Table of Contents

Quick Answer

If you’re just looking for the essentials, here’s what every Hytale beginner needs to know:

  • Head to the Forgotten Temple first — It unlocks the Memories system and gives you early rewards
  • Craft a Crude Sword and stock up on Berries — You need basic defense and healing immediately
  • Build a shelter and set your spawn — Craft a Bed to secure your respawn point
  • Grind for Iron equipment — Iron gear is your midgame goal and found in Emerald Grove caves
  • Use torches on cave walls — Place them on the right going in; follow them on the left coming out

What Is Hytale?

Hytale is a voxel-based sandbox RPG from Hypixel Studios that launched into Early Access on January 13, 2026. It blends the building freedom of Minecraft with deeper combat, crafting, and progression systems inspired by games like Terraria and Valheim.

The game takes place in Orbis, a procedurally generated world filled with diverse biomes, dangerous creatures, ancient structures, and secrets to uncover. While currently in Early Access (meaning features are still being added and bugs exist), the foundation is already impressive.

Early Access includes:

  • Exploration Mode — Open-world sandbox gameplay
  • Creative Mode — Building tools and world editing
  • Modding Support — Create and share custom content
  • Multiplayer — Play with friends in all modes

Adventure Mode with story content is coming later. For now, Exploration Mode is where you’ll spend most of your time.

Your First Steps in Orbis

When you first spawn into Hytale, resist the urge to wander. Your immediate priorities are survival and progression setup.

Craft Your Basic Tools

Open your inventory and craft these essentials from materials you gather:

Priority crafting order:

  1. Crude Hatchet — For gathering wood efficiently
  2. Crude Pickaxe — For mining stone and ore
  3. Crude Sword — Basic combat weapon (don’t skip this)
  4. Workbench — Expands your crafting options

Gather wood by punching trees (yes, it works), then collect stone from surface rocks or shallow digging.

Find Food Immediately

Berries are your best friend early on. They’re found on bushes throughout the Emerald Grove biome and provide basic healing. Stock up on 20-30 before doing anything risky.

Build a Simple Shelter

You don’t need a mansion—just four walls and a roof. More importantly:

  • Craft and place a Bed to set your respawn point
  • Place your Workbench inside for safe crafting
  • Add Storage Chests near your crafting stations (they can auto-pull materials)

Crafting Basics

Hytale’s crafting system is deeper than it first appears. Understanding it early saves hours of frustration later.

Workbenches Are Everything

Your basic Workbench unlocks dozens of recipes, but specialized crafting tables unlock even more:

Key crafting stations:

  • Furnace — Smelts ore into ingots
  • Tanning Rack — Processes leather and hides
  • Farmer’s Workbench — Farming tools like hoes and watering cans
  • Chef’s Stove — Cook advanced dishes for stat bonuses

All crafting tables can be upgraded to Tier 5, unlocking better recipes. However, don’t rush upgrades on processing stations like the Furnace—upgrading them only improves speed, not recipes. Save materials for stations that unlock new items.

Storage Integration

Here’s a game-changer: place Storage Chests adjacent to your crafting tables. When you craft, the station automatically pulls required materials from nearby chests. This means you don’t need to carry everything in your inventory.

Combat and Survival

Hytale’s combat is action-oriented with real-time dodging, blocking, and attack timing. It’s not just click-spam.

Combat Fundamentals

Dodging: Rolling (default: Shift + direction) gives you invincibility frames. Use it to avoid big attacks rather than tanking damage.

Stamina management: Attacking, dodging, and sprinting all consume stamina. Getting greedy with attacks leaves you vulnerable. Attack in 2-3 hit combos, then back off.

Blocking: Shields and some weapons can block incoming damage. Timing matters—a well-timed block can stagger enemies.

What Happens When You Die

Death isn’t total loss, but it hurts:

  • You lose 50% of consumables and resources in your inventory
  • Tools, weapons, and armor lose 10% durability
  • You respawn at your bed (or world spawn if no bed set)

This is why setting a bed spawn and not carrying your entire resource stockpile matters. Keep valuables in chests at home.

Healing Options

Early healing comes from food. Later, you’ll unlock potions and the Totem of Life for emergency saves.

Early healing items:

  • Berries — Weak but abundant
  • Cooked meat — Better healing, requires hunting + cooking
  • Advanced dishes — Stat bonuses plus healing (Chef’s Stove recipes)

Exploration Tips

Orbis is massive and procedurally generated. Getting lost is easy. Here’s how to explore smart.

The Forgotten Temple — Go Here First

The Forgotten Temple is a structure you’ll find relatively close to spawn. Visiting it unlocks the Memories system, which rewards you for discovering creatures and completing encounters throughout the world.

Return to the temple whenever you encounter new creatures to log them and claim rewards. It’s one of the game’s core progression loops.

Cave Navigation

Caves are where you’ll find iron, cobalt, and other valuable ores. They’re also dark and dangerous.

The torch method:

  1. Craft plenty of Crude Torches (they’re cheap)
  2. Place torches on the right-hand wall as you go deeper
  3. To exit, follow torches on your left-hand side

This simple trick prevents getting lost in complex cave systems.

Biome Awareness

Different biomes have different resources and dangers:

  • Emerald Grove — Starting area, iron ore in caves, relatively safe
  • Desert — Hotter, different resources, tougher enemies
  • Underground Jungle — Dangerous dinosaur-like creatures, high-tier materials

Don’t venture into harder biomes until you have at least iron-tier equipment.

Teleporters

Once you unlock teleporter crafting, place them strategically:

  • One at your home base
  • One in distant biomes you’re exploring
  • One near valuable resource deposits

Teleporters create fast travel networks that make exploration much more efficient.

Early Game Progression

Here’s a rough progression path to follow for the first several hours:

Phase 1: Survival Setup (First 1-2 Hours)

  1. Gather basic materials and craft tools
  2. Build a shelter with bed and workbench
  3. Find and loot the Forgotten Temple
  4. Unlock the Memories system

Phase 2: Iron Age (Hours 2-5)

  1. Mine caves in Emerald Grove for iron ore
  2. Smelt iron ingots at your furnace
  3. Craft iron weapons and armor
  4. Upgrade key workbenches to Tier 2-3

Phase 3: Expansion (Hours 5+)

  1. Craft teleporters for fast travel
  2. Explore new biomes with proper gear
  3. Set up farming for consistent food and stat buffs
  4. Unlock the Ancient Gateway for Fragment challenges

The Ancient Gateway opens access to Fragments of Orbis—timed challenge areas with better loot. This is your entry point to more challenging content.

Pro Tips

  • Enable “Show Entity Health Bars” in settings — Monitoring enemy health changes how you approach fights
  • Try third-person view — The Camera Preference setting lets you switch perspectives; third-person gives better combat awareness
  • Expand your inventory early — Craft backpack upgrades as soon as possible; inventory space is precious
  • Workbench placement matters — Keep all crafting stations and storage chests close together for material auto-pull
  • Don’t hoard consumables — You lose half on death anyway; use potions and food liberally
  • Mantling is your friend — The mantling feature lets you climb ledges; use it to navigate terrain faster
  • Log all creatures at the temple — Memories rewards stack up; make regular trips back

FAQ

Is Hytale free to play?

No. Hytale costs $19.99 USD for the Starter Edition. This is a one-time purchase with no subscription or hidden fees. The game is in Early Access, so expect ongoing development and updates.

Can I play Hytale with friends?

Yes. All game modes support multiplayer. You can host your own server or join community servers. Playing with friends makes exploration and building significantly more enjoyable.

Is Hytale on Steam?

Not currently. Hytale launched through its own launcher at hytale.com. The developers have said they want to focus on the game before dealing with Steam reviews during Early Access.

How does Hytale compare to Minecraft?

Hytale shares the voxel building core but adds deeper combat, progression, and RPG elements. Combat is more action-oriented with dodging and combos. Crafting has more complexity with tiered workbenches. It’s less sandbox freedom and more guided adventure—at least once Adventure Mode launches.

Will there be mods?

Yes. Modding support is already in Early Access. Hytale includes built-in tools for creating custom content, and the community has already started building mods. The game is designed to be highly moddable.

Summary

Hytale’s Early Access launch delivers a solid foundation for what could become a defining sandbox RPG. The core loop of exploring, building, crafting, and fighting is already engaging, even with features still in development.

For beginners, the key is prioritizing survival setup, making the Forgotten Temple trip early, and working toward iron equipment. From there, the world opens up with teleporters, new biomes, and the Fragment challenge system.

The game will evolve significantly over the coming months. Adventure Mode, official minigames, and the complete World Gen V2 are all coming. For now, explore Orbis, build your base, and enjoy watching the game grow alongside the community.