Skeleton Commander

A Valheim mod (BepInEx 5) for tracking and commanding the skeletons summoned with the Dead Raiser staff. The mod is client-side only and affects only the skeletons you summoned.

Client-side: only the players who want to use the mod need to install it. It is not required on dedicated servers or by other players, who also see the weapon chosen for your skeletons.

Features

• Minimap pins – each of your skeletons gets a map pin with the skeleton trophy icon, updated every 0.5 s. On the large map the pin label shows its state: following or staying.
• HUD counter – below the minimap: how many skeletons you have and how many are following you or staying. Optionally a detailed, numbered list: name, weapon (bow or sword & shield), HP (colored by health), distance and state. Skeletons are sorted newest first, so the oldest one is at the bottom; the numbers match the chat list. Each part of the HUD can be hidden in the config. The HUD is part of the game's interface, so the inventory and menus cover it like the minimap.
• Health bars – always visible above your skeletons' heads (up to 40 m by default), colored by HP: green above 60%, yellow above 30%, red below.
• Glow – a subtle light around your skeletons so they are easy to tell apart.
• Death notifications – an on-screen message when one of your skeletons dies.
• Summon loadout – choose whether newly summoned skeletons get a sword and shield or a bow (random by default), in the config or with a hotkey. With SwordAndShield a new skeleton always gets a shield, never just a sword. The weapon stays the same after reloading and is the same for other players.
• Summon limit fix – skeletons told to stay count toward the Dead Raiser's summon limit, so you cannot exceed it by leaving skeletons behind (the oldest one is dismissed instead, as in vanilla).
• Commands and hotkeys – follow, stay and dismiss for all skeletons at once, or only for the one you are aiming at (the hover text shows the hotkeys).

Requirements

• Valheim (PC)
• BepInExPack Valheim (BepInEx 5)

Installation

With a mod manager (recommended)

Install SkeletonCommander from Thunderstore with r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager; BepInExPack Valheim is installed with it.

Manually

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim following its instructions and start the game once so BepInEx creates its folders.
2. Copy SkeletonCommander.dll to:

   <Valheim folder>/BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonCommander/
   

3. Start the game. On first launch the config file BepInEx/config/michal.valheim.skeletoncommander.cfg is created.

To uninstall, delete the BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonCommander/ folder (and optionally the .cfg file).

The mod used to be called Skeleton Tracker. When upgrading, delete the old BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonTracker/ folder; your settings are taken over from the old config file.

Controls

Hotkeys

When you aim at one of your skeletons, the Follow / Stay / Dismiss hotkeys affect only that skeleton (the key hints appear in its hover text). Hotkeys are ignored while typing in chat and in menus, the inventory and the large map.

Hotkeys also work while you hold other keys, e.g. while running. While a hotkey's modifier is held (Left Alt by default), the game ignores that hotkey's key, so Left Alt + F / G do not also trigger the Forsaken power or the emote wheel.

Chat commands

Type in chat (Enter), or in the F5 console without the slash:

The commands do not require devcommands.

Commands affect skeletons in the area loaded by the game (near the player).

Configuration

File: BepInEx/config/michal.valheim.skeletoncommander.cfg. Changes to the file take effect after restarting the game; with ConfigurationManager (F1 by default) you can change them in-game.

Hotkeys are written as the main key followed by modifiers, e.g. F + LeftAlt. Key names are Unity KeyCode values (e.g. Keypad1, F7, Mouse3); None disables the hotkey.

Building from source

Requires the .NET SDK (the project targets netstandard2.1).

1. Copy the game and BepInEx libraries into the lib/ folder (they are not part of the repository):

   • from <Valheim>/valheim_Data/Managed/: assembly_valheim.dll, assembly_utils.dll, assembly_guiutils.dll, Splatform.dll, UnityEngine.dll, UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll, UnityEngine.TextRenderingModule.dll, UnityEngine.UI.dll, UnityEngine.UIModule.dll, Unity.TextMeshPro.dll, Unity.InputSystem.dll
   • from <Valheim>/BepInEx/core/: BepInEx.dll, 0Harmony.dll

2. Build:

   dotnet build
   

   After compiling, the DLL is copied automatically to the plugins folder set by the ValheimPluginsDir property in SkeletonCommander.csproj. You can pass a different path when building:

   dotnet build -p:ValheimPluginsDir=/path/to/Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/SkeletonCommander/
   

   A Release build also creates the Thunderstore package bin/thunderstore/SkeletonCommander-<version>.zip (manifest from thunderstore/manifest.json, version from PluginVersion in SkeletonCommanderPlugin.cs):

   dotnet build -c Release
   

License

MIT

Changelog

1.10.0

Changed

• Summon Commander is the successor of this mod: it does everything Skeleton Commander does, also for the Spirit Caller's spirits, and lets you walk through your summons. When Summon Commander is installed, Skeleton Commander does not load.

1.9.1

Fixed

• The license link at the end of the README led to a 404 page on Thunderstore.

1.9.0

Added

• Dismissing the weakest skeleton – when a new summon goes over the summon limit, the skeleton with the least HP is dismissed instead of the oldest (the oldest on a tie), and the new summon gets the weapon of its team slot. The same applies when you come back to more skeletons than your limit. The newest skeleton is never dismissed. Summon.DismissWeakest = false dismisses the oldest as in the base game.
• Skeletons stay with other players – far skeletons are no longer dismissed while another player is near them, so they keep fighting alongside your friends, e.g. after you die or use a portal. They don't count toward your summon limit while you are away; when you come back to more skeletons than your limit, the extra ones are dismissed. Summon.KeepNearOtherPlayers = false dismisses them anyway, as in 1.8.0.

1.8.0

Added

• Skeleton panels in the HUD – the detailed list shows a panel per skeleton: number and name, weapon, distance and state, and an HP bar colored by health with HP / max on it. HUD.Style = Text brings back the one-line list.
• Staff of Protection barrier – a protected skeleton gets a blue bar with the barrier left, its capacity and the seconds remaining (HUD.ShowShield); also shown in the text list and /sk list.
• Team loadout – pick each team member in Summon.TeamSlot1–TeamSlot4 (Random, SwordAndShield or Bow). With a summon limit of N (1–4 by Dead Raiser upgrade level) the team is slots 1 to N, and each new summon gets the weapon the team is missing, e.g. a new archer when an archer dies. The HUD shows the team status (HUD.ShowTeam). Summon.TeamEnabled = false gives random weapons as in the base game.
• Dismissing skeletons left behind – skeletons more than 100 m away (Summon.DismissBeyondDistance, 20–120 m) or outside the area the game simulates around you are dismissed, also when you use a portal or die far from them. Skeletons left in an area the game unloads could otherwise exceed the summon limit.
• If you come back to more skeletons than your summon limit, the oldest are dismissed.
• Each dismissal of a far skeleton is written to the BepInEx log (name, distance, owner).

Changed

• Larger text in the skeleton panels.
• Plugin GUID changed to xmordax.valheim.skeletoncommander (author renamed to xMordax); the previous config file is taken over automatically.
• The Thunderstore package now includes this changelog.

Removed

• Summon.NextSummonLoadout and its Hotkeys.CycleNextSummonLoadout hotkey (Left Alt + K); the team slots replace them (e.g. set all four slots to Bow for an all-archer team).

Fixed

• Dismissing a skeleton that no player owned (near the edge of the loaded area) did nothing; the mod now takes it over first.
• The "LiberationSans SDF Font Asset was not found" warning for the mod's HUD texts.

1.7.1

• README: noted that the mod is client-side; removed the build-from-source instructions.

1.7.0

• First public release as Skeleton Commander (previously Skeleton Tracker).
• Minimap pins, HUD counter and detailed list (every part can be hidden, adjustable font size), always-visible health bars colored by HP, glow and death notifications.
• Follow / stay / dismiss for all skeletons or the one you aim at, with hotkeys and /sk chat commands; hotkeys work while other keys are held, and the game ignores F/G while Alt is held.
• Choice of weapons for the next summons (random, sword & shield, bow), verified on the items actually given.
• Skeletons told to stay count toward the summon limit.