Valheim spawn command: syntax, levels and item IDs

spawn [prefab] [amount] [level] puts an item or a creature at your feet. The first argument is the prefab name - the internal ID, not the name you see on the tooltip - so Megingjord is BeltStrength, The Elder is gd_king and a Brute is Greydwarf_Elite. The amount defaults to one, and the level is the star count plus one for creatures and the quality level for items. The command is part of the devcommands set, so it works in single player and in a world you host from the game, but not on a vanilla dedicated server without a mod.

This guide covers the syntax and its traps, how to find any prefab name, a table of the IDs people actually need, and how to spawn things on a live group server without crashing the zone or tilting the economy.

Where spawn works#

spawn needs devcommands switched on first, which limits where you can use it:

Being listed in adminlist.txt gives you kick, ban and save, not spawn. On a dedicated server the usual route is the Server Devcommands mod - see the Server Devcommands guide - and the rest of the cheat set, with what each command costs on a shared world, is in Valheim devcommands explained.

There is a second route that needs no mod, and it explains a lot about Valheim cheating. Items spawned into your inventory belong to your character, and characters live on your own machine. Spawn something in single player, quit, join the server, and you arrive with it. That is how an admin can refund a lost tombstone on a vanilla server - and how any player can do the same for themselves. A vanilla server has no way to see where an item came from.

Syntax: amount and level#

spawn [prefab] [amount] [level]

Three arguments, separated by spaces, and only the first is required:

• `prefab` is required and case-sensitive. spawn wood does nothing; spawn Wood works.
• `amount` defaults to 1. For stackable items it is the number of items, which land as stacks. For creatures and non-stackable items it is the number of separate copies.
• `level` defaults to 1. For creatures, level 1 is a normal creature, 2 is one star and 3 is two stars. For gear it is the quality level - the upgrade tier you would otherwise pay for at the workbench or forge.

> spawn Wood 50> spawn Boar 1 3> spawn SwordIron 1 4> spawn Troll 3

The first drops fifty wood. The second spawns a two-star boar. The third gives an iron sword at quality 4, the top tier for most weapons. The last spawns three ordinary trolls next to you, which is a short and memorable way to learn how much damage trolls do.

Arguments are positional, so to set a level you must also give an amount. spawn Troll 2 is two trolls, not a one-star troll; the one-star troll is spawn Troll 1 2.

A trailing * on the name spawns every prefab whose name starts with the text. spawn Trophy* drops every trophy in the game. It is useful for testing and catastrophic by accident - spawn Armor* with an amount after it puts a very large number of objects into one zone in one frame.

Things spawn at or just in front of you. Spawned creatures are wild and immediately hostile unless the species is passive. Spawned items land on the ground if your inventory is full, and some prefabs - bosses, building pieces, ships - only make sense in the world, never in a bag.

Prefab names vs display names#

Valheim's internal names were chosen during development and many never changed when the game's English text did. The display name is a translation token rendered in your language; the prefab name is the same in every language and is the only thing spawn understands.

Some of the mismatches that catch everyone:

How to find a name you do not know:

1. Type part of it and press `Tab`. The console completes prefab names once devcommands is on, which is the fastest check that a name exists at all.
2. Use the wiki. Each item and creature page on the Valheim wiki lists its internal ID.
3. Look at the trophy. Creature trophies are almost always Trophy plus the creature's prefab name, which hints at what the creature is called internally - TrophyGoblin belongs to the Fuling.

Mod content uses its own prefab names, set by the mod author. Epic Loot, creature packs and Jotunn-based mods usually list theirs in their documentation; tab completion picks them up when the mod is loaded.

Common item IDs#

These are stable vanilla prefabs that have not changed name across recent versions. Case matters.

And tools and gear that people most often need refunded:

For anything not on these lists, tab completion is quicker than any table and never out of date.

Common creature and boss IDs#

Spawning a boss also skips what the altar does: there is no summoning, no arena and no warning to the group, just a boss standing next to you. The later bosses are designed around their arenas, so a spawned copy in open terrain is a poor test of the real fight.

Spawning safely on a live server#

On a server with Server Devcommands, spawn writes real objects into the shared world. Each spawned creature and item becomes a networked instance in the zone, owned and simulated by whichever player owns that zone. That has three practical consequences.

Big amounts freeze people. A thousand loose items in one zone is a thousand objects the zone owner simulates and the server stores and sends to everyone nearby. spawn Stone 1000 is fine as stacks in an inventory and awful as a pile on the floor. If your bag is full, empty it before spawning in bulk, or spawn in batches of a few stacks.

Creatures belong to the zone owner. Spawning twenty trolls in an area where another player arrived first means their machine runs the fight. If their connection is poor, everyone sees rubber-banding, and if they log off mid-fight the zone changes owner under the trolls. Spawn creatures in a zone you own - somewhere you arrived first - and away from bases. The zone mechanics are explained in Valheim server performance and lag.

Every spawn is in the economy. On a server where people farm and trade, fifty black metal from nowhere changes what everyone's work is worth. Refunds after a bug are what the command is for; gifts to friends are what kills long-running servers.

A refund routine that works:

1. Take a backup first. In the panel it is one button; locally it is a copy of the world pair. See Valheim backups and world corruption.
2. Ask the player for an exact list, and check it against what makes sense for their progress.
3. Stand somewhere clear, with an empty inventory, in a zone you own.
4. Spawn the items, put them in a chest, and tell the player where it is.
5. Write it down - date, player, what, why. A shared note in your Discord does the job.

On RE:NODE you can take that backup from the panel's Backups tab and lock it so rotation does not delete it, and the server console is there for a save before and after. Neither gives you spawn on a vanilla server - the mod or the character route is still needed for that.

A worked example: refunding a lost tombstone#

The commonest reason an admin reaches for spawn is a death that was not the player's fault - a desync that dropped them through the floor of a crypt, a server crash between death and recovery, a tombstone that ended up inside a rock. Here is how that goes on a server with Server Devcommands, for a player in the iron age who lost their kit in the swamp.

First, establish what was lost. The player's own memory is the starting point, but it is usually generous. Their gear on screenshots, what their crafting stations are upgraded to, and what the rest of the group has are better evidence. A player who has never been to the mountains did not lose a wolf armour set.

Then spawn it in one sitting, from an empty inventory, standing in your own base:

> spawn PickaxeIron 1 2> spawn AxeBronze 1 3> spawn SwordIron 1 2> spawn ArrowIron 100> spawn Iron 20> spawn Coins 150

Note the levels: they match the quality the player had upgraded to, not the maximum. Refunding a quality 2 pickaxe as a quality 4 one is a gift, not a refund, and the rest of the group can tell the difference. Arrows and bars come out as stacks; put them straight in a chest so a full inventory never drops them on the floor.

Finally, if the tombstone still exists somewhere unreachable, leave it. A player who gets both the refund and the original back has been paid twice, and you will not be able to tell which items came from where. If the group agrees, an admin with fly can retrieve the tombstone instead of spawning anything - that is the cleaner fix whenever it is possible, because nothing new enters the world.

What spawn cannot do#

The command is blunter than it looks, and knowing its limits saves wasted evenings.

• It cannot target another player. Everything appears at your own position. There is no vanilla argument for "give this to Bjorn".
• It does not restore state. A spawned cart is empty, a spawned creature is wild, a spawned item has full durability and no history. You cannot spawn a tamed wolf, a filled chest or a planted field - only the objects themselves.
• It does not replace progression. A spawned trophy hung on a boss stone gives the power, but the world's boss keys are set by kills, not trophies. If the group's progress is what was lost, the fix is setkey, covered in the global keys guide, not a pile of trophies.
• It cannot undo itself. There is no despawn command for one object. removedrops clears loose items in the area, killenemies clears creatures, and everything else - a ship in the wrong place, a spawned building piece - has to be destroyed by hand or rolled back with a backup.

Things that go wrong#

Nothing spawns. The prefab name is wrong, usually the case. Use tab completion. Display names in any language never work.

The command is refused. devcommands is off, or you are on a vanilla dedicated server where it cannot be turned on.

The item spawned at the wrong quality. You gave two arguments, not three. spawn SwordIron 4 is four swords at quality 1.

The game froze. A large amount of loose items, or a * wildcard matched far more than you expected. Wait; if it recovers, removedrops clears the floor. If you are on a server and it did not recover, restore the backup you took first.

The spawned boss changed our raids. Its kill set a global key. Remove it with removekey, or restore from before the test.

FAQ#

What is the spawn command in Valheim?

spawn [prefab] [amount] [level], typed into the F5 console after enabling devcommands. The prefab is the internal name, the amount defaults to one and the level sets stars for creatures and quality for items.

How do I spawn a one-star or two-star creature?

Use level 2 for one star and level 3 for two: spawn Wolf 1 2 or spawn Wolf 1 3. You must include the amount, or the level is read as the amount.

Why does spawn not work on my dedicated server even though I am an admin?

Because the admin list does not include the cheat set on vanilla dedicated servers. Install Server Devcommands, or spawn the items in single player on your character and carry them in.

Can I spawn items for another player?

Not directly into their inventory in vanilla - spawn places things at your own position. Spawn them, put them in a chest, and tell the player where it is. Check the Server Devcommands documentation if you need more than that.

Where can I find every prefab name?

In game, tab completion in the console lists names as you type. Outside the game, each item and creature page on the Valheim wiki gives its internal ID. Modded items use whatever name their author chose.