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Valheim server guide: Invite friends, join games, play multiplayer

How to start and join servers, public and private

Three Viking stand in front of a portal Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing

Getting sent to the Viking afterlife can be lonely — but it doesn’t have to be! In Valheim, you can invite friends (or strangers) to join you in purgatory and have cookouts or defeat bosses like Eikthyr.

Valheim allows you and nine other pals to run across the game’s biomes. In this Valheim guide, we’ll show you how to start a server, how to join a server, and how invite friends to your game.

How to start a server in Valheim

If you want to invite someone over to your procedurally generated corner of the Viking afterlife, you’ll have to start a server first.

From the Select World menu, you can start a server from a previously created world, or you can make a new one. There are two server types. If you choose Start Server, then it’ll be a friends only server. If you select Community Server, then anyone playing Valheim can join.

How to start a server in Valheim
Make a password and a recognizable name
Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

Here’s how to start a server in Valheim:

  1. Select your character.
  2. From the Select World menu, either choose from the list of worlds you’ve already created, or click the New button to create a new world.
  3. Choose Start Server if you only want friends in your world, or choose Community Server if you want to accept any player.
  4. Optionally set a password to restrict access to your server. Without a password, friends on Steam can log right into your server, and anyone browsing the server list (from Valheim’s Join Game menu tab) can join a community server.
  5. Click Start to load into the server. Once you’re in, others can enter.

When players enter your server, you’ll get a message announcing that a new player has arrived. All players will spawn at your Sacrificial Stones.

Once your server is started, nine others can join in. If you log out of the server you started, everyone in the server will be disconnected.

How to join a server in Valheim

Once you’ve loaded the game and selected your character, you can join any active community servers or any live servers from your friends on your Steam friends list.

The join server screen in Valheim
You can see the Steam player name, server name, and occupancy.
Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

How to join a Valheim Friends server:

  1. Select your character.
  2. Choose the Join Game option in the subsequent menu.
  3. If you want to join a friend’s server, select the Friends option.
  4. All live servers from people on your Steam friends list will be displayed. You’ll see their Steam handle, the name of their server in brackets, the amount of players on the server, and if there’s a password, you’ll see a key icon.
  5. To join the server, highlight its name and click Connect. If the server is password protected, a prompt will appear where you’ll need to enter the password before joining.

How to join a Valheim Community server:

  1. Select your character.
  2. Choose the Join Game option in the subsequent menu.
  3. Select the Community option, and a list of community servers will appear.
  4. Join them as you would any other server.

How to invite friends in Valheim

There is no way to invite friends to your server from within Valheim.

Two vikings stand around in Valheim Image: Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain Publishing via Polygon

However, to easily get your friends onto your server, simply start a normal server and have your friends join from the Join Game tab once you’ve loaded into your server.

If you trust everyone on your friends list, then you don’t need to use a password. If you want a more curated list of pals to join, create a password and send it to your friends.

The next level of puzzles.

Take a break from your day by playing a puzzle or two! We’ve got SpellTower, Typeshift, crosswords, and more.

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