Valheim Console Commands: Cheats and Admin Commands

Valheim has two separate command systems, and confusing them is the single most common reason a command "doesn't work". The developer console runs on your game client, and that is where the cheats live — spawn, god, fly, exploremap. Admin commands are a much shorter list that a server owner runs from the same console box, and on a dedicated server they are the only ones the game will honour. This page covers both, spells out which commands work where, and shows how to unlock the rest.

Console commands vs admin commands

Every command below falls into one of three buckets. Getting this table straight first will save you a lot of time.

Cheat commands do not work on a dedicated server

This is the part most command lists leave out. devcommands unlocks cheats in singleplayer and in a world you host yourself from the game client. On a dedicated server — including the one in your panel — the cheat commands are refused no matter who you are. Being an admin does not change this. The only supported workaround is a mod, covered in the Server Devcommands section below.

How to enable the console

There are two ways, and most guides still only mention the older one.

The settings toggle

Since the Call to Arms update (patch 0.221.4, 9 September 2025) the developer console has its own option in the in-game settings menu. Open Settings, go to the Gameplay tab, and switch the developer console option on. No launch arguments, no shortcuts, and it survives restarts.

Iron Gate's patch notes for that release put it plainly:

Added the option in the settings menu to enable the developer console. The command line argument "-console" overrides the setting.

Iron Gate's own help page predates this change

The official "How to Enable Developer Mode" support article is dated February 2024 — about eighteen months before the setting was added — so it only documents the launch argument. So do most of the top search results. If you are on a current build, try the settings toggle first.

The -console launch option

Still works, and still overrides whatever the setting says, which makes it the reliable choice if you are on an older build or the toggle is not where you expect.

• Steam — right-click Valheim in your library, Properties, General, and paste -console into the Launch Options field. You then have to start the game from Steam for it to apply.
• PC Game Pass / Microsoft Store — the launcher gives you nowhere to put arguments, so make a shortcut to Valheim.exe (default location C:\XboxGames\Valheim\Content), open its Properties, and add -console to the end of the Target field. Launch from that shortcut.
• Mac (App Store) — launch the binary directly with the argument: /Applications/Valheim.app/Contents/MacOS/Valheim -console.
• Xbox — enable it in the gameplay settings menu. Iron Gate shipped the console enabled on Xbox originally, but patch 0.221.4 (9 September 2025) reversed that: the notes carry an "Xbox Only" line stating the developer console is now disabled by default and is enabled through the new gameplay setting instead. Guides that still say Xbox needs no setup predate that patch.

Opening the console

Press F5. On a controller the combination is LB + LT + Start.

If nothing happens, work through these in order:

1. You launched the game a different way than the one you enabled the console through. Steam launch options only apply to the Steam shortcut.
2. Your laptop keyboard is in function mode, so F5 is sending a media key instead. Toggle Fn-lock.
3. On some Windows permission setups the game has to be run as administrator before the console will open.

Player commands

These need no cheats and no admin rights. Typing / and pressing Tab in the chat window will list what is available on your build.

Admin commands

This is the complete vanilla admin set. It is short, and that is the point — admin rights on a Valheim server are about moderation, not cheating.

setworldmodifier and setworldpreset are the live equivalents of the launch-argument modifiers described in Configuring your Valheim server — handy for changing raid frequency or resource rates without a restart.

Force a save before you do anything risky

save is the most underrated command on this list. Run it before a mod change, a restart, or any large build, and your worst case is losing a few seconds instead of the interval since the last autosave.

Setting up admins

Admins are granted by a plain text file, not by an in-game command. Valheim reads three files out of its save directory:

permittedlist.txt bans everyone who is not on it

Iron Gate's dedicated server guide is explicit: "adding a person on the permitted list will ban everyone else from the server." If you add one line to that file as a test, your server is now invite-only. Leave it empty unless a whitelist is what you actually want.

On a stock install those files live alongside your worlds in the save directory — ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim on Linux, %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim on Windows — unless -savedir moves it. On your GSK server the save directory is the server root, so adminlist.txt sits next to the worlds_local/ folder and you can edit it straight from the File Manager. Add one ID per line and nothing else:

Two ID formats are in circulation — use the one F2 shows you

Iron Gate's current dedicated server guide specifies "one Platform User ID per line" in the format [Platform]_[User ID], case sensitive, and says that ID "can be obtained from the Server log or from within the game using the F2 panel". Almost every third-party guide still shows a bare 17-digit SteamID64 with no prefix, which is the format that predates crossplay. If admin rights refuse to apply, this is the first thing to check — press F2 in game, copy the ID string exactly as it appears next to the player's name, and paste that.

Crossplay servers make this matter more, because players arriving from Xbox or the crossplay backend have a PlayFab identity rather than a SteamID64. Whatever the F2 panel prints for that player is what belongs in the file.

Do not add comments, trailing spaces, or two IDs on one line — the parser is unforgiving. Restart the server after editing if the change does not take effect on its own.

Cheat commands

Type devcommands and press enter to switch cheats on, and again to switch them off. Everything in this section requires it, and none of it works on a dedicated server without the mod covered further down.

Character

Movement and camera

World and time

Spawning and removing

Debug output

Spawning items and creatures

spawn takes a prefab name, not a display name — spawn Blackmetal 50 works, "spawn black metal" does not. Amount and level are optional, and level applies to creatures.

Two behaviours are worth knowing before you spam it:

• A trailing * is a wildcard. spawn Sword* spawns every prefab whose name contains "Sword", which is rarely what you meant.
• Items are spawned one at a time before they stack. Very large amounts, or high-level creatures that drop thousands of items on death, can freeze the game outright.

If you cannot remember a prefab name, find [text] locates matching objects already in the world, and the game's own help output is the most current list your build has.

Getting cheat commands onto a dedicated server

There is no launch flag, config key or admin permission that unlocks cheats on a dedicated server. The community answer is Server devcommands by JereKuusela, on Thunderstore, which is by some distance the most widely used mod in this space.

Two details people get wrong:

• It goes on the admin's game client first. Most of it works from the client alone. The author's own install line is "on the admin client and optionally on the server", with a server-side copy needed for full features — find is the one the current documentation calls out explicitly as needing it. Older guides circulate a fixed seven-command list; that came from mod version 1.53.0 and the current release no longer publishes one, so check the version you are installing rather than trusting a copied list.
• You still have to be in adminlist.txt. The mod checks admin status; it does not grant it.

Because it is a BepInEx plugin, the server side needs BepInEx running. Our mods guide covers the panel's server type options and how to get plugins into BepInEx/plugins/.

Back up the world before you add any mod

A misbehaving plugin can corrupt a world file, and cheat commands like location and nextseed permanently disable saving for that session by design. Take a snapshot first — the maintenance guide covers the routine.

Does Valheim have RCON?

No. Vanilla Valheim has no remote console protocol, which is why there is no web console command box for it the way there is for Rust or ARK. Administration happens either in game through the console, or through the panel's own power and file controls.

Community plugins such as ValheimRcon add a Source-style RCON listener on top of BepInEx if you genuinely need scripted remote administration. Treat it the way you would any port you expose deliberately: it is a remote command channel, so give it a strong password.

What changes at Valheim 1.0

Iron Gate has confirmed that Valheim 1.0, with the Deep North biome, releases on 9 September 2026, ending five and a half years of early access. Alongside the existing PC, Linux, Mac and Xbox versions it adds PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with full crossplay across every platform.

For server owners the practical consequence is identity. More platforms means more players whose IDs are not SteamID64s, which makes the [Platform]_[User ID] format in adminlist.txt the safe habit to be in now rather than after launch.

Version this page was checked against

Commands here were verified against Valheim 0.221.12, the current stable build at the time of writing, with 0.221.13 on the public test branch. A biome update of Deep North's size usually adds prefabs and occasionally adds commands, so re-run help in your own console after 1.0 lands.

FAQ

Why don't console commands work on my Valheim server?

Almost certainly because you are trying to run cheat commands. spawn, god, fly and the rest are blocked on dedicated servers in vanilla Valheim, and admin rights do not override that. Admin commands like kick, ban and save do work. For cheats you need the Server devcommands mod.

Do I still need the -console launch option?

Not on current builds. Patch 0.221.4 added a developer console toggle to the Gameplay settings menu. -console still works and takes priority over the setting, so it remains the dependable option if you are on an older build.

How do I open the console on Xbox?

Enable it first in the gameplay settings menu, then open it with the LB + LT + Start controller combination — the same combination controller users press on PC. Xbox used to ship with the console enabled, but patch 0.221.4 (September 2025) disabled it by default and moved it behind the settings toggle.

What ID goes in adminlist.txt?

Iron Gate documents one Platform User ID per line in [Platform]_[User ID] form, case sensitive, for example Steam_76561197960287930. Older guides show the bare SteamID64 without the prefix. Press F2 in game and copy the ID exactly as it appears next to the player's name.

Do admin commands need devcommands first?

No. kick, ban, unban, banned, save and the world modifier commands work as soon as your ID is on the admin list. devcommands is only for cheats, and it does nothing for you on a dedicated server.

Can I spawn items on my dedicated server?

Only with a mod. Install Server devcommands on your admin client, make sure BepInEx is running server side, and add your ID to adminlist.txt. There is no vanilla route.

Where are the world files on a Valheim server?

In worlds_local/, as a matching .db and .fwl pair per world. Configuring your Valheim server covers switching worlds, uploading a singleplayer save, and wiping.

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