Valheim devcommands explained for server admins

devcommands is the switch that turns Valheim's console from a handful of admin tools into the developers' cheat and debug set: god mode, flying, free building, time and weather control, mass kills, map reveals. It works in single player and in a world you host from inside the game. On a vanilla dedicated server it does not work for anyone - admin or not - and the usual way to get it there is the Server Devcommands mod. Every command in the set is a tool with a cost, and on a shared world several of them cost other people something: their tames, the items they left on the floor, their sense that the boss kill meant anything.

This guide goes through what each common command does, which ones touch only you and which ones change the world, and how to use them on a group server without spending the trust that makes the server worth running.

Where devcommands works and where it does not#

Valheim splits its console into three groups. Player commands (emotes, help, ping) work for everyone. Admin commands (kick, ban, unban, banned, save and, since the world modifiers arrived, setworldmodifier, setworldpreset and resetworldkeys) work for anyone whose ID is in adminlist.txt - they are covered in the admin console commands reference. The third group is the cheat set, and it is gated by typing devcommands.

The admin-list row is the one that surprises people. Being an admin on a dedicated server gives you the moderation commands, not the cheats. Iron Gate has moved this line before - the command was called imacheater until patch 0.148.6 renamed it and tightened who may use it - so if a future patch changes it again, the quickest test is to type devcommands on your own server and read the reply.

Opening the console is a separate step. Recent versions have a developer console toggle in the game's settings; older ones need -console in Steam's launch options for Valheim. Either way it is F5 in game. Type devcommands once to switch cheats on and once more to switch them off; the console prints a line confirming the new state each time, so read it rather than assuming.

> devcommands> debugmode> fly> devcommands

That sequence turns cheats on, enables the debug keys, toggles flight and turns cheats back off. Commands from the cheat set typed while devcommands is off are simply refused.

Getting devcommands onto a dedicated server#

There are two honest routes, and one dishonest one worth knowing about because your players already do.

Server Devcommands. The mod by JereKuusela, distributed on Thunderstore, runs under BepInEx and lets the accounts in adminlist.txt use the cheat set on a dedicated server. It also adds a large number of its own commands, aliases and key binds. Installation, its configuration and which features need the mod on the server as well as the client are covered in the Server Devcommands guide, and BepInEx itself in Valheim mods with BepInEx. If your server is crossplay with Xbox players, they cannot install mods, but they do not need to: only the admins using the commands do.

A local copy of the world. Stop the server, download Name.db and Name.fwl, open them in single player or host them from the game, make the change with devcommands, quit cleanly so the world saves, and upload the pair back. This is the vanilla way to fix world-level state such as global keys, and it needs no mods at all. The upload half is in uploading a local world to a server. The catch is that the server must be stopped the whole time, or its next save overwrites your edit.

The character route. Characters live on each player's machine, not on the server. Anyone can load their character into a single-player world, turn on devcommands, give themselves anything, and walk onto your server carrying it. A vanilla server cannot detect this. It is worth knowing so that you do not mistake "devcommands is disabled on our server" for "nobody on our server has cheated".

The personal commands: god, ghost, fly, debugmode, nocost#

These change what your own character can do. They are the least harmful in the set, provided the person using them is an admin doing admin work.

debugmode is the one that confuses people because it does nothing on its own. Once on, it binds keys: Z toggles flying, B toggles no-cost building, K kills enemies around you and L removes item drops nearby. That makes it fast for building and dangerous for anything else - K and L are one keypress from the two most destructive commands in this guide, and the key binds are live while you type in chat or rename a sign.

What these cost on a shared world:

• `god` and `ghost` cost nothing to anyone else, unless they are used to play. An admin who fights a boss with god on has spent the boss for the whole world, because the kill sets a global key for everyone. Global keys and setkey explains what that key unlocks.
• `fly` is how admins inspect griefing, find a lost tombstone and check a far-off base. It reveals the map as you fly, which is personal to you, not the group.
• `nocost` is the expensive one. A build made free looks identical to one paid for. Build things for the server - a shared portal hub, a dock - only if the group agreed to it, and say so in your Discord. Free building for your own base, on a server where everyone else farms iron, is the fastest way to empty one.

World-touching commands: killall, removedrops, tame#

These act on things that exist in the world rather than on your character, which means they act on things other players own.

killall kills every creature around you, tamed ones included - the wolves in the pen, the lox someone spent an evening taming, the breeding boars. Players are not hurt. killenemies is the narrower version that leaves tames alone, and killtame does the opposite. On a shared world there is almost never a reason to type killall rather than killenemies.

removedrops deletes every item lying loose on the ground in the area. That includes the pile of stone somebody left by the kiln, the dropped wood after a big felling session, and anything a player deliberately put on the floor as storage. It does not touch tombstones, chests or item stands, which are containers rather than drops. Used well, it is a performance tool: hundreds of loose items in one zone cost the zone owner frame rate and the server memory, as how much RAM a Valheim server needs explains. Used near a base, it is a loss someone will notice next session.

tame tames every tameable creature nearby. Harmless in the wilderness, odd in someone else's pen.

A safe habit before any of them: pos to check where you are, look around with fly, and announce it in chat. Most "admin deleted my stuff" arguments start with an admin standing nearer a base than they thought.

Time and weather: tod and env#

These two exist for screenshots, testing and recording. They are mostly cosmetic.

> tod 0.5> env ThunderStorm> tod -1> resetenv

tod takes a number from 0 to 1: 0 and 1 are midnight, 0.5 is noon, and -1 hands time back to the game. env forces a weather environment by name - Clear, Rain, LightRain, ThunderStorm, Misty, Snow, SnowStorm, Ashrain and the boss-fight skies such as Eikthyr or Bonemass - and resetenv returns it to normal. Names are case-sensitive, so env thunderstorm does nothing useful.

On a multiplayer world, treat both as changing what your client shows rather than the server's clock or weather. The world's day count, the night spawns and the weather the other players see are not yours to set this way; skipping the night for the group is what beds are for. If you need everybody's time moved, the honest tool is everybody sleeping. Do not use tod to see whether "night spawns stop" - what you see and what the server runs will disagree.

The map: exploremap and resetmap#

exploremap reveals the entire world map. resetmap wipes it to black. Both act on your map only, because exploration is stored in your character file, per world, not in the world.

That makes exploremap cheap for the server and expensive for you: once you have seen the whole seed you cannot unsee it, and there is no "restore my old map" command. resetmap does not give you back the map you had before exploremap either - it gives you a blank one. If you want to peek and return, the only way back is a backup of your character file (.fch in the characters_local folder on your own machine, not on the server).

Two shared-world notes:

• A cartography table shares what you have explored. Reading from one after exploremap copies the whole map to whoever uses it next, which spoils the game for the group even if you meant it only for yourself.
• If the world runs with -setkey nomap, there is no map to reveal. The nomap switch and the rest of the world rules are in Valheim world modifiers and presets.

The commands that change progress#

A handful of devcommands change things that are expensive or impossible to put back:

These have their own guides because each has its own way to go wrong. spawn - prefab names, quantity, the level argument, and why spawning fifty trolls in a zone you do not own goes badly - is in the spawn command and item IDs. Keys are in global keys and setkey, and raids in raids and events on servers.

location deserves its own warning. Spawning a location without the SAVE argument switches saving off for that session as a safety measure, and on a hosted world that means everything the group does until the restart is lost. Do not run it on a world you care about.

Using devcommands on a group server without wrecking it#

The commands are not the risk. Unannounced use is. A short house policy, written down where the group can see it, prevents nearly every argument:

1. Admins only, and named. Only the accounts in adminlist.txt get the cheat set. Keep that list short and know whose IDs are on it; adminlist, bannedlist and permittedlist explains the file.
2. Back up before anything world-level. Before removedrops at a base, setkey, event or any spawning, take a backup. Two minutes of downtime is cheaper than a lost world - Valheim backups and world corruption covers the files.
3. Say it in chat. "Clearing drops at the old swamp camp" before you do it. If someone objects, you have not done it yet.
4. No admin fights with `god`. If an admin wants to play the game, they play it with cheats off, on the same terms as everyone else.
5. Fix, then refund. When a bug or a crash costs someone their tombstone or their boat, spawn back what they lost and leave a note. That is what the tool is for.

On RE:NODE the server console in the panel runs the admin-side commands - save before a risky change, a restart after - and backups are one button, including a manual one you can lock against rotation before an admin session. The console does not give you devcommands on a vanilla server any more than your in-game console does; the mod is still the route.

Troubleshooting devcommands#

"Dev commands: True" never appears on the server. Expected on a vanilla dedicated server. Being in adminlist.txt is not enough. Install Server Devcommands, or make the change in a local copy of the world.

The console does not open. Enable the developer console in the game's settings, or add -console to Valheim's launch options in Steam, then press F5.

`god` seems to do nothing. It is a toggle, so typing it twice turns it off again, and it only works while devcommands is on. Check the console's confirmation line, not your memory.

`env` or `tod` did nothing. Wrong case in the environment name, or you expected it to change the server's weather. It changes yours.

I cannot build where I want, even with `nocost`. nocost removes material requirements, not ward protection or the rule against building in dungeons. A ward you are not permitted on still blocks you.

FAQ#

Can admins use devcommands on a vanilla Valheim dedicated server?

No. The admin list grants kick, ban, save and the world-modifier commands, not the cheat set. Use the Server Devcommands mod, or edit a local copy of the world in single player and upload it back.

Do other players see when I turn on devcommands?

Not in vanilla. Nothing is broadcast to other players and the toggle is not stored in the world, which is why a written policy matters more than any technical control.

Does using devcommands mark my character?

No permanent flag is stored on the character or the world. What does persist is the result: items spawned into your inventory, skills you raised and map you revealed all travel with the character to every server you join.

What is the difference between killall and killenemies?

killall kills every creature nearby including tamed animals. killenemies spares tames. On a shared world use killenemies, or nothing at all near anyone's base.

Can I undo exploremap?

Not with a command. resetmap blanks your map completely rather than restoring the old one. The only real undo is restoring a backup of your character's .fch file from before you ran it.