The survival game Valheim was a hit on Steam in February 2021. Meanwhile, there are some mods for the game, even though it does not have official mod support. Some of these mods require players to pay money if they want to use them. Now the developers of Valheim make it clear that they don’t like that.
What’s the deal with mods? When a game is released, there is often a part of the community that has their own visions and ideas for the future of the title. Some of these ideas actually come to fruition when modders get to work and create these additional contents.
There are mods in various games. In GTA Online, players use mods for roleplay, in ARK: Survival Evolved, modders create new maps, some of which are officially incorporated into the game, introduce new dinos, or provide improvements for the building system.
Many games receive countless new contents through mods that were not created by the game developers. Even for the survival hit Valheim, there are mods, although the game does not officially support mods and the developers do not offer modding tools to create the additional contents.
What do the developers say about the sale of mods? In a statement on the official website of the game, Iron Gate, the developer studio behind Valheim, talks about the topic of modding (via Valheim.com).
In the statement, Iron Gate emphasizes again that mods are not officially supported and therefore the studio cannot guarantee that they will work with later versions of the game.
In addition, the developers comment on the sale of mods. It seems that there are some modders who charge money for their works and want to be compensated for their invested work. However, Iron Gate is not pleased with this at all. It violates the spirit of modding, and they do not tolerate charging for mods. The developers officially call for making mods accessible to everyone:
However, most questions we received were about the phenomenon that mods cost money. We understand, of course, that you invest a lot of time in creating a mod and want financial compensation for it, but Iron Gate does not tolerate that modified content disappears behind a paywall.
We believe that it contradicts the creative and open spirit of modding itself to charge money for a mod and therefore call on all mod authors to make their mods freely accessible to all who want to play them. This should encompass the entire mod, and not just provide part of the mod for free while charging for another part.
Iron Gate via Valheim.com
Iron Gate also says that players can voluntarily donate money as a sign of appreciation for a mod, the modder or the invested work as financial support. However, this should not be a prerequisite for accessing a mod.
What mods are there for Valheim? There is also a wide selection of mods in Valheim. Some bring new weapons and armors, others new biomes or enemy types. Some mods also bring “Quality of Life” improvements for building, storing items or planting food. There are even craftable mounts so you can travel faster.
Already in 2021, MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus put together a list of the 9 best mods for Valheim for you.
