ForgeOfTruePotential
Makes the Forge of Potential more rewarding, forgiving, and progression-focused with safer upgrades and evolving idol tiers.
About this mod Author’s original text
Forge of True Potential
A Valheim 1.0 mod that reworks the Forge of Potential refinement system.
Features
Safer Refinement
Refining equipment is no longer an all-or-nothing gamble.
- 75% base chance of success
- On failure, the item loses 1 quality level
- A failed refinement does not destroy the item
- Successful refinements increase the item's quality as normal
This makes the Forge of Potential less punishing while keeping failure meaningful.
Increasing Idol Cost
Higher-quality refinements require progressively more idols.
| Refinement level | Idol cost |
|---|---:|
| First refinement | 1 |
| Second refinement | 3 |
| Third refinement | 5 |
| Fourth refinement | 7 |
Idol Tier Progression
Idols progress through the biome tiers as you perform refinements.
After 4 upgrades using an idol tier, the required idol advances to the next biome tier and the upgrade cost resets to 1 idol.
For example:
| Current idol tier | Upgrades | Minimum required idols for next tier | Next tier |
|---|---:|---:|---|
| Meadows | 4 | ( 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 ) 16 | Forest |
| Forest| 4 | 16 | Swamp |
| Swamp | 4 | 16 | Mountain |
| Mountain | 4 | 16 | Plains |
| Plains | 4 | 16 | Mistlands |
| Mistlands | 4 | ( 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 ) 16 | Ashlands |
| Ashlands | 4 | ( 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 ) 16 | Deep North |
| Deep North | inf | ( 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 +... ) inf | N/A |
This means each idol tier supports four refinements before progression to the next tier. The first refinement using the new tier always starts at 1 idol again.
Items still start at their respective idols, e.g. Bronze Axe starts with Iron Battle Idols, and never needs bronze or wood idols.
The system is designed to make progression through the Forge feel like a journey through Valheim's biomes rather than an endlessly increasing resource cost, and to be able to keep spicific item sets relevant later in the game, without being over powered.
Crafting Skill Interaction
Your crafting skill can affect idol consumption.
Depending on the configured settings, sufficiently skilled players may have a chance to perform a refinement without consuming the required idol.
Biome-Based Idol Drops
Idol tiers are associated with world progression and biome progression, including the Deep North, providing a natural source of materials for increasingly powerful refinements.
Multiplayer
Should be multiplayer compatible, but please raise any issues found, so I can fix it.
For multiplayer, install compatible versions of the mod on both the server and clients.
Configuration
Gameplay values are configurable through the BepInEx configuration file generated after the first launch:
BepInEx/config/
Installation
- Install BepInEx for Valheim 1.0.
- Copy the mod DLL into:
BepInEx/plugins/
- Launch Valheim once to generate the configuration file.
- Adjust the configuration if desired.
- Restart the game/server.
For multiplayer, make sure the server and clients use compatible versions.
Compatibility
This mod changes Forge of Potential gameplay and may conflict with other mods that modify Forge refinement, crafting, item quality, or Forge idols.
If you encounter problems, test with other Forge-related mods disabled first.
Install & use Install: BepInEx plugin
- The archive from playbuff is the mod itself — usually a BepInEx plugin (a .dll or a plugin folder once unzipped).
- 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.
- Manual route: install the BepInEx loader in the game folder, then drop the unzipped .dll or plugin folder into BepInEx/plugins/.
- 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.
Install these first, or the mod will not work: