My world: see your explored map from your character file (Valheim 1.0.16)
What the .fch character file holds, how our map page reads it in your browser without uploading it, and what the map shows: explored area, pins, last position and distances.
Valheim keeps your map inside your character file, one map per world. That means you can look at your own map outside the game if you have that file. Our map page does exactly that: you pick the file, your browser reads it, and you see what you have explored.
What is in the .fch file
Each character is one file ending in .fch, named after the character. Valheim writes the map into it when the game saves or when you log out, so anything you explored after the last save is not in it yet. One file holds a separate map for every world the character has visited.
For each world the file stores:
- which parts of the map you have explored,
- your pins, with their type and name,
- where you last logged out, where you last died and your spawn point,
- the areas other players shared with you through a map table.
The file also contains your character name and your player ID. The map page needs neither and does not send them anywhere.
Your file stays on your device
The map page reads the file in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored on our side, and there is no account. Close the tab and the data is gone. The page uses no game graphics: the map is drawn from the data in your file, as a fog of explored and unexplored area with markers on top.
Finding the file
The map page has a short section "Where do I find my .fch file?" with the folders where the file usually sits on Windows, on Linux and Steam Deck, and for characters saved in the Steam Cloud. We have not confirmed these paths for every platform and setup yet, so treat them as a starting point. Two rules hold regardless:
- Take the file ending in
.fch. Files with other endings next to it, such as.old, are backups. - On Xbox, PlayStation and with the Game Pass app there is usually no direct access to the file, so the viewer is meant for PC and Steam Deck.
If you want to be careful, copy the file somewhere else first and open the copy.
Reading the map
After you pick the file, the page lists the worlds stored in it, each with the share explored and the number of pins. Choose one and the map appears.
- Explored area. The legend marks explored and unexplored ground. The page also gives the explored share of the whole world in percent.
- Rings and coordinates. Rings mark every 2 km from the world centre; the outer ring at 10 km is the world edge. Coordinates are metres from the centre, x to the east and z to the north. The cursor position shows its coordinates and distance from the centre.
- Your character. Markers show your last position, your last death and your spawn point.
- Pins. The pin list groups your markers by type: beds, bosses, deaths, Hildir, your own markers and others. A filter shows one type at a time, "Show on map" jumps to a pin, and you can show pin names on the map.
- Shared areas. Areas that others shared with you through a map table can be shown or hidden.
You can pan by dragging, zoom with the mouse wheel or two fingers, and use the keyboard. "Reset view" brings back the whole world.
When something goes wrong
The page checks the file before drawing it and says what went wrong instead of showing a broken map:
- A file that is not a Valheim character file is rejected.
- A world without a saved map is listed but cannot be shown.
- If the file's checksum does not match, the page warns you that the file may be damaged and the map may be wrong.
- Character and map versions the reader does not know yet are reported as not supported. Our reader handles character file versions 29 to 46 and map data versions 1 to 8.
What the page does not do
The map shows only what your own file contains. There is no seed map, no list of locations you have not found and no live view of a running game. If you want to plan around bosses and biomes, the boss order guide and the biome pages in the database are the better start.
About the data
The file format comes from our own research; the reader was written from scratch for this site. Game version: Valheim 1.0.16 (assumed build, not confirmed). This is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with Iron Gate or Coffee Stain.