Managing Your Valheim World

Your Valheim world is the most important data on your server. Everything you need to create, switch, upload, download and reset worlds is on the Worlds tab of your server in the game panel. You do not need SFTP for any of it.

The Worlds tab

At the top, Current world shows the world the server loads and its seed, with a copy button. Below it is the list of every world on the server. The active one is marked Active. A world marked Not generated exists only as a name and seed so far: the server builds its terrain the next time it starts.

Each world has a menu (the three dots) with Make active, Copy seed, Download and Delete world.

Creating a new world

Click New world from seed
Enter a World name (letters, digits, spaces, _ and -)
Paste a seed, or leave Seed (optional) empty for a random one
Leave Make it the active world on to play on it straight away, or turn it off to only add it to the list
Click Create world

Your current world stays saved on the server, and you can switch back to it at any time. If the server is running and the new world is active, the server restarts and generates the world. Otherwise it generates the next time you start the server. The world files appear after the server's first save, usually within 30 minutes.

Switching worlds

Open the menu of the world you want and choose Make active. A running server restarts to load it. A stopped server loads it on the next start.

Resetting your world

To start fresh, create a new world as described above and make it active. The old world stays in the list, so you can go back to it or delete it later.

To get the same map again from scratch, copy the seed of the old world with Copy seed and use it for the new world.

Uploading a world from your PC

Your single-player worlds are here on Windows:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local\

Older worlds are two files, <WorldName>.fwl and <WorldName>.db. Click Upload world and pick both. The .db holds the terrain and everything built on it, so without it the server generates fresh terrain from the seed
Valheim 1.0 worlds are a folder named after the world. Click Upload world folder and pick that folder

When the upload finishes, choose Make active and restart. If a world with the same name already exists, the panel warns you that the upload replaces it. You cannot upload over the active world while the server is running, because the game would overwrite the upload on its next save, so stop the server first.

More detail is in uploading a Valheim world.

Downloading a world

Choose Download in the world's menu. You get the world files (or the whole world folder for a Valheim 1.0 world). Place them in your local worlds_local folder and the world appears in Valheim's world list.

Deleting a world

Choose Delete world in the world's menu. The active world cannot be deleted: make another world active first. Deleting is permanent, so download the world first if you might want it back.

Backups

Panel backups: the Backups tab takes a backup of the whole server with Create backup and can Restore it later. Make one before big changes such as installing mods
Valheim's own backups: the game also keeps automatic backup copies of the world on the server. How often and how many are set on the Startup tab with Backup Interval (seconds between saves, default 1800), Backup Count (default 4), Backup Shorttime and Backup Longtime

Best practices

Download your world before major game updates and before installing mods
Keep old worlds instead of deleting them when you start over. Switching back is one click
Name worlds clearly so you can tell them apart in the list

Need help with your world? Use the live chat on our website, or open a ticket with support.

Managing Your Valheim World