Hytale Gear Progression Guide: Complete Upgrade Path from Crude Tools to Mithril

Verified against Hytale Early Access, Update 4 (March 2026). Workbench costs and ore availability may change with future patches.

Most players don’t stall because they lack materials. They stall because they hit a workbench gate they didn’t see coming. The gear tiers in Hytale run from Crude tools through Copper, Iron, Thorium, Cobalt, Adamantite, and eventually Mithril — but the upgrade path involves two parallel systems running at once: material tiers and workbench tiers. If you upgrade one without the other, you grind yourself into a wall. This guide maps both systems together, shows you exactly which resource unlocks each tier, and explains what to do if you’re already stuck.

For a full breakdown of which zones contain each ore and what biome restrictions apply, see our Hytale All Zones Guide.

Quick Start: Gear Progression Checklist

1. Craft Crude tools immediately — Crude Pickaxe, Hatchet, and Shovel all share the same recipe (Rubble + Sticks), so queue all three in one session.
2. Mine Copper in Zone 1 caves, but don’t craft Copper weapons — save every Copper Ingot for the Tier 2 Workbench upgrade (costs 30 Copper).
3. Build your Workbench and Armorer’s Workbench early — place them in their permanent base location before upgrading. Moving an upgraded workbench resets its tier.
4. Farm Iron deep in Zone 1 caves — craft full Iron armor and an Iron Pickaxe before leaving Zone 1. The Iron Pickaxe is required to mine Thorium.
5. Upgrade the main Workbench to Tier 2 before Zone 2 — costs 30 Copper Ingots, 20 Iron Ingots, 20 Linen Scraps. Farm Linen from Zone 1 enemies now, not as an afterthought.
6. Enter Zone 2 (Howling Sands) in Iron gear — mine Thorium at cliff outcroppings. Farm Venom Sacs from Venomfang Spiders to unlock the Tier 2 Anvil.
7. Upgrade the Blacksmith’s Anvil to Tier 2 — costs 20 Iron Ingots, 30 Light Leather, 30 Linen Scraps, 15 Venom Sacs. This unlocks Thorium and Cobalt weapon crafting.
8. Move to Zone 3 for Cobalt, then stage Zone 4 access — pre-farm Shadoweave Scraps and Essence of Fire before attempting the Tier 3 Workbench upgrade.

Complete Gear Tier Overview

The system runs across three workbench tiers. Thorium and Cobalt are side-grades at the same tier — not a vertical chain — which is the single most important structural point most players misunderstand.

Tier 1 — Crude Tools and Copper: What to Skip

Every run starts at Crude. Your first three tools — pickaxe, hatchet, and shovel — share identical recipes, which isn’t obvious from the in-game tooltips. That means you can queue all three in one crafting session without needing different materials. Grab them all before your first cave run.

Copper is the first real ore you’ll encounter in Zone 1 cave systems. The critical decision: don’t craft Copper weapons or armor. Copper Ingots are far more valuable as workbench upgrade material — specifically the 30 Copper Ingots required to push your main Workbench to Tier 2. Every Copper sword you craft is a chunk of that upgrade budget you’ve burned permanently [1].

The one Copper piece worth making is a Copper Pickaxe, and only if you want to mine Iron faster before it becomes available naturally. Even then, an Iron Pickaxe renders it obsolete within an hour of play. If you’re comfortable with slightly slower mining early on, skip Copper gear entirely and bank every ingot for the Tier 2 upgrade.

Tier 2 — Iron: The Pivotal Gate

Iron is where the gear system clicks into focus. Found in the deeper sections of Zone 1 caves, Iron Ingots underpin two things simultaneously: your first practical armor set and a portion of the Tier 2 Workbench upgrade. A full Iron armor set costs roughly 45 Ingots plus Light Leather and Linen Scraps [2] — which means you need to mine enough to complete the set AND hold back 20 Ingots for the Workbench upgrade.

The Iron Pickaxe unlocks something critical: it’s the minimum tool tier required to mine Thorium Ore in Zone 2. You cannot skip this step. Arrive at the Howling Sands with a Copper Pickaxe and you’ll find Thorium veins you can see but can’t break. See our Zone 1: Emerald Wilds guide for exact cave depth and biome locations.

Before leaving Zone 1, check these boxes:

• Full Iron armor set (at minimum: chest and legs)
• Iron Pickaxe
• Main Workbench upgraded to Tier 2 (30 Copper Ingots + 20 Iron Ingots + 20 Linen Scraps [3])
• Armorer’s Workbench built (2 Copper Ingots + 10 Tree Trunks + 5 Stone [3])

The Linen Scraps requirement catches a lot of players off guard. Linen doesn’t come from mining — it drops from Outlanders and Zone 1 jungle enemies. Farm it during Zone 1 exploration, not as an afterthought when you’re already standing at the upgrade screen with 19 scraps.

Tier 2 — Thorium vs Cobalt: Side-Grades, Not a Chain

This is the stretch of gear progression that trips up more players than any other, because Thorium and Cobalt are not a linear upgrade chain. They’re horizontal side-grades requiring the same Tier 2 infrastructure, but serving different combat situations. You don’t need both.

Thorium is found at cliff outcroppings in Zone 2 (Howling Sands). Each piece of Thorium armor provides poison resistance — increasingly important as you push deeper into Zone 2, where venomous enemies are concentrated. A full Thorium set runs roughly 55 Ingots plus Medium Leather, Linen Scraps, and Venom Sacs, delivering +10–22 HP and 12–27% Poison Resistance per piece [2]. Check our Howling Sands guide for Thorium vein locations.

Cobalt is Zone 3’s primary ore (Whisperfrost Frontiers), biome-locked to cold mountain regions. Cobalt armor trades poison resistance for Signature Attack bonuses (+3–6% per piece [2]), making it the better choice for maximising special attack output against Zone 3’s Outlander camps. A full Cobalt set costs approximately 62 Ingots plus Heavy Leather and Shadoweave Scraps.

The practical advice most guides miss: you don’t need to craft both full sets. The most efficient hybrid is Thorium chest and legs (for poison resistance in Zone 2 encounters) combined with Cobalt helmet and gloves (for Signature Attack in Zone 3). This hybrid approach falls directly out of comparing the per-piece bonus values — it’s not documented anywhere clearly, but the numbers support it. I found that switching to this hybrid mid-Zone 2 saved around 15 Cobalt Ingots compared to crafting a full Cobalt set, which made the difference when I needed that Cobalt stockpile for the Tier 3 Workbench upgrade later.

Both tiers require the Blacksmith’s Anvil upgraded to Tier 2, which costs 20 Iron Ingots, 30 Light Leather, 30 Linen Scraps, and 15 Venom Sacs [1]. The Venom Sac requirement is the real bottleneck: these drop from Zone 2’s Venomfang Spiders and aren’t available in Zone 1. This creates the Zone 2 bootstrap loop — enter Zone 2 in Iron gear, farm Venom Sacs from Venomfang Spiders, upgrade the Tier 2 Anvil, then switch to Thorium weapons while still inside Zone 2. You can’t arrive in Thorium; you have to earn it from inside Zone 2.

Tier 3 — Adamantite and the Truth About Mithril

Adamantite is Zone 4’s primary ore, found on the surface and underground in the volcanic Devastated Lands. Mining it requires a Thorium or Cobalt Pickaxe at minimum — you physically cannot break Adamantite nodes with Iron-tier tools. A full Adamantite set runs approximately 77 Ingots, 23 Heavy Leather, and 20 Cindercloth Scraps [2], with a Tier 3 workbench infrastructure as the prerequisite. The per-piece bonus shifts to +3–6% Light Attack damage — suited to the high-encounter-density combat in Zone 4. Read our Devastated Lands guide before entering.

The Tier 3 Workbench upgrade is the game’s heaviest crafting gate: 30 Thorium Ingots, 20 Cobalt Ingots, 30 Heavy Leather, 50 Shadoweave Scraps, and 25 Essence of Fire [3]. Shadoweave drops from Zone 3 Outlander enemies; Essence of Fire appears in Zone 4’s volcanic regions — meaning you need at least one excursion into Zone 4 in Thorium/Cobalt gear before you can complete the Tier 3 upgrade. Stage your first Zone 4 run specifically to farm Essence of Fire before committing to the upgrade.

Mithril — the honest EA status: As of Update 4 (March 2026), Mithril Ore does not spawn naturally in Exploration Mode worlds [7]. You can see Mithril recipes at your Tier 3 workbench, and the ore exists in game files, but it’s currently only accessible in Creative Mode. According to the developers, Mithril “won’t be as simple to mine as the others” and is likely tied to a future zone or late-game structure [7]. Adamantite is the practical progression ceiling in the current game. Don’t delay your Zone 4 push waiting to feel ready for Mithril — it’s not there yet.

Workbench Upgrade Chain: The Hidden Dependency

The workbench system is the invisible backbone of gear progression, and it has a dependency structure that no single source documents clearly.

Here’s what matters: the Armorer’s Workbench, Salvager’s Workbench, Arcanist’s Workbench, and Alchemist’s Workbench are all crafted at the main Workbench. That means upgrading your main Workbench to Tier 2 is effectively a prerequisite for the entire specialised workbench ecosystem. You can build the specialised benches at Tier 1, but unlocking their Tier 2 recipes depends on the main Workbench being at Tier 2 first [3].

The correct order of operations:

1. Craft main Workbench → build all specialised benches
2. Upgrade main Workbench to Tier 2 (30 Copper + 20 Iron + 20 Linen [3]) → unlocks mid-tier tool recipes
3. Upgrade Armorer’s Workbench and Blacksmith’s Anvil to Tier 2 → unlocks Thorium and Cobalt armor and weapons
4. Upgrade all three to Tier 3 (30 Thorium + 20 Cobalt + 30 Heavy Leather + 50 Shadoweave + 25 Essence of Fire [3]) → Adamantite crafting unlocked

Critical warning: Moving a workbench after upgrading it resets its tier to 1. You lose all upgrade materials permanently [4]. Place every workbench in its final base location before spending a single resource on upgrades. This is the single most expensive mistake in Hytale and it happens quietly — I relocated my base in Zone 2 and watched a fully upgraded Armorer’s Workbench silently drop back to Tier 1, taking 20 Iron Ingots and 30 Light Leather with it.

The second trap: don’t drain Thorium into the Arcanist’s Workbench (10 Thorium Ingots, 30 Linen, 20 Void Essence [3]) before you have the 30 needed for the Tier 3 main Workbench upgrade. Both compete for the same ore. If you’re short on Thorium, prioritise the Tier 3 upgrade — the Arcanist’s bench can wait.

The Memory System and Gear Farming Efficiency

The Memory System doesn’t make your weapons stronger — but it directly gates how efficiently you can farm gear. After activating the Heart of Orbis inside the Forgotten Temple (clear the Stone Golem in Zone 1, enter the basement portal, interact with the Heart), you collect Memories automatically — one per new creature or NPC encountered for the first time [6].

Related: hytale salvaging guide.

The milestones that matter for gear progression:

• 10 Memories: Early utility unlocks and basic recipe access
• 25 Memories: Backpack upgrades — increases how much ore and leather you carry per mining run. This directly reduces the number of trips between Zone 2/3 and your base.
• 50 Memories: Teleporter capacity expansion — faster fast-travel between base and mining zones
• 100 Memories: Additional inventory tiers and advanced recipe unlocks
• 200 Memories: Full teleporter network expansion [6]

The 25-Memory backpack upgrade is the one that changes gear farming speed most tangibly. Every Thorium run in Zone 2 has a hard carry cap — if you haven’t hit that first milestone, you’re making more trips per ore tier than necessary. See our Teleporter Guide for setting up the fast-travel network alongside Memory milestones.

The system is not retroactive. Creatures you encountered before activating the Heart of Orbis don’t count. If you’ve been playing without visiting the Forgotten Temple, every creature you’ve already seen is a locked-out Memory. Make the trip as early as possible — ideally before leaving Zone 1 for Zone 2.

Progression Strategy: Efficient vs Exploration-First

Decision Tree

Player-Type Recommendations

Common Bottlenecks: The Soft Materials

The ores get the attention, but the real progression blockers are the soft materials — the drops and scraps that accompany each upgrade tier. Here’s where each one comes from and when to start farming it:

• Linen Scraps — Outlanders and Zone 1 mobs. Needed for T2 Workbench upgrade (20) and T2 Anvil upgrade (30). Farm during Zone 1 exploration, not at the exit.
• Venom Sacs — Zone 2 Venomfang Spiders only. Needed for T2 Anvil upgrade (15). Can’t be stockpiled in Zone 1 — this is why you enter Zone 2 in Iron first.
• Heavy Leather — Zone 2 and Zone 3 large enemies. Needed for Cobalt and Adamantite crafting and T3 Workbench upgrade (30).
• Shadoweave Scraps — Zone 3 Outlander drops. Needed for T3 Workbench upgrade (50). The largest soft-material demand in the game — start farming in Zone 3 before attempting the T3 upgrade.
• Essence of Fire — Zone 4 volcanic areas. Needed for T3 Workbench upgrade (25). Requires one early Zone 4 excursion in Thorium/Cobalt gear.

If you’re stuck at a workbench upgrade, the culprit is almost always one of these five materials — not the ore itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I skip Copper gear entirely?
Yes — and in most cases, you should. Save Copper Ingots for the T2 Workbench upgrade (requires 30). Only craft a Copper Pickaxe if you need faster mining before Iron becomes available. Copper armor offers so little HP gain over Crude tools that it’s rarely worth the ingot cost [1].

Do I need both Thorium and Cobalt armor sets?
No. A hybrid set (Thorium chest/legs for Poison Resistance, Cobalt helm/gloves for Signature Attack) outperforms either full set for mixed Zone 2–3 content. Crafting both complete sets wastes ingots you’ll need for the Tier 3 upgrade.

What’s the fastest way to get unstuck?
First, visit the Forgotten Temple and activate the Memory System if you haven’t — the backpack upgrade at 25 Memories changes farming speed significantly. Then use the Salvager’s Workbench to recover materials from obsolete gear. Finally, run the Zone 2 bootstrap loop: enter in Iron, farm Venom Sacs, upgrade the T2 Anvil, craft Thorium gear while already in Zone 2.

Is Mithril worth grinding toward?
Not yet. Mithril Ore doesn’t spawn in Exploration Mode as of Update 4 (March 2026) [7]. It’s accessible in Creative Mode only. Focus on Adamantite — it’s the current gameplay ceiling and the gear set that carries you through Zone 4’s toughest encounters.

Does gear carry over on death?
No — equipped gear is at risk on death. However, backpack upgrades earned through the Memory System are permanent account upgrades and don’t reset. See our Death Mechanics guide for a full breakdown of what’s lost and what’s safe.

Conclusion

The core lesson of Hytale gear progression is that materials and workbench tiers are a coupled system — having Thorium Ingots doesn’t help if the Anvil is still Tier 1, and upgrading the Armorer’s Workbench is pointless without the ore to use it. Map the dependency chain before committing resources: main Workbench to Tier 2 first, then specialised bench upgrades, then the next ore tier.

The path that works for most players: skip Copper gear, push to Iron armor before Zone 2, run the Zone 2 bootstrap loop for Venom Sacs, and activate the Memory System at the Forgotten Temple before carry capacity becomes a bottleneck. Thorium and Cobalt are decisions, not a chain — pick based on your zone focus rather than assuming one follows the other.

For the complete zone-by-zone breakdown of biomes, enemies, and zone-specific resources, see our All Zones Guide linked at the top of this article. For weapon crafting recipes and which tier to prioritise for each playstyle, check out our Hytale Weapons Guide.

Sources

1. Game8. “Progression Guide | Hytale.” game8.co.
2. BisectHosting. “Hytale Armor Guide: All Armor Sets, Stats, Crafting Recipes, & More.” bisecthosting.com.
3. AllThings.How. “Hytale workbenches: How to craft and upgrade every tier.” allthings.how.
4. TheGamer. “Hytale Progression Guide.” thegamer.com.
5. GameRant. “The New Player’s Guide to Not Getting Lost in Hytale.” gamerant.com.
6. Hytale.game (Official). “Hytale Guide: Everything You Need to Know About the Memory System and the Forgotten Temple.” hytale.game.
7. PC Gamer. “Hytale’s elusive end-game ore, mithril, ‘won’t be as simple to mine as the others’.” pcgamer.com.

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.