Valheim Achievements Not Unlocking? The Cheat Flag Explained

Valheim achievements not unlocking: the cheat flag explained

Last verified: 11 October 2026, against the Valheim 1.0.17 game files (dedicated server build 25730807), Iron Gate's patch notes from 1.0 to 1.0.17 and the official 1.0 FAQ.

If Valheim 1.0 is not unlocking achievements for you, the game has almost certainly put your character, your world or your inventory into a cheated state. There are four of them, each with its own message, and only one is truly permanent. This page lists what triggers each state, how cheated items spread between players, which world modifiers are safe on a dedicated server, and the console command Iron Gate added to opt back in.

The four cheat states and the message for each

The game decides whether you can earn achievements from four things: a flag stored on your character, the world's modifier keys, the items in your inventory, and whether a mod has declared the game modded. Any one of them is enough to stop progress. The messages below are the exact English strings shipped in 1.0.17.

The world state is worded as permanent, but the check reads the world's current modifier keys every time. In the 1.0.17 code nothing is stored against the world itself, so once the offending key is gone the world stops blocking achievements. Progress made while it was blocked is not counted retroactively.

What marks a character permanently

Typing devcommands only switches cheat commands on; it is not a cheat itself. The first time you then run a cheat command, such as god or spawn, the game refuses and prints: "That command is a cheat, please enter 'confirmcheats' in the console to use cheats. Using cheats will permanently disable the ability to unlock achievements for this character and this world." Typing confirmcheats sets the flag on your character, and from then on cheat commands run normally.

Two details catch people out:

• The confirmation step is skipped if you are already in any cheated state. If you are holding a cheated item, or standing in a world with a non-menu modifier, a cheat command runs straight away and marks your character permanently with no warning.
• Characters that used cheats before 1.0 carry the flag too. Iron Gate's 1.0 FAQ says so directly: "Characters that have used cheats before 1.0 will also be marked in this way."

Roughly half of the console commands in 1.0.17 are classed as cheats. These are the ones a server admin uses most that are not cheats and do not touch achievements, next to common ones that are:

freefly, the photo-mode camera, is the exception Iron Gate's FAQ names. players, which forces the difficulty scaling for a player count, is a cheat even though it sounds like an admin setting.

How cheated items spread

An item is marked with "This item was summoned through cheating means." when it is spawned, and the mark then travels. Reading the 1.0.17 code, all of these produce cheated items:

• Kills: a creature hit by a player who has a cheated weapon equipped, or who is in god mode, ghost mode or debug flying, is marked. Everything it drops is cheated, for whoever picks it up.
• Crafting: crafting with any cheated ingredient, at a cheated crafting station, or with the nocost cheat on, gives a cheated result.
• Building: a piece built from cheated materials, or with nocost, is marked, and pulling it down returns cheated materials.
• Gathering: ore and logs from mining or chopping with a cheated tool equipped come out cheated.
• Trading: buying from a trader with cheated coins in your inventory gives a cheated item, and selling a cheated item pays you cheated coins. This is why a stack of 2,000 coins can suddenly carry the mark.
• Spawned locations: a location placed with the location command spawns its objects as cheated, so its chests hand out cheated loot.

Picking any of these up shows "Picked up cheated item. Achievement progress is temporarily disabled." Throw it on the ground, or put it in a chest, and achievement progress resumes. Two patches narrowed the damage: 1.0.14 (17 September 2026) fixed players being wrongly marked as temporary cheaters, which had marked ordinary monster drops, and stopped cheated stackables merging into clean stacks. Iron Gate's 1.0.15 notes then promised a fix for items already wrongly marked; the 1.0.16 and 1.0.17 notes do not mention it, so as of 1.0.17 those items keep their mark.

World modifiers: which settings are safe on a server

This is the part that matters most if you run a dedicated server, because it affects every player who joins. When a client connects, the server's world modifier keys are copied into the client's view of the world, and each player's game checks them. A value the World Modifiers menu offers is clean. Anything else blocks achievements for everyone in that world. The values below are read from the menu's own settings in 1.0.17:

So turning raids off does not flag anyone: Raids: None writes eventrate 0, which is a menu value. No Map, No Build Cost and Passive enemies are menu toggles as well. Iron Gate's FAQ does add that Hammer mode blocks certain achievements, so a creative-style world is not a full achievement run.

How the dedicated server flags apply:

• -modifier <name> <value> and -preset <name> go through the same sliders as the menu, so they can only ever write menu values. Always safe.
• -setkey <key> writes exactly what you type, unchecked. It is safe only when the result matches a menu value, such as -setkey nomap. Keys the menu never writes, for example NoCraftCost, NoWorkbench, AllRecipesUnlocked or a custom number like resourcerate 250, flag the world.
• In the console, setkey refuses a non-menu value with "Did not apply key." followed by the cheat warning, unless you are already in a cheated state, in which case it applies it.

To clean a flagged world: remove the offending -setkey from the launch options, then start the server once with -resetmodifiers placed before your -modifier or -preset flags. That clears the stored modifier keys and rebuilds them from the menu values only. An admin can also run resetworldkeys or setworldpreset from the console, and neither is a cheat. Our world modifiers guide has the full flag syntax.

Difficulty-locked achievements

Valheim 1.0 has 53 achievements on Steam. Four of them depend on the Combat setting at the moment of the kill:

The code stores your kill counts per difficulty level and adds each kill to the level you are on and every level below it. A boss killed on Very Hard counts for all four achievements; one killed on Easy only counts for The Viking. Three rules explain most "I beat every boss on Hard and got nothing" reports:

• Counting started with 1.0. The FAQ: "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."
• The setting is read at the moment of each kill. If the server ran Normal combat for the early bosses and switched to Hard later, those early kills only count towards The Tough Viking.
• Nothing counts while you are in a cheated state. A boss killed while you carried one spawned item is not recorded for you.

Patch 1.0.16 (25 September 2026) also fixed Child of Odin and a case of Comfort is King not unlocking, and removed the unobtainable Blue Mushroom from The Gourmet, so a stuck unlock from before that date may simply have been a bug.

The bypass command

Patch 1.0.12 (11 September 2026) added an opt-in, which Iron Gate left "to your own judgement", adding that "Oden will surely know if you use it dishonourably". In the console:

yesiuseddevcommandsbutiwantmyachievementsanyway 1

• 1 turns the cheat checks off, 0 turns them back on, and no number toggles it. The game answers "Set cheat bypass to true".
• It is stored on the character you are playing, so each player on a server sets it for themselves.
• It works without devcommands: it is hidden from help and autocomplete until devcommands is on, but it runs either way, including as a normal player on a dedicated server.
• It covers devcommand use and mods alike, per the 1.0.12 notes. While it is on, items you make or loot are no longer marked as cheated, which 1.0.15 confirmed.
• With it on, the status line reads "Achievement progress is enabled for this character even though dev commands have been used."

How to check your own status

1. Open the inventory and the Achievements panel. If you are in any cheated state, one of the messages from the first table is shown there, which tells you which of the four causes applies.
2. For the numbers, enable the console (Settings, Gameplay, Enable Console, or the -console launch option), load a world you host yourself with the same character, press F5 and type achievements. It lists unlocked and locked achievements and your recorded stats per difficulty. It only runs in a world you are hosting, not as a client on a dedicated server, but the stats live on the character, so a local world shows the same numbers.

Checklist for a dedicated server admin

• Set difficulty with -modifier or -preset, not hand-written -setkey values.
• If the group wants The Toughest Viking, set -modifier combat hard (or veryhard) before the first boss, not halfway through.
• Do not spawn items for other players. Anything spawned, and anything crafted from it, pauses achievements for whoever holds it.
• Keep a -resetmodifiers restart in mind if a player reports the world message.
• Take a backup before experimenting with console commands. The backup guide covers where the files live.

Related Valheim guides

• Valheim console commands
• World modifiers and server flags
• Forge of Potential: idol odds and drops
• Grant admin on a dedicated server
• Valheim 1.0 mod compatibility

Running a world for a group? A Valheim dedicated server keeps the world online for everyone between sessions, so the achievement run does not depend on one player's PC.

Sources: Valheim 1.0.17 game files (dedicated server build 25730807); Iron Gate's Steam announcements for Valheim 1.0, Hotfix 1.0.10 and 1.0.12, and Patches 1.0.14 to 1.0.17; the Steam global achievements page for app 892970; and the official Valheim 1.0 FAQ.

Frequently asked questions