MaterialsBoost

Fine-grained, per-resource controls for mining nodes, trees, and creatures in Valheim. Three independent levers per item — yield (how much you get per drop), drop frequency (how often it drops), and guaranteed drop (always drops) — with no blanket loot scaling and no changes to chests or pickables (berries, etc.).

Built for Valheim 1.0 and BepInEx.

What it does

• Discovers every mineable and choppable resource drop at world load
• Generates config entries per discovered item for both yield and frequency
• Only touches drops from mining nodes and trees — nothing else in the loot system is affected
• Multiplayer: install on the server and each client; the server syncs its settings to clients automatically (see Multiplayer below)

The three levers

MaterialsBoost controls three separate things per item:

• Yield = the stack size when an item drops. Wood yield ×4 → when wood drops, you get 4× as much. (Integer, default 1.)
• Frequency = how often an item drops, i.e. its relative weight in the drop table. Some drops (birch seeds, for example) are rare, so many trees give none. Raising frequency makes the item land on more trees/nodes; it does not change the stack size. (Decimal, default 1. Higher = more likely, but never a hard 100%.)
• Guaranteed = the item drops every single time, no matter what — even if the random roll or the table's own drop chance would have given nothing. (On/off, default off.)

When to use frequency vs. guaranteed

• Want birch seeds on more trees, but still with some randomness? → raise frequency.
• Want every birch to drop seeds, always? → turn on guaranteed.

With guaranteed on, the item always appears and its amount follows your yield multiplier (e.g. guaranteed + yield ×3 = every tree drops a 3× stack of seeds). Frequency is ignored while guaranteed is on. Note: guaranteed can only force an item the source can drop — if an item isn't in that tree/node's drop table at all, nothing can add it.

Configuration

Config file:

BepInEx/config/jaredcavanagh.materialsboost.cfg

Every discovered drop appears automatically after the first load. Yield entries are integers (1 = vanilla amount); frequency entries are decimals (1 = vanilla chance).

[MiningYieldMultipliers]
## Yield multiplier for 'CopperOre' when mining ore/rock nodes.
CopperOre = 2

[ChoppingYieldMultipliers]
## Yield multiplier for 'Wood' when chopping trees.
Wood = 4

[MiningDropFrequency]
## Drop frequency multiplier for 'CopperOre' when mining ore/rock nodes.
CopperOre = 1

[ChoppingDropFrequency]
## Drop frequency multiplier for 'BirchSeeds' when chopping trees.
BirchSeeds = 4

[ChoppingGuaranteedDrops]
## Guarantee 'BirchSeeds' ALWAYS drops when chopping trees.
BirchSeeds = true

[MiningGuaranteedDrops]
## Guarantee 'CopperOre' ALWAYS drops when mining ore/rock nodes.
CopperOre = false

[CreatureYieldMultipliers]
## Yield multiplier for 'TrophyBoar' when killing a creature.
TrophyBoar = 1

[CreatureDropFrequency]
## Drop frequency multiplier for 'TrophyBoar' when killing a creature.
TrophyBoar = 3

[CreatureGuaranteedDrops]
## Guarantee 'TrophyBoar' ALWAYS drops when killing a creature.
TrophyBoar = true

Each discovered item gets an entry in all three section types (yield / frequency / guaranteed) for each category — Mining, Chopping, and Creature. Values are applied against the captured vanilla numbers, so editing the config live (via an in-game config manager, as a server admin) re-applies cleanly without compounding. No world restart required.

Sources covered

• Mining / Chopping: MineRock, MineRock5, TreeBase, TreeLog — e.g. CopperOre, TinOre, IronScrap, SilverOre, Stone, Wood, FineWood, RoundLog (core wood), Resin, BirchSeeds, and any other item those sources drop.
• Creatures: anything with a CharacterDrop — e.g. meat, trophies, Entrails, Coins, hides, and so on, for every enemy and tamed animal.

Entries are keyed by the dropped item's name, so a setting applies to that item from every source that drops it (e.g. a Creature TrophyBoar setting affects every boar).

Creatures vs. mining/trees — one difference

Creature drops use a per-item chance (0–100%), not a weighted table. So:

• Creature frequency scales that chance and is capped at 100% — set a high value (or use guaranteed) to make a drop certain.
• Creature guaranteed simply sets the chance to 100%.
• Mining/tree frequency is a relative weight with no hard cap, and their guaranteed needs the drop-roll patch (handled automatically).

Multiplayer

The mod must be installed on the server and on every client that should get boosted drops. This is a Valheim limitation, not a choice: when a player mines or chops, that player's own game spawns the drops from its local drop tables, so the boost only applies if that client is running the mod. A player on a vanilla client can still connect, but their mining and chopping will yield vanilla amounts.

What clients do not need to do is configure anything. As of v1.1.0, MaterialsBoost uses ServerSync:

• The server pushes its multipliers to every connected client that has the mod — clients use the server's values, with no manual config matching.
• Clients without the mod can still connect (ModRequired = false); they simply won't receive boosted drops from their own harvesting.
• General > LockConfiguration (default on) means only server admins can change the synced multipliers; other players can't override them.

So the recommended setup is to distribute the mod to your players (a shared modpack makes this one click) and configure everything on the server. Edit multipliers in the server's config and restart the server, or change them live in-game as an admin (requires an in-game config editor such as ConfigurationManager). Single-player works normally.

Note: Valheim 1.0 disables crossplay when mods are present — this applies to all BepInEx mods, not just this one.

Changelog

1.4.0 — Added creature loot support (CreatureYieldMultipliers / CreatureDropFrequency / CreatureGuaranteedDrops), covering any enemy or tamed animal with a CharacterDrop — meat, trophies, hides, coins, etc. Creature frequency scales the drop chance (capped at 100%); guaranteed sets it to 100%. Update server and clients to 1.4.0.

1.3.0 — Added a per-item guaranteed drop option (MiningGuaranteedDrops / ChoppingGuaranteedDrops): the flagged item drops every time, bypassing the random roll and the table's drop chance; its amount follows the Yield multiplier. Update server and clients to 1.3.0.

1.2.2 — Compatibility refresh for the current Valheim build (verified: all hooks still bind). Updated the BepInEx dependency to 5.4.2360. No plugin changes (still 1.2.1 internally), so no client update is required.

1.2.1 — Fix: multipliers now apply on every peer (server and clients), not just the server. Because a player's own game spawns their harvest drops, the previous server-only behavior meant nothing changed for players on a dedicated server. ServerSync still keeps all clients on the server's locked values. Update server and clients to 1.2.1.

1.2.0 — Added per-item drop frequency control (MiningDropFrequency / ChoppingDropFrequency): scale how often an item drops, separately from its yield. Because this is a plugin change, clients should update to 1.2.0.

1.1.1 — Documentation fix: clarified that the mod must be installed on each client to boost that player's harvesting (a Valheim limitation). No code change — the plugin is unchanged from 1.1.0, so no client update is required.

1.1.0 — Added ServerSync: the server now syncs multipliers to clients, with an admin LockConfiguration option. Clients without the mod can still connect.

1.0.0 — Initial release for Valheim 1.0.

Credits

MaterialsBoost is an independent reimplementation written from scratch for Valheim 1.0. It was inspired by the discontinued ResourceBoost mod by CalebHanson95, whose repository is no longer available and which no longer loads on Valheim 1.0. No original code or assets from that mod are included here. Thanks to CalebHanson95 for the original concept.

Third-party

• ServerSync by Tykea / blaxxun-boop (https://github.com/blaxxun-boop/ServerSync), embedded as source and used for config synchronization. Licensed under MIT-0.

License

MaterialsBoost is licensed under the MIT License (see LICENSE). The embedded ServerSync component is licensed under MIT-0.