First Steps
Natural 20 is designed to be felt, not read about. When you join a Natural 20 server for the first time, the tutorial opens itself: you don’t have to go looking.
Your first five minutes
Section titled “Your first five minutes”1. Meet Jiub. On first join, a dialogue window opens automatically. Jiub is your tutorial NPC: he introduces the d20 system and walks you through choosing a background.
Your background is a preset that distributes your six starting ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma) and hands you a starting kit. Pick one that matches how you want to play: you’ll be able to grow in other directions later.
2. Open your character sheet. Type /sheet in chat to open your character sheet at any time. This is where you’ll find:
- Your six ability scores and level
- Active quests
- Party status
- NPC dispositions and reputation
There’s no keybind: /sheet is the one command you’ll use constantly. It’s worth remembering.
3. Talk to an NPC. Natural 20’s dialogue system uses d20 skill checks: the core of the mod. When an NPC presents an option flagged with a stat (for example, a [Persuasion] line or an [Intimidation] line), you’ll roll a twenty-sided die with your relevant ability modifier applied. Roll high, unlock new paths. Roll low, and the conversation goes differently.
Disposition matters. NPCs remember how you’ve treated them, and hostile NPCs will refuse to talk entirely.
4. Accept your first quest. NPCs with a gold ”!” indicator have a quest available. NPCs with a blue ”?” indicator want you to return for a turn-in. Quests track in your character sheet and come in four flavors: kill mobs, collect resources, fetch an item, or talk to someone.
5. Fight something and check the loot. Hostile mobs in Natural 20 have levels and affixes: a level 4 wolf with the right affixes is meaningfully different from a level 1 wolf. When you kill something tough enough to drop loot, pay attention to the rarity outline on the item tooltip: Common (white) through Legendary (gold). Higher rarities mean more affixes, and affixes are where the build-crafting lives.
The core loop
Section titled “The core loop”Once the tutorial is behind you, Natural 20’s rhythm looks like this:
- Explore settlements and the world to find NPCs, quests, and dungeons.
- Talk your way through encounters when it suits you: a high-Charisma character can resolve conflicts combat can’t.
- Fight when talking fails or the loot is too good to pass up.
- Level by earning XP from kills and quest completions. Each level grants ability points you spend on the stat you want to grow.
- Gear up by finding rarer affixes on weapons, armor, and tools. Rare tool affixes like Delve (1×5 line into the block face), Quake (3×3 flat area), and Telekinesis (drops teleport to your inventory) change how you play outside of combat entirely.
Commands
Section titled “Commands”Natural 20 has 14 commands total: one player command (/sheet) and 13 admin commands under /nat20.
Player
Section titled “Player”| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
/sheet | Toggle the Character Sheet UI (stats, quests, party, disposition). |
Admin: spawning
Section titled “Admin: spawning”| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
/nat20 spawnnpc | Spawn a Natural 20 NPC at your position. |
/nat20 spawngroup | Spawn a difficulty-tiered mob group (champions + boss) at your position. |
/nat20 spawntier <tier> | Spawn a mob group with a forced difficulty tier: Uncommon, Rare, Epic, or Legendary. |
/nat20 killnpc | Kill the nearest settlement NPC. |
Admin: player tuning
Section titled “Admin: player tuning”| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
/nat20 setstats <STAT> <value> [...] | Set ability scores. Example: /nat20 setstats STR 20 DEX 14. |
/nat20 setmana <amount> | Set the player’s max mana pool. |
/nat20 xpadd <amount> | Award XP to the player. |
/nat20 xpset <amount> | Set the player’s total XP directly. |
/nat20 levelset <level> | Set the player’s level directly. |
/nat20 stats | Show the player’s level, XP, and pending ability points. |
Admin: loot and quests
Section titled “Admin: loot and quests”| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
/nat20 loot <item> [rarity] [level] | Generate a loot item and add it to your inventory. <item> is a Hytale item ID (e.g. IronSword). [rarity] is Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, or Legendary (random if omitted). [level] is 1-20 (default 10). |
/nat20 questtp | Teleport to the nearest quest-bearing NPC. |
Admin: world inspection
Section titled “Admin: world inspection”| Command | Purpose |
|---|---|
/nat20 settlements | List the ten nearest settlements with cell key, type, coordinates, and distance. |
Next steps: Read the FAQ for answers to common questions, check the Changelog for what’s new in the latest release, or peek at Coming Soon to see what’s planned.