Exciting news everyone! The Watchdog Cheat Detection system is now ready, and we need to give you all some information before we flip the switch. Please read the following thread if you are using mods, it's very important.

How do I know if my mods are okay?
At the moment, you don't - but our intrepid mods are working on creating a "whitelist" of modifications - Click here to view the whitelisting thread.

Such a list is not to be treated as the be-all-end-all however. Watchdog has the final say in matters of cheating. No one else.

If you are unsure of your modifications being okay - we suggest you remove them.

Things which alter how you sprint, jump, etc are all being detected as cheats by Watchdog, because they are altering how you send data to the server. This is the definition of blacklisted mods.

So bear in mind, even if you think a mod is okay - it may not be. The safe thing is to remove any mods and use a vanilla client. Any mods are at your own risk.

What are banwaves?
When Watchdog detects a user cheating, it adds them to a queue known as a Banwave. Banwaves happen manually by us - and we ban multiple users at a time. The reason why we do this - is so that the hackers will find it harder to know which particular hack they were caught for.

When will the first banwave be?
The first banwave will occur within hours of the new cheat detection system going live. Players are going to be given stats on how many hackers Watchdog catches every day.

Will I get banned permanently if I'm caught?
When Watchdog first launches, we are going to be "gentle". After that, Watchdog will start handing out timed and permanent bans for offenses.

We will give more information on ban durations on the post stating Watchdog live. (Which will happen in the next few days)

Will stats wipes / leaderboard wipes happen?
Yes, stats wipes are part of Watchdog, we will reveal more information in the post that will go up when Watchdog goes live.

Why not go active with the system immediately, why the need for a warning?
During the testing phase of Watchdog, we manually inspected over 2,000 names that watchdog provided us with. We found something quite interesting.

Watchdog was detecting some mods as "cheats" - we were surprised by this - if you remember the LabyMod incident - it was one such mod. Upon looking into it more deeply, we discovered that many mods that players think are "clean" are actually not.

Basically this means quite a number of our players are "cheating" even though they don't think they are. We wanted to give this warning period to give them time to remove the mods which are flagging them on our new cheat detection system, as they have no idea they are actually breaking the rules.

Does watchdog differentiate between Donors and non donors?
No, justice is blind. It does not care if you are a donor or non-donor.

How does watchdog "learn" how to spot hackers?
It uses a form of machine learning. We trained it for many months on how to successfully spot hackers, and now it can do it automatically. We can't reveal the exact details of how this works, but it's super cool.

How does Watchdog differ from systems like NoCheatPlus
NoCheatPlus attempts to actively prevent cheating from taking place. Watchdog gathers data, and then makes a decision based on that data if the person is cheating or not.

It then uses this information to "learn" how to more effectively catch cheaters. Much like an AI.

When it catches a person, it will then place that person into a banwave queue. So it could take some time for you to be actually banned.

Watchdog "analyses" 100's of users randomly at the same time, it can analyse you multiple times. Think of it like a sniffer dog at an airport. It's very effective at catching who it sniffs, but not everyone at once.

Except the sniffer dog is invisible and you have no idea if it's analysing you or not.

If you are familiar with the VAC service that Steam uses, it's quite similar in this regard.

Will NoCheatPlus stay on the server?
Yes, it will. We've made multiple modifications to it to improve how it should work. NoCheatPlus should still handle many of the super obvious cheaters. Watchdog is designed to not only catch the obvious hackers, but also the ones that are trying to be sneaky and "hide".

Does Watchdog access any of my computers files?
No, Watchdog is entirely server side.
I've used a program (such as "regedit") to change how my TCP settings work - will that be detected?
Yes, that will certainly be detected. The process for undoing this is quite complex. We suggest you remove that immediately.

Can we still report hackers to mods / helpers?
Yes of course, that process will remain as is. Moderators can ban hackers before Watchdog ban waves occur, so if you see someone cheating - please report it in the same way. The unique skill of Watchdog is to watch many many many players at the same time, and catch things like togglers much more easily than humans can.

In the next few days, we will make another post when the system go live, explaining all these details again plus more.

That's everything folks, thanks for your cooperation - We are looking very much forward to letting this dog off its leash

0.13.1 Update
Mojang recently released an update to Pocket Edition with the addition of 3D skins. The Hypixel PE developers quickly went into action and updated our network to 0.13.1 with support for 3D skins! This update fixed the "Invalid skins" issue many of you were experiencing.

Leaderboards
Each game on PE now has it's own leaderboard. You can see the top players on the network!


Crafting:
What you've all been waiting for! We have implemented crafting! Woo!


Sneaking and Sprinting:

Bug Fixes:

• Over the last few weeks we have been tweaking HyCheat, the PE servers anti-cheat system, to detect hackers on the network more efficiently. This is something we are always working on.
• Build battle spawn under map issue has been fixed.
• Lots of bugs have been fixed throughout our minigames.

If you find any issues let us know by posting in our bug report forum section.

The Hypixel Build Team have been very busy working on new maps for you guys to enjoy. 14 new maps to be precise!
Ikron


Taras


Volvite


Frostbite


Invasion


Station

Castle


Clockwork


Deforestation


Shipwreck


Space


Trinity Keep


Coral


Alien

We are always looking at the forums for your suggestion for Pocket Edition. Head on over to our PE suggestions section or tweet @HypixelPocket with your ideas!

See you on pe.hypixel.net!

Hello everyone!

We are currently aware that users on the network are currently having issues related to their connection to the server, including latency issues, connection drops, and other issues. These issues are currently being investigated by our network team. If and when we have any further updates we will post them here.

Update #1: Network capacity limited while we investigate the cause of network issues.

Update #2: Network capacity limit removed, monitoring the network for any persistent issues.

We'd be grateful for your patience on this, and we do apologize for the disruption in your playing experience. As you know, this is not what we would want to happen.

Please do not create further threads on the forums about the current network issues. Threads created about the network issues will be locked and directed here to keep you guys best informed.

Smash Heroes is a brand new minigame available to play now on the Hypixel PC server. In Smash Heroes, you become one of many unique heroes and unleash devestating attacks in a Team or Solo battle for ultimate domination. Can you SMASH your rivals out of the arena before they smash you?

Features include:

• 11 colourful characters available to unlock, each with their own unique blend of havoc-wreaking abilities
• Charge up your Ultimate Skill, or unleash it instantly by grabbing the Smash Crystal
• Battle across 8 maps designed by our build team: experience the overgrown ruins of Grove, the childhood playroom of Toybox, the ancient wonders of Luxor and more!
• Play SOLO against 3 adversaries, or partner up in our chaotic TEAMS mode.
• Gain Experience as you play to improve your favorite heroes and increase your Smash Level.

At the beginning of your Smash Heroes adventure you have 4 of the 11 total heroes unlocked. Here are the four starting heroes:







All 11 unlockable heroes on our roster have a wide variety of special abilities and playstyles. Here are a few of our favorites:

Spooderman: Spooder Buddies
Arachnophobes beware - When Spooderman finds himself in a tough situation he can activate the Smash Crystal to release his horde of Spooder Buddies!

The Bulk: Bulk Throw
In a fit of rage, Bulk can use his immense strength to hurl cars across the battlefield! Just don't ask where he gets them from...

Karakot: True Power
Ever Witnessed True Power? When hero Karakot activates the Smash Crystal, he powers up giving reduced cooldown times and increased damage!

General Cluck: Chicken Army
Every good General needs an Army. When his Ultimate Attack is charged, Cluck can call for support from his squadron of dangerous bazooka-wielding chicken buddies.

Botmon - Botmobile
What's a hero without a great set of wheels? When Botmon's Ultimate is fully-charged he can call in the Botmobile, flying and crashing into any villains that get in his way.
...and that's just a taste of our heroes' special abilities. Discover your favorites by unlocking and leveling up new heroes!

Experience and Progression
Character development is important in our games. In Smash Heroes we are introducing a new Levelling and Prestige system.

As you play with your favorite heroes you will earn them Experience. Each hero starts at Level 0, and can reach Level 20.

PRESTIGE LEVEL
When one of your characters reaches Level 20, you can opt to raise that character's Prestige Level. This will reset your Level to 0 and give the character permanent stat increases, but will not affect your Smash Level. Prestiging is a great way to continue earning experience after hitting Level 20.

MASTER SKINS
When one of your characters reaches Prestige Level 5, you will unlock that character's unique Master Skin, letting you show off your Smash prestige to the rest of the world!

Tips and Tricks
Want to be the very best? Here are some tips and tricks from our dev team:

• Know Your Hero - We're all excited to get in and start smashing, but getting to know your hero is important. In the Smash Lobby, right-click your hero and read all about what they can do - including their attacks and difficulty level. If you're struggling with a particular hero, try selecting an easier one to practice.
• Know Your Enemy - Learn how other characters play and you'll know how to avoid their attacks. When any Smash Crystal ability is about to be used you'll hear the character announce it, giving you time to prepare.
• Know Yourself - We have provided 4 starting heroes for you to choose from, selected for their ease of use and varied playstyles. With 2 Melee and 2 Ranged starting heroes, we recommend trying all of them out to see which style you prefer.

Special Thanks
We've had the great pleasure of working with some fantastic external people on this project and we think it's only appropriate we give them a shout out.

For helping to provide voices and the referee character concept we'd like to thank Dan from Element Animation. You can watch Element's hilarious animations on their YouTube channel.

For helping with voice acting we'd like to thank Lewis from The Noxcrew. Follow him on Twitter here.

For producing our animated trailer we'd like to thank animator NinjaCharlieT. You can find him on Twitter, and watch an extended cut of the trailer plus other awesome animations on his YouTube channel.

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It's time to get SMASHING!!!

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Combined with the PE network, we had 62,000 combined on Hypixel. That's enough to be a top 10 game on Steam, crazy! We've also just passed the 8 million players to date mark!

We want to thank everyone and let you know that we don't take your support for granted. This is all made possible by you guys after all.

Some groups become less focused and delivering less content when they are doing well. We can promise you the opposite. 2016 is gonna be as big a year as 2015 and while we know not everything is perfect. That doesn't stop us aspiring to be

We wanted to share with you the good news! As for Smash Heroes, we hoped to have it release yesterday but a last minute party bug on top of fears of having too many players on the network prevented the release.

Should be out early this week!

To all our players & staff - Happy New Year!

2015 was the most successful year of Hypixel yet, let's take a look back at some stats shall we?
At the start of 2015, we had 12,000 players logging onto the server at peaktimes. Just this month we surpassed 43,500 on PC and 19,000 on PE - leaving a combined total of over 62,000 players on both platforms.

In 2015, we did a whooping 66 newsposts on the frontpage! The majority of which were major updates for our players!
Stylee created this awesome thread where you can view links to each update done by month!

The admin team grew considerably, what started as around 10 or so admins at the start of the year has grown now to 40! Meaning that we can deliver more and more content to you guys as well as a better service !

2015 also saw our attendance to Minecon, Arcadiacon and Insomnia events, providing a chance for us to have met many of you in person !

See below for a bunch of other stats on how we as a community are doing!
Total Users to Date: 7.83 million
Highest Number of Users in a Single Day : 662,000
Highest amount of PC users online at once - 43,500 players
Longest Streak of Updates : 7 days, 7 updates.
Number of New Maps put on server: 166

Website Visits: 93,820,943
Forum Posts: 2,238,170
User Registrations: 417,680
Likes Given: 1,522,410
Hype Trains: 194,884
Admin Diamonds: 518
Fan Creations on Media Section: 2,881
Guild Website Pages: 2,740

Number of Mods: 71
Number of Helpers: 118
Forum Reports Replied to: 143,000
Ban Appeals Replied to: 50,500
Players Banned or Muted for various reasons: 297,872
Images from Pixel Painters resulting in Bans: 22,380

Shots Fired in CvC: 4,351,844,634
Number of Deaths in Skywars: 643,529,035
Build Battle Solo Games: 107,054,430
Players who failed to win BSG: 2,523,898
Warlords Weapons Broken Down - 34,888,852
Pixel Painter Images: 7,946,227
Heads Eaten in UHC: 361,404
Players with Houses: 987,675
Poop Collected in Farm Hunt: 365,131
Number of CvC Updates secretly being worked on: 1

Friendliest Admin: Minikloon - 5900 Friends
Wielder of the banhammer: Gerbor12 - 14,000+ Bans
Guild Coins Earned: 4,702,487,841

Registered Players: 3.1 Million
Login Sessions: 52 Million
New Maps Added Since Launch: 29
Number of Player Skins: 1.5 Million
I want to end this post with a look to the future, and a thank you to everyone who has contributed to the server. As many of you know - we've been secretly been working on our own game (not a minecraft mini-game) now for nearly a year. I'm very glad to report that progress is going better than expected, and the team of people who work on the game is now 12 strong - with guys from all sort's of varied backgrounds.

• The Hypixel network has firmly established itself on the PC Java client, we will continue to deliver Updates, New Games and New Systems. Anticheat and Smash Heroes are both extremely close to release.
• The PE network has huge potential, and we hope to grow our team and develop the technology there.
• The Standalone promises to suprise you in ways you would not have forseen.

Without your support, the support of our players - none of this would be possible - your contributions are allowing us to pursue our dreams.

We can only hope that you will continue to support us as we journey onward into 2016.

The Hype Train has no brakes.

Thanks everyone! See you in 2016!