How do I create a private Valheim server with a VPS?
Developed by the Swedish studio Iron Gate, Valheim stirred up a lot of interest upon its early access release in February 2021. This open-world sandbox survival game was very well received by the public and sold over 5 million copies in less than a month - quite a feat for an independent game. With a barely-touched development potential, players can take part in different activities such as building and surviving in a world of Vikings. How better to explore the tenth Norse world with your friends and fellow adventurers, than with a Valheim VPS?
Procedurally generated mythological world
Valheim follows the same premise as any good sandbox game. You find yourself thrust into an unknown world, dressed in a simple tunic, waiting to know your destiny. Luckily, someone is waiting for you to explain how you came to be here: Hugin, one of Odin’s raven messengers. You soon realise that you will need better equipment to deal with what lies ahead. In Valheim, every adventure is unique. You wander the Nordic lands in a randomly-created mythological realm. You can also choose a seed: a code that allows you to get a map with a good combination of resources and bosses.
Why create my own private Valheim server?
Between the continuous growth of the studio and the mods created by the community, the possibilities offered by the game are constantly expanding. Spend hours with your friends exploring the different biomes and building your Nordic village! There are several possibilities to help you make the most of your game.
The first is to host the game on your own computer, where your friends can connect to your server and join you. However, you will face two main problems: a limited performance, and the fact that the server cannot be accessed by anyone else when you are offline.
You can also join a community server, hosted by other players. The risk here is that the server could suddenly disappear, losing all your hours of progress.
The final, safer and more convenient option is creating your own Valheim server with one of our VPS solutions. With a VPS, you are in complete control of your game, and it remains online 24 hours a day, whether you are online or not. Access to your world can be restricted to just your friends, or open to outside players.
Our recommended VPSs for playing Valheim
Why choose a VPS for Valheim?
Unlimited customisation
With a Gaming VPS, you can configure your entire server to suit your needs. Choose either our Linux or Windows VPS to install Valheim on your preferred operating system. The entire setup of the game is in your hands: use mods created by the community, or simply the standard version of the title. You choose whether to play PVP or PVE with your friends. You can connect to the server via its IP address, which is included in the VPS solution.
Suitable for all budgets
A VPS offers a range of CPU, RAM and storage resources at affordable prices. Unlike a dedicated server, you get a virtualisation environment specifically adapted to your usage. You decide whether you want more resources, and you can add them whenever you want. Hiring a server is an ideal way to host your online games.
Constantly available
The advantage of a private server hosted in one of our datacentres is its availability. Your game is accessible 24 hours a day, uninterrupted. The hardware is continuously monitored and maintained by our technical teams, to ensure the availability guaranteed by our service level agreement (SLA). As a hosting provider and infrastructure builder, we optimise our network to deliver you the best possible response times.
A unique gaming experience
Playing on an official server or a private server hosted on your own computer means you miss out on many advantages. With a private Valheim server on a VPS, you can control the growth of your community. Decide the level of performance to allocate according to the number of players on your server, to avoid the slowdowns seen on locally hosted games. This way, the experience and immersion become even more satisfying. You have total freedom to configure and install mods - and you can also host your own voice server. Create a TeamSpeak or Mumble server, or even a Discord bot, on your own VPS.
What do I need to play on a private Valheim server?
The first step in creating a video game server is to assess the hardware configuration required for it to run smoothly. An important resource to consider for your VPS is the RAM. Our tests show that is possible to run the server with 4 GB of RAM for a limited number of players and builds. However, we recommend choosing a VPS with at least 8 GB RAM for more leeway. The resource scalability means you get more performance without having to migrate servers.
Here is the minimum configuration we recommend for your server:
- 2 vCPUs (virtual processors)
- 4 GB of RAM
- 500 Mbps bandwidth
You are a few clicks away from launching your private Valheim server. Below is some information to help with your installation.
- You can either deploy a Windows Server operating system, or create a Linux server with the distribution of your choice (Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, etc.). Our detailed documentation will guide you through setting up your virtual server.
- To connect to the game, the following TCP/UDP ports must be open on your server: 2456, 2457 and 2458. Remember to also open the relevant ports on your computer (firewall) and router.
- The game server can be installed via the Steam client, which can be launched on your VPS, where you will have root/admin access. There are many tutorials and/or wikis to learn how to manage a Valheim server if you need help.
- The game files only take up a few gigabytes of storage space. We recommend using your remaining disk space to perform backups or similar. These are useful in the event of a malfunction, such as a game error or a bug. You can also add backup and snapshot options (an instant “capture” of your server) to your VPS. However, we recommend that you also keep a local backup, on your computer for example.
- Playing Valheim on your VPS does not require heavy traffic. With at least 500 Mbps of bandwidth and unlimited incoming and outgoing traffic, you’ll have nothing to worry about.
- 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