Valheim server wipes and seasons for community servers

Valheim never forces a wipe. Unlike Rust, there is no monthly map reset in the game, and a world can run for years. Community servers wipe anyway, because after the last boss most players drift away, the world file has grown with every base and tame, and new players arrive to find nothing left to discover. A season is the answer: a fresh world with a start date, an end date and rules everyone knows in advance. Technically it is one change - a new -world name and a restart - plus archiving the old world properly. The work is in the timing, the announcement and the decision that splits every community: do characters start fresh or carry over?

This guide covers when a wipe makes sense, how to schedule and announce one, how to archive the old world so it can be visited or restored, and how to run fresh-character and carry-over seasons.

Why Valheim servers wipe at all#

A Valheim world does not wear out the way a Rust map does, so a wipe needs a reason. The good ones:

• Progression is finished. Once the world has killed the final boss, every global key is set and most players stop logging in. The world is complete; the community is not.
• New players have nothing to discover. A late joiner on a mature world finds maps explored, bosses dead and the best spots taken. Onboarding late joiners helps, but only so much.
• A major update. Valheim generates zones when someone first enters them. Content added by an update generally appears only in zones nobody has visited, so an old world that has explored far may not show it. Read the patch notes for the update in question - Iron Gate usually says whether existing worlds get the new content.
• The world got heavy. Large terraformed areas, thousands of pieces and big tame pens make a world slower to load and save. Terraforming on servers and tames and server load explain where the weight comes from.
• A rule change that does not work mid-world. Switching to nomap, or from casual portals back to normal, is easier on a fresh world than imposed on one built around the old rules.

Bad reasons: a handful of complaints, one bad week, or a single griefing incident. A backup restore fixes griefing. A wipe fixes a world that has run out of game.

Season length and timing#

There is no right length, but Valheim's progression puts natural limits on it. An active group clears the main bosses in somewhere between a few weeks and a few months, depending on settings, hours and how much they build. Seasons that end long after the last boss lose people; seasons that end before it frustrate them.

Timing tips:

• Start on a weekend. The first day decides who stays; give people time to play it.
• Avoid a major patch week. Mods break, the server may need updating, and you want the world created on the version people will play.
• Line up with updates when possible. A season that starts just after a big update gets its new content in fresh zones.
• Publish the end date at the start. People build differently when they know the world is temporary. That is not a downside - it removes the disappointment of a surprise wipe.

Hardcore communities run shortest seasons, because deaths thin the player count. Hardcore and permadeath servers covers why.

Announcing a wipe#

The way a wipe is announced matters more than the wipe. Players who lose a base they did not know was temporary leave and say why. Use whatever channel your community actually reads - for most that is Discord, and Discord for game servers covers setting up an announcements channel. Vanilla Valheim has no server-side broadcast command, so in-game announcements depend on a mod or an admin typing in chat.

A schedule that works:

1. At the start of a season, the planned end date, the next season's rules if they are known, and what will be archived.
2. Two weeks before, the exact date and time, with time zones. Whether characters carry over. Where to give feedback on next season's settings.
3. One week before, a reminder and the final event - a last boss night, a build tour or a group screenshot.
4. The day before, the time the server stops, and that the old world will be archived, not deleted.
5. Launch day, the new world's name, password if it changed, join code instructions for crossplay, and the rules.

Rust communities have been doing this for years, and Rust wipes without losing your players has lessons that carry over to Valheim. Before deciding next season's settings, ask the community. A short poll on presets or portals casual gets better buy-in than an admin decision.

Archiving the old world#

A world is two files, Name.db and Name.fwl, in the save directory's worlds_local folder. The server also keeps Name.db.old and Name.fwl.old (the previous save) and its rolling automatic backups. To archive a season:

1. Stop the server cleanly and wait for the save to finish. On a panel the Stop button sends a clean stop; on your own machine send SIGINT and watch the log.
2. Copy the world pair and its .old files somewhere off the server.
3. Copy adminlist.txt, bannedlist.txt and permittedlist.txt too - the ban list in particular should carry forward.
4. Note the game version and, on a modded server, the exact mod list and versions. A world saved with mods may not open cleanly without them.
5. Label it: season number, world name, dates.

On a Linux server:

$ cd ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim$ tar -czf ~/archive/season3-Midgard-2026-10.tar.gz \    worlds_local/Midgard.db worlds_local/Midgard.fwl \    worlds_local/Midgard.db.old worlds_local/Midgard.fwl.old \    adminlist.txt bannedlist.txt permittedlist.txt

The path above is the Linux default; if your server uses -savedir it is wherever that points. Savedir and file locations has the defaults on every platform.

On RE:NODE you can make a backup in the panel just before the wipe, lock it so scheduled backups never rotate it out, and download it. Backup slots are limited per plan, so a long-running community should not depend on locked panel backups as the archive of every season; download each one and keep it. Backups that actually restore covers why testing the restore matters.

Starting the new world#

Starting a season does not delete anything. Changing the world name is enough:

# Season 3-world "Midgard"# Season 4-world "Season4"

Restart, and the server creates Season4.db and Season4.fwl with a random seed. The old files stay where they are. Resetting the world and keeping characters walks through the same step in more detail.

What resets with a new world:

• Boss keys and global keys. No bosses are dead, so raids return to their early-game pool.
• The map. Each character stores its map per world, so everyone starts with a blank map.
• Every base, chest and tame. They belong to the old world.
• World modifiers. They come from launch arguments, so keep them on the startup line or change them deliberately.

What does not reset is characters. Everyone arrives with their skills, inventory and known recipes, because characters live on each player's machine. That is the next decision.

Choosing a seed

A random seed is fine for most seasons, but a community may want a good starting area. The seed lives in the .fwl, and the server cannot be given one as an argument, so pick a seed, create the world with it in the game on your own PC, and upload the .db and .fwl pair to the server. The seeds guide covers finding a good one and the starter-area checks. Do not publish the seed before launch if your community cares about exploration - seed viewer sites show the whole map.

Wipe day, step by step#

The technical part takes ten minutes if it is planned, and an evening if it is not. A checklist for the hour before launch:

1. Update first. Run the server update before the wipe, not after, so the new world is generated on the version people will play. On a modded server, update the mods too and confirm every one has a release for the current game version. Updating the server covers the version-mismatch errors.
2. Stop cleanly and archive. Follow the archive steps above and check the archive opens before going further.
3. Change the world name and arguments. New -world, the season's modifiers, a new password if you rotate it each season.
4. Start and read the log. The server should report that it is generating a new world, not loading the old one. If it loads the old one, the name did not change.
5. Join as an admin first. Confirm the modifiers are what you expected - die once on a test character if the death penalty changed - and that the join code works for a crossplay player.
6. Set up backups for the new world. A backup schedule pointed at the old world's name, or a script that copies a specific file, will quietly keep backing up the archive instead of the live world.
7. Open the doors. Post the launch message with the time, name and rules.

Step 6 is the one that catches people months later, when the first restore of the new season turns out to be a copy of the last one. On a panel host that backs up the whole server, it is not an issue; on your own machine, check any script that names files.

Fresh characters or carry-over#

This is the decision that divides communities, and it is a rule, not a setting.

Carry-over is what Valheim does by default. Veterans arrive with their skills and anything in their inventory, and can be past the Swamp by the end of the first evening. It respects time they have spent, and it means a season is mainly a fresh map.

Fresh characters means every player makes a new character for the season. It puts everyone on equal footing, makes the early game matter again and is what most communities mean by "season". The catch: the server cannot enforce it, because it never sees the character file. Character files and cheating explains why.

The middle option is a common compromise: keep skills, arrive with an empty inventory. Players can still level faster, but nobody arrives in late-game armour.

For enforcement, server-side character mods move characters onto the server; Server Characters by Smoothbrain is one often used. They need BepInEx on server and clients, which rules out Xbox players, and they change how backups work. Read the current Thunderstore page for compatibility before building a season around one.

Even on an honour-system server, an admin can usually tell. A character with a high skill level in week one or Mistlands gear before the Swamp stands out. A clear rule, an admin who does spot checks politely and a ban for repeat offenders handle most of it. Community server rules has wording for this.

Keeping old worlds alive#

An archived world does not have to stay in a tar file. Some communities keep the last season available:

• A museum server. A second, smaller server runs the old world so players can visit their bases. With -setkey passivemobs and raids off, it is a gallery. Several worlds on one host covers running two.
• A tour day. On the last day, admins lead a tour of the best builds before the stop.
• Screenshots. A hall-of-fame channel with each season's best bases costs nothing to keep.
• Restoring for a weekend. Swap -world back to the old name for an anniversary event, then swap back.

A world opened on a newer game version is upgraded on load and may not open on an older version again. Keep the untouched archive separate from any copy you open later.

FAQ#

Do I have to delete the old world to start a new one?

No. Change -world to a new name and restart. The old world's files stay in worlds_local until you move or delete them, so you can switch back at any time.

Will players lose their characters in a wipe?

No. Characters live on each player's machine and are untouched. Whether they may use them on the new world is a community rule you decide and announce.

How do I enforce fresh characters?

In vanilla you cannot enforce it from the server. Most communities use an honour rule with admin checks and bans. Stricter communities use a server-side character mod, which makes the server PC-only.

Should the world modifiers change between seasons?

Often, yes. A season boundary is the best time to try nomap, harder combat or normal portal rules, because nobody has built around the old rules yet. Poll the community first and announce the settings with the date.

Can we restore last season's world later?

Yes, if you archived both files and the mods it used. Upload the pair, set the world name to match and restart. Keep a copy of the original archive, because opening it on a newer version may change it.