How to mod Hytale
The distance between "I use mods" and "I make mods" is shorter than it looks. This page takes you from nothing to a working first mod you've written yourself.
What you need first
- Hytale installed, obviously — and updated. Mod tooling targets the current build.
- A text editor. Any decent editor with syntax highlighting works; use the one you already know.
- A disposable test world. You will break things while learning; break them somewhere that doesn't matter.
- The modding concepts from the modding guide — specifically, decide now whether your first mod is client-side or server-side. Pick client-side for learning: faster loop, nothing to host.
The mod folder
Mods live in a predictable directory structure, and understanding it is half the learning curve:
- The mods folder is where the game (and the mod browser) looks for installed mods. If you've already installed a mod manually, you've seen it.
- Each mod is a folder containing a manifest that identifies the mod — its ID, name, version and entry points — plus its assets and scripts.
- Scripts and assets live in subfolders by type. When you opened someone else's mod in step 1 below, you saw this layout; yours will match it.
Your first mod, in order
- Study one existing mod. Install a small client mod via the mod browser, then open its folder and read the manifest and scripts. Reading a working mod's manifest and scripts is the fastest way to learn the structure.
- Create your mod folder with a manifest. Copy the shape of the mod you studied: folder, manifest, minimal content. Give your mod a unique ID you won't change later.
- Write the smallest possible script. A message logged when the game loads, or one small behavior change. The goal is a mod that runs and that you know ran — because you saw the evidence.
- Load it and confirm it's active. Launch with the mod enabled and verify your evidence appears. If it doesn't, the troubleshooting order is below.
- Change one thing, test, repeat. Extend the mod incrementally: add a value, test; add a behavior, test. Resist rewriting everything between tests.
- Then, and only then, aim it at something useful. A small QoL mod that does one thing reliably beats an ambitious one that half-works.
When the mod doesn't load
- Manifest problems. Typos, wrong field names, wrong file location — 80% of first-mod failures are here.
- Script errors on load. The game logs what failed to parse or run; read the actual error before changing code blindly.
- Version mismatch. A mod written against an older build may fail on the current one. Check the game version you're on versus what the modding docs describe.
Testing without wrecking your worlds
- Dedicated test world, always.
- Back up any world you care about before running an untested mod against it.
- When a mod misbehaves, disable it before launching your main world again — not after.
What this unlocks
The first working mod is small, but the capability it proves is the whole ladder:
- You can iterate. The edit-test loop from the walkthrough is the same loop a large mod uses — you've already learned the hard part.
- You can read other mods as code. Once your own mod runs, every mod on your machine becomes a worked example instead of a mystery folder.
- You can go server-side. The same structure, deployed on a server you run, becomes a plugin — the modding guide explains what moves where.
Where to go next
- Modding guide — the concepts behind what you just did.
- How to install mods — the player-side counterpart of this page.
- Server guide — when you're ready to write server plugins instead.
Spotted an error, or a patch changed something this page relies on? Report it on this page.