapplies the default Goo combat identity described near the top of this README: stronger heavy-weapon commitment tools, hyperarmor for selected slower attacks, counter damage for timing-focused attacks, running and jump attacks for aggression, more consistent PvP damage, more flexible blocking, separate PvP/PvE tuning, and weapon-specific identities.

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Reset to Vanilla

Reset to Vanilla restores values toward vanilla or no-op behavior where possible. It does not overwrite Debug-section settings.

This is useful if you want to use only selected parts of the mod or compare Goo's ruleset against vanilla-style behavior.

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In-Game Console Commands

Goo's Combat Overhaul includes flat gco_* console commands so settings can be inspected and changed in game without relying only on a configuration manager. The command layout is intentionally flat because Valheim's vanilla console autocomplete works best with command names plus one autocomplete argument.

Common command forms include:

gco_get_<Branch> <Feature>
gco_set_<Branch> <Feature> <Value>
gco_reset_<Branch> <Feature>
gco_list_<Branch> [FeatureFilter]
gco_applypreset <goo|vanilla>
gco_applypreset_<Branch> <Feature>
gco_run_<Branch> <ActionFeature>
gco_save

Examples:

gco_set_2HSwords destruction_Primary1_DamageToBuildings 0.75
gco_get_2HSwords destruction_Primary1_DamageToBuildings
gco_set_Debug CombatDebugMode true
gco_set_Debug VerboseDebugLogging true
gco_run_Debug pvpDummy_Spawn
gco_applypreset goo
gco_applypreset_2HSwords destruction_Primary1_DamageToBuildings
gco_list_2HSwords destruction

Weapon and tool branches use readable names such as 2HSwords, 2HAxes, 1HSwords, 1HAxes, DualAxes, Maces, Pickaxes, Bows, and Crossbows. Feature names use underscores to compress deeper config paths into one autocomplete-friendly argument. Numeric values are typed manually; boolean, enum, and key-style values may be suggested where Valheim's console supports them.

Preset commands intentionally do not alter the Debug section. Branch-specific preset commands are available for non-Debug branches only.

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Config Change Broadcasts

Config change broadcasts are multiplayer disclosure messages with a [GCO] prefix. They are meant to make visible gameplay-impacting GCO changes easier to notice in chat. This helps everyone see when gameplay-impacting settings have changed without relying on guesswork.

The General config section includes Broadcast Config Changes. Goo's Ruleset keeps ongoing broadcasts off by default. Turning the broadcast setting off still sends one final disclosure message before suppression begins, so other players can see that future GCO config-change messages will be hidden.

Presets are announced as a single summary instead of spamming every internal config write.

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Multiplayer Notes

Goo's Combat Overhaul changes gameplay systems, not only visuals. Many features can affect the local player's combat behavior, including damage, PvP damage, damage to buildings, attack timing, animation speed, movement, lunge, blocking, stamina, food, durability, commands, debug tools, and other resource or combat settings.

For fair multiplayer, all players should agree on the same mod setup and compatible config values. Debug/testing features and heavily customized combat settings should not be used in normal multiplayer unless the host and all players explicitly agree to it. Config change broadcasts improve transparency, but they do not replace backups, trust, or server-side enforcement.

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Installation

Install with a Valheim mod manager such as r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager, or manually place the compiled plugin into your BepInEx plugins folder.

Required dependency:

• BepInExPack Valheim

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Configuration

The mod is highly configurable through its generated config file.

For most players, the recommended setup is to start with the default Goo ruleset and then adjust individual values based on preference.

The config migration system is designed to preserve user edits when updating. Same-version configs are not rewritten on startup. When new content is added in a newer version, only the new entries should receive Goo defaults. Older legacy configs may be isolated and regenerated when compatibility requires it.

Important notes:

• Updating from older versions may add new config entries.
• Reset to Vanilla restores vanilla-like behavior where possible and preserves the Debug section.
• Set to Goo Ruleset reapplies the intended Goo preset and preserves the Debug section.
• Flat gco_* console commands can inspect, change, reset, list, run, save, and apply presets for supported config entries.
• PvP and PvE values are often separate so they can be balanced independently.

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Feedback

Feedback, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModdedValheim/comments/1toleqf/about_combat/

1.3.3 Pickaxe hitray fix

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

1.3.2 and 1.3.1 - Thunderstore tagging fix

• Removed "world generation" in the mod's tag. For some reason this website is adding world generation to my mod's tag. Config version is remains "1.3.0". Nothing is changed about the source code.

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