💀 Fatal Fall
A vanilla friendly, server-authoritative damage overhaul for Valheim - focused on making “almost-death” moments feel fair, consistent, and learnable.
Fatal Fall’s signature mechanic is the Borderline Save: when a hit would barely kill you, the mod can cap the damage to leave you barely alive, then apply Bleeding so you still have to deal with the consequences.
And importantly: Borderline Save isn’t limited to falls - by default it can also protect you from near-lethal mob hits (and other damage sources), with an anti-cheese cooldown so it can’t be spammed.
You can also enable an optional Uncapped Landing Damage mode that lets extreme drops go far beyond vanilla’s effective cap, by safely adding extra damage on touchdown (server-safe + gated to real fall events).
⭐ What This Mod Does (In Plain English)
- Falls stay dangerous, but “I should have lived” moments get a fair, consistent save.
- Mobs can’t instantly delete you on borderline hits: if the hit is only slightly over lethal, maybe lag caught you off guard, you can survive (once per cooldown) — then you’re bleeding and in trouble.
- Big mistakes still kill you: massive overkill bypasses Borderline entirely.
✨ Features
- Server-authoritative damage handling (dedicated server safe)
- Vanilla-friendly: no changes to movement, physics, stamina, or controls
Borderline Save (core feature)
- Triggers on near-lethal hits to leave you barely alive
- Applies to:
- Falls
- Mobs / combat hits / DoT (optional toggle - enabled by default)
- Anti-cheese cooldown so saves aren’t perma-chained
- Configurable:
- Save window (how “barely lethal” the hit must be)
- Leave HP (how much HP you survive with)
- Max overkill cutoff (big hits still kill you normally)
Bleeding consequence
- Applies a Bleeding StatusEffect after a Borderline Save
- Custom icon supported (
bleed.png next to the DLL)
- Configurable duration, DPS, and minimum HP floor (prevents bleed from killing a 1 HP save)
- Optional: skip bleed if a Staff of Protection bubble is active (best-effort detection)
Extras
- Optional on-screen popup messaging (separate pools for fall vs non-fall saves)
- Optional heartbeat sound on save (
heartbeat.ogg next to the DLL, client-side)
- Optional Uncapped Landing Damage mode for extreme falls (safe + gated)
- Debug logging for troubleshooting
Server Identity & Feel
- Fully customizable Borderline popup messages
- Separate message pools for falls and non-fall saves
- Admins can define tone: immersive, brutal, humorous, lore-friendly, or minimal
- Messages are selected randomly from your custom list
⚙️ Configuration
All settings live in:
BepInEx/config/Pix.FatalFall.cfg
Key sections:
- General: enable/disable, fall multiplier, debug logging
- Borderline: enable, apply-to-all-damage, save window, leave HP, max overkill cutoff, cooldown
- Bleed: enable, duration (default 45s), DPS, min HP floor, skip-if-bubble
- UI: popup enable + message sets
- Sound: heartbeat toggle + filename
- Uncap: enable + tuning for extra landing damage
⚠️ Important Note About Configs
If you ever tested older configs or extreme values, your .cfg can carry them forward.
If behavior feels “way off,” delete the config to regenerate defaults:
BepInEx/config/Pix.FatalFall.cfg
🛡️ Server Admin Notes
- All damage logic is enforced server-side via
Character.RPC_Damage
- Borderline saves, bleed application, and cooldown enforcement are authoritative
- Uncapped landing damage is gated to confirmed recent fall hits + sanity clamps to prevent random spikes
- Safe for long-running servers and modpacks
📜 Changelog
v0.5.0
- Borderline Save can now optionally apply to all near-fatal damage (mobs, DoT, etc.) — enabled by default
- Added Borderline cooldown (anti-cheese) to prevent save-state spam
- Improved popup messaging (separate fall vs non-fall pools)
- Bleeding defaults updated (duration now 45 seconds by default)
- Optional: skip bleed if Staff of Protection bubble is active (best-effort)
- Experimental but working: Uncapped Landing Damage
- Adds extra landing damage on touchdown
- Safety-gated to recent real fall hits + sanity clamps to prevent runaway values
- General cleanup and reliability improvements (single-player + dedicated)
v0.4.23
- Finalized Borderline Save logic (near-lethal fall protection)
- Fixed client StatusEffect registration / visibility
- Reworked bleed logic (configurable duration, DPS, and minimum HP floor)
- Added/expanded configs and debug logging
- Experimental: optional uncapped fall damage mode
v0.3.8
- Fixed issue affecting dedicated servers
v0.3.7
- Fixed custom StatusEffect icon loading
- Improved dedicated server stability
- Introduced Borderline Save + Bleeding mechanic
- Added popup messaging + lifecycle cleanup
- Multiplayer safety fixes and tuning
- Initial public release
📦 Requirements
💬 Support
If you need to contact me, please use the Discord link on the Thunderstore page and report issues/bugs there (include logs + your config when possible).
