Valheim Commands: The Console, Cheats and What Works on a Dedicated Server

Open the console

1. Add -console to the game

   In Steam, right-click Valheim → Properties → General → Launch Options, and type -console. Without it, F5 opens nothing.

2. Press F5 in the game

   A text box opens at the top. On laptops it's sometimes Fn + F5. It closes with F5 or Esc.

3. Type help

   It lists the commands you can use right there. It's the quickest way to find out what works in your version of the game.

Admin commands (they work on the server)

On a dedicated server, only those in adminlist.txt (with their player ID, one per line) can use them; how to add yourself is in the Valheim server admin guide, and the SteamID64 finder gets you your SteamID64. After adding yourself, restart the server.

kick name: kicks a player (their SteamID64 or IP also works). ban name and unban name: bans them or removes them from the ban list, which is stored in bannedlist.txt. banned: shows who is banned. save: saves the world right then, useful before shutting down or trying something risky.

The server already saves by itself every so often (every 30 minutes by default; on NapNodes, “Save the world every (seconds)” in “Settings”), so save is for when you don't want to wait.

The cheats: devcommands

devcommands turns cheats on (type it again to turn them off). They work in a game of your own, without a dedicated server: a solo world or the one you open from the game itself for your friends. Since 1.0 there are achievements, and almost all cheats (spawn, for example) permanently flag the character and the world, which stop earning achievements; the game asks you to confirm first. Some, like freefly, don't flag. The details, in achievements and cheats in 1.0.

The most used: god (you take no damage), ghost (enemies don't see you), fly or debugmode and then Z (fly), pos (your coordinates), goto x,z (go to that point), tod 0.5 (midday; tod -1 sets it back to normal), skiptime seconds (skips time forward), heal (heals you), spawn item amount level (creates items or creatures by their internal name, for example spawn Wood 50), exploremap and resetmap (reveal or cover the map again), tame (tames nearby animals), killall (kills nearby enemies), removedrops (deletes items lying on the ground) and raiseskill skill amount (raises a skill).

Why devcommands doesn't work on your dedicated server

A Valheim dedicated server without mods doesn't let anyone use cheats, admins included: you type devcommands and the cheats don't turn on. It's not a hosting fault or a problem with your adminlist.txt; the game does it on purpose so nobody cheats in a shared game.

If you really want them on the server (to build in creative mode or recover something that was lost), the usual way is a mod made for it, like “Server devcommands”, which gives them back only to those in adminlist.txt. At least the admin has to have it on their PC and, for some features, the server too. Before installing it, check on Thunderstore that it's been updated for your version of Valheim: with 1.0 many mods were left behind. We checked it alongside other admin mods in Valheim mods for playing with friends.

With mods the player has to have, console players (Xbox, PlayStation 5, Switch 2) can't join: consoles have no mods. If you play with crossplay, better skip the cheats.

1. Install it on the server from the panel

   On NapNodes, in your server's “Mods”: search for it and install it; the panel adds BepInEx the first time and it loads on restart.

2. Install it on your PC with the same profile

   The “Installed” tab has the r2modman profile code: “Import / Update” → “Import new profile” → “From code”. That way you have the same mods as the server.

3. Join and type devcommands

   With your ID in adminlist.txt and the server restarted, open the console with F5 and turn them on. If something stops starting, remove the last mod from “Installed”.

What about the difficulty and world modifiers?

The modifiers (combat, death penalty, resources, raids, portals, no map...) are set on a dedicated server with launch options: -preset, -modifier and -setkey. An admin can also change them from the console without cheats: setworldpreset, setworldmodifier and resetworldkeys. On NapNodes they're in “Settings” → “World difficulty and modifiers” and apply on restart. All of it, in the Valheim world modifiers guide.

“Settings” also has the server name and the world name, the password, whether it shows on the public list, crossplay, how often it saves and how many of the game's backups are kept.

Frequently asked questions