Cancel Animation Cancels

CancelAnimationCancels

Blocks some known animation-cancel exploits such as block cancel, dodge cancel and emote cancel.

Emote cancel

Block cancel

dodge cancel

• It does not try to globally disable actions like blocking, emoting, dodging, or key binds.
• Instead, it removes the specific state carry-over that makes an animation cancel profitable and only blocks narrow input patterns when a known exploit depends on them.

In practice, that means the mod watches for a short post-attack window, detects when a cancel action begins inside that window, and then forces the next attack to start as a fresh attack instead of continuing a combo or consuming a queued follow-up.

What the mod is trying to stop

Some Valheim animation cancels do not simply shorten recovery. They allow the next attack to inherit combo state from the previous attack even though the player inserted another action in between.

That is the important distinction.

If the game still thinks the player is in the same combo chain after a block, emote, or dodge transition, the next attack can behave like a later combo hit even though the animation flow was interrupted. This can create cases where:

• later combo damage is reached too early,
• queued follow-up attacks survive through movement actions,
• or the player repeatedly accesses the stronger part of a chain without paying the normal timing cost.

This mod prevents those cases by resetting the internal carry-over used by the next Attack.Start(...).

Config

[1 - General]

## If on, the configuration is locked and can be changed by server admins only. [Synced with Server]
# Setting type: Toggle
# Default value: On
# Acceptable values: Off, On
Lock Configuration = On

## If on, one-handed swords, knives, and one-handed clubs will lose combo carry when block is used between attacks. [Synced with Server]
# Setting type: Toggle
# Default value: On
# Acceptable values: Off, On
Prevent Block Combo Carry = On

## If on, recent attacks from affected weapons cannot be canceled into emotes, and combo carry will be reset if an emote still slips through. [Synced with Server]
# Setting type: Toggle
# Default value: On
# Acceptable values: Off, On
Prevent Emote Cancel = On

## If on, console bind commands cannot assign emotes, and existing emote binds are disabled until this is turned off. [Synced with Server]
# Setting type: Toggle
# Default value: Off
# Acceptable values: Off, On
Block Emote Console Binds = Off

## If on, unarmed, spears, axes, battleaxes, and atgeirs will lose queued attacks and combo carry when a dodge starts, and dodge-cancel attack input will be blocked. [Synced with Server]
# Setting type: Toggle
# Default value: On
# Acceptable values: Off, On
Prevent Dodge Attack Queue = On

How the mod works internally

The mod uses a short reset window of 0.25 seconds after an attack. If a cancel action starts inside that window, the mod marks the combo as interrupted.

When the next attack starts, the mod forces a clean restart by doing two things:

1. It clears the inherited previousAttack reference.
2. It pushes timeSinceLastAttack slightly past the combo carry threshold.

This matters because Valheim's combo continuation logic depends on the next attack still seeing valid previous attack state inside a short timing window. If that state is removed, the next attack becomes a normal first hit instead of continuing into a stronger or queued follow-up.

Several options also clear m_nextAttackChainLevel or queued attack timers immediately when the cancel action begins. That prevents the exploit from surviving until the next input.

Option details

Prevent Block Combo Carry

This option targets block-based combo abuse.

Affected weapons:

• One-handed swords
• Knives
• One-handed clubs

What the exploit looks like:

• the player lands an early combo hit,
• starts blocking during the short combo continuation window,
• then attacks again immediately after the block animation begins.

Why that can be abused:

• the inserted block animation visually interrupts the flow,
• but the next attack may still inherit combo progression from the previous attack,
• so the player reaches later chain damage sooner than intended or repeats a stronger part of the combo too quickly.

What this option does:

• it watches for the transition from "not blocking" to "blocking",
• checks whether that block started within 0.25 seconds of the last attack,
• and only applies to the affected weapon set above.

When that happens, the mod:

• marks that the combo was interrupted by block,
• clears m_nextAttackChainLevel on the current and previous attack objects,
• and then, on the next Attack.Start(...), removes combo inheritance so the next swing starts from hit 1 instead of carrying the previous chain forward.

Why this is the preferred fix:

• blocking itself is not disabled,
• the player can still defend normally,
• but the block can no longer be used as a bridge that preserves attack combo state through an interruption.

Prevent Emote Cancel

This option targets emote-based attack cancel abuse.

Affected attacks:

• One-handed sword attacks
• One-handed axe attacks
• Knife attacks
• Dual axe attacks
• Two-handed axe / battleaxe attacks
• Spear primary attack only

What the exploit looks like:

• the player attacks,
• triggers an emote during a narrow timing window,
• and then attacks again as the emote interrupts or truncates the normal recovery.

Why that can be abused:

• the emote changes the animation state,
• but the game may still treat the next attack as part of the previous combo sequence,
• allowing the player to skip normal pacing and keep access to later combo progression.

This option uses two layers of protection.

First layer: prevent the emote from starting.