This is Odin's Favour : a set of custom game rules for a Valheim play-through that aims to slow down player progression, while adding the possibility of permanent death. While not totally a hardcore ironman experience, it is intended to be difficult and hard to win.

It is recommended you adopt all non-optional rules.

If you are playing a solo game, you can pick and choose which of these rules you'd like to play by.

If you're in a co-op game, the players need to agree upon which rules are in play, and have trust that the other players are also following them. For lack of a genderless term, Odin's Favour is possibly only through "Gentlemen's Rules".

Players wishing to have even more difficulty are encouraged to look at mods that do just that. Any mod that makes the game easier, including countdown timers on mead and plants, adds extra items, or modifies vanilla gameplay goes against the original spirit of Odin's Favour, but everyone should make the game their own by choosing which rules to follow, and which mods they want. Odin's Favour was developed while using the following mods: CreatureLevelAndLootControl, Clock, ShowContainerContents, BetterUI (with several assistive options disabled) and TrashItems.

Game rule suggestions are most welcome!

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The Rules:

A. Exclusivity
B. Death & Resurrection
C. Woodcutting
D. Portals
E. Bows
F. Earthworks
G. Graphics
H. Forsaken Powers
I. Sleeping
H. Age Advancement

New rules may be added at any time provided players playing together agree to the new rule.

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A) Exclusivity: Your character must be new and must forever remain exclusive to this game world.

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B) Death & Resurrection:

a) Odin has given you one life in Valheim. If you die, your character may not enter the world again; and all the character's crafted items and inventory stockpiles should be destroyed.

b) Odin's Favour is gained by killing a boss and you cannot gain Odin's Favour by killing the same boss twice in a row. You either have Odin's Favour or you don't. It cannot be stacked.

c) Additionally, you may no longer kill the earliest bosses once you have moved on to the next boss in the game. For example, if you have slain Eithkyr and then The Elder, once you slay Bonemass, you may no longer slay Eithkyr to obtain Odin's Favour.

d) If you have Odin's Favour and die, you may resurrect but, in doing so, you lose Odin's Favour and must regain it again to have the extra-life safety net.

e) If you die with Odin's Favour, and subsequently gain the Corpse Run effect (by emptying your tombstone) and then die again with Corpse Run in effect, you are permitted to resurrect (even without Odin's Favour).

f) Each player character is also allowed one mulligan death, where they may respawn without Odin's Favour one time only. If the mulligan is used, the player must immediate seek to gain Odin's Favour by killing an appropriate boss. They may undertake minimal preparation but must not undertake unrelated activities, nor work to create new equipment or weapons. *It is strongly suggested that players track (in game) the number of bosses killed, the last boss killed, whether you have Odin's Favour or not, and whether your death mulligan has been used.

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C) Woodcutting:

h) You may only chop down full-sized birch and pine trees. A full-size birch tree must be just wider than the player's shoulders. A full-sized pine tree is about twice as wide as the player. These restrictions are designed to make wood gathering a real chore in the early game where the player is dismantling generated structures just for the wood and picking up every branch they see.

i) Trees which are knocked down by another tree falling may be harvested but only if the player did not intentionally cause the tree to fall into the other tree(s). Trees which are knocked down via an enemy's attack may be harvested, but once again providing that the player did not cart the mob into knocking down trees. Where possible, the player must avoid damaging the natural forest, thus if tree destruction is unavoidable and unintentional, the player may harvest freshly fallen trees of any kind, including saplings unavoidably destroyed during combat.

j) If the player acquires saplings, they may plant and harvest any farmed trees that they grow. k) If a sideways tree is blocking a river, it may be removed but may not be harvested by the player who chopped it down.

l) Optional Rule: You may cut down any tree when the Elder's power is actively in use.

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D) Portals:

m) Portals are even more restrictive in that the player may only construct portals inside ancient stone rings inside in Meadows, inside spawner stone rings in Swamps, and inside generated stone rings in Plains (or any generated stone rings in other biomes). The player may not construct stone rings in order to place portals.

n) Portals may be constructed under Elder altars (as there are no generated stone rings in the Black Forest).

o) A single portal may be constructed by each player at Haldor.

p) A single portal may be constructed by each player in the immediate vicinity of the Sacrificial Stones

q) Portals may be constructed in the immediate vicinity of Maypoles.

r) Portals may be constructed at any location, provided that it is within an Artisan Table's range. If the artisan table is removed, the portal must be removed.

** The author hopes the Devs will add more generated stone rings to all of the other biomes including the Black Forest and the Mountains. If this happens, rule ‘n’ (at The Elder altar) and rule ‘o’ (at Haldor) will be removed.

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E) Bows:

s) You may no longer use wooden arrows with bows better than the Finewood Bow (ie, Hunter's Bow and Draugr Fang)

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F) Earthworks:

t) Land should not be altered significant by the player. This includes defenses such as moats, trenches, raised walls, fish-farm walls, reclaiming ocean, or building causeways between continents or sides of a river but does not include digging holes under spawners. Minor raising and lowering of the ground is okay, provided it is used in moderation and levelling is acceptable.

u) Aside from tunneling under The Elder sites with minimal disruption to the surface area, areas around boss summoning sites must not be modified or built on in any way.

v) You may only mine exposed copper and not copper that is below the surface.

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G) Graphics

w) Vegetation settings must be left on medium at a minimum in order to make foraging more difficult

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H) Forsaken Powers x) Boss powers may only be used if you have killed that boss (if playing on a server). IE, you may not use Eithkyr's ability until you have slain him.

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I) Sleeping

y) You may not sleep through the night. Cower in your shelter or conquer the night.

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J) Age Advancement

z) To be eligible to move the next Age (ie, from stone to bronze, bronze to iron, etc.), you must complete the current age by crafting and fully upgrade all armor and weapons from the Age you are currently in. IE, to leave the Bronze Age, you must build and fully upgrade the Pickaxe, the Axe, the Cultivator, the Sword, the Mace, the Atgeir, the Spear and the Copper Knife, in addition to the Bronze Armour set.

aa) As it is generally as safe to enter the Mountains as it is to enter the Swamps, around the same time in progression, the player may begin to craft items from both iron and silver at the same time, but must finish all iron and silver items before progressing on to Black Metal.

ab) Players may craft items from an advanced age, such as nails, while still in the previous age. They just aren’t allowed to construct armor, tools or weapons.

ac) Once a player becomes able to smelt ores, they may do so, but they may not craft any weapons or armour from that Age until the previous age is completed.

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