D.A.R.E and G.N.O.M.E

DARE_and_GNOME 0.8.17 adds two buildable, stationary defenders to Valheim 1.0.14: an armed T.W.I.G training dummy and a pair of gnomes standing on each other's shoulders. Equip them as you progress, supply Coal, and choose what each defender protects your base from.

Both pieces appear in the hammer menu and require one Ectoplasm each. All other recipe materials, the workbench requirement and placement rules are inherited from T.W.I.G. They turn toward targets but stay where you build them. Vanilla T.W.I.G keeps its original recipe and behavior.

Requirements and installation

Built for PC Valheim 1.0.14 with BepInEx 5. Install the same version on every client and the host or dedicated server. Jötunn, Mead Muse and Medical Gnome Squad are not required.

Install through your mod manager, or close Valheim and copy the package's plugins/Dare folder into your game's BepInEx/plugins directory. The plugin should be at:

BepInEx/plugins/Dare/Dare.dll

For a mod-manager profile, use that profile's BepInEx directory. The marketplace package is named DARE_and_GNOME, while the plugin remains Dare.dll. Replace the previous DLL when upgrading and avoid duplicate copies.

Version 0.8.17 adds 20 voiced Medical Gnome Squad quips for 582 total: twelve about Doctor Stitch, Nurse Hemlock, Splint and Ledger, plus eight crossover observations involving Muse. Medical Gnome Squad must be installed and enabled; general squad remarks do not need a nearby tent or squad. Crossover remarks also require enabled Mead Muse and an intact, active, placed Muse within 15 metres. They use quiet idle chatter, the existing RivalBanter switch and cooldown, and personal playback preferences, yielding to combat and nearby Muse speech. No new settings are added: 39 entries, 26 shared, 13 personal and protocol 5 remain unchanged. Preserve configuration and install matching 0.8.17 on every client and the server. All 562 earlier gnome WAVs and full manifest entries, eight D.A.R.E calls and existing audio fixes are preserved; the daily volley is unchanged.

Version 0.8.16 adds an automatic daily G.N.O.M.E volley on the next completed ordinary draw: three physical arrows per eligible enemy in three waves 0.15 seconds apart. The entire volley costs one stored arrow and one completed draw's Coal time; bonus waves are prepaid. Each placed gnome saves a cooldown in calendar game days and shows readiness in hover status. [GnomeVolley] Enabled = true and CooldownDays = 1 (1–30 days) are shared host/admin settings. There are now 39 entries: 26 shared and 13 personal, using protocol 5. Protocol 4 and older peers are incompatible, so update every client and the server together. Preserve your config: recognized 37-entry files receive the two defaults while retaining existing values and comments. All 562 gnome recordings, eight D.A.R.E calls and audio fixes are unchanged; no new voices are added.

Version 0.8.15 added 18 voiced gnome lines for 562 total: six exact answers to Muse's actual nearby lightning-counterattack speech, two extra Top/Bottom raid exchanges each for bats and trolls, and two extra kill quips each for bats and trolls. Existing 15-metre Muse checks, speech timing, combat preemption and chatter controls apply; weather or the mere presence of her power does not trigger lightning answers. Older or absent Mead Muse remains supported. All 544 earlier gnome WAVs and complete manifest records and eight D.A.R.E calls are preserved. Update every client and the server together and preserve your config. That release used 37 entries, 24 shared, 13 personal and protocol 4.

Version 0.8.14 fixed stuck alert and idle awareness markers for both defenders. Native damage/projectile alerts remain while an actual live, allowed target is visible and in range, then clear when no valid engagement remains. Observing clients synchronize their local alert state from the owner's saved network state, and stale saved alerts are repaired. Vanilla T.W.I.G and other creatures are unchanged. This correction remains in 0.8.16; reload the existing world after updating, with no need to rebuild placements.

Version 0.8.13 added two voiced jokes about Muse's eye-bearing, fortune-telling witch hat, bringing G.N.O.M.E to 544 recordings. Both the intact, placed Muse and her visibly active hat must be within 15 metres, including when she roams; these quips stop if the hat is disabled, removed or out of range, or the statue disappears. Older Muse versions and hat-off statues retain ordinary Muse chatter. Mead Muse remains optional. That release preserved all 542 earlier gnome recordings and eight D.A.R.E calls, with existing mute controls and no new settings.

Version 0.8.12 added 24 voiced Halloween lines for G.N.O.M.E: eight random quips, four night reactions, four nearby-Muse jokes, two D.A.R.E exchanges and skeleton/ghost raid exchanges. They use existing triggers year-round; there is no calendar restriction or new setting. Actual nearby rivals are required for their jokes, and night/raid lines need the corresponding events. That release brought the catalogue to 542 recordings.

Version 0.8.11 corrected D.A.R.E's shield attachment so equipped shields stand upright and face outward instead of lying flat, preserving the weapon attachment and shield variants. That correction remains; live shield fit still needs verification.

Version 0.8.10 lowered only the Ectoplasm cost to one for both defenders. Each defender uses copied recipe requirements, leaving vanilla T.W.I.G unchanged.

Version 0.8.9 added 24 voiced lines about D.A.R.E going country: six new Top/Bottom exchanges, six standalone Muse quips and six answers to her actual D.A.R.E remarks, bringing the catalogue to 518 lines at that time. The banter uses existing chatter controls.

Version 0.8.8 gives D.A.R.E a cowboy hat and eight short, random voiced battle calls. The default chance is 25% on successful melee impacts, with a saved 12-second cooldown and no immediate repeated call. New [DareChatter] controls provide personal mute, volume and listening range plus server-shared chance and cooldown. Preserve your config: a complete 0.8.7 file gains only the five new defaults without replacing your edits; recognized earlier files also gain their other missing defaults. That release had 37 settings: 24 shared and 13 personal. Update every client and the server together; shared-configuration protocol 4 is incompatible with 0.8.7 and earlier. Reload the world after replacing the DLL.

Version 0.8.7 increased G.N.O.M.E's default engagement radius to 60 metres, configurable from 5 to 120 metres with [Gnome] DetectionRadius. The equipped bow and arrows must still reach a visible, loaded target along a clear full trajectory. Existing configs retain their range, including the previous value of 25. To adopt the new range, set [Gnome] DetectionRadius = 60 on the server or edit it as a confirmed server admin after joining; accepted admin edits are saved on the server and shared with clients. Preserve your config and reload the world after updating every client and the server to 0.8.16.

The default [Gnome] FireRateMultiplier = 1.5 remains 50% faster. Set it to 1 for the previous rate, 2 for double or another value from 0.5–3. Both draw time and the base cooldown scale together. All 494 gnome recordings, their audio fixes, coin gifts, Muse replies and earlier settings are preserved.

The upper gnome still looks and aims up or down. Its head, torso, arms and bow tilt together while its legs and the lower gnome keep supporting the stack. The aiming pose synchronizes for other players and returns to level when idle. Visible targets and a clear full arrow path remain required.

The update also retains the 0.8.3 voice fix: both speakers use Unity playback priority 32 instead of 150, keeping positional audio. Mead Muse's in-game comparison found priority 150 virtualized and silent, while priority 32 was audible with the same positional playback. G.N.O.M.E audibility still needs live confirmation.

Version 0.8.2 keeps subtitles visible for at least 10 seconds per line by default. Set [GnomeChatter] SubtitleDuration to 2–60 seconds for your own display. Older recognized configurations gain the new key automatically without replacing existing edits. All 391 recordings remain unchanged.

Version 0.8.1 makes G.N.O.M.E select visible targets with clear shots and cancel its draw whenever cover blocks sight or the arrow trajectory. Walls, closed doors, terrain, trees and intervening creatures prevent shooting; a nearer hidden enemy no longer distracts it from an exposed target. No new configuration is required. Keep your existing .cfg, equipment and fuel.

Version 0.8.0 added 50 standalone voiced quips, bringing the total to 391 while preserving all 341 previous lines and recordings. All remain included. The update also retains the 0.7.2 multiplayer listening-range fix, so an owner's shorter personal range does not suppress eligible remote listeners. Install matching versions on all clients and the server; live multiplayer audio still needs in-game verification.

The 0.7.1 hotfix addresses D.A.R.E's duplicate default gear and backward weapon/shield attachments. It hides the authored sword/axe and shield props on the cloned dummy, then uses separate corrected sockets for its equipped weapon and shield. Install it on all clients and the server and reload the world to update existing placed defenders. Item quality, appearance variants and native equipment synchronization are retained; G.N.O.M.E keeps its existing bow visuals and firing motion.

The configuration is generated on first launch at BepInEx/config/local.valheim.dare.cfg. Preserve your existing configuration when upgrading; recognized older configurations receive missing defaults automatically. Invalid or incomplete files are preserved and reported for correction. The packaged config-examples/local.valheim.dare.cfg.example is an inactive example, not a replacement for your settings.

Compatibility status: Release 0.8.17 targets native Valheim 1.0.14. Native Release compilation passes with zero warnings/errors, all 829 core tests, 40 managed Muse observer scenarios and 17 production-linked medical-mod scenarios (147 assertions) pass, and all 582 voice assets are verified. All 562 earlier gnome WAVs and complete manifest entries, eight D.A.R.E calls and their manifest are unchanged. Live Valheim listening, gameplay and multiplayer checks remain pending. Game reference DLLs are not included.

D.A.R.E: melee defence

D.A.R.E uses the training dummy's model and starts with a built-in wooden sword. Press Use / E to open its locker:

• Slots 1–2: one-handed melee weapons and shields. The first eligible weapon and shield, reading left to right, are equipped.
• Slot 3: Coal only.

Upgrade to a one-handed sword, axe, mace/club, knife or spear, and add a shield for normal frontal blocking between swings. The built-in SwordWood appears only when no eligible weapon is equipped; adding a valid weapon replaces it. There is no default shield, and removing an equipped shield removes its visual and protection. Two-handed weapons, bows, crossbows, dual weapons and magic weapons are not used by D.A.R.E.

It watches an 8-metre radius by default, turns toward its target and strikes within the equipped weapon's melee reach. It does not chase, throw spears or use secondary attacks.

Cowboy hat and battle calls

D.A.R.E now wears a brown cowboy hat with a curled brim, creased crown, dark leather band and brass buckle. The hat attaches to its animated head, so it follows turning and melee swings. It is decorative: no extra crafting material, equipment slot, armor or hitbox is added. Vanilla T.W.I.G and G.N.O.M.E keep their existing models.

After a successful melee impact, D.A.R.E may play one of eight short voiced cowboy calls, including “Yee-haw!” The default chance is 25% per eligible hit, with at least 12 seconds between calls from that defender. Idle time, turning and cancelled or obstructed swings do not trigger calls. Its network owner selects the call, avoids immediate repeats and broadcasts the same choice to nearby listeners; the cooldown survives ownership changes and world reloads.

The new [DareChatter] section separates shared timing from personal listening controls:

[DareChatter]
Enabled = true
Volume = 0.65
AudibleRange = 30
BattleCryChance = 0.25
BattleCryCooldown = 12

Enabled, Volume (0–1) and AudibleRange (5–60 metres) apply only to the local listener, including admins. Set Enabled = false to silence D.A.R.E for yourself. The server shares BattleCryChance (0–1) and BattleCryCooldown (3–120 seconds); setting the chance to zero silences battle calls for everyone. Confirmed admin edits to those two values are saved on the server and synchronized to clients. These controls are independent of [GnomeChatter].

G.N.O.M.E: elevated archery

The lower gnome carries the upper archer, bringing their combined height to that of the training dummy. The upper gnome starts with a built-in crude bow and fires travelling arrows from its bow, with a brief firing wobble while the lower boots stay planted.

• Slots 1–4: bows and arrows. The leftmost eligible bow and arrow stack are selected.
• Slot 5: Coal only.

Add a better bow and arrow stacks through the locker. Removing the bow restores the crude bow. One stored arrow is consumed per ordinary shot or entire daily volley; empty ammunition stops new shots, while paid bonus waves can finish. Crossbows, bolts, melee weapons, shields and magic weapons are not used by G.N.O.M.E.

Its default engagement radius is 60 metres, adjustable from 5 to 120 metres. This is a practical target-selection distance, not a fixed maximum for every player bow. Bow and ammunition properties, target height/movement and loaded world area still determine actual reach. The stack turns horizontally and the upper archer aims up to 75 degrees above or below level. The head, torso, arms and bow follow the launch direction, including gravity and target movement, while the feet stay supported. It waits until the full shot direction is aligned within two degrees before drawing or releasing, and will not fire outside its aiming limit or toward an unreachable target. Both the equipped and fallback bow keep their string facing the archer.

The upper gnome needs direct sight to the target's centre and a clear full arrow trajectory, accounting for gravity and the game's physics steps. It checks again after turning, throughout drawing and before release, using the bow's actual tilted position. Body-to-eye and body-to-bow checks prevent clipped attachment points from shooting through nearby cover. A blocked draw costs no arrows or Coal; with no ammunition, it watches only visible enemies, including those above or below it.

The raised bow can still shoot over low walls when both sight and the entire arrow path clear them. Taller cover blocks shots even when an arrow could arc above it. Arrows already in flight can miss moving targets or hit new obstacles; friendly creatures and buildings remain protected from damage.

The 0.8.7 aiming calculation improves long-distance moving-target lead and accounts for the native arrow's gravity step while keeping the bow's launch speed. A target can still change direction after release; live accuracy remains to be checked in Valheim.

G.N.O.M.E daily volley

When ready, the next completed ordinary draw snapshots all loaded, eligible enemies within the configured bow range that have direct sight from the actual current muzzle and a clear full arrow trajectory. Three waves fire 0.15 seconds apart, for three arrows per enemy. Each wave revalidates life, targeting permissions, range, sight and the full arc; dead, hidden or out-of-range targets are skipped. New arrivals never join the active snapshot. Arrows use normal bow/ammunition damage and the existing friendly/building-safe impacts, and can still miss moving targets.

The entire volley spends one stored arrow and the completed draw's Coal time once. Normal ammunition and fuel are required to start; bonus waves are prepaid, and idle time costs no Coal. ConsumeArrows = false still uses zero stored arrows. Each placed gnome saves its spent calendar game day, with a default one-day cooldown; the network owner alone fires. Reloads, ownership handoffs and clock rollback cannot replay a spent volley, and an interrupted volley is not replayed or refunded. Hover status displays readiness.

Coal and targeting

Both defenders require Coal to attack. Each Coal supplies 600 seconds / 10 minutes of accumulated active attack time by default:

• D.A.R.E charges its elapsed swing windup when a valid strike reaches the impact event.
• G.N.O.M.E charges the completed bow draw once per ordinary shot or entire daily volley; bonus waves are prepaid.

Idle time, turning, cooldowns and cancelled attacks cost nothing. D.A.R.E's shield blocking also uses no fuel. Loose Coal is consumed only when another fuel charge is needed; the unused balance of that charge remains saved on the defender. Fuel duration is configurable separately for each variant.

Open a defender's locker and click Targets to select its saved mode:

Players, tamed animals, player summons, dvergr and other defenders remain protected in both modes. Normal ward access applies to the locker and target selector. Opening a locker pauses that defender's attacks.

Voices and rivalry

The twenty new Medical Gnome Squad remarks use [GnomeChatter] RivalBanter and RivalBanterCooldown. General medical remarks require the optional squad mod to be installed and enabled, with no nearby squad or tent needed. The eight Muse crossovers also require enabled Mead Muse and an intact, active, placed statue within 15 metres. They yield to combat and nearby Muse speech; personal master, spoken-line, subtitle, volume and listening-range preferences still apply. These are gnome observations, with no changes to either optional mod.

G.N.O.M.E has 582 original voiced lines with speech bubbles, performed by two distinct bundled neural voices. The upper gnome boasts; the lower gnome supplies dry remarks. The catalogue includes creature-specific kill jokes, at least four paired exchanges for each known event, occasional “Pew!” and “Pew pew!” sounds, 20 rivalry exchanges, 12 gift remarks and 57 exact Muse replies. Bat and troll raids have six exchanges each; skeleton and ghost raids have five each. Bat and troll kill pools have five quips each; other creature families retain three.

Fourteen rivalry exchanges tease a nearby D.A.R.E, including six about his cowboy hat and country makeover and two Halloween exchanges, and six tease the animated quiz statue from the optional Mead Muse mod. The relevant living or intact placed rival must be within 15 metres. Installing Mead Muse alone does not enable statue jokes: an actual nearby statue must exist. Custom statue names work, and the rivalry never makes the defenders attack each other or the statue.

The 57 Muse answers match her actual successful speech: 26 comments about gnomes, 19 raid/time/weather lines, six D.A.R.E comments and six lightning-counterattack lines (stormcounter_01 through stormcounter_06). A placed statue must be within 15 metres of G.N.O.M.E, and the listener must also be within 15 metres of her. Answers wait for her voice and caption to finish, then another 0.75 seconds, and expire if they cannot be spoken within the following 20 active seconds. They cannot start endless reply loops. Mead Muse remains optional; older versions without lightning speech retain existing answers, and no statue means no answer. RivalBanter gates every response, while RaidBanter also gates event, defense and lightning replies; Muse's own source-category switches and existing combat preemption are respected.

The 74 standalone quips comprise 28 Muse jokes, 28 fictional gnome facts/random quips, four dawn reactions, eight night reactions and six storm reactions, split evenly between the voices. Six Muse jokes tease D.A.R.E's country makeover, four use Halloween themes and two discuss her witch hat. Muse jokes require an intact, placed piece_MeadMuse within 15 metres. Only the two hat lines also require her hat visibly active within 15 metres, including when she roams; hat-off or older Muse versions retain the other quips. Facts need no other mod and present deliberately silly gnome folklore. Each category shuffles without repeats until its deck is exhausted, skipping ineligible hat lines; these are individual punchlines, not paired exchanges.

Old rivalry, new Muse quips and facts share a 90-second default idle interval. The simulation owner broadcasts facts/Muse quips, and each listener applies personal preferences. Random idle chatter pauses while the locker is open and yields to combat and raids; nearby gnomes avoid overlapping speech. Clips play entirely offline; no speech service, account, model download or operating-system voice installation is needed during play.

Dawn, night and windy-rain storm reactions use each listener's local environment and select one nearby idle G.N.O.M.E. Joining establishes a quiet baseline rather than replaying an old event. Pending reactions expire after 45 seconds, observe a 30-second cooldown and prioritize storm over night over dawn. These reactions are separate from native random-raid openings.

Each listener's AudibleRange remains personal, from 5 to 60 metres. Rival banter checks for possible listeners within the supported 60-metre maximum, then each receiving player applies their own distance and mute preferences. An owner using 5 metres therefore does not silence a player 20 metres away using 25 metres. The rival itself must still be within 15 metres of G.N.O.M.E.

Occasional coin gifts

An idle upper gnome can make a witty remark to a random living, visible player within eight metres, then physically toss 2–5 Coins toward them after the bundled recording finishes plus half a second. The single Coins stack is normal networked world loot, visible to all players and available for anyone to pick up.

The default is a 20% chance per eligible idle opportunity (90 seconds by default), with a saved ten-minute cooldown per gnome. Combat and open lockers pause eligibility. A pending gift cancels on combat, raid starts, locker use, unload, ownership changes, the player's departure/death, a blocked path or disabling gifts. A reserved cooldown remains spent even when cancelled, preventing repeated attempts after reloads or ownership changes.

The three server-shared controls are [GnomeGifts] Enabled = true, Chance = 0.2 (0–1) and Cooldown = 600 (60–86,400 seconds). Set Enabled = false to stop gifts for everyone. Personal chatter/audio mutes silence the remark only; physical gifts remain enabled independently. Gifts consume no Coal or arrows.

Configuration

Edit BepInEx/config/local.valheim.dare.cfg while playing, or use an installed BepInEx configuration manager. Saved file edits reload after two stable reads, normally within about two seconds. Gameplay settings are controlled by the server and synchronize automatically to connected players.

Admin edits now reach the server. Wait for server settings and administrator confirmation after joining, then change a value. The server checks its native admin list for every request, saves accepted changes to its own config, and shares them with players. Ordinary players cannot override shared settings. Joining does not upload an admin's existing defaults.

All entries in [Combat], [Health], [Gnome], [GnomeVolley] and [GnomeGifts], plus [GnomeChatter] PewChance, KillQuipCooldown and RivalBanterCooldown, and [DareChatter] BattleCryChance and BattleCryCooldown, are shared: 26 settings in total. The ten gnome listening preferences and three D.A.R.E listening preferences remain personal. There are 39 entries in version 0.8.17. A received server snapshot does not overwrite your local file, and personal preferences are never uploaded, even by admins.

The in-game console provides:

Live edits send only the changed fields, preserving other server values. Local configuration menus retain your local values; status shows the active server values. Server-local edits also propagate live. A failed save is reported without activating the requested change. All clients and the server need this version: defenders wait for the server snapshot before attacking or regenerating. adminlist.txt must recognize the connecting account using Valheim's normal platform ID format; local developer commands or a client-side admin list do not grant server access.

To use the new engagement range on an upgraded installation, edit the existing section:

[Gnome]
DetectionRadius = 60

The default is 60 metres and the allowed range is 5–120. Existing values are preserved, so an old value of 25 must be changed explicitly. Edit on the server or as a confirmed server admin, then check dare_config status for the effective value. Accepted admin edits are saved on the server and sent to clients. This setting does not extend arrow reach, remove line-of-sight checks or change voice, gift or Muse distances.

To adjust G.N.O.M.E's firing speed, edit the existing section:

[Gnome]
FireRateMultiplier = 1.5

The allowed range is 0.5–3. With the unchanged base AttackCooldown = 3, the default multiplier gives a configured two-second cycle while continuously aligned with a clear target. Turning, physics updates and blocked shots may add delays. Coal is charged only for the actual, shorter draw of a released shot; one arrow is consumed per ordinary shot or entire daily volley. D.A.R.E's melee speed is unchanged.

To keep each speech bubble visible for at least 15 seconds, edit the existing section:

[GnomeChatter]
SubtitleDuration = 15

The default is 10 seconds, with a range of 2–60. Longer normal reading time or enabled voice playback is preserved, and two-speaker exchanges wait before showing the next line. Saved duration changes apply from the next line. With Subtitles = false, audio pacing stays unchanged. Normal interruptions, including priority speech, combat where applicable, muting, leaving range or destruction, can still end a line early.

To silence all gnome chatter:

[GnomeChatter]
Enabled = false

Set RivalBanter = false to disable old rivalry and new Muse quips, or RaidBanter = false to disable raids and dawn/night/storm reactions. Facts use the master Enabled switch. All gnome lines respect SpokenLines, Subtitles, Volume and AudibleRange; set SpokenLines = false for text-only dialogue. PewSounds has its own switch. RivalBanterCooldown defaults to 90 seconds and governs old rivalry, Muse quips and facts.

Setting [Gnome] ConsumeArrows = false supplies unlimited basic wood arrows and leaves stored arrows untouched. Coal is still required. Neither variant becomes mobile through configuration.

Saves and limits

Equipment quality, appearance, inventory, remaining fuel and target choices persist with each defender. Equipped gear does not lose durability through defender use. On destruction, the remaining real locker contents drop; built-in weapons and combat copies cannot be collected. Empty the locker before removing a defender with the hammer.

Both defenders can be damaged and destroyed, and they act only while their world area is loaded. They use directed attacks that protect friendly creatures and buildings. Weapon procs, area explosions and secondary moves are suppressed; the mod does not add hammer healing.

Before uninstalling, retrieve your stored items, dismantle every D.A.R.E and G.N.O.M.E while the mod is installed, then save and close the world. Remove the plugin consistently from the server and all clients.

The package includes offline references in GNOME_DIALOGUE.md, GNOME_VOICE_SOURCES.md, DARE_VOICE_SOURCES.md and TESTING.md, plus separate gnome/cowboy voice manifests, license notices, audio samples and model previews. The previews are rendered from the mod's geometry, not recorded in-game.

Voice credits

The top gnome uses bm_fable and the bottom gnome uses bm_george, stock British English male voices from Kokoro-82M v1.0. D.A.R.E's eight short cowboy calls use stock American English male voice am_fenrir at natural pitch. Voice production uses kokoro-onnx and Misaki. Attribution and upstream notices are included in the package; these credits do not imply an endorsement.

Primary sources: Kokoro model card, official voice catalogue, kokoro-onnx, and Misaki.