Valheim never had achievements for its first four and a half years in Early Access. That changed on September 9, 2026, when 1.0 launched and Iron Gate added a full achievement set tracked by Steam and the consoles. There are 53 of them, and the single most important thing to know before you chase them is this: the moment you touch a console command like `spawn`, your character and world are flagged as cheated and stop earning achievements. A post-launch patch made that flag reversible, but most players only find out about it after they have already locked themselves out.
This guide covers exactly how many achievements there are, how the tracking system works on old saves, the long list of things that silently lock you out, and the smartest order to knock them out. It is written for the live build, patch 1.0.17 (released October 6, 2026), with Valheim fully out of Early Access and the Deep North biome live.
Quick answer: Valheim 1.0 has 53 achievements (confirmed on the Steam store page). Tracking only starts from the moment you install the 1.0 update — past kills do not count, so you must kill every boss again on an eligible character. Using most devcommands (such as `spawn`), picking up a cheated item, or enabling hammer-mode locks your save out of achievements; `freefly` is one of the few exceptions. The original design made the devcommand flag permanent, but patch 1.0.12 added an opt-in (a new devcommand) that lets cheated or modded players turn achievements back on. Your old Early Access save still works but starts the count at zero. The cleanest path to 100% is one non-cheated character progressing through all 8 bosses in order, then mopping up the exploration, building and crafting achievements.
How many achievements are in Valheim?
There are 53 achievements in Valheim 1.0. That number comes straight from the game's Steam store page, which lists "53" in the achievements field, and it is the same count across every platform's trophy or achievement set. Valheim shipped with exactly zero achievements throughout Early Access (February 2, 2021 to September 9, 2026), so all 53 are brand new as of the 1.0 launch.
They span the whole game: killing each of the eight Forsaken bosses, reaching and surviving each biome, building, sailing, taming, cooking, and a set of harder "do it the difficult way" challenges. Iron Gate has not published an official breakdown by category, so treat any "17 are hidden" style split you see on fan sites as community-counted rather than confirmed — the only number Iron Gate and Steam both stand behind is the total of 53.
When does Valheim start tracking achievements?
This is where most players trip up. Straight from Iron Gate's official 1.0 FAQ:
"The achievement system will begin to track statistics from the moment you download the 1.0 version. This means that an achievement connected to killing Eikthyr, for example, will require you to kill Eikthyr again, even if you've already killed him 500 times previously."
In other words, nothing you did in Early Access counts. A 2,000-hour veteran world with every boss dead and a maxed base starts at zero achievements the day 1.0 installs. If you want the boss-kill achievements, you have to summon and kill each Forsaken again on an eligible character.
That has a practical consequence: if your long-running main world already has all the bosses dead, the fastest way to re-earn those specific achievements can be a fresh character on a fresh world, run through the boss ladder deliberately. Your old save is not deleted or broken — the FAQ confirms "nothing" happens to it — but it is not a shortcut to the kill achievements either.
What locks you out of achievements in Valheim?
Valheim's anti-cheat flag is stricter and stickier than most survival games, and the rules are spelled out in the official FAQ. Here is the full picture, quoted and paraphrased directly from Iron Gate:
- Most devcommands flag your save. Enabling cheats and using a command such as `spawn` "will place a flag on your current character and world save, informing you that it is permanently locked from getting any achievements." That was the original 1.0 design — but see the opt-in below, which Iron Gate added shortly after launch.
- `freefly` is an exception. A short list of commands (the FAQ names `freefly`, the camera command) are explicitly allowed and do not flag you. Do not assume any other command is safe.
- Pre-1.0 cheaters were marked too. "Characters that have used cheats before 1.0 will also be marked in this way." If you ever opened the console on your old main, it started 1.0 flagged — again, the opt-in below can reverse this.
- There is now a confirmation prompt. To stop accidents, "there will also be a confirmation required to enter a cheated state after 1.0, to prevent you from accidentally marking out your character and world as cheated."
- Spawned items are tagged and are contagious. "Items that have been spawned in will also be marked in this way. If a non-cheated player character picks up a cheated item, they will enter a temporary cheat state." This is the big multiplayer trap — joining a friend's world and grabbing a spawned item can temporarily lock you.
- The temporary lock is reversible. "Temporarily cheated characters are locked out from unlocking achievements while in this state, and can become eligible for achievements again if they throw out all cheated items from their inventory." Cheated items are visibly marked, so you can see which ones to drop.
- Hammer-mode counts as cheating. "Some world modifiers such as hammer-mode will also block certain achievements. Hammer-mode counts as a temporary cheat." If you flip on free building to make a showcase base, you have temporarily disabled the relevant achievements.
The safe rule is simple: if you care about 100% the clean way, keep one character on one world, never open the console on it, and never pick up a marked item. Run your experiments, god-mode builds and item-spawn tests on a separate throwaway world.
Can you re-enable achievements after cheating?
Yes — and this is the single most important update since launch. The original 1.0 FAQ called the devcommand flag permanent, but patch 1.0.12 added an opt-in devcommand that turns achievements back on for cheated or modded saves. Iron Gate's hotfix notes state it plainly:
"Achievements can be now be opted into even if you have used devcommands or mods by the new devcommand 'yes i used devcommands but i want my achievements anyway' (but remove all the blank spaces)."
In other words, open the console and type `yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway` (no spaces). The studio added it deliberately, with a shrug: "We will leave it to your own judgement whether or not to activate this function – Oden will surely know if you use it dishonourably." The same patch added a popup that tells you when achievements have re-enabled, so you are not left guessing about your eligibility state.
This changes the stakes. Using the console is no longer an irreversible mistake — if you flipped a flag by accident, you can opt back in. But the temporary item-lock still applies in the moment, and purists who want a "clean" run will still prefer never touching the console at all. The flag exists; the opt-in just means it is no longer a one-way door.
Do achievements work in multiplayer and on dedicated servers?
Yes. Achievements unlock on your own account whenever you meet the condition, whether you are solo, in a friend's co-op world, or on a dedicated server. Boss kills, biome visits and crafting all count for every eligible player present, which makes group play a genuinely efficient way to clear the boss-kill achievements — everyone gets credit for the same Eikthyr fight.
The two things to watch on shared worlds are the ones above: do not pick up spawned/cheated items (they are marked and will temporarily lock you), and make sure the world itself was not created or run with cheats or hammer-mode, since world-level flags affect everyone on it. A persistent, clean dedicated server that nobody has cheated on is the ideal place to grind a completion run with a group.
Are the achievements the same on PS5, Switch 2 and Xbox?
The achievement content is the same across platforms — the same 53 conditions. On Steam they appear as Steam achievements and on Xbox as Gamerscore achievements. On PlayStation 5 they surface through the PlayStation trophy system, though Iron Gate has not published the exact trophy breakdown or confirmed a platinum, so treat any specific PS5 trophy list you see as community-sourced for now. Valheim arrived on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time at 1.0, so console players are earning these from a clean slate with no legacy saves to worry about.
One important caveat: Iron Gate's FAQ confirms there is no cross-platform save progression beyond the existing Xbox–PC (Microsoft Store) link. Crossplay lets you play together, but your achievement/trophy progress lives on each platform separately — clearing 53 on Steam does not carry your PS5 trophy list. Treat each platform as its own completion run.
The smartest order to get all 53 achievements
Because the boss ladder gates everything else, the efficient completion path mostly is a normal, careful playthrough. The recommended spine:
| Stage | What to do | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Start clean | New character, new world, console never opened | Guarantees eligibility for all 53 |
| 2. Boss ladder in order | Eikthyr → The Elder → Bonemass → Moder → Yagluth → The Queen → Fader → Kall Fimbulbringer | Most kill achievements + unlocks every biome you need to visit |
| 3. Biome & exploration | Set foot in / survive each of the 8 biomes, build a boat, sail the Ocean | Exploration achievements stack naturally on the boss route |
| 4. Crafting & building | Craft tier gear, cook foods, build structures, tame creatures | Knocked out passively while progressing |
| 5. Cleanup | Any remaining "hard way" challenges and misc tasks | Done last, once you have the gear to make them trivial |
Valheim is a gated linear ladder: each boss drops the key or material that unlocks the next tier of crafting, which is what lets you survive the next biome. Follow that order and the vast majority of achievements fall out of normal play. The only ones you will deliberately circle back for are the oddball challenge achievements and anything tied to the brand-new Deep North content — the final boss, the new biome, and the Bloodgold-tier gear.
A word on the grind. If you are tempted to "just cheat the last few," know that a single `spawn` flags your save — and while the 1.0.12 opt-in means that is now reversible, a run you had to un-flag is not the clean 100% most completionists are after. The skill grinds behind some achievements are brutal on their own terms: the XP curve steepens hard at the top, so the back half of a skill takes far longer than the front half. Plan for the long tail rather than reaching for the console.
FAQ
How many achievements does Valheim have? Valheim 1.0 has 53 achievements, confirmed on the game's Steam store page. There were none during Early Access — all 53 were added when 1.0 launched on September 9, 2026, and the count is the same on every platform.
Do my Early Access boss kills count toward achievements? No. Iron Gate's official FAQ states tracking "will begin to track statistics from the moment you download the 1.0 version," so a boss you killed before 1.0 must be killed again on an eligible character. Your old save still works; it just starts the achievement count at zero.
Can I still get achievements on my old save? Yes. A character that never used cheats is eligible straight away (it just has to re-complete the tracked tasks from scratch). A character that used cheats before 1.0 started 1.0 flagged, but patch 1.0.12 lets you opt back in with a devcommand, so even an old cheated save can earn achievements again if you choose to.
Will using the console (devcommands) lock my achievements? Using something like `spawn` flags your character and world and disables achievements. `freefly` is one of the few exceptions, and there is a confirmation prompt plus a popup so you cannot do it by accident. Since patch 1.0.12 the flag is reversible: open the console and type `yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway` (no spaces) to opt achievements back on.
How do I re-enable achievements after using cheats? Patch 1.0.12 added an opt-in: open the console and type the devcommand `yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway` (the real command is that phrase with all spaces removed). A popup then confirms when achievements are active again. Iron Gate left it to your own judgement whether to use it.
Does picking up a friend's spawned item lock me? Temporarily, yes. Spawned/cheated items are visibly marked, and picking one up puts your character in a temporary cheat state that blocks achievements. You become eligible again once you throw every marked item out of your inventory.
Does hammer-mode block achievements? Yes. Iron Gate's FAQ states hammer-mode "counts as a temporary cheat" and will block certain achievements while it is active. Turn it off for any build you want to count.
Do achievements sync between PS5, Xbox and Steam? No. The 53 conditions are the same, but progress lives per platform. Only Xbox and PC (via the Microsoft Store) share saves; there is no cross-platform achievement or trophy sync, so each platform is a separate completion.
More Valheim guides
Working toward 100%? Keep one character on one world and let the boss ladder do the heavy lifting. These guides cover the hardest achievements on the route:
