Hytale First Day Survival Guide: What to Do in the First 60 Minutes

Hytale drops you into Zone 1’s Emerald Wilds with no tutorial and no quest markers — just a world that goes hostile after dark. This guide is a continuous numbered checklist you can follow step by step with the game open. Hit all 25 steps and you’ll survive Night 1 with a shelter, tools, food, and the Memory system already running.

Verified on Hytale Early Access (v1.5, March 2026). Mechanics may change with future updates.

At a Glance: Your First 60 Minutes

The full walkthrough runs to 25 steps across four time checkpoints. Here’s the summary before you dive in:

1. Punch bushes and pick up loose ground items (Rubble, Sticks, Plant Fiber)
2. Press TAB → Pocket Crafting → craft Crude Hatchet, Pickaxe, and Sword
3. Hit a tree at its base to fell the whole trunk — collect Logs, Sticks, and Sap
4. Kill one small animal (boar or deer) for Light Hide ×2
5. Craft Campfire + Crude Bedroll → sleep in the bedroll to set your respawn point
6. Build a 5×5 enclosed shelter and place torches every 6 blocks
7. Craft a Workbench + place a Wooden Chest directly beside it
8. Open map (M key) → find the pinwheel icon → walk to the Forgotten Temple Gateway
9. Walk within 5–6 blocks of the Heart of Orbis statue to activate the Memory system
10. Build a Furnace, mine Copper, craft Copper tools — then seal your door before dark

Minutes 0–15: Gather and Craft Your First Tools

Goal: All three crude tools before spending more than 15 minutes away from spawn.

You spawn inside the Gate of the Echo in the Emerald Wilds. Don’t run straight for the trees yet — look down first.

See also our guide to modding tutorial create first mod.

1. Walk a slow circle around your spawn point and collect everything off the ground. Stone Rubble, Sticks, and Plant Fiber sit loose on the surface everywhere. Punch nearby bushes to release more. You need at least Rubble ×6, Sticks ×6, Plant Fiber ×6 before opening Pocket Crafting [1].
2. Press TAB to open Pocket Crafting. This interface works without a workbench and updates in real time as you pick up materials. All three starter tools share the exact same recipe: Plant Fiber ×2 + Stick ×2 + Rubble ×2 [2]. Craft them one at a time.
3. Craft the Crude Hatchet first, then Crude Pickaxe, then Crude Sword. Punching trees by hand is slow and drops almost nothing — the hatchet multiplies your wood yield immediately. The sword can wait a few extra minutes; the hatchet can’t.
4. Hit a tree at the base trunk, not the upper sections. Hytale trees obey gravity — breaking the base causes the whole trunk to collapse in a cascade, dropping all Logs, extra Sticks, and Tree Sap at once [1]. Tree Sap crafts Torches. Always target the base. Fell one medium tree to collect Tree Log ×4–6 and Sap ×1–2.
5. Kill one small animal — boar, deer, or rabbit — with your Crude Sword. You need Light Hide ×2 for your Crude Bedroll, which sets your respawn point. You’ll also collect Raw Meat. Keep it — don’t eat it raw. As AllThings.How’s Hytale cooking breakdown explains, cooked meat restores roughly double the health of raw meat and provides two simultaneous buffs [6].

✓ Checkpoint: Crude Hatchet · Crude Pickaxe · Crude Sword · Light Hide ×2 · Tree Logs ×4+ · Tree Sap ×1+

Minutes 15–30: Build Your Base Camp

Goal: Respawn point set, shelter enclosed, workbench and chest placed correctly — before the sun starts dropping.

6. Choose a base location near a cave entrance and a stand of trees. You’ll mine Stone and Copper shortly. Flat ground is better than slopes — each workbench needs a 3×2 block footprint, and you’ll build several of them. I always find it helpful to pick a spot slightly bigger than you think you need; extra floor space costs nothing on Day 1.
7. Craft a Campfire (Stick ×4 + Rubble ×2) and place it. Right-click it and select “Declare a place home.” This sets your compass reference point. The campfire also provides light and serves as your primary cooking station until you build a Chef’s Stove later [6].
8. Craft your Crude Bedroll (Plant Fiber ×3 + Light Hide ×2) and sleep in it immediately. Sleeping sets your respawn point. If you die before doing this, you respawn at world spawn — potentially a very long run from your base [2].
9. Build a basic 5×5 shelter: four walls, ceiling, and a door. Use Tree Logs or Stone. The door is non-negotiable — hostile mobs can’t open doors in Hytale, so a closed door at night makes your shelter effectively impenetrable to skeletons [3].
10. Craft Crude Torches (Plant Fiber ×1 + Tree Sap ×1 + Stick ×1 = 4 torches) and place them every 6 blocks inside. Light level must stay above 7 to prevent hostile mob spawns inside your shelter [10]. Place one above the exterior door frame too.
11. Craft a Workbench (Tree Log ×4 + Stone ×3) and place it inside. This unlocks the full crafting menu — armour, tools, furniture, and all the specialised workbenches you’ll build later [3].
12. Craft a Wooden Chest and place it directly adjacent to the Workbench. As Kotaku’s first-play tips note, Hytale workbenches automatically pull materials from nearby chests while you craft [4]. Even a single block of separation breaks this. Build them as a pair now and you’ll never manually transfer ingredients mid-recipe.

✓ Checkpoint: Campfire placed + “Declare home” done · Bedroll slept in · Shelter enclosed with door · Workbench + Chest adjacent

Minutes 30–45: Activate the Memory System

Goal: Heart of Orbis active before you kill any more mobs.

This is the most time-sensitive step in the entire first day. Hytale’s Memory system tracks every creature you encounter — but it is not retroactive [5]. Mobs you killed before activation generate zero Memories. Going to the Temple now, even with rough gear, is the right trade-off for almost every playstyle.

13. Pack before leaving: Crude Sword + cooked food ×5 + torches ×6. Cook your Raw Meat on the campfire first — right-click the campfire and place the meat in the slot. Cooked versions restore roughly double the health and stack two simultaneous buffs [6].
14. Open your map (M key) and find the pinwheel icon. That’s the Forgotten Temple Gateway. It’s typically within a 2–3 minute walk from spawn in Zone 1. If it’s not on the mini-map, pan the full map — it always exists somewhere in Zone 1.
15. Enter the Gateway — it teleports you to the Forgotten Temple hub. Inside, find the Heart of Orbis in the central chamber. Walk within 5–6 blocks of the statue to trigger activation. You’ll see a notification when it registers [5].
16. Return to base immediately after activation. Don’t linger. The Memories you’ll earn on the walk home already count — the system is live. Every creature encounter from here adds to your milestone total.

✓ Checkpoint: Heart of Orbis activated · Memory system running · Back at base with daylight remaining

Minutes 45–60: Upgrade Tools and Survive Night 1

Goal: Copper tools crafted, Furnace built, door shut before skeletons spawn.

17. Mine Stone from just inside your nearest cave entrance — Stone ×6+ is enough for now. Don’t go deeper yet. You just need the Furnace recipe; the rest of underground exploration waits for Day 2.
18. Craft a Furnace (Tree Log ×6 + Stone ×6) from your Workbench and place it inside. The Furnace smelts ore into usable ingots. Nothing beyond crude tools is craftable without them.
19. Mine Copper Ore from the cave walls — aim for Copper Ore ×10+. Copper appears as green-tinged stone in cave walls near the surface [5]. You don’t need to go deep to find it in Zone 1.
20. Smelt Copper Ore into Copper Ingots. Use Tree Logs as fuel — logs burn roughly twice as long as Sticks [6]. Let the Furnace run while you gather more wood just outside.
21. Craft a Copper Hatchet and Copper Pickaxe from the Workbench — not weapons or armour yet. This is the most counter-intuitive Day 1 decision. Copper is also required for the workstations you’ll build next (Tanning Rack, Armorer’s Workbench). Save ingots for infrastructure. Your Crude Sword handles everything in Zone 1 [5].
22. Seal up before the sun drops. Check your map’s time indicator and head inside when daylight starts fading. Skeletons spawn at night in Zone 1 and fire arrows from 12–16 blocks away [3]. Close the door, organise your chest, and cook anything raw on the campfire. You’ve survived Day 1.

✓ Checkpoint: Furnace built · Copper Hatchet + Pickaxe crafted · Inside · Door closed

6 Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not activating the Heart of Orbis before exploring. The Memory system doesn’t activate automatically and isn’t retroactive [5]. Every mob kill before your Temple visit is wasted progression you can never recover. Go early — even crude gear is enough for the walk.
2. Spending Copper on weapons and armour on Day 1. Copper is limited early and your first workstations also need it. A Crude Sword handles Zone 1 wildlife fine. Save ingots for the Tanning Rack and Armorer’s Workbench, which unlock leather and better equipment [5].
3. Placing the Workbench away from your Chest. The auto-supply mechanic only works when the chest is directly adjacent [4]. Place them as a pair from the start. Rebuilding later is annoying.
4. Not sleeping in the Bedroll immediately after placing it. Moving the bedroll resets your respawn point to its new location. Sleep in it the moment it’s placed, inside your permanent base, and leave it there.
5. Going into caves without right-wall torches. Place torches on the right-hand cave wall as you descend. Follow the unlit wall back to the entrance [3]. This navigation method works in any cave layout in Hytale.
6. Breaking trees from the top sections. Always hit the base trunk to trigger the gravity cascade — you get more Logs, extra Sticks, and Tree Sap in one hit [1]. Breaking the upper sections individually misses the Sap, and Sap is required for Torches and several early recipes.

Play Your Way: Day 1 Priority Table

Not every player wants the same first hour. Here’s how to adjust the checklist:

Day 2: Where to Go From Here

With Night 1 survived, Day 2 focuses on upgrading your Workbench to Tier 2 (unlocks crops and leather recipes), building a Tanning Rack to convert hides into Light Leather, and farming Zone 1 mobs to reach the 10-Memory milestone reward. The 100-Memory milestone unlocks the teleporter network — fast travel between your base, the Forgotten Temple, and other key locations. If you want a mount for faster travel before then, horses in Zone 1 are tameable with a carrot — see the Hytale Taming Guide for the full process.

Sources

1. Your First Days on Hytale — Hytale.game
2. Best Things to Craft First — Game8
3. Beginner’s Guide and Tips — Game8
4. 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting Hytale — Kotaku
5. Progression Guide — Game8
6. Hytale Cooking Explained: Campfires, Chef’s Stoves, and How Food Actually Helps You — AllThings.How
7. Early Access Exploration Guide — DTGRE
8. First Steps in Hytale — GPORTAL
9. Beginner’s Guide to Hytale — Keengamer
10. How to Survive the First Night in Hytale — Nexus Games

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.