Valheim

This product is unreleased but remains under active development - information may change frequently and could be outdated or irrelevant.

Valheim

Developers
	Iron Gate Studio
Publishers
	Coffee Stain Studios
Engines
Former	Unity 2019
	Unity 2022
Release dates
Windows	Early access
macOS (OS X)	Early access
Linux	Early access
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Simulation, Building, Survival, Open world
Vehicles	Naval/watercraft
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Fantasy

Valheim is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action, simulation, building, survival and open world game.

The game was released in early access on February 2, 2021 on Steam, selling over three million copies by February 19.

General information

Official subreddit

Official Discord server

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Humble Store
Microsoft Store		Xbox Play Anywhere. Included with Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Steam

Monetization

Type	Notes
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
No microtransactions	Game does not contain any microtransactions.

Essential improvements

Improve the performance in OpenGL mode on Linux for AMD/Intel

Use the mesa_glthread=true %command% command line argument[citation needed]
Running the game with mesa_glthread=true %command% on Steam greatly improves the performance when running on Linux with the Mesa driver library for AMD/Intel GPUs in order to utilize multiple CPU cores. Not required in Mesa 21.1.

Improve performance

Edit boot.config file.
Open boot.config (located in /steamapps/common/Valheim/Valheim_Data) with a text editor. At the top of the file add: gfx-enable-gfx-jobs=1 gfx-enable-native-gfx-jobs=1 scripting-runtime-version=latest Save File. Notes Warning: This can cause freezes/crashes when using Vulkan on certain hardware.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\IronGate\Valheim\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/prefs

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)
Linux	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics Options

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		Text and icons on the map appear to use fixed pixel widths, making them difficult to read at 4K resolution.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Fullscreen mode defaults to borderless fullscreen.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		On/off toggle.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		HDR experience can be improved using: RenoDX There are no plans to implement native HDR support.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unity page for more details.

HUD Settings

Hide HUD The default hotkey to toggle the HUD is Ctrl+F3

Exclusive Fullscreen mode

Command line parameter
See Command line arguments. Type in -window-mode exclusive -screen-fullscreen

This can improve the performance but might cause issues when tabbing out of the game.

Force Vulkan on Windows

Command line parameter
See Command line arguments. Type in -force-vulkan

Console

Command line parameter
See Command line arguments. Type in -console

Input

Input settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Open chat is hardcoded to ↵ Enter. Item belt hotkeys can't be remapped.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Added by the Steam Deck update on March 1.
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Enable the "Invert Mouse" option.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		Doesn't read inputs correctly. May require Steam Input support to be enabled.

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Xbox controller mapping

• 

  DS4 controller mapping

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		Up to 7.1; See Surround sound
Subtitles		There is no spoken dialogue.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Surround sound

Patch one of Unity's standard configuration files in Valheim with SSound4Val.cmd

Only applies to Windows installations. See the README file on GitHub for up-to-date information on how to use SSound4Val.cmd. Download SSound4Val.cmd. (optional) Download the tool SFK separately and place the file sfk.exe in the same directory as SSound4Val.cmd. The script can do this automatically. Double-click SSound4Val.cmd. A command line window should appear. Depending on where the Valheim executable is located, you may have to instead Right Click the file and choose "Run as administrator" from the context menu. Follow the instructions provided by the script.

Or use this mod: SimpleAudioOptions

Miscellaneous settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Bulgarian
Simplified Chinese
Czech
Danish
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		10	Co-op, Versus The game can be played over LAN using the dedicated server but the server itself requires internet access.
Online play		10	Co-op, Versus PVP can be turned on. Off by default

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Game runs poorly on Vulkan in AMD on Linux

Force OpenGL mode
Run the game with -force-opengl or -force-glcore, additionally you can also run with mesa_glthread=true %command% -force-opengl (or -force-glcore) for much better performance. Will be fixed in the upcoming Mesa 21.1[citation needed]

Disable TearFree
The game runs poorly with TearFree enabled with AMDGPU and Vulkan. xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --set TearFree off Change DisplayPort-0 to the name of your display (run xrandr to get a list)

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11	Default API on Windows
OpenGL	4.5	Alternate API on Linux
Vulkan	1.2	Default API on Linux, alternate on Windows

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7
Processor (CPU)	2.6 GHz Quad Core		Intel Core i5 3 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 3 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB		16 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 AMD Radeon HD 7970 DirectX 11 compatible		Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 580
Other			Broadband Internet connection

A 64-bit operating system is required.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.13 or later		14 or later
Processor (CPU)	2.6 GHz Quad Core or similar		Apple M1
System memory (RAM)	8 GB		16 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Radeon Pro 450 or R9 M290X		M1 Integrated GPU or Radeon Pro 570X 3 GB
Other			Broadband Internet connection

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Linux
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Any up to date version
Processor (CPU)	2.6 GHz Dual Core		Intel Core i5 3 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 3 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB		16 GB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 AMD Radeon HD 7970		Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 580
Other			Broadband Internet connection

A 64-bit operating system is required.