Dedicated Servers

0:03 A Valheim dedicated server is a free standalone program that keeps a world of Valheim online around the clock for up to ten players, without the person who owns it having to be in the game. It is the alternative to the ordinary session a player hosts from inside the game, which exists only while that player is online. Iron Gate runs no official servers and has no access to anyone's worlds or characters (Iron Gate FAQ). Only a PC can run one, but every platform can join it, because the same program speaks the crossplay backend consoles use; see Cross-Play.

Quick facts

Sources: Iron Gate's server guide; 1.0 FAQ; berrybyte.

How to set up a Valheim dedicated server

0:13 The simplest route is the Steam library. Open its drop-down filter, tick Tools, scroll to Valheim Dedicated Server and install it; the download is about a gigabyte, and the machine running it needs no copy of the game (Iron Gate). Manage, then Browse local files, opens the install folder.

3:34 On a spare PC with no Steam client, SteamCMD does the same job: force_install_dir to choose a folder, login anonymous, then app_update 896660 validate. The same three lines update the server after a patch.

5:19 The install folder holds the Valheim Dedicated Server Manual, a PDF of Iron Gate's guide, and the launch script: start_headless_server.bat on Windows, start_server.sh on Linux. Iron Gate's advice is to edit a copy, because Steam resets the original with every update; the copy can only be launched directly, not from Steam.

6:13 Everything worth changing sits on the script's one line beginning start valheim_server: server name, world name and password, which must be at least five characters and must not appear in the server name (berrybyte). Running the script opens a console window; when it prints "Game server connected" the world is live. It is stopped with Ctrl+C, never by closing the window, which may leave it running.

Server command-line arguments

The list is Iron Gate's own (A Guide to Dedicated Servers). Backups and the save interval arrived with patch 0.210.6 in August 2022 (Iron Gate), several servers on one machine with 0.211.8 (Iron Gate), and world modifiers with 0.217.22 (Iron Gate). Linux hosts need libatomic1, libpulse-dev and libpulse0, and a docker_start_server.sh ships for older distributions.

Ports, crossplay and join codes

1:20 A server on the default Steam backend needs its port range opened on the router, and only Steam players can see or join it. Adding -crossplay moves it to PlayFab, whose relay carries the traffic, so no port forwarding is needed and players on any platform can connect (Iron Gate). The trade-off is that a crossplay server cannot be reached over a local or loopback address, and that console players cannot join a server running mods.

9:59 A crossplay server prints a six-digit join code in its console window, and a fresh one every restart, so the code that worked yesterday is dead after a patch (berrybyte). Join codes came with crossplay in patch 0.211.7 (Iron Gate).

10:56 Players join under Join Game by pressing Add server and entering the join code or the public address and port, or by finding the name in the community list. Everyone must run the same build as the server.

Admin, banned and permitted lists

Three text files in the save folder govern who may do what: adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt, one player ID per line in the form [Platform]_[User ID], read from the server log or the in-game F2 panel. Adding anyone to the permitted list bans everyone else (Iron Gate). Admins get kick, ban, unban and banned, plus the commands added in 0.217.22: setworldpreset, setworldmodifier, setkey, removekey, listkeys, players, sleep, skiptime and genloc. Cheat commands proper do not work on a dedicated server (Valheim Wiki; Console Commands, Cheats and Mods).

Moving an existing world onto a server

0:30 A world made in single-player can be carried over. Before 1.0 each world was a pair of files with the same name, MyWorld.db and MyWorld.fwl, which had to travel together; a world separated from its .fwl loads as a fresh map. Local worlds have lived in worlds_local since patch 0.209.8, which split local saves away from Steam Cloud (Iron Gate).

1:44 The upload is mechanical: stop the server, drop the files into worlds_local, and set -world to the world's name exactly, without the extension. A mismatch is the usual reason a server looks as though it generated an empty world.

Renting a server

1:04 Because Valheim's server is free but its host is not, a rental market has grown around it, with plans running from about $12 a month for a small group to around $30 for more processor headroom, which matters in a game that simulates everything a player stands near.

1:43 Self-hosting costs only electricity, but asks one PC to run the server and the game at once, and the moment that machine sleeps everyone is dropped. A rented server stays up, so anyone in the group can mine or build alone and find the world as they left it.

Consoles and other platforms

2:22 Consoles can join a dedicated server but cannot run one. Iron Gate is blunt: "You can't set up a dedicated server on an Xbox", although an Xbox can join one when both console and server have crossplay enabled (Crossplay FAQ); the same holds for PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 (berrybyte). A group with no PC can still play in a session hosted inside the game, but that world disappears when its host logs off.

6:34 Hosting from inside the game needs no setup: tick the server box on the world-select screen, set a password, and the join code appears atop the pause menu. Microsoft Store owners instead run StartHeadlessServer.bat from C:\XboxGames\Valheim\Content\Server (Crossplay FAQ).

What changed for servers in 1.0

The Valheim 1.0 Release of Sep 9, 2026 left the server's arguments, ports and ten-player cap alone; Iron Gate confirmed the game is still "for 1-10 players" (1.0 FAQ). The save format did change. The patch notes describe a "new save system" that "splits world data across chunks" and is "designed to be resilient against mid-write failures" (1.0 patch notes). In practice a world is now a folder rather than a .db and .fwl pair; an older world is backed up and converted, irreversibly, the first time a 1.0 server loads it, and backups must copy the whole folder (GameServerKings; WinterNode). Because the version check is strict, servers that had not updated were unreachable until they did.

The hotfixes of Sep 11, 2026 repaired the ban and permitted lists, which had stopped recognizing older platform-prefixed IDs such as Steam_123456789 beside the newer V_123456789 form (Hotfix 1.0.10 & 1.0.12).

Frequently asked questions

How many players can join a Valheim server? Ten. The cap has never moved, and Iron Gate repeated it for 1.0: Valheim is a game "for 1-10 players", not an MMO.

Do you need to own Valheim to run a dedicated server? No. The server tool is free in the Steam library, and SteamCMD fetches app 896660 with an anonymous login, so a spare PC can host without a copy of the game.

What ports does a Valheim server use? UDP 2456 and 2457 by default: whatever port is set, plus one. A -crossplay server uses a relay instead and needs no port forwarding.

Can you host a Valheim server on Xbox, PS5 or Switch 2? No. Consoles can only join. A console player can host an in-game session, but it lives only while that console is in the world.

Where are Valheim server worlds saved? Under worlds_local in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim on Windows and ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim on Linux, unless -savedir moves them.

Sources

• A Guide to Dedicated Servers, Frequently Asked Questions, Valheim 1.0 FAQ and Crossplay FAQ, Iron Gate Studio
• Valheim 1.0 Has Arrived! and Hotfix 1.0.10 & 1.0.12, Iron Gate Studio on Steam
• Patch 0.211.7 – Crossplay!, Patch 0.210.6, Patch 0.211.8, Patch 0.209.8 and Patch 0.217.22, Iron Gate Studio on Steam
• Developer console, Valheim Wiki (weirdgloop)
• Setting up a Valheim server, Joining a server and Prep your server before 1.0, berrybyte
• Valheim save location and the 1.0 world folder format, GameServerKings
• Valheim 1.0: what changed for servers, WinterNode
• How to Setup a Valheim 1.0 Dedicated Server with SteamCMD, Rockuzza Gaming (video)
• How to Host a FREE Valheim Dedicated Server, Valheim 1.0 Server Hosting Guide and How to Upload a Valheim World Save, All Things Hosting (videos)
• Everything You Need to Know Before Starting Valheim 1.0, Lucky Ghost, and Do THIS First in Valheim 1.0, Spopes (videos)