BoatMotor

v1.0.2·Updated 2026-09-11

Gearbox for your boat: shift through five speed gears and use the arrow keys as a throttle. Client-side, affects only the boat you are on.

About this mod Author’s original text

BoatMotor

A gearbox for your boat. Shift up, and the boat actually moves faster.

Gear 1 is the game exactly as it ships. Gears 2 to 5 are yours to set.

  • Works in multiplayer. Nothing installed on the server or on anyone else's game.
  • Only the boat you are standing in. Other people's boats are untouched, and your friends never get the gears.
  • Off by default. Turn it on when you have an ocean to cross, turn it off when you want the normal game back.

Usage

Gears work while you are standing in a boat. The throttle works while you are at the wheel.

| Action | Default |

| --- | --- |

| Shift up | Page Up |

| Shift down | Page Down |

| Accelerate — hold | Right mouse button |

| Brake — hold | Left Ctrl |

| Settings | F1, then pick BoatMotor |

Shifting shows the gear centre-screen, like Gear 3 (2x). Gear 1 always says normal.

The accelerator is a motor, not a sail control. Hold it and the boat is pushed forward for as

long as you hold it — your sail setting is never touched, and it works with the sail furled. The

brake works the same way in reverse: hold it and the boat slows down, coming to a stop rather than

backing up. Reverse is still the game's own control, where it belongs.

The gear multiplier applies to the motor too, so a higher gear is also a stronger push.

Both throttle keys are on your mouse hand and your little finger, so A and D stay free to steer

while you hold the throttle.

They only respond while you are actually at the wheel. That is what lets them sit on the block and

crouch buttons: step away from the helm and right mouse blocks and left control crouches, exactly

as they always did.

Every key is rebindable, and none of them fire while you are typing in chat.

Settings

| Section | Option | Default | What it does |

| --- | --- | --- | --- |

| General | Boat motor | Off | The main toggle. |

| General | Toggle hotkey | none | Optional. Gear 1 is already the normal game, so this is unbound. |

| General | Show on-screen messages | On | Shows the gear when you shift. |

| Gears | Gear up / Gear down | Page Up / Page Down | Rebind as you like. |

| Gears | Gear 2 speed | 1.5x | |

| Gears | Gear 3 speed | 2x | |

| Gears | Gear 4 speed | 3x | |

| Gears | Gear 5 speed | 4x | Anything from 1x to 10x. |

| Throttle | Accelerate at the helm (hold) | Right mouse | Only while steering, so it never steals the block button. |

| Throttle | Brake at the helm (hold) | Left Ctrl | Only while steering, so it never steals crouch. |

| Throttle | Thrust | 3 | How hard the motor pushes. Gear multiplier applies on top. |

| Throttle | Brake force | 10 | How hard the brake pushes back. |

| Advanced | Take over the boat while aboard | Off | See below. |

All of it can be changed while you play — no restart.

One thing to know about sailing with friends

Valheim runs a boat's physics on one player's machine, and that is not always the person

steering — it is usually whoever stepped aboard first. If a friend ends up holding the boat, your

gears do nothing, because the movement is being calculated on their machine.

The Take over the boat while aboard option fixes that: it moves the boat's simulation onto

your machine while you are standing in it. It is off by default, so turn it on if you sail with

company and want the gears to be reliable.

Sailing alone, you always hold your own boat and it just works.

Requirements

BepInEx (the Valheim pack). Any mod manager installs it for you.

Install & use Install: BepInEx plugin

  1. The archive from playbuff is the mod itself — usually a BepInEx plugin (a .dll or a plugin folder once unzipped).
  2. Recommended: use a community mod manager (such as r2modman) — pick this game, import the mod, and the manager sets up BepInEx and its dependencies for you.
  3. Manual route: install the BepInEx loader in the game folder, then drop the unzipped .dll or plugin folder into BepInEx/plugins/.
  4. Launch the game — the BepInEx console logs every plugin it loads; seeing this mod in the log means it is installed.

Mods with listed dependencies need those installed too, or they will not load. Options are usually changed in-game or in the plugin's config file. In multiplayer, the host and every client need the same mods installed.

Dependencies

Install these first, or the mod will not work:

denikson-BepInExPack_Valheim

File & checksum

Filename
BoatMotor-1.0.2.zip
File size
210.2 KiB