Install a modpack on your Valheim server

A Valheim modpack on Thunderstore is a mod whose job is to pull in other mods. Installing the pack installs everything it lists, so you don't search for fifty mods one at a time. Your Mods tab can do this from its Store, with one limit you should know about before you pick a pack: it brings in at most 30 of the pack's mods.

Before you start

• Take a backup from the Backups tab. A pack can change a world a lot, and a backup is the way back.
• Install BepInEx from the Mods tab if the card says it isn't installed. Install BepInEx and mods on your Valheim server covers it, including turning Crossplay off, which modded servers need.
• Open the pack's page on Thunderstore and look at how many mods it depends on. Anything over 30 will only partly install, and many popular packs list far more.

Find and install the pack

1. Open the Mods tab, stay in the Store view, and search for the pack's name.
2. To browse, use the Category filter and pick Modpacks. The Modpacks filter set to No modpacks hides packs from normal searches.
3. Click Install on the pack's card. If you have no recent backup, the panel asks first. Then a second box, titled like Needs 12 more add-ons, lists the mods that will come with it.
4. Click Install all (N), where N counts the pack as well. The panel installs the pack's mods first, deepest dependencies before the mods that need them, and the pack itself last.
5. Read the message when it finishes. A mod that is client-side only is skipped on the server with the reason "Client-side only, players install it", and a mod that isn't on Thunderstore is skipped too. Both are named in the message.
6. Restart the server and watch the Console for one Loading [...] line per mod, ending in Chainloader startup complete with no failures.

The pack's own settings files are copied to BepInEx/config, except where a file of that name already exists. Existing settings are never replaced.

When the pack is bigger than 30 mods

The Mods tab follows the pack's list five levels deep and stops once it has 30 mods, without telling you. For a bigger pack the rest never arrive. BepInEx's source code (Chainloader.cs, version 5.4.23) does not load a mod whose required dependency is missing, and it logs a line starting Could not load and containing because it has missing dependencies. So if a mod you did install needs one of the mods that never arrived, look for that line in the Console.

1. Open Installed and compare it with the mod list on the pack's Thunderstore page.
2. For each mod that is missing and isn't client-side only, search the Store by name and click Install.
3. Restart and check the Console again.

If that's a lot of work, a smaller pack is the easier choice.

Get your players the same mods

Everyone who joins needs the same mods at the same versions.

1. In Installed, click Export for players, then Create code.
2. Players paste the code into r2modman or the Thunderstore app with Import profile, From code.

Mods skipped as client-side only aren't installed on the server, so they aren't in the code. The message that names them says "Client-side only, players install it", so each player adds them to their own game.

Common problems

1. The console says a mod has missing dependencies. The line ends with the ID of the mod it needs. Install that mod by name from the Store and restart.
2. The install is refused as "client-side only". The pack belongs on players' PCs only, so there is nothing to install on the server.
3. A player gets "Incompatible version". Their mods differ from the server's. Send them a fresh code.
4. Everything broke after a Valheim update. Packs depend on many mods that all need new releases. Use Check for updates in Installed, as in Update mods on your Valheim server, and wait for the authors to catch up.