Getting Started with Your Valheim Dedicated Server

So you've got a Valheim server with us – welcome! This guide will get you from "I just bought this" to "my friends are connected and we're playing" in about ten minutes.

Logging in to the panel

After you order, you'll get an email with your account details. Head to https://control.low.ms and log in. Your Valheim server should be on the dashboard. Click into it and you'll see your IP address, port and current status front and centre – keep this page handy because you'll need the IP and port to connect.

Setting up your server name, password and world

Before you start the server for the first time, set the basics:

1. From your server's overview, open Service Settings.
2. Set a Server Name – this is what shows up in the in-game browser.
3. Set a Password. The panel asks for at least 8 characters; Valheim's own floor is 5, so the panel is the stricter of the two. There's one real gotcha worth knowing: the password can't be contained in your world name or your seed name. Call your world Midgard and set the password to gard and the server won't start. It isn't silent about it, but the message only appears in the log rather than in the panel: look for a line beginning Error bad password: in Log Viewer.
4. Set a World Name – this picks which save file is loaded. If the world doesn't exist yet, the server will create one with that name.
5. Save and start the server.

The first start takes about 60-90 seconds while Valheim generates (or loads) the world. Don't try to connect right away – give it a minute.

Connecting to your server

There are a few ways in. Pick whichever is easiest for your group.

Direct connect via Steam

This is the most reliable.

1. In Steam, click View → Servers in the top menu.
2. Click the Favorites tab and then Add a Server.
3. Enter your server's IP and port in the format IP:Port, for example 92.118.16.126:27515.
4. Click Add this address to favorites, then double-click the server to join.
5. Enter your password when prompted.

Via the in-game browser

1. Launch Valheim and pick your character.
2. Click Start Game, then Join Game.
3. Either find your server name under the Community tab, or click Add Server and enter the IP and port directly.
4. Enter your password.

The Steam community browser sometimes takes a few minutes to list a newly started server, so if your name doesn't appear straight away, give it 5-10 minutes or use the direct-connect method instead.

Via Steam friends

If a friend is already on the server, you can right-click their name in your Steam friends list and select Join Game. Easiest method when one person is already in.

Enabling crossplay (if you need it)

If your group has a mix of Steam, Xbox and Game Pass players, you'll want crossplay on.

Crossplay isn't a switch in Service Settings, which catches almost everyone out the first time. It's decided by which predefined command line your server starts with:

1. In the panel, open Commandline Manager.
2. Switch from Default to Default (With Crossplay).
3. Save and restart the server.

One thing to understand before you do it. There are three predefined lines: Default, Default (With Crossplay), and Additional Configuration. Only Additional Configuration carries the tokens for world presets and extra arguments, so if you've tuned modifiers or added custom arguments there, switching over to the crossplay line quietly drops them. No single predefined line gives you both, so it's a fork rather than a toggle. If you need crossplay and custom arguments at the same time, open a ticket and we'll set up a custom line for you.

When crossplay is enabled, the server will print a Join Code in the log on startup. You'll see a line that starts with Join code: followed by a short code. Xbox and Game Pass players need that code, because they can't join by IP at all. Steam players can use either the code or the usual IP and port, so don't take the IP away from them.

On crossplay and mods: you'll see it repeated all over the internet, and in older versions of this guide, that turning crossplay on stops BepInEx loading and kills every mod on the server. That isn't true. Crossplay moves the server onto a different matchmaking backend and doesn't touch mod loading at all. What it genuinely affects is mods written on the assumption that every player is on Steam, which is common enough that keeping crossplay off on a heavily modded server is still sensible. There's also a harder limit worth knowing up front: console players can't install mods at all, so any client-side mod on your server shuts them out regardless of what the server is doing.

Adding yourself as an admin

You'll want admin so you can manage the server in-game.

1. In the panel, open Configuration Files and pick the entry described as Configure admins. That's your adminlist.txt, and bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt sit alongside it.
2. Put your Steam64 ID on its own line, one ID per line. You can look yours up at steamid.io, or read it out of Log Viewer when you connect.
3. Save and restart the server.

Go through Configuration Files rather than editing the file by hand, because the panel keeps its own copy of the admin list and writes the file from that. If you do go looking for it in File Manager, it's at Valheim\adminlist.txt, nested the same way your worlds are rather than sitting at the top level. There's a fuller walkthrough in Valheim adminlist.txt, including what to do for Xbox and Game Pass players, who have no Steam64 ID at all and use a Platform User ID instead.

Once that's done, press F5 in-game to open the console. If F5 doesn't open anything, add -console to Valheim's launch options in Steam, which the adminlist guide walks through.

Be aware that "works on a dedicated server" isn't one category. Valheim's devcommands set (god mode, fly, spawn and friends) is intentionally off on dedicated servers. Of what's left, the commands that travel to the server run fine from an admin's client, kick, ban and save among them. Others only ever run on the machine hosting the world, so from a client on a dedicated server they do nothing at all, even though they look like ordinary admin commands. The Valheim Admin Commands article is the one that sorts out which is which, so check there before assuming a command is broken. If you want the full cheat set on a dedicated server, you'll need the Server devcommands mod.

Uploading an existing world

If you've been playing locally and want to bring that world across to your dedicated server, you can.

1. On your PC, browse to %appdata%\..\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local\. The easiest way to get there: hit Win+R, type %appdata%, hit enter, then go up one folder to AppData and into LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local.
2. Find the world you want – there'll be two files for it: YourWorldName.db and YourWorldName.fwl. You need both.
3. Stop your server in the panel.
4. Upload both files via the panel's File Manager into Valheim/worlds_local/. Watch the parent folder here, because it's where most uploads go wrong. Our servers start with the save directory pointed at Valheim inside your service root, so worlds live one level down at Valheim/worlds_local/. There is no worlds_local at the top level, and there is no folder called worlds. Same folder name as on your PC, just nested.
5. In Service Settings, set the World Name to match the name of the uploaded world.
6. Start the server.

There's a more detailed walkthrough with screenshots here: Locate your Valheim save and upload it to LOW.MS.

What I'd do next

Once everything is up and your friends can connect, the things worth doing in roughly this order:

• Configure your world modifiers. Combat difficulty, portal restrictions, raid frequency – all in the Server Configuration Guide. The best server settings blog has profiles you can copy.
• Set up your admin list properly so multiple people can manage the server.
• Decide on mods early if you're going modded. Adding mods later to an established world is fine, but adding mods that change world generation or items can cause problems if the world has been played for a while. The Mod Installation Guide walks through the install, and there's a lot more in the panel's Mod Manager than most people expect, so browse that before you write a ticket.

If something isn't working

The most common issues at this stage are typos in the IP/port, wrong password, or the server still starting up. Double-check each of those before assuming something's broken.

If you're still stuck, the dedicated Can't Connect troubleshooting guide covers it in more depth, and the broader Valheim Server Troubleshooting Guide covers performance issues, world save problems, mod conflicts and the rest.

And of course – open a support ticket from the panel if you can't figure it out. We'd rather help you in the first hour than have you bounce off a problem you can't solve.