Valheim World Modifiers — Presets, Custom Rules and Setkeys

What World Modifiers are

World Modifiers are the difficulty and rules layer attached to a world. Introduced with the Hildir’s Request update, they let you take a preset wholesale or tune individual dials — useful for a relaxed evening with friends, a hardcore run, or a world where you simply want more resources and fewer raids.

Two levels of control:

• Presets (-preset) — a named bundle: normal, casual, easy, hard, hardcore, immersive, hammer.
• Modifiers (-modifier) — five categories you can set individually on top of, or instead of, a preset.

The five modifier categories

Category	Options	What it changes
combat	veryeasy, easy, hard, veryhard	Enemy damage and how punishing fights are
deathpenalty	casual, veryeasy, easy, hard, hardcore	What dying costs you — from forgiving to severe
resources	muchless, less, more, muchmore, most	How much you get from gathering, drops and ore
raids	none, muchless, less, more, muchmore	How often and how hard base raids hit
portals	casual, hard, veryhard	What you may carry through a portal — not whether portals exist

Combat — per-level multipliers

Level	Player damage %	Enemy damage %	Enemy speed & size %	Enemy level-up rate %
veryeasy	125	50	90	100
easy	110	75	90	100
normal	100	100	100	100
hard	85	150	110	120
veryhard	70	200	120	140

The player-damage % changes the damage you actually deal but is not reflected in the numbers shown on your weapon in the inventory. On hard and veryhard, high-level (★) enemies also spawn more often, so the real difficulty climbs faster than the raw multipliers suggest.

Death penalty — per level

Level	Equipment	Rest of inventory	Skill loss
casual	Kept	Dropped	1%
veryeasy	Dropped	Dropped	1%
easy	Dropped	Dropped	2.5%
normal	Dropped	Dropped	5%
hard	Dropped	Destroyed	7.5%
hardcore	Destroyed	Destroyed	100%

Skill loss is applied to each skill’s current level; the progress you have toward your next level is always lost on death regardless of the setting.

Resource rate

The resources dial scales drops from creatures and lootable objects from 0.5x to 3x of normal (muchless = 0.5x, less = 0.75x, more = 1.5x, muchmore = 2x, most = 3x). The rate rounds up, so 1.5x effectively becomes 2x for many single drops, and it does not apply to fish, trophies or boss-specific drops.

Raids — per level

Level	Interval (min)	Chance per roll
none	— (no raid rolls)	0%
muchless	92	10%
less	69	13.3%
normal	46	20%
more	27.6	33.3%
muchmore	13.8	66.7%

Note that night raids can still occur even on none.

Portals — per level

The portals dial controls what you may carry through a portal, not whether portals exist: casual lets everything through (ore and metals included), the default restricts ore and metals, and veryhard blocks items entirely. If you want to disable portals outright, that is the separate setkey NoPortals, not a value of this modifier.

Setkeys: the official toggles

Setkeys are single on/off rules rather than a dial. Only four are official (-setkey):

• nobuildcost — building does not consume materials
• playerevents — enables player-triggered raid events
• passivemobs — enemies do not attack unless provoked
• nomap — the map and minimap are disabled

Community lists often include extra keys such as noportals. Those are not official setkeys — do not expect them to behave the same way across versions or on a dedicated server.

Changing modifiers from the console

If you want to adjust a live world rather than re-create it, the console covers it:

• setworldpreset — apply one of the named presets
• setworldmodifier — change an individual modifier category

You need the console enabled and cheats active first; the exact steps are on the console commands page. Back up your world files (.db and .fwl) before you change anything.

Choosing a setup that suits you

• Relaxed co-op with friends: casual preset, or normal with resources raised and raids lowered. Keeps the game intact while removing the grind and the base damage.
• Hardcore run: hardcore preset. Expect the death penalty and combat dials to be at their least forgiving, and plan your base location and food supply accordingly.
• Immersion-first: immersive pushes you toward navigation without the map and stricter portal rules, which makes sailing and outpost building part of the game rather than a chore.
• Testing and screenshots: nobuildcost plus passivemobs gives you a free-build sandbox; the building guide is the companion for what to do with it.

The 1.0 achievement system officially ties its “cheated” flag to using devcommands or mods (the 1.0.12 hotfix adds the yes i used devcommands but i want my achievements anyway opt-in to restore eligibility). Per Iron Gate’s 1.0 notes, the flag is tied to devcommands and mods — not to the non-cheat combat, deathpenalty, resources, raids and portals dials — so those modifiers are not treated as cheats. Check the achievements list for the current status before starting an achievement run on a modified world.

Related

• Enabling the console and the commands that go with it: console commands
• Why raids matters for how you build: base design ideas
• Starting a fresh world versus continuing an old one: new save vs old world