Enable PvP on your Valheim server

Valheim has player versus player combat, but it is not a server setting. There is no PvP switch in your Startup tab, and Iron Gate's list of dedicated server options does not have one either. So there is nothing to configure on the server for it. The Valheim wiki describes the control as a PVP toggle in the inventory screen, so it is a button in the game, not a setting on the server.

Checked against Valheim 1.0.20 (patch of 15 October 2026), Iron Gate's dedicated server guide and the Valheim wiki, October 2026.

Turn PvP on in the game

1. Join your server and open your inventory.
2. Find the PVP toggle. The wiki lists it with the inventory's extra options, beside the raven menu, the skills menu and the trophy collection.
3. Use it to turn PvP on or off. The Valheim wiki says it enables and disables PvP, and that turning it on also allows hurting tamed creatures with weapons other than the butcher knife.

The wiki does not say whether the toggle applies to you alone or to everyone on the server, so agree on it with your group and try it in the game before the fight.

Set the stakes on the server

The server cannot force PvP, but it can decide what losing a fight costs. In the Startup tab, open the Difficulty card and choose a Death penalty:

• Casual keeps the gear you have equipped when you die and drops the rest of your inventory, with much less skill loss.
• Game default (Normal) drops your gear and inventory where you died, with 5% skill loss.
• Hardcore destroys everything and sets every skill back to 0.

Press that card's Save changes and restart the server. Valheim stores modifiers inside the world's save, so on a world that already exists, join and check the change took, as Change Valheim world settings on your server explains.

Two more fields keep monsters out of the way of a duel. Raids set to None stops monsters raiding your base, and the Passive enemies toggle in World toggles makes enemies leave you alone until you hit them first.

Keep it fair

PvP is only as friendly as the people playing it. Decide the rules with your crew first, and if someone ignores them, an admin can remove them: see Kick and ban players on your Valheim server.

If it does not work

• You cannot hit another player. Check the PVP toggle from the steps above is switched on.
• You want PvP forced on for everyone. The base game has no option for that.