Sparring
Duel another player without either of you dying. Yield instead of falling, then both of you get back up.
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About this mod Author’s original text
Sparring
Duel another player without either of you dying.
Look at another player and type /duel in chat. They get a prompt that shows which keys accept and decline the challenge, unless they are in combat, have PvP on or are otherwise busy, in which case you are told why. A ring is marked out on the ground, a short countdown runs, and the fight begins. Whoever runs out of health yields instead of dying. When the duel ends, both fighters get some health back and their harmful effects are cleared, and a card shows damage dealt and taken, hits and how long it lasted. Hold Backspace to give up.
Only your opponent's hits are made safe, including the fire and poison they leave on you. Creatures, falls and drowning can still kill you, and a duel cannot be started with anything hostile around the ring. Leaving the ring once the fight has begun counts as yielding, and a disconnect or crash ends every protection on its own within a few seconds.
AI notice
Most of Sparring was written by Claude Code (Anthropic), which did the heavy lifting on implementation and design. Heads-up so you can judge for yourself.
Commands
Add a number to /duel to set the ring size in metres. /duel rematch challenges your last opponent, /duel preview draws a ring where you stand, and /duel status shows what is going on. Accepting, declining and yielding also work from chat with /duel accept, /duel decline and /duel yield.
Multiplayer
Both fighters need Sparring. Nobody else does. On a server running Sparring, the server's duel rules apply to everyone, while keys and display options stay your own. Players without the mod can still join.
Settings
All settings are in BepInEx/config/isimp.Sparring.cfg, each with a description.
More
Technical notes and build instructions are on GitHub at
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: