Third party mods can enhance your Valheim experience in a lot of different ways. From reducing some of the friction inherent to survival games to introducing entirely new systems and challenges. However, as of right now, the game doesn’t have official mod support. That didn’t stop people from creating thousands of mods for the game. And if you’d like to use some of them, this guide will show you how.
Below, you’ll find detailed instructions and images, but if you’re tech-savvy and just need to know the basics, here’s the TL;DR:
Go to the Thunderstore App (Thunderstore.io), download and install the r2modman mod manager
Get BepInEx for Valheim through the mod manager, or manually install it (skip the manager step in this case)
Download whatever mods you want, and run them in r2modman with BepInEx as the first mod in the list
Using Mods on PC
If you’ve used mods before, chances are your first instinct is to go to Nexusmods. But while the site does have a robust Valheim section, pretty much all the mods listed there have a BepInEx dependency that leads us to Thunderstore.io. That’s the main site for Valheim mods where you’ll find BepInEx for Valheim.
Main Thunderstore Valheim page
Manually download r2modman, the preferred Valheim mod manager
It will be the first pinned option on the Valheim mods page
Extract the downloaded archive’s contents into a new folder
Run r2modman-Setup to install the mod manager
Run r2modman from your Desktop or inside the install folder
Enter valheim in the Search for Game bar and select Valheim there
Select your platform (Steam or Xbox Game Pass)
Select the Default profile or create a new one
Go to Online on the left sidebar to install mods
Select BepInEx as your first mod and download it with dependencies
Download and install other mods you want to use in the same way
Mods will appear in the Installed section of the sidebar
You can enable or disable individual mods there
Go to the top of the sidebar and click Start modded
This will launch the game with your active mods
Now, if you’re someone who prefers to manually install mods, it’s definitely a possibility. But the process can be unreliable and prone to errors. You can find precise instructions for how to manually install BepInEx in its mod description. Then, download your desired mods and put them into the BepInEx/plugins folder.
Backing Up Your Data
Whether you’re installing mods manually or through a mod manager, it’s highly recommended to back up your characters and worlds first.
Navigate to your System Drive (usually Drive C:)
Make sure you can see Hidden Items
Go to: C:\Users\[USER NAME]\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim (USER NAME is a stand in for your actual user name in Windows without square brackets)
Copy the characters, worlds, and worlds_local folders and move them to a different directory
Using Mods on Console
The short answer for how to use Valheim mods on console is you can’t. But that’s not entirely accurate. If you rent and use a dedicated Valheim server, you can install specific server-side mods on it, then enable crossplay and connect to the server with your console.
You’ll need to manually install BepInEx into your dedicated server folder, and then add your desired mods there. If you’re using Thunderstore, there’s a search filter that shows you specifically server-side mods.
Click on the three dots on the main Valheim mod page to open advanced mod search.
Select Server-side in the Include Categories bar and click Search.
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Val Hull
Resident role-playing RPG game expert. Knows where trolls and paladins come from. You must fight for your right to gather your party before venturing forth.
