Quick Start
Change your Server Password
You can change your server password at any time by changing the Server Password startup parameter and restarting your server.
Name your server
The name of your server is displayed to players in their server list, both on Steam and in the in-game server list. You can make your server easier to find and differentiate by setting the Server Name startup parameter to a custom value then restarting your server.
Secure your server
Valheim offers a couple of ways to secure your server. By default servers are created with a Server Password that's required on log in to the server. You should change that password and can give it out to the players you want to join. Or, you can create a whitelist, or permit list, of players who you want to be able to join your server by editing the permitted list file. Any player on the permitted list will be allowed to join the server, but will still need to enter the password if one is specified, and any player not on the list will be treated as if they were banned.
Whitelist/Permit Players
Valheim has a built-in player whitelist known as a permitted list, and you can add your player's Valheim Player ID to the list to only allow the listed players onto your server.
You can find the permitted list file at .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/permittedlist.txt
using the GCP File Manager or SFTP. After opening the file, you can add the Valheim Player ID of each player you want to be able to join your server to the file, each ID being on it's own line.
Only the players in this file will be able to join. All players, both on the list and not, will still be prompted for a Server Password, if you have one set, before they're either allowed in or told they're banned from the server.
Ban Players
Players can be explicitly banned from the server, regardless of their appearance on the permitted list by adding their character name or Valheim Player ID to the file located at .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/bannedlist.txt
. You can edit the file using the GCP File Manager or SFTP and changes to the file will be immediate, resulting in players being prevented from joining the server if they're on the list.
Using the character name that a player uses on your server will result in only that character being banned, allowing the actual player to bypass the ban by creating a new character. You can ban the account that owns the game by using the player's Valheim Player ID.
Character names and Valheim Player IDs are case sensitive when used in admin commands!
Finding your IP and Port
You can find your Valheim server's IP and Port by looking at it in the server list, looking at the server summary on the top left of the server's page, or by looking at the primary allocation in the Management → Allocations
tab.