Valheim world rollback after griefing or an admin mistake

Rolling back a Valheim world means stopping the server, replacing the current world with an earlier copy taken before the damage, and starting it again. The mechanics take five minutes. The decisions around it take longer: which copy to restore, how much honest progress the group is willing to lose with the griefing, and what to do about the fact that characters are not rolled back with the world. Players keep the inventories and skills they have now, so a rollback can duplicate items or delete them, depending on what each person did since the backup. Do it quickly, tell people before you do it, and ban the griefer before you restore, or you will be doing it twice.

This is the incident version of the restore procedure. The general mechanics of saves, .old files and automatic backups are in Valheim server backups and world corruption; this post is about choosing and living with a rollback.

First: stop the damage and freeze the evidence#

Before anything else, make sure the problem stops getting worse and the copies you need are not rotated away.

1. Remove the griefer. Kick them with the admin console (kick [name/ip/userID]), then ban them so the ban survives a restart: ban adds their ID to bannedlist.txt. If you only know their character name, the server log has their connect line with the ID in the form the server expects. The list files guide covers the formats.
2. Close the door they used. If the server was public with a weak password, change -password before you restart. If it is meant to be a group-only server, a permittedlist.txt with the group's IDs turns it into an allow-list server.
3. Do not let the automatic backups rotate. Valheim keeps -backups copies, four by default, and the oldest is deleted when a new one is taken. On a server with -backuplong set low, the copy you need can be deleted within hours. Copy the current backups somewhere else, or on a panel host, take a manual backup now and lock the ones from before the incident.
4. Note the time. Write down roughly when the damage happened and when you noticed. Every decision below depends on it.

If the "griefing" was an admin mistake - a removekey on the wrong key, a devcommand that deleted the wrong things, a terraform that went badly - the first step is the same minus the ban: stop playing, save nothing further you do not need, and protect the copies from before.

Which copy to restore#

A server has up to three kinds of earlier world, and they are not equally useful.

The goal is the newest copy that is clean. Every hour older costs the whole group an hour of honest play, so restoring "yesterday, to be safe" is not free.

To find the right one:

• Read the timestamps. Automatic backups carry a timestamp in their name, and file managers and SFTP clients show modification times. Match them against when the damage happened. Bear in mind the backup's time is when it was written, and that it reflects the world as of the last save before it.
• Test before you commit. If you are not sure whether a copy is clean, load it under a different world name on a test server or a local game, fly over to the damaged area, and look. Ten minutes of checking beats restoring, finding the damage still there, and restoring again from even further back.
• Check what else changed. If a world modifier was changed or a mod was added since the copy, the restore brings the old state of those too, as far as the world is concerned.

On builds before Valheim 1.0, a world is a .db and .fwl pair and every copy must be used as a matching pair from the same moment. Since 1.0, released in September 2026, a world and each of its backups is a folder in worlds_local instead, and the unit you restore is the whole folder. Check which layout your server has before you start moving things; mixing parts of two copies is how a restore produces a broken world.

What players lose, and what they keep#

This is the part to understand before you tell the group anything. The server stores the world. Each player's character - inventory, equipment, skills, known recipes, map - is stored on their own machine and is not touched by a world restore.

From that table, a rollback does four predictable things:

• Things taken from chests since the backup are duplicated. The chest is full again in the restored world, and the player still holds what they took.
• Things put into chests since the backup are lost. The restored chest does not have them, and the player no longer holds them.
• Builds made since the backup are gone, but their materials are not refunded. Players who spent an evening building lose both the building and the wood.
• Tombstones depend on timing. A player who died after the backup and recovered their tombstone is fine. One who died after the backup and had not recovered it loses it, because the tombstone did not exist yet in the restored world. One who died before the backup and recovered it after will find a second copy of the tombstone in the restored world - a duplicate.

Boss kills behave like the world: a boss killed after the backup is alive again, and its key is gone, but the trophy and drops stay in the killer's inventory. That is usually harmless - they can hang the trophy again - but it is worth mentioning, because raids and trader stock tied to that key will revert. Boss progression on shared servers covers what depends on each key.

Duplicates from a rollback are usually not worth chasing on a friends' server. On a community server with an economy, ask players to empty anything they took since the backup time into a shared chest after the restore, and accept that some will not.

Partial fixes before a full rollback#

A rollback is the blunt option. For limited damage, there are smaller ones that cost nobody any progress.

• Rebuild the damage. A few broken walls or a burnt longhouse are often faster to rebuild as a group than to roll back, and nobody loses an evening elsewhere on the map.
• Repair with the hammer. Damaged pieces can be repaired at the right crafting station range. Griefing that only damaged things, rather than removing them, is a repair job.
• Use admin mods for cleanup. With a building or admin mod such as ServerDevcommands or Infinity Hammer, both by JereKuusela, an admin can rebuild, remove junk pieces or restore terrain faster than by hand. These are mods; the vanilla dedicated server does not run devcommands. ServerDevcommands on a dedicated server covers setup.
• Undo a key instead of the world. If the mistake was a key - someone killed a boss the group was saving, or an admin set the wrong one - the key can be removed without touching the world. The global keys guide shows how.

Vanilla Valheim has no way to roll back one area. A restore is the whole world. If the damage is in one base and the rest of the group had a productive evening elsewhere, the partial fixes above are almost always fairer than a rollback.

Doing the restore#

Once you have chosen the copy and told the group, the restore itself:

1. Ask everyone to log off. Anyone connected during the stop has their character saved on their machine as it is; that is fine, but it is cleaner if nobody is mid-action.
2. Stop the server cleanly and wait for the process to exit.
3. Move the current world aside, do not delete it. Rename it, for example Midgard to Midgard-griefed, whether it is a file pair or a folder. If the restore turns out wrong, you can go back.
4. Put the chosen copy in place under the world's exact name. For an automatic backup, copy it and rename it to the world name. For the previous save on the pair layout, Midgard.db.old becomes Midgard.db and Midgard.fwl.old becomes Midgard.fwl.
5. Check the world name on the start line still matches, capitals included.
6. Start the server and watch the log for the world loading by name, not a new world being generated.
7. Join and check the damaged area and something built just before the backup, to confirm you got the moment you meant.

$ cd ~/.config/unity3d/IronGate/Valheim/worlds_local$ mv Midgard.db Midgard.db.griefed$ mv Midgard.fwl Midgard.fwl.griefed$ cp Midgard_backup_auto-20261013180000.db Midgard.db$ cp Midgard_backup_auto-20261013180000.fwl Midgard.fwl

The file names above are an example; the timestamp format in automatic backup names has varied between versions, so match the pair by their names and times as you see them. If your server uses -savedir, the folder is worlds_local under that path instead.

On RE:NODE, a panel backup restores with one button and covers steps 3 and 4 in one go. Two things to know: it restores the whole server folder from the moment of the backup, so mod configs and list files revert too - re-check that the griefer's ban is still in bannedlist.txt afterwards - and backups can be downloaded first if you want to keep the damaged state. Backups are stored off the machine they protect, and locking one keeps it from being rotated away while you decide.

Telling the group#

A rollback affects everyone, so announce it before, not after. A short message that answers the obvious questions saves a long thread:

• What happened, in one line.
• The time you are rolling back to, as a clock time in your group's time zone, so people know which evening's work is gone.
• What they keep and what they lose: inventories and skills stay, anything built or stored after that time is gone, anything taken from chests after that time stays with them.
• What you want them to do: return items taken from shared chests, check their tombstones, rebuild together.
• What changed to stop it happening again: the ban, the new password, the allow list.

The world is going back to 18:00 yesterday. Your inventory and skills stay as they are. Anything built or put in chests after 18:00 is gone; anything you took out after 18:00 you still have - please put shared stuff back. The player responsible is banned and the server is now allow-list only.

Give people a reason to log in afterwards. A rebuild evening for the damaged area, with the group working together, turns the worst night on the server into one of the better ones.

Preventing the next one#

Griefing on a Valheim server is almost always one of three things: a public server with an open door, a trusted player who stopped being trustworthy, or an admin experimenting on the live world.

• Allow lists for group servers. A server for a known group has no reason to accept strangers. permittedlist.txt makes the server refuse anyone not on it.
• Wards on everything that matters. A ward stops non-permitted players from opening doors and containers and from removing pieces in its radius. It does not stop fire, creatures or a determined player with siege weapons. Wards and griefing explains the limits.
• Admin rights for few people. Everyone in adminlist.txt can kick and ban; with admin mods, they can do far more. Keep the list short.
• Test on a copy. Admin commands, new mods and modifier changes go on a copy of the world first. Running multiple worlds on one host covers keeping a test world beside the main one.
• Back up more often than you think. Lower -saveinterval, keep enough automatic backups to cover the time it takes your group to notice a problem, and take off-machine backups on a schedule. A backup nobody has restored is a hypothesis; testing a restore before you need it is the habit that turns it into a fact.

FAQ#

Does rolling back the world roll back players' characters?

No. Characters are stored on each player's own machine, so inventory, skills and the map stay as they are now. Only the world - buildings, chests, terrain, tames and keys - goes back.

Can I roll back just one base and keep the rest of the world?

Not in vanilla Valheim; a restore is the whole world. For damage in one area, rebuilding, repairing, or cleaning up with an admin building mod is usually fairer than a full rollback.

Will a rollback duplicate items?

It can. Anything a player took out of a chest after the backup time is both in their inventory and back in the restored chest. On a friends' server, asking people to return shared items is usually enough.

How do I find out who griefed us?

The server log records every connection with the player's ID and the time. Matching the damage window against who was online usually narrows it down quickly. Vanilla does not log who placed or destroyed which piece.

How far back can I go?

As far as your oldest clean copy. Automatic backups only cover a short rotation, which is why off-machine backups on a schedule are the real safety net for damage noticed days later.