HTSkyblock Tutorial: Set Up Skyblock on Your Hytale Server
Complete HTSkyblock tutorial for Hytale servers. Covers islands, economy, shop, auction house, challenges, dungeons, cobblestone generators, and admin setup.
HTSkyblock is a full-featured Skyblock mod for Hytale that gives you islands, an economy, a shop, auction house, challenges, dungeons, cobblestone generators, cinematics, NPCs, and block stacking all in one package. If you're running a Hytale server and want to offer Skyblock, this is the mod to look at.
This guide walks through installation, configuration, and every major feature from both a player and admin perspective. Use the contents below to skip to what you need.
Contents
- Installation & First-Time Setup
- Islands (Creating, Homes, Settings, Upgrades)
- Visiting Other Islands
- Economy
- Shop & Selling
- Auction House
- Challenges
- Dungeons
- Cobblestone Generator & Ore Tiers
- Block Stacking
- Flying
- Admin Commands
- Shop Management (Admin)
- Economy Management (Admin)
- Cinematics & NPCs
- Permissions Reference
- Get Your Server Listed
Installation & First-Time Setup
Drop HTSkyblock.jar into your server's mods folder and start the server once. The mod generates its config files in plugins/HTSkyblock/. Stop the server, edit config.json to your liking, then start it again.
Before you open up to players, there are a few decisions to make:
| Setting | Options | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Island mode | per_world / single_world |
Per-world gives each player their own world. Single-world puts all islands in one shared world. |
| Island generation | schematic / prefab |
Schematics use .schem files in the schematics folder. Prefabs use Hytale's built-in prefab system. |
| Economy provider | self / theeconomy / ecotale / arefyeconomy |
Built-in economy works out of the box. External providers integrate with other economy mods. |
You'll also want to set your spawn coordinates, configure starter items for normal and hardcore modes, and set up block worth values in blockworth.json for island scoring.
Islands
Islands are the core of HTSkyblock. Each player gets a personal floating island to build on.
Creating and Managing
Players create their island with /island (or /is). They can choose between normal mode and hardcore mode. Hardcore gives limited starter items and permanent island loss on death, so it's for players who want a real challenge.
/island # Create your island (or /is)
/is home # Teleport to your island
/is sethome # Set your home point
/is sethome farm # Set a named home
/is homes # List all your homes
/is delhome farm # Delete a named home
/is reset # Reset your island (24h cooldown)
/is info # View island details
/is calc # Recalculate island score
/is top # View the island leaderboard
Island Settings
Players can customise their island with /is settings. This opens a UI where they can toggle PvP on or off, set a welcome message, and control whether visitors need permission to enter. Two quick commands for that last one:
/is open # Make your island public
/is lock # Make your island private (requires visit requests)
Upgrading Island Size
Islands start at 50x50 blocks and can be upgraded through four tiers:
| Tier | Size | Default Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 50x50 | Free (starting tier) |
| 2 | 100x100 | 10,000 |
| 3 | 150x150 | 50,000 |
| 4 | 200x200 | 200,000 |
Upgrades can cost either island score or in-game currency, depending on how you've configured it. Players upgrade with /is upgrade.
Visiting Other Islands
Players can browse and visit other islands. If an island is public, they can go straight there. If it's private, they need to send a request that the owner can accept or deny.
/is visit # Browse public islands
/is goto [Player] # Visit a specific island
/is leave # Leave the island you're visiting
/is requests # View pending visit requests (island owner)
/is accept # Accept a visit request
/is deny # Deny a visit request
/is denyall # Auto-deny all requests
/is expel # Kick a visitor off your island
Island owners can also add members to their island with /is members add [Player]. Members get building access and can set named homes on the island.
Economy
HTSkyblock has a built-in economy, or you can plug in an external provider like TheEconomy, Ecotale, or ArefyEconomy. The commands stay the same regardless of which provider you use.
/balance # Check your balance (or /bal)
/pay [Player] [Amount] # Send money to another player
Players earn currency by selling items through the shop, completing challenges, or trading with other players via the auction house or direct payments.
Shop & Selling
The server shop lets players buy and sell items at prices you set as the admin. Players open it with /shop or /is shop and browse by category.
For quick selling without opening the shop UI:
/sellhand # Sell one of the item you're holding
/sellhand all # Sell the entire stack
/sellall # Sell everything sellable in your inventory
One thing to know: hardcore island players pay a 2x price multiplier on shop purchases by default. Sell prices stay the same, so hardcore mode is tougher on the wallet.
Auction House
The auction house is a player-to-player marketplace. Players list items for sale and others can buy them. There's a configurable listing fee and a 5% sales tax by default.
/ah # Open the auction house (or /is ah)
/is ah sell # List an item for sale
/is ah mylistings # View your active listings
/is ah expired # View expired listings
The number of active listings a player can have is controlled by permissions. By default it's 10, but you can grant island.ah.maxauctions.15, island.ah.maxauctions.30, and so on for VIP tiers.
Challenges
Challenges give players goals to work toward with rewards like currency, items, XP, and even permanent permissions. Open the menu with /is challenges.
There are three types of challenge:
| Type | How It Works |
|---|---|
| Inventory | Have specific items in your inventory. Items are consumed on completion. |
| Island | Have specific blocks placed on your island. Blocks must stay placed until completed. |
| Level | Reach a minimum island score threshold. |
Challenges can have dependencies, so completing one unlocks the next in a chain. Some are repeatable with cooldowns, making them a steady source of income. You define all of this in challenges.json.
Dungeons
HTSkyblock includes an instance-based dungeon system with wave-based combat. Each dungeon is a separate temporary world that players get teleported into.
The flow is straightforward: walk near a combat area, waves of mobs spawn, kill them all, move to the next area, and clear the whole dungeon. Block breaking and placing is disabled inside dungeons, so the structure stays intact.
/dungeon list # View available dungeons
/dungeon [id] # Enter a dungeon
Each dungeon can be permission-gated with htskyblock.dungeon.[id], or you can grant htskyblock.dungeon.all for full access. Admins create and configure dungeons with /dungeondev commands, setting up spawn points, wave compositions, trigger radii, and mob types.
Cobblestone Generator & Ore Tiers
The cobblestone generator is a staple of any Skyblock server. When players mine cobblestone from a water/lava generator, there's a chance the block becomes an ore instead. By default, there's a 20% ore chance per block.
| Ore | Approximate Chance |
|---|---|
| Copper | 35% |
| Iron | 30% |
| Silver | 15% |
| Gold | 10% |
| Thorium | 3% |
| Mithril | 1.5% |
| Adamantite | 1% |
These are the default weights, but you can adjust them in config.json. The real hook for monetisation or VIP perks is the tiered generator system:
| Tier | Permission | Ore Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Default | None | 20% |
| VIP | htskyblock.generator.vip |
25% + boosted rare ores |
| VIP+ | htskyblock.generator.vipplus |
30% + significantly boosted rare ores |
You can also create custom tiers with any permission string and custom ore weights.
Block Stacking
Block stacking lets players compress up to 64,000 identical blocks into a single position. Place one block, then keep placing the same block type on top of it to increase the stack. A hologram above the block shows the current count.
This works with most common block types: soil, rock, ores, wood, gems, and cloth. It's configurable in the config if you want to add or remove types.
Flying
HTSkyblock has a timed fly system. Players can fly on their island, but their fly time is banked, meaning it counts down while in use. A HUD countdown shows how much time they have left.
/is fly # Toggle fly mode
Players with htskyblock.island.unlimitedfly bypass the timer entirely, which makes it a good VIP perk. Admins can manage fly time for individual players:
/isdev flytime set Simon 3600 # Give Simon 1 hour
/isdev flytime add Simon 1800 # Add 30 minutes
/isdev flytime remove Simon # Remove all fly time
/isdev flytime check Simon # Check remaining time
Admin Commands
The main admin command is /htskyblock. From here you can reload the config and manage the auction house:
/htskyblock reload # Reload all config and data files
/htskyblock help # List admin commands
/htskyblock ahadmin # Open the auction house admin panel
For island management, use /islandev (or /isdev):
/isdev info [Owner] # View island details
/isdev goto [Owner] # Teleport to any island (bypasses private)
/isdev create [schematic] [name] [player] # Create an island for a player
/isdev reset [Owner] # Delete a player's island (no cooldown penalty)
/isdev upgrade [Owner] # Upgrade an island's size
/isdev calc [Owner] # Recalculate island score
/isdev lock [Owner] # Set island to private
/isdev open [Owner] # Set island to public
/isdev changeowner [Old] [New] # Transfer island ownership
/isdev clearcreatelimit [Player] # Clear reset cooldown for a player
/isdev members [Owner] # List island members
/isdev settings [Owner] # View island settings
/isdev homes [Owner] # View island homes
/isdev setspawn [Owner] # Set visitor spawn (stand where you want it)
Admin resets don't count against a player's cooldown, so you can freely reset islands for moderation or troubleshooting. All commands support partial name matching for offline players.
Shop Management (Admin)
The shop is managed with /htshop commands. You build it by creating categories and adding items with buy/sell prices:
/htshop addcategory [Name] # Create a shop category
/htshop additem [Category] # Add the item in your hand to a category
/htshop buyprice [Amount] # Set the buy price of held item
/htshop sellprice [Amount] # Set the sell price of held item
/htshop removeitem # Remove the held item from the shop
/htshop delcategory [Name] # Delete a category
/htshop changeitemcategory [Cat] # Move an item to a different category
You can also add non-item entries (like commands or permissions that execute on purchase) using /htshop addnonitem, which is useful for selling ranks, kits, or special abilities through the shop.
Economy Management (Admin)
/adminbalance check [Player] # Check a player's balance
/adminbalance set [Player] [Amt] # Set balance
/adminbalance add [Player] [Amt] # Add to balance
/adminbalance remove [Player] [Amt] # Remove from balance
Cinematics & NPCs
HTSkyblock includes a cinematic system for creating orbital camera sequences. These are typically used as intro sequences for new players joining the server for the first time. You set up camera locations, configure timing and text overlays, and assign a cinematic as the first-join experience.
NPCs let you place custom characters with player skins and chat interactions around your server. They're managed with NPC admin commands and stored in npcs.json.
Both features are more involved to set up and are best configured through their respective admin commands. Check the cinematics documentation and NPC documentation for full details.
Permissions Reference
Here's a suggested permission setup for common ranks. If you're using a permissions mod like HyPerms, you can set these up with group inheritance so each rank builds on the one below it.
Default Players
htskyblock.island
htskyblock.balance
htskyblock.shop
htskyblock.sell
htskyblock.spawn
htskyblock.pay
htskyblock.island.ah
htskyblock.island.ah.sell
island.ah.maxauctions.5
htskyblock.dungeon
VIP
# Everything from Default, plus:
htskyblock.generator.vip
island.ah.maxauctions.15
VIP+
# Everything from VIP, plus:
htskyblock.generator.vipplus
htskyblock.island.unlimitedfly
island.ah.maxauctions.30
Staff / Admin
htskyblock.admin
htskyblock.admin.reload
htskyblock.admin.islandev
htskyblock.admin.dungeondev
htskyblock.admin.balance
htskyblock.admin.shop
htskyblock.admin.auctionhouse
htskyblock.island.unlimitedfly
htskyblock.island.bypass
htskyblock.dungeon.all
Get Your Server Listed
A well-configured Skyblock server with challenges, an economy, and dungeons gives players a reason to stick around. The next step is getting them to find you in the first place.
List your server with us to put it in front of players browsing for Hytale servers. Our Hytale server list helps players discover the best Hytale servers and top Hytale servers all in one place. It's free and takes a couple of minutes.
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