Valheim’s developer console is one of the most misunderstood tools in the game, and the confusion almost always comes from the same place: people copy a list of “console commands” from somewhere, log into their dedicated server, type spawn or god, and nothing happens. That isn’t a bug. Valheim deliberately splits its commands into three different groups, and the most powerful ones — the cheats — simply do not run on a vanilla dedicated server, even when you are an admin. This guide explains exactly which commands work where, how to enable the console properly, how to make yourself a real server admin, how item prefab spawning actually works, and the workarounds when you genuinely need dev commands on a hosted box.
Everything below is verified against the current Early-Access live build of Valheim (the Ashlands and Call to Arms content, on the 0.21x patch family). Full version 1.0 — the Deep North biome, the end of Early Access, and PS5/Switch 2 crossplay — is dated September 9, 2026, so command behavior may evolve; when in doubt, cross-check the Valheim documentation.
Enabling the developer console
The console is hidden by default. You enable it client-side with a single launch flag, and then open it in-game with a hotkey. This is the same on a singleplayer world, a listen server, or when you connect to a dedicated server — the console lives on your client, not on the server.
- Steam: Right-click Valheim → Properties → General → Launch Options and add
-console. - Game Pass / Xbox app: there is no launch-options box, so add
-consoleto the Target line of a desktop shortcut that points at the game executable. - In-game: press F5 to open and close the console.
Once the console is open you can type any of the player/utility commands immediately. To unlock the cheat group you must additionally type devcommands — but, as the next section explains, that only matters in singleplayer or a manually hosted (listen) world.
The three command groups (and why this matters)
The official wiki splits Valheim’s console into three categories. Internalize this and you’ll never be confused again about why a command “isn’t working.”
Group A — Admin commands (work on a dedicated server)
These are the server-management commands. They run on a dedicated server as long as the SteamID64 of the person calling them is listed in adminlist.txt (covered below). This is the full vanilla admin toolkit:
| Command | Parameters | Effect |
|---|---|---|
kick | [name/ip/userID] | Kick a connected player |
ban | [name/ip/userID] | Ban a user |
unban | [name/ip/userID] | Remove a ban |
banned | — | List banned users |
save | — | Force an immediate world save |
ping | — | Measure latency to the server |
setworldmodifier | [name] [value] | Set a world-modifier value |
setworldpreset | [name] | Apply a named world preset |
resetworldkeys | — | Reset world modifiers to default |
The save command is worth highlighting: before you restart, update, or opt into a beta branch, run save so the latest state is flushed to disk. It’s cheap insurance against losing the last few minutes of progress.
Group B — Player / utility commands (work anywhere)
These need neither admin rights nor devcommands. They tweak your own client or print harmless information, so they work in singleplayer, on a listen server, and connected to a dedicated server alike:
info— print system informationping— latency checklodbias [number]— draw distance / level-of-detail. The wiki documents a range up to 7; treat 1–5 as the safe documented client range (higher values exist but are less consistently described)fov,maxfps— field of view and framerate capnomap— play with the map disablednoportals— disable portals for the sessionprintseeds— prints seeds/positions of nearby dungeonsoptterrain— converts legacy terrain modifications to the optimized format (a real performance fix)help [page],clear, and chat shortcuts (say,s,w)
Group C — Cheat / dev commands (do NOT work on a dedicated server)
This is the group everyone reaches for, and the source of nearly all the frustration. The wiki states it plainly: these commands are “available in singleplayer or manually hosted mode only. They do not work on a dedicated server.” The server-help community documentation reinforces it: “devcommands or related commands are not enabled on a dedicated server, even for admins.”
You enable them by typing devcommands in the console (and debugmode is itself one of these cheat commands). The group includes the famous ones:
god— invincibilityfly— free flightspawn [name] [amount] [level]— spawn items, creatures, or objects by prefab namegenloc— redistribute unplaced locationsdebugmode— creative/debug mode- plus
tame,killall,heal,goto [x] [z],location,raiseskill [skill] [amount],setkey/removekey/listkeys,tod [0-1],env,skiptime,players [n](difficulty scaling),exploremap,nocost,ghost,event/stopevent,pos,resetcharacter,removedrops, and more
The bottom line: on a vanilla dedicated server, an admin can only kick, ban, save, ping, tune lodbias, and adjust world modifiers. To spawn items, fly, or use god mode you must either be the world owner in singleplayer / on a listen server, or install a mod (covered below).
Debug-mode hotkeys
Once you’ve run devcommands followed by debugmode (again, singleplayer or listen server only), four hotkeys become available:
- B — free build (no resources or workbench required)
- Z — toggle fly (Space ascends, Ctrl descends)
- K — kill nearby enemies
- L — remove nearby item drops
Making yourself a dedicated-server admin
Admin rights on a dedicated server are governed by a single file: adminlist.txt. You list one SteamID64 per line. Crossplay/PlayFab IDs are also accepted on the line.
The file lives in the same directory as the world save data:
# Self-hosted Windows
%USERPROFILE%/AppData/LocalLow/IronGate/Valheim/
# Linux
~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/
# Managed host: beside the server's worlds_local save directory
# (or wherever -savedir points)The format rule is strict: one ID per line, with no comments or extra text on the line. Stray characters will silently break that entry. Changes generally apply immediately, but if they don’t take, restart the server.
To find your SteamID64 you have three options: press F2 in-game (it appears next to your username), watch the server console as a player joins, or paste your profile URL into a lookup site like steamidfinder.com.
If you’d rather not edit text files by hand, a managed control panel handles the admin list and restarts for you — see how we approach this on our dedicated Valheim hosting plans, which give you a true 24/7 process plus file access for adminlist.txt and -savedir.
Spawning items: how prefab names work
The spawn command is the “item list” half of this topic, and it follows a fixed syntax:
spawn [PrefabName] [amount] [level]
# Examples (singleplayer / listen server only)
spawn Wood 50
spawn ShieldBronzeBuckler 1
spawn Greydwarf 3 2The first argument is the internal prefab name, not the display name you see in your inventory. Prefab names are case-sensitive identifiers — for example, shields use names like ShieldWood, ShieldBronzeBuckler, and ShieldFlametal rather than their friendly titles. The second argument is quantity, and the optional third is the upgrade/star level (handy for spawning higher-quality gear or starred creatures). Because the prefab list runs into the hundreds and changes between updates, the most reliable approach is to spawn items in-game and let the console’s autocomplete suggest valid names — or keep the current wiki’s prefab table open while you work.
Again: spawn is a Group C cheat command. It will do nothing on a vanilla dedicated server. If you want to gift items to players on a hosted world, you need the workaround below.
The workaround: dev commands on a dedicated server
There is exactly one supported way to get spawn, god, fly, and the rest of the cheat group working on a dedicated server: install the Server Devcommands mod (available on Thunderstore, loaded via BepInEx). This is a community mod, not a hidden vanilla setting — there is no launch flag or config key that unlocks cheats on a dedicated server.
Installing it means installing the BepInEx framework on the server (and matching it on clients for gameplay-affecting mods). BepInEx is the Unity plugin/patcher framework that Valheim mods load through; the Valheim-specific build is BepInExPack_Valheim by denikson. You unpack it into the server root (the folder containing valheim_server.exe), which creates a BepInEx/plugins/ folder, and drop each mod’s .dll in there. For the full walkthrough see our guide on adding and installing mods to a dedicated Valheim server, and when you need to go back to pure vanilla, our guide on disabling BepInEx mods (the verified method is renaming or removing the BepInEx folder, or removing individual .dll files from plugins/).
World seeds and the files behind your world
A world seed initializes Valheim’s pseudo-random generator and fully determines terrain, biomes, resources, and boss/location placement — the same seed produces the same layout for a given game version. A common misconception is that the seed is derived from the world name. It is not: at world creation the game opens a dialog with a world-name field and a separate seed field, and the seed field is pre-filled with a random value that you can replace with your own (commonly a 1–10 character alphanumeric string). Seeds are locked at creation — to use a different one you generate a new world.
Every world is stored as two files that share the world’s name:
WorldName.fwl— metadata: name, seed, configuration (the seed lives here; open it in a text editor and the world name is line one, the seed string line two)WorldName.db— progress: terrain edits, buildings, chests, dropped items
There is no seed launch flag for the dedicated server, so to run a specific seed you create the world locally with that seed, play it for a minute or two so both files generate, upload both into the server’s worlds_local folder, and point the server’s -world parameter at that filename (no extension), then restart. Our full Valheim world seed guide walks through finding, extracting, and transferring seeds.
Performance, the 64 KB/s cap, and desync
Console commands won’t fix a laggy server, so it’s worth knowing what actually causes rubber-banding. The single most-cited bottleneck is Valheim’s hard-coded per-client send/receive limit of about 64 KB/s in the dedicated server — no vanilla setting exposes it, and the community fix is the Better Networking mod (which raises it to 256 KB/s and beyond). Beyond that, the server is largely single-threaded, so single-core clock speed matters more than core count — CPUs below roughly 3.0 GHz are cited as a desync cause. Some game logic also runs on players’ clients, so one weak PC or bad connection can glitch everyone nearby.
| Resource | Community-verified guidance |
|---|---|
| RAM | ~2 GB minimum; ~3 GB typical even small; 4 GB+ for 2–10 players; 8 GB+ for 10+ or heavy mods |
| CPU | ~4 cores recommended, but single-thread bias — high clock speed (3.0 GHz+) matters most |
| Storage | SSD recommended, ~60 GB free typical; put -savedir on fast storage |
| Per-client network | Hard-capped ~64 KB/s in vanilla (Better Networking mod raises it) |
Practical mitigations: run a true off-PC dedicated server, reduce structure/entity/terrain-piece counts (and run optterrain on legacy terrain edits), restart the server regularly because memory grows over time, and tune client draw distance with lodbias. Our deeper writeup on fixing lag and desync covers each cause in turn. Note that these resource needs are community-verified, not an official spec — the difference between raw-resource (per-GB) and slot-based hosting matters here, which we break down in dedicated vs slots hosting, because for Valheim CPU clock beats core count beats slot count for smoothness.
Frequently asked questions
How do I enable the console in Valheim?
Add -console to your Steam Launch Options (right-click Valheim → Properties → General → Launch Options), or to a desktop shortcut’s Target on Game Pass. Then press F5 in-game to open the console. That gives you Group B player commands immediately; type devcommands on top to unlock cheats — but cheats only work in singleplayer or a listen server, never on a vanilla dedicated server.
Why don’t spawn, god, and fly work on my dedicated server?
Because they’re Group C cheat commands, which the wiki confirms are “available in singleplayer or manually hosted mode only — they do not work on a dedicated server,” even for admins. Admins on a dedicated server can only use Group A commands: kick, ban, unban, banned, save, ping, and the world-modifier commands. To get spawn/god/fly on a dedicated server you must install the Server Devcommands mod via BepInEx.
How do I become an admin on a Valheim dedicated server?
Add your SteamID64 (one per line, no comments) to adminlist.txt, which sits in the same directory as your world saves — on Linux that’s ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/, on self-hosted Windows it’s under %USERPROFILE%/AppData/LocalLow/IronGate/Valheim/, and on a managed host it’s beside the worlds_local save folder. Find your ID with F2 in-game or steamidfinder.com. Changes usually apply immediately; restart the server if not.
How do I spawn items by name in Valheim?
Use spawn [PrefabName] [amount] [level] after enabling devcommands — for example spawn Wood 50. The first argument is the internal prefab name (case-sensitive, not the display name), the second is quantity, and the optional third sets the upgrade or star level. Let the console’s autocomplete suggest valid prefab names, since the full list runs into the hundreds and shifts between updates. Remember this only works in singleplayer or a listen server unless you’ve added the Server Devcommands mod.
Which shield is best for parry builds?
Bucklers — every buckler has the highest parry bonus at 2.5×, with only a -5% movement penalty. Round shields parry at 1.5×, and tower shields cannot parry at all (they trade that for the highest raw block armor and a -10% movement penalty). A parry triggers when you block under 0.25 seconds before the hit lands, and it multiplies your block armor by the parry bonus while staggering the attacker. By tier: Bronze buckler early, Iron buckler in the Swamp, Carapace buckler in Plains/Mistlands. Our best shields in Valheim guide has the full stat table.
How do I run console commands on the public-test beta?
The commands themselves are identical; the catch is getting onto the beta. The public-test branch is code-gated — in Steam, right-click Valheim → Properties → Betas, enter the access code yesimadebackups, then pick public-test from the dropdown. For the dedicated server, update via SteamCMD with -beta public-test -betapassword yesimadebackups on appID 896660. Client and server must be on the same branch, test builds can corrupt saves (hence the code’s name), and note that anonymous SteamCMD downloads of the dedicated server may now require game ownership. See our public-test beta install guide for the full process.
Quick reference
The whole topic compresses to one rule: cheats are client-side, management is server-side. If a command changes the world’s contents (spawning, god mode, flight, teleporting), it’s a cheat and only runs where you own the world locally — or where Server Devcommands is installed. If a command manages players or the server itself (kick, ban, save, ping, world modifiers), it runs on the dedicated server for anyone in adminlist.txt. Get that distinction right and the rest is just remembering prefab names. For the canonical command tables and setup steps, the Valheim docs stay current with each patch.
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