diff --git a/common/Cargo.toml b/common/Cargo.toml
index ab7811d778..ad2fb77b80 100644
--- a/common/Cargo.toml
+++ b/common/Cargo.toml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ edition = "2018"
 
 [features]
 no-assets = []
+hot-reloading = ["common-assets/hot-reloading"]
 simd = ["vek/platform_intrinsics"]
 bin_csv = ["ron", "csv", "structopt"]
 bin_graphviz = ["petgraph"]
diff --git a/common/assets/Cargo.toml b/common/assets/Cargo.toml
index b0897b8a5c..4b46aecac6 100644
--- a/common/assets/Cargo.toml
+++ b/common/assets/Cargo.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ version = "0.10.0"
 
 [dependencies]
 lazy_static = "1.4.0"
-assets_manager = {version = "0.5.0", features = ["bincode", "ron", "json", "hot-reloading"]}
+assets_manager = {version = "0.5.0", features = ["bincode", "ron", "json"]}
 ron = { version = "0.6", default-features = false }
 dot_vox = "4.0"
 image = { version = "0.23.12", default-features = false, features = ["png"] }
@@ -21,4 +21,5 @@ serial_test = {version = "0.5", optional = true}
 walkdir = "2.3.2"
 
 [features]
-asset_tweak = ["serial_test", "serde"]
+hot-reloading = ["assets_manager/hot-reloading"]
+asset_tweak = ["serial_test", "serde", "hot-reloading"]
diff --git a/common/assets/src/lib.rs b/common/assets/src/lib.rs
index 43bca38377..b23f27bb2f 100644
--- a/common/assets/src/lib.rs
+++ b/common/assets/src/lib.rs
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ lazy_static! {
         AssetCache::new(&*ASSETS_PATH).unwrap();
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "hot-reloading")]
 pub fn start_hot_reloading() { ASSETS.enhance_hot_reloading(); }
 
 pub type AssetHandle<T> = assets_manager::Handle<'static, T>;
diff --git a/voxygen/Cargo.toml b/voxygen/Cargo.toml
index bd569f7c4d..bee73360e0 100644
--- a/voxygen/Cargo.toml
+++ b/voxygen/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ buildInputs = ["xorg.libxcb"]
 [features]
 hot-anim = ["anim/use-dyn-lib"]
 hot-egui = ["voxygen-egui/use-dyn-lib", "egui"]
+hot-reloading = ["common/hot-reloading"]
 singleplayer = ["server"]
 simd = ["vek/platform_intrinsics"]
 tracy = ["profiling", "profiling/profile-with-tracy", "common-frontend/tracy", "client/tracy"]
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@ egui-ui = ["voxygen-egui", "egui", "egui_wgpu_backend", "egui_winit_platform"]
 
 # We don't ship egui with published release builds so a separate feature is required that excludes it.
 default-publish = ["singleplayer", "native-dialog", "plugins", "simd"]
-default = ["default-publish", "egui-ui"]
+default = ["default-publish", "egui-ui", "hot-reloading"]
 
 [dependencies]
 client = {package = "veloren-client", path = "../client"}
diff --git a/voxygen/src/main.rs b/voxygen/src/main.rs
index b0270bc810..38f8bdad85 100644
--- a/voxygen/src/main.rs
+++ b/voxygen/src/main.rs
@@ -14,10 +14,9 @@ use veloren_voxygen::{
     GlobalState,
 };
 
-use common::{
-    assets::{self},
-    clock::Clock,
-};
+#[cfg(feature = "hot-reloading")]
+use common::assets;
+use common::clock::Clock;
 use std::panic;
 use tracing::{error, info, warn};
 #[cfg(feature = "egui-ui")]
@@ -145,6 +144,7 @@ fn main() {
         default_hook(panic_info);
     }));
 
+    #[cfg(feature = "hot-reloading")]
     assets::start_hot_reloading();
 
     // Initialise watcher for animation hot-reloading