Valheim Server Always Online: Keep the World Open Without the Host

Why the world closes when the host leaves

When you play by opening your game to the others, the server is your own game: the world is on your PC and only exists while you're in it. If you leave, it's over for everyone. Characters, on the other hand, belong to each player and travel with them, so the only thing that has to stay on is the world.

That's what a dedicated server is for: a separate program that loads the world without anyone playing on that machine. Where you put it decides whether it's always there or not. The three ways to play as a group, compared, in how to play Valheim with friends.

Option 1: your PC on all day

The Valheim dedicated server is free on Steam, so you only pay for electricity. A desktop PC running the server draws, depending on the hardware, between 60 and 100 W continuously: 43 to 72 kWh a month. With electricity between 0.15 and 0.20 € per kWh, that's 6 to 14 € a month on the bill. The electricity calculator works it out with your hardware and your rate.

The downsides: if the PC goes to sleep or Windows restarts to update, the game is over; your upload speed is what sends the world to everyone; and if you play on the same PC, the server and your game share the processor. With crossplay turned on you don't need to open ports on the router. Step by step, in setting up a Valheim dedicated server on your PC.

Option 2: an old computer

A laptop or mini PC you no longer use draws much less than a desktop (15 to 30 W, about 2 to 4 € of electricity a month) and, if it has 8 GB of memory, it can handle an unmodded world for a small group. With mods or with the ten players the game allows, it usually runs short of processor.

Watch out for the Raspberry Pi and ARM computers: the Valheim dedicated server only exists for Windows and Linux on Intel or AMD processors. Some people get it running with emulators, but it's barely enough and breaks with updates. And if the power goes out or the router restarts, the server stays down until you get there.

Option 3: a cloud free tier

For Minecraft, lots of people use the always-free machines of the cloud providers. For Valheim they rarely work out: the ones with plenty of memory are usually ARM (Oracle Cloud's, the most used), with the same problem as the Raspberry Pi, and the free Intel or AMD ones are far too short on memory for a Valheim world.

If you still want to try, you set everything up yourself from the command line: Linux, SteamCMD, the UDP ports in its firewall, backups and updates. Check their current terms before relying on it, because they change, and they ask for a card when you sign up.

Option 4: a host

It's the only one of the four where you don't have to do anything to keep it on: the server is in a data centre, doesn't depend on anyone's PC and doesn't shut down for being empty. NapNodes has two Valheim plans: Meadows, with 4 GB, for an unmodded world with the game's 10 players, and Mountain, with 6 GB, for mods and heavily explored worlds. Your plan's RAM is reserved for you (it isn't sold twice), and if the server crashes, it starts back up on its own; if it crashes twice in an hour, you get an email with the most likely cause.

You join with the address and port or with the join code, with crossplay turned on. The game saves the world every half hour and keeps its own backups, and on top of that the panel makes an automatic daily backup and lets you keep two more, which you restore with one click. You pay for the RAM, per GB per month, with no commitment: each plan's price is on the pricing page, so compare it with the electricity in option 1. Split between friends, it comes to little per head.

And if you only play now and then: the free server

If you don't need it always on, the NapNodes free server is a 4 GB Valheim dedicated server, no card and no end date. It doesn't depend on the host's PC: you start it with “Start” in the panel when you're going to play, and it shuts down on its own after 20 minutes with nobody on.

Its limits, stated plainly: it starts in the space nobody has paid for, so at peak hours you may have to wait in a queue; it has no backups; and if nobody plays for 7 days in a row it's deleted along with its world (we email you 2 days before). If one day you want it always on, “Move to a plan” on its card in “My servers” keeps it on with the same world. All the free options, in free Valheim server.

Which one to choose

To play now and then with the same group, the free server or your own game. To have it always on without paying rent, a PC or laptop with Intel or AMD that you have spare, if you can handle the router and don't mind the electricity. To have it always on without looking after it, a host: what you're paying for is not having to keep an eye on anything.

Make it run on its own: one restart a day

A Valheim server that's been on for days, especially with mods, takes up more and more memory and you notice it as stutter. Restarting it once a day leaves it like new. In the NapNodes panel you schedule it in “Advanced settings” → “Schedules”, without having to be there (everything you can schedule).

In Valheim the panel can't send in-game warnings, so pick a time when nobody plays, for example 05:00. And so you don't lose anything, keep it away from your sessions: the game saves the world every half hour.

1. Choose what to do

   In “New schedule”, “What to do” → “Restart the server”.

2. Choose when

   “Every day” and the time, for example 05:00 (it's mainland Spain time). Leave “Only if the server is online” ticked, so it doesn't start a server you'd left off.

3. Press “Create the schedule”

   It appears below, in “Your schedules”. From there you can pause it, turn it back on or delete it.

4. Test it

   With nobody on, press “Run it now” and check in “Console” that it starts back up.

More ways to stop worrying about it

A server that's always on is always visible: give it a password that isn't easy to guess and, if it's just for the group, the whitelist with your friends' IDs (how, in Valheim private server). On NapNodes the password is generated for you and you see and change it in “Settings”.

Before a big change (installing mods, changing the world modifiers, a game update), take a backup even though there's the daily one. And if someone installs a mod on the server, tell the rest: you all need the same ones on your PC, and with mods on both sides console players can no longer join.

Frequently asked questions