Skips PEAK's mandatory server version check and restores the offline island rotation timer and dev message.

Transparency note: this plugin was built with AI assistance (vibecoded, end to end — diagnosis of the game's IL, the Harmony patches, the docs you're reading). It still solves a real problem that affects many players — being locked out of the game by the server version gate — and every claim in this README was verified against a running game. Source is fully available in Plugin.cs; read it before you trust it.

Problem it solves: on every launch, MainMenuPageHandler asks peaklogin3.azurewebsites.net/api/VersionCheck whether your build is current. If the server says no — or is unreachable — the game shows a VERSIONOUTOFDATE modal whose only option is closing the game. This plugin removes that gate entirely.

The plugin fetches the real daily dev message and shows it in the menu:

• On launch it queries the endpoint the game uses (bounded to ~2.5 s, so the menu never freezes).
• The real message is persisted to CachedMessage and reused on later, offline launches.
• If the server is unreachable, it falls back to CachedMessage, then DevMessage, then the built-in default.

The island timer is replicated from the game's own offline fallback math (NextLevelService.CreateFallbackData): 24 h rotation anchored to 2025-06-14 17:00 UTC. Countdown and island index behave exactly like the vanilla offline mode.

r2modman / Gale / Thunderstore Mod Manager: install this package from the manager, profile PEAK, then Launch. Done.

1. You need BepInEx 5 (BepInExPack PEAK) installed in the game folder.
2. Copy BepInEx/plugins/PeakVersionBypass.dll into your game's BepInEx/plugins/ folder.
3. Launch the game. The version modal will not appear.

BepInEx/config/com.black.peakversionbypass.cfg:

[General]
## Fallback text shown in the menu's Dev Message slot when the real server
## message cannot be fetched.
# Setting type: String
# Default value: we updated the frogs again
DevMessage = we updated the frogs again

## Last known real dev message, auto-updated while online. Leave empty to
## fall back to DevMessage.
# Setting type: String
# Default value:
CachedMessage =

• CachedMessage is overwritten automatically on every successful fetch. You normally never touch it; it's what lets the menu still show the last real message when you're offline.
• DevMessage is only a fallback: it shows when the server can't be reached and there is no cached value yet.

• BepInEx 5.4.23.x (BepInExPack PEAK 5.4.75301 or equivalent), Unity 6 Mono runtime.
• Harmony patches are narrow (one method prefix + one property postfix) and use AccessTools name-based lookup with null guards, so the plugin degrades gracefully — it logs warnings instead of crashing if a game update renames the patched members.
• Compatible with other plugins: it does not detour anything other mods typically hook (no Player, NetworkManager, Photon, or Steamworks patches). If another mod also patches CloudAPI.CheckVersion, both apply; the last prefix returning false wins, which is the expected Harmony behavior.

• Multiplayer: lobbies hosted on newer game builds can still refuse your client (Photon app-version / lobby PeakVersion property mismatch). That is server-side intent, not something this plugin can or should bypass — play with others on the same build.
• The Unable to start Unity log writer line some setups print at boot is a known cosmetic BepInEx 5.4.23 + Unity 6 issue, unrelated to this plugin.

Check BepInEx/LogOutput.log for:

[Info  :PEAK Version Bypass] Patched CloudAPI.CheckVersion
[Info  :PEAK Version Bypass] Patched MainMenuPageHandler.get_CanSkipVersionCheck -> true
[Info  :PEAK Version Bypass] PEAK Version Bypass ready (2 patches applied)

If you see warnings instead, a game update renamed the patched members — the game will still run, but the version check will be active again.

MIT — do whatever, credit appreciated.