May was… let’s say “eventful.”Between a flu that hit harder than a surprise plot twist and a stack of everyday chaos, my workflow took a serious wobble. Still, none of that managed to keep me from pushing forward with fresh wins on the HFW modding front.

And because I’d rather show results than just talk about them, I’m kicking off the Five‑Day Modding Marathon, starting today. Buckle up, it’s modding season again.

What is the Five‑Day Modding Marathon?

Over the next five days, I’ll be dropping one mod per day. Most of them will be completely new mods which you haven’t seen before, but for the first mod that will open the marathon I chose a well‑known mod, which recently got a new version and is now called ShieldWing Pro:

So what’s so special about this new mod variant, ShieldWing Pro, that I put it first? Unlike the previous Plus version, this mod features a single gravity setting, an improved descent with gravity set to ‑0.2, which blends perfectly with the game’s lore and logic.

But the highlight I’m proud to present is the new ascend technique (or lifehack), allowing you to set direction and fly upward when needed (with a limited height).

All of this brings balance, ensuring proper quest progression where ShieldWing deployment is required, while overall preserving the game’s lore—something the previous version struggled with.

So how to fly up?

In order to fly upwards, press the Jump and ShieldWing deploy keys simultaneously and hold for around 1 second:

For keyboard: Spacebar + C

For controller: ⏹️ + ❎

Note: The flight direction—whether ascent or descent—cannot be changed once airborne. This feature / lifehack is available only during takeoff.Note2: When set to fly upward, Aloy won’t ascend endlessly. Instead, she will reach a certain height and then gradually descend. This is a current limitation of the mod and cannot be changed.

New generation of mods / Mod Manager update

Mods: Focus Tweaks (Clear Focus) and ShieldWing Plus/Pro were recently updated to match the new mods generation, which makes them fully independent. All that became possible with new Mod Manager version 0.9.9.

Do you need to update those two mods and Mod Manager to the latest versions?

Yes, in order to use new compatibility features including my future mods you should update your Mod Manager to v0.9.9 or above as well as make sure that you have latest versions of Focus Tweaks (Clear Focus) and ShieldWing Plus/Pro which I recently updated.

Big Thanks to My Patrons!

As tradition goes, I want to give a heartfelt thank‑you to everyone who continues supporting me on Patreon. Your support is what keeps my HFW/HZD projects afloat, fuels constant improvements, and makes it possible to develop new kinds of mods—many of which you’ll soon see unveiled during the marathon.