Getting started

Create your server

From the Create a server page pick Valheim. The game is relatively light: 4GB of RAM carries a full group, and 2GB is the floor.

After payment your machine starts provisioning. There is nothing to set up: as soon as the machine is ready your server downloads the latest Valheim build from Steam, generates a world, and starts.

The password, the one rule that stops the server

Valheim refuses to start when:

• the password is shorter than 5 characters
• or the password appears inside the server name

The panel blocks both before you save, but keep it in mind if you ever edit the file by hand.

Join the game

Your server is still setting up, so it has no address yet. It appears here the moment the install finishes.

Make yourself admin

To unlock the in-game admin commands (the F5 console), your player ID has to be on the admin list.

Since 1.0 Valheim reads a Platform User ID rather than a bare Steam number: on Steam that's V_ followed by your Steam64 ID, and on Xbox it's Xbox_ followed by theirs.

1. Open the Players page
2. Add your own platform ID. A bare Steam number (17 digits starting with 7656, which steamid.io resolves from your profile link) gets the V_ prefix added for you
3. Restart your server

What a Valheim server can't do

None of this is missing from your server. It's missing from Valheim itself, whose dedicated server ships with no console and no RCON:

• No console commands. Valheim reads nothing from the console at all, so the ones we answer there (status, players, worlds, mods, joincode, ban, unban) are handled by the panel rather than passed to the game. Anything else belongs in game on F5.
• No announcements. There is no way for the server to put a message in front of players.
• No kick. Ban from the Players page adds the platform ID to the ban list and stops them the next time they try to join. Restart your server to drop them if they're on right now.
• No manual save. Valheim saves on its interval (set in the settings) and on shutdown. A backup archives the last autosave.

Anything that needs live admin commands is done from inside Valheim on F5, once you're an admin.

Your first night

• Every player's progress lives on their own machine, and the world lives on your server
• The server keeps running with nobody online, so farms and builds stay where they are
• 10 players is Valheim's own limit and only a mod changes it
• Your world is safe: we take automatic backups, and you can take one yourself