The Dread Wade is a time-limited dimension in Hytale reached through an Ancient Gateway. It drops you into a poisoned swamp shard of Orbis for a short run focused on targeted farming rather than long-term exploration.
Quick answer: Use the Fragment: Orbis – The Dread Wade at an Ancient Gateway to open the portal, then spend the first 7 minutes looting High-roll chests and hunting swamp mobs before a 3-minute Void Breach event spawns large waves of Voidspawn for Essence of the Void and Voidheart farming; when the 10-minute total timer or your first death hits, you are ejected without losing items.
The Dread Wade basic rules (what it is right now)
The Dread Wade is a self-contained zone instance attached to Orbis, accessed only through an Ancient Gateway using the consumable item Fragment: Orbis – The Dread Wade. It behaves as a compact “run” with fixed timing rules instead of a persistent dimension.
- Zone type: A swampy, poisoned landscape with shallow water, mud, dead and living trees, and heavy fog.
- Timer structure: 7 minutes of normal exploration followed by a 3‑minute Void Breach phase. After Void Breach ends, the portal closes a,d you are returned to Orbis.
- Death rule: Any death inside the Dread Wade ends the run immediately.
- Item safety: Item loss is disabled for Ancient Gateway runs, so dying or timing out does not drop your gear.
The terrain is extremely flat compared to typical Orbis zones, with fragmented “shard” edges that you cannot dig past. Large hollow tree trunks, mud flats, and scattered stone ruins define most of the playspace.
How to unlock access to The Dread Wade
Access to The Dread Wade is gated behind the Ancient Gateway system in Adventure mode. Before you can use its fragment, you must first unlock and build an Ancient Gateway.
Step 1: Upgrade the basic Workbench to tier 2. This unlocks the Arcanist’s Workbench recipe. Interact with your Workbench and use the normal upgrade flow once you have the required materials.
Step 2: Craft an Arcanist’s Workbench. Place it in your base; this bench holds the recipes for Ancient Gateways and Orbis fragments, including The Dread Wade fragment.
Step 3: Record 100 Memories at the Heart of Obis in the Forgotten Temple. Your Memory Bank in the inventory fills as you encounter creatures and enemies. Once all slots are filled, submit them at the Heart of Obis. Repeat until you have turned in 100 Memories in total.
Step 4: Craft the Ancient Gateway at the Arcanist’s Workbench. The recipe uses:
- 30 Cobblestone
- 10 Thorium Ingot
- 10 Essence of Life
- 10 Essence of the Void
Once crafted, place the Ancient Gateway anywhere in your world. This structure is the permanent anchor you use to open all current Orbis fragments, including The Dread Wade.
How to craft Fragment: Orbis – The Dread Wade
The key item for the zone is a one‑time consumable fragment with item level 51.
| Item | Type | Crafting station | Materials required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fragment: Orbis – The Dread Wade | Other (Uncommon) | Arcanist’s Workbench / Arcane Portals | 10 Adamantite Ingot, 30 Essence of Fire |
The fragment is consumed when a portal successfully opens, and you enter. If the game fails to load the instance or crashes mid-load, behavior can be inconsistent, but under normal circumstances, you should expect to spend one fragment per completed run.
How to enter The Dread Wade
Step 1: Equip Fragment: Orbis – The Dread Wade in your hotbar.
Step 2: Stand near your placed Ancient Gateway and use the interact button while the fragment is selected. The Gateway animates and spawns a portal to The Dread Wade.
Step 3: Walk through the portal. The game transitions you into the Dread Wade instance and starts the 7‑minute initial timer as soon as the world finishes loading.
You are always teleported back to the Gateway’s location in Orbis when the instance ends, either by timeout or death.
Timed structure: 7 minutes of setup, 3 minutes of Void Breach
The dimension’s behavior is built around two clear stages, with visible on‑screen timers.
- First 7 minutes: No Voidspawn portals are active. You can freely explore, mine, harvest plants and trees, kill local mobs, and open High‑roll chests.
- Void Breach (final 3 minutes): When the initial timer hits zero, a new 3‑minute timer appears, and Void Breach begins. Multiple small portals spawn across the map, continuously releasing Voidspawn mobs until the 3 minutes expire or you die.
Once the Void Breach timer finishes, the portal to Orbis forcibly pulls you back and the instance is destroyed. There is no way to extend the timer within the current implementation.
Enemy types and environment in The Dread Wade
The zone mixes standard swamp fauna with undead and late‑game Void creatures.
- Ambient swamp mobs: Crocodiles, Cobras (Snakes), Frogs, Ravens, and a Rhino Toad (often occupying a large central spire‑like monument).
- Undead: Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Knights can spawn in the area.
- Void Breach mobs: During the last 3 minutes, numerous Voidspawn appear from scattered portals, including flying eye‑like entities and other hostile Void creatures.
The Rhino Toad currently functions as a normal elite-style enemy rather than a full boss encounter, even though the fragment text hints that “a ravenous menace lurks at the heart of the swamp.” The tall central structure is present in every generated Dread Wade map but in the current build, does not host a dedicated boss fight.
Loot and resources you can farm efficiently
The Dread Wade run is best understood as a targeted resource farm bounded by risk and time pressure.
- Creature drops: Crocodiles drop Heavy Hide, and Cobras / snakes drop Venom Sacs. Both are commonly needed for mid‑to‑late game armor and crafting.
- Void Breach rewards: Voidspawn during the final phase can drop Essence of the Void and Voidheart. These items are used in higher‑tier recipes and progression systems attached to Void mechanics.
- High‑roll chest contents: Iron weapons and armor, ore veins (Cobalt, Thorium, Silver, Gold, Iron), cloth scraps such as Cindercloth and Shadoweave, and various consumables.
Because death and timeout do not delete items, the main cost of a failed run is the fragment itself and the lost opportunity to loot more chests or farm additional mobs during the available time.
How High-roll chests work in The Dread Wade
High‑roll chests are the main static loot sources during the initial 7 minutes.
- Placement: They spawn inside small cobblestone structures distributed across the zone.
- Access: The chests sit beneath fragile wooden planks or flooring that break easily when attacked or mined.
- Presence: Not every cobblestone micro‑structure actually contains a High‑roll chest.
- Guaranteed indicator: Structures that have a Torch marker always contain a High‑roll chest inside.
Efficient runs focus on visually scanning for these torch‑marked cobble huts, breaking the flooring, looting the chest, and immediately moving on to the next structure or pack of snakes and crocodiles.
Optimal use of the 10 minutes inside The Dread Wade
The dimension’s design strongly pushes you toward a clear split of objectives.
Step 1: Use the first 7 minutes to prioritize exploration and chest locations. Mark and hit as many torch‑marked cobble structures as possible while killing nearby snakes and crocodiles for Venom Sacs and Heavy Hide.
Step 2: Avoid spending time climbing the large central spire unless it is directly on your path. In the current build, it only houses a Rhino Toad and does not hold unique rewards or a true boss encounter.
Step 3: As the 7‑minute mark approaches, move toward open, traversable ground rather than deep mud or tight ruin interiors. This prepares you for the incoming Voidspawn waves and gives you space to kite if you choose to fight.
Step 4: During the 3‑minute Void Breach, either fully commit to farming Voidspawn in a controlled area with strong gear, or focus entirely on survival and kiting to avoid losing the last minutes of potential kills. Incomplete combat attempts can quickly lead to being overwhelmed.
Difficulty expectations and recommended gear
The Dread Wade is tuned as a late mid‑game to late‑game activity. The fragment already requires Adamantite Ingots and Essence of Fire, putting it behind several tiers of progression. Players entering with full Thorium gear can explore the zone and defeat local creatures, but may struggle to stand their ground during Void Breach without careful positioning.
Aim for robust armor, strong melee or ranged options, and a reliable source of healing consumables before treating the Void Breach as a full combat farm rather than a quick in‑and‑out objective run.
Once you understand the fixed 7‑plus‑3‑minute structure, the creature lineup, and where High‑roll chests actually spawn, The Dread Wade becomes a predictable, repeatable way to top up on Venom Sacs, Heavy Hides, and Void materials, at the cost of a single high‑tier fragment and a tightly managed 10‑minute window.
