Hytale Tanning Rack Craft & Upgrade Guide

What to know

• The Tanning Rack turns animal hides into Light, Medium, and Heavy Leather.
• You craft it at a Workbench using wood, stone, and Light Hide.
• Leather is required for backpacks, armor upgrades, and many crafting recipes.
• Leather types come from processing hides of different animals.

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The Tanning Rack is a craftable station in Hytale that lets you convert raw hides into leather materials. It’s typically one of your first essential stations because leather feeds into higher-tier equipment, backpacks, and upgrades. You must place and interact with the rack to process hides into leather—this isn’t instant and takes real in-game time to complete tasks.

Increasing leather output early smooths progression into better armor, backpacks, and other crafted items.

Tanning Rack quick overview

Category	Info
Crafting station type	Refined processing workstation
Primary function	Turns hides into leather
Craft level needed	Standard Workbench
Craft cost	6× Any Tree Trunk, 3× Any Stone, 3× Light Hide
Leather types processed	Light, Medium, Heavy

How to craft the Tanning Rack

Materials needed

• 6 × Any Tree Trunk — wood from any tree.
• 3 × Stone — mined from stone outcrops.

These three components are assembled at a Workbench.

Step-by-step Crafting

1. Gather materials: Chop trees for trunks, mine stone, and hunt wildlife for Light Hide.
2. Place a Workbench: If you don’t already have one, craft a basic Workbench.
3. Open Workbench UI: Select the Crafting tab and find Tanning Rack under available stations.
4. Craft and place: Craft it and place it near your base or storage area for convenience.

How to use the Tanning Rack

1. Place the Tanning Rack near chests and your Workbench.
2. Interact with it and insert hides (Light, Medium, or Heavy) into the input slots.
3. Wait for processing: Hide converts into the corresponding leather type.
4. Collect leather once the process completes.

Where to get hides

Leather production starts with hides, which are dropped by animals:

• Light Hide: Dropped by smaller animals like boars, rabbits, and similar creatures.
• Medium Hide: Comes from medium-sized animals like wolves.
• Heavy Hide: Dropped by large beasts such as bears.

Hides must be processed at the Tanning Rack to become usable leather.

Where leather is used

Leather is a key component in a variety of item recipes in Hytale:

• Backpacks and upgrades (leather is a core ingredient for the first backpack unlock).
• Armor and weapons: Many early and mid-tier armors require leather elements.
• Repair Kits: Often use leather in early crafting.

A steady leather pipeline saves time and resources as you progress.

Tanning Rack upgrading in Hytale

To upgrade a Tier 1 Tanning Rack to Tier 2, you need:

• 5 × Light Leather
• 5 × Medium Leather
• 5 × Heavy Leather
• 5 × Sturdy Chitin

These materials are placed directly into the rack’s upgrade interface.

What the Tier 2 upgrade gives you

Upgrading improves the tanning workflow by:

• Faster hide processing speeds
• More processing slots
• Better overall leather throughput

This makes producing multiple leather types much smoother once you’re crafting large batches for backpacks and armor.

How to get Sturdy Chitin (upgrade material)

Sturdy Chitin is not tied to the Tanning Rack itself but is a useful raw material for upgrades and crafting. It’s commonly obtained by defeating tougher desert creatures such as scorpions and similar insect-like mobs.

When farming for Tier 2 tanning upgrades, focus on desert biome encounters where Chitin drops are most reliable.

Tips for efficient tanning

• Set up near storage: Put the Tanning Rack next to chests and your Workbench to reduce back-and-forth.
• Process multiple hides: If you’re low-tier and not upgrading yet, place multiple racks to handle different hide types at once.
• Don’t rush upgrades: Early on, extra racks might save time over upgrading one, but Tier 2 becomes worthwhile as demand increases.

Why leather matters in Hytale

Leather fuels Hytale progression: better backpacks, stronger armor, and essential crafting parts all depend on processed leather. A good tanning workflow makes mid-game crafting far smoother, especially as you start exploring tougher zones and need more gear.

Making the most of your Tanning Rack

Whether just starting or planning a robust base setup, the Tanning Rack is a station you’ll come back to again and again. Craft it early, keep the hides flowing, and upgrade at the right time to cut down processing waits. Efficient leather production supports better gear, greater storage options, and a more streamlined play experience.