Valheim world modifiersAdjust difficulty, resources and portals

Published on September 2, 2026 · last updated on October 21, 2026

Presets and individual modifiers

Valheim has two levels. On the one hand, ready-made presets that set a whole package of rules at once - from relaxed building to a hard fight for survival. On the other hand, individual modifiers that let you fine-tune specific aspects.

On the server, both are set via the startup parameters that you maintain in your server settings. Changes take effect after a restart and apply to the loaded world.

What can be adjusted

• Combat. How much damage enemies deal and take. The slider with the biggest influence on how the game feels.
• Death penalty. How harshly a death is punished - from losing your skills completely to no penalty at all.
• Resources. How much mining and gathering yield.
• Portals. Whether ores can be transported through portals. For many groups, the most important question of all.
• Raids. Whether and how often bases are attacked.

On top of that, there are special rules for those who really want them: no map, no portal building, no building at all. For most groups, these are curiosities - but for a second round with experienced players, they add an interesting twist.

The portal question

No setting is discussed as often as this one. In the original game, ores cannot be transported through portals - metal has to be brought home by ship or on foot. That is a deliberate part of the game design: the dangerous journey home with a full backpack is part of the game.

For groups with little time, exactly that is the biggest source of frustration. If you play for two hours in the evening, you spend one of them sailing. The option to send ores through portals therefore changes everyday play more than any other modifier.

Our recommendation: play the first round in the original setting, so that everyone knows what they are giving up. If the majority of the group wants it afterwards, change the setting - and then for everyone. With a new world, you can decide this from the start anyway.

Proven combinations

Modifiers apply to everyone

One point that is easily overlooked when planning: modifiers apply server-wide. There is no way to set different rules for individual players - if you increase combat difficulty, you increase it for the whole group.

In mixed groups, that leads to a real trade-off. Experienced players often want more resistance, while newcomers are already reaching their limits in the third biome. Two approaches have proven themselves: either choose the middle ground and use agreements to settle who goes where - or start with the default values and only tighten them once everyone knows the later biomes.

What stays individual, on the other hand, is the character: it belongs to the player and travels with them between worlds, see Join a server. So if you want to try a tougher round, you can do so at any time in a second world without touching the shared one.

Changing settings on a running server

Modifiers can be adjusted at any time - they take effect from the next start. Two notes on this:

• Agree on it first. Making combat harder in the middle of a round surprises the group at the most unpleasant moment.
• Back up beforehand. As before every change to the server configuration - see Create backups.

Do not confuse modifiers with mods: modifiers are built-in settings of the game and do not require an installation for anyone. Mods, on the other hand, have to be identical on the server and the clients.

When settings do not take effect

• Restart forgotten. Startup parameters are read at startup, not while the server is running.
• Wrong world. Modifiers apply to the loaded world - after changing the world name, it is worth checking.
• The preset overrides. If you set a preset and individual modifiers at the same time, they can cancel each other out - if in doubt, only use one of the two.

Frequently asked questions