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
• Talent tree preview on the class selection panel lets you browse all 5 trees before committing
• Each class branches into 2–3 subclasses via the talent tree
• Mage and Paladin receive 50 base Eitr on class selection for pre-Mistlands viability
• Respec available for a coin cost

Paladin is still in progress. Abilities are wired but aura VFX are not yet implemented.

Attributes

Five attributes that amplify Valheim's existing systems (food, gear) rather than adding flat values:

• STR — Melee damage (+0.5%/pt), carry weight, attack stam reduction, stagger resistance (+0.5%/pt), HP regen (+0.1/s/pt), armor penetration
• AGI — Equipment MS penalty reduction (+1%/pt), dodge stam reduction, run stam reduction, stamina regen (+1% of base/pt)
• INT — Magic damage (+0.5%/pt), CDR (+0.25%/pt), eitr pool (+2% of total/pt), eitr regen (+2% of base/pt)
• END — HP (+1.5% of food/pt), stamina (+1.5% of food/pt), armor (+1.5% of gear/pt), healing output (+0.5%/pt), blunt damage (+0.4%/pt)
• DEX — Crit chance, crit damage, backstab bonus, slash damage (+0.4%/pt), pierce damage (+0.4%/pt), dodge stam reduction (+0.3%/pt)

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, Capstone
• Custom node art — per-subclass colored diamonds (selected/deselected), capstone art, gate art
• Bidirectional connections — not linear prerequisite chains
• Subclass unlock — requires 6–9 talent points spent (locked behind Elder kills)
• Right-click refund with BFS connectivity check to prevent orphaned nodes
• 216+ total passives wired across all 5 classes
• Talent points earned from boss kills (20 total across all 7 bosses)
• Scrollable tooltips with fade edges and scroll indicators
• Talent preview — browse all 5 class trees read-only before picking a class

Abilities

6+ abilities per class, unlocked via talent point thresholds:

• Tier-based unlock — Tier 1 at 5 points spent, Tier 2 at 10 points spent
• Pick any 3 — choose from your available abilities, right-click to unlearn
• Ability drawer — icon grid with custom art, click to assign to slots
• 3 ability slots with hotkeys G / H / B
• Mage: 5 slots including LMB/RMB for spell casting, with Arcane Bolt as a base ability
  • Bolt transforms into subclass-specific variant after choosing a subclass
  • Mages block using Spell Barrier (RMB) which drains Eitr instead of stamina
  • Empower — enhance up to 2 abilities for -20% cooldown
• Unified ability bar art — shared Valheim-themed bar backgrounds (3/4/5-slot variants)
• 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 (Mixing System)

Craft enchantments by combining materials and trophies:

• Mixing mechanic — combine a base material (sets tier) with 1-2 trophies (determines enchant)
• 16 trophy tags — each trophy has 2 hidden tags (e.g. Beast / Swift), slot position determines which is active
• 512 unique enchantments — 256 tag combos × 2 variants (Offensive / Defensive)
• Discovery system — trophy tags hidden as ??? until researched or discovered through enchanting
• Trophy Research panel — pay tier-scaled materials to reveal hidden tags
• 2 enchantment slots per item with per-slot tier gating
• Item naming — enchanted items display combo names: [Enchant 1] Item of [Enchant 2]
• All 15 affix effects wired — ElementalMastery, Berserker, Execute, Lifesteal, Vampiric, HealOnKill, SoulHarvest, Thorns, Swiftness, Fortify, ParryStaggerProc, Undying, and more
• Inline slot actions — Reroll (↻) and Remove (✕) buttons on filled enchant slots

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 Forging — assign armor to set templates with 4 type-locked slots (Head, Back, Body, Legs)
  • 2-piece and 4-piece tiered bonuses (class-specific and universal)
  • Class filter buttons for browsing sets
  • Set bonuses UI works but gameplay effects are not yet implemented
• Cost icons — material costs displayed with icons across all smithing tabs

Shipwright

Build and maintain your ships using raw materials:

• Exploded diagram UI — click ship parts on a visual diagram to inspect and modify them
• 7 active ship parts: Hull (HP), Keel (stability), Mast (sail force), Sail (sail force), Rigging (wind angle), Rudder (turning speed), Cargo (storage) — plus Deck, Bow, Stern coming soon
• Material proportioning — fill slots with inventory items instead of picking pre-built mods
  • 5 material categories: Structural (wood types), Support (nails/metal), Sealant (resin/tar), Sail Material (hides/pelts), Ties (thread/leather)
  • 18 materials total, each with unique effectiveness vs weight tradeoffs
  • Base × Combinator formula — base materials set the stat ceiling, combinators determine how much you reach
  • Drawer-based material picker filtered by inventory (matches enchanting interaction pattern)
  • Up to 2 material types per category slot
• Weight tradeoff — every material adds weight; heavier ships are slower but stronger
  • Draft depth — total weight affects how deep the ship sits in water
• Condition & decay — sealed parts degrade over time while sailing; sealant slows decay
  • Condition states: Good → Worn → Damaged → Broken (bonuses scale with condition)
  • Hammer quick-repair at sea (restores to 70% max)
  • Full repair at shipwright bench (costs Resin or Tar)
• Ship hover text — condition bars display on HUD when near a ship
• Real physics integration — materials map to Valheim ship fields (sail force, rudder speed, stability, wind angle, cargo capacity)
• Owner-only editing — only the ship owner can modify it in multiplayer

Material values are placeholder. Balance is ongoing.

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 unified bar art, icon-grid drawer for ability assignment
• Castbar — draggable anchor (visible in inventory mode) for positioning the cast bar
• Equipment panel — paper doll slots, 3D preview, equipped items return to hotbar on unequip
• Stats detail panel — 44 stat rows in 7 categories with collapsible per-source breakdowns
• Talent panel — visual talent tree with custom node art, ability selection sub-panel, scrollable tooltips
• Quests/Milestones panel — card layout with filters, progress tracking, gathering tiers
• Enchanting panel — mixing area with discovery system
• Smithing panel — modifications, set forging, dual-axis sliders
• Shipwright panel — exploded diagram with material proportioning, condition bars, radar chart
• 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 tooltips — normalized design across all panels with max-height capping, mousewheel scroll, fade edges, and scroll indicators
• 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

Dual Wield

• Weapons alternate hits — mainhand swing followed by off-hand swing
• On-hit effects fire from the weapon that actually swung
• Spears are not compatible with dual wield

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.