Valheim has no flight item and no button labeled “noclip,” but the developer console has both behaviors sitting behind a couple of commands. Once cheats are switched on, your Viking can lift off the ground, and the camera can be detached and pushed straight through walls and roofs. It takes about a minute to set up, and the same setup works whether you want to scout terrain, inspect a build, or grab a clean screenshot.
Quick answer: Add -console to Valheim’s launch options in Steam, press F5 in-game, type devcommands, then type fly to make your character fly or freefly to detach the camera and move it through structures.
fly, freefly, and debugmode: what each one does
Three commands cover everything people mean when they say flying or noclip in Valheim. There is no command actually named noclip; the free-fly camera is what gets you the ghost-through-walls view, while fly moves your actual body.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
devcommands | Unlocks every cheat command for the session. Console prints Dev commands: True. Older builds used imacheater. |
fly | Toggles character flight. Console prints Debug fly: True or Debug fly: False. |
freefly | Detaches the camera from your character and lets you move the view freely, including through structures. Console prints Toggling free fly camera. |
debugmode | Binds flight to Z, free building to B, and instant kill to K. |
nocost | Free building only, with no flight or instant-kill keys attached. |
god | Removes damage, including the fall damage you take when flight switches off mid-air. |
Enable the Valheim console with the -console launch option
-console into it. There is no save button; closing the window is enough.
-console entered. Image: Iron Gate Studio
Console setup on Game Pass, Xbox, and macOS
The Steam route is the simplest, but it is not the only one. On PC Game Pass, open the install folder (usually C:XboxGamesValheimContent), right-click Valheim.exe and create a shortcut, then add -console to the end of the Target field in that shortcut’s properties. Launch the game from the shortcut and F5 works as normal.
On Xbox Game Pass, hold LB + RB + MENU while in-game, then press A to bring up the on-screen keyboard. On macOS with the App Store version, make a small shell script that launches the game binary with the same flag:
#!bin/bash
/Applications/Valheim.app/Contents/MacOS/Valheim -consoleSave it as valheim.sh, run that file instead of the app icon, and press F5 once you are in a world. GeForce Now players need to reach the Steam client inside the session and set the launch option there, which resets every time the session ends.
Run devcommands, then fly
devcommands and press Enter. The console answers with Dev commands: True, which means cheat commands are now accepted for this session.confirmcheats and press Enter. Nothing else needs to be done after that acknowledgement.fly and press Enter. The line Debug fly: True confirms flight is active, and your character will hover instead of falling.
fly command alongside its cheat warnings. Image: Iron Gate Studiodebugmode instead and press Z to toggle flight without reopening the console. Debug mode also arms B for free building and K for instant kills, so press Z carefully if you are standing on a roof.Flight controls, speed, and what still blocks you
Movement stays on WASD. Spacebar climbs, left Ctrl drops, and holding the sprint key (Shift by default) moves you noticeably faster across long stretches of map. Flight costs no stamina, so you can cross biomes without stopping to eat or rest.
What flight does not give you is immunity. Collision still applies to your character, so trees, rock faces, and building pieces will stop you, and enemies can still hit and kill you while you hover. If you want a genuinely consequence-free trip, run god alongside fly.
Use freefly for the noclip camera
Typing freefly prints Toggling free fly camera and cuts the camera loose from your body. Your Viking stays put while WASD and the mouse steer the viewpoint, which is how you look inside a sealed room or drift through a roof without tearing anything down. It is a camera trick rather than a movement cheat, so nothing about your character’s position or collision changes.
For screenshots, pressing Ctrl + F3 hides the interface so the shot is unobstructed. Typing freefly a second time snaps the camera back to your character.
Turn flight off without taking fall damage
This is the single most common way to lose a character. Switching off flight or the free-fly camera while you are high above the ground drops you immediately, and the landing is treated as a normal fall. Descend with left Ctrl until you are close to the ground, then run fly or press Z to toggle it off. If you would rather not think about it, enable god before you take off.
You can tell it worked by the console line. Debug fly: False means flight is off and normal gravity has resumed; if the line still reads True, the toggle did not register.
Why fly or freefly is not working
When the commands do nothing, the cause is almost always one of a short list of things.
- F5 does nothing at all, which means
-consolewas not applied or the game was already running when you added it. devcommandswas never run this session. Cheats reset when you quit, so it has to be typed again each time.- The console asked for confirmation and
confirmcheatswas not entered. - You are typing
imacheater. That was the old wording and was replaced bydevcommands. - You are on someone else’s server without cheats enabled, in which case the server admin has to allow them.
That last point matters for group play. Most multiplayer servers keep debug commands switched off to preserve normal progression, so flight is realistically a single-player or private-server tool. The free-fly camera is the friendlier option when you just want a cinematic angle, since it does not move your character or touch the world.
