NoVikingLeftBehind

A BepInEx 5 mod for Valheim 0.221.12, built and maintained for a small dedicated-server group and released here for anyone to use. MIT licensed.

Server-enforced quality-of-life and catch-up mechanics. One DLL, installed on the server and by every player. The server enforces every setting (via ServerSync), so nobody has to agree on config by hand.

Pre-release (see version plan below), built and tested against Valheim 0.221.12 / BepInEx 5.4.2333. A 1.0-compatible build will follow once the game updates.

Install (players, via r2modman / Thunderstore)

1. Install r2modman or the in-game Thunderstore mod manager.
2. Search NoVikingLeftBehind under the Valheim community and install it into your profile.
3. Join the server. If EnforceClientMod is on, the server rejects clients that don't have a matching version — r2modman keeps you updated automatically.

Install (server owners)

1. Drop NoVikingLeftBehind.dll into /config/bepinex/plugins/NoVikingLeftBehind/ on the dedicated server (the path BepInEx's plugin folder is mounted at on this project's own Docker host; a bare-metal BepInEx install uses BepInEx/plugins/NoVikingLeftBehind/ instead). Depends on BepInExPack_Valheim 5.4.2333.
2. Start the server once to generate Nosferatu.NoVikingLeftBehind.cfg next to the other BepInEx configs, then edit the values you want (see below). Synced settings are pushed to every connecting client automatically.

Config overview

24 modules, each with its own [Section] Enabled toggle, plus Tiers (shared config, always on, no toggle of its own) — 25 rows in docs/MODULES.md, the full per-module table (side, section, settings, defaults, hot-reload). Highlights:

Server-authoritative, synced to clients:

• ServerKeys — skill XP rate, skill loss on death, free build/craft, unlockable recipes.
• Frontier / Tiers — world tier from boss keys, per-material tier map; drives every "behind the frontier" catch-up module below.
• TrailingTierDiscount, RichSmelting, TraderStock — cheaper/faster progression for materials behind the group's frontier.
• OreRegrowth — mined-out nodes behind the frontier respawn after a cooldown.
• VanguardShadow — a damage/XP/stamina buff for under-geared players near a stronger ally.
• PlaytimeRubberBand, GroupSkillCatchup — catch-up bonuses scaled off the group's own hours/skill levels, not fixed numbers.
• CombatRecharge, DualPowers — forsaken powers: cooldown shaved by combat, and two powers carried at once with independent cooldowns.
• FoodNoDecay, LongFires — food keeps its value far longer; fireplace fuel and hand torches burn much longer.
• FastMining, PortalTrail — behind-the-frontier ore mines faster, and normally non-teleportable materials behind the frontier go through portals.
• CraftFromChests — crafting, building, smelters and fires pull materials from nearby containers (adapted from AzuCraftyBoxes, MIT-0 — see THIRD_PARTY.md).
• ExtraSlots — dedicated equipment (helmet/chest/legs/cape), 2 utility, 3 food, 2 ammo and 2 plain generic slots outside the vanilla grid, so a vanilla client can't delete them (QuickSlots defaults to 0; raise it to bring back a hotkeyed row instead of the generic slots). 3 rolling backups + nvlb.slots.restore.
• Loadouts — Ctrl+V / Ctrl+B save the weapon+shield in hand; V / B equip both with one key.
• CorpseRunPlus — grave compass, respawn fed + Rested, Grave Pull stamina boost, and the vanilla Corpse Run buff scaled by distance from grave to home.
• EnforceClientMod — require every connecting client to run a matching version.
• HotReload — cfg edits on a running server are picked up live, no restart.

Every gameplay number above is server-synced and hot-reloads; hotkeys and HUD offsets (ExtraSlots, CorpseRunPlus) are per-player, local settings.

Mods this replaces

Uninstall these before installing NoVikingLeftBehind — same ground, one DLL instead of six: SkillGainModifier (ServerKeys), SmartSkills (ServerKeys/GroupSkillCatchup), AzuCraftyBoxes (CraftFromChests), ExtraSlots, ConditionalConfigSync and YamlDotNet (both only needed by ExtraSlots) — all replaced by ExtraSlots. SlotsRescue migrates items shudnal's ExtraSlots left behind.

In-game (console, client-side): nvlb.status prints the live config; nvlb.slots.restore rolls ExtraSlots' storage back to one of its 3 automatic backups.

Credits

• ServerSync by blaxxun-boop, MIT-0 — vendored as source in src/Vendor/ServerSync.cs (unmodified; see the file header before editing).
• See THIRD_PARTY.md for the full list and license texts.

Building from source

See src/Directory.Build.props for how game/BepInEx references resolve — either via the build-lab's container mount, or via VALHEIM_MANAGED / VALHEIM_BEPINEX_CORE environment variables (or -p:ValheimManagedDir=... -p:BepInExCoreDir=...) pointing at a local Valheim + BepInEx install. CI (.github/workflows/build.yml) fetches both from scratch on every push.

$env:VALHEIM_MANAGED = "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim\valheim_Data\Managed"
$env:VALHEIM_BEPINEX_CORE = "D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Valheim\BepInEx\core"
dotnet build src -c Release
python scripts\package.py   # builds thunderstore/dist zip

Versioning

Currently 0.4.2. See thunderstore/CHANGELOG.md for the full version history, including the 0.3.0 rename from the project's original name (OrionQoL) and its one-time config-migration notes.

Name and Thunderstore namespace are final: package namespace/team Nosferatu, package NoVikingLeftBehind. Both are immutable once the first version is uploaded — see SmoothServer, its companion server-tuning mod, and PUBLISHING.md in MJensen01's local workspace for the upload steps.

History

Split from the combined valheim-mods repo (archived) on 2026-09-07, at the point both mods reached their first Thunderstore release (NoVikingLeftBehind 0.3.0). Full history up to that point lives in the archived repo.