Valheim dedicated server: the complete guide

Valheim is at its best with a regular group: raising a longhouse together, heading into the swamp together for iron, going down in inglorious defeat together against the first boss. But the moment the person hosting the world goes offline, everything grinds to a halt. A dedicated server solves that: the world runs day and night, everyone logs in whenever it suits them and nobody has to sacrifice their own PC as the host.

What your own server does and doesn't solve

Let's be honest first. If there are two of you and you're always online at the same time anyway, the built-in co-op via a Steam invite is perfectly fine — and free. A dedicated server only really becomes interesting with three or more players who log in at different times, or if you want a world that lasts for months without arguments about whose savegame is the real one.

What a server does not solve: stuttering fps on your own screen. If your framerate collapses as you approach your megabase, that's almost always down to the number of objects your PC has to render. A heavier server plan changes nothing about that. Good to know before you upgrade for nothing — further down are tips that actually help.

Creating a world or importing your co-op world

A fresh world is done in no time: pick a server name, pick a world name, set a password and start. The server generates a random seed itself and the world fills in as you explore further. If you absolutely want a specific seed, the easiest route is: create the world locally in the game first and then import it onto the server.

More interesting is importing an existing world. Valheim stores every world as two files: a .db file with the world itself and a .fwl file with the metadata. On your own PC you'll find them (on Windows) in AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local. Upload both files to your server's worlds folder and set the world name in the server settings to match the file name exactly, capitalisation included. If the name doesn't match precisely, the server will cheerfully create a brand-new world with that name — and your group suddenly finds itself on an empty beach.

Two pitfalls to remember: stop the server before uploading (otherwise the automatic save writes right over your import) and always copy both files. A .db without its matching .fwl doesn't work.

Password, ports and reachability

Valheim has requirements for your server password: at least five characters, and it must not appear in the server name. Pick something your group can easily remember but outsiders can't guess — you don't want random passers-by smashing your beehives or redecorating your portal hub.

The server runs on UDP ports 2456 and 2457 by default. With a hosted server those are already open and you simply get an address with a port to pass on to your friends. The port-forwarding struggle on your home router — for many people the very reason to give up on self-hosting after one evening — is thereby fully outsourced. Joining works via the in-game server browser, or faster: add the address directly to the server list in Steam.

Then there's crossplay. Handy if someone in your group plays on Xbox or via Game Pass, but the connection then runs through a different backend and many admins find it less stable than pure Steam. Rule of thumb: no console players in the group? Leave crossplay off.

Running mods with BepInEx

BepInEx is the standard mod loader for Valheim; virtually every serious mod builds on it. On the server you install the BepInEx pack for Valheim, after which mods go into the plugins folder as .dll files and their settings appear as separate config files. You'll usually want to go through those configs: many mods ship more aggressively tuned by default than you'd think.

The most important thing to understand is the difference between server-side and client-side mods. Purely visual tweaks often run only on the player's side, but mods that touch gameplay — new items, different spawns, modified crafting — usually need to be on the server and on every player's machine, in the same version. One mismatched version and someone can't join, or sees something different from everyone else. So agree on one fixed mod list and have players use a mod manager, and everyone stays in sync.

• Start with two or three mods and only expand once everything runs stably.
• Back up your world before adding or removing a new mod.
• After a Valheim update, wait to update your server until your most important mods have been updated.

That last point is also the honest downside of modding: every game update can temporarily break your mod list. Count on losing an evening a few times a year to updating and testing. If that hassle isn't worth it to you, vanilla Valheim is easily good for hundreds of hours as well.

Backups and performance around big builds

Your world consists of those two files, so backing up is simple: download them regularly, and in any case before every mod change or game update. The server does save automatically at intervals, but that doesn't protect you from a corrupted save or a mod remodelling your world — an external copy from yesterday does. Also keep several versions side by side: a problem that only surfaces after a week can't be fixed with just last night's backup.

Then performance. Every building piece, every fence and every torch is an object the server tracks and sends to nearby players. A megabase of tens of thousands of parts therefore means serious work whenever someone walks around in it. On top of that, the world simulation leans heavily on a single processor core, so per-core speed matters more than the number of cores. What you can do yourself:

• Build compactly and clean up demolished or half-finished structures; everything left standing counts.
• Limit the number of burning torches and hearths — smoke is genuinely simulated and it adds up.
• Go easy on extreme terraforming; large-scale digging and raising makes an area permanently heavier.
• Players spread all over the map means multiple active zones at once, and thus more work for the server.

And once again: if the server runs smoothly but only your framerate drops at the base, the problem is rendering on your side. Lower graphics settings or simply fewer torches will help more than any server plan.

Which plan fits your group?

Valheim doesn't demand monster hardware, but memory and per-core speed start to count as soon as you play with more people or run mods. An honest indication:

In between and above those sit Researcher (€15.00), Maintainer (€18.00) and Chief (€24.00). Not sure? Then start small: everything can be cancelled monthly, so you're never locked in. Check out the plans in the MC-Node Valheim store. Your server runs on our own hardware with NVMe storage in the Previder data centre in Hengelo, DDoS protection included — since 2019 we've brought over 10,000 servers online this way.