How to Play Valheim With Friends: Your Game, a Join Code or a Dedicated Server

The three ways, in short

Your own game, opened up: free and ready in a minute, but the world only exists while you're playing, and your PC carries all the load.

A dedicated server at home: free (Steam provides the program), but that PC has to be on for the others to join, and you pay for the electricity.

A rented server: the world is always in the same place and everyone joins when they want, without depending on anyone's PC. There are free options, with their limits.

In all three, 10 players at once is the maximum: it's the game's limit, in 1.0 too. Everyone needs their own copy of Valheim.

1. Open your game to your friends

The catch: when you leave, the game closes for everyone. And your PC acts as the server while you play, so with several people exploring separately you'll notice it.

1. Load your world with the server turned on

   When you pick the world, tick the box to start a server and type a password: at least 5 characters, and it can't be part of the world name.

2. Turn on crossplay if needed

   If anyone plays on Xbox, PlayStation 5, Switch 2 or the Microsoft Store version, open the game with crossplay enabled.

3. Send them the code

   Inside the game, the join code is in the pause menu. Clicking it copies it. Your friends paste it in “Join game” → “Add server”: that way they can join from any platform.

2. A dedicated server on your PC

Valheim Dedicated Server is free and it's in your Steam library, under “Tools”. You set it up with a startup file (name, world, password) and leave it running. We go through it step by step in how to set up a Valheim dedicated server on your PC.

That way the world doesn't depend on you playing, but it does depend on that PC being on. If you start it with crossplay, you don't need to open ports on your router; if not, you have to open UDP 2456 and 2457 (Valheim's ports) or have everyone join through Radmin VPN or Hamachi.

3. A rented server

The world lives on a machine that doesn't belong to anyone in the group. Everyone joins when they want with the address, port and password, or with the code if the server has crossplay (how to join).

On NapNodes you get a free Valheim server, no card needed: you turn it on with “Start” when you want to play and it shuts down by itself after 20 minutes with nobody on. If you want to join at any time without starting anything, with daily backups, the Meadows (4 GB) and Mountain (6 GB) plans are enough for the game's 10 players.

With friends on Xbox, PlayStation 5 or Switch 2

Since 1.0 (September 2026), Valheim has crossplay across all its platforms: Steam, Microsoft Store, Mac App Store, Xbox One and Series, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2. Console players can join a game or a dedicated server if it has crossplay enabled, and the easiest way for them is the code.

Two limits. There are no mods on console, so with mods the player also needs, console players are left out. And after a patch, sometimes one platform gets it a few days later; if that breaks crossplay in the meantime, Iron Gate says so in the patch notes. It's all in the Valheim crossplay guide.

Which one suits you

For a one-off evening, your own game opened up. For a world that lasts weeks and that everyone joins at their own time, a dedicated server: at home if there's a PC that stays on, rented if not.

Your character is yours either way: it's a separate file that stays on your computer and works for any world and server. What belongs to whoever acts as the server is the world. If you started in your own game and want to carry on on a server, the world can be moved: it's in the guide how to move your Valheim world to a dedicated server.

Frequently asked questions