if you want a free and open online community with lots of diverse and open servers get minecraft or literally any other open world survival crafting game. this game only has passworded/closed games or a FEW whitelisted servers where you have to pass an interview with staff. this games community is made up of very introverted people who dont like strangers too much. and for some reason the devs feel like the hosts shoudnt get to decide for themselves whether they want to close their lobbies with a password or not. its silly but valheim fans will defend this practice to death. it is what it is...
maybe take a look at conan exiles. seems very similiar in some ways and there are actually open servers with lots of people. but if you dont mind the whole discord and job interview shenanigans than google some servers. there are many third party sites which list dedicated servers like https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/valheim or the fairly unreliable https://valheimservers.net/.
i guess the upside to that isolationist multiplayer policy is that you dont have to deal with too many griefers. i still think the devs could have come up with a better solution and give hosts more freedom in how they want to host their game but the players who still play this game dont seem to mind much.

Solo works too.

what level are you at?

Better make a copy of your savegame before that ;-)

I think there could be a market for a rando server. I've joined randoms I've met on the Valheim discord and even here on steam. I've hosted them in my worlds and joined theirs. I wouldn't give out server credentials to any world I was worried about, nor would I take anything I valued into a world of a rando. That said I've played a lot, have a lot of characters , and worlds, and I am no longer emotionally tied to any worlds or gear, so that makes things easier.

In maybe 8 -10 interactions with people i wasn't real life friends with I havn't ever had an adverse event. Meaning no one tried to deceive me, nor did I they.

Imma be real with you. In my experience this game does not cater to casual random online play at all. I'd like nothing more than to just hop on a new server naked every once in a while and just goof off with company but it's just not feasable.

Aside from every server being passworded so that you need a personal invitation, the community leans heavily towards very organized play. You will likely be interviewed like you are applying for a job or something in some cases. In the very least everybody shares a progression in a small sense and, since an experienced player can blow through bosses fairly quickly, most servers will expect you to play when they play and at their pace out of fairness.

Also, this community has an odd obsession with discord voicechat that goes beyond a simple desire to communicate a little better....90% of LFG posts are discord and mic or get out weather they advertise it upfront or not.

All that said it is a fantastic multiplayer experience..and there certainly is a server out there that will suit you, but that will absolutely entail you making friends on this game.

There is nothing casual or random about the online play.

You can. But you really want a host who you know you can rely on. A lot of progress can become permanently irrecoverable in a blink if you build, stash or lose your gear in a total strangers world. They could grief you, kick you, shut it down and never play again etc.

That is why most people either play alone or passworded with friends.

I guess you can.. but a better question is *should* you play with randoms?

Hey there,

you can give the Looking For Group sub-forum a try. The Discord also has LFG channels.

Good luck!

There are mods that can remove the password requirement for your server, but you might not like the randoms who show up.