Valheim wards and griefing on a dedicated server

A ward in Valheim is a lock, not a wall. Inside its radius, players it does not know cannot build, cannot take pieces apart with the hammer, and cannot open doors or chests. It does nothing about damage: weapons, fire and creatures break warded pieces the same as any others. So a ward stops the casual griefer - the one who walks in, empties your chests and dismantles the longhouse for its wood - and does very little against someone set on destroying things. The rest of the protection on a server comes from who you let in, how often you back up, and what you are prepared to do as an admin when it goes wrong.

What a ward is#

The ward is a building piece. You build it with the hammer near a workbench, and it costs fine wood, Greydwarf eyes and a Surtling core (five, five and one in current versions). Fine wood needs a bronze axe, so most players get their first ward after the Elder.

Once placed, the ward has an owner - the player who built it - and a list of permitted players, which starts empty. The owner switches it on and off by interacting with it. While it is on, it protects a sphere of about 32 metres around itself, shown by a ring of light when you place it or toggle it. Hovering over the ward shows the owner and everyone permitted.

Two things it is not, because both get mixed up with it constantly:

• Not the server allow list. permittedlist.txt on the server decides who may connect at all. A ward's permitted list decides who may touch things inside one ward's radius. They share a word and nothing else. The adminlist, bannedlist and permittedlist guide covers the server file.
• Not a base marker for monsters. Natural spawns near a base are suppressed by player structures such as workbenches and fires, and raids target players, not wards. A ward neither attracts nor prevents either.

What a ward stops, and what it does not#

This is the table to show your group before anyone relies on a ward.

When someone tries a blocked action, the ward flashes and the action fails. That flash is visible to anyone nearby, which on a busy server is sometimes how you find out somebody has been trying your door.

The gap that matters is damage. A ward is enforced through the build and interact checks: the hammer refuses, the door refuses, the chest refuses. Hitting a wall is neither, so it goes through. Somebody determined to grief a warded base can still smash walls with a pickaxe or a sledge, collapse a roof by breaking its supports, or dig the ground out from under a foundation. It is slow and noisy, and it is enough.

The second gap is terrain. The hoe and cultivator count as placing pieces, so they are blocked. A pickaxe on the ground is a hit, not a placement. Digging a trench through someone's farm or a pit next to their foundations is possible inside an active ward.

Permitting other players#

There is no menu for adding people. The permitted list is built by the players themselves, through the owner switching the ward off.

1. The owner walks up to the ward and switches it off.
2. Each player who should be permitted interacts with the ward while it is off. Their name is added to the list shown on hover.
3. The owner switches the ward back on.
4. Everyone hovers over it and checks their name is listed and the ward says it is active.

Interacting again while the ward is off removes yourself from the list. What the owner cannot do in vanilla is remove somebody else. If a permitted player falls out with the group, the only way to take their access away is to destroy the ward and build a new one, then permit everyone else again.

Some practical consequences:

• Shared bases need one owner. Decide who builds the ward. If that player stops playing, the ward stays active and nobody else can switch it off. Plan for it by building a second ward later or agreeing on a handover.
• A ward covers a sphere, not a fence line. A large base needs several wards, and the edges are where unprotected pieces end up. Walk the perimeter after building one and try a chest near the edge with a non-permitted friend.
• Several wards, several lists. Each ward keeps its own permitted list. Adding a new member to a big base means switching every ward off and on.

Ward spam and land claims#

A ward's protection also works as a claim. Nobody else can build inside it, so a player who drops wards over a stretch of coast, around the starting area or next to the main portal hub has effectively taken that land from everyone else. On a busy server that is griefing even if nothing is broken.

The places people claim are predictable: the area around the sacrificial stones where everyone respawns, good harbours, the land around boss altars and the Mistlands or Ashlands landing spots. On a server where everybody builds close together it also causes friction by accident, because two neighbours' wards end up covering each other's planned extensions. Base placement for shared servers argues for spacing bases out anyway, for performance reasons, and the same spacing removes most ward disputes.

The rules that work are simple and written down where people see them, in the server description or a Discord pin:

• No wards within a set distance of the spawn stones, the portal hub or any boss altar.
• One ward per base unless the base genuinely needs more.
• A ward with nothing built near it may be removed by an admin.

A ward is itself a building piece and takes damage like one. An admin can remove an unwanted ward by breaking it - which is also exactly how a griefer removes yours, and one more reason a ward is a deterrent rather than a defence.

What the server knows, and what it does not#

When something has been broken or emptied, the first question is who did it, and vanilla Valheim gives you very little to answer with.

The server log records connections and disconnections, with the player's ID. On a Steam-only server the lines look like this (a crossplay server logs platform IDs instead):

Got connection SteamID 76561198012345678Closing socket 76561198012345678

It does not record who built, damaged, removed or opened anything. Pieces do store the ID of the player who built them, but the game does not show it, and nothing records who destroyed them. In practice you are working from the log's connection times, the ward hover text, screenshots and what people saw. A player who was online alone during the hours the damage happened is a strong lead; it is not proof, and a server with a password shared in a public Discord can have visitors nobody recognises.

Admin rights do not help either. A vanilla admin has kick, ban, unban and save, and nothing that bypasses a ward or reverses damage - the admin console commands reference lists all of it. The cheat commands that would help, such as flying in to inspect or spawning materials to repair, need a mod on a dedicated server; ServerDevcommands is the usual one.

Handling griefing as an admin#

When it happens, work in this order. The first two steps stop it getting worse; the rest decide how much you undo.

1. Take a backup now. Before anything else, so you have the current state - damage and all - if a restore goes wrong or you need to compare. On a panel this is one button; lock it so rotation does not remove it.
2. Remove the player. kick gets them off immediately; ban adds their ID to bannedlist.txt so they cannot come back under the same account.
3. Close the door they came in by. Change the password. If the server is for a known group, put every member's ID in permittedlist.txt so nobody else can connect at all, whatever password they have.
4. Decide whether to roll back. A restore brings back the whole world, not one base, so everyone loses whatever they did since that backup. For a few broken walls, repairing by hand is cheaper. For an emptied storage room or a demolished main base, a restore is usually the right answer, and the group should hear about it before it happens.
5. Restore to the right moment. Pick the newest backup from before the damage, using the connection times in the log to bracket it. Valheim backups and world corruption has the procedure for each kind of backup.

# Kicking and banning from the server console (or F5 in game, as an admin)kick Griefwulfban 76561198012345678banned

Banning by ID is better than by name. Names are not unique and can be changed; the ID cannot. On a crossplay server the ID has a platform prefix, such as Steam_ or Xbox_, and the log shows which form the server uses.

On RE:NODE, backups can be taken on demand or on a schedule from the Schedules tab, restored with a button and locked against rotation, and they are stored off the machine they protect. A backup every few hours on a public server turns griefing from a lost world into a lost afternoon. If you share admin duty, give your co-admins a panel subuser with backup and console permissions rather than your own login, so they can restore at 3 a.m. without you.

Mods that change wards#

Vanilla wards are what they are. If your server needs stronger protection, mods change the rules, at the price of every player installing them (which rules out Xbox players on a crossplay server) and keeping the versions matched.

• WardIsLove (by Azumatt) is the best-known ward overhaul. It makes wards configurable - including protection against damage, admin control over wards and per-ward settings - and is common on public and PvP servers.
• ServerDevcommands gives admins the devcommands toolkit on a dedicated server, which is what you want for inspecting and repairing damage rather than for protection itself.
• Infinity Hammer (by JereKuusela) gives an admin a hammer for rebuilding or removing pieces quickly, useful for cleaning up spam wards and wreckage.

Each of these is maintained separately and changes with the game, so check the mod page for what the current version does and which settings it uses before relying on a feature. Install them as described in Valheim mods with BepInEx, and expect connection kicks if a player's version differs from the server's.

Preventing it in the first place#

Most griefing on private servers comes from one of three places: a password that leaked, a friend of a friend, or a player who fell out with the group. A ward helps with the second. The rest is server settings and habits:

• A password that is not public. If you post the server in a public list, assume the password will spread.
• An allow list for private groups. permittedlist.txt with every member's ID makes the password almost irrelevant.
• Frequent backups, kept off the server. Every few hours on an active server, plus one before each big event.
• Wards on every base, switched on. They stop the low-effort damage, which is most of it.
• Written rules. Ward distances, no building at spawn, what counts as taking someone's things. An admin can only enforce what was agreed.

FAQ#

Do wards stop raids from damaging my base?

No. Raids are creatures, and wards do not stop damage from anything. Walls, a moat and sensible placement protect a base from raids; the ward only controls what other players can build, remove and open.

Can an admin open a warded chest?

Not in vanilla. Admin status on a dedicated server gives kick, ban and save, not access to warded containers. A ward mod or an admin tool mod is needed for that.

How do I remove one player from my ward?

You cannot remove another player in vanilla. Players can remove themselves while the ward is off. To revoke someone's access, break the ward, build a new one and permit everyone else again.

Can someone destroy my ward?

Yes. It is a building piece with health like any other, and damage is not something a ward prevents. That is why wards deter griefers rather than stop them.

Will a ward stop people stealing from my tombstone?

No. Tombstones are not protected by wards. If you die in a warded base, the safest course is to recover the tombstone quickly or keep valuables in a warded chest before going out.