HotbarDeathKeeper

HotbarDeathKeeper

Keeps your vanilla hotbar items (slots 1-8: weapon, shield, tool, torch, etc) equipped

after death, instead of losing them to the tombstone.

Fully standalone - does not require ExtraSlots or any other mod to work. It only

depends on BepInEx. If you happen to also use ExtraSlots, the two are compatible and

complement each other: ExtraSlots keeps its own extra slots (Equipment/Quick/Food/Ammo/

Misc), while this mod covers the vanilla hotbar, which ExtraSlots does not touch. Neither

mod requires the other to be installed.

Client-side only. Must be installed on your client to affect your character (the

character owner is the client, not the server). Does not need to be installed on the

server.

Source code:

Why this mod exists

This is not an "inventory prevention" mod. The idea came from a specific need: not losing

your equipped items - the ones on your hotbar (weapon, shield, tool, torch) - when you

die. On its own, this mod already covers that need completely by itself. If you also run

ExtraSlots (which keeps its own equipped items: Equipment/Quick/Food/Ammo/Misc), the

coverage extends to those slots too - but that's an optional bonus, not a requirement.

In other words: the only thing protected is what's equipped (hotbar, plus ExtraSlots slots

if you have that mod installed). The rest of your inventory still goes to the tombstone as

normal, with no protection at all.

The goal is not to remove the tombstone from the game or take away the death penalty -

that stays exactly the same. What changes is that, on respawn, you don't have to reforge

your weapon and armor from scratch before heading back to recover the rest. This mainly

helps early game, where losing your whole gear can grind you to a halt; with the mod, you

respawn, walk back to your tombstone, recover the rest of your inventory, and you're

already geared up to make the trip back.

Requirements

• Valheim (client)
• BepInExPack 5.4.2202 or newer

Installation

Via r2modman Mod Manager: install normally, it resolves the BepInExPack

dependency on its own.

Manual: extract the zip into your client's BepInEx/plugins/HotbarDeathKeeper/ folder.

Configuration

After running it once, edit BepInEx/config/hdk.valheim.hotbardeathkeeper.cfg:

• Enabled (default: true)
• Keep equipped state (default: true) - automatically re-equips whatever was in your

hand when you died.

Licensing

MIT License - see LICENSE.txt. Free to use, modify, and redistribute.

Changelog

1.0.1

• Fixed broken source code link in documentation.

1.0.0

• First version published.
• Keeps vanilla hotbar items (slots 1-8) equipped after death.
• Option to automatically re-equip the item that was in hand when you died.

Full changelog: CHANGELOG.md