How to Recover a Corrupt Valheim Character

If you've had a corrupt Valheim character, you may think that your items are lost forever. Worry not — there are two methods to bring your character back to life, and one of them is practically guaranteed to work.

Valheim is a lot of fun, but it's also a game that's still in Steam Early Access. This means that bugs should be expected — and unfortunately, a handful of players are finding that their character is corrupted due to some kind of bug. Thankfully, there's a way to fix it!

Method 1 – Restore the corrupt Valheim Character Backup File

The first method to restore a corrupt Valheim character (via Windows Central) involves going into Windows and messing with some files. It's pretty easy to do, but there aren't any guarantees that it will work.

Here's how to restore a corrupt Valheim character in Windows:

1. Go to the following file path
   
   C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\characters
   
   Where "USERNAME" replaces whatever your Windows username is. Alternatively, you can go to the Windows Run menu and type in %AppData%, then navigate up one folder and back down to the "LocalLow" folder.
2. You'll see two files for every character: NAME.fch and NAME.fch.old, where "NAME" is your character's name.
   • "NAME.fch" is the current version of your corrupt Valheim character.
   • "NAME.fch.old" is a backup save of your character.
3. Make copies of both files in another folder.
4. Delete the .fch file (not the .fch.old file!).
5. Rename NAME.fch.old to NAME.fch.

And that's it! An older version of your character should replace the corrupted one. There's a chance this might not work, though — the good news is that there's an alternative solution that can also get the job done!

Method 2 – Recreate Your Character from Scratch

If restoring a character backup doesn't work, you do have one other option: you can remake your character from scratch. Thanks to the use of cheats, however, you won't have to worry about grinding up all of your skills and getting new equipment!

Here's how to recreate your corrupt Valheim character using cheats.

1. Create a new character with whatever name and appearance you like. You're going to have to pick a new name unless you delete the original, corrupt character.
2. Make sure you're in a single-player game or on a server where you have admin permissions and can use cheats.
3. Press F5 to bring up the game's console and type in the following cheats:
   • imacheater – Turns on cheats.
   • debugmode – Activates "debug mode."
   • god – Makes you invulnerable.
   • ghost – Makes enemies ignore you.
   • tod 0.5 – Sets the time of day to midday.
4. Raise your skills to an appropriate level using the following command:
   
   raiseskill SKILL AMOUNT
   
   Where "SKILL" is the skill in question and "AMOUNT" is a number. For example, typing:
   
   raiseskill run 10
   
   will raise the "Run" skill by 10 points. Note that the skill name is case-sensitive: "run" will work, but "Run" will not.
5. Spawn the items you're missing as detailed in our Cheats guide using the following format:
   
   spawn ITEMNAME NUMBER
6. Once you've raised your skills and spawned in all of your items, press "B" to activate no-cost building. No-cost building can only be activated while Debug Mode is on, mind!
7. Go into your inventory and upgrade your equipment using the interface until they're at the appropriate level.

This second process takes a little bit longer, but it is 100% guaranteed to work. Technically speaking, you aren't restoring the old character insomuch as you're making a new one that looks exactly the same. It's certainly better than nothing, though.