Add Epic Loot to your Valheim server

Epic Loot, by RandyKnapp, changes what monsters and chests drop in Valheim. Drops can now come as Magic, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic or Ancient items, each with bonus effects you can enchant and socket. The mod's own page says it works in multiplayer and on dedicated servers, with the mod installed on the server and on every player's game. Your Mods tab installs it, along with the two libraries it needs.

Before you start

• Take a backup from the Backups tab. Epic Loot adds items to your world, and a backup is the way back if you decide against it.
• Install BepInEx from the Mods tab first. Install BepInEx and mods on your Valheim server covers that step, and it turns Crossplay off, which a modded server needs.
• Tell your players. Every one of them has to install the same version before they can join.

Install Epic Loot

1. Open the Mods tab and stay in the Store view.
2. Search for Epic Loot and find the card by RandyKnapp. Other cards share part of the name, such as translations and add-ons, so check the author.
3. Click Install. If you have no recent backup, the panel asks first: choose Go to Backups, or install anyway. Epic Loot needs Jotunn and JsonDotNET, two libraries, so a second box titled Needs 2 more add-ons lists them. Click Install all (3).
4. Wait for the confirmation. The download is about 41 MB, larger than most mods, so give it a minute.
5. Restart the server. In the Console, look for a Loading [Epic Loot 0.15.4] (randyknapp.mods.epicloot) line, and for Chainloader startup complete with no failures.

Get your players on the same version

Epic Loot's code requires everyone to have the mod, matched to the patch number: a player on 0.15.3 can't join a server on 0.15.4. Give players the server's own list.

1. In the Mods tab, open Installed and click Export for players, then Create code.
2. Players paste the code into r2modman or the Thunderstore app with Import profile, From code.
3. After any mod update on the server, make a new code the same day.

Change Epic Loot's settings

Epic Loot writes its settings on the first start. Its main file is BepInEx/config/randyknapp.mods.epicloot.cfg, and the loot tables, magic effects and other JSON files sit in BepInEx/config/EpicLoot/baseconfig. Players receive the server's configuration when they connect, so edit the files on the server, not on a player's PC.

The easiest route needs no file editing. Epic Loot has a Quick Configure panel, opened from the Mod Config button on the main menu or the pause menu. Epic Loot's README says a server admin who isn't the host can change the server settings from the pause menu, and the changes reach every player. The settings backed by JSON files, such as rarity tables and per-biome drop amounts, are read-only there, so those still mean editing files. Add admins to your Valheim server shows how to get on the admin list.

If you do edit a file, stop the server in the dashboard, change it in the File Manager, and start again.

Common problems

1. A player is refused when joining. Their Epic Loot version differs from the server's. Send a fresh code from Export for players.
2. The console says a mod has missing dependencies. The line names what is missing, usually Jotunn. Search for it in the Store, install it and restart.
3. Shardstones never drop after an update. Shard drops come from the loot tables, so a loottables.json you have edited has to be brought up to date. Epic Loot never overwrites a config file you've edited. A game on a desktop asks whether to replace it, but a dedicated server only writes the affected files to its log, so look for their names in the Console or in BepInEx/LogOutput.log. Then refresh each one: Epic Loot's README says to "refresh BepInEx/config/EpicLoot/baseconfig/loottables.json". Its changelog says the desktop prompt copies your version to BepInEx/config/EpicLoot/baseconfig-backup before replacing a file, so on a server copy your edited file somewhere safe first.
4. Another mod clashes. Since 0.15.3 Epic Loot switches off only the feature involved and warns in the log, instead of failing to load.
5. Everything broke after a Valheim update. Mods catch up after game patches. Use Check for updates in Installed, as in Update mods on your Valheim server.