Palworld

Your first day on Palpagos

1. Grab the basics. Punch trees and rocks, and pick up Fiber, Wood and Stone off the ground.
2. Build a Primitive Workbench, then craft a Stone Axe and Stone Pickaxe.
3. Collect Paldium Fragments, the blue crystals along riverbanks and rocks. They go into Pal Spheres, your first priority.
4. Place a Palbox. It claims your base and stores the Pals you catch.
5. Catch everything nearby. Lamball, Cattiva, Chikipi, Lifmunk and Foxparks cover the first jobs at your base, and every first catch of a species gives bonus EXP.
6. Spend Technology Points each level on the essentials: Pal Spheres, a bed, a Feed Box, a Berry Plantation and a Campfire.

Raise your catch rate

• Lower HP first. Weaken a Pal before throwing; the catch-rate percentage above the target updates as you aim.
• Throw from behind. Spheres that hit a Pal from the back get a catch bonus, and sneaking up on a sleeping Pal is easiest of all.
• Upgrade your spheres. Mega, Giga and Hyper Spheres unlock through the technology tree and matter a lot against high-level Pals.
• Find Lifmunk Effigies. Offer them at a Statue of Power to raise capture power for every sphere.
• Stock up on duplicates. Feed extra copies to the Pal Essence Condenser to raise a Pal's rank, which boosts its stats and partner skill.

A base that runs itself

• Match jobs to Pals. Each Pal only works tasks shown in its work suitability. Kindling fuels furnaces and cooking, Watering and Planting run crops, Handiwork crafts.
• Keep them fed. Fill the Feed Box from a Berry Plantation early, then move to cooked food. Hungry Pals slow down and lose sanity.
• Watch sanity. Overworked Pals get depressed or sick. Beds, better food and a Hot Spring keep them healthy.
• Put ranchers on the Ranch. Farming Pals drop goods over time: Chikipi lays eggs, Lamball gives wool, Mozzarina gives milk.
• Level your base by completing its missions; each level lets more Pals work at once.

How breeding works

• Build a Breeding Farm from the technology tree and assign a male and a female Pal to it.
• Bake Cake and put it in the farm's box. Cake needs Flour, Red Berries, Milk, Eggs and Honey, so set up a Ranch and a Wheat Plantation first.
• Hatch the egg in an Egg Incubator. Bigger eggs take longer; temperature items speed it up.
• Pass down passives. Children can inherit their parents' passive skills, which is how players build perfect combat and work Pals.
• Use the breeding calculator to plan pairs before you commit the Cake.

Original tower order

The five syndicate towers of the starting islands, in the order most players take them. Beating a tower leader and their Pal awards Ancient Technology Points.

1. Rayne Syndicate Tower · Zoe & Grizzbolt
2. Free Pal Alliance Tower · Lily & Lyleen
3. Eternal Pyre Tower · Axel & Orserk
4. PIDF Tower · Marcus & Faleris
5. PAL Genetic Research Unit Tower · Victor & Shadowbeak

Mounts worth unlocking

• Direhowl is one of the first ground mounts and makes early exploring much faster.
• Eikthyrdeer can double jump, which helps on hills and cliffs.
• Nitewing is the classic first flying mount. After that, any flyer opens the map up.
• Jetragon is the fastest flyer in the early-access roster.
• Each mount needs its own saddle or harness, crafted at the Pal Gear Workbench after you unlock it in the technology tree.