Originally posted by AlexSledge:

Originally posted by He Who Has No Name:

I believe you can install and run the dedicated server without having to purchase the retail game. I know when I installed it on my Linux server via the command line (steamcmd), part of the process was logging in to Steam as anonymous (common practice for dedicated server setup). That would indicate the dedicated server is free.

Functionality and legality are not interchangeable, unfortunately. Unless they've specifically indicated otherwise in an official manner, then the dedicated server is part of the purchase of the product (Valheim) and needs the appropriate license.

Also, them not policing it doesn't make it any more legal either..

It has been common practice for a long time for dedicated server distros of many games, which are not playable builds themselves, to be freely available for hosting by sysadmins and server owners who do not have a retail copy of the game. That's how you run multiple instances for different worlds, it's how you order private servers hosted remotely by services, it's how you deploy to something like an AWS slice. All of that is legal and normal practice and has been for coming up on several decades now. Valve / Steam absolutely would not allow the download, installation, and constant SteamWorks API connections from dedicated servers in the manner they are doing if that was not the case. They would instead tie access to the dedicated server build - 896660 - to purchase of the playable retail game, 892970. That they have not done that is all but guaranteed to be your definitive answer about the distribution status of the dedicated server distro.

You're jumping at shadows here, my dude. Worry less, host more.