Valheim Server Configuration Guide

This article covers the configuration options you've got on a Valheim dedicated server, what each one actually does, and how to set them on a LOW.MS server. It's the long-form reference — if you just want a recommended setting profile, the best server settings blog has those.

The basics

These are the options you'll set in the panel's Settings page on day one.

Server Name

What appears in the in-game server browser. Pick something descriptive so your friends can spot it. Set internally via the -name launch parameter.

Server Password

The password players need to enter to join. Two rules to know:

• Must be at least 5 characters.
• Cannot contain the world name. Valheim silently rejects passwords that do, with no useful error message. This catches people out a lot — if your password isn't being accepted, check this first.

Set internally via -password.

World Name

The save file the server loads. Change this and the server will load a different world (or create a new one with that name). Your old world is still there — switch the name back any time and you're back on it. Set internally via -world.

Server Port

LOW.MS assigns this automatically — you don't pick it. Our default Valheim port is 27515, not the vanilla 2456. Valheim always uses two consecutive UDP ports (the launch port and port+1), so a server on 27515 also uses 27516.

If you're self-hosting at home, the default port is 2456 and you'd need to forward UDP 2456-2457 on your router.

World modifiers

World modifiers are applied at world creation time and adjust how the world plays. You can set them via the in-game world creation menu, via the panel's startup config using the -modifier and -preset flags, or change most of them later from the in-game world menu.

The five categories Iron Gate ships are:

• Combat — veryeasy, easy, normal (default), hard, veryhard
• DeathPenalty — casual, veryeasy, easy, normal (default), hard, hardcore
• Resources — muchless, less, normal (default), more, muchmore, most
• Raids — none, muchless, less, normal (default), more, muchmore
• Portals — casual, hard (default), veryhard

Combat

Adjusts how hard enemies hit and how durable you are. Hard and Very Hard make enemies hit noticeably harder and reduce player damage; Easy and Very Easy go the other way. Iron Gate has not published exact percentage tables for these, so I'd rather not invent numbers — community data-mining is on the wiki if you want the unofficial values.

Death penalty

Controls what happens when you die.

• Casual — no skill loss.
• Easy / Very Easy — reduced skill loss.
• Normal — Valheim's default.
• Hard — increased skill loss.
• Hardcore — permanent loss of all items and skills on death. Brutal.

Portal restrictions

The most argued-over setting in Valheim.

• Casual — everything goes through portals, ores included.
• Hard (default) — ores and metals can't be portalled. The vanilla experience.
• Very Hard — nothing goes through portals at all. Only your character.

Resource rate

Adjusts how generous resource nodes are when you mine, chop or pick.

• Much Less / Less — slower, more survival-focused.
• Normal — default.
• More / Much More / Most — for groups who'd rather build than grind.

Raid frequency

How often the game throws raid events at your bases.

• None — no raids.
• Less / Much Less — occasional raids.
• Normal — default cadence.
• More / Much More — frequent raids.

Player limit

Valheim's official cap is 10 players per server. The 10-cap is a deliberate Iron Gate design choice — Valheim's networking does some peer-to-peer lifting that doesn't scale well past that. Mods like Azumatt/MaxPlayerCount can lift the cap, but expect performance issues and the occasional weird sync bug if you do.

Server launch parameters

If you'd rather configure things via launch flags than the panel's UI, here are the parameters Iron Gate documents:

You can chain -modifier multiple times to set several at once.

Admin commands

Once you've added yourself to adminlist.txt and restarted the server, the in-game console (press F5) gives you the basic admin command set. The commands that work on a vanilla dedicated server are:

A note on the cheat commands: Iron Gate intentionally restricts vanilla devcommands (god mode, fly, exploremap, spawn, etc.) to single-player and locally-hosted games. They do not work on a dedicated server out of the box. If you want them, install the Server devcommands mod by Jere Kuusela — it re-enables the full set for admins on a dedicated server.

For the full vanilla command list see the Valheim Admin Commands article.

Permissions: adminlist, bannedlist, permittedlist

Valheim manages permissions through three text files in your server's config directory. You can edit them directly via the panel's File Manager.

adminlist.txt

Steam64 IDs of players who should have admin access. One ID per line:

76561198012345678
76561198087654321

Restart the server after editing for changes to take effect. Full walkthrough: Valheim adminlist.txt guide.

bannedlist.txt

Steam64 IDs of banned players. Entries are added automatically when you use the ban command but you can edit the file by hand if you need to.

permittedlist.txt

If you want a whitelist-only server, add the Steam IDs of allowed players to this file. Once it has any entries, only those IDs can connect. Leave it empty for a normal password-protected server.

Backups

LOW.MS runs cloud backups for your Valheim server in addition to whatever Valheim does itself. Valheim's own built-in backup chain is controlled by the -backups, -backupshort and -backuplong parameters above. The defaults give you 4 rolling backups: 1 short (2 hours old) and 3 long (12 hours apart).

For most groups the defaults are fine. The cloud backups in the panel are your insurance policy if Valheim's own backup chain ever gets corrupted.

Performance tips

A few things that have come up in support tickets enough times that they're worth flagging up front:

• Big builds are the main lag source. Each building piece is tracked and synced. Sprawling castles with thousands of pieces will start to chug, especially when players enter the area.
• Tamed creatures count too. Each tamed animal is an active entity. A breeding farm with dozens of boars can hurt performance more than the same number of building pieces.
• Terrain modifications are sticky. Heavy use of the hoe or pickaxe on terrain creates terrain mod data that gets synced to anyone walking through. Try not to terraform every square meter of your base.
• Restart weekly. Optional, but it clears memory and resets entity states. Long-running servers benefit from a quick restart even if there's no obvious problem.

If you're seeing real performance issues, the Valheim Troubleshooting Guide walks through diagnosing them.

Need help?

Open a ticket from the panel and we'll dig in. Knowledgebase articles only go so far — if your specific server is doing something weird, support can poke at it directly.