Hytale Server Always Online: Let Your Friends Join Without You

Why your friends can't join when you're not playing

Opening your world from the pause menu with online play and sharing the code is the quickest way to play together, but the world stays on your computer: when you leave the game, it closes for everyone. If someone wants to keep building at night or on the weekend you're away, they can't.

For everyone to join whenever they like, you need the official server running on a machine that doesn't get turned off. The ways to play as a group, compared, in how to play Hytale with friends.

Option 1: your PC on all day

The official server is free: a Java 25 program that needs at least 4 GB of memory just for itself, on top of whatever the game uses if you play on the same PC. You only pay for electricity: a desktop PC running the server draws, depending on the hardware, between 60 and 100 W continuously, 43 to 72 kWh a month. With electricity between 0.15 and 0.20 € per kWh, that's 6 to 14 € a month. The electricity calculator works it out with your hardware and your rate.

The downsides: you have to open and forward UDP port 5520 on the router (TCP won't do, and with CG-NAT some ISPs don't allow it), and if Windows restarts to update, the server stays off until you get back. Step by step, in how to set up a Hytale server.

Option 2: an old computer or a Raspberry Pi

A laptop or mini PC you no longer use draws much less than a desktop (15 to 30 W, about 2 to 4 € of electricity a month), as long as it has at least 8 GB of memory: 4 for the server and whatever the system needs.

Unlike Valheim or Project Zomboid, the official manual says the Hytale server also runs on arm64, so an 8 GB Raspberry Pi 5 can start it. Its processor is tighter than a PC's, and in Hytale the CPU is what's under most load when there are several players and creatures at once: for two or three friends it may do. Either way, if the power goes out or the router restarts, the server stays down until you get there.

What makes a server at home stop working on its own

The account link. You link the server to your Hytale account by typing auth login device in its console, but by default it only keeps the credentials in memory: every time it restarts it forgets them and nobody can join until you link it again. Type auth persistence Encrypted once so it saves them to disk. Even so, if it's off for more than 30 days, you have to do it again (how to link it).

The updates. Hytale changes version often and your friends' game updates itself; if the server stays on the previous one, nobody gets in. By default the server downloads the new version but doesn't install it: set AutoApplyMode to WhenEmpty in config.json so it applies it by itself when nobody is connected, and always start it with the official launcher (start.sh or start.bat), which is what swaps the files (how updates work).

Option 3: a host

It's the only one where you don't have to do anything to keep it on: the server is in a data centre and doesn't depend on anyone's PC. NapNodes has three Hytale plans: Village, with 4 GB, for a small group of friends; Kingdom, with 6 GB, for more people exploring each on their own; and Empire, with 8 GB, for communities and mods. Your plan's RAM is reserved for you (it isn't sold twice), and if the server crashes, it starts back up on its own; if it crashes twice in an hour, you get an email with the most likely cause.

The previous section is already taken care of: you link it once from the card in the panel and it stays linked across restarts, and the server checks every hour for a new version and applies it as soon as nobody is on. You don't open anything on your router: your friends join with the address and port from “Address to play”. On top of Hytale's own backups every 30 minutes, the panel makes an automatic daily backup and lets you keep two more. You pay for the RAM, per GB per month, with no commitment: each plan's price is on the pricing page, so compare it with the electricity in option 1.

And if you only play now and then: the free server

If you don't need it always on, the NapNodes free server is an official Hytale server with 4 GB, no card and no end date. It doesn't depend on your game: you start it with “Start” in the panel when you're going to play, and it shuts down on its own after 20 minutes with nobody on.

Its limits, stated plainly: it starts in the space nobody has paid for, so at peak hours you may have to wait in a queue; it has 15 GB of disk and no panel backups (it does have Hytale's own); and if nobody plays for 7 days in a row it's deleted along with its world (we email you 2 days before). If one day you want it always on, “Move to a plan” on its card in “My servers” keeps it on with the same world. All of it, in free Hytale server.

Which one to choose

To play now and then and always together, the code from your world or the free server. To have it always on without paying rent, a PC or mini PC with 8 GB that you have spare, if you can handle the router and remember the account link and the updates. For everyone to join whenever they can without anyone having to keep an eye on it, a host.

Make it run on its own: one restart a day

A server that's been on for days keeps building up loaded world and you notice it as stutter. Restarting it once a day in the early hours leaves it like new. In the NapNodes panel you schedule it in “Advanced settings” → “Schedules” (everything you can schedule).

1. Choose what to do

   In “New schedule”, “What to do” → “Restart the server”. Leave “Warn players one minute before” ticked: they get a message in the game chat.

2. Choose when

   “Every day” and the time, for example 05:00 (it's mainland Spain time). Leave “Only if the server is online” ticked, so it doesn't start a server you'd left off.

3. Press “Create the schedule”

   It appears below, in “Your schedules”. From there you can pause it, turn it back on or delete it.

4. Test it

   With the server online, press “Run it now” and check in “Console” that the warning appears and it starts back up.

More ways to stop worrying about it

A server that's always on is always visible: if it's just for the group, set “Password to join” in “Settings” (with the server stopped) or turn on the whitelist with /whitelist enable and add each person with /whitelist add (the server commands).

Before a big change (adding or updating mods, a big game update, editing config.json), take a backup even though there's the daily one. How and where they're kept, in Hytale backups.

Frequently asked questions