7 April 2026

Top Valheim Mods for Dedicated Servers in 2026

A curated list of the best Valheim server mods in 2026, covering quality of life, building, performance, combat, and server administration. All tested and compatible with the latest version.

Valheim's modding scene is enormous and a bit chaotic. Mods come, go, get forked, get abandoned, and get re-forked, and a list that was accurate two years ago is mostly broken links today. So instead of pulling together a "top 50 mods of all time" piece full of dead Thunderstore links, I went and checked every entry in this list against Thunderstore the day I wrote it. Every mod here is currently maintained, and where the well-known name is actually a deprecated package I've called out the active replacement.

Two things to know up front:

  1. Mods need BepInEx and don't work with crossplay. If your server has crossplay enabled, BepInEx won't load and none of these will work. Steam-only servers it is. Walkthrough is in the Mod Installation Guide.
  2. Always check what's server-side vs client-side. Some mods only need to be on the server. Some only on clients. Some on both. Getting this wrong is the #1 reason "I can't connect" tickets exist. I've labelled each one below.

Quality of life

These smooth out rough edges without changing what Valheim is at its core.

Extra Slots — by shudnal

The classic "Equipment and Quick Slots" mod by RandyKnapp has been deprecated for over a year now. Extra Slots is the modern replacement and the one I'd install on any new server. It adds dedicated slots for armor, utility items and quick-access bars, and configures cleanly via the in-game UI.

Quick Stack, Store, Sort, Trash, Restock — by Goldenrevolver

The mod most people mean when they say "quick stack". One button to dump items into nearby chests that already contain matching stacks, plus sort, restock, and trash. The single biggest time-saver if your group hoards.

Plant Everything — by Advize

Lets you plant a much wider range of vegetation than vanilla allows: thistles, mushrooms, dandelions, all of it. Great for groups who like to terraform meadow farms into something that looks lived-in.

CraftFromContainers — by Grizzzly

Use materials from nearby chests when crafting at a workbench, instead of needing every ingredient in your personal inventory. (There are several forks on Thunderstore — Grizzzly's is the one currently being maintained; the older aedenthorn fork is deprecated.)

Building

Valheim's vanilla building is already great. These make it greater.

Gizmo — by ComfyMods

Adds precise rotation controls when placing pieces, freeing you from the default snap angles. Anyone who builds anything more ambitious than a square box ends up wanting this within their first week. (Note: there are several "Gizmo Reloaded" packages on Thunderstore — they're all deprecated now. The current active one is just ComfyMods/Gizmo.)

PlanBuild — by MathiasDecrock

Lay out your build as ghost pieces first, then fill them in with real materials when you're ready. Includes blueprint save/load so you can share designs between worlds, and bundles its own build camera so you can fly around your structure while placing pieces.

Performance

If your server's struggling under the weight of a big base or a lot of players, these are the mods that move the needle. Note: the old "Valheim Performance Optimizations" by ontrigger has been dead since late 2021, despite still being recommended in plenty of older guides. Don't install it on a current Valheim version. The two below are the current options.

Valhalla Performance — by tootsalot

A modern all-in-one performance pack covering rendering, physics, lighting and AI culling. Updated very actively — at the time of writing it had a release within the last week.

Valheim Performance Overhaul — by Skarif

The other actively maintained performance mod, with a slightly different focus. If Valhalla Performance doesn't help your particular setup, try this one. (Don't run both at the same time.)

BetterNetworking_Valheim — by tibijczyk

Optimises the network layer between server and clients. Particularly noticeable on busy servers or anywhere players regularly complain about rubber-banding. There are several historical forks; tibijczyk's is the currently maintained one.

Server administration

Server devcommands — by JereKuusela

Vanilla Valheim's devcommands (god mode, fly, spawn, exploremap and friends) only work in single-player. Iron Gate disabled them on dedicated servers. This mod re-enables them for admins, plus adds a lot more. If you're running a server, this is the one admin-side mod you'll come back to. Note the canonical spelling on Thunderstore: Server_devcommands, all one word, lowercase devcommands.

Jotunn — by ValheimModding

Strictly speaking Jotunn isn't a mod you install for its own sake. It's the modding framework that a lot of other mods build on top of, so you'll often find it in your dependency list whether you wanted it or not. Worth knowing about so you understand what's being installed. (Heads-up: there's a separate package called ValheimLib by the same author — that's the deprecated predecessor to Jotunn, not an alias for it. You only need Jotunn.)

  • Thunderstore: ValheimModding/Jotunn
  • Install on: server and all clients (whichever side the dependent mod runs on)

Gameplay overhauls

Epic Loot — by RandyKnapp

Adds a Diablo-style loot system: rare drops, magic items, weapon enchantments, set bonuses. Weapons and armor can roll random affixes like extra damage, lifesteal or elemental procs. Massively extends the endgame because you've now got items to chase beyond the vanilla crafting tree. Comfortably the most popular gameplay overhaul mod for Valheim.

Recycle N Reclaim — by Azumatt

Lets you break crafted items back into their components. Made the wrong sword? Crafted too many arrows? Throw them on the workbench and get your materials back. (The original "Valheim Recycle" by SQG is deprecated; this is the actively maintained equivalent.)

Farming — by Smoothbrain

A farming overhaul with skill progression, crop varieties and more depth to the planting/growing loop than vanilla. If your group enjoys the homestead side of Valheim, give it a try.

What about Valheim Plus?

Valheim Plus used to be the all-in-one mod everyone installed first. The original ValheimPlus1/ValheimPlus package on Thunderstore hasn't had a meaningful update since June 2024, which is a long time in Valheim modding years.

There is an actively maintained community fork: Grantapher/ValheimPlus_Grantapher_Temporary, which is what most people running Valheim Plus today actually use. The "Temporary" in the name is misleading — it's been the de facto live version for a while now.

That said, if you're starting a new server in 2026 my advice is to skip Valheim Plus entirely and install the individual mods above instead. Almost everything Valheim Plus did is now better-handled by a focused, actively-maintained mod, and you won't be stuck if a single big mod breaks on a Valheim update.

How to actually install all of this

Full walkthrough is in the Mod Installation Guide, but the short version:

  1. Install BepInEx on the server (the install differs slightly between Linux and Windows hosts — the guide covers both).
  2. Drop the mod .dll files into BepInEx/plugins/.
  3. Have your players install matching versions on their clients using r2modman — it's by far the easiest mod manager and handles dependencies automatically.
  4. Restart the server.

Things I've learned the hard way

  • Don't install everything on day one. Add mods in small batches and verify the server boots between each batch. If it breaks, you know what broke it.
  • Wait a few days after a Valheim update before updating the server. Mods nearly always break on update day.
  • Keep mod versions pinned across the group. Most "I can't connect" tickets boil down to one player being on a slightly different mod version.
  • Back the world up before adding any mod that changes world generation, building pieces or items. Not because they always break things, but because when they do break things you really, really wish you had.

Ready to put a modded Valheim server together? Our Valheim hosting plans are here, and if you're new to BepInEx start with the Mod Installation Guide.

B

Written by

Ben

LOW.MS Team

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