Metabolism
Digestion, bowel capacity, privacy-aware toilet cycles, and a Metabolism skill.
About this mod Author’s original text
Metabolism
A Valheim mod that turns gradual food digestion into a gameplay loop of its own.
Features
- Each fully digested food item produces 25 waste units. The bowel meter fills gradually as the food timer counts down.
- You can relieve yourself once the bowel meter reaches 85%. At 100%, an Overfull debuff prevents running and jumping, while normal walking no longer drains stamina.
- A location is private enough when a bush is nearby, or when walls or other solid surfaces block at least five of eight directions.
- The process takes 10 seconds. Your character crouches, movement and other actions are locked, and the meter gradually empties.
- Each completed cycle increases bowel capacity by 2 units, up to 200, and awards Metabolism skill experience.
- Each Metabolism level grants +0.5% maximum health, +0.5% maximum stamina, and +0.3% Rested-effect duration.
All numeric values can be customized in BepInEx/config/com.igentuman.valheim.metabolism.cfg.
Controls
The action is bound to N and the gamepad's right-stick button by default. Both bindings appear in Valheim's standard Controls settings and can be reassigned.
Installation
Requires BepInExPack for Valheim 5.4.2333 or later and Jötunn 2.29.2 or later. Copy Metabolism.dll to BepInEx/plugins/Metabolism/ on both the client and server.
Building
The project targets net462. Create a git-ignored Environment.props file in the repository root:
path/to/Valheim
path/to/Valheim/BepInEx/plugins/Metabolism
true
Then run dotnet build Metabolism.sln -c Release. Jötunn generates the publicized reference assemblies automatically, and the build creates dist/Metabolism-.zip, ready for distribution. The version is read from manifest.json.
The resulting Metabolism.dll is also copied to MOD_DEPLOYPATH. If MOD_DEPLOYPATH is not set, the build uses VALHEIM_INSTALL/BepInEx/plugins/Metabolism.
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: