Wacky EpicMMO System on a Valheim Server: Levels, Attributes, Installation and Setup

Wacky EpicMMO System adds something vanilla Valheim simply does not have: character levels, an XP bar and attribute points that players spend themselves. Monsters get levels too, and the reward for a kill depends on the gap between you and your target. For the owner of a Valheim EpicMMO server this is a lever that can stretch or speed up the progression of the whole group, so it pays to configure it before the world starts rather than halfway through the Plains.

Below we cover what the mod does, where it needs to be installed, which config options actually matter to an admin and which problems come up most often. The mod continues LambaSun's original EpicMMOSystem and is now maintained by WackyMole.

What Wacky EpicMMO System adds

Every monster kill grants XP, an XP bar sits on screen, and levelling up brings attribute points. XP can also be earned outside combat: mining, tree cutting, fishing, taming and building. There is PvP XP, XP orbs and potions, and admins can tune progression speed for their own server.

Six attributes

• Strength — physical damage, carry weight, lower stamina use, critical damage.
• Dexterity — attack and usage speed, lower stamina use for running and jumping.
• Intellect — elemental damage, eitr pool and eitr regeneration.
• Endurance — physical armour, stamina and stamina regeneration.
• Vigour — health, health regeneration and elemental armour.
• Specializing — critical chance, mining and tree cutting damage, construction piece health.

Monster levels and name colours

The mod assigns levels to all monsters, and every star adds one level. A monster well above you shows its name in red, one within your range in white and one below you in cyan; by default the range is ±10 levels. Monsters that are far too weak give reduced XP. Yellow names with "???" are mobs set to level 0 in the JSON: no restrictions apply to them.

XP orbs, potions and the fermenter

There are eight levels of Magic Orbs, one per biome from the Meadows to the Deep North. By default an orb has a 1% chance to drop from any mob, while bosses always drop one to four. Three XP potions give +30%, +60% and +100% XP (the minor one lasts 10 minutes). Their meads are brewed from Mob Chunks made out of trophies and need one or two orbs. On top of that there is a dedicated Magic Fermenter, and points can be reset for coins or for a rare ResetTrophy item.

Where to install it and how settings sync

On Thunderstore the mod is tagged as both client-side and server-side, and that is not a formality. It adds items, UI and recalculates damage, so EpicMMO must be on the server and on every player's game. The server distributes settings through the bundled ServerSync, and in the mod's source the minimum required version equals the current one — keep everyone on exactly the same version.

Shared group XP and the friends list only work together with the Groups mod by Smoothbrain, which the author asks every client to install. Outside a group, all XP goes to the character who struck the last blow.

A useful detail for admins: according to the author, levels are stored in character data, not in the world file. Switching worlds does not wipe progress — that is what the reset commands are for. Also note that Xbox and Game Pass players cannot install BepInEx mods, so crossplay with them does not work on a modded server.

Version and dependencies

Installing on an Elysium server

1. Take a manual backup in the Backups tab of the panel.
2. Check that the server runs the BepInEx variant — the loader is already there, no separate install needed.
3. Upload the EpicMMO files (and the Groups mod if you want groups) into BepInEx/plugins through the panel's file manager or SFTP.
4. Restart the server and watch the console: on first launch the mod creates its configs and the monster JSON folder.
5. Give your players the same mods in the same versions and ask them to fully restart the game.

How to keep a group mod list, track versions and find the culprit after a crash is described in our general guide to Valheim server mods.

Tuning progression

Every formula in the mod can be changed in the config file. The key decisions to make before launch:

• Levelling speed. By default the first level costs 300 XP and the next-level multiplier is 1.05, which gives 300, 615, 946, 1293 and 1658 for the first five levels. This is controlled by LevelExperience and MultiplyNextLevelExperience. Turning off Add LevelExperience on each level stops adding 300 XP to every level — but then, the author warns, all monster JSON files have to be reworked.
• Damage against stronger mobs. With Low_damage_level, damage dealt to a monster above your level is reduced by the level difference, and Low_damage_config shifts that factor; it never goes above 1 or below 0.1.
• Non-combat XP. In section 7, 1.Disable All NonCombat XP turns it off entirely, while separate toggles cover building, taming, mining and tree XP.
• PvP. Section 8 holds Enable PVP XP, XP Per Level, XP Per Day Alive and Player PVP Range. The mod does not touch the vanilla PvP toggle.
• Point resets. The reset currency is set with prefabName (default Coins).

Monster levels and XP live in JSON files in BepInEx/config/EpicMMOSystem/. They already include data for vanilla mobs and for popular creature mods — Monstrum, SeaAnimals, Fantasy-Creatures and even the mages from the Wizardry mod. Since 1.9.71 you can give the same mob a different level and XP in different biomes.

Admin commands

The commands run in the admin's console: epicmmosystem level [value] [name] sets a level, epicmmosystem reset_points [name] resets attribute points, epicmmosystem reset_totalpoints [name] wipes level and XP, and epicmmosystem recalc [name] recalculates the level from total experience.

Server load and plan choice

EpicMMO does not add buildings or new biomes to the world. Its work is calculation: XP for every kill and action, damage adjustments by level, and showing nearby players' level and XP worth. For the latter the author added options that save performance. The load usually comes not from EpicMMO itself but from the creature mods people install alongside it for more varied mobs.

A group of up to four with EpicMMO and a couple of mods is fine on Pulse (4 GB). If it is the core of an RPG pack together with Epic Loot and monster mods, aim for Nexus (8 GB, up to 8 players and up to 10 mods) or Vortex (10 GB, up to 15 mods). More on choosing hardware in our Valheim server hosting guide.

Common problems

• HUD bars are invisible. The author suggests switching Valheim's display setting to Native Scaling or setting GUI scale to 100%. HudBarScale resizes every element at once.
• Old JSON files are gone. Versions 1.9.30 and 1.9.32 renamed the files; the old ones sit in the EpicMMOSystem_backup folder.
• Conflict with another mod. EpicMMO passes the player's level through hit.toolTier — if another mod uses it too, damage may behave oddly.
• A friend request disappeared. It has to be accepted while both characters are online: unaccepted requests are removed on logout.

For other mods that suit an RPG server, see our roundup of the best Valheim mods. The full README and changelog are on the mod's Thunderstore page.