How to Play Hytale With Friends: Share Codes, Servers and Your Own Server

How to play Hytale with friends comes down to three options. One of you opens a singleplayer world to the others with a share code. You all join a community server. Or you run a dedicated server of your own that stays online when nobody is playing. Hytale has had multiplayer in every mode since Early Access opened on 13 January 2026, so the question isn't whether you can play together. It's which setup suits your group.

This guide walks through all three step by step, explains the network problems that stop friend joins working, and covers how to keep a server to just your friends. Checked on 28 September 2026 against Update 6.

Which Option Suits Your Group

Option 1: Share Your Singleplayer World

Hytale can open your own world to friends without a server. This is Hypixel's procedure.

If you're hosting:

1. Load into your singleplayer world.
2. Press ESC and click Online Play.
3. Turn on Allow Other Players to Join.
4. Optionally, set a Password. You can also turn on Include Password in Share Code.
5. Click Save. Hytale sets up your router and shows a share code.
6. Click Copy to Clipboard and send the code to your friends privately.

If you're joining:

1. From the main menu, go to Servers.
2. Click Join via Code and paste the code.
3. Enter the password if the host didn't include it, then click Connect.

A share code contains your IP address

Hypixel's words: "Never post them publicly, paste them in public chats, or show them on stream." Send codes directly to people you trust. Codes also expire, so send a fresh one each session.

When a friend can't connect. Friend joins used to rely on your router accepting automatic port forwarding (UPnP). Update 6 (27 August 2026) added STUN and TURN, so most home networks now work without extra software. Hypixel still names one case that doesn't work yet: Double NAT, for example two routers in a row. Hypixel's fixes, in the order to try them:

• Have a different friend host. Their network may work where yours doesn't.
• Install Tailscale on both PCs, then re-save Online Play to get a new code. Hytale adds the Tailscale address to the code automatically.
• Use a dedicated server, which removes the host's home network from the picture entirely.

The bigger limit is simpler: the world only exists while the host is in it. When they log off, everyone's done.

Option 2: Join a Community Server

Since Update 5 (26 May 2026), Hytale has had Server Discovery, an in-game page where you can browse, search and favourite community-run servers. Servers appear on it after the owner submits them and Hypixel reviews them.

This costs nothing and needs no setup. The trade-off is that someone else sets the rules and the mods, strangers share your world, and the server may not be there next month. It's good for trying multiplayer. It's not where to put a base you care about.

Option 3: Run Your Own Hytale Server

A dedicated server fixes both problems with world sharing. The world stays online with nobody in it, so people play on their own schedule. And nobody's home router decides whether a friend can join. It's also the practical route for mods: in Hytale only the host installs them, and everyone who joins gets them automatically.

On a GameServerKings server the setup is:

1. Sign the server in. The first start asks you to approve a Hytale account sign-in for the download. Then you type /auth login device in the Console to sign in the server itself. How to set up a Hytale dedicated server walks through both.
2. Make yourself an operator from the Console with /op add YourName. Don't turn on the Allow operators startup option to do it. That lets anyone use /op self.
3. Send your friends the Address at the top of the Console (IP and port). That's what they enter in Hytale to join your server.
4. Keep everyone on the same version. Hypixel requires client and server to be on "the exact same protocol version". After a Hytale update, restart the server and it downloads the new build. If a friend has turned on pre-release in their launcher, they usually can't join a release server, and the other way round.

Already have a world from Option 1 that you want to keep? Hytale worlds, saves and backups explains what to do with it.

Keeping the Server to Just Your Friends

A whitelist is the most reliable lock. Run these in the Console:

/whitelist add FriendOne
/whitelist add FriendTwo
/whitelist enable

/whitelist list shows who's on it, and /whitelist remove <player> takes someone off. If someone causes trouble, /kick <player> removes them and /ban <player> keeps them out.

The server's config.json also has a Password key. It's empty by default, which means no password. Edit it with the server stopped, because Hytale overwrites config edits made while it's running. We haven't tested how the game asks joining players for a server password, so the whitelist is the lock we recommend.

To give a friend access to the panel as well, so they can restart the server or read the Console, add them as a sub-user instead of sharing your login: How to Add Sub-Users to Your Panel.

If Someone Can't Join

• Joins straight after an update fail. The server is still on the old build. Restart it.
• Nobody can join a brand-new server. The server probably isn't signed in. /auth status in the Console tells you.
• One Windows player's join is very slow, or the world never loads, while everyone else is fine. Hypixel has a support article on this. Some Intel and Realtek network drivers struggle with QUIC, the protocol Hytale uses, and turning off certain adapter power-saving and offload settings fixes it.
• Everything else: Players Can't Connect to My Server.

Related Reading

• Hytale server commands: whitelist, bans, teleports and game modes
• How to install Hytale mods on a server: add mods once, and every friend who joins gets them
• How to Give Your Server a Custom Address: a name instead of an IP (Hytale still needs the port)

Made with 💜 by GameServerKings