Valheim 1.0 & Deep North: Releasing September 9, 2026

Valheim 1.0 arrives September 9, 2026

After more than five years in Early Access, Valheim leaves testing on September 9, 2026 and launches as version 1.0. Iron Gate Studio and Coffee Stain Publishing announced the date at the PC Gaming Show (Summer Game Fest, June 7, 2026). The heart of the update is the Deep North — the eighth and final biome.

What’s in 1.0

New feature	What it brings
Deep North	The 8th and final biome — an icy winter world that grows more dangerous the further north you go: snow-covered forests, underground dungeons, abandoned villages and crumbling castles.
New enemies	Among them the huge Gammeltrolls and the Elakingar.
Final boss	The Deep North brings the game’s last boss — and with it the grand finale of the journey.
Grappling hook	An unlimited-use grapple: shoot it into the environment, pull yourself in, swing freely.
New gear	Nordic weapon line (axes, two-handers, bows), a large round shield and the Frostfire crossbow — the final armor sets haven’t been fully revealed by Iron Gate yet.
Frostfire crossbow	A new weapon from the final biome.
Achievements & cinematics	Achievements for the first time, plus new cutscenes up to the grand finale.

PS5, Switch 2 and full crossplay

At the 1.0 launch, Valheim releases on all platforms simultaneously — with full crossplay from day one:

• PC (Steam, Microsoft Store, Linux, Mac)
• Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
• PlayStation 5 (new)
• Nintendo Switch 2 (new)

According to the official 1.0 FAQ, cross-progression only works between Xbox and PC (Microsoft Store/Game Pass) — Steam, PS5 and Switch 2 saves stay local to the device.

For your server that means: from September 9, PS5 and Switch 2 players can play alongside PC and Xbox friends on one server. How to enable crossplay and let console players join via a join code is in the crossplay guide.

Do existing worlds stay compatible?

Yes — existing worlds keep working under 1.0. The new Deep North content, however, only appears in unexplored areas: if you’ve already travelled the far north on your world, nothing new shows up there. That’s why Iron Gate recommends a fresh world for the full 1.0 content. On a RespawnHost server you can run both: keep the old world and create a new one for the Deep North — see transferring worlds.

Two things that do not change with 1.0: the ocean biome stays as it is — it gets no content expansion of its own. And Iron Gate has not committed to any post-launch content after 1.0.

What RespawnHost expects

The Deep North endgame and the new console players will pull many groups back to their worlds. Two things are worth doing beforehand:

1. Back up before the update. Big version updates are the classic moment for world damage — create a backup first. With auto-update enabled, your server pulls the new version automatically on the next restart.
2. Let mods settle. After an update this large, BepInEx/ValheimPlus and friends usually need a few days to become compatible again — see installing mods.

Open questions

• Does 1.0 change anything about the 10-player limit? (Not announced so far.)
• Does 1.0 add new world modifiers? (Unconfirmed — the existing presets, modifiers and setkeys are set directly as startup variables in the RespawnHost panel, see the world modifier guide.)
• How will the crossplay/PlayFab backend behave with the new consoles?

Once the patch is live, we’ll check these points and update the guides.

Related guides

• Renting & setting up a server
• Setting up crossplay — PC, Xbox & soon PS5/Switch 2
• Configuring your server — backups before the update

Ready for the north? Rent a Valheim server — online in under 90 seconds.