How to Add Hydra Bot to Your Discord Server

Hydra is a music bot that lets you play music on your Discord server by requesting songs inside a voice channel within a server. Server members can queue up songs and create a playlist other members can listen to. Additionally, Hydra also has the Reaction Roles feature, with a primary function to give members distinctions within a Discord server. This tutorial shows how to set up Hydra in your Discord server to play music and use Reaction Roles.

Before you start this tutorial, learn how to add bots to your Discord server.

How to Create Your Own Discord Server

Before you can set up and use Hydra, you need to have full access to a Discord server. The best way to get restriction-free access to a Discord server is to create your own by following the steps below.

1. Launch Discord and sign in to your account.
2. Click on the plus icon (+) at the top left of Discord’s home screen to add a new server. You can also press the Discord keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + N to open the create or join a new server pop-up.

3. A pop-up will ask what type of server you want to create. Choose any server type you prefer or select from the available templates of gaming server, school club server, or study group server.

4. After selecting a type of server, it will ask for details on the participants of your server. It’s okay to skip this.

5. In the next pop-up, you can customize your server’s name and icon. After doing so, click “Create.”

6. You’ll be taken to your new Discord server. At this point, you can add members, personalize your server, or send your first message.

Tip: Read on for more help setting up a new Discord server.

How to Invite Hydra Music Bot to Your Discord Server

After creating and personalizing your Discord server and adding members, you can invite Hydra bot to your Discord server. Follow the below steps to add Hydra to your server:

1. Go to Hydra’s website.
2. Click on “Invite” at the home page to start the process of adding Hydra bot to your Discord server.

3. You’ll be directed to the sign-in page for Discord. Enter your username and password to continue.

4. After signing in, Hydra will ask you to choose which server you want to add the music bot to. Select your server from the drop-down option, then click on “Continue.”

5. Click on “Authorize” to proceed to the next step.

6. Answer and pass the CAPTCHA.

7. You’ll be directed to the web dashboard of Hydra. You can switch back to the Discord app to check whether the music bot was added to your server.

How to Set Up Hydra Music Bot in Discord

After inviting Hydra bot to your Discord server, follow these steps to set it up so that you can start listening to music on your server:

1. Go to any text channel, such as #general, type .setup, and hit Enter.

2. When you enter the .setup command, the music bot will create a new text channel dedicated to song requests and controlling the Hydra music bot. .
3. The new channel should be #hydra-song-request.
4. Once the new text channel for Hydra is created, join any voice channel on your server.
5. Once you’re in a voice channel, go to the Hydra bot text channel (#hydra-song-request) to start requesting songs.

How to Request Songs in Your Discord Server

Now that you have set up your Hydra bot in your Discord server, you can start listening to music on Discord while on the same voice channel with other server members. Follow the steps below to make song requests and control the music bot:

1. Go to Hydra’s text channel (#hydra-song-request), type “.play artist name song title” in the message field, then hit Enter to request a song.

Example: “.play charlie puth cheating on you”

2. When you request a song, its album cover will appear, along with music actions, such as play, pause, replay, etc.

3. You can also add a song on queue by typing the request command (“.play artist name song title”) and hitting Enter.
4. A queue list will appear if you request other songs after your first request.

Good to know: We can also show you how to add music to your Instagram story.

Hydra Music Bot Commands

1. To play or pause a song, click on the play or pause button below the album art. You can also type .pause or .play and hit Enter.

2. To skip the song that is currently playing, click on the skip button or type “.skip” and hit Enter.

3. To stop and clear the song request queue, click on the stop button or type “.stop” and hit Enter.

4. If you wish to repeat the songs on the queue list, click on the replay button or type “.loop” and hit Enter. Type “.loop” and hit Enter to disable song or queue looping.

Note: clicking on the replay button once will repeat the whole queue list. By clicking on it twice, Hydra will repeat only the song that’s currently playing. Clicking it three times will turn off the repeat command.

5. If you want to shuffle the queue list, click on the shuffle button or type “.shuffle” and hit Enter. Type “.shuffle” and hit Enter to disable queue shuffling.

Note: clicking on the shuffle button twice will turn off the shuffle command.

Tip: also learn how to play music from the command line in Linux.

How to Set Up Hydra’s Reaction Roles in Your Discord Server

Reaction Roles is Hydra’s additional feature on top of its main music bot feature. It lets you create and set roles for your Discord server’s members. Follow these steps to set up roles and use them:

How to Create Discord Server Roles

Follow the instructions below to set up roles in your Discord so that you can set it up with Hydra bot.

1. Launch Discord.
2. On the top left of your server screen, click your server’s name, then click “Server Settings” from the drop-down menu.

3. Select “Roles” from the menu on the left, then click “Create Role.” Edit the newly created role by clicking on the pencil icon.

4. In the “Display” tab, type a role name and select a role color.

5. Go to the “Permissions” tab to change general server permissions for the role you created. You can also leave it as is.

6. Repeat the process for additional server roles. Make each one distinctive, using different role names, colors, and permissions.

How to Set Up Hydra Reaction Roles

Now that your Discord server has roles, you can set it up with Hydra’s Reaction Roles by following these steps:

1. Go back to Hydra’s web dashboard and head to the “Reaction Roles” tab.

2. In the “Configuration” field, type any name, such as “Reaction Roles” or “Button Roles.”

3. Select the text channel where you want to place Hydra’s Reaction Roles. You can make a new text channel on your Discord server that’s dedicated to reaction roles and name it #roles for ease of use.

4. From the “Type” drop-down menu, select “Normal.”

5. Go to the “Options” section and click “Add Option.”

6. Click on “Button” and set an emoji that will represent your reaction roles. Use the same name as the roles you created in your Discord server. When you’re done, click on “Add Action.”

7. In the pop-up, select “Add a role.”

8. Select a role that you created in your Discord server from the “Select a role” drop-down menu.

9. Select your Discord server’s role that you want to connect with this reaction role. Click “Confirm.”

10. Do the same process for other reaction roles you want to connect with your Discord server’s roles.
11. Click on the “Save” button to apply the changes.

12. Go back to your Discord server and check whether Hydra sent a message on the text channel dedicated to reaction roles. If not, delete all options you created in Hydra’s Reaction Roles web dashboard and start again.

How to Use Hydra Reaction Roles in a Discord Server

Now that you’ve set up the Reaction Roles on your Hydra bot for Discord, you and your server members can use it. Follow to steps below to get roles:

1. Go to your server’s text channel for Hydra’s Reaction Roles.

2. Your server’s members can now choose from the roles you created by clicking on the buttons below Hydra’s Reaction Roles message. Choosing a role will also change the text color.

Note: By choosing a certain role, this will affect the user’s access to your server, depending on the permissions you set.

FYI: looking for more Discord servers? Check out this list of interesting Discord servers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use my Spotify playlist with Hydra?

Yes. Get the link to your preferred Spotify playlist, then type .play followed by your Spotify playlist link on your Discord server’s Hydra bot song request text channel. If music isn’t your thing, you may be interested in learning about the best Discord gaming bots.

Are there any more commands you can use in Hydra for Discord?

Yes. There are commands dedicated to all server members, the music bot DJ, and the admin of the server. There are additional commands if you have a premium Hydra subscription. Go to Hydra’s commands page to check out the other commands.

What is the purpose of roles in Discord?

Some Discord servers only use it to decorate their display name with the colors connected to the role if all roles have the same access to the permissions granted by the server admin.

On the other hand, roles can also be used to limit what your server’s members can do on your server. For example, you can restrict them from banning and kicking out other server members.

Image credit: Unsplash. All screenshots by Natalie dela Vega.