Valheim mod makes kicking way more kicky

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Give enemies the boot, properly, with added knockback and vertical launch.

Valhiem kicking mod
(Image credit: Iron Gate Studios)

As we've noted before, kicking in games is the best thing you can do with your virtual foot. A game with a good kick, like FEAR or Dying Light or Dark Messiah: Might and Magic, is more fun and memorable because you can leg-lash enemies to death instead of just shooting or stabbing them. Kicks are way better than a knife slash, more degrading than a measly punch.

And you can kick in Valheim, but the vanilla kick doesn't really kick ass. Until now. The Give 'Em The Boot mod will take your kick to new heights by launching your enemies to new, well, heights. Lighter enemies, like the lowly greydwarf, will actually be propelled into the air by your mighty boot. Heavier enemies might not get launched, but they will still be knocked back more than they are usually. The mod even lets you kick while holding a weapon, so if you're getting mobbed and running out of stamina, you can knock enemies away and give yourself a second or two of breathing room. Check it out in action:

It's not a one-size-kicks-all deal, either. As you level up your unarmed skill, your kick will become more powerful. Wearing heavier leg armor will give your kick still more force, and you get a bonus from enemies who have already been staggered.

And if you're worried about kicking something so hard their loot gets scattered as they sail off a cliff, don't. On a killing blow, your mighty boot won't lift the enemy into the air and send them flying, it'll only knock them back horizontally so you can more easily collect the spoils. That's a considerate feature.

Most amusingly, the mod adds a little text on screen when you kick that says BOOT or YEET or BYE. It's kinda cute! If you disagree, the text can be turned off in the mod's config file. Check it out in action:

Thanks, RPS.

Christopher Livingston
Christopher Livingston
Senior Editor

Chris started playing PC games in the 1980s, started writing about them in the early 2000s, and (finally) started getting paid to write about them in the late 2000s. Following a few years as a regular freelancer, PC Gamer hired him in 2014, probably so he'd stop emailing them asking for more work. Chris has a love-hate relationship with survival games and an unhealthy fascination with the inner lives of NPCs. He's also a fan of offbeat simulation games, mods, and ignoring storylines in RPGs so he can make up his own.