Where 1.0 leaves a server host
| What | Where it stands today |
|---|---|
| Full release | 1.0 shipped 9 September 2026, ending an Early Access that began 2 February 2021. |
| Current stable | Patch 1.0.20, published 15 October 2026, still the live version on 22 October 2026. |
| Price | $29.99 from 1.0. Early Access owners paid nothing more: "Your copy will simply update to a new version." |
| Your saves | Carry over with no action. The launch-window bug that could lose levels on item-stand items was fixed in 1.0.12. |
| Save format | New since 1.0: world data is split across chunks, which Iron Gate calls faster to write and more resilient against mid-write failures. |
| Platforms | Steam for Windows, Linux and Mac (Mac is new at 1.0), plus Microsoft Store, Xbox, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with crossplay between all of them. |
| Players per server | Unchanged by 1.0. The official FAQ still calls it "a game for 1-10 players." |
| Setup method | Unchanged. The official guide still describes the Steam tool and a copy of the start script, exactly as below. |
The save answer deserves its own paragraph, because it is the question every existing server owner had in September 2026. The official 1.0 FAQ asks "What happens to my saves at the 1.0 launch?" and answers "Nothing." Old worlds keep working and pick up the new content, with one boundary the FAQ names: newly generated biome content "will only work properly on areas that have not yet been explored", so a fresh world is recommended for the full 1.0 experience but never required. The one launch-window bug worth knowing about hit converted worlds: items placed on item stands could lose their levels and variants, and Hotfix 1.0.12 on 11 September 2026 fixed it. Patch 1.0.17 (October 2026) fixed a rare chunk-split bug that could erase objects in parts of a world — one more reason automated off-server backups matter.
What did not change is the procedure. Iron Gate's official dedicated-server guide, an April 2024 page that is still the live reference today, describes the same three steps this guide has walked since Early Access: install the free tool from Steam, edit a copy of the start script, open the two ports. Since the full release the patches have come quickly — 1.0.10 and 1.0.12 on 11 September, 1.0.14 on 17 September, 1.0.15 on 18 September, 1.0.16 on 25 September, 1.0.17 on 6 October (fixed a rare bug that could erase all objects in parts of the world when one large world save chunk file was split into smaller ones), and 1.0.20 on 15 October (trophy drop chance now increases with monster star level, plus exploit and item-flag fixes) — but the page to follow is the same one. The rest of this page is those steps with the 1.0 facts folded in.
Install the server
The server is a Steam tool, not a game. In your Steam library, open the top left dropdown and tick the Tools box, then scroll to Valheim Dedicated Server and install it. To find the folder afterwards, right click that entry and choose Manage, then Browse local files. A copy of Iron Gate's own guide ships with the download.
On Linux, Iron Gate lists three extra packages the server needs beyond what the Steam client pulls in: libatomic1, libpulse-dev and libpulse0. The server also needs at least GLIBC_2.29 and GLIBCXX_3.4.26; if your distribution is older than that, Iron Gate's documented alternative to upgrading the whole system is to run it through the bundled docker_start_server.sh script instead.
Microsoft Store owners have their own official route, which is easy to miss because most guides never mention it. Install the game as usual, then run StartHeadlessServer.bat from the Server folder — C:\XboxGames\Valheim\Content\Server on a Microsoft Store install — and read the "Valheim Dedicated Server Manual" that sits in the same folder.
Edit a copy of the start script, not the original
Before the server will do anything useful you have to put your settings into start_headless_server.bat on Windows, or start_server.sh on Linux. Iron Gate's own advice is to copy the file first and edit the copy, "since the original file will be reset each time it is updated in Steam". The trade is that Steam's shortcut only points at the original filename, so your copy has to be launched by hand.
All the settings sit on one line, line 7, the one beginning start valheim_server. When the window prints Game server connected, the server is up and taking players.
Stopping it correctly matters more than it sounds. Iron Gate is blunt: close it with CTRL+C in the command window. "If you close it by clicking the X in the window frame the Server may keep running in the background, we don't really know!" A second copy of the server holding the same world is how worlds get rolled back — and the chunked save system new in 1.0 is designed to be resilient against a mid-write failure, which is protection against a crash, not a reason to test it.
The arguments worth knowing
| Argument | What it does |
|---|---|
-name "My server" | The name shown in the server list. |
-port 2456 | The base port the server listens on. See the note below about the second port. |
-world "Dedicated" | Creates a world with that name, or loads an existing one of the same name. |
-password "Secret" | Sets the join password. |
-public 1 | Default. Makes the server visible in the browser. Set it to 0 for join-by-IP only. |
-savedir [PATH] | Overrides where worlds and permission files are stored. |
-logFile "d:\log.txt" | Writes the server log somewhere you choose — and the log is one of the two places to read a player's Platform User ID from. |
-saveinterval 1800 | How often the world saves, in seconds. Default is thirty minutes. |
-crossplay | Runs on the crossplay backend instead of the Steam one. |
-preset hard | World modifier preset: Normal, Casual, Easy, Hard, Hardcore, Immersive or Hammer. |
World modifiers are worth a second look before you generate anything, because a preset overwrites earlier modifiers and has to be set first. After a preset you can still set individual ones with -modifier, covering Combat, DeathPenalty, Resources, Raids and Portals, and switch on flags like nobuildcost, playerevents, passivemobs and nomap with -setkey. The server writes them into the world, so they stay after the arguments are removed; the world modifiers guide has every value, what each level does, and how to reset a world.
Ports, and the one people forget
Valheim does not use one port. Iron Gate states it directly: "Valheim uses the specified Port AND specified Port+1. Default Ports are 2456-2457." Forward both. A server that opens 2456 alone will look alive from the machine it runs on and invisible from everywhere else.
The crossplay backend changes this completely. On crossplay the server "transmits data via a relay server and therefore does not require Port Forwarding", and players can join by public address and port, by join code, or from the server list. The catch Iron Gate names is that on crossplay you cannot connect using a local address or a loopback address, which is exactly what someone testing on the same machine will try first and read as a broken server. If you are hosting several servers on one machine with the same port, give each one a unique -instanceid so they get unique PlayFab IDs.
Where the world and the permission files live
Unless you set -savedir, the default save path is %USERPROFILE%/AppData/LocalLow/IronGate/Valheim on Windows and ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim on Linux. That folder is the thing to copy before any update, move, or experiment, and 1.0 did not move it: what changed is how the world data is stored inside it, in chunks rather than one growing write, not where the folder lives.
Three plain text files in the same place control access: adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt. One Platform User ID per line, in the form [Platform]_[User ID], and Iron Gate notes it is case sensitive. You can read the ID out of the server log or from in game with F2. One warning is easy to miss and hard to undo in a hurry: "adding a person on the permitted list will ban everyone else from the server."
Backups are handled for you but only lightly. The defaults keep four copies, one short one taken every two hours and three long ones twelve hours apart, tuned with -backups, -backupshort and -backuplong. That is a rollback window, not an archive, and the chunked save system does not change that. Keep your own copies somewhere else as well.
Updates
Valheim updates through Steam like any other tool, which is convenient and also the reason to keep your edited start script separate. When Steam refreshes the original script, an unmodified copy is exactly what you want to find there. Each new version is announced in Iron Gate's patch posts on Steam, and the run since the full release — five patches inside a fortnight — is the pace to expect. Restart cleanly after every update and watch the console output through startup rather than assuming.
Self-hosting or renting
For a small crew, self-hosting Valheim is genuinely easy and genuinely free if you already have a machine that stays on. You keep the world files in your own hands, you can copy them anywhere, and the crossplay backend removes the router step that used to stop people.
What self-hosting costs you is availability and attention. The machine has to be awake whenever anyone wants to play, and it should not be the computer you are playing on. Some home connections cannot accept incoming connections at all, which no amount of port forwarding will fix — though a crossplay server sidesteps even that. Every restart, update and crash is yours to catch. And nobody keeps backups as often as they intend to.
Renting moves those chores rather than removing them. The world settings, the modifiers, the admin list and the backups you actually care about are still your decisions.
Where ForgeWorld Gaming fits
Prefer renting to keeping your own server machine online? ForgeWorld Gaming currently offers Valheim Standard: 3, 5, 10 player slots at CA$15.99–CA$23.49/month. Hosted in Iowa, United States. Prices are in Canadian dollars, with no setup fee and cancel any time. Your server is set up automatically after payment. Continue to secure billing, Valheim · Dedicated server, CA$15.99 / month (Standard, 3 slots), or compare Valheim plans.