Hytale’s development team has released the game’s third major update (Update 3) in week four of Early Access, dated February 17, 2026. The patch introduces mechanics players have been waiting for — most notably an animal taming system — alongside a wave of technical improvements and quality-of-life changes across the board.
The team also clarified the update cadence going forward: weekly pre-release patches will be pushed for testing purposes, with a stable bundled update rolling out every two to six weeks once things feel solid.
Here’s everything new in Hytale Update 3.
Headline Features
Animal Taming System
An early version of animal taming is now in the game. Players can tame friendlier animals found during exploration by having their favorite food on hand. Once tamed:
- Animals won’t flee from players unless attacked, and will occasionally greet them
- They can be petted with an empty hand and fed periodically
- Depending on the species, tamed animals can be milked, sheared, or mounted
Customizable Map Markers
User-Placed Map Markers are now available. Players can drop custom markers anywhere on the map, assigning a name, icon, and color to each one.
- Markers can be shared with other players in multiplayer
- Visibility on the map and compass can be toggled via new gameplay settings
- Markers are removed through the map context menu
The Cursebreaker Arc
The team shared more detail on how Hytale’s story will unfold through Early Access. The Cursebreaker arc is the backbone of Exploration Mode — progressing chapter by chapter until the final chapter brings Orbis within reach and the game steps into full release.
Gameplay & Mechanics
Several changes affect farming and combat in meaningful ways:
- Sickles: A new tool capable of harvesting multiple crops in a single swing
- Climbing Overhaul: Ropes now support side-stepping, dropping down, and rotating — a significant improvement over the previous system
- Fire Spread System & Goblin Flamethrower: A new fluid ticker-based fire spread system has been added. The Goblin Flamethrower is also in — currently Creative mode only
- Avatar Presets: Up to 5 avatar customizations can now be saved and swapped between
Localization & Technical Improvements
Hytale’s first localization wave has arrived: Brazilian Portuguese and Russian are now available as in-game language options, with more languages to follow in the coming weeks. The team credited community translators for making this happen.
On the technical side, Font Fallback Support has been implemented, enabling the client to fetch glyphs from fallback fonts when they’re missing — a necessary step for non-Latin language support, including Cyrillic.
Other Notable Changes
- Modding: The team has hired directly from the modding community. A new Anchor UI system now allows server plugins to inject UI elements into client pages such as the world map
- Combat: Spear stacking and throwing have been fixed across all types; ranged weapon ballistics have been improved; Necromancy Grimoire summons are now faster, smarter, and include a new ranged skeletal variant
- Cosmetics: New hats, clothing, hairstyles, facial hair options, and makeup variations added
- Crafting: Early-game item crafting times have been reduced; a “Take All” button has been added for processing bench output; shift-dragging now quickly transfers items between inventories
Security Fixes
Two notable security issues were resolved in this update:
- A directory traversal vulnerability in worlds and prefabs has been patched
- An exploit that allowed users to run commands on behalf of other connected players has been closed
Hytale continues to take shape through Early Access, with the team growing and the update cadence picking up. Update 3 marks a clear step forward in both content depth and technical stability.