Contents
Looking to optimize your Valheim gameplay and enjoy fast, uninterrupted gaming with friends located anywhere in the world? Playing on a dedicated server built by Valheim gamers for Valheim gamers can dramatically improve your gaming experience.
You’ll never have to scavenge for materials alone and the world around you will evolve according to the direction your community moves. With a Valheim dedicated server, you won’t have to depend on friends playing at the same time as you and your world won’t end if your PC dies or malfunctions.
But don’t just take our word for it. In this article, we explain what dedicated servers are, their benefits over local hosting, and how to set up a Valheim server in just five minutes with Hostari.
Let’s dive in.
What is a Valheim Dedicated Server?
A dedicated server is a type of web hosting service in which a client has the exclusive use of an entire server. When you use a dedicated server for Valheim, your game is run using the full power and bandwidth of that server, rather than sharing it with other users and programs.
The alternative to using a dedicated server is self-hosting or local hosting. This means running the game on your (or one of your fellow gamers’) current PC’s server. While local hosting works fine for solo players, or 2 or 3 of you playing at the same time, it’s still subject to bandwidth, connection strength, and PC hardware restrictions.
Some great premade Valheim servers include:
- Alfheim – This Valheim dedicated server lets you explore tricky areas such as Deep North and Ashlands with up to 60 people. That’s a lot of people on one server, which makes progression easier and making it to the end boss doesn’t have to be as tedious. There’s also a lot of added content, which any Valheim veteran will enjoy. Overall, the community regularly has updates and is very active, which is always a big plus. So if you want to test yourself and go further in the game, Alfheim is for you!
- Jotunheim – Jotunheim is a Valheim dedicated server that makes the basic concepts of the game more enjoyable by adding community trading, letting you explore a lot with a huge number of people, and allowing you to interact with the world around you in a way you haven’t experienced before.
- Comfy Valheim – This Valheim premade server brings a lot of variety to the game by adding a few rare items, a huge community of more than 100 people, and a lot of activities that you wouldn’t be able to find on your typical Valheim server. So if you want a fresh experience, a challenge, and a vast community, Comfy Valheim is for you!
Otherwise, want to create your own server? We offer a completely personalized experience by letting you be the master of your own world. Invite as many players as you can on a server that’ll never lag or go offline! Setting up a dedicated server with us is a piece of cake and anyone can do it, so what are you waiting for?
Why Set-Up A Dedicated Server In Valheim Over Self-Hosting?
How Valheim Works
First of all, a quick explanation of how do Valheim servers work. The game allows you to create multiple characters and drop into your friends’ worlds without having to start from scratch. When you take a character and their inventory from one game to another, their skill progress is carried over.
With that said, there can sometimes be technical issues swapping between worlds. In fact, Valheim’s developers even recommend creating separate characters for single and multiplayer games to avoid losing your progress or equipment. However, using a dedicated server is a much simpler way to enjoy multiplayer and multi-world gameplay.
Your dedicated server also has a chance of becoming the next big thing, like some of the servers we’ve listed before. On it, you can create your own community, create your own rules, and modify the world accordingly.
So, Do You Need A Dedicated Server To Play Valheim?
Like we mentioned earlier, you can host the game locally on your own PC, so you don’t *need* a dedicated server to play Valheim. However, using a dedicated server makes your game faster and more secure, regardless of the size of your world, the number of players, and where or when you’re all playing.
As a high-end, resource-intensive game, Valheim requires a powerful server, especially when multiplayer. INTERNAL BACKLINK HERE With a dedicated server, you don’t need to worry about your game being affected by possible downtime, crashes, and lags, security issues, or any other technical problems that could occur while self-hosting.
What’s more, if you’ve exclusively played Valheim on someone else’s self-hosted game server, you may well have had issues playing while they’re offline. Not a problem with a dedicated server, which is up and running 24/7 no matter which time zone you and your friends are located in.
While tech-savvy Valheim players can set up their own dedicated server, it’s quicker and easier to trust a platform like Valheim Server Hosting to do it for you. Our advanced dedicated game servers are purpose-built to give you the best speed and performance for playing Valheim.
Hosted in high-performing data centers located in the US and Canada, Valheim Server Hosting’s dedicated servers offer lightning-fast speed no matter where you or your fellow players are in the world. With robust infrastructure, reliable uplinks, and tight security, our servers maintain high network availability and little to no lag or downtime. So all you have to do is enjoy playing the game.
How To Set Up A Valheim Dedicated Server
If you own Valheim, you automatically have access to the Valheim Dedicated Server setup tool. However, setting it up yourself is complicated and time-consuming as it requires you to follow numerous tricky steps and whatnot. To set up a dedicated server yourself, you will first need to download the Dedicated Server tool from Steam, and then:
Go to ‘Manage’ and ‘Browse local files’
- Create a duplicate of ‘start_headless_server.bat’
- Right click on ‘start_headless_server.bat’.
- Click on ‘Edit’ and open the file in Notepad
- Customize your server information in the lines such as:
- Name ‘my server’ – Choose your desired server name
- Port 2456 – Set up the ‘Port forwarding’ on your router
- World ‘Dedicated’ – Name your world as you desired
- Password ‘secret’ – Choose your password
- Savedir [PATH] – This line tells Valhem where to store your worlds
Once you follow these steps, you will need to save your file and back it up. Only then, you’ll be able to launch it. As you can see, setting up a dedicated Valheim server on your own is a tricky process, and it’s bound to cause a headache.
Instead of having to edit server files and log into your router software when you could be building forts, slaying Valheim bosses, and drinking mead with your fellow Vikings, let Valheim Server Hosting automate the process for you with instant server setup.
We offer two options for creating your Valheim dedicated server: our trial Valheim server and our paid Valheim server. Both will have you set up and playing the game within 5 minutes.
Trial Valheim Server Setup
Enter your email, choose a password, and select your preferred server region on our trial Valheim server setup page. No need to enter credit card details.
This takes you to the server creation screen. We’ll then allocate resources, generate your world, and secure your server with a password.
This process takes 1-5 minutes in total. Then you have 24 hours to play Valheim on your dedicated server for free and see how much better it makes the game.
Paid Valheim Server Setup
Great news - even though you’ll have to enter your credit card details to set up your server with this option, it also includes an 8-hour free gameplay trial so you can check the server is doing its job!
Sign up and click on the Server Setup menu option on the left-hand sidebar of the Valheim Server Hosting dashboard.
Enter your server's name, password, and preferred region.
This will take you to the World Configuration page. Choose to let Valheim Server Hosting create a new world for you or import an existing world. You can only upload one world while setting up your server. However, you can add more later via the Server Dashboard.
We’ll then create your server for you in just 5 minutes.
You can use your free 8-hour trial to play the game and check everything’s up to scratch!
What Do I Do After Setting Up My Valheim Server?
After server setup, check out our guide to connecting to your Valheim server and start playing the game.
Try Hostari For Free
At the end of the day, you can host your own Valheim dedicated server by yourself, but why waste your precious time and money? Why go through the hassle and risk of it all not working properly when you can use Hostari and set your server up in a snap?
It costs as little as $13 per month when paid annually to rent a server and you’ll never have to worry about missing a step or having a server that faces downtime. Sign up for a free 1-day trial of your Valheim dedicated server and see for yourself the difference it makes to your gameplay!
