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GuidesGuidesInstall Hytale mods from the Addons page or the mods folder, move worlds between your PC and the server, and tune each world's settings from the panel.
Once your Hytale server boots and friends can join (that part is the Hytale quickstart), the next questions are always the same: how do I add mods, how do I get my world onto the server, and where are the world settings? This guide answers all three with the panel's Hytale pages, and says where Hytale itself is still moving.
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| You need | A Hytale server that has started at least once |
| Plan | Free or premium |
| Time | About fifteen minutes |
| Heads up | Hytale updates often; where it changes, check the official Server Manual (linked at the end) |
The panel sets the server up for you, so you rarely need these paths, but they explain what each page is editing.
| Path | What it is |
|---|---|
Server/HytaleServer.jar, Assets.zip |
The game itself. The panel installs and updates these; leave them alone. |
config.json |
The server's own settings, including which world players start in. The Config page edits it. |
mods/ |
Installed mods. The Addons page installs here. |
universe/worlds/<name>/ |
One folder per world, each with its own config.json of world settings. The Worlds page manages these. |
universe/players/ |
Player saves. The Players page reads them. |
whitelist.json, bans.json, permissions.json |
Who may join, who may not, and who can do what. |
logs/ |
Server logs, also shown on the Logs page. |
Open Addons from the Hytale section of your server menu. It searches CurseForge's Hytale catalog: the list starts with the most downloaded mods, and typing a name searches by relevance. Open a mod, pick the version that matches your server, and press Install. The file lands in mods/. Restart the server to load it.
💡 Tip: Mods on CurseForge list the Hytale version they were built for. Match it to your server's Patchline (release or pre-release, in Settings → Environment) before installing; a mod built for the other patchline is the most common reason one refuses to load.
Not every mod is on CurseForge. For anything else, open the File Manager, go into mods/, and upload the mod file: Hytale accepts .zip and .jar mods. Restart afterwards. A mod the server rejects says so in the console right after start; remove the file from mods/ and start again.
Most mods write their settings file the first time the server starts with them loaded, so install, restart once, then look for it: usually a folder named after the mod inside mods/, sometimes a file next to the server's own config.json. The mod's page tells you which. Edit it in the File Manager and restart to apply.
Three variables in Settings → Environment matter when you run mods:
| Variable | What it does |
|---|---|
| Patchline | release or pre-release. Mods target one of them; switching patchlines means re-checking every mod. |
| Accept Early Plugins | Lets the server load plugins that hook in early. Hytale calls this unsupported and warns it can destabilise the server; turn it on only when a mod you need asks for it. |
| Allow operators | Starts the server with Hytale's --allow-op flag. Turn it on before you make anyone an operator from the Players page. |
Open Worlds from the Hytale section. Every folder in universe/worlds/ shows up as a card. Open a world and you get:
Defaults.World in the server's config.json; it applies when the server next starts.config.json: PvP, Fall damage, Creatures spawn, and World runs (creatures move, crops grow, time passes). They save straight to the file and take effect when the world next loads.The buttons along the top are Game rules (the World Settings page again), Files (the world's folder in the File Manager), Download (the whole world as one .zip), and More with Make Primary, Duplicate, Rename and Delete. Delete is hidden for the default world: make another world the default first.
🎯 Good to know: Hytale worlds have no map preview and no seed tools in the panel; those are Minecraft features. The world card shows a cube instead of a map.
Hytale keeps singleplayer saves in its user data folder:
| Your PC | Saves folder |
|---|---|
| Windows | %APPDATA%\Hytale\UserData\Saves\ |
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/Hytale/UserData/Saves/ |
| Linux | ~/.local/share/Hytale/UserData/Saves/ (or under $XDG_DATA_HOME) |
Those are the defaults for the release patchline. If you play pre-release, or installed Hytale somewhere custom, use the User Data button in the launcher's settings: it always opens the right folder.
config.json with world settings such as IsPvpEnabled. In some Hytale versions that is the save folder itself; in others it sits inside a worlds folder. Upload the world folder, not everything around it.universe/worlds/.⚠️ Heads up: Take a backup before swapping worlds around, and keep a copy of the singleplayer save on your PC. The layout of a Hytale save changes between updates, so if the upload doesn't look right, compare with the current Server Manual.
Open the world on the Worlds page and press Download → the whole world. Extract the .zip into your Saves folder (from the table above) as its own folder, then launch Hytale and check your world list. Don't extract over an existing save with the same name.
Every world's config.json is editable without touching JSON. Open World Settings from a world (the Game rules button, or All world settings under the switches) and change what you like. Changes save on their own a moment after you make them, with a small Saving... / Saved indicator on each card. The page asks you to stop the server before it saves, because a running Hytale server rewrites the file and would undo your change; the four switches in the world view are the exception, as they apply when the world next loads.
What you'll find there (the page shows the keys your world's file actually has, so the exact list follows your Hytale version):
| Group | Settings |
|---|---|
| Gameplay | PvP, fall damage, NPC spawning, freeze all NPCs, world ticking, block ticking (crops grow), pause game time |
| Markers and compass | Spawn markers, objective markers, compass updates |
| Saving | Save players, save chunks, save new chunks, unload distant chunks |
| Lifecycle | Delete on start, delete on remove: leave both off unless you know why you want a disposable world |
| Visual effects | Sun height, sun angle, sun intensity, bloom intensity, bloom power, sunshaft intensity, sunshaft scale |
The Config page is a different file: it edits the server's top-level config.json, which names the default world among other server-wide settings.
After a mod install, the server's startup log in the console lists what it loaded, and the server reaches its booted message without errors. After a world change, join and check where you spawn, or open the world on the Worlds page: it should read Players start in this world.
mods/ in the File Manager, start again, and look for a newer version.universe/worlds/<name>/ with its config.json directly inside. If the files landed loose or one folder too deep, fix it in the File Manager and press Refresh Worlds.Everything about Hytale itself, from launch flags to the world file format, is in the official Hytale Server Manual, which is updated with each game release. Treat it as the source of truth when the game moves and this guide hasn't caught up.