Valheim Ascended

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A comprehensive RPG overhaul mod for Valheim, built with BepInEx and Harmony. Adds classes, talent trees, abilities, three professions (enchanting, smithing, shipwright), a milestone-based progression system, and a fully custom UI layer.

Work in Progress — Features are incomplete and nothing is balanced yet. Expect frequent changes.

Features

Classes

Five playable classes, each with unique resource mechanics and playstyles:

• Class selection unlocks after defeating Eikthyr
• Each class branches into 2–3 subclasses via the talent tree
• Respec available for a coin cost

Attributes

Five attributes that scale combat stats:

• STR — Melee damage, carry weight, attack stamina reduction, knockback
• AGI — Movement speed, dodge stamina reduction, run stamina drain, pierce damage
• INT — Magic damage, healing output, eitr pool, eitr regen
• END — Max health, armor, health regen, stamina pool, blunt damage
• DEX — Ranged damage, crit chance, crit damage, backstab bonus, draw speed

Each level-up grants +2 primary, +1 secondary (class-determined), and 1 free point to spend on any attribute.

Talent Trees

Per-class talent trees with ~50 nodes each:

• Node types: Start (free), Shared, Subclass Gate, Subclass Exclusive, Subclass Shared, Ability, Capstone
• Bidirectional connections — not linear prerequisite chains
• Right-click refund with BFS connectivity check to prevent orphaned nodes
• 216 total passives wired across all 5 classes (39 simple + 177 conditional)
• Talent points earned from boss kills (20 total across all 7 bosses)

Abilities

6+ abilities per class, unlocked through talent tree nodes:

• 3 ability slots with hotkeys G / H / B
• Mage: 5 slots including LMB/RMB for spell casting (no basic attack or block)
• Castbar system for windup abilities
• Cooldown display on the ability bar
• Abilities cost class resources (Rage, Focus, Combo, or Eitr)

Implemented: Warrior 6/6, Rogue 6/6, Hunter 6/6, Mage 11/11, Paladin 11/11

Capstone Abilities

End-of-tree ultimate talents with unique mechanics and pip-based UI:

• Warrior: Titan's Grip, Colossus (arc VFX), Gladiator (dodge trail VFX)
• Rogue: Living Shadow (clone), Reaver's Stance (spear glow), Executioner (2H execute)
• Mage: Spellblade (melee bolt proc), Enchanter (resonance stacking), Overcharge (hold-to-charge)
• Paladin: Divine Arsenal (bonus holy strikes), Radiant Judgement (judgment marks), Zealot's Conviction (zeal stacking)

Enchanting

Magical properties for weapons and armor:

• 28 enchantment types — stat, class, elemental, on-hit, utility, epic unique, legendary unique
• Reagent-based discovery — reagent determines available enchants and tier
• Slot tier system — slots opened at reagent tier, upgradeable
• Point budget — Q1=10, Q2=20, Q3=30, Q4=40 hard cap
• Guide panel — side panel with filters and reagent icons
• Reforging to re-roll enchantment values

Smithing & Modifications

Equipment customization system:

• Component slots (Head, Shaft, Blade, etc.) with 3 modification choices each
• Dual-axis sliders with stat trade-offs:
  • Brutality ↔ Impact (Damage % vs. Stagger)
  • Force ↔ Resilience (Knockback vs. Damage Reduction)
  • Lethality ↔ Fortitude (Armor Pen vs. Armor)
• Set bonuses — assign items to set templates for 2-piece and 3-piece tiered bonuses

Shipwright

Ship modification profession — upgrade and customize your vessels:

• 4 modification categories: Hull, Sail, Cargo, Armament
• Per-ship definitions — each ship type has unique mods with appropriate materials and effects:
  • Raft — Hull and Sail only (wood, resin)
  • Karve — Hull, Sail, Cargo (fine wood, bronze, deer hide)
  • Longship / Drakkar — All categories including Armament (iron, ancient bark, black metal)
• 12 mod types: Reinforced Hull, Streamlined Hull, Ironclad, Large Sail, Storm Sail, Auxiliary Oars, Extended Hold, Reinforced Crates, Quick Rigging, Ram Bow, Mounted Crossbow (coming soon), Harpoon Launcher (coming soon)
• Multi-tier upgrades — slider-based tier progression (up to 5 tiers per mod)
• Material costs scale with ship tier and upgrade level
• 50% salvage refund when removing installed mods
• Radar stat chart — visual overview of ship stats with yellow preview overlay before committing changes
• 3D ship preview with rotate and zoom
• Owner-only editing — only the ship owner can modify it in multiplayer

Progression (Renown System)

Milestone-based leveling:

• 90+ milestones across 7 categories: Boss Kills, Crafting, Gathering, Exploration, Stations, Events, Professions
• Renown earned from completing milestones → level-ups
• Max level 50 with configurable renown-per-level (default 100)
• Boss kills additionally award talent points

Custom UI

Complete RPG interface overlay:

• Navigation Bar — icon bar for accessing all panels (draggable, horizontal/vertical toggle, orientation saved per character)
• Health & Stamina bars — custom bars with delayed damage/use trails
• Food / Boss Power / Rested indicators — compact status row below health bars (vanilla indicators hidden)
• Resource bar — Rage/Focus/Combo pips or Eitr display per class
• Ability bar — bottom-center with cooldown overlays, draggable drawer + tooltips follow bar position
• Castbar — draggable anchor (visible in inventory mode) for positioning the cast bar
• Equipment panel — paper doll slots, 3D preview, equipped items moved out of inventory grid
• Stats detail panel — 44 stat rows in 7 categories with collapsible per-source breakdowns
• Talent panel — visual talent tree with tooltips, subclass branching, refund
• Quests/Milestones panel — card layout with filters, progress tracking, gathering tiers
• Enchanting panel — scrollable enchantment picker
• Smithing panel — modifications, set bonuses, refining
• Shipwright panel — ship modifications with 3D preview, radar chart, tier slider
• Social panel — player list, party invite, inspect
• Party HUD — health/status display for party members
• Floating text — proc notifications and persistent aura indicators
• Toast notifications — milestone completion and level-up slide-in banners
• Welcome guide — tabbed quick-start guide, dismissible, reopenable via console
• Target lock — press ` to lock onto a target
• Weapon sheathe — press Z to sheathe/unsheathe
• Scrollable item tooltips — clamped to 350px max height with mousewheel scroll, fade edges, and scroll indicators (all panels + vanilla inventory)
• Snap-to-grid — 10px grid with 50px major lines, toggle button in navbar, hold Shift to bypass
• All panels are draggable with positions saved per character
• Class pick notification — top-of-screen prompt after killing Eikthyr until a class is chosen

Status Effects

Custom status effect system:

• SE_Chilled — 1–3 stacks, 10%/stack slow, 6s timeout, snowflake VFX
• SE_Frozen — 2s root + animation freeze + blue tint + 25% frost vulnerability

Installation

Requirements

• Valheim (version 0.221.12)
• BepInEx 5 for Valheim

Steps

1. Install BepInEx for Valheim
2. Build the mod or obtain ValheimAscended.dll
3. Copy ValheimAscended.dll to BepInEx/plugins/
4. Launch Valheim

Dependencies

• .NET Framework 4.8
• BepInEx 5.x
• Harmony 2.x (included with BepInEx)
• Valheim managed assemblies

Console Commands

Open the console with F5. All commands are prefixed with va_.

Hotkeys

0.3.5 2026-06-20

A big Rogue pass: stealth becomes a real ability (Concealment), the Assassin gains a per-hand Weapon Poisons kit, the Living Shadow capstone is reworked into Ethereal, and Envenom is revamped to detonate your coatings. This was way more effort than i intended it to be as i found massive issues with the custom bleed se's when it came to multiplayer, entire SE zdo had bugs and also needed to figure out the shaders for this one.

New

• New system: Concealment (Rogue stealth). A real stealth system built around a new ability. Vanish into the shadows: nearby mobs lose track of you and you turn near-invisible. Breaks on attacking, taking a hit, or sprinting. Your stealth-breaking strike is a guaranteed crit (the opener) and blasts fear into the mobs around your target. Blade Dance and Shadow Anchor also drop you into a brief stealth as they end, without arming Concealment's cooldown.
• New system: Weapon Poisons (Rogue). Two coating slots on the rogue ability bar, one per hand. Click a slot to coat that hand's weapon (after a short windup); every hit then stacks a poison on the target. Each weapon's coat sticks to that weapon and follows it across hands. Three poisons:
  • Nerve Toxin: slows the target and weakens its attacks.
  • Sanguine Venom: heals you for a share of its damage.
  • Vipersbane: the highest base damage, with no extra effect.

Reworks

• Living Shadow is now Ethereal. The Rogue capstone is reworked. Stealth from any source now phases you Ethereal instead: you stay visible and mobs fight you normally, but you gain attack speed, spend less stamina per attack, and your crits bleed your ability cooldowns. It never breaks and runs its full duration.
• Envenom revamp. Envenom now also consumes your weapon-coat poisons (alongside vanilla poison) as an instant burst, and each coating type detonates on consume: Nerve staggers the target, Sanguine heals you, and Vipersbane adds bonus damage, all scaling with the stacks consumed.

Removed

• Shadow Tether: removed, replaced by Concealment.

Talent Adjustments

• Nerve Toxin is no longer a standalone talent; it now lives in the Weapon Poisons kit as one of the three coatings.
• That freed Assassin node is now Toxic Opener: your opening hit out of Concealment no longer crits. Instead, it lands a damage-over-time poison worth 140% of the crit bonus it would have dealt. (Under Ethereal, the first hit of each window applies it.)

Multiplayer

• Bleeds and weapon poisons now tick down and wear off correctly in multiplayer. Previously a poison or bleed you applied could deal no damage or hang on a target forever, depending on who was hosting the enemy.
• Damage and kill credit from your bleeds and poisons go to you, not whoever is hosting the enemy.
• Allies now see your Concealment fade and your Ethereal shimmer.

Bug Fixes

• Movement abilities (leaps, dashes, blinks) no longer drop you out of bounds, like onto a dungeon-entrance roof above the floor.
• Disengage caltrops now spawn on the ground where you land, not on the roof above.
• Mages can fish again. A fishing rod now disables spell-casting like any tool, so the attack button casts the line and block reels the fish in.

Refinements

• Ability and quick-slot keybinds no longer fire while you are typing in a text field, like naming a sign or a portal.