10 things I wish I knew before playing Palworld

I’m not usually a survival game enthusiast, but my friends have finally dragged me onto the Palworld bandwagon. Now that I’m about 50 hours into Palworld, here are ten things I wish I knew before beginning my journey to become a Pal master.

1. Catch everything you see.

Catching ten of a Pal species grants you bonus EXP, which you’ll need to level up your character and Pals. Even past ten, extra Pals can be useful for managing your base, selling to merchants, or leveling up your other Pals. There is a limit to how many Pals you can have, but I didn’t run into the limit until quite late in the game. At that point, you’ll have unlocked multiple ways to cull your extras. 

2. You can breed powerful Pals early.

Anubis is one of the most useful Pals in Palworld. If you want to catch one in the wild though, your only option is a high-level boss Anubis in the northwestern desert biome. Instead of grinding until you’re strong enough to tackle this boss, you can breed other Pals together to produce your own Anubis now!

You can also breed for other useful Pals. If you want a particular Pal but haven’t caught one yet, try checking online to see if you can obtain it by breeding Pals you already own.

3. Use the Statue of Power.

The Statue of Power is a large bronze Anubis statue that you can unlock early in the game. Craft it as soon as possible. The Statue of Power does two things:

First, you can submit Lifmunk Effigies to the statue to increase your catch rates. Lifmunk Effigies can be found scattered throughout the open world. They glow green, so I’ve taken to searching for them at night, when I can more easily spot them from a distance. The catch rate increase from Lifmunk Effigies was bugged for a while, but this was fixed in a new update.

Second, you can use Pal souls to improve your Pals’ stats. It takes an increasing number of small, medium, and large Pal souls to improve your Pals’ max health, attack, defense, and work speed.

4. Spec your character into stamina and carry weight first.

As your character levels up, you’ll gain stat points that you can use to upgrade certain stats. You may be tempted to invest in your own attack stat, but hold your Univolts! When you first start out on your journey, you don’t have access to mounts or gliders. Getting caught without stamina in the wrong place can be deadly, so put some points into stamina!

You might also find yourself weighed down by all the wood and stone you have to gather in the early game. You can obtain these materials with Pals eventually, but for the short term, being able to carry more weight means fewer mining trips to build up your base.

If you change your mind, you can reset your stats later in the game by crafting some memory-wiping medicine. 

5. Pull Pals out of combat to avoid taking damage.

If you’re fighting a powerful boss, and you see it beginning to charge up an attack, quickly recall your Pal. This will prevent your Pal from taking damage, and the boss’ attack will miss. This strategy works better in co-op, since your teammates’ Pals can continue to deal damage while you pull your Pal out of harm’s way.

6. Pal pathing is bad; lay out your base accordingly.

Transport Pals will always deliver materials to the nearest chest. If you want them to put wood or stone in a certain chest, place the chest near them. 

In addition, it’s possible to build multi-story bases, but it appears Pals have trouble accessing anything past the first floor. If you do decide to build a second floor, I suggest using it as a living space for yourself rather than Pal facilities.

Protective walls around your base are good for fending off raiders, but Pals often escape through small gaps between walls, becoming stuck outside your base. If you’re confident that you can defend your base, an open plan without walls can help prevent this issue.

7. Remember to occasionally reset your base’s Pals.

Even without walls, Pals frequently get stuck on top of objects or in the terrain. It’s a good idea to, at intervals, remove your Pals from the base and add them back in. This will respawn them at your location, freeing them from wherever they may be stuck.

8. You can have multiple bases.

As you level up, you’ll gain the ability to construct two more bases, for a total of three. Your additional bases don’t need to be fully functional facilities, but it’s nice to have bare-bones mining operations at locations with coal or ore nodes. Our setup in my game consists of three mining Pals, three transport Pals, some beds, a feeding station, a spa, and a chest right by the base’s terminal.

9. Mark your map.

Dungeons, chests, and eggs respawn at the same location every time. If you want to remember where you found something, drop a marker on your map (E on PC). This is especially useful for dungeons, which you can farm for Ancient Civilization Parts. You can also mark merchant locations this way.

10. Catch rare Pals in sanctuaries using a mount.

Sanctuaries are islands at the edges of the map where rare Pals reside. They’re guarded by people at all times, and if you set foot in a sanctuary, you’ll become wanted for tresspassing.

The cheat to get around this is to stay on your mount. As long as your feet never actually touch the ground, you are not in the sanctuary. You can weaken and catch protected Pals without consequences — as long as you stay on your mount.

Now that you’re armed with these ten tips, I hope your adventures in Palworld go much smoother than mine! Check out Destructoid’s other Palworld resources for more detailed guides on all things Pal-related!