Keybinds & Loadouts

Techniques no longer need a typed command. Bind one to a modifier plus a key and it fires from the keyboard. New in v0.6.0, and switched on by default (Technique-Hotkeys-Enabled).

Set them up on the 快捷键 / Keybinds page of any Cultivation menu, or check what you have with /cultivation debug hotkeys.

v0.11.1 Number-key binds (every default bind, including the two menu binds) now work in singleplayer worlds. Before 0.11.1 they did nothing there: the game's singleplayer connection skips the network step the mod listened on. They now read the server's own hotbar-swap event, which runs the same way everywhere. The Q, E and R binds, which are off by default, still use the network step and work on a dedicated server only.

How the Server Sees a Keypress

Worth understanding, because it explains every limitation below: Hytale's protocol carries no keyboard input at all. The server is never told which key you pressed — only the consequence.

So a key is bindable only when pressing it does something the server can observe:

There is no 0. The hotbar has nine slots, so pressing 0 switches to nothing and the server never learns it happened.

v0.11.1 The number row is read from the server's own interaction event for that swap, on every kind of connection. Q, E and R have no such event, so they are still read from the network packet itself, and a singleplayer world never lets the mod see that packet: those three binds work on a dedicated server only.

Modifiers are read the same way — through the movement state each one drives:

v0.11.1 The mod reads every movement update your client sends, not just the state at the end of each server tick, so an ALT press that is over inside a single tick is still seen.

Press It, Don't Hold It

This is the one thing that trips people up. A modifier is armed by its press, not by being held down: the window opens the moment you press it and closes half a second later, whether or not the key is still down. Press ALT no more than about half a second before the number key. Some clients report ALT as a held key for as long as it is down; the window still opens at the press and still closes after 500 ms.

• Tap ALT, then 6 within half a second — fires.
• Hold ALT while you hunt for the key, press it a second later — the latch has closed, and 6 just switches hotbar slot.

The same rule catches sustained modifiers: if you are already sprinting, SHIFT was never re-pressed, so a SHIFT binding will not fire until you stop and start sprinting again. That is deliberate — sampling the held state instead would make every bound key fire for as long as you sprint.

There is also a 600 ms debounce between activations, so a mistimed double-tap cannot double-spend your Qi.

What You Can Bind

Only combinations you have actually bound are ever intercepted. Every other key does its normal job, whether or not a modifier is held — an unbound 6 still switches hotbar slot, and an unmodified Q still drops your item.

v0.11.1 When a bound number-key combination fires, the hotbar does not change at all: the server cancels the swap and puts your slot back before you see it move.

Since v0.7.4 the technique dropdown only offers arts you have actually come by, so no key can be bound to something that cannot fire. An art you have not learned yet simply is not in the list. A fused art is a real technique in every respect and appears here as soon as it is forged — and if the recipe consumed its two parents, their entries leave the list at the same moment, taking any key bound to them with it.

A gathered art bound to a key uses that key twice: once to begin gathering, once to loose it. A fist art bound to a key refuses while a weapon is in hand, exactly as it does from the command.

Aura Sight and Pressure

v0.11.2 Three more actions can be bound from the same technique dropdown. They are techniques with nothing to learn, so no manual or unlock stands between you and the dropdown:

The two toggles keep a one-second cooldown between presses and cost no Qi to press; Pressure drains Qi for as long as it is held, and the burst has its own Qi cost and 30-second cooldown. A refused press costs nothing and banks no mastery. A cultivator held down at the Crushed or Kneeling tier cannot start Pressure or the burst from a key, but can always withdraw a release.

Loadouts

Keep several named loadouts, each holding its own set of four technique binds, and cycle them with a single key. A combat set and a traveling set no longer have to be re-bound by hand.

Since v0.7.0 you keep three loadouts by default, and the Keybinds page shows the count plainly — 2 / 3 kept. The cap is not a config key: an add-on raises it through the API (registerTechniquePresetCap), up to a hard ceiling of eight. If a cap-raising add-on is later removed, every loadout you filled survives — the count turns gold to show you are over the cap, and only adding a new one is refused until you are back under it. (Players who kept more than three under v0.6.x keep them all the same way.)

Server Owners

Q, E and R ship switched off. They are the intrusive half: taking one over costs the player dropping an item, the inventory, or their hotbar block set — whereas a modified number key costs nothing, since the mod cancels the hotbar switch. They also work on a dedicated server only (see above). Turn them on only if your players ask for them.

Both live in Arts/TechniqueConfig.json; see the Arts config page.

Troubleshooting

Bindings that never fire are almost always one of these:

1. Nothing is bound to that key. Q, E and R in particular are bound to nothing by default and are disabled by default, and they cannot work in a singleplayer world at all.
2. The modifier was held, not pressed. See above — it is a half-second window from the press, so press ALT no more than about half a second before the number key.
3. The technique itself is gated. A binding cannot bypass a realm requirement, a Qi cost, a cooldown, or a manual you have not read.
4. The feature is off. Technique-Hotkeys-Enabled (and the techniques system itself) must be on; /cultivation debug hotkeys prints both switches.

/cultivation debug hotkeys (permission cultivation.debug.hotkeys) prints your current bindings in chat and toggles tracing in the server log. With tracing on:

• a [hotkey] movement: line appears each time your walking, sprinting or crouching state changes (ALT shows as walking=true), with the heldMask the mod has armed. No such line when you press ALT means the server never saw the modifier;
• a [hotkey] chain SwapFrom: line appears for each number key, with the slot you were on, the slot you pressed and the heldMask it was judged against. No such line means the key never reached the server as a hotbar swap; a heldMask of 0 means the modifier's half-second window had already closed.

v0.11.1 The number-row fix was checked in a singleplayer world only. If binds work there but not on a dedicated server, run the trace on the server and compare it with the two lines above; nothing in the trace has been confirmed against a dedicated server yet.