Hytale Update 4 Pre-Release 3 Patch Notes: Proximity Voice Chat, Complete Potion Rework, New Hairstyles, and Alchemy Farming System

Pre-Release 3 Delivers One of the Biggest Feature Drops Yet

Hytale Update 4 Pre-Release 3 is now available on the pre-release branch, and it is one of the most feature-packed drops since early access launched. The headline addition is proximity voice chat, a feature that was teased in the Part 1 backend prep work and is now fully playable. Alongside that, Hypixel Studios has shipped a complete rework of the potion system, seven new hairstyles, an expanded alchemy farming pipeline, and a long list of combat and quality-of-life fixes.

To access the pre-release build, open the Hytale launcher and select the pre-release option in your settings. Here is everything that changed.

Proximity Voice Chat Is Live

After backend preparation in Part 1, proximity voice chat is now fully functional in Hytale. Players can communicate with nearby players using spatial audio that adjusts based on distance, environment, and perspective. This is a built-in feature that requires no external applications like Discord.

Voice Chat Settings

All voice controls are accessible through the audio settings menu:

• Enable or disable voice chat with a single toggle
• Input device selection to choose your preferred microphone
• Volume control independent of other game audio, so you can balance voice levels without affecting music or sound effects
• Hearing distance slider to control how far away you can hear other players
• Noise suppression to filter out background noise from your microphone
• Push-to-talk keybind for players who prefer manual activation over open mic

Visual Indicators

When players speak, an animated icon appears on the left side of the screen showing the face of their in-game avatar. These icons are live: if a player switches character models, the icon updates to reflect their current appearance. Speaking also causes the player character's mouth to animate open and closed in-game, giving a visual cue to nearby players about who is talking.

Environmental Audio Effects

What sets Hytale's implementation apart from most games is how the voice system reacts to the environment:

• Distance falloff: the farther you move from another player, the quieter and more distant their voice becomes, exactly as you would expect from real spatial audio
• Cave echo: speaking inside caves produces a natural echo effect that bounces off the surrounding walls. Larger caves produce more pronounced reverb, creating an immersive feeling of scale
• Underwater muffling: voices sound muffled and distorted when players are submerged, adding another layer of environmental realism
• Perspective-aware: switching between first-person and third-person view adjusts how you hear other players, accounting for the camera's spatial relationship

Server administrators have full control over voice chat configuration, including the ability to adjust distance settings or disable the feature entirely for their server.

What Proximity Chat Means for Servers

Proximity voice chat fundamentally changes the social dynamic of multiplayer Hytale. For roleplay servers, it enables natural in-character conversations without alt-tabbing to Discord. For PvP servers, it adds a tactical layer where nearby enemies can overhear your plans. For survival communities, it makes cooperative play feel more connected when exploring together.

Server owners should consider updating their community guidelines to address voice chat conduct now that the feature is live.

Complete Potion System Rework

Potions have received a ground-up redesign that changes how healing, stamina recovery, and energy regeneration work across the game. The core change is a new delayed healing mechanic for health potions: drinking one now provides a small initial burst followed by a larger heal that triggers five seconds later.

Health Potions

Each tier of health potion now heals in two phases: an instant burst and a delayed burst after five seconds.

• Lesser Health Potion: 15% instant + 15% delayed (30% total)
• Small Health Potion: 15% instant + 30% delayed (45% total)
• Regular Health Potion: 25% instant + 35% delayed (60% total)
• Greater Health Potion: 25% instant + 50% delayed (75% total)
• Large Health Potion: 35% instant + 55% delayed (90% total)

This two-phase healing system adds meaningful decision-making to combat. The instant burst keeps you alive in the moment, but you need to survive for five more seconds to receive the full benefit. On PvP servers, this creates a window where aggressive players can try to finish off an opponent before the delayed heal lands, adding tactical depth to potion usage.

Stamina Potions

Stamina potions now drink significantly faster than before, addressing a long-standing community complaint that the previous drinking animation took so long that stamina had already started recharging naturally before the potion took effect.

• Lesser: restores 30 stamina
• Small: restores 45 stamina
• Regular: restores 60 stamina
• Greater: restores 75 stamina
• Large: restores 90 stamina

Energy Potions

Energy potions, which recharge the special attack meter on weapons, follow similar values to stamina potions but apply their effects over 30 seconds rather than instantly:

• Lesser: restores 30 energy over 30 seconds
• Small: restores 45 energy over 30 seconds
• Regular: restores 60 energy over 30 seconds
• Greater: restores 75 energy over 30 seconds
• Large: restores 90 energy over 30 seconds

Potion Bottle Crafting

Both small and large empty potion bottles can now be crafted at the alchemy bench, and every potion recipe has been reworked to incorporate more plant-based ingredients. This ties directly into the new alchemy farming system described below.

Alchemy Farming: Grow Your Own Potion Ingredients

Rather than spending hours searching the world for potion ingredients, players can now grow them through a new crystal farming system tied to the alchemy bench.

Crystal Fertilizer and Crystallized Dirt

A new craftable item called crystal fertilizer is created using void essence and crystal shards at the alchemy bench. Applying crystal fertilizer to regular tilled dirt converts it into crystallized dirt, which is the only soil type that supports magical plant growth.

Alchemy Bench Upgrades

The alchemy bench now extends through tier 3, 4, and 5, with each new tier unlocking recipes for larger and more powerful potions. This progression gives players a clear path from basic potions to the strongest healing and utility options in the game.

Three Categories of Magical Plants

All magical plants fall into three color-coded categories that correspond to primary colors: blood (red), storm (yellow), and azure (blue). Seeds for all nine plant types can be crafted at the alchemy bench, and each must be planted on crystallized dirt.

Tier 1 plants are straightforward to grow:

• Blood Rose (red tier 1)
• Storm Thistle (yellow tier 1)
• Azure Fern (blue tier 1)

Tier 2 mushroom variants:

• Blood Cap (red tier 2)
• Storm Cap (yellow tier 2)
• Azure Cap (blue tier 2)

Tier 3 plants have specific environmental requirements to grow:

• Blood Leaf: must be planted next to a two-block-high wall
• Storm Sapling: will only grow when placed adjacent to a gold block
• Azure Kelp: requires placement next to water, matching how it grows in the wild

For players concerned about sourcing gold blocks for Storm Saplings, the builder's workbench now supports crafting gold bars into gold blocks. Variants can be obtained by using a hammer on standard gold blocks.

All magical plants can also be broken down into their component petals using the salvager, giving farmers additional crafting flexibility.

New Farming Tools

To support larger farming operations, copper and iron sickles can now be crafted at the farmer's workbench. These upgraded tools offer significantly more durability than the crude sickle, which was notorious for breaking after harvesting just a few rows of crops. Players running large farms on survival servers will no longer need to keep a stack of crude sickles on hand.

Seven New Hairstyles

Character customization continues to expand with seven new hairstyle options:

• Afro
• Big Afro
• Frizzy Buns
• Long Dreadlocks
• Puffy Twin Dreads
• Dreads Fade
• Star Puffs

In addition to the new styles, three existing hairstyles have been visually updated: Puffy Bubble Braids, Afro Puffs, and Puffy Bun. These updates improve the texture quality and overall appearance of these options.

The continued expansion of hairstyle diversity is welcome, especially for roleplay servers where character appearance is central to the experience.

Combat and NPC Changes

Death Particles and Item Drops

Defeated NPCs now trigger a death particle effect, and dropped items physically pop out of the entity when its body disappears. This is a visual polish change that makes combat feel more responsive and satisfying, giving immediate visual feedback that an enemy has been defeated and loot is available.

Elemental Golem Drop Fixes

The drops for each type of elemental golem have been corrected to match their intended loot tables:

• Earth Golem: drops Emeralds
• Sand Golem: drops Zephyrs
• Frost Golem: drops Sapphires
• Flame Golem: drops Rubies
• Thunder Golem: drops Topaz (not yet spawning in the world)

Previously, some golems were dropping the wrong gem types, which caused confusion for players trying to farm specific materials.

$100K Modding Competition

Hypixel Studios is hosting a two-month modding competition with a $100,000 prize pool. The competition includes multiple categories with different ways to win, and participants do not need to be expert modders to enter. This is the largest modding event in Hytale's history and signals the studio's serious commitment to the modding ecosystem.

For Hytale server owners interested in custom content, the competition is expected to produce a wave of high-quality mods that could enhance server experiences across every game mode.

What This Means for Server Owners

Pre-Release 3 brings several changes that directly affect how servers operate:

• Voice chat moderation: proximity voice chat is now live, so server admins need moderation policies and should configure distance and enable/disable settings to match their community
• Potion balance: the delayed healing mechanic changes PvP dynamics significantly. Servers focused on competitive combat should consider how the five-second delay affects their existing rules and kits
• Alchemy progression: the new farming system gives survival servers a deeper crafting progression to advertise to potential players
• Cosmetic variety: seven new hairstyles and updated existing styles mean more character customization options for your players

Finding the Right Hytale Server

With proximity voice chat live and a massive potion rework changing combat dynamics, now is a great time to find a server that matches your play style.

Browse the top Hytale servers on HytaleTop100.com to find:

• PvP servers where the new potion timing creates tactical combat
• Survival servers with alchemy farming and voice chat exploration
• Roleplay servers where proximity voice brings characters to life
• Creative servers for building with the latest blocks and tools

Server owners: Make sure your server is listed on HytaleTop100 to reach players exploring all the new Pre-Release 3 features. Find your Hytale server now and try proximity voice chat for yourself.