DeHaven Gaming
FrostVale ModPack 3 · 3.1.0 · Balrond-first hard survival

The Eldradia
FrostVale Server

A Valheim world run out of the home lab, on a fifty-mod pack built around Balrond progression, dangerous water, and no portals. Everyone runs the same pack — that is the whole design, and it is why joining is six steps instead of sixty.

This playthrough is paused. The server is not running while we are on Project Zomboid. The world, the pack and the settings are all kept exactly as they were, so picking it back up is a matter of starting the server — nothing here has to be rebuilt.

Everything on this page still applies. If you want to be ready for the night it comes back, install the pack now: it is the same install whether the server is up or not, and it works for solo play in the meantime.

Server details Paused
Address
home.dehaven.info
Port
2456
Password
xdxdx

Eldradia is not on the public server list. You will not find it by browsing. Join through Direct Connect, using the address and port above, as in step 6.

Game
Valheim
Package
FrostVale_ModPack_3
Version
3.1.0
Mods
50
Loader
BepInEx
Join
Direct Connect
Crossplay
Off
Portals
Disabled
Maps
Enabled

What FrostVale is

Balrond first, and hard about it
FrostVale ModPack 3 cover art

FrostVale is a hard-survival pack. Balrond is the backbone — it owns progression and world identity, which means nature, crafting, food, building, ships, monsters, gear, and the shape of the survival loop itself. Everything else is chosen to support that rather than to compete with it.

Portals are disabled. That single setting changes the whole game: distance becomes real, boats become infrastructure, and a cart full of ore is an expedition rather than an errand. The ocean mods exist because of it.

What the pack leans on

The quality-of-life mods are part of the design, not an afterthought bolted on to make a hard pack tolerable. Hard survival is about the world being dangerous, not about inventory management being tedious.

Install and join

Six steps, in order

Valheim modding does not go through Steam Workshop. It goes through a mod manager, which keeps the modded install in its own profile and leaves your vanilla game untouched. If you have modded Valheim before, this will be familiar; if you have only modded Project Zomboid, note that almost none of that process carries over.

  1. 1

    Install Valheim through Steam

    Vanilla, no beta branches, fully updated. Launch it once to be sure it runs clean before any mods go near it.

  2. 2

    Install a mod manager

    Either one works — they are the same tool with different badges:

    • r2modman — standalone, free
    • Thunderstore Mod Manager — the same thing inside the Overwolf app

    If you have no preference, take r2modman. It has no launcher wrapped around it.

  3. 3

    Install the pack

    In the manager: select Valheim, then search for the package and install the latest version.

    FrostVale_ModPack_3

    It pulls BepInEx, Jotunn and all fifty dependencies on its own. Let it finish completely before you launch anything.

    Create it as its own profile. If you already have a Valheim profile for something else, leave that one alone — see step 5 for why.

  4. 4

    Launch from the mod manager Do not skip

    Do not launch Valheim from Steam when you mean to play FrostVale. Steam launches the game vanilla. It does not warn you, it does not fail — you simply end up in an unmodded world wondering where everything went, and then you cannot connect.

    Press Start modded in r2modman (or Play inside the Thunderstore manager, on the FrostVale profile). That is the only way in from here on.

    First modded launch is slow. Fifty mods have to register their content before the main menu appears; this is normal and it gets faster afterwards.

  5. 5

    Do not add anything to this profile Do not skip

    Most of these mods register networked items, pieces, recipes or versioned behaviour through Jotunn or ServerSync. When your modset and the server's do not match, Jotunn can refuse the connection outright.

    So: one extra content mod on your side, and you do not get in. Not "it runs a bit differently" — you are refused at the door.

    Keep a separate profile for solo experiments if you like. Just do not use that profile to join Eldradia unless it is exactly the canonical pack.

  6. 6

    Direct Connect

    Join Game → Join IP, then enter the address and port from the panel at the top of this page:

    • Address: home.dehaven.info
    • Port: 2456
    • Password: xdxdx

    The host owns gameplay and config for every ServerSync-capable mod. Those settings push to your client automatically when you join, so there is nothing for you to tune.

    Right now this step will fail, and that is expected — the server is paused. Steps 1 to 5 are the ones that matter today. Do those, play solo on the same pack, and be ready.

The pack

Fifty dependencies, grouped

This is the full dependency list as published in manifest.json for 3.1.0, in the groups the pack is actually organised in. You do not need to install any of these yourself — the manager does it — but it is here so you can see what is in the world before you spend an evening in it.

Foundation 3

The loader and the common modding libraries. Everything else sits on these.

  • denikson-BepInExPack_Valheim-5.4.2333
  • ValheimModding-JsonDotNET-13.0.4
  • ValheimModding-Jotunn-2.29.0
Balrond backbone 12

The pack's identity layer: progression, crafting, food, building, ships, monsters, gear and survival texture.

  • Balrond-balrond_runerails-1.0.6
  • Balrond-balrond_constructions-1.4.0
  • Balrond-balrond_furniture_reborn-1.2.5
  • Balrond-balrond_amazing_nature-1.2.4
  • Balrond-balrond_paintingframe-1.0.0
  • Balrond-balrond_wind_chasers-1.0.5
  • Balrond-balrond_shipyard-1.6.5
  • Balrond-balrond_humanoidRandomizer-1.4.0
  • Balrond-balrond_MonsterMayehm-0.2.4
  • Balrond-balrond_arsenal_reborn-0.1.6
  • Balrond-balrond_secondchance-1.0.2
  • Balrond-balrond_hearth_marks-1.0.2
Skills and progression 10

Smoothbrain mods. Character progression and world interaction, all of it levelled by doing.

  • Smoothbrain-Jewelcrafting-2.0.1
  • Smoothbrain-CreatureLevelAndLootControl-4.6.4
  • Smoothbrain-Farming-2.2.2
  • Smoothbrain-Exploration-1.0.4
  • Smoothbrain-Sailing-1.1.8
  • Smoothbrain-Foraging-1.0.10
  • Smoothbrain-Building-1.2.6
  • Smoothbrain-DarwinAwards-1.0.6
  • Smoothbrain-Backpacks-1.3.8
  • Smoothbrain-Ranching-1.1.6
Ocean, fishing and water travel 4

RtDOcean supplies ocean danger and the shoreline rice loop; the rest make the water somewhere you live rather than something you cross.

  • Marlthon-TheFisher-0.3.5
  • Soloredis-RtDOcean-2.2.21
  • Korppis-Spearfishing-1.0.4
  • sighsorry-Dive_In-1.0.5
Food, potions, ships and building utility 4

ValheimRAFT is the one that matters most with portals off — it is how you move a base.

  • OdinPlus-PotionPlus-4.3.0
  • OdinPlus-OdinsFoodBarrels-1.2.3
  • zolantris-ValheimRAFTBETA-4.3.0
  • ComfyMods-SearsCatalog-1.8.0
Azumatt quality of life 11

Crafting from containers, area repair, extended inventory, auto-store, hover stats, and a config manager that makes the rest of it adjustable.

  • Azumatt-AzuMiscPatches-1.2.8
  • Azumatt-AzuAreaRepair-1.1.6
  • Azumatt-AzuWorkbenchTweaks-1.0.5
  • Azumatt-AzuCraftyBoxes-1.8.14
  • Azumatt-AzuExtendedPlayerInventory-2.4.1
  • Azumatt-AzuAutoStore-3.0.14
  • Azumatt-AzuHoverStats-1.1.9
  • Azumatt-Build_Camera_Custom_Hammers_Edition-1.2.10
  • Azumatt-AAA_Crafting-2.1.6
  • Azumatt-Azus_UnOfficial_ConfigManager-18.4.4
  • Azumatt-SaveCrossbowState-1.0.2
Storage, interface, books, mail and operations 6

Shared chests and hoppers, a better UI, in-game books and mail, and the Discord bridge the host runs.

  • MSchmoecker-MultiUserChest-0.6.1
  • MSchmoecker-ItemHopper-2.0.0
  • CookieMilk-ReadMe-1.1.8
  • CookieMilk-YouGotMail-1.1.9
  • BetterUI_ForeverMaintained-BetterUI_ForeverMaintained-2.5.9
  • VerdantsAscent-FiresDiscordIntegration-1.0.1

FiresDiscordIntegration ships in the one pack but only does useful work on the host, and only once the host supplies Discord credentials. On a solo install or a regular client it sits idle and costs nothing.

Why it is one pack

The thing 3.1.0 fixed

FrostVale used to ship three packages — solo, client, and server. They drifted. Players ended up carrying mods the server did not have (ValheimRAFT, MultiUserChest, ItemHopper), the server carried shared libraries the client pack was missing, and Jotunn refused the resulting joins. The root cause was never a bad mod; it was three lists that had to be kept identical by hand and were not.

3.1.0 retired the split. There is now one canonical package, and the server runs the exact same pack as every player.

The safe-divergence rule

In theory only mods that add no networked content can safely differ between client and server — purely cosmetic client-side mods, and server-only operations mods. In practice, tracking where that boundary sits costs more than it saves. The current rule is the simple one: everything is in one pack, and the server runs it too.

Config

ServerSync-capable mods push their settings from host to client on join, so multiplayer players inherit the server's tuning automatically. For solo parity the build can bundle the tuned host .cfg files into the pack — excluding anything holding a secret, and only after the live server has been rebuilt on the current dependency list and tuned.

The compatibility plugin

The pack bundles one local patch, plugins/FrostValeCompat/FrostValeCompat.dll. It keeps RtDOcean rice placement at shoreline water level, and supports Discord-visible player-name cleanup on the server. SHA256 from the checked source package: 

AFF6C980BF393DE5DF09A0BDAC4C79F9CE743F7EFF10948BD7219EDCA1A4495C

If it does not work

Read this before asking
Nothing is modded — the game looks vanilla

You launched from Steam. Close the game and start it from r2modman or the Thunderstore manager instead, on the FrostVale profile. This is far and away the most common one.

Refused at the join, or kicked straight back out

Almost always a modset mismatch. Jotunn compares what you have registered against what the server has and refuses the connection when they differ.

Confirm the installed package is FrostVale_ModPack_3, confirm its version matches the server's, and confirm you have not added anything to that profile. If you keep a separate solo profile, make sure you are not joining from it.

The server does not respond at all

Right now, that is expected — the playthrough is paused and the server is not running. When it comes back, this page gets updated and the status at the top changes from Paused to Running.

Can I play the same pack on my own?

Yes, and it is worth doing. Since 3.1.0 the solo pack and the server pack are the same package, so a single-player world on the FrostVale profile is the same world with the same rules. Nothing about it needs the server to be up.

Do I need to set up Discord?

No. The Discord integration is host-side only. With no bot token configured it stays idle on solo installs and regular clients, and there is nothing for you to do.

Everything looks right and it still fails

Tell Michael which step failed and what the exact error said. The BepInEx log on your side and the server log on his usually make it obvious between them.

Host notes

Maintainer side — players can stop here

Secrets rule. Discord bot tokens, webhook URLs, Discord server and channel IDs, and any generated live config holding host credentials are never committed, published, or shipped in the pack. The token lives on the server and nowhere else.

Discord operations run through VerdantsAscent-FiresDiscordIntegration, out of the same canonical pack players install. It is not plug and play: the host configures the bot, webhooks, channel IDs and permissions after installing the package.

Channels

Bot permissions

View Channels, Send Messages, Read Message History, Add Reactions, Manage Messages. Message Content Intent as well, if the Discord-to-Valheim chat relay is on.

First boot check

After configuring, restart and watch the BepInEx server log for:

Building the pack

The authoritative builder is Build-Modpacks.ps1 on the server: it reads the live dependency source, resolves latest versions, regenerates manifest.json and dependencies/frostvale.txt, and writes release zips. BepInEx and Jotunn stay pinned unless -NoPin is passed. The repo also carries scripts\Build-Packages.ps1 for a standalone build from a clone, which packages the current contents at a given version and does not contact Thunderstore.

Full maintainer notes, the dependency source and the source map live in the FrostVale wiki, not here. This page is the player-facing version.

Changelog

Where the pack has been

3.1.0 current

Reunified into a single pack. Fixed the join failures caused by split-pack drift.

  • retired the client / server / solo split
  • created one canonical package, FrostVale_ModPack_3
  • server and every client now install the same modset
  • added ValheimModding-JsonDotNET, which the server had and the client pack lacked
  • included FiresDiscordIntegration in the one pack, idle without a bot token
  • rebuilds now pull the latest Thunderstore version of each mod
  • BepInEx and Jotunn stay pinned unless -NoPin is passed
  • bundled FrostValeCompat.dll

3.0.7

Retired. The split client pack, trimmed for the Eldradia playthrough.

3.0.6

Retired. Final build of the separate solo, client and server packs.

Paused, not finished. The world is kept as it stands. When Project Zomboid winds down, the server comes back on this same pack — so an install you do today is an install that still works then.