Valheim Mastery

v0.18.17·Updated 2026-10-11

22 skills with Beastmaster taming, breeding and dragon riding; magic, Prayer, Slayer contracts, animated capes and sails, shared villages and an optional community leaderboard. English/German.

About this mod Author’s original text

Valheim Mastery — 0.17.15

Make the things you enjoy in Valheim part of your character's story. Fighting, building, gathering and sailing all develop their own skills, with new abilities and equipment to work towards. Mastery brings 21 skills, Prayer, Slayer contracts, magic and animated mastery capes to your world, with English and German text.

Inspired by Old School RuneScape's long-term progression, adapted to Valheim's survival and co-op play. This independent fan-made mod is not affiliated with or endorsed by Jagex.

New in 0.17.15

Updated for Valheim 1.0.17. Mastery now recognizes the new game version, with compatibility retained for 1.0.15 and 1.0.16. The visible captured-leech icon and all previous additions are included.

Previous additions

Captured leeches now have a visible inventory icon rendered from the original Valheim model. Previously caught leeches remain in their existing slots, with their species and stars preserved.

Previous additions

Woodcutting, smelting, smithing and shared combat kills now give less XP, while mid-tier arrow and bolt recipes give more Crafting XP. Earned progress stays yours.

Ranged milestones now save ammunition at the moment of the shot: up to 45% at level 100, or 75% while wearing the Ranged or Apex cape. Draugr Fang gains Double Shot, firing two ordinary arrows for 50 special energy. Each arrow checks ammunition saving separately.

Rune fire spells hit harder, burn in fixed damage steps and drop three times as many runes on a successful rune drop. Harpoon catches give reduced Fishing XP. Upgrade the Chitin harpoon through quality four for more durability, then continue at the Potential Forge. Fifteen added seeds and spores now have their own inventory artwork.

Cape powers show their active time and cooldown in the buff bar. Deer can be tamed with suitable plant foods; from Hunting 86, deer stop fleeing from you. From Fishing 85, a harpoon can capture a living leech. Place the captured leech in an interaction slot and use it while looking at water to release it tamed. Its species and stars stay with it. Waterwalker also lets you approach fish without frightening them.

Previous additions

Rune spells hit harder as your Magic improves. Their rune and Eitr costs stay the same, and fire spells still deal part of their damage through burning.

Fishing opens a new way to bring home your catch: from level 20, throw a Chitin harpoon at a fish and pull it in. It works from the shore, a boat or shallow water, without a cape or active power. All twelve native catchable species are supported. Pulling uses stamina; a full inventory leaves the fish in the world. Fish already caught or hooked on a rod do not award another catch.

The Fishing cape's active power is now Waterwalker. Press C to run across the water for four minutes, leaving splashes with your footsteps. The power then has a six-minute cooldown. With an Apex cape, choose Waterwalker from the existing Shift + C selection. Harpoon fishing remains a separate level-20 unlock; ordinary deep swimming still has Valheim's normal hand-item restrictions.

Mastery sails now use the matching cape artwork, including its colours, woven borders and skill emblem. Apex sails use the same eight cape designs and keep their shared glowing animation.

Cape controls and progression

Your cape's power is now one key away. Press C to use the active power of the cape you are wearing. The Construction cape takes you home. With an Apex cape, Shift + C opens the power selection; save one choice, then use C whenever you need it. Each character keeps their own choice. If you have not chosen yet, C opens the selection. Passive capes keep their passive effects.

The default walk toggle on C is freed for this shortcut. A different walking key you have chosen stays yours. Both cape shortcuts can be changed in the Mastery configuration; conflicting bindings are reported instead of firing two actions. Existing requirements and cooldowns still apply.

Farming and Praye

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
Valheim_Mastery-0.18.17.zip
File size
117.6 MiB