--- title: "Valheim hits 1.0: what changes for your server" description: "Deep North, PS5 and Switch 2, full crossplay. We measured the new world format before release — and found a bug that made an imported world invisible." url: https://tickserv.com/news/valheim-1-0 site: "TickServ (https://tickserv.com)" lang: en published: 2026-09-06 games: [valheim] --- 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, `.db` and `.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.