Hardship

Hardship

Odin's world, just brutal. Slower progression, harsher consequences, and deadly storms for those who are not prepared.

Hardship makes Valheim's survival harsher from the very first day. Progression is slower, death has greater consequences, and dangerous weather can turn the world itself against you. Explore dark crypts with a handheld light, manage your resources carefully, and prepare for storms before they find you exposed.

Features

• Ore Weights: Configure the weights of Copper Ore, Tin Ore, Iron Scrap, Silver Ore, Copper Scrap, Iron Ore, Bronze Scrap, Black Metal Scrap, and Flametal Ore on the server (default 50 each).
• Surtling Core Weight: Configure the weight of Surtling Cores on the server (defaults to 150 kg).
• Surtling Drops: Surtlings no longer drop Surtling Cores.
• Smelter, Charcoal Kiln, and Blast Furnace: Their Surtling Core construction costs are unchanged, but cores are not returned when these structures are demolished or destroyed.
• Geyser Cores: Each geyser attempts to spawn a Surtling Core after a random 120-720 minutes, only when no core is already nearby.
• Geyser Gas: Geysers release visible toxic clouds every 4-55 seconds. Clouds last 15 seconds, affect players within 18 m, and drain 25 stamina per second before dealing drowning-type damage. These gas settings are configurable.
• Crypt Surtling Core Scarcity: Burial Chambers contain at most 1 Surtling Core (configurable spawn chance, defaults to 50%, rolled once per crypt and limited to that crypt's rooms).
• Custom Death Penalty: Skills below level 50 use percentage-based loss;

skills from level 50 use fixed reductions, with a smaller reduction at level 60 and above.

• Dark Crypts and Caves: Crypts, Sunken Crypts, and caves have their ambient

lighting, environmental light, fog, and dungeon light sources disabled, making handheld lighting necessary for exploration.

• Enhanced Handheld Lights: Player torches and Dvergr lanterns have adjusted

light intensity and range while inside dark interiors.

• Lighting Note: Camera zoom can affect the perceived brightness and range

of handheld lights because Valheim adjusts light detail based on distance.

• Greydwarf Brute Drops: Greydwarf Brutes no longer drop Ancient Seeds;

Greydwarf Nests have a 40% chance to drop an Ancient Seed when destroyed (replaces the vanilla drop).

• Lightning Strikes: During thunderstorms, players out in the open (not

under a roof) risk being struck by lightning, with a higher chance while on a ship. A struck player's health drops to 10, with a screen message and a visible bolt effect seen by everyone nearby, followed by a per-player cooldown before it can happen again.

• Server Synchronization: Configuration is synchronized to clients, and

every player must have the mod installed.

• Storm Ship Damage: Ships take configurable damage only in configured storm environments and when wind reaches the configured threshold, but are protected in shallow water.
• Weapon Balance: Early-game weapon damage can be adjusted at runtime through the configuration.
• Torch Recipe & Durability: Torch crafting cost and the number of melee hits before it breaks can be adjusted at runtime through the configuration.
• Early Axe Progression: Recipes requiring Curious or Mysterious Axe Heads are removed, keeping Birch, Oak, and Ancient Trees behind later progression.

Installation

The easiest way to install Hardship is using a mod manager like r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager.

Manual Installation

1. Ensure you have BepInEx and Jötunn installed.
2. Download the Hardship.zip archive.
3. Extract the contents and move Hardship.dll into your Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/ folder.

Configuration

After launching the game once, edit the generated configuration file:

BepInEx/config/com.valheim.Hardship.cfg