Thunderstore (Valheim)

What it is

Thunderstore is an open-source mod-hosting platform aimed at modern moddable games, especially Unity-based with BepInEx (Risk of Rain 2, Lethal Company, REPO, Valheim, etc.). The Valheim instance — thunderstore.io/c/valheim/ — hosts 10,000+ packages organized by category, author, tags, and popularity.

Unlike Nexus Mods, Thunderstore is designed for mod managers from the start: every package has a manifest.json with declared dependencies, strict semantic versioning, and a public API endpoint managers consume for downloads/updates. That's why r2modman/Gale/TMM integrate so cleanly.

It's free, no rate limits, no account required to browse or download (account only if you want to publish).

What it solves

Traditional modding (Nexus-era) had frictions for newer games with many coexisting mods:

• No dependency resolution. A mod might need "BepInEx + Jotunn + HookGen" and you had to know and install them manually.
• Free-for-all versioning. If a mod shipped v2.0 with breaking changes, downstream mods had no signal.
• No structured API. Every manager scraped Nexus HTML to automate.

Thunderstore solved that:

• Manifest-declared dependencies. Installing a mod brings its deps in automatically.
• Semver enforcement. Versions follow major.minor.patch and managers understand compatibility.
• Public JSON API. Anyone can consume the catalog without scraping.
• Community verification. Mods can be flagged "moderated" or "verified" by the mod team.

For Valheim, that means a 50-mod modlist installs in minutes without thinking about order, deps, or visible conflicts.

Differentiation

Vs. Nexus Mods (Valheim): Thunderstore is the primary platform for catalog and manager integration. Nexus has texture packs and historic mods that didn't migrate.

Vs. GitHub raw downloads: GitHub hosts code, not the user-facing experience. For devs, Thunderstore auto-publishes builds from GitHub Actions. For users, Thunderstore is the layer above GitHub.

Vs. CurseForge: CurseForge is Thunderstore's equivalent for Minecraft and some Bethesda games. Not present in Valheim.

What people use it for

Downloading and installing mods. The primary source for any mod manager. r2modman/Gale/TMM consume Thunderstore directly.

Browsing the catalog. Search mods by category (QoL, Building, Gameplay, Cosmetic, Server-side, etc.), tags, author. Filters and rankings help discovery.

Publishing your own mods. If you build a mod, publishing on Thunderstore is free and straightforward. The manifest.json declares metadata, deps, description, and the system publishes versions after CI build.

Tracking updates. The mod page shows version history with changelogs. To know if a mod is still maintained, check last commit date.

Verifying a mod's reputation. Comments, ratings, and "verified" mod-team badges signal quality. Suspicious mods get reported and typically removed.

Investigating dependencies. The mod page lists which other packages it needs and which depend on it. Useful for understanding your modlist's graph.

Who this tool is not for

If you don't mod Valheim: irrelevant.

If you only need texture packs / skins: Nexus probably has a better catalog in that specific vertical. Thunderstore has some but fewer.

If you want to mod without a manager by philosophy: you can download Thunderstore zips manually, but you lose all the ecosystem value. Thunderstore's real target is managers.

If you're looking for mods from a non-Thunderstore game (Skyrim, etc.): doesn't apply. Thunderstore doesn't host those.

How it works in practice

As a user via mod manager (recommended):

1. Your manager (r2modman/Gale/TMM) talks to Thunderstore directly.
2. In your manager's "Online" tab, browse, search, and install. Zero interaction with the website.

As a user browsing the site:

1. Go to thunderstore.io/c/valheim/.
2. Browse by category or use search.
3. Click a mod → see description, screenshots, dependencies, version history.
4. "Download" gives the direct .zip, or "Install with Mod Manager" opens your manager if configured.

As a dev publishing:

1. Account on Thunderstore.
2. In your GitHub repo, configure the Thunderstore Action (GreenTF/upload-thunderstore-package) in CI.
3. On each GitHub release, the Action uploads the package to Thunderstore automatically.
4. The package needs manifest.json with name, version, deps, etc.

Honest limitations

Ecosystem-bound. If you mod a game not on Thunderstore (Skyrim, etc.), doesn't apply.

Catalog can be noisy. With 10,000+ packages, search returns noise. Filters help but community-driven curation has inherent noise.

Abandoned mods. Like any hub, many packages are mods authors stopped updating. Filtering "active in last 90 days" requires manual version-history checking.

Verification is voluntary. Not every mod is "verified" by the team. Quality varies.

No fine-grained rating system. Stars and download counts exist, but there's no robust review system like Steam.

Getting started

As a user:

1. Install r2modman, Gale, or TMM (any of the three).
2. Your manager talks to Thunderstore automatically. You don't need to open the site.
3. To browse manually without a manager, go to thunderstore.io/c/valheim/.

As a dev:

1. Create a Thunderstore account.
2. Read the "Publishing a package" guide at thunderstore.io/wiki/.
3. Structure your mod with a correct manifest.json.
4. Upload manually or automate via CI.

For support, the Thunderstore Discord (discord.gg/thunderstore) is the community's main hub.