Valheim's viral success has continued its momentum since the game's Early Access launch on February 2. The mix of survival gameplay, procedurally-generated worlds, and cooperative multiplayer make Valheim a popular option on Twitch and its surrounding communities. That said, it's important to remember that Valheim is still in development. Things are bound to go wrong. Unfortunately, one such example is happening now, as a Valheim bug appears to be destroying worlds.
Richard Svensson, the CEO of Valheim developer IronGate AB, shared news regarding the ongoing Valheim bug on Twitter. In the tweet they describe that the "evil world-destroyer" bug is still in the current version of Valheim. No details are provided regarding the nature of this bug. But the fact that it will likely ruin a player's world and potentially corrupt their save should make clear that it's a very serious issue.
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For the time being, IronGate AB doesn't have a working solution for the problem. As such, Svensson encourages players to backup save files. Specifically, they tell those playing Valheim to backup both their characters and worlds. They even mention in a follow-up tweet where players will be able to find their world and character data on their PC. Copying and pasting this data to a different folder makes it available in case the original files become corrupted or unusable.
As for the bug itself, Svensson describes it as "evil" in that the team hasn't been able to reproduce the problem yet. Being able to reproduce the error is a key part in creating a solution. Otherwise, developers don't know where to start. The only clue IronGate AB has is that it potentially happens more often when players use ALT+F4 to close Valheim and less when they exit the game via menus. This obviously isn't a solution, but it could help some Valheim players avoid the problem.
To IronGate AB's credit, it sounds like it's taking in as much feedback as it can get with regards to the issue. Svensson is actively responding to people on Twitter and is encouraging Valheim players to log onto Discord where info can be more easily shared.
By all means, Valheim players should continue playing. There's no reason to believe that this bug is happening to most or even many Valheim players. It's just something players should be wary of and take precautions for. No one wants to get the bug fixed more than IronGate AB, given Valheim's impressive sales momentum. It's just a matter of time before the issue is fixed.
Valheim is available now on PC.