How do I create a Valheim dedicated server?
Released in February 2021 as an Early Access title, Valheim has established itself as the game of the year. The survival game sold over 5 million copies in less than a month, to the great surprise of its creators, the Swedish studio Iron Gate. Combining adventure, craft and Nordic mythology, this game has been acclaimed by the public for its original theme and graphic style. It offers an almost unlimited potential for creation and customisation. It was selected at the French multiplayer event Z Lan 2021 for a Speedrun competition (where players have to achieve a certain goal in a game as quickly as possible).
One thing is clear: Valheim is a game that brings all communities together.
Now you have the chance to play and build your own.
Experience an adventure hosted on a Valheim dedicated server
Become a Viking and advance through Valheim, the tenth world of the afterlife. Travel through a wild nature, populated by mythical and hostile creatures. Collect resources, make tools, build a hut or a village with your friends. The more you progress, the more powerful your enemies will be and the more complex your crafting becomes. To fight them, upgrade your armour from leather to plate mail. Prairies, forests, swamps and mountains...so many landscapes to discover during your adventure! This magical world is waiting for you and there’s so much to do - explore it on board your longboat at your own risk. Currently with PVE multiplayer, 10 players can be simultaneously hosted on a private server. For the best experience, there is only one solution: a dedicated Valheim server.
Why create my own dedicated Valheim server?
Valheim is an expanding game. There is more content yet to come. The gaming community enriches the game by adding mods to it. Organise creative contests, speedrun competitions or simply free servers: the potential for creating a unique experience is vast.
There are several ways to play the game:
- host the game locally on your personal computer
- join a public community server
- create or rent your own dedicated Valheim server
Opting for local hosting when playing with the maximum number of players (10 players) is risky, because of your personal computer's limited resources. This could cause slowdowns or bugs during your game and cause you to lose your progress.
Joining an existing server means that you don’t have a say in its rules. What’s more, it may suddenly disappear. Choosing an OVHcloud Game dedicated server ensures an optimal performance and permanent access to your game. Other players do not have to wait for you to log in before they can continue their progress.
What are the advantages of a dedicated Valheim server?
Unlimited customisation
Shape the world of Valheim the way you want it. With your own server, you can configure it to create your ideal gaming experience. You can also get your community involved - they will have access to a server that they have an affinity with, and can come together in a world made just for them.
Create the rules and suggest new ways to play: a dedicated server lets your creativity run wild!
High performance
Our Game dedicated servers offer the best performance, for a smooth and unique gaming experience. They use the latest generation of AMD Ryzen processors, based on Zen 3 architecture. Our water cooling technology ensures their constant efficiency.
Availability
For optimal service quality, our game servers have a bandwidth of up to 1 Gbps. To achieve the lowest latency possible, you can choose a server closest to where your players are based, from our datacentres located around the world. All the servers in our Game range have a 99.9% SLA, giving you an optimised availability rate for gaming and e-sports.
Anti-DDoS Game Protection
This solution is included with all of our Game dedicated servers. It was designed for gaming use, to protect your games and your players’ experience. Unlike standard solutions, it is adapted to UDP traffic (specific to video games), with incoming and outgoing controls. Dedicated gaming profiles can also be applied to further optimise your protection.
Suitable for all players in the game
Our servers were designed to meet the needs of the gaming industry.
- For resellers: create game servers with your own rules, and give your customers a quality experience in a protected environment.
- For developers: no need to worry about hardware maintenance. Focus on building your game. Find out which infrastructure is most suitable for your game, in terms of server clusters, cloud gaming, resilience, and more.
- For streamers and their community: create unique moments with your viewers and give them quality entertainment. You can rent a server and set up Twitch directly on it. Enjoy the best streaming performance. You can also install Mumble or TeamSpeak, or set up a Discord server, to improve game interactions between your community members.
How do I create a Valheim dedicated server?
Here is the minimum configuration that we recommend for your 10-player server:
- Processor (CPU): 6 cores/3.1 GHz
- RAM: 32 GB
- Disk space: 50 GB (may change depending on your operating system)
- Bandwidth: 500 Mbps
Do you have this configuration? Then you are just a few steps away from adventure.
- Select your operating system in your control panel (Windows server or Linux via Ubuntu). If you need help, consult our detailed guides.
- Ensure that the following TCP/UDP ports are open on your server: 2456, 2457 and 2458. Remember to also open the relevant ports on your computer (firewall) and router.
- Install the game via the Steam client on the server that you have root/admin access to. There are many online tutorials to help you do this.
- The game files only take up a few gigabytes of storage space. We recommend using your remaining disk space to perform backups.
- There are three main settings to enter in the start_headless_server.bat file:
- -name “ServerName”
- -world “WorldName”
- -password “Password”
- Some administrator commands that you can use on your command line console:
- help: displays the various possible commands
- ping: pings the server to view the current latency
- kick [name/IP/username]: kicks the target user
- ban [name/IP/identifier]: bans the target user
- unban [name/IP/identifier]: unbans the banned user
- info: gives system information