Valheim Ascended

A full RPG overhaul for Valheim.

Valheim Ascended is an attempt to build a complete RPG framework on top of Valheim. The goal is to bring everything you'd expect from a full RPG under one roof: a character equipment screen, social systems, classes and abilities, tooltips and UI enhancements, professions and crafting, quests, and a vanilla-friendly progression system. Instead of piecing together a dozen separate mods, this is one package trying to do all of it.

⚠️ Early Access

This is a solo passion project. Everything here is built and maintained by one person.

Features are still incomplete, nothing is balanced, and things will break between updates.

⚠️ Mod Compatibility — Read This First

Valheim Ascended is built to be a complete standalone package, not a piece you slot in alongside other overhauls. The mod touches an unusually wide surface of Valheim's systems: combat (bow reworks, crossbow states, melee animations, dual-wield), creature spawning and star levels, UI (nearly every panel and HUD element is custom), inventory management (loadout slots, sheath mechanic, quickslots), stats and attributes, talent and ability systems, progression, multiplayer sync, and more.

Most mods that touch any of these systems will conflict. That includes the obvious ones (combat overhauls, UI replacers, inventory tweaks, class mods) and the less obvious ones (anything that re-skins HUD elements, modifies spawn rates, changes ammo handling, hooks attack patches, or touches BepInEx config for areas VA covers).

My recommendation: see what VA already does before installing anything else alongside it. If a feature you want is already covered by VA, adding another mod for the same area is asking for trouble. If a mod is purely additive (new biomes, building pieces, cosmetic items) it'll usually be fine, but I haven't tested every case.

Compatibility with other mods has not been tested. Conflicts will not generally be considered bugs in VA but thats not saying I wont look into compatibility in the future. I just have a lot on my plate at the moment, balancing this mod, my job, and personal life, so don't expect any efforts in that area anytime soon.

Pick your class after defeating Eikthyr. You can preview all five talent trees before committing.

Each class branches into subclass paths through the talent tree. Once you commit to a branch the other side locks but stays partially accessible (first three keystone rows of the off-spec are unlockable). Respec is available for a coin cost.

6+ abilities per class, all with custom VFX and SFX.

• Pick any 3 from your unlocked pool. Mage gets 5 slots (includes LMB/RMB).
• Castbar system for windup abilities with hold-to-aim indicators
• All abilities are cooldown-based. Mage and Paladin abilities cost Eitr.
• 15 capstone abilities with unique mechanics like Siege Engine (magazine-fed crossbow), Wind Runner (momentum-based ranged buffs), Living Shadow (shadow clone), and more
• All ability VFX are visible in multiplayer, with a unified buff/aura tracker system showing partner buffs on their nameplates and your own state on your personal HUD

Around 50 nodes per class with subclass gates, multi-rank passives, keystones, and capstones.

• 207 total passives across all 5 classes
• 30 talent points earned from boss kills (Eikthyr 6, Elder 6, Bonemass 6, Moder 5, Yagluth 4, Queen 2, Fader 1)
• Abilities unlock at talent point thresholds (Tier 1 at 5 pts, Tier 2 at 10)
• You can browse all 5 trees read-only before picking a class
• Off-spec keystones in the first three rows of the unchosen subclass remain unlockable, so you can dip into the other side without fully committing

Combat has been reworked across multiple axes, not just balance numbers.

Bow & Archery

• Sweet-spot draw system — bows have three draw zones replacing vanilla's flat hold-to-shoot. Below ~80% of the bar fires for proportional damage at full stamina cost. The narrow sweet-spot band at ~80–85% does full damage at reduced stamina. Past that is overdraw — pointer pins at the top and stamina drains per second so you can hold a fully-charged shot to line up your aim.
• RMB draws, LMB fires — right-click holds the draw, left-click fires, releasing right-click cancels cleanly with no shot and no stamina cost. Auto-redraws while RMB is still held for rapid fire.
• Custom draw HUD — slim bar floats next to your character showing charge level, zone-tinted gradient, sweet-spot window markers, spark particles in overdraw, and an arrow-count + arrow-type icon with low-ammo warning color.

Melee & Loadouts

• Sheath mechanic — mainhand and offhand panel slots are persistent loadout slots. Weapons stay in their slots whether drawn or sheathed instead of getting kicked back to the inventory grid. Q-sheathes both hands, drawing brings them back.
• Tools sheathe the loadout, don't replace it — hammer/hoe/cultivator sheathes your weapons transiently and stows back to bring the loadout back. Tools never claim a panel slot.
• 2H weapons claim both slots, spears block dual-wield — 2H equips displace both hands to inventory; spears equipped over a 1H+1H pair do the same; spears still pair fine with a shield or torch.
• Dual-wield survives save/load — vanilla has no concept of a 1H weapon in the offhand, so dual-wield used to lose its offhand on every load. Now restored on launch and on world load.
• Titan's Grip 2H+2H dual-wield — capstone talent that lets you wield two 2H weapons.
• Hunter 1H+bow combo — Hunter-only, lets you equip a 1H weapon in the mainhand and a bow in the offhand. LMB swings melee, RMB pulls the bow off your back and starts a draw, fire returns you to melee stance.
• 2H sledges swing like battleaxes — Stagbreaker, Iron Sledge, and Demolisher now use the 2H battleaxe's chop/cleave instead of vanilla's awkward ground-slam animation with the dirt shockwave. Hit geometry follows the battleaxe; damage and skill type unchanged.

Star spawn rework, phase 1 of a multi-phase difficulty overhaul.

VA adds a lot of player power, and vanilla mob difficulty hasn't kept up. Instead of just cranking HP and damage (which turns combat into a stat check and balances different classes very differently), the plan is to reuse vanilla's star system and actually flesh it out.

• Star cap raised to 4 (from vanilla's 2), with adjusted spawn rates (55% no-star, 25% 1-star, 10% 2-star, 7% 3-star, 3% 4-star)
• You control when the world ramps up — the star cap is gated by which boss trophies you've hung on the sacrificial stones at the starting spawn circle. No trophies hung keeps the cap at 2 (vanilla-like). Hang Eikthyr and 2-stars become common. Elder unlocks 3-stars. Bonemass unlocks 4-stars.
• Covers dungeons and pre-placed locations too — Burial Chambers, Troll Caves, Sunken Crypts, Frost Caves, Tar Pits, Drake Nests, Infested Mines, etc. Vanilla had those at flat 0-star, but if you're rolling around at world-tier 4 and a Frost Cave still has 0-star Cultists, that feels off. Designed encounter floors (like Sunken Crypt Draugr's vanilla 2-star minimum) still hold; the cap just lets them roll higher.
• All of this is configurable in valheimascended.difficulty.cfg.

Phase 2 (per-star stat scaling tuned to leave room for passives) and phase 3 (per-star passive affixes pulled from biome and creature-specific pools, so a 4-star wolf and a 4-star draugr aren't the same fight) are planned for future patches.

Three professions, each with a dedicated UI panel and its own crafting mechanics.

Enchanting

A discovery-based mixing system. Combine trophies with base materials to create enchantments.

• Each trophy has 2 hidden tags, and which tag is active depends on the slot you put it in
• 16 trophy tags across 256 combos, each with an Offensive and Defensive variant, for 512 total enchantments
• Research panel to reveal hidden tags, or just discover them by experimenting
• 2 enchant slots per item with reroll and remove buttons
• 15 affix effects wired up (Lifesteal, Execute, Thorns, Berserker, Fortify, Undying, etc.)
• Enchanted items display combo names like [Enchant 1] Iron Sword of [Enchant 2]

Smithing

Component-based gear customization with stat tradeoff sliders.

• Component slots (Head, Shaft, Blade, etc.) with 3 modification choices each
• Every mod is a dual-axis slider: Brutality vs Impact, Force vs Resilience, Lethality vs Fortitude
• Set Forging lets you assign armor to set templates with 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses
  • Set bonuses are not wired up yet and are flagged for revision.

Shipwright

Early-stage rebuild: design a boat from a saved blueprint, construct it, and refit it as you progress.

• Customize hull sections, masts, sails, deck/cargo layouts, materials and fittings.
• Build multiple named boats with individual ownership, steering/cargo permissions and separate chest inventories.
• Working sailing, material-dependent sail response, weight and cargo handling, and a functional anchor.
• Building consumes the quoted materials; refits consume only the added/changed material costs. Developer no-cost mode remains available for testing.
• Boats and cargo save with the world. Multiplayer testing has been successful; use the matching mod and model bundle on every client and server.

Models are placeholders and balance is provisional. Oars, weather wear, individual component damage and final material costs remain unfinished.

The entire UI is custom. Every panel is draggable, scalable, and has a hotkey.

• Custom health, stamina, and eitr bars with delayed damage/use trails
• Equipment panel with 3D character preview, doubles as your loadout management for sheathe/dual-wield
• 44-stat detail panel with collapsible per-source breakdowns
• Custom enemy HP bars and partner nameplates with HP / stamina / eitr / buff icons / status effects
• Unified buff and status tracker — every ability buff, capstone, passive condition, and timed proc shows up consistently on your bottom-left tracker AND on partner nameplates with countdown sweeps and expiry blinks
• Alt-key quickslots for food and mead (Alt+Z/X/C/Q/E) with draggable HUD bar
• Target lock with nameplate outline highlighting, weapon sheathe indicator
• In-game settings panel with 6 UI scale sliders, font scaling, color customization, and full hotkey rebinding for both mod and vanilla actions
• Toast notifications for milestones and level-ups, welcome guide, snap-to-grid for panel placement
• All HUD elements hide cleanly when the fullscreen map is open

Progression & Milestones

A renown-based leveling system separate from vanilla skill levels. Earn renown by completing milestones across multiple tracks.

• Kill milestones — grouped by mob family (all Greydwarf variants count toward Greydwarfs, etc.) with three thresholds scaled to encounter rate. Covers every biome plus Bears, Vile, Hildir camps, Mistlands creatures, and Fallen Valkyries.
• Weapon mastery — every combat skill (Swords, Knives, Clubs, Spears, Polearms, Axes, Bows, Crossbows, Blocking, Fists, Elemental, Blood) has milestones at skill levels 25 / 50 / 75.
• Profession milestones — Enchanting and Smithing milestones for first-time achievements and tiered counters (enchants applied, trophies researched, combos discovered, gear mods applied, items salvaged, sets forged).
• Gathering, Exploration, Events — biome-appropriate gathering milestones, vanilla random events tracked, ruins and locations.
• Tier names appear above each card: Hunter / Veteran / Slayer for kill counts, Apprentice / Expert / Master for weapons, Apprentice / Adept / Archmage for magic.

Multiplayer

Most VA systems are multiplayer-aware. The mod has been built and tested as a co-op experience, not a solo-only experience.

• All ability VFX sync to partners — sticking arrows, spell impacts, weapon glows, persistent zones, channel auras
• Partner HP / stamina / eitr / class all visible on nameplates and in the party panel
• Unified buff tracker — your active buffs render on partner nameplates so allies can see what you're benefiting from
• Party system with map sharing, ping markers (green-tinted for party members), and a Social panel
• Partner-applied auras propagate correctly — Paladin Seal of Light / Ward of Faith / Sanctuary, Warrior War Cry, Radiant Aura all show on receivers' personal trackers when they're in range
• Castaway NPC system — encounter and rescue stranded NPCs for permanent buffs

Installation

Requires: Valheim (0.221.12) + BepInEx 5

Install via r2modman or Thunderstore Mod Manager (recommended). The mod manager handles everything automatically.

For manual installs, copy the entire ValheimAscended folder (DLL, assets, and config files) into BepInEx/plugins/. The DLL alone won't work.

Hotkeys

All hotkeys are rebindable in the in-game Settings panel.

Feedback & Bugs

This is a one-person project. Feedback is welcome and it genuinely shapes what gets worked on next.

0.4.1

Bug Fixes

• Bombs: Fixed Warrior stances replacing bomb throws with melee attacks. Ooze bombs and other vanilla bombs now bypass both stances and cannot be dual-wielded, like spears. Invalid saved bomb dual-wield loadouts are cleaned up when restored.

Introduction Quests

• Added introductory quests with guided highlights and explanations to help players learn the mod's features.
• Find Your Bearings introduces classes, equipment slots, weapon sheathing, attributes and detailed stats.
• Tools of the Trade introduces Enchanting research, Smithing set forging, gear mods, salvage and Shipwright.
• Make It Your Own follows with a walkthrough of all six Settings tabs, covering controls, interface customization and loot boxes.
• Added hands-on quests for your first enchantment, weapon modification and refinement, and saved ship blueprint, unlocked as you obtain the relevant items.
• Added an optional Social introduction that can be completed solo.
• Accept quests from the quest journal, pause and resume guides, and earn small supply rewards. Available quests use persistent notifications and a flashing Quests button, with completed and uncompleted filters in the journal.

New Campfire Login Screen

• Added a custom login and character selection screen with your first four VA adventurers sitting around the campfire, including on the main menu. Hover over a character to make them stand, then select them to choose a world.
• Added Your Adventurers, a scrollable VA character roster. Drag characters to reorder the list and choose who sits at camp. Your order is saved, and the first four entries have highlighted borders.
• Character names use their class color. Overhead labels and roster entries show level and specialization, falling back to the base class when no specialization has been chosen.
• Selecting a character smoothly zooms the camera toward them. Selecting someone outside the first four turns the camera to reveal them on the other side of camp. Returning from world selection brings back the camp and fades the custom menu in.
• Added translucent panels with clear borders, the Ascended logo, and scrollable patch notes that automatically use the latest section of the packaged changelog.
• Added compact Discord, Thunderstore, Hexium and Donate buttons with matching icons and colors.
• Added character creation, deletion through Valheim's confirmation dialog, and access to the vanilla menu and Manage Saves. Tripled mouse wheel scrolling speed in the startup menus.
• Fixed menu preview animation loops, camera blur and shutdown errors. Prevented preview and transitioning player objects from triggering invalid Renown lookups.

Import Legacy Characters

• Added Import Non-VA Character to bring existing characters into VA without starting their progression over. Inventory, equipment, vanilla skills, appearance, map data and other mods' custom data are preserved.
• The import assessment checks previously accessed boss powers, discovered or held trophies, and progression materials to suggest a progression stage. Review the evidence and adjust the stage before confirming; shared powers and gifted items can affect the estimate.
• Each stage credits a defined catch-up bundle: bosses through the selected stage, early gathering, first crafts and workstations, biome exploration, and fixed creature-kill milestones. Assumed catch-up completions and counts are shown in the preview.
• Starting level comes from the credited milestones' normal Renown rewards. Talent points come from the credited bosses' configured rewards. There are no random point grants or arbitrary starting-level bonuses.
• Imports credited with Eikthyr unlock class selection without requiring another kill. Class and talent choices remain unselected, with attribute and talent points available to spend. Choosing a class does not grant imported attribute points a second time.
• Import requires review and explicit confirmation. A verified copy of the original character save is created before saving, and the imported data is read back for verification. Existing VA progression and repeat imports are rejected.
• Original backups are stored in the active profile's BepInEx/config/ValheimAscended/ImportBackups folder. The completion message and log identify the backup file.

0.4.0

Balance

• Reduced all custom Shipwright boat health pools by 50%, across every design and material combination. Existing boats use the reduced maximum when loaded.
• Set the minimum width of Shipwright middle hull sections to 3 metres. Bow and stern sections retain their narrower taper.

Compatibility

• Added Adventure Backpacks compatibility, with Enchanting and Smithing confirmed working.
• Backpacks use the back/cape slot and retain their normal cape conflict.

Bug Fixes

• Warrior Stances: Now require an eligible main-hand weapon. Disabled while unarmed or using spears, bows, or crossbows.
• Titan's Grip: Fixed a loadout-restoration bypass allowing 2H + shield without the talent. Removing Titan's Grip now unequips invalid offhand gear, returning it to inventory or dropping it if full.
• Shipwright: Fixed custom boats failing to return construction materials when destroyed. Materials and chest cargo now go into floating loot barrels.
• Enchanting: Fixed item deletion when replacing an occupied slot. Enchanting, smithing mods, and salvage now keep selected gear safely in the player's inventory.

Gladiator Rework

Replaced Warrior's Gladiator capstone with dual shields. Equip a shield in each hand and attack with unarmed punches.

• Shield strikes alternate between hands and deal base blunt damage equal to 75% of the striking shield's combined block armour and block force, including quality upgrades. Normal unarmed and melee damage modifiers apply afterward.
• Blocking retains normal block armour and parry behavior, but costs twice the normal stamina.
• Removed free dodges and automatic dodge counters. Dodging uses its normal controls and stamina cost.
• Adjusted the mainhand shield's orientation and fixed it unequipping after logging out and back in.
• Updated Gladiator's tooltip with rich-text colors and Shift breakdowns showing each shield's damage calculation.

0.3.9 2026-09-21

• Fixed a Shipwright chest duping bug where items could come back after taking them out.

0.3.8 2026-09-19

Shipwright Hotfixes, polish, and other balancing stuff

Balance

Did a balance pass across all five classes. Pulled back some talent and attribute scaling, toughened up starred mobs and pushed the higher star tiers further into progression. Updated talent and attribute tooltips to match. Still needs testing, let me know what feels off.

New defaults only. Existing configs keep their saved values.

Shipwright

• Reorganized Shipwright navigation, boat management and material selection.
• Added sail painting with designs saved to your character.
• Added hull name signs and bow trophies.
• Added distinct sail textiles and worn paint effects.
• Chest materials now determine their model, cost, weight and health.
• Added crew rowing.
• Improved boat models and attachment points.
• Increased small-boat width limits and improved steering stability.
• Simplified hull width controls to use metres.
• Restricted new mast placements to middle-section joins.
• Added distinct vanilla textures for each wood type.
• Added visible ceramic hull plating.
• Improved textures and lighting; reduced flickering.
• Added host compatibility checks before charging construction materials.
• Fixed duplicate boats after refitting and getting stuck beneath the deck on login.
• Fixed boat assembly errors.
• Added a host command to remove all Shipwright boats.

Still early stage. More polish to come.

Weapon Animation Fix

• Fixed hands and arms getting stuck in weapon poses after sheathing.

0.3.7 2026-09-18

Just filling in some of the dead shit thats been in the mod for ages. Set bonuses are here, capstones are bascially completed, and I bit the bullet and actually started building shipwright out. Did some minor tuning, added the missing milestones for 1.0 and changed the amount of renoun/leveling speed. Also, fyi for all the people im expecting to b!tch in the discord, vanilla magic items are now disabled. They are going to be reworked so have some patience or dont, idc.

Shipwright Rebuild (Early Stage)

Started rebuilding Shipwright into a system where you design a boat and keep refitting it throughout your playthrough. This is an early-stage version, with PLACEHOLDER models and plenty of polish and balance work still to do.

• Create, name, save, edit, copy and delete blueprints, then construct multiple independently named boats from them. Customize hull sections, masts, sails, deck/cargo layouts, materials and fittings.
• Boats have individual ownership, steering/cargo permissions, ownership transfers and refitting. Each chest has its own inventory. Boats and cargo are set up to save with the world.
• Sail textiles affect propulsion, rigging affects sail response, and hull/material weight plus actual cargo affect acceleration and turning. The anchor now works as an emergency brake and holds the boat in place.
• Construction consumes the quoted materials; refits charge for added or changed materials. Developer no-cost mode remains available for testing. Materials contribute to shared boat health, and ceramic plates provide Ashlands ocean protection.

Smithing Sets

Finally fleshed out the class sets in Smithing. All 20 are now implemented, four each for Warrior, Rogue, Hunter, Mage, and Paladin. The placeholders were sitting there for way too long.

Each set has 2-piece and 4-piece bonuses built around an ability or mechanic. Things like turning Whirlwind into a quick single spin, having Blade Barrage orbit you, turning Rain of Arrows into traps, or changing how each elemental bolt works. The idea is to give you more ways to play your class without making one set feel required.

Vanilla sets are still available. Forging a custom set replaces the original bonus, and you can revert it if you want to go back.

Updated the set and ability tooltips, including damage breakdowns, and added indicators for the new effects. Visuals are wired up for multiplayer, though that still needs more testing.

Utility sets are still on hold. Class sets are ready to play around with, but there's plenty of balance work left. Try them out and let me know what feels good or completely broken.

In a future state, these sets will be locked behind some quest or other feature. I'm just unsure what that will look like but subject to change (similar to capstones).

Magic Weapons

Phase 1: Converted vanilla magic weapons into stat sticks for casters. Their old effects are gone, and each weapon now gives different stats that improve with upgrades. Mage is the only caster using these for now, but more will be added down the road. They were basically useless in the mod, so this at least gives them a reason to exist.

Phase 2 (Pending, TBD): Give them unique passive effects. Stats are the starting point, but I want each one to have more of its own thing going on. Still figuring out what those effects will look like.

Mage Capstone Rework

Replaced Enchanter with Wild Magic. Enchanter always felt sloppy, so scrapped the Resonance stuff and went with something that actually changes how you play.

Your bar becomes two cycling spell slots plus your normal bolt and block. Casting a spell swaps it for another from your spec. No individual cooldowns, just a shared 1 second GCD. Eitr costs are still there, and damage is reduced to 75% since you can now spam the bigger abilities. Works with any Mage spec and uses your existing keybinds.

Paladin Capstone Fixes

Went back through the pally capstones. They were wired up, but a few things weren't doing what they said they did.

• Absolution is now actually free while Ascended. Failed casts no longer eat your Zeal.
• Capstones that say melee hits now require melee hits. No more building stacks with arrows or spell damage.
• Consecrated Arms' guaranteed sword crit now uses your normal crit scaling and includes elemental damage. Polearms now properly root targets for 1 second instead of just slowing them. Bosses are still immune.
• Cleaned up the old capstone descriptions and removed a Zeal damage bonus from the character sheet that wasn't actually doing anything.

Still needs more time testing in combat, especially multiplayer, but the obvious broken stuff is fixed.

Ability Balance

Whirlwind damage reduced by 65%. It was doing way too much for what it takes to use it.

Adjusted Absolution's weapon and attribute scaling. The tooltip now uses the same damage calculation as the ability. Death Knight still gets its extra damage from Chill and Frozen targets.

Casting Fix

• Fixed repeated red errors while casting caused by a game input API change. Cast movement detection now supports both the old and new input methods, including controller movement cancellation.

Milestones

Added 73 milestones, bringing the total to 362. Bear caves, Deep North exploration, new creature kills, materials, crafting, a few missing stations, and the final boss are now included.

New gathering and kill milestones use the same tier system as the older ones. Sleeping bears now count toward bear kills too. Existing milestone progress is kept.

Renown

Increased the default Renown needed per level from 100 to 200. Max level is still 50. You could hit it around Plains without even finishing the higher milestone tiers, which was a bit early.

Leveling should now last into Deep North if you're doing most milestones without grinding out the higher tiers. Going harder on milestones will get you there sooner. Still needs some time playing through it to see how that feels.

If you're keeping an existing config, set RenownPerLevel to 200 to use the new pacing. Your current level and completed milestones aren't reset.

0.3.6 2026-09-13

Valheim 1.0 broke a bunch of things, so this started as getting the mod working again. Ended up expanding enchanting and finishing more of the Mage shields while we were at it. TLDR on mage shields, each spec has its own shield type, honetsly you can figure it out by trying all 3. Still plenty to do with the rest of the 1.0 content, and balance is going to need its own pass. Which will probably come next as I know I've been putting it off for forever. So if I can find the time in the coming weeks to continue this it will likely be the following systems in "Still Needs Work" below

Valheim 1.0

• Updated the mod to compile against the new game files and fixed the patches that broke with the update.
• Fixed the hidden equipment slots showing up in the regular inventory.
• Equipping armor no longer sheathes and then unequips your offhand weapon while dual wielding.
• Fixed equipped items getting unequipped and dropped on the ground when loading back in.
• Equipment slots now work with Hildir's inventory upgrades.
• Fixed empty deathboxes and missing loot. The difficulty system's extra high-star drops are working again too.

Enchanting

• Added 10 trophies to enchanting: Barka, Elaking, Eyeless One, Hexen, Krigen, Lava Blob, Moose, Pulp, Seal, and Writhan.
• Each has its own attribute, offense, and defense pools using the existing trophy matrix. Added them to research and trophy selection, including a new Deep North research group.
• Frostfire Essence and Thunderblood Essence can now be used as Legendary mixing reagents. Still four rarities, and the existing reagents still work. The trophies decide the effects, not which essence you use.
• Blind enchanting now updates the research checkmarks immediately.
• Fixed research tooltips cutting off the second trophy role and part of the first one.
• Enchant previews now show all the effects that can actually roll, with longer descriptions wrapping inside the panel.
• Existing enchants and trophy discoveries are kept. These additions have not had a full balance pass yet.

Mage Shields

• Molten Shield (Pyroclast): hold block to raise it. Blocking a creature burns the attacker. Repeated blocks refresh the burn instead of stacking it.
• Ice Shield (Rime Sage): uses charges and shatters after taking enough blocked hits, dealing piercing damage and applying Chill in front of you. Release and block again to raise another shield. Freezing enemies helps recharge it.
• Static Shield (Tempest Warden): tap block for a short window. Each tap spends a charge, hit or miss. Blocking a creature hits it with lightning, knocks it back, and gives you a short movement-speed buff. Blink restores a charge.
• Added proper tooltips for all three shields, including charges, recharge, damage, scaling, and eitr costs. The old tooltip was still describing all of them as the same held barrier.
• Reworked Static Shield's visuals with a more transparent surface, a jagged lightning rim, branching arcs, and a pulse when it activates or blocks a hit.
• Ice Shield's shatter no longer hits friendly or tamed creatures.
• Fixed Static Shield's movement buff lingering through shield cleanup.
• Patched all three shield visuals for multiplayer, including Ice shatters and Static hit flashes.

Still Needs Work

• This isn't the full 1.0 content pass. Smithing, milestones, and the other unfinished systems are still on the list. Below is on my radar in no particular order.

• Smithing Health Check: With the added Idol system, I want to make sure smithing (Gear Mods) still has a healthy spot in the mod. More to come / we will see.

• Set Bonuses: Kind of a continuation of the point above. However, this is intended to be a system period. This will be a huge todo but I want to remove any remaining placeholders VA still has (except Shipwright, we hate Shipwright)

• Remaining Capstones: I've had a few capstones marked as incomplete or for rework. They need to be mordernized to match the value/complexity of other capstones.

• Remaining Class Systems: Bit of a teaser... warriors get stances, pallies will get auras. Similar to archery system for hunters, poisons and stealth for rogues.

• Magic Weapons: This is a 2 parter. Part 1: Reworking 'vanilla' magic weapons, since they don't work for mages and don't really fit into what this mod is trying to accomplish. Part 2: Adding in a few custom weapon types for casters (mages and pallies mainly)... currently thinking scepters, wands, staffs, tomes... etc.

• Milestones Health Check: Just adding / retooling any milestones that should be there with 1.0 and doing a balance patch on leveling speed.

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.