Valheim 1.0 arrived on 9 September 2026, five and a half years after Early Access began. For players it's the Deep North, a PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 launch, and crossplay across every platform. For the people running dedicated servers, the list is shorter and more practical. Here is exactly what changed, what didn't, and the order to do things in.
Patches since 1.0: what each one means for your server
We keep this section current as Iron Gate ships patches. Newest first.
| Patch | Date | What matters if you run a server |
|---|
| 1.0.15 | 18 Sep 2026 | Fixes duplicated terrain that was costing performance. If a world was affected you may see seams in the ground; deform the terrain along them (or walk the snow) and they now stay fixed. |
| 1.0.14 | 17 Sep 2026 | Fixes terrain changes by players or monsters causing multiplayer performance and portal problems; fixes a cache bug that could make it impossible to join remote servers; fixes characters not saving when a player pressed Save on someone else's server. The pevents command now sits behind devcommands. |
| 1.0.12 | 11 Sep 2026 | Ban and allow lists now accept old-style IDs again (Steam_123…) as well as the new 1.0 format (V_123…) — on the launch build, a list written with old-style IDs could stop matching its players. Also fixes a crash when a player entered a zone that was not loaded. |
| 1.0.10 | 11 Sep 2026 | Gameplay fixes (Deep North heavy armour can be repaired). The Switch 2 copy of this patch arrived late, which briefly split Switch 2 players from everyone else; Iron Gate has since confirmed all platforms are crossplay-compatible again. |
Two things to know about how these patches roll out. Iron Gate has said each patch takes a few days to reach every platform, and that crossplay stays functional in the meantime — so a Steam server that updates on restart keeps working with console friends who have not received the patch yet. And if items on armour stands or item stands lost their upgrade level when your world first loaded in 1.0, that was the new save format's conversion, fixed from 1.0.12 onward: the world backup the game made at that first load still has the originals.
To update a self-hosted server, re-run SteamCMD (+app_update 896660) and restart. On Connect, restarting is the whole job — the server pulls the current build on every boot.
What changed
1. Console players can join — if the server allows it
The biggest change isn't in the server binary at all; it's who is on the other end. PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 players can only join a dedicated server that was started with the -crossplay flag. Xbox players have needed it since 2023, but PlayStation and Switch 2 double the number of people asking. If your server doesn't run with crossplay, half your Discord can't find it. Details in how console players join a Valheim server.
2. A new world version
1.0 bumps the world format. The console tags it on load:
ZDOMan.LoadChunks - ... WorldVersion: 41 [DeepNorth]
Existing worlds are upgraded in place the first time the 1.0 server loads them, and the save format changes with it: the old <World>.db + <World>.fwl pair becomes a folder named after the world, holding the world in chunks, and the game's own backups become folders too. The old pair is left beside it. There is no conversion step for you to run — but it is a one-way door, so back up the world before the first 1.0 boot if you might ever want to open it on an older build.
3. The Deep North
The final biome generates in any part of the northern map edge nobody has explored. Already-explored zones keep their old terrain. The full rule, and what to do when the north is already mapped, is in the Deep North on an existing world.
Iron Gate lists faster saving, fewer stutters when zones load in and out of memory, and assorted minor optimisations — and says plainly that large builds will not see a big improvement. In our own boot on a 4GB Linux container, the 1.0 server idled at about 1.3GB with a fresh world, which is in line with pre-1.0. Sizing guidance is unchanged; see how much RAM a Valheim server needs.
5. Mods are on shaky ground
No official mod support arrived with 1.0, and Iron Gate warned in advance that existing mods might not survive it. On launch day, many didn't. If your server runs BepInEx, read why Valheim mods broke after 1.0 before you restart.
What did not change
- The player cap. Still 1–10 per server. No plan, host or setting raises it on a vanilla server.
- The launch arguments.
-name, -port, -world, -password, -public, -savedir, the backup flags and -crossplay all work as before. There's still no config file.
- The password rules. At least 5 characters, and not contained in the world name. Still the most common reason a server "won't start".
- The port model. One UDP port for the game, port+1 for Steam queries.
- Save locations. Worlds still live in
worlds_local, in the default Unity folder or wherever -savedir points. What is inside changed — see the save format note below.
The update sequence that avoids a locked-out group
Players update automatically through Steam and their console stores. Servers don't update themselves unless you set them to. Until the server is on 1.0, anyone with the new client gets a version mismatch and can't join.
- Back up the world — both files.
- Disable mods if you run any (rename the BepInEx folder).
- Update the server: on a self-hosted machine,
steamcmd +force_install_dir <dir> +login anonymous +app_update 896660 +quit; on a host, restart with auto-update on.
- Start it and read the console. You want
Valheim version: l-1.0.x, Load world:, and on a crossplay server registered with join code.
- Share the new join code — it changed with the restart.
- Watch for follow-up patches over the next weeks. Consoles sometimes get them later than Steam; if your group is mixed, hold the server on the older build until everyone has caught up, otherwise the console players are the ones locked out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to update my Valheim dedicated server for 1.0?
Yes. Clients on 1.0 can't join a server on an older build. Re-run the SteamCMD update or restart with automatic updates on.
Will my existing world work on the 1.0 server?
Yes. It's upgraded in place on first load. Back it up first — the upgrade is one-way.
Did Valheim 1.0 raise the server player limit?
No. Still 10.
Do console players need anything special to join a dedicated server?
The server must run with crossplay on, they need the six-digit join code from the server console, and their console's privacy settings must allow crossplay. If the join fails with "Incompatible version", one side hasn't patched yet.
Connect's Valheim servers launched on 1.0 with crossplay already on and automatic updates on every restart — so the sequence above is a restart and a new join code, not an evening.