Running a Hytale server, explained without the jargon.

This page assumes you have never rented a server, never used a terminal, and have no idea what a "daemon" is. That's fine. You do not need to become a system administrator to run a good Hytale community — you need about fifteen minutes and the ability to copy and paste.

First, the words

Every guide about game servers throws these five words at you and assumes you know them. Here is what they actually mean.

Server

A computer that is always on, somewhere in a data centre, that you rent by the month. Your Hytale world lives on it so your friends can join at 3am while your own PC is off.

Panel

The website you log into to control that computer — start, stop, upload mods, ban a griefer. TalePanel is the panel. Without one you would be typing Linux commands into a black window every time you wanted to restart.

Daemon

A small program TalePanel installs on the machine that actually runs your Hytale server. The panel is the steering wheel; the daemon is the engine. You never touch it — it just has to be there.

Node

One machine that runs game servers. If you have one server, you have one node and you can happily forget this word exists. It only matters when you get big enough to need a second computer.

Mod / plugin

A file that adds something to your game — a new creature, an economy, a minigame. You drop it into the panel and switch it on. TalePanel lets you turn one off again without deleting it, which is the bit you'll be grateful for at 2am.

What you need before you start

Three things, and only one of them costs money.

• A Linux server. Any VPS provider will do. Ask for Ubuntu or Debian. To begin with, 2 CPU cores and 4 GB of RAM is enough for a small community. You get an IP address and a password by email.
• A domain — optional. Genuinely optional. If you don't have one, the installer builds a working web address out of your server's IP for you, with a real, valid HTTPS certificate. No browser warnings, nothing to configure.
• Fifteen minutes. Most of which the installer spends downloading things while you make coffee.

Install it — one command

Connect to your new server. Your provider's control panel has a button for this — usually called Console, Web Terminal or SSH. You'll get a black window with a blinking cursor. Paste this into it and press Enter:

A menu appears. If you have one machine — and right now you do — choose Both. That puts the panel and the engine on the same computer, which is exactly what you want.

It will then ask you a few things: a domain (leave it blank if you don't have one), and the email address and password for your own admin account. Write that password down. There is no default login and no "admin/admin" backdoor — that's deliberate, and it's why nobody can walk into your panel.

When it finishes it prints a web address. Open it. That's your panel.

Your first Hytale server

Log in, click New Server, and you get a short form:

• Name — whatever you'll recognise. survival is fine.
• RAM — how much memory the server may use. 4 GB handles a small group comfortably. You can change it later.
• Port — the number players connect to. Take the one it suggests.

Press create. TalePanel downloads Hytale, sets it up, and the server appears in your list. Hit Start and watch the Console tab: that's the server talking to you. When it says it's ready, give your friends the IP and the port, and you're live.

Adding mods and plugins

Open your server, go to the Mods tab, and upload the file. It appears in the list with its name and version.

The switch next to each one turns it on or off without deleting it. This matters more than it sounds: when your server suddenly won't start, the cause is almost always a mod. Instead of deleting things and hoping, you switch them off one at a time until it boots — then you know which one it was. Plugins work exactly the same way, in their own tab.

Restart the server after changing mods. Hytale only reads them at startup.

Letting your staff in — without giving away the keys

Never give your admin password to a moderator. Instead, invite them to that one server, and choose what they may do: start and stop it, use the console, manage files, install mods, ban players, restore backups. Each of those is a separate switch.

Everything anyone does is written to the audit log — who did it, when, and from where. Not because you don't trust your team, but because on the day a world gets deleted, "who did that?" needs an answer that isn't a guess.

Turn on two-factor authentication on your own account while you're there. It's in your account settings and takes a minute. A stolen panel password should not cost you your community.

When one machine isn't enough

One computer can only hold so many players. When you outgrow it, you rent a second machine and run the same installer on it — this time choosing Daemon, and pasting a one-time token the panel gives you.

The new machine shows up in your panel about thirty seconds later. Now you can move servers between the two, and put your new minigame on the machine that isn't already busy.

This is the part most panels can't do, and it's the reason this one exists. You don't switch tools when you grow — you just add a machine. And until that day, you can hide the whole thing: in Settings → Modules, switch off anything you don't use, and the tabs disappear from your panel.

When something breaks

It will. Here is the honest order of operations.

1. Read the Console tab. The server almost always says what's wrong, in English, in the last few lines before it died. It's the single most-skipped step.
2. Suspect the mods. Switch them all off, start the server. If it boots, switch them back on one at a time.
3. Restore a backup. If a world is damaged, roll it back. Set up scheduled backups before you need them — and know that right now they live on the same machine as the server, so a dead disk takes both. Download a copy of the important ones.
4. Ask. Bring the last twenty lines of the console with you and post at hytaletalk.com or drop into the Discord. Public, so the next person with the same problem finds the answer. If it's a bug in TalePanel itself, open an issue.