Thorium sits in an interesting place in Hytale’s progression. It isn’t the final tier of gear, but it underpins some of the strongest equipment in the game and even shapes how players store items and process ores through community mods.
What Thorium is in Hytale
Thorium is a green metal that appears underground in the form of Thorium ore. It belongs to the same group of mineable minerals as Copper, Iron, Cobalt, and Mithril, and is treated as one of the higher-value resources in the game’s crafting tree.
Smelted Thorium is used to create weapons and armor. Screenshots and concept art show distinct Thorium gear sets, including:
- Thorium Sword
- Thorium Battle Axe
- Full Thorium Armor set
Enemies can also be seen wielding Thorium gear. A Void Spawn, for example, is depicted carrying a Thorium Sword, which signals that the material’s power level is high enough to equip tougher mobs rather than just early-game creatures.
While Mithril sits at the top of the official weapon ladder, Thorium is widely treated as one of the strongest materials below that point. It provides an important bridge between more common ores and endgame equipment.
Where Thorium fits in Hytale’s weapon progression
Combat in Hytale quickly pushes players beyond crude tools and into metalworking. Once the basics are covered, the real progression starts at the Blacksmith’s Anvil, which is crafted from a workbench with:
- 2× Copper Ingot
- 10× Tree Trunk (any type)
- 5× Stone (any type)
After this early investment, upgrading the anvil becomes the main path to better gear. Mithril weapons currently represent the highest tier, including options like the Mithril Sword, Mithril Mace, Mithril Battleaxe, Mithril Daggers, and Mithril Shortbow.
Thorium becomes critical at this stage. To reach a level three Blacksmith’s Anvil — the point at which Mithril weapons become available — players must bring in a substantial amount of Thorium and Cobalt. In other words, Thorium ore is not just a source for a strong armor set and weapons; it is also a core ingredient in unlocking the very best equipment tier.
Practically, this pushes Thorium into the mid-to-late game. You start with Copper near the surface, move into Iron and other ores as you delve deeper, and eventually hunt Thorium underground as part of the push toward Cobalt and Mithril.
Finding Thorium in the world
Thorium ore appears in caves rather than on the surface, which makes it part of the broader push into Hytale’s underground spaces. Exploration and mining are essential: you are unlikely to progress into Mithril-tier weapons without committing to extended cave runs.
Players who focus on weapon upgrades are encouraged to:
- Gear up with at least Iron-level protection and weapons before extensive cave exploration.
- Carry enough pickaxes and torches to support longer trips into Thorium-rich areas.
- Plan inventory space, since deep mining trips often yield multiple ore types alongside Thorium.
Thorium’s green coloring makes it visually distinct from many other ores. It resembles a gemstone at a glance but is identified in-game as a mineable metal, reinforcing its role as an armor and weapon material rather than a purely magical crystal.
What you can craft with Thorium
Thorium fills two roles: it is a direct gear material and an indirect progression resource.
- Direct gear crafts. Thorium can be turned into melee weapons like swords and battle axes, as well as a dedicated armor set. This places it ahead of basic metals in both offense and defense.
- Progression fuel. Large amounts of Thorium feed into upgrades for the Blacksmith’s Anvil, which ultimately unlock Mithril weapons. Even players who intend to wear mainly Mithril still depend on Thorium along the way.
In practice, that gives Thorium a long shelf life. You can equip Thorium gear as a main set for a significant chunk of the adventure, then continue to mine the ore to complete anvil upgrades even after you begin to phase out Thorium armor.
Thorium beyond the base game: chests and furnaces
Hytale’s modding ecosystem leans heavily on the existing metal hierarchy, and Thorium is no exception. Community mods use Thorium as a reference point for storage size and processing speed, tying it even more tightly into the game’s economy.
Thorium Chests mod: storage progression built on metals
The Thorium Chests mod expands Hytale’s storage with a full progression of metal-based containers. Each chest is crafted at the Workbench and built from a specific metal found around Orbis. Capacity scales with the rarity and perceived power of the material.
The mod introduces eleven chest types, with capacities laid out in a simple ladder:
| Chest type | Storage slots |
|---|---|
| Copper | 27 |
| Iron | 36 |
| Gold | 40 |
| Thorium | 45 |
| Onyxium | 45 |
| Bronze | 45 |
| Cobalt | 49 |
| Adamantite | 54 |
| Silver | 58 |
| Mithril | 63 |
| Prisma | 63 |
Thorium’s 45-slot capacity places it clearly above common metals like Iron and Gold, but below rare materials such as Mithril and Prisma. That mirrors its role in combat: a strong mid-to-late game option that still leaves room for true endgame rewards.
All of these chests are constructed through the standard Workbench interface, so once you have the underlying metal, upgrading storage is a straightforward crafting decision.
Thorium Furnaces mod: faster smelting through metal tiers
A companion mod, Thorium Furnaces, applies the same metal ladder to ore processing. It adds eleven new furnaces, each made from a different metal found throughout Orbis. The core pitch is simple: higher-tier metals mean faster furnaces.
This turns Thorium into more than just armor and weapon fuel. By investing Thorium into a dedicated furnace, players can accelerate smelting runs, which in turn speeds up the refinement of Cobalt, Mithril, and other late-game metals.
The interaction between the two mods is straightforward but powerful. Mine Thorium to:
- Upgrade your personal gear and Blacksmith’s Anvil.
- Build Thorium Chests for mid-tier storage.
- Craft a Thorium Furnace to shrink smelting bottlenecks.
For players who enjoy long mining trips and large project builds, that combination smooths out both inventory management and ore processing, making Thorium a central pillar of their base infrastructure.
How modders frame Thorium in day‑one experiences
Thorium’s presence in early mod lineups underlines how central it is to Hytale’s identity. Creators have positioned Thorium Chests and Thorium Furnaces as “day 1” quality-of-life upgrades, designed to drop into new worlds as soon as players start mining beyond Copper and Iron.
This approach reinforces a consistent message: Thorium is not a novelty resource. It is strongly woven into the game’s mid-game economy and offers natural hooks for expanding storage systems, crafting throughput, and progression pacing.
Taken together, the base game and its early mods turn Thorium into a kind of structural metal for Hytale. It marks the point where combat, storage, and smelting all start to feel more industrial, long before Mithril closes out the weapon ladder. If you plan to stay on Orbis for the long haul, Thorium is the ore you mine when you are ready to commit.
