How to Install Mods in BisectHosting for Valheim

Modding Valheim is one of the best ways to extend your time in its Norse survival world — adding new biomes, quality-of-life improvements, or entirely overhauled gameplay systems. When you're running a dedicated server through BisectHosting, installing mods involves a few more steps than modding a local game, but the process is well-documented and manageable even without deep server admin experience.

Here's what you need to understand before you start, and how the process actually works.

Why Modding a Hosted Valheim Server Is Different

On a local game, mods live on your PC — usually managed through a tool like Thunderstore Mod Manager or Nexus Mods. On a hosted server, the server itself needs to run compatible mods so that multiplayer sessions stay synchronized between the server and each player's client.

This means you're working in two places:

• The server side — files installed through BisectHosting's control panel
• The client side — mods installed on every player's PC who wants to connect

Some mods are client-side only (like map tools or UI tweaks) and don't need to be on the server at all. Others are server-side required, meaning the server must run them for the changes to apply in multiplayer. And some need to be installed on both ends. Knowing which category your mods fall into saves a lot of troubleshooting later.

What You'll Need Before Starting

• An active BisectHosting account with a Valheim server provisioned
• Access to your server's Game Panel (BisectHosting uses the Pterodactyl-based panel)
• BepInEx — the mod framework that virtually all Valheim mods depend on
• The mod files themselves, downloaded from Thunderstore or Nexus Mods
• An FTP client like FileZilla (optional but useful for bulk file transfers)

Step 1: Install BepInEx on Your Server

BepInEx is the foundation. Without it, mods won't load. BisectHosting supports BepInEx installation, and in many cases you can enable it directly through the panel.

1. Log into your BisectHosting Game Panel
2. Navigate to your Valheim server instance
3. Look for a Startup tab or Mod Manager section — BisectHosting has integrated one-click mod support for popular frameworks
4. Select BepInEx as your mod loader if prompted, or check whether it's already listed as an installed framework

If your panel version doesn't offer one-click BepInEx installation, you'll install it manually via FTP:

• Download the latest BepInEx pack for Valheim from Thunderstore (search "BepInEx Pack Valheim")
• Connect to your server via FTP using the credentials from your Game Panel
• Upload the BepInEx folder contents to your server's root Valheim directory — the same folder that contains valheim_server.exe
• Restart the server once to let BepInEx generate its folder structure

After restart, you should see a BepInEx/plugins folder in your server's file directory. That's where mods go. 🎮

Step 2: Install Mods Into the Plugins Folder

With BepInEx running, mod installation is straightforward:

1. Download your chosen mod — it typically comes as a .zip file
2. Inside the zip, look for a .dll file (the actual mod) and any config files
3. Upload the .dll file to BepInEx/plugins/ on your server
4. If the mod includes a config folder or .cfg file, upload those to BepInEx/config/
5. Restart the server

For mods downloaded as a full Thunderstore package, the zip often includes a BepInEx folder already structured correctly — you can upload the entire folder and merge it with the existing one.

Important: Some mods have dependencies — other mods they require to function. Always check the mod's description page for a dependency list and install those first.

Step 3: Match Mods on the Client Side

For server-side mods to work properly, every player connecting to the server typically needs the same mods installed locally. Version mismatches between client and server are a common source of connection errors.

The easiest way to manage this is through Thunderstore Mod Manager:

• Create a modpack profile with all required mods
• Share the profile code with your players so they can import it in one step

This keeps everyone on the same versions without manually tracking files.

Step 4: Verify and Troubleshoot

After installing mods and restarting:

• Check the console log in your Game Panel for BepInEx startup messages — it lists which mods loaded successfully
• If a mod fails to load, the log usually names the issue (missing dependency, version conflict, etc.)
• If players can't connect, compare mod lists and versions between server and client

Logs are typically found at BepInEx/LogOutput.log on the server.

Variables That Affect Your Experience 🔧

The number of mods you're running, whether your players are comfortable with mod managers, and how frequently Valheim updates its base game all shape how smooth or complex your modding setup will be. A small server running two or three well-maintained mods is a very different experience from running a heavily modded overhaul with a large player group — each situation calls for a different level of version management and coordination.