Valheim 1.0 ships on 9 September 2026: the Deep North biome, the PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 versions, and crossplay across every platform. We didn't wait for the date to see what it changes: 1.0 already lives on Steam's public test branch, so we ran a server on it and read the disk.
A console rents, it doesn't host
Neither PS5, nor Switch 2, nor Xbox runs a dedicated server. A group mixing platforms has two options: play inside one player's session — the world only exists while that person is online — or run the world somewhere else.
Crossplay is on from the start on our Valheim servers, with no setting to hunt for. And since a
console has no address field, your friends get in with the six-digit join code, shown in your
console, repeated by the invite link and by /status on Discord.
What 1.0 really changes under the hood
Valheim no longer stores worlds the same way. A world used to be a pair of files, <YourWorld>.db and
<YourWorld>.fwl. Since 1.0 it's a folder, with the map broken into pieces — which makes saving
faster and corrupt files rarer.
We checked it on a real machine by converting a pre-1.0 world: the conversion happens on its own at the first start, it sets aside a complete copy of the old world, and the whole thing weighs 42% more than before. Nothing for you to do.
The bug we found while preparing all this
Reading our import code against the new format turned up an older, worse defect: an imported world was never loaded unless it carried exactly the name our server opens. The files landed on disk fine, the server didn't recognise them, and it generated a fresh map on top. From the outside: "I imported my save and it vanished."
It's fixed. An imported world is now renamed for you, in both formats — and we proved it on a machine, renaming a world and then checking in the server's own logs that it loaded it instead of building another one. The other six games already did this; Valheim was the last one that didn't.
While we were there, the import screen and the guides now tell you what to bring depending on your version: the two files, or the whole world folder.
On release day
Your existing world isn't lost, and the Deep North only generates on ground nobody has explored yet — on a well-travelled map you'll have to go far to see it.
Valheim won't let an updated client onto a server that's been left behind, and Steam updates clients on its own. Here there's nothing to do: the server reinstalls the current build of the game at every start, so the next time you switch it on it's already on 1.0.
If you use ValheimPlus, switch it off for a few days. A server mod is always one major update behind, and Iron Gate says in as many words that the new save system hasn't been tested with mods.
What this doesn't solve
We're not touching the RAM recommendation until we've measured a 1.0 server with people on it: announcing a figure we haven't measured is precisely what we hold against everyone else. And a converted world stays converted — if you want to compare, keep a copy before starting on 1.0.