Since its release in Early Access, Valheim has quickly risen to become one of the most popular and well-received survival games. Notably, the title sold over 5 million copies just a month after its release and was the most-played game on Steam in March 2021. By July of 2021, Valheim had sold over 10 million copies, making it one of the most successful Early Access launches. Despite the game being in Early Access, both critic and user reviews note that the experience is mostly complete and very representative of what players can expect in version 1.0.
Although Iron Gate Studio is currently hard at work on the core Valheim experience to deliver the full release to players, that hasn’t stopped the studio from bringing several expansions to the game as well as working on a console release. Shortly after the game’s launch in February 2021, the Hearth & Home expansion arrived in September. This was then followed by the large Mistlands expansion just over a year later in December 2022. As part of the promotion for Mistlands, Iron Gate Studio announced that an Xbox version of Valheim was in the works, and it released in February of this year to strong reviews.
Much of the game’s praise comes from the way that Valheim approaches its mechanics and storytelling. Similar to FromSoftware’s Dark Souls, players must rely on environmental storytelling and emergeent gameplay to decipher the lore of Valheim, which is primarily based off of Norse mythology. Additionally, the game does not explicitly explain many of its core mechanics, leaving players to instead learn how certain elements work via experimentation and discovery.
Valheim Premise
Valheim puts players into the shoes of a fallen Viking awakening in a mysterious land. As an open-world survival title, players begin with virtually nothing and must learn to scavenge and build to survive. Combat is also a crucial component of Valheim, with the mechanics largely taking influence from action titles and featuring real-time inputs. When the game starts, players must craft tools and build a shelter to survive, then gradually expand their shelter into a homestead all while fighting off enemies both natural and supernatural.
The game’s open world is split into several distinct biomes, but these worlds are all procedurally generated based on a map seed. The world that spawns from the game’s procedural generation will be different for each player, but Valheim supports up to 10-players in co-op as well as a dedicated PvP mode. Each of the game’s biomes features its own unique enemies, bosses, and items for players to find. Depending on the materials that players may need for constructing their homestead, it becomes necessary to venture into new areas of the map with specific materials and resources.
Each of the different biomes in Valheim‘s world features variations of difficulty, with some being more difficult to survive in than others. The main objective of the game, other than survival and crafting, is to hunt and kill the 6 main bosses scattered throughout the world. Players must make offerings of specific items to summon the boss enemies. Upon successful elimination of a boss, players gain unique abilities that require a cooldown period between uses. Additionally, players level up like in an RPG and can raise skills for various actions up to level 100.
Valheim Main Characters
In addition to the player character, Valehim features several unique NPCs and enemy characters. Many of the NPCs are important to the game’s resource economy as traders or lore as questgivers. Further, there are the 6 unique bosses spread across the world (referred to as “The 10th Realm”). The main characters in Valheim include:
- The Player Character: The player character is one of many fallen Vikings who now reside in the 10th Realm. Regardless of appearance, the player character must defeat The Forsaken.
- Haldor: Haldor is a helpful Dwarven trader who sells many of Vaheim‘s unique items. He wears a signature cloak and has a red beard adorned with gold.
- Hildir: Hildir is another helpful Dwarven trader that is found in the Meadows biome. In addition to selling valuable items she also provides the player with several quests.
- Odin: Odin is the head of the Norse pantheon and the Norse god of wisdom. He appears in the 10th Realm as a cloaked traveler using a walking stick.
- Eikthyr: Eikthyr is the first boss players will face in the game. He appears as a large stag wrapped in chains and with electrified antlers.
- The Elder: The Elder is Valheim‘s second boss and is a massive sentient tree. He can use his abilities as a tree to spawn other roots and outgrowth to stop the player.
- Bonemass: Bonemass is the third boss players will summon. The creature is humanoid but is mostly a mass of slime, mud, and remains of other entities.
- Moder: Moder is a massive frost dragon that players face off against as Valheim‘s fourth boss enemy. She has black scales, white fur, and ripped webbing in her wings.
- Yagluth: Yagluth is an ancient malign spirit inhabiting the skeleton of a former king of the 10th Realm. It appears as a crawling skeleton with a strange pink aura.
- The Queen: The Queen is the sixth and final boss of the 10th Realm. She is the queen of the Seeker insectoid enemy type.
Games in the Valheim Series
As Valheim is still in Early Access and working toward a full release, it is currently the only game in the series. Additionally, once the game hits full release the developer intends to support the title for years to come with DLC and expansions. The games in the series include:
- Valheim (2021 – Early Access)
Valheim Cheats
Vlaheim features a large number of cheats available on both PC and Xbox through use of the command console. While opening the command console on PC is easy with use of a keyboard, it can still be done on Xbox with some extra steps. Before entering any of the console commands please note two important factors:
- Cheats can only be used on single player servers and are not available on multiplayer servers
- Using console commands can cause bugs or general instability in the game as well as ruin the core Valheim experience.
Activating Cheats on PC
On PC, simply press F5 at any time during gameplay to bring up the command console. In order to activate cheats, type devcommands into the box. To turn off cheats, type devcommands again and see that cheats register as “false”.
NOTE: The command console will not appear unless players right-click on Valheim in their Steam library and select “Properties” and then type -console under “General”
Activating Cheats on Xbox
Activating cheats in Valheim on Xbox is a little bit more involved. Press all four triggers (LB+RB+LT+RT) and the Menu button (the button with the three horizontal lines) to bring up the command console. With the command console open, press A to bring up the Xbox keyboard and type devcommands to activate cheats.
Spawn any Item or Monster
With cheats enabled, type:
spawn [item] [quantity] [level] [p/e/i]
For example, typing spawn wood 50 to spawn 50 units of wood
- Add an asterisk (*) after the name of the item to spawn every item containing that material, including furniture and other objects
- Adding p/e/i to the end of the command will cause the following effects:
p – automatically pick up spawned items
e – automatically equip/use spawned items
i – will only spawn item if it’s not in your inventory already - There are hundreds of items and characters that can be spawned using this command, for a full list you can go here where Reddit user Demogrim has compiled an exhaustive list of in-game item codes
Creative Mode/Debug Mode
Valheim features a creative mode similar to Minecraft where players can experiment with various aspects of the game world. To enter creative mode, you must first enable cheats. Then type debugmode in the command console to enter creative mode.
- B – pressing B in creative mode allows you to repair any item without a workbench
- K – pressing K in creative mode kills all the enemies in an area
- Z – pressing Z in creative mode enters flying mode
Character Cheats
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| addstatus | 54 variables possible, including: Burning, Cold, CorpseRun, Encumbered, Freezing, Rested | Adds status effect |
| beard | 1-16 | Change beard |
| clearstatus | Clear all status effects | |
| die | Kills player | |
| ghost | Become invisible to mobs | |
| god | Invincible mode | |
| hair | 1-23 | Change hair |
| heal | Heal to full health and stamina | |
| model | 0-1 | Change player model (0 masculine, 1 feminine) |
| nocost | No build cost | |
| nomap | Disables map for this character. If used as host, will disable for all joining players from now on. | |
| puke | Empties your stomach of food | |
| raiseskill | [skill] [amount] | Raises your skill |
| resetcharacter | Reset character data | |
| resetskill | [skill] | Resets your skill |
| setpower | GP_Eikthyr GP_TheElder GP_Bonemass GP_Moder GP_Yagluth GP_Queen | Sets your current guardian power and resets cooldown |
Camera Cheats
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| fly | Toggles fly | |
| freefly | Toggles free camera | |
| ffsmooth | 1 or 0 | Adds/removes free camera smooth movement |
| fov | [number] | Changes field of view |
Item Cheats
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| forcedelete | [radius] [*name] | Force remove all objects within given radius. If name is entered, only deletes items with matching names. Radius default 5, max 50. Use at your own risk, create backups first |
| itemset | [name] [keep] Meadows BlackForest Swamps Mountains Plains PlainsBoss Mistlands MistlandsGear MistlandsMage MistlandsWarrior Fisherman | Spawn a premade named set, add ‘keep’ to not drop current items |
| removedrops | Remove all item drops in area | |
| spawn | [amount] [level] [p/e/i] | Spawn something. End word with a star * to create each object containing that word. Add a ‘p’ after to try to pick up the spawned items, ‘e’ to try to use/equip, ‘i’ to only spawn and pickup if you don’t have one in your inventory |
Map Cheats
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| exploremap | Explore entire map | |
| find | [text] [pingmax] | Searches loaded objects and location list matching name and pings them on the map. Pingmax defaults to 1, if more will place pins on map instead |
| genloc | Regenerate all locations | |
| goto | [x,z] | Teleport to given coordinates |
| location | [location] (148 variables) [SAVE] | Spawn a particular location – Warning: Saving permanently disabled, unless you specify SAVE |
| nextseed | Forces the next dungeon to a seed – Warning: Saving permanently disabled | |
| nomap | Disables map for this character. If used as host, will disable for all joining players from now on | |
| optterrain | Optimize old terrain modifications | |
| pos | Print current player position | |
| printlocations | Shows counts of loaded locations | |
| printseeds | Print seeds of loaded dungeons | |
| recall | [name] | Recalls all players to you, or matching name if specified |
| resetmap | Reset map exploration | |
| resetsharedmap | Removes any shared map data from cartography table | |
| resetspawn | Resets spawn location |
Mob Cheats
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| aggravate | Aggravate all nearby neutrals |
| killall | Kill nearby creatures |
| killenemies | Kill nearby enemies |
| killtame | Kill nearby tame creatures |
| printcreatures | Shows counts and levels of active creatures |
| removebirds | Remove all birds |
| removefish | Remove all fish |
| tame | Tame all nearby tameable creatures |
Server Admin Commands
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| ban | [name/ip/userID] | Ban user |
| banned | List banned users | |
| kick | [name/ip/userID] | Kick user |
| ping | Show ping | |
| restartparty | Restart playfab party network | |
| unban | [ip/userID] | Unban user |
| lodbias | Set draw distance for server |
World Cheats
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| env | Clear Twilight_Clear Twilight_Snowstorm Misty DeepForest Darklands_dark Heath clear DeepForest Mist GDKing Rain LightRain ThunderStorm SnowStorm SwampRain AshRain Bonemass Eikthyr Moder Queen GoblinKing Crypt SunkenCrypt Caves Mistlands_clear Mistlands_rain Mistlands_thunder InfectedMine nofogts | Override environment (weather). |
| event | army_eikthyr army_goblin army_theelder army_bonemass army_moder army_gjall army_seekers boss_eikthyr boss_bonemass boss_moder boss_gdking boss_goblinking boss_queen wolves skeletons blobs foresttrolls surtlings bats | Start event |
| noportals | Disables portals for server | |
| players | [number] | Force difficulty scale. 0 = reset |
| event | Start a random event | |
| resetenv | Disables environment override | |
| resetwind | Resets wind | |
| save | Force saving of world and reset world save interval | |
| skiptime | [gameseconds] | Skips ahead in seconds |
| sleep | Skips to next morning | |
| stopevent | Stops current event | |
| time | Shows current time in-game | |
| timescale | [target] [fadetime, default:1, max:3] | Sets timescale |
| tod | -1, 0, 1 | Sets time of day |
Misc. Cheats
| Command | Variables | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| bind | [keycode] [command and parameters] | Bind a key to a console command. May cause conflicts with game controls. |
| clear | Clear the console window. | |
| debugmode | Fly mode. | |
| dpsdebug | Toggle dps debug print | |
| exclusivefullscreen | Changes window to exclusive fullscreen or back to borderless | |
| gc | Shows garbage collector information | |
| help | 1-5 | Shows list of console commands |
| info | Print system info | |
| listkeys | ||
| maxfps | [FPS] | Sets FPS limit |
| printbinds | Prints current binds | |
| removekey | ||
| resetbinds | Reset all custom binds to default | |
| resetkeys | Clear global keys | |
| setkey | [name] | Sets global key |
| tutorialreset | Reset tutorial data | |
| tutorialtoggle | Toggles hugin hints |
Valheim Cheat FAQs
How do I enable cheats in Valheim?
To enable cheats, players must first make sure their command console is enabled. On PC, you will need to right click the game in your Steam library, select “Properties”, and then type -console in the box under “General”. The game will now launch with the command console enabled. Press F5 to open the console at any time during gameplay and then type devcommands to enable cheats.
On Xbox, players will need to press LB+RB+LT+RT+Menu to open the command console. Press A to bring up the Xbox keyboard and type devcommands to enable cheats.
Is it OK to cheat in Valheim?
Unlike some other PC games, there are no anti-cheat bots or software running in Valheim. Instead, players can only enable cheats in single-player servers so as to not disrupt the balance of the game in multiplayer servers.
Can you get banned in Valheim?
While the developers do not issue bans for cheating, players on multiplayer servers can ban others using console commands for admin privilege.