When playing early access in general honestly. We have terabyte drives and half a dozen free cloud services, back up yo saves.

Originally posted by rapier1955:

Is this location the same location in app data that you save your files from ??? I can not seem to get BETAS to show up

In steam, in the game library section (that lists all the games you own) r-click on Valheim. select properties.

select "betas" form the options that come up.

in that window, where it asks for a password, add the password "yesimadebackups" (no quotes)

Then select the public test branch, and it will download an update to your game.

Originally posted by rapier1955:

Is this location the same location in app data that you save your files from ??? I can not seem to get BETAS to show up

You have to put the password in the the test branch to show up under the beta drop down

When playing early access in general honestly. We have terabyte drives and half a dozen free cloud services, back up yo saves.

Is this location the same location in app data that you save your files from ??? I can not seem to get BETAS to show up

do you have to download something to access ?

Originally posted by Sabre:

So, while I'm playing in the public test will it eventually merge in with the regular game? Is my progress in the public test simply just a test so my progress will be lost once the full update is released? They said to make a backup which I did but am I going back to my backup once the beta isn't a beta anymore? I wish they would have explained that better.

You could simply enable the Public Test and jump right back in your main savegame. Then test all stuff, etc. When the update gets pushed to the stable branch, nothing should change, except that you are now playing on stable again (you would have to manually switch branches of course).

The note to make backups is simply a safety measure and is generally recommended when playing unstable branches.

Originally posted by PakaNoHida:

Once you find a cave entrance though, you very much know it is one.

Be careful of Cultists.

We found 2, they aren't as easy as to spot as i might like.

Originally posted by Sabre:

So, while I'm playing in the public test will it eventually merge in with the regular game? Is my progress in the public test simply just a test so my progress will be lost once the full update is released? They said to make a backup which I did but am I going back to my backup once the beta isn't a beta anymore? I wish they would have explained that better.

Yeah by playing this build you are "testing" for sure. I am testing on an old back-up of my current server build. I don't expect to carry anything I do here in test anywhere else.

So, while I'm playing in the public test will it eventually merge in with the regular game? Is my progress in the public test simply just a test so my progress will be lost once the full update is released? They said to make a backup which I did but am I going back to my backup once the beta isn't a beta anymore? I wish they would have explained that better.

I recommend to do as the devs suggested. Backup your char and create a new world...just in case.

in the game library, right click on valhiem, select properties.
In the window that opens on the left hand side select betas.
in that window, you have to add the password they provided in the article "yesimadebackups"

Is that all? I did that. So then just start the game and ???

Originally posted by Trevinator:

Is that all? I did that. So then just start the game and ???

Yup, after entering the code you should see "public-test" in the drop down box. Select that and there will be a small update. Once that's finished, start the game and play. If you're going to enter an existing game, then you won't find the caves in areas that have already been explored.

Once you find a cave entrance though, you very much know it is one.

Be careful of Cultists.

Make a backup from your worlds first, before you start the test!