Should You Start a New World for Valheim 1.0? Old Save vs New Save

The short answer

Most early-access worlds load straight into 1.0 without a wipe. The real question is whether your old map already has the terrain and world-generation version that Deep North expects.

The rest of this page splits into three questions: what an old world keeps, what changes underneath it, and whether Deep North generates correctly on your map. Read the world-generation note before the decision table — it is the one thing a fresh save guarantees and an old save may still need fixing.

What carries over

• Your character, skills, unlocked recipes and inventory persist.
• Structures you built stay put.
• Defeated Forsaken bosses remain defeated, and their Forsaken Powers stay claimable at the altar.

What changes under you

• Deep North is new terrain. Older worlds receive new content, but biome generation only works properly on areas that have not yet been explored.
• The achievement system begins tracking from the moment you download the 1.0 version — pre-1.0 feats get no retro-credit.

New save vs old save

Consideration	Keep old world	Start fresh
Deep North access	Biome generation only in unexplored areas	Clean generation everywhere
Progress	All retained	Restart, but faster with knowledge
Achievements	No pre-1.0 credit	Tracking starts at 1.0
Base building	Existing bases intact	Rebuild from scratch

How to decide

Keep the old world if your base and boss progress matter more than a pristine map. Start fresh if you want Deep North to generate without edge-case fixes, or if you are returning after a long break and want the full 1.0 onboarding.