• A hydrogel electrolyte regulation strategy of the water coordination environment can effectively restrain the hydrogen evolution reaction, Zn corrosion and dendrite formation in the wide-temperature ranges.
• Prepared high-environment-adaptable hydrogel electrolytes (HEA-3) exhibits a high reversibility of zinc deposition/stripping (coulombic efficiency of 99.4% for Zn||Cu cell).
• Zn-based device using HEA-3 electrolyte can do cycling over 30,000 cycles at a large current density of 2 A g−1 at −40 °C and also can do normal cycling even at -70 °C.
• The manipulation of water coordination chemistry enables advanced, highly adaptable batteries for wide-temperature applications.