Hytale is an upcoming sandbox RPG from Hypixel Studios, the team behind the famous Hypixel Minecraft server. It combines block-by-block building with RPG-style combat, exploration, and progression. Here is everything you need to know about Hytale and its comparison with Minecraft!

What is Hytale and why is everyone talking about it again?

At its core, Hytale is a “creation and play” game. It blends the freedom of a sandbox with the structure of an RPG. You travel through different zones, fight monsters, clear dungeons, collect loot, and build bases. At the same time, you can edit terrain, place blocks, script events, and run custom servers.

Hypixel Studios pitches Early Access as a “polished core” around three pillars: exploration, responsive combat, and robust building. On top of that, it ships with creator-first tools for modding, minigame building, and server hosting.

People talk about Hytale because it sits in the same space as Minecraft but promises deeper combat, more explicit RPG systems, and integrated modding tools. It also has a dramatic history of hype, cancellation, and revival, which keeps players invested in the story of the game itself.

Under the hood, the legacy engine uses a C# and Java stack, so the Hytale programming language setup looks familiar to many PC developers.

The story of Hytale from Riot to today

Hytale first exploded in late 2018 with a cinematic and gameplay trailer that quickly racked up tens of millions of views. The game was described as a Minecraft-like sandbox with story-driven content, cinematic tools, and minigames, and it built a large community before any release date.

Riot Games acquired Hypixel Studios in 2020 to support Hytale’s development. The team then spent years working on a new cross-platform engine. Progress slowed, and in June 2025 Riot shut the studio down and cancelled the game.

In November 2025, Simon "Hypixel" Collins-Laflamme repurchased Hytale from Riot. The new plan returned to the older “legacy” PC engine, rehired more than 30 former developers, and committed to funding Hytale independently for at least ten years.

This shift made a fast Early Access release possible and led directly to the 16-minute raw gameplay video the community is now dissecting. 

Exploration, combat, and building in Orbis

Hytale takes place on the world of Orbis. The world is procedurally generated and split into zones. Each zone has its own biomes, dungeons, factions, and difficulty curve. Underground, you find large cave networks, loot chests, ambient creatures like bats, and environmental storytelling.

The new 16-minute footage shows a player moving through forests, deserts, corrupted purple woods, and a lush rainforest region. You see camps, castles, patrols, and distant glowing points of interest that signal exploration targets. Nighttime looks dangerous. Hostile mobs roam more actively, and it is easy to pull several enemies by mistake.

You can watch the gameplay below:

Combat is fast and readable. The player swaps between double daggers, a sword and shield, bows, and crossbows. Each hit charges a special meter. Heavy attacks consume stamina. You see dashes, slides, and quick repositioning to escape ambushes from crawlers or to create space against ranged enemies. The footage makes clear that Hytale aims for more demanding combat than vanilla Minecraft.

Building and gathering work in a familiar way, but with some modern touches. Chopping down a tree drops the whole trunk once you cut enough of it. You can carry a torch in hand to light caves without placing it. Pocket crafting lets you combine simple materials like sticks and rubble into campfires or basic items directly from the inventory.

Factions, mobs, and the world of Orbis

The world is full of factions and creatures with distinct identities. The footage highlights several of them:

• Outlanders in Zone 3 look like hostile, corrupted humans with fortified castles and patrols.
• Scar is an insect-like desert faction in Zone 2. You see “scarrick” soldiers, lava-adjacent structures, and fast melee threats.
• Void creatures such as void eyes and crawlers appear in corrupted biomes and at night. Crawlers erupt from the ground to ambush you.
• Classic fantasy enemies like skeletons, wolves, and bats round out the roster, along with stranger horrors teased briefly in the footage.

Later zones, including a dense rainforest area associated with Slothian settlements, suggest a strong focus on atmosphere and zone-specific identity rather than generic biomes.

Minecraft vs. Hytale comparison: combat, movement, and creativity

Because Hypixel grew from Minecraft, many players ask if Hytale is “just Minecraft 2.” The answer is more nuanced. There are clear similarities and also key differences. 

On the similarity side, both games feature:

• Blocky voxel worlds
• Mining and resource gathering
• Crafting and building systems
• Procedurally generated terrain and caves

However, Hytale is pushing further into RPG systems and creator tools. Several differences stand out. This Minecraft vs. Hytale comparison also shows why both titles can share an audience instead of competing for a single winner.

Combat and progression

Minecraft’s default combat is simple. You swing weapons, time cooldowns, and use basic projectiles. Hytale layers in stamina, special ability meters, multi-weapon combos, and more aggressive enemy behavior. The footage shows charge attacks that drain stamina, triple-shot bow skills, and frequent weapon switching.

Movement and traversal

Hytale includes mantling, sliding, and stronger momentum. The player climbs ledges automatically when they clip the edge, slides after certain jumps, and takes clear fall damage, which supports more vertical and fluid combat arenas. Minecraft parkour relies mostly on careful jumping, without native mantling or slides.

World structure

Minecraft uses biomes that blend into each other. Hytale structures Orbis into zones with their own biome mixes, factions, and expected challenge levels. This supports more guided exploration and a stronger sense of “traveling into danger” as you move outward.

Creation and modding

Both games support massive creative communities. Minecraft relies on external mod loaders and tools, while Hytale plans deep modding integration from day one. You can run custom servers, script data-driven content, and spawn mobs or structures directly inside its Creative Mode tools. Hypixel plans to release server source code months after Early Access to support advanced communities. Early adopters will likely spend most of their time on community-run Hytale servers that test new rules, maps, and combat setups

Even Mojang’s Jens “Jeb” Bergensten has said he looks forward to Hytale but does not expect it to change Minecraft’s trajectory, which shows how the industry sees Hytale as another strong entry rather than a direct threat.