Hytale Backpack: How to Unlock and Upgrade It

The backpack gives you extra inventory slots in Hytale. Craft Unlock Backpack in the Tinkering tab of a Tier 1 Workbench from 8 Iron Ingots and 8 Medium Leather, then use it to open 9 backpack slots. Backpack Upgrade I raises that to 18. Backpack Upgrade II would make it 27, but it needs Storm Leather, which cannot be obtained in Exploration Mode as of Update 6 (August 27, 2026), so 18 slots is the real limit for now. This guide lists all three recipes, what each step needs and where the materials come from. Everything is checked against the Hytale Wiki and the official patch notes listed under Sources.

Backpack Recipes at a Glance

• Unlock Backpack: 8 Iron Ingots and 8 Medium Leather at a Tier 1 Workbench, Tinkering tab. Opens the backpack with 9 slots.
• Backpack Upgrade I: 40 Cindercloth Scraps, 8 Cobalt Ingots and 24 Heavy Leather at a Tier 2 Workbench, Tinkering tab. Adds 9 slots, for 18 in total.
• Backpack Upgrade II: 1 Voidheart, 8 Adamantite Ingots and 16 Storm Leather at the Workbench, Tinkering tab, once you have restored 100 memories. Adds 9 slots, for 27 in total, but Storm Leather is out of reach in Exploration Mode (see below).

Each of the three is an item you use once: craft it, hold it and right-click. Update 1 (January 17, 2026) made the first two easier to reach. Unlock Backpack moved from a Tier 2 to a Tier 1 Workbench and its leather cost fell from 16 to 8, and the first upgrade moved from a Tier 3 to a Tier 2 Workbench, so guides written before that update show the old benches.

How to Unlock the Backpack

• Leather: a Tanning Rack turns Medium Hide into Medium Leather. Mid-sized animals drop Medium Hide, among them boars, cows, horses, hyenas, wolves, moose and the Sabertooth Tigers of the Howling Sands, and Tier 1–2 chests sometimes hold a few.
• Iron: smelt Iron Ore in a Furnace. Ore & Material Locations shows where it spawns.
• Craft: open the Tinkering tab of a Tier 1 Workbench and make Unlock Backpack. The Workbench itself takes only 4 tree trunks and 3 stone with Pocket Crafting.
• Use it: hold Unlock Backpack and right-click. Crafting it is not enough on its own.
• Open it: the backpack has its own button in the inventory screen, the third one, next to your armor.

Backpack Upgrade I: 18 Slots

• Recipe: 40 Cindercloth Scraps, 8 Cobalt Ingots and 24 Heavy Leather, in the Tinkering tab of a Tier 2 Workbench.
• Tier 2 Workbench: the upgrade costs 30 Copper Ingots, 20 Iron Ingots and 20 Linen Scraps. The Workbench Guide covers every bench upgrade.
• Cindercloth Scraps: usually the slowest part. Burnt and incandescent skeletons, wraiths, the Ember Golem and the Fire Dragon drop 1–3 every time, and Tier 1–3 chests in the Devastated Lands (Zone 4) have a 10% chance of holding 1–6.
• Cobalt Ingots: smelt Cobalt Ore, found in the mountains of the Whisperfrost Frontiers (Zone 3).
• Heavy Leather: tan Heavy Hide, which large hostile creatures drop: Grizzly and Polar Bears, Crocodiles, Emberwulves, Mosshorns, Trillodons, the Cave Rex and the Yeti.

Backpack Upgrade II: Why You Can't Finish It Yet

• Recipe: 1 Voidheart, 8 Adamantite Ingots and 16 Storm Leather, in the Workbench's Tinkering tab.
• Unlock: the recipe only shows up after you have restored 100 memories at the Heart of Orbis in the Forgotten Temple. Count yours with the Memory Tracker.
• The catch: Storm Leather is tanned from Storm Hide, and Storm Hide cannot be found or crafted in Exploration Mode; it only comes from the Creative inventory. The Hytale Wiki (edited August 15, 2026) and two server-host guides agree on this. The only other use of Storm Leather is Mithril gear.
• What it means: in a normal Exploration world the backpack stops at 18 slots. The 27-slot total only applies where Storm Leather can be handed out, such as Creative Mode.
• Voidheart: void creatures drop it, and the Update 7 pre-release notes said it would become rarer. The Voidheart Guide lists every drop chance, before and after Update 7.
• Update 7: the official Update 7 notes (October 12, 2026) do not change the backpack or Storm Hide, so everything above still applies.

How the Backpack Works

• Picking things up: new items stack onto matching stacks that are already in the backpack.
• Slots in use: since Update 4 (March 26, 2026), the backpack panel shows how many of its slots are taken.
• Ammo: since Update 3 (February 17, 2026), shortbows and crossbows can fire ammo kept in the backpack.
• Trading: Rootling Merchants do not take Essence of Life from the backpack as payment, so move it to your main inventory before you trade.
• Repairs: since Update 5 (May 26, 2026), Repair Kits can fix items stored in the backpack. The Repair Kit Calculator shows what each repair costs.
• Dying: on worlds set up without an inventory penalty on death, items in the backpack no longer lose durability (Update 5). Death Penalty & Keep Inventory explains each setting.

Backpack Upgrade Not Working?

• No backpack button: the Unlock Backpack item has to be used, not only crafted.
• Upgrade I missing from the Workbench: the Workbench must be Tier 2.
• Upgrade II missing: it appears at 100 restored memories, and even then Storm Leather cannot be made in Exploration Mode.
• Backpack locked after an update: Update 5 fixed a bug that could leave the backpack and its upgrades permanently locked, so make sure the game is up to date.

Shopping List: No Backpack to 18 Slots

Starting with a Tier 1 Workbench, this is everything Unlock Backpack, the Tier 2 Workbench upgrade and Backpack Upgrade I need together:

• 28 Iron Ingots: 8 for Unlock Backpack and 20 for the Workbench
• 30 Copper Ingots and 20 Linen Scraps for the Workbench
• 8 Medium Leather and 24 Heavy Leather
• 40 Cindercloth Scraps
• 8 Cobalt Ingots

You also need a Furnace (6 tree trunks, 6 stone) and a Tanning Rack (6 tree trunks, 3 stone, 3 Light Hide), both made at a Tier 1 Workbench. The Crafting Calculator totals the raw materials for the rest of your gear, the other Hytale guides cover benches, bosses and farming, and the Hytale Calculator home page lists every tool.

Sources

• Hytale Patch Notes - Update 1 (January 17, 2026)
• Hytale Patch Notes - Update 3 (February 17, 2026)
• Hytale Patch Notes - Update 4 (March 26, 2026)
• Hytale Patch Notes - Update 5 (May 26, 2026)
• Chapter I: Out of the Breach, the Update 7 notes (October 12, 2026)
• Hytale Wiki: Backpack, Unlock Backpack, Backpack Upgrade I, Backpack Upgrade II, Storm Hide, Storm Leather, Medium Hide, Heavy Hide, Cindercloth Scraps, Voidheart, Sabertooth Tiger
• Guides that also list Storm Leather as Creative-only: Nodecraft (updated July 14, 2026), G-Portal