Protective Wards

Configurable ward protection, access control, passive base support, server-side privacy tools, multipliers and active offerings for Valheim.

Protective Wards is designed primarily for public PvE servers. It helps prevent non-permitted players from casually using, taking, moving or changing objects inside another player's warded base. It is not intended to be a PvP raid system.

Requirements

• BepInExPack Valheim
• Jotunn 2.29.1 or a newer compatible 2.x version
• YamlDotNet

The mod uses Jotunn EveryoneMustHaveMod network compatibility. In multiplayer it must be installed on the server and every client. Gameplay settings are server-synchronized; client-only visual settings are marked [Not Synced with Server].

Features

• per-ward range, visual settings, access policy, guild binding and optional password access;
• configurable protection for containers, doors, portals, stations, vehicles, tames and other interactables;
• connected ward networks with several access-sharing modes;
• cylindrical or spherical ward coverage;
• optional protection of dungeon interiors through a warded outside entrance;
• offline/background protection while no permitted player is nearby;
• inactive ward expiration and abandonment rules;
• ward build limits and server-validated management commands;
• passive repair and automatic door closing;
• damage, drain and production-speed multipliers;
• active offerings, including Valkyrie passage travel.

Access model

• Direct access: ward creator, directly permitted player, member of the bound guild, effective Permit everyone, or configured admin bypass.
• Connected/effective access: access inherited through overlapping active wards according to the selected connected access mode.
• Ownership exemptions: narrow exceptions for objects where a foreign ward should not trap a player's own property, such as tombstones, saddles and previously controlled vehicles.
• Permit everyone: a global default that each ward may inherit or override independently.

Sensitive actions and console commands are validated by the server. The server checks the target ward, distance, access and requested state before applying changes.

Per-ward settings

Ward settings / Ward settings mode has two values:

• PerWard is the default. Authorized players can open the settings window and stored per-ward range, visual and access overrides are applied.
• ServerControlled hides the ward settings action, blocks the UI and its server RPCs, and ignores all stored per-ward overrides in favor of global config values. Stored values are preserved and become active again after returning to PerWard.

Each ward can store its own range, visual and access overrides in its ZDO while PerWard mode is active.

1. Disable the ward.
2. Press AltPlace + Use (Left Shift + E by default).
3. Change the range, access settings, or glow, sphere and ward circle controls on the Ward visuals page.
4. Apply the settings from the main page.

The Access settings page contains a per-ward Permit everyone value with the same Use default behavior as the visual settings. This allows a public ward while the global default is private, or a private ward while the global default is public. When effective for a ward, all players pass its access checks and that ward is excluded from inactive expiration. The global default is now Ward access / Permit everyone; values previously enabled under Ward admin must be enabled again in the new group. Per-ward access overrides are ignored in ServerControlled mode.

Guild access

When Guilds is installed on the server and clients and Ward settings mode is PerWard, the Access settings page can bind one guild to the ward.

• Bind guild stores the requester's current guild and enables guild access.
• Enable guild access can temporarily disable or re-enable the stored binding.
• Unbind guild removes the binding completely.
• Current guild members receive normal permitted-equivalent access while they remain members.
• Guild membership is checked against current server-synchronized data and validated by the server; members are not copied into the ward's permitted list.
• Guild access is additive and does not remove creator, explicit permitted, password or admin access.

A ward stores both the guild ID and name. Rebind wards after renaming a guild.

Ward password protection

A ward can optionally let a non-permitted player join its permitted list by entering a per-ward password. Password access is disabled for each ward until it is explicitly enabled in that ward's settings, and it is ignored while Ward settings mode is ServerControlled.

1. Disable the ward and open its settings with AltPlace + Use.
2. Use the Password protection group on the Access settings page.
3. Set a password and enable password access.
4. A non-permitted player can approach either an active or inactive ward, press Use, enter the password, and be added directly to that ward's permitted list after server validation.

Password entry does not grant connected-network ownership or admin rights. It adds the player only to the selected ward's normal permitted list.

Password checks and permitted-list changes are performed on the server. The requester must still be standing near the ward. Passwords are case-sensitive and limited to 64 characters. Hash-only storage prevents the password from being read directly, but weak passwords may still be guessed by anyone who can inspect and copy ward ZDO data.

Ward coverage

Interior objects are never matched against wards at their high-altitude dungeon position. The mod resolves the outside Location, ignores its m_interiorTransform hierarchy, finds the external entrance and checks that position instead.

Background protection intentionally keeps horizontal checks for movable boats, carts and tames so waves and physics do not move them in and out of protection because of vertical displacement.

Connected ward access

Connected access is configured separately for normal interactions, background protection and expiration refresh.

Access protection

The Ward access from non-permitted players group controls interaction blocking inside active wards.

Supported vanilla categories include containers, doors, plants, food and feasts, dropped items, ships, carts, tames, production and crafting stations, item and armor stands, portals, map tables, fireplaces, shield generators, obliterators, turrets, beds, catapults, archery targets, barber stations, traps and inactive wards. When EpicLoot is installed, its enchanting table is handled as a crafting station by the same crafting-station access setting.

Generic interactables is an optional broad compatibility layer for vanilla or modded Interactable implementations without dedicated handling. It is disabled by default because ownership-sensitive objects are safer with dedicated patches.

Portal access mode

Item pickup mode

Vehicles use last-controller tracking: a player who drove a ship or dragged a cart into another ward can regain control or detach it without granting the same exemption to the creator or other players.

Background protection

The Ward without permitted players nearby group protects inactive public PvE bases while no permitted/effective-access player is present.

Permitted player presence mode

Background protection mode

Other settings can require a minimum number of player-built pieces, prevent structure fire damage, protect tames/boats/carts, pacify tames, stop tames damaging structures, and block non-permitted building or demolition. Players may always demolish their own pieces.

Inactive ward expiration

Expiration is disabled by default, works server-side in multiplayer and is ignored in singleplayer.

Ward expiration / Expiration minutes sets the inactivity period; 0 disables the feature. Expired wards are not deleted. Their permitted lists remain stored, but they intentionally behave like disabled wards so abandoned areas can be reclaimed through normal ward behavior.

Expiration refresh mode

Expiration reactivation mode

Old wards receive a current timestamp when expiration is enabled, so existing worlds do not immediately lose every ward. Expiration is skipped independently for every ward whose effective Permit everyone value is enabled.

Ward administration

Ward admin access

Ward access / Permit everyone supplies the default for wards without a local override. An effective value of true bypasses that ward's ownership restrictions for every player while preserving its stored permitted list. This config moved from Ward admin; existing enabled values must be enabled again in the new group.

External ward commands

Commands are controlled by Ward admin / Enable external ward control commands and Ward admin / External ward control command range.

All commands are revalidated on the server. Permit commands require ward access; expiration commands require Ward admin access or the selected ward's effective Permit everyone value.

Ward admin / Ward build limit per player limits wards per owner. 0 disables the limit. Existing wards are never removed; only the newly placed ward is destroyed when it would exceed the limit.

Full and passive protection

Ward protects options can protect boars and hens, structures from rain, ships from selected damage, plants, fireplaces from step damage, players from their own traps, and sitting players near an active fire from raids.

Passive options include repair of one piece every 10 seconds across connected areas, optional repair of non-player location structures, optional crafting-station requirements, and automatic door closing.

Multipliers

Ward-area multipliers cover damage dealt/taken, structure and ship damage, fall damage, turret fire rate, food/stamina/skill/fuel/durability drain, and smelting/cooking/fermenting/sap-collecting speed.

1 keeps vanilla behavior. Values below or above 1 reduce/increase the relevant effect or slow/speed the process according to the config description.

Active offerings

Enabled offerings known to the player are shown in the Valheim Compendium under Ward and offerings. If the vanilla ward text is unavailable, the topic is still added once the player knows the ward recipe. Misc / Show offerings in hover is enabled by default and controls both the short ward-hover hint and this Compendium topic; it is client-only.

All primary offering types are enabled by default. Offerings 1-9 use fixed tribute items, amounts and effects; their individual Offerings booleans enable or disable them. Valkyrie passage destinations, prices, amounts and consumption rules have additional settings.

Offerings / Protect from non-permitted players is disabled by default. While disabled, visitors may use enabled offerings. When enabled, the server requires direct or configured connected ward access.

Valkyrie passage offerings

The master switch is Offerings / 10 - Fly back and forth to distant point by different items offering, enabled by default.

Taxi item settings accept an item prefab name such as Coins, a localization token such as $item_coins, or a localized item name when ObjectDB and localization data are available.

During flight, AltPlace + Use (Left Shift + E by default) requests an immediate drop and cancels the return pickup.

The player cannot be encumbered and must be teleportable, except that carried Hildir chests are ignored for this check. The destination must exist and be at least 200 meters away before an item can be consumed.

Installation and configuration

Install with a mod manager, or place ProtectiveWards.dll in BepInEx/Plugins. For multiplayer, install it on the server and every client.

Recommended configuration managers:

• Configuration Manager
• Official BepInEx Configuration Manager

Server-synchronized settings are admin-only in configuration managers.

Localization

Create Protective Wards.LanguageName.yml or Protective Wards.LanguageName.json anywhere under the BepInEx directory. Files are loaded on game launch and language changes. The English example is included next to the DLL as Protective Wards.English.json.

• Jotunn language list

Compatibility

Dedicated patches are used where objects have special ownership or interaction logic. The optional generic-interactable protection is intentionally broad and should be enabled carefully on heavily modded servers.

Optional integrations are detected at runtime without bundling their API assemblies:

• Guilds: server-validated current membership can grant permitted-equivalent access to one guild bound per ward.
• EpicLoot: the enchanting table follows Ward access from non-permitted players / Crafting stations.

Links

• GitHub
• Nexus
• Discord
• Buy Me a Coffee

2.0.4

• IMPORTANT: moved Permit everyone from Ward admin to the new Ward access group; existing enabled values are not migrated and must be enabled again in the new config group
• compacted the per-ward settings panel, moved password protection into the Access settings page, and aligned guild and password status actions on single rows
• reordered password protection configs after Ward admin and removed the obsolete NexusID config
• added a ServerControlled ward settings mode that hides and blocks the per-ward settings UI, preserves stored overrides without applying them, and uses global config values instead
• moved glow, sphere, and ward circle controls to a dedicated Ward visuals page in the per-ward settings UI
• added per-ward Permit everyone overrides that can inherit or invert the global default
• added optional server-validated Guilds integration with one dynamically evaluated guild binding per ward
• added dedicated EpicLoot enchanting table protection under the crafting station access setting, with type resolution from EpicLoot's loaded embedded assembly
• fixed Food, Mead, and Dragon egg offering switches so each one independently controls its own offering logic, and made active taxi tributes exclusive to the taxi offering
• added optional per-ward password access with server-validated permitted-list enrollment, hash-only and editable password modes, and configurable creator/permitted change access

2.0.3

• added a configurable ward protected-area shape: the default XZ cylinder or full 3D sphere distance
• added optional ward protection for dungeon interiors when the exterior entrance is covered by an active ward
• improved Valkyrie passage flight setup with target-facing randomized spawn rotation, XZ trajectory calculations, a 200 metre minimum route distance, and a default maximum speed of 60
• added a configurable 10-minute default timeout while the Valkyrie waits for a return flight
• improved offering, Valkyrie passage, and Compendium text across all bundled languages and removed unused localization tokens
• ward offerings are still added to the Compendium when the player knows the ward recipe but default tutorial texts are disabled

2.0.2

• major taxi system rework
• added a Valkyrie passage status effect with the Celestial feather icon for active Valkyrie flights and return timers
• added separate Valkyrie passage destination enable configs and consume-item configs for Sacrificial Stones, Haldor, Hildir, Bog Witch, and optional boss altar routes
• added disabled-by-default Valkyrie passage routes to vanilla boss altars using boss offering items
• changed the default configured Hildir passage tribute to Linen thread x50
• Valkyrie passage item configs can now use item prefab names, localization tokens, or localized item names
• Valkyrie return flight can now be disabled by setting Seconds to fly back to 0
• moved the detailed offerings list from the ward hover into the Valheim Compendium and replaced the hover list with an immediate raven-icon hint
• expanded the ward Compendium text with Protective Wards behavior notes and added a dedicated Ward and offerings topic
• fixed connected ward expiration refresh not counting players standing inside an accessible connected ward area
• fixed plant growth offerings failing on some plant instances
• ward permit and unpermit commands no longer match players from an empty name query
• fixed consumable offering items being eaten when used on a ward without matching an enabled offering

2.0.1

• tightened full portal blocking by validating the source portal on the server before approving destination teleport access
• fixed permitted non-creator players being unable to open or apply ward settings on disabled wards when creator-only editing is disabled
• fixed per-ward circle colors saved from the settings UI not applying because stored HTML colors were read without a leading #
• improved cart last-controller tracking so player-attached carts use the attached player first and fall back to the nearest player only for non-player cart pullers
• reset ward administration and ward settings RPC registration when changing worlds or switching between client and server roles in the same game session

2.0.0

• migrated configuration sync to Jotunn and added Jotunn as a required dependency
• removed the global Enabled config; use individual feature configs instead
• added per-ward settings UI for range, emission color, sphere visuals, and ward circle visuals
• ward range customization is now bound to the vanilla guard_stone ward prefab
• added access protection from non-permitted players for containers, doors, plants, feasts and placed consumable food, configurable non-food item pickup modes, ships, tames, saddles, carts, portals, production stations, item stands, armor stands, map tables, shield generators, incinerators, turrets, crafting stations, beds, catapults, archery targets, barber stations, traps, fireplaces, and generic interactables
• added connected ward access modes: Off, SameCreatorOnly, MutualTrust, and AnyConnected
• enabling or reactivating a ward can also activate connected wards the requester has access to
• added ownership-aware exemptions for portals, tombstones, saddles, and similar owned objects, and last-controller exemptions for ships and carts so the same driver can leave another warded area
• added portal access modes, including teleport-only access and full teleport blocking
• added server-side pw_ and ward_ commands for nearby ward administration: permit, unpermit, enable, disable, set expired, and set unexpired
• added optional per-player ward build limit
• added background protection for qualified warded bases when no permitted/effective-access player is nearby
• added background protection options for player-built structures, tames, ships, carts, fire damage, tame pacify, building, and demolishing
• added multiplayer/server-side inactive ward expiration with manual and automatic reactivation modes, refreshed by nearby access players
• added Ward admin access mode, including an option that requires admin god mode
• moved Permit everyone to the Ward admin group; when enabled, ward access checks are bypassed and every player is treated as having ward admin access

1.2.11

• fixed localization not initializing in certain cases

1.2.10

• config to ignore certain doors when auto closing

1.2.9

• patch 0.221.10
• more translations

1.2.8

• fixed Hildir's chest preventing player from fly to Hildir

1.2.7

• new config for passive repair to be able to repair structures not built by players (disabled by default)
• new config for passive repair to check if corresponding crafting station is near the ward (disabled by default)
• fixed ward not repairing and doing offerings in area

1.2.6

• patch 0.220.3
• ServerSync updated

1.2.5

• fixed valkyrie sometimes didn't bring you back in multiplayer when used within seconds with other player
• time before valkyrie bring you back from a trader made configurable
• areas protected by wards will be considered connected if they overlap at least a bit instead of one ward being physically in the radius of the other
• Bukeperries will no longer be used on player while trying to offer

1.2.4

• fixed shared mead offering not applying to other players
• several valkyries now can be summoned as taxi at once

1.2.3

• bog witch

1.2.2

• taxi error fixed

1.2.1

• hover text spamming error fixed

1.2.0

• apply ward settings by pressing LeftShift + E on disabled ward (if you are ward creator). Toggling ward doesn't change its settings.
• change ward emission color (ward specific)
• change various area marker values (ward specific)
• code refinements and refactoring (more room for errors btw)
• localization support for custom captions
• more detailed description of item offerings will appear after certain amount of time spent looking at ward

1.1.19

• added fader trophy to trophy list to travel to sacrificial stones
• ward range can be set to distinct ward and persist
• fixed water surface rendering inside ward bubble effect
• more bubble effect variables exposed to configure visuals further

1.1.18

• fixed taxi offering for multiplayer

1.1.17

• added offering item hotkey in hover menu

1.1.16

• PTB 0.218.17 compatibility
• consumable item and coins amount to travel to Traders made configurable
• hover text will not be visible if player has no ward access
• offerings and repair effects will not be available if player has no ward access
• ServerSync updated to 1.17

1.1.14

• Ashlands

1.1.13

• patch 0.217.46

1.1.12

• option to show the bubble like trader's one
• option to enable demister in ward range

1.1.10

• patch 0.217.22, server sync fix

1.1.9

• patch 0.217.22

1.1.8

• option to grant permittance to everyone

1.1.7

• taxi flight won't start until you are encumbered or not teleportable
• egg offering restricted to Moder kill

1.1.6

• teleportable chest check fix

1.1.5

• taxi offerings

1.1.4

• option to enable spawn in ward area

1.1.3

• bosses excluded from multipliers effects
• dragon egg offering
• hideable offering list

1.1.2

• auto closing doors
• instant plant growth offerings

1.1.1

• passive effect fix
• options enabled by default

1.1.0

• activatable passive repair
• active offering effects
• more multipliers
• more protections

1.0.4

• fixed fireplace protection bug

1.0.3

• boars and hens also protected from fire and smoke

1.0.2

• fixed implementation of raid protection to support both PTR and stable game version

1.0.1

• fixed exception in log when interacting with a ward

1.0.0

• Initial release