Palworld performance woes seem worse for some after latest patch

As expected for anything in early access, there have been some performance issues with Palworld since day one. However, following the release of patch 0.1.4.1 (Steam) and 0.1.1.4 (Xbox), there’s a noticeable uptick in community reports of lag and disappearing floors.

Teething issues are part of the agreement when you sign on to play something in its experimental state, and players, for the most part, have been pretty forgiving and patient as they wait for fixes. However, the Palworld subreddit has recently become a hotbed of complaints, highlighting issues that render the game almost impossible to play and even more impossible to enjoy.

One bug appears to be affecting Xbox players in particular and renders Duneshelter entirely unusable. As soon as players arrive at the fast travel point, they’re dropped under the map along with every NPC in the area, including Merchants and the nearby Black Marketeer. This would be workable, but even if you manage to approach the NPCs while under the map, you can’t interact with them.

Players on PC also can’t escape the performance misery. After the update, some PC players are reporting lag so bad that it leaves areas completely inaccessible. This issue appears to be worsened by adventuring into dungeons, which is something that I can personally attest to. 

It’s not just performance issues in particular, either. Players are desperately awaiting the base AI updates promised in last month’s Roadmap, as they’re tired of having to constantly supervise their base Pals in order to prevent them from getting stuck in places with no explanation of how they even got there in the first place.

Perhaps one of the more annoying issues that players have faced since the very beginning is the extreme lag caused by the Viewing Cage, as the Pals and their enclosure make for a hefty asset load. While these cages are useful if you’ve maxed out storage in your Palbox, they are nearly unusable for a lot of players due to the issues they cause, which is why Viewing Cages cannot be built on dedicated multiplayer servers.

As for troubleshooting, that’s a little messier. With Palworld’s explosive popularity, it’s hard to nail down a few simple answers, but for typical lag after an hour of play, try restarting your PC or console. The “try turning it on and off again” advice isn’t sarcasm, either. With massive asset loads, possible memory leaks, and other configuration obstacles, restarting every hour or so maybe your best bet for a smooth experience until Pocket Pair can get a little more help in the studio.