Valheim has a full developer console baked in, and it covers everything from spawning Black Metal gear to revealing the entire map in one keystroke. These are not third-party trainers or mods. They are official developer tools that Iron Gate left accessible for players who want them. Version 1.0 expanded the list with new commands for biome navigation, cinematic camera work, and inventory management. This guide covers every command worth knowing, how to turn them on across every platform, and the one cost you pay for using them.
How do you enable cheats in Valheim 1.0?
The console is hidden by default on PC. You need to switch it on before a single command will register.
Enabling on PC through Steam
- Open Steam and go to your Library.
- Right-click Valheim and select Properties.
- In the General tab, type -console into the Launch Options box.
- Launch the game, then press F5 to open the console window.
- Type devcommands and press Enter. The console will confirm with "Cheats: True".
- Typing devcommands again turns cheats back off.
Alternatively, you can skip the Steam launch option entirely by going into the in-game settings and toggling Enable Console to on, then pressing F5 once you're in a world.
Enabling on Xbox
The developer console is already active on Xbox by default, so there is no launch option step. Hold RB + LB + RT + LT + Menu simultaneously to open the console overlay, press A to bring up the on-screen keyboard, then type devcommands and confirm.
Enabling on Mac
- Open the Mac Terminal.
- Paste the following path: /Applications/Valheim.app/Contents/MacOS/Valheim -console
- Launch the game from Terminal and press F5 to open the console.
Enabling on Microsoft Store
- Navigate to the default install path: C:\XboxGames\Valheim\Content
- Right-click Valheim.exe and select Create Shortcut.
- Right-click the shortcut, open Properties, and add -console (with a space before the hyphen) to the Target field.
Valheim Cheat List: All Console Commands
What happens when you use cheats?
Using devcommands does not immediately mark your character. The cheated state kicks in the moment you enter a command tagged as a cheat. From that point, the achievements screen displays a permanent disabled notice for that character. The console also tracks a "Cheats" counter in your stats, so even if the Cheater tag does not show at first, a value of 1 or higher confirms the character has used cheat commands.
Cheats work differently depending on how you are playing:
- Singleplayer: Full access to all commands.
- P2P multiplayer: Only the host can activate and use cheats. Other players in the session can pick up cheated items or benefit from host-side effects.
- Dedicated servers: Console commands cannot be used without mods. Dedicated servers run without a player host, which blocks the cheat system entirely.
All Valheim 1.0 console commands
Character commands
World and time commands
Combat and creature commands
Utility and admin commands
How to spawn items and creatures
The spawn command is the most flexible tool in the console. The full syntax is:
spawn [item name] [quantity] [level] [p/e/i]
The optional flags at the end change behavior: p auto-picks up the spawned item, e tries to equip it immediately, and i only spawns the item if you do not already have one in your inventory. Adding an asterisk to the end of a partial name spawns every object containing that string.
Below are commonly used spawn names:
Debug mode shortcuts
Typing debugmode in the console activates a set of keyboard shortcuts that go beyond what standard commands offer.
- B toggles free building, letting you place anything without resource costs or a nearby workbench.
- Z toggles flight.
- K kills all nearby enemies instantly (does not affect tamed creatures).
- L removes nearby item drops from the ground.
- Ctrl + Middle Mouse Button teleports your character to the cursor's location on the map.
New commands added in Valheim 1.0
The 1.0 release added a batch of commands that were not present during Early Access. Several cover biome tools and cinematic camera work:
- biomeinfo displays information about your current biome.
- altbioms lists all alternate biomes in the world with coordinates and modifiers.
- findbiome [biome] shows coordinates and stats for a specific biome.
- findbiometp [biome] teleports you directly to the nearest matching biome.
- cinematic [name] plays a named cinematic, including biome-specific ones for the Black Forest, Swamp, Ashlands, and Deep North.
- cinematicsleep [name] queues a cinematic to play on the next sleep for all players.
- inventorysize [0-9] adjusts inventory row count.
- inventoryclean removes items sitting in invalid inventory positions.
- snow [amount] adds or removes snow buildup on nearby structures.
- pevents lists, starts, or stops world events.
- repairall repairs all equipment in one command.
- height shows your elevation based on world generation data.
- achievements lists your unlocked achievements and overall stats per difficulty mode.
Valheim Cheat List: All Console Commands
What are the best cheats to use?
After testing these across both early-game and late-game scenarios, a handful stand out as genuinely useful rather than just novelty commands.
is the most practical for exploration. You still take damage and get staggered, so combat still has feedback, but dying is off the table. Good for scouting new biomes without the penalty of a corpse run.
is better than god mode for building sessions. Enemies ignore you completely, so you can focus on construction without interruptions.
separates the camera from your character entirely, which makes it the go-to for taking screenshots. Combined with tod 0.25 for a golden-hour sky, the results are genuinely impressive.
is worth using on a second playthrough when you already know the content and just want to locate specific biomes quickly.
beats manual spawning for gearing up fast. One command gives you a complete, coherent loadout for a biome rather than requiring you to look up and type individual item names.
Troubleshooting: why are cheats not working?
The most common reason commands fail is that devcommands is not active. The console might be open and accepting input, but without devcommands set to True, any cheat-flagged command returns "not valid in the current context." Type devcommands and check for the confirmation line.
Second most common issue: players type commands into the chat log rather than the developer console. The chat log opened with Enter is not the same as the console opened with F5. Commands entered into chat will not execute.
On Xbox, make sure Enable Console is toggled on in the in-game settings before attempting the button combination.
In multiplayer, if your commands are being ignored, you are likely not the host. Only the session host can activate and use cheat commands on a P2P server.
If you need to scroll through a long output in the console, use Page Up and Page Down rather than the mouse scroll wheel.
Going deeper into Valheim 1.0
Console commands are useful for testing builds, recovering from bugs, or just skipping content you have already cleared. But the core game has plenty to offer without them. If you want to track down every boss the legitimate way, the Valheim 1.0 boss locations and rewards guide covers where to find each one and what you need to summon them. For players who want to earn everything the game tracks, the complete achievements guide lists all 53 achievements with unlock requirements and tips for the harder ones. The full collection of Valheim strategy guides covers everything from sailing to dedicated server setup if you want to go further.