Palworld is out now in Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, and judging by its number of wishlists on Steam, many players are about to jump into the open-world Pokemon- and Zelda-inspired survival-crafting game. Palworld is a fascinating amalgamation of these games and more, which means there are many mechanics and features to unravel as you begin your journey. We've been playing for a while now and offer up these 15 Palworld tips to get you off and running.
The difficulty offers lots of customization and can be changed at any time
Palworld might startle players coming to it mainly from the Pokemon world, as there are hunger and temperature mechanics, crafting menus, and all sorts of things that traditional creature collectors don't offer. Thankfully, its difficulty options are numerous. Palworld has both a few preset difficulty options as well as a wide range of fine-tuning options, like how much those aforementioned survival elements need to be contended with, or how much damage you give and receive in battle.
Don't be afraid to tweak the game to your liking, or even experiment, because you can always change it up from the main menu later on. Simply go to your saved world and, before loading into the open world, select "Change World Settings."
You can climb anything like in Breath of the Wild
If you're reading this after already messing around in the game, it's likely you already noticed, but just in case: Yes, you can climb anything in Palworld, just like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And just like in that game, you'll need to be mindful of your stamina bar so you don't get gassed before you reach the top of whatever you're ascending or descending.
You can--and should--retrieve your lost items upon defeat
Yes, Palworld also contains the concept of "corpse runs." At first glance, the term seems a bit harsh for a world as cute as this, but then you remember you have to force these Pals into submission by beating them up, then enlisting them into a life of servitude and suddenly "corpse run" doesn't seem so thematically jarring. Anyway, don't forget to return to where you died to pick up your stuff--unless you turned off that feature in the custom difficulty options.
Food items can go bad
Sorry, but you can't hoard food in Palworld. Each item, be it cooked or uncooked, has a freshness period, and when time is up, it disappears from your inventory. You can extend the life of some items by cooking them, but you'll still want to eat what you have before it goes bad. In your inventory menu, each food item has a live countdown shown. That's how much time you have until the item vanishes for having gone bad, so eat up! Food waste is no joke, even in Palworld.
Hurt Pals are easier to capture, but defeated Pals can't be captured
Once you've crafted your first Pal Sphere (the equivalent of a Pokeball), you'll technically be equipped with what you need to capture a Pal. However, they can be tough to wrangle unless they're wounded. You can preview the likelihood of capturing a Pal by hovering over them while aiming a Pal Sphere. It's shown as a percentage chance of success. If the odds look unfavorable, deal damage to the creature first--and don't question the morality of such a world, as doing so can cause vertigo.
But also note that you don't want to drain the Pal of all of their HP. If you do, they'll be knocked out for good--as evidenced by familiar-looking swirly eyes--and won't be able to be captured.
You can change a Pal's name whenever you want
Of course, one of the best parts of a creature collector is giving each of your Pals a name of their own. You can do this as soon as you capture them. Just go into the menu, click the Party menu, then select a Pal. You'll see the edit button beside their name. From there, it's up to you, though I recommend "Jeff."
Palworld doesn't exactly follow the traditional "Starter Pokemon" format
It's the question on everyone's mind when they begin a new creature collector: "Which starter do I choose?" The answer in Palworld, however, is a bit unconventional. There's no Professor Oak here to limit you to one of three Pals, though the world does seem to tip its hand toward three in particular. But even then, you can capture all three in the opening minutes of the game.
We've got a separate guide to help you decide which Palworld starter you should pick that explains all of this further.
Don't forget to "acquire" a crafted item before leaving the workbench
This is such a simple thing to mess up, but I sure do wish someone told me before I started. Once you have a workbench ready and the materials needed to build an item, it only takes a few seconds to put in the work. But, if you craft the item and then depart on your journey, you'll have left without the thing you just crafted.
Always be sure to craft the item, then select "acquire [item]" before you head out. Forgetting this step is especially annoying when it was Pal Spheres you were crafting and then left behind. It's like leaving your wallet at home and not noticing until you get to your destination.
Craft lots of Pal Spheres (and then craft some more)
Going hand-in-hand with the above tip, you should craft as many Pal Spheres as you can reasonably make and carry. You'll need them often, and (as far as we've seen so far) they can only be made at workbenches, so like some folks like to say, it's better to have Pal Spheres and not need them rather than need them and not have them.
Each Pal has both guaranteed and randomized traits
There are 111 Pals in Palworld at launch, barring any secret creatures not listed in the Paldeck. Over time, you'll get to know each of them well, including their strengths and weaknesses. But here's an early tip: Each species of Pal has their own ingrained "partner skill" as well as a randomized passive skill that's revealed upon capture.
Over time, this may mean that you know exactly what you're getting with a Pal's partner skill, but may choose to "re-roll" their passive skill by capturing a Pal of the same species. Each Pal also has work suitability stats, but these too appear ingrained according to species and not randomized.
Nearby Pals of the same type may band together to fight you
Early in my travels, I took on a level 6 Hoocrates, which was already a bit too strong for me, given that I was just level 3 and hadn't yet crafted a weapon. But to my surprise, the Hoocrates that was close by when the melee broke out actually helped the targeted Hoocrates in battle. Note that Palworld doesn't use turn-based combat. This was in real-time. So I basically got jumped by two large puffins wearing witch hats.
If you're going to go after a Pal, note your surroundings. Pals of the same type will stick together and make it an uneven fight.
Determine your Pal's behavior in the command wheel
Of course, your own Pals can fight alongside you too. To do that simply summon them by throwing their Pal Spheres. They'll behave according to your instructions, so be sure you've set them to behave how you prefer by using the command wheel (click right stick on controller). You can tell them:
- Don't attack
- Focus on same enemy [as you]
- Attack aggressively
Take note of that last one too, as it once caused my trained Pal to defeat a wild Pal I planned on capturing. Sometimes, if you can handle a fight alone, it may be best too. Those Lamballs don't know their own strength.
Pals will passively heal inside their Pal Spheres
The thing about having to hurt your Pal in order to catch them is then you've captured an injured Pal. Thankfully, they slowly but surely heal whenever they're hanging in their Pal Sphere, so keep them bottled up if you can and they'll get back into shape soon.
Don't forget to enhance your stats regularly
Whenever you level up, you'll unlock two kinds of upgrades: new crafting items and stat boosts. Out of the gate, it feels easy to forget to upgrade your character using the "enhance stats" option in the Inventory menu, so this is your reminder. When you enhance your stats, you commit points to a number of critical categories, including:
- HP
- Stamina
- Attack
- Defense
- Work Speed
- Weight (carrying)
Yes, there's weapon (and item) degredation
This game doesn't just liberally borrow the modern Zelda UI and sound cues at times; it similarly uses a weapon degradation system. But because this is also a survival-crafting game, your tools like your axe and torch will also degrade over time. Be mindful of the state of your belongings and be sure to have a Repair Bench ready to go for when you need to get your items back into working condition.
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