How to Play Hytale with Friends: Share Code or Server

What you need first

Each of you needs a Hytale account with the game, on the same version: if someone hasn't updated, they can't join. And a tip from Hytale itself that saves a lot of trouble: add each other as friends in the game before sharing the code.

Between friends, Hytale can use every way it has of connecting you, including relaying the traffic through its own servers when there's no direct path between your homes. If you aren't friends, it only tries the addresses inside the code, and if your friend can't reach any of them, it fails.

Open your world with a code (Online Play)

The option names are the ones in the English game, as in the official article. Since Update 7 Hytale is also available in other languages, such as Spanish: if yours is set to another language, look for the matching option in the same place.

1. Load your world

   The single-player world you want to share.

2. Open “Online Play”

   Press Esc to open the pause menu and go into “Online Play”.

3. Turn on “Allow Other Players to Join”

   Set a password if you like. With “Include Password in Share Code”, the password goes inside the code and your friends don't have to type it.

4. Click “Save” and check the result

   Within a few seconds, the connection section tells you whether your friends can join, whether people outside your home need something more, or whether only people on your network can join.

5. Copy the code and send it privately

   With “Copy to Clipboard”. The code contains your IP address: don't paste it in a public chat or show it on stream.

Joining a friend's world

1. Go to “Servers”

   From the main menu.

2. Click “Join via Code”

   And paste the code your friend sent you.

3. Enter the password if asked

   Only if it wasn't included in the code.

4. Click “Connect”

   It usually takes a few seconds. Since Update 7, if you're in the same home, it connects directly and gets you in much sooner.

If your friend can't join

First, on the computer hosting the world: “Online Play” → “Copy Network Report”. It copies a report that gives the exact cause and contains no addresses, so you can paste it wherever you ask for help. The most common causes, in order:

1. You aren't friends in Hytale

   Add each other as friends and generate a new code. Codes also expire: if an old one doesn't work, ask for another.

2. The firewall or the antivirus

   Allow Hytale through the Windows firewall, on both private and public networks. If you use an antivirus, try adding Hytale as an exception.

3. Your router doesn't open the port by itself

   If the screen names a port, forward it on your router to your PC, as UDP. Often it isn't needed: try joining before touching the router.

4. Two routers at home (double NAT)

   It happens when the provider's router sits in front of yours. Forwarding the port on just one isn't enough: do it on both, put the provider's router in bridge mode, or connect the PC to the main one.

5. Your provider uses CG-NAT

   It shares one public IP between several homes, and opening ports doesn't help. To find out, compare the WAN IP your router shows with the one you get by searching “what is my IP”: if they don't match, it's CG-NAT. Hytale usually connects you anyway, relaying the traffic through its servers (with a bit more ping); to open ports, ask your provider for a public IP.

6. The network blocks Hytale

   Some work, university or public Wi-Fi networks block the traffic the game needs. Try with your phone's mobile data: if it works that way, it's the network.

7. If nothing works

   Have your friend host the world: on another network it may work (to hand over your save, see where your world folder is). Or use Tailscale, free for personal use: with both of you on it, save “Online Play” again and Hytale adds it to the new code by itself.

What it asks of your PC (and your connection)

When you open your world, your PC acts as both game and server. According to Hypixel, playing in your own world is already the most demanding case, because the computer runs the game and the whole simulation: creatures, world generation and networking.

And each friend receives the world through your connection. In their worst-case tests (December 2025), with a 384-block view distance a single player needed at least about 4.5 Mbit/s. With several friends exploring at once, your upload speed will feel it. And the world closes as soon as you leave: nobody can play without you.

When a dedicated server pays off

Hytale's own support recommends one for a world that stays up when you're not around, or for more than a few friends: it performs better (the server doesn't have to render the game), has more options and doesn't depend on your router. Everyone joins whenever they want.

You can run it for free on a PC of yours that's always on (it needs Java 25, 4 GB of memory and UDP 5520 open: the guide to creating a Hytale server explains it) or rent one. NapNodes has a free Hytale server, no card needed: you turn it on with “Start” when you're going to play and it stops by itself after 20 minutes with nobody on. To keep it on all the time, a plan: Village (4 GB) for a small group or Kingdom (6 GB) if there are more of you.

Either way you join the same way: in “Servers”, adding the server's address and port. And if you already have a world going, you can upload it to the server with your character: the guide to moving your Hytale world to a server covers it.

Frequently asked questions