RootboundWitch

Rootbound Witch

Runtime requirements: BepInEx, Jotunn, and ADARC-BackpacksValheim1Compat.

The compatibility package installs the official Smoothbrain Backpacks 1.3.8

dependency and applies the required Valheim 1.0 repairs before it is loaded.

Rootbound Witch is a restriction-led Valheim transformation. It is not a collection of free buffs: one armour set becomes the player's entire equipment pilgrimage, plant magic replaces ordinary progression, the forest recognizes the wearer, and every major gift has a cost.

Forest eitr food

• Mossbread and Bilberry Mash establish the early-game plant-magic food path.
• Rootbound Shortcake is the Deep North capstone. It inherits Frosted Sweetbread's live appearance and crafting gate but rewrites the meal into an extreme mage trade: 0 health, 120 eitr and 70 stamina for 30 minutes. It provides no health regeneration.
• Forest Communion Mead is a level-five Cauldron draught made directly from 10 Lingonberries, 5 Kale Seeds and 20 Sap. It instantly tames the nearest ordinarily tameable creature within 20 metres and refuses to consume itself when no valid animal is present.

The remaining biome steps are intentionally available for a fuller one-food-per-biome progression rather than silently inventing recipes or balance values for the player.

This is the first local trial build for the current Valheim 1.0 client. It does not replace vanilla Root armour or modify a world save.

Required on every machine

• Valheim 1.0
• BepInExPack Valheim 5.4.2350
• Jötunn 2.30.0
• ADARC Backpacks Valheim 1 Compatibility 1.0.4 (which installs the official

Smoothbrain Backpacks 1.3.8 package)

• Rootbound Witch 1.3.0

Install the same package on the dedicated server and every joining client. MagicPlugin 2.1.9 and DvergerStaves 1.0.9 are optional visual/attack-source integrations: when present, the Crook borrows their appropriate reclaimed-staff body or secondary-cast architecture; otherwise it falls back to live vanilla sources.

The Rootbound equipment tree

The Mask, Harness and Leggings are separate items cloned from vanilla Root armour. They begin at Plains-level protection and persist through four growths instead of being replaced by later armour.

| Growth | Target tier | Armour per piece | Full-set armour | Upgrade material family |

| --- | --- | ---: | ---: | --- |

| 1 | Plains | 26 | 78 | Draugr-village remains |

| 2 | Mistlands | 32 | 96 | Carapace, soft tissue and refined eitr |

| 3 | Ashlands | 38 | 114 | Ask hide, celestial feather and charred bone |

| 4 | Deep North | 44 | 132 | Frost core, timberwood and moose hide |

Petrified harvesting tools

The complete-set metal refusal no longer creates a solo progression dead end. Two purpose-built tools carry universal harvesting clearance from their first growth and use the live Blackmetal counterpart's damage and durability curves:

• PetrifiedRootPick uses the Antler Pickaxe silhouette, with its pale antler fossilized into walnut-brown root.
• PetrifiedRootAxe uses the Bronze Axe silhouette, but its blade is rendered as non-metallic corewood with a restrained wood grain.

Neither recipe contains metal, so both remain legal while Rootbound. Their unusually high tool tier decides which deposits and trees may be harvested, while their Blackmetal-class working damage prevents later-biome marble and timber from becoming multi-minute chores. Damage and durability retain ordinary four-quality scaling through upgrades made from Mistlands, Ashlands and Deep North materials.

Each piece grants quality-aware static eitr and eitr regeneration. A complete set:

• makes ordinary and frozen Greydwarves, Greylings, Brutes and Shamans treat the wearer as kin, using the owner-authored full-set tier even when their AI is controlled by another client or the dedicated server;
• makes Dvergers attack on sight from growth two onward;
• at growth two, rejects the Wet status entirely and projects +20 comfort once throughout the same 50-metre social field;
• rejects metal equi