Hytale Update 6 Server Guide: What Changed and How to Update

Hytale Update 6 went live on August 27, 2026. Since then Hypixel Studios has shipped a steady run of hotfixes, and build 0.6.7 reached the official release channel on September 17. If you run a server, one line in the patch notes matters more than any feature: the network protocol changed, so a server still on an Update 5 build will not accept players who are running the current game.

Start a Hytale server on the current Update 6 build

Why Update 5 servers stopped letting players in

Update 6 moved the network protocol from hytale/2 to hytale/3, and packet layouts changed again later in the pre-release cycle. Hytale's own notes say servers and plugins need a rebuild before they will connect. Players' launchers update the game automatically, so the day a release lands, every server that stays behind turns into a world nobody can join.

The frustrating part is that nothing looks broken. The process keeps running, the UDP port stays open and the console is quiet. The only symptom is a failed join from a current client. If your group suddenly cannot connect after a Hytale update, check the server version before you start debugging ports or firewalls. Our Hytale connection troubleshooting guide walks through the other causes once the versions match.

What Update 6 changes for server owners

Most of the headline features are about play: the in-game Mod Browser, Hardcore, Spectator mode, collision with rotated entities, the Color Tool and much larger builder selections. Several quieter changes affect how a server is run.

Hardcore and Spectator mode

Hardcore is chosen when a world is created, from the Customize menu. There are five settings: Off, Permadeath, Three Strikes, Nine Lives (a shared pool for the whole world) and Soulbound, where one death ends the run for everyone. Players who run out of lives stay in the world as invisible spectators that creatures ignore.

On the server side, Hardcore is now a configuration choice under Defaults.HardcoreMode with the values None, PerPlayer and Global, and existing Hardcore worlds are migrated to PerPlayer. Spectating is handled by a new /spectate command that sits behind its own permissions.

The whitelist is now a permission

The old whitelist provider is gone. Access now runs on the hytale.server.join permission, and the whitelist commands grant and revoke it. An existing whitelist.json is migrated, and the original is kept as whitelist.json.migrated. After updating a private server, have someone who should be allowed in test a join, and make sure your backups include the permission files, because that is where access lives now.

Crash recovery and safer saves

Before Update 6, a crash in the main world could leave a dedicated server running but unjoinable until someone restarted it. Servers now recover on their own. You can tune this with a CrashRecovery block in the server or world config, where Mode is None, Reload or Shutdown, and Reload accepts MaxAttempts, RetryDelaySeconds and a Fallback.

The save fixes are just as welcome on an always-on world:

• World data is no longer lost when a server shuts down while it is still saving chunks.
• Busier servers no longer freeze periodically when a save runs.
• Worlds with SaveNewChunks set to false no longer drop terrain sections on their first save.
• Hotfix 0.6.5 fixed a server memory leak where unloaded worlds stayed in memory after their maps were generated.
• If a core plugin fails to load, the server now stops instead of limping along in a broken state.

Console, permissions and view radius

The server console gained tab completion for commands and arguments, and /help now prints a readable command list. Several commands that act on other players, such as changing their model, giving them armor or editing their recipes, now need their own permission nodes, and a /warp list loophole that skipped the warp permission is closed. Hotfix 0.6.5 also made bans apply to asset editor connections.

View radius is capped at 32 chunks. Hotfix 0.6.2 fixed servers that refused to start with a higher value in config.json. Hytale still recommends around 12 chunks for most servers, because every extra chunk of radius multiplies the world each player keeps loaded.

Mods, plugins and Update 5 worlds

Treat every server plugin as incompatible until its author publishes an Update 6 build. The protocol change alone breaks old builds, and Update 6 also removed or renamed several plugin APIs. If the server will not start after the update, move the plugins out of the mods folder, confirm the vanilla server boots, then add them back one at a time.

The new Mod Browser lives in the game's main menu. It makes finding and updating mods easier for players, but the server still loads whatever is in its own mods folder, so keep the server's copies in step with what your players install.

If your world was last saved on Update 5, update straight to the current build rather than an early 0.6 release. Hotfix 0.6.4 fixed entities with block models losing their position and scale when an Update 5 world is upgraded, and Hytale notes that the fix does not repair entities that were already upgraded with the bug.

Friend hosting got easier. Do you still need a server?

Update 6 added STUN and TURN networking, so many players can now join a friend's world without port forwarding or tools like Tailscale. Hytale says Double NAT still does not work and hopes to fix it during the Update 7 pre-releases.

That is great news for a quick evening session. It does not change the basic limit of a hosted world: it only exists while the host's game is open. A dedicated server keeps one world online around the clock, so builders can work on their own schedule, a Hardcore run does not pause when one person logs off, and everyone connects to the same address every time.

How to update a self-hosted server to 0.6.7

1. Tell players about the restart and wait until they have logged out.
2. Copy the Server/universe folder, config.json and the permission and ban files somewhere off the machine.
3. From the console, run /update check, then /update download, and wait for /update status to report that the update is ready.
4. Run /update apply --confirm. The server exits so the official start.sh launcher can swap in the staged files and start again.
5. Update your plugins, run /update status to confirm the new version, and join with a current client before telling everyone the server is back.

The full walkthrough, including rollback, is in our Hytale server update guide.

How Hytale updates work on GHosting

GHosting checks Hytale's official release channel every 15 minutes. When a new build appears, the control plane downloads it through Hytale's authenticated downloader flow, verifies the published checksum and stages it for every Hytale server. You do not wait for a support ticket or a manual rollout.

1. Open your server and go to Version and updates on the Overview tab.
2. Press Check version. The panel compares the installed build with the newest staged official build and tells you when an update is available.
3. Press Update when it suits your group. The server stops, the official server files and Assets.zip are replaced, your saved settings are applied again and the server starts back up.

Worlds, config.json, permissions, bans, mods, logs and backups stay where they are. The server never restarts for an update on its own, so a raid or a building session is not cut short by surprise. We moved a GHosting test server from 0.5.7 to 0.6.7 this way and confirmed it came back on the new build, and our daily production check installs a fresh Hytale server on the staged build and tests the console, settings and restart path.

Want to try Update 6 on a real server first? Start the free 48-hour Hytale server trial. It needs no card and never renews. You can also compare the Hytale server hosting plans or browse all of our Hytale server guides.

For the upstream details, read Hypixel Studios' official Update 6 patch notes, the Update 6 hotfix notes and the Hytale Server Manual.