A Windows app that runs your Valheim dedicated server. Start it, keep the mods current, restart on a schedule, see who is online, and look at a map of your actual world.
Free, self-hosted on your own PC, no command line. Works with Valheim 1.0.
Download the latest release, unzip it anywhere, run ValheimBakaLoader.exe. A short setup wizard runs the first time.
Fan-made. Not affiliated with Iron Gate or Coffee Stain. Use at your own risk, and keep backups of worlds you care about.
Full documentation is in the wiki. This page is the short version.
- Download the latest release, unzip it, run
ValheimBakaLoader.exe. The wizard finds your Valheim Dedicated Server install and your worlds. - On the Settings screen give the server a name and a password; the default port suits most people.
- Pick an existing world, or type a name for a new one and choose a seed.
- Choose how people join. Public lists it in the in-game browser, crossplay gives a code that works from any platform.
- Press Start. When the status says Running, press Copy join info and send it to your friends.
Friends outside your network need UDP 2456 and 2457 forwarded on your router and allowed through Windows Firewall, unless you use crossplay.
That first Start press is where BakaLoader asks whether it should look after BepInEx, the loader every mod runs under. Nothing is written to your loader unless you answer yes or press the button yourself.
In-game broadcasts, the restart countdown and the player actions go over RCON, through small plugins BakaLoader puts beside the server at every start. Everything else works without them.
Longer version: Install and first run.
Nine screens, most with a Norse name as a caption you can switch off. A header on every one shows the server, its state, uptime and players online.
| Screen | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Dashboard (Hearth) | Status, who is online, next save, addresses, CPU and RAM, a tail of the log, and the Upkeep card. |
| Players (Vikings) | The roster, sortable, with a right-click menu: promote, allow, kick, ban, heal, teleport, spawn. |
| Mods | Scans your mods against Thunderstore, updates one or all, installs from a pasted link, and looks after BepInEx once you say yes. |
| Settings (World) | Name, password, port, world and seed, crossplay, backups, restart rules, RCON, folders, world modifiers. |
| Map (Atlas) | Drawn from its seed with no map mods, plus fog of war, portals, builds and a forecast. |
| Configs (Runes) | Your mods' config files, edited in the app, with a search and a find box. |
| Log (Saga) | The live server log with levels, search, pause on scroll, and a console line. |
| Discord (Herald) | One status post in a channel that edits itself as the server changes. |
| Statistics (Skald) | Uptime, sessions, deaths and mod history, counted on your machine only. |
- Running the server. Start, stop and restart by hand, on a schedule with a warning in game, when the last player leaves, or after a crash, and the server process cannot linger after BakaLoader closes. Running the server
- More than one server. Each profile can have its own install, mods and save folder, and switching is one click. Multiple servers
- Backups. Every backup layer for every world in one place, and a restore copies the live world aside first. Worlds, backups and restore
- Updating BakaLoader. It asks GitHub for a newer release at launch and every six hours, says what installing would do first, and never installs while a server is running. Updating BakaLoader
- The condition bar. A waiting server update, a held start or a failed backup sits above the page with its action until you deal with it. The condition bar
- A save folder written as
%USERPROFILE%is a folder, not a name. A raw%USERPROFILE%\...is a relative path until something fills the variable in, and the place that built a new server's own save folder was handed it raw: the folder landed inside the BakaLoader install, under a real directory with a percent sign in its name. One place turns a stored path into a folder now and every reader goes through it. Settings (World) - Worlds an older build left in that folder are offered a one-button move. The condition bar names the folder they are in and the folder BakaLoader reads now, nothing moves until you press it, and the move takes the empty
%USERPROFILE%folder away with it. With worlds in both folders, with the new folder there and holding none, or with worlds in more than one old folder, it names them and offers no move;Check againasks the disk once you have sorted them out in Explorer. Troubleshooting - A save folder changed while the world is up says what is really true: BakaLoader follows the new folder from now on, and the running server keeps writing its world to the old one until it restarts. Settings (World)
- Everything 1.2.8 brought is in here too: the frozen launcher, so an update has no new bytes for a virus scanner to judge. Release notes
This release carries language packs for Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, and the client companion zip as a second asset. Update from inside the app, or download the latest zip from the GitHub release page. Every release before this one is on the wiki Release notes.
- The launcher never changes, so a virus scanner has nothing new to judge. Every release ships the same
ValheimBakaLoader.exe, and an update does not rewrite the file at all. Its file properties read 1.2.6 on every release, which is the launcher's own version; BakaLoader's version is the one the window, the sidebar, the status bar and the log show. Updating BakaLoader - If Defender quarantined your copy, the steps to get it back are written out, and nothing of yours was damaged. BakaLoader is not code signed yet, which is the proper answer to this and a separate piece of work. Troubleshooting
- A failed mod scan keeps your mod table on screen, with the Status column reading
Not checkedrather than clearing the table. Unchanged since 1.2.6, and worth knowing. Mods
Worlds are folders in 1.0 and converting an old one cannot be undone, so BakaLoader lists and backs up both formats and warns you before the first save that rewrites one. The admin, ban and allow lists changed format too, and BakaLoader writes both forms, so a file of bare Steam ids does not read as everyone being banned. See World file formats and Server updates and the launch guard.
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
- .NET 6 Desktop Runtime. Windows prompts you on first run if it is missing.
- Valheim Dedicated Server, free in your Steam library under Tools. The wizard can point at any install, including one managed by SteamCMD.
No Linux build and no Docker image. It is a Windows app built around the Windows server binary.
BakaLoader starts a server process, edits files in your Valheim folders, and talks to a few services. Privacy and network is the long version of everything below.
- Who it contacts.
thunderstore.iofor the mod index, a single package when you ask, and downloads you asked for, BepInEx included. Inside every restart window it asks that site which BepInEx pack is current, whatever you answered, naming the package and nothing about you.api.github.comand GitHub downloads for BakaLoader updates and language packs.api.ipify.orgfor the public address in your join info. Valve's address for steamcmd and the Steam client for a server update. Your own Discord webhook if you set one up, and a DNS lookup if you use the domain wizard. With Hexium and the heartbeat below, that is the list. - Hexium is off unless you turn it on. While Also check Hexium is off in Upkeep, BakaLoader does not open a connection to that site at all. With it on, your machine reads its index about four times an hour, and the site says it keeps request logs for up to ninety days. Hexium
- Language packs are requests you made. An English window asks for nothing. Opening the globe or the Settings screen's App tab reads the release page, and pressing a language downloads that pack. The one request BakaLoader makes on its own is fetching a pack after it updates itself while you are reading another language, which Check for BakaLoader updates stops.
- Telemetry. An anonymous heartbeat goes out about every five minutes while the app is open: a one-way hashed device id, the app version, whether a server is running, and how many times each command was pressed since the last beat, counted per server under a one-way key with no arguments and no names. No addresses, names, passwords, world data or player data. Turn it off with Share anonymous usage stats on the Settings hall's App tab. See Privacy and network.
- What it writes. Its own settings, statistics and logs under
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\BakaLoader\ValheimBakaLoader\, with language packs in alanguagesfolder beside them that an update cannot take. Your server's BepInEx folders when you install, update or remove mods and when it puts its own plugins in at each server start, and the admin, ban and allow lists when you use the player actions. BepInEx itself only once you have said yes or pressed the button yourself, with your plugins, patchers and mod configs untouched and everything replaced kept inBepInEx\.bakaloader-bepinex-backups. Backups and restores inside your Valheim save folder, always as copies, never in place. - Passwords. Your server password and RCON password are stored in plain text in
userprefs.json. - The build is not code-signed, so SmartScreen may warn you on first run. The source is in this repository and every release is built from it.
Start with Troubleshooting: a server that will not start, players seeing "Incompatible version", everyone refused as banned since 1.0, a mod that will not show up. The FAQ has the short answers.
Logs are in %USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\BakaLoader\ValheimBakaLoader\logs\, per day for the app and per session for the server.
If none of that covers it, open an issue with the log lines around the problem, or post in Discussions.
If you want your mod's items in the spawn picker or its config handled better, open an issue with the Thunderstore link. For mod authors says what BakaLoader needs from a mod and where the bundled plugins' command names and Harmony targets are listed. It is a solo project and does not take code contributions.
Free to download and use under the BakaLoader Source-Available License: run it for any server, personal or community, and read the source. Redistribution and derivative works are not permitted. See LICENSE.
Valheim is a trademark of Iron Gate AB. This is an independent, unofficial tool.