Protecting Your Hytale Server: Anti-Cheat and VPN Blocking
As Hytale explodes into the gaming scene with its massive 2026 early access launch, the unfortunately inevitable wave of malicious actors follows close behind. Hackers utilizing aimbots, killaura, fly-hacks, and X-Ray resource packs will attempt to ruin the experience for legitimate players. Griefers will try to crash your world, and bitter rivals might even attempt to launch DDoS attacks against your IP.
Running a successful Hytale dedicated server requires far more than just high-performance hardware—it demands a fortress-like approach to security. In this guide, we dive deep into the essential configuration methods, server-side anti-cheat integration, and VPN blocking techniques required to keep your community safe.
The First Line of Defense: DDoS Protection
Before an attacker even logs into your server, they might try to take it down completely using a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. If you host a server from your home network, your personal router will crash, cutting off your internet access entirely.
This is the primary reason why serious communities rely on professional hosting. Providers like Supercraft utilize enterprise-grade firewalls and Anycast networks to absorb massive traffic spikes. When choosing a host, ensure they specifically mitigate UDP attacks, as Hytale communicates extensively over UDP (port 5520).
Server-Side Anti-Cheat: How It Works
Unlike client-side anti-cheats (like Riot Vanguard or Easy Anti-Cheat), a Hytale server relies heavily on server-side verification. The server must constantly double-check the math of every action a player attempts.
Enabling Strict Movement Validation
By default, the server gives clients a slight benefit of the doubt to prevent rubber-banding due to high latency. However, hackers abuse this leniency to fly or move with impossible speed. You can tighten these constraints in the server's configuration files.
"security": {
"enforce_movement_validation": true,
"max_speed_tolerance": 1.15,
"prevent_noclip": true
}Setting `enforce_movement_validation` to true ensures the server calculates whether it's physically possible for a player to reach point B from point A within a given timeframe. If not, the server aggressively rubber-bands the player back to their valid position.
Implementing Custom Anti-Cheat Plugins
While the built-in validation is strong, the CurseForge plugin ecosystem is incredibly proactive in developing advanced heuristics. Community-developed anti-cheat plugins analyze combat patterns: if a player consistently lands critical hits on multiple targets surrounding them within milliseconds ("Killaura"), the plugin will silently flag, ban, and log the incident.
Always ensure your anti-cheat plugins are updated. As cheat developers find new exploits in the Lua API, the community patches them rapidly.
Defeating Ban Evasion: VPN & Proxy Blocking
The most frustrating aspect of server administration is the "whack-a-mole" game with persistent griefers. You ban a player, and five minutes later, they bounce their connection through a free VPN or proxy to circumvent the IP ban.
To stop this entirely, you must implement an automated VPN blocking system. There are excellent API services available that maintain databases of known VPN, Proxy, and Tor exit node IP addresses.
Integrating an IP-Check Lua Script
Using Hytale's native Lua API, you can write a script that fires the instance a player attempts to connect (the `onPlayerConnect` event). The script sends the connecting IP to a fast API (like Proxycheck.io) and denies the connection before the player even loads world chunks.
-- Basic Concept of a Lua VPN Blocker
events.onPlayerConnecting = function(event)
local playerIP = event.ip
local response = http.get("https://proxycheck.io/v2/" .. playerIP .. "?vpn=1")
if string.find(response, '"proxy": "yes"') then
event.cancel("Connection Error: VPNs and Proxies are strictly prohibited on this server.")
end
end
This automated approach completely demoralizes ban evaders, as buying legitimate residential proxies is too expensive for the average griefer.
Backups: The Ultimate Failsafe
No matter how many plugins you install or how strict your VPN blocking is, a zero-day exploit could still slip through and result in a ruined spawn city. In these moments, your only salvation is a recent, uncorrupted backup.
Use an automated scheduler to back up your `universe/worlds` folder at least every 6 hours. Store these backups externally. Premium hosts automate this process entirely, ensuring that if catastrophe strikes, your community's progress is only set back by a few hours rather than losing months of effort.
Conclusion
Securing a Hytale server is an ongoing war of escalation between administrators and malicious users. By laying a foundation with enterprise DDoS mitigation, enforcing strict server-side physics, and automating the blocking of bad IP addresses, you create a safe haven for your legitimate community to thrive.
Don't leave your community's hard work unprotected. Let the experts handle the complex security infrastructure so you can focus on the fun. Host your Hytale server with Supercraft and benefit from industry-leading DDoS protection and seamless plugin management today.