On a Valheim server, a ship is simulated by one player - normally the one at the helm - and everyone else on board sees a copy of what that player's machine says is happening. That one fact explains almost everything that goes wrong at sea in multiplayer: the ship that jitters when a particular friend steers, passengers sliding across the deck, people falling through the hull, and a boat that seems to stop dead when someone's connection drops. Put the player with the best connection at the helm, keep everyone else standing still in the middle of the deck, and most sailing lag goes away. The rest of this guide covers the ships, crewing, weather, sea creatures, and what to do when a ship is lost.
How ships work on a server#
Valheim divides the world into zones, and each zone is simulated by one player - the first one to arrive. Objects inside it, including creatures and ships, are owned by that player's machine. The dedicated server stores the world and relays state; it does not run the physics.
Ships are a special case. When a player takes the helm, they take control of the ship and its physics are run on their machine. Passengers receive the ship's position and movement from the helmsman, through the server. When nobody is steering, the ship falls back to whoever owns the object at the time.
Two consequences follow:
- The helmsman's connection is everybody's connection. If they are on a weak wifi link or a long way from the server, every passenger sees the ship jerk and slide. Switch helmsman and it goes away.
- The helmsman's frame rate matters. Physics runs on their machine. A player whose PC is struggling makes the ship stutter for the whole crew.
This is the same mechanism that makes monsters rubber-band near a player on a bad connection. The main dedicated server guide explains zone ownership in general, and latency, jitter and packet loss helps work out which of the three a player actually has.
The ships and what each is for#
There are four ships. Each needs the previous biome's materials, and each changes what a group can carry and how far it can go.
| Ship | Unlocked by | Cargo | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raft | Early wood and leather | None | Short hops, not the open sea |
| Karve | Bronze nails | 4 slots | Two or three players, early exploration |
| Longship | Iron nails and ancient bark | 18 slots | The group ship and ore hauler |
| Drakkar | Ceramic plates, after the Queen | 32 slots | Late game, and the Ashlands crossing |
- The raft is slow, carries nothing and handles poorly against the wind. It gets one or two people across a strait.
- The Karve is the first real ship: quick, handles well, and the four-slot hold is enough for an exploring party's spares but not for ore.
- The Longship is what most groups sail for most of a world. Its hold is the size of a cart's, it carries a full crew comfortably, and it is the backbone of ore runs - see ore logistics with ships and carts.
- The Drakkar, added with the Ashlands, is the biggest ship, with the largest hold. It is also the only one that crosses the boiling sea around the Ashlands without taking damage. The Ashlands guide covers that crossing.
Recipes have changed across patches, so check the hammer menu near a workbench for current costs. Ships are built and repaired in workbench range, which is why every harbour on a group world should have one.
Sailing controls and the wind#
Ships have a small number of speed settings: reverse and slow forward on the oars, then half sail and full sail. You step through them with the forward and back keys while at the helm. The oars ignore the wind; the sails depend on it.
The wind is shared across the world, the same for every player, and it changes. Sailing into it is slow; sailing with it at your back is the fastest thing in the game. Two things help a group:
- Moder's Forsaken power turns the wind to your back for its duration. On a server, each player activates their own power, so the helmsman should be the one with it active when it matters. Forsaken powers in multiplayer explains how activation and cooldowns work for groups.
- Planning around wind changes. Long voyages against the wind are faster on the oars in short stretches than on half sail at a bad angle. A helmsman who knows the angle saves the crew a lot of time.
When the helmsman steps away, the ship keeps its current sail setting and carries on. That is useful for moving about on deck, and a common way to run a ship aground. If you leave the helm, drop to the oars first.
Crewing a Longship or Drakkar#
The larger ships carry a full group, but how the crew behaves on deck decides how comfortable the voyage is.
- One helmsman, chosen deliberately. Best connection, strongest machine, and ideally Moder's power ready.
- Passengers stand still near the middle of the deck. Moving around while the ship rolls, as seen through someone else's simulation, is how people slide or clip off the side.
- One lookout with a bow. Serpents and other threats are easier to handle from range.
- Someone keeps repair in mind. A workbench needs to be in range to repair, so that is a job for when you are back at a harbour. The lookout is the one who notices the hull is low.
- Do not all jump off at once on landing. Let the helmsman beach the ship or anchor it with the oars before people leap onto rocks.
It is also worth agreeing who owns each ship on a group world. Ships are not locked to players in vanilla, so anyone can sail off in anyone's Longship. A rule of "the group's ships live at the harbour, take a Karve for solo trips" avoids arguments.
Storms, waves and the open sea#
Weather is shared across the world. On the open ocean, storms bring strong wind and big waves that throw ships about and make steering hard. Waves themselves are part of the sea simulation; a storm also makes the rubber-banding of a bad helmsman far more visible, because the ship is moving more.
Advice that holds up:
- Wait out the worst weather in harbour if you are carrying ore you cannot afford to lose.
- Keep away from shallow rocks in storms. Hitting land or rocks damages a ship, and a heavy sea pushes you onto them.
- Do not cross the open ocean in a raft. It has no hold, and it is easy to lose.
- Travel close to the coast when exploring with a weak crew. You can always land.
The ocean is its own biome, and it is the cheapest one for the server: little terrain, few objects. It is not cheap for the helmsman's machine, though, because sailing fast streams new zones quickly. A ship crossing unexplored sea makes the helmsman generate and load each new zone as they arrive, which is why voyages into new areas stutter more than the same route a second time. The performance by biome guide compares the ocean with the land biomes.
Serpents, leviathans and the Bonemaw#
The sea is not empty:
| Creature | Where | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Serpent | Deep ocean | Fight from the deck with bows or a harpoon, or outrun it |
| Leviathan | Ocean, stationary | Mine it for chitin; it dives after a while |
| Bonemaw serpent | Around the Ashlands | Stay on the Drakkar and keep moving |
Serpents attack ships and can do serious damage to a Karve. A Longship can usually outrun one with the wind behind it. A group that wants to hunt them uses the Abyssal harpoon to drag them close and bows from the deck. A serpent killed at sea drops its meat and scales into the water, where it floats long enough to be scooped up.
Leviathans look like islands. Standing on one and mining it gives chitin, the material for the harpoon and other gear, until it dives - be on the ship when it does. On a server, the zone owner runs the leviathan; a helmsman with a bad link can make it look like the ship is drifting off it before it actually is.
Losing a ship and getting it back#
Ships are lost in three ways: destroyed by creatures or rocks, left somewhere and forgotten, or sailed off by someone else.
Destroyed. When a ship breaks, what was in its hold spills into the water. Items float, so a quick crew can recover most of it. Players in the water should get to land or a second ship quickly, because a serpent in the area is still a serpent.
Left somewhere. A ship stays where it was moored until somebody moves it, and it is frozen in place while no player is in that zone. The problem is finding it: ships do not appear on the map. Make it a habit to drop a map pin every time you leave a ship. If you portalled home from a distant beach, that pin is your only record.
Taken. Another player sailed it. Ask in the group's chat; it is usually at their outpost.
Admins on a vanilla server have no command to find a ship. With a devcommands mod there are ways to search for objects or teleport to coordinates, covered in ServerDevcommands and admin tools for lost tombstones; the same techniques apply to ships. For everyone else, the pin is the fix.
Harbours, docks and server load#
A harbour is where ships live on a group world, and it is worth building properly.
- A workbench in range, for building and repair.
- A portal, connected to the group's hub, so crews arrive and leave without sailing home.
- Stone or wooden docks in sheltered water, so ships do not drift or get knocked about.
- A ward, so nobody else's actions break anything.
Do not over-build a harbour. Every dock piece, decoration and ship is an object the server holds, and a vast harbour next to the main base adds to the load in the base's zone. Several ships moored together are fine; twenty are not. Base placement for shared servers covers spacing the group's builds so no single zone gets too busy, and portal hub design covers where the harbour's portal belongs.
On a hosted server, the place to look if sailing feels worse than usual is the memory and CPU graph. If they are calm and the stutter follows one helmsman, it is the helmsman. On RE:NODE those graphs are in the console against the plan's limits, and backup slots on every plan mean a world restored after a griefing incident at the harbour is a button press - the guides page has the steps.
Troubleshooting at sea#
The ship rubber-bands for everyone. Change helmsman. If it stops, it was their link or frame rate.
Passengers keep falling off. The same cause, plus moving about in rough water. Stand still near the middle.
The ship will not move. Check the sail setting, then the wind. A full sail into a headwind barely moves. Drop to oars.
The ship disappeared. It is somewhere you left it, or someone took it. Check map pins, ask the group.
A ship sank on the way to the Ashlands. Only the Drakkar crosses the boiling water without damage.
Sailing into a new area stutters. The helmsman's machine is generating and loading new zones. The second trip is smoother.
FAQ#
Who controls the ship when several players are aboard?
Whoever is at the helm. Their machine runs the ship's physics, and the server relays it to everyone else. Choose the player with the best connection and the strongest PC.
Can we take a ship through a portal?
No. Ships and carts do not go through portals, and neither does ore. That is why the Longship and the Drakkar matter so much for moving metals.
Is the wind the same for every player?
Yes. Weather and wind are shared across the world. Moder's power changes it for the player who activates it, which is why the helmsman should be the one using it.
Do ships decay if we leave them?
A ship moored in calm water stays where it is. What damages ships is rocks, the shore and creatures. They are repaired with the hammer in workbench range.
Does sailing cost the server much?
The ocean is the lightest biome for the server. The heavy part is on the helmsman, who streams new zones as the ship moves.
