How to Upload or Switch Worlds on Your Valheim Server

A Valheim world is a small set of files, so moving one to your server, keeping several and switching between them is easy. The Worlds page in the panel does it without touching the file manager.

1Find Your World on Your PC

• Valheim 1.0 and newer keep each world in its own folder under C:\Users\you\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\worlds_local.
• Older worlds are two files in that folder: name.fwl and name.db.
• Zip the world folder, or the two files, into one .zip.

2Upload the World

• Log in to your game panel and click your Valheim server.
• Open Worlds in the left menu and press Upload a world. Pick the zip file.
• The world appears in the list under Worlds on this server. Uploading does not switch the server to it yet.

3Switch to the World

• Stop the server first, so it does not save over your files.
• In the list, use the world to make it active. That sets World Name on the Game Settings page to it.
• Start the server. A world saved before Valheim 1.0 is converted to the new format on its first start, and the originals are kept as .old files.

4Start a New World

• On the Worlds page type a name under Start a new world. The world is created on the next start, with the world modifiers from the Game Settings page.
• The server keeps running the old world until you restart it.

Good to Know

• Download a world from the Worlds page to play it in single player or to keep a copy. The panel packs it into a zip.
• Back up and delete removes a world from the server after making a backup. Without the backup a delete cannot be undone.
• Characters are not on the server. Each player's character, with inventory and skills, lives on their own PC or console. Only the world moves.
• Name rules. The World Name setting only accepts letters, numbers, spaces, dots, dashes, underscores and apostrophes, and the server password may not be part of the world name. Rename the folder in the file manager if the page says the name is not usable.
• SFTP works too. The worlds live in .config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local on the server; FTP is easier for a very large world.

Finished

The server runs the world you want. take a manual backup of the whole server once the crew has settled in, so a bad mod or a broken update is a five minute fix.