Getting started

1. Build a base. The board can only be placed with a workbench, a bed and 40 built pieces within 20 m (all configurable), or within the board's own area when you place a higher-level one from a Hiring Charter (30 m for a level 3 board). Boards must be 100 m apart.
2. Build the Hiring Board with the hammer (Wood 45, Stone 20, Deer hide 10, Leather scraps 10, Resin 10).
3. Stock it. Use the board's Funds (food & coins) to put in cooked food and coins. Only food and coins fit, in 24 slots. Food is counted in food points (a food's health + stamina + eitr: a cooked meat is 40), and the cheapest food is used first so your best food is left alone.
4. Post a contract under Manage → Contracts: choose the job, the level, the work radius (it starts at the most the job allows) and, for guards, a stance. The hire fee is taken from the board's funds, and a viking walks in a few minutes later.
5. Feed them. Upkeep is paid in food from the board every in-game day, only while the base is loaded (days away are free). If the board can't pay for 2 days, that hireling quits.

What it costs

Hiring is paid in coins (level 1 in food, since there are hardly any coins in the Meadows); upkeep is always food. Promoting a hireling costs the difference in hire fees, and bringing a dead one back costs half its hire fee (or turn on permadeath). Each job scales the prices: Steward ×0.9, Woodcutter ×1, Miner ×1.1, guards ×1.3, wizards ×1.5.

Level	Hire fee	Upkeep a day	Health	Cargo slots	Carries (weight)
1	150 food	40 food	80	8	300
2	50 coins	60 food	120	10	325
3	150 coins	90 food	180	12	350
4	300 coins	120 food	250	16	375
5	500 coins	160 food	330	20	400
6	800 coins	200 food	420	24	425
7	1200 coins	250 food	520	28	450
8	1800 coins	300 food	650	32	475

A crew adds up: six level 3-4 hirelings eat about 700 food points a day. Richer food (stews, pies, meads) pays more wages per board slot than cooked meat.

Running low

• The board's hover shows the daily upkeep and how many days its food and coins last, orange when it's low and red on the last day. A full board that's low says richer food would pay more per slot.
• Coming home to a board that can't pay tomorrow's wages tells you so (again after 10 minutes).
• Once a day, when it's down to 2 days (LowFundsWarnDays), everyone at the base is told; when a day's wages go unpaid, they're told how many went unpaid, what the board needs and has, and after how many days they quit.
• The board's builder gets a map pin on it until it's topped up.
• A Steward keeps the board stocked from your chests (see the Steward).

Hirelings

Hover one to see its name, job, level, stance, health, what it's doing and its cargo (slots and weight). Open its cargo with E like a chest; Shift+E opens its orders panel (stance, rename, and more for gatherers and followers) and its Problems list: why its orders aren't being met. A hireling carries about what you can: it's full when its slots or its weight limit run out, and a gatherer then goes to deliver.

Can't find one? Call to board on the board's Roster tab brings it to the board to wait there (off work) until you press Back to work (there or in its Shift+E panel); a hireling with no way there is moved there. It holds still while its Shift+E panel is open. A hireling stuck swimming in place (against a bank, under a dock) is lifted onto dry ground after 30 seconds.

They talk back. Now and then a hireling near you says something, in a speech bubble like the trader's: about its job, about what it's doing, or about you standing there watching. HirelingChatter turns it off and ChatterMinutes (default 5) sets roughly how often each one speaks; both are your own settings.

Workers only work while their area is loaded, that is while a player is nearby, as with everything else in Valheim.

Deaths

When a hireling dies, its cargo goes into a grave named after it, which floats and lasts like a player's (it doesn't despawn). A follower's grave opens only for its owner, who gets a map pin on it; a base worker's opens for anyone with ward access there. Its weapon and armour aren't dropped. You're told when one of yours dies. What happens next is the server's choice (DeathMode, General):

• ReturnAfterDays (default for new installs): it comes back to the board by itself, free, after ReturnAfterDays in-game days (3; a day is 30 minutes of play, and sleeping skips the night).
• PayToRespawn: it comes back after RespawnCooldownSeconds once the board pays half its hire fee (RespawnCostFraction).
• Permadeath: it's gone, and the contract ends.

Either way its slot on the board stays taken while it's away. Configs from older versions keep what they had (PermadeathEnabled on becomes Permadeath, off becomes PayToRespawn).