Game Mechanics Explained


Palworld - Game Mechanics

Palworld is an action adventure RPG game that uses several different game mechanics like exploration, crafting, base building, battles, and more. Read on the get a brief overview of all the game mechanics in the game!

Battle and Exploration Game Mechanics Explained

Capturing Pals

Palworld - Capture Pals

All Pal Spheres
Palworld - Pal Sphere Icon Pal Sphere Palworld - Mega Sphere Icon Mega Sphere Palworld - Giga Sphere Icon Giga Sphere
Palworld - Hyper Sphere Icon Hyper Sphere Palworld - Legendary Sphere Icon Legendary Sphere

The higher a Pal Sphere's tier is, the higher the catch rate.

You can capture Pals by throwing a Pal Sphere at them. Each Pal can have varying capture rates depending on multiple factors:

  • Level. Capturing higher-level pals are harder but will also provide more XP for levelling up.
  • Health. Lowering a Pal's health by battle can boost your capture rate, with a higher likelihood of success as the lower the target Pal's health is.
  • Pal Spheres. Using a higher tier Pal Spheres will give you better chances of capturing Pals and making them your allies.

Trying to catch a Pal who is several levels above yours, still has a large amount of health left, or is of a higher rarity than what your Pal Sphere can handle, will cause your Pal Sphere to be deflected, and this sphere will be lost.

Every new Pal captured is registered to your Paldeck where you check its stats and habitat. Captured Pals can serve in your active party as you explore, or can be assigned to work in any of your bases.

How to Catch Pals

Combat Gameplay

3rd Person Action

Palworld - Battle Mechanics

The combat in Palworld involves you directly controlling your character in a 3rd person POV to fight enemy Pals and humans alongside your own Pals. With that comes the basic movement controls, attack moves, and a dodge roll mechanic to avoid attacks.

You will also have access to various melee or ranged weapons, consumables, and armor to fit your playstyle, including a Glider or a Grappling Gun to give you more traversal options in exploration.

Element Type Matchups

Element matchup Palworld

Pals have element types which determines what kind of damage they do and how effective it will be against an opposing Pal's element. They can either deal 2x more damage or 0.5x less damage depending on its effectiveness.

Knowing the type match ups between different Pals is important to having an advantage over stronger Pals you will come across in the game such as Alpha Bosses or Legendary Pals.

Element Type Matchup Chart

Increase Damage with STAB

Palworld - STAB increases damage

When a Pal uses a move or Active Skill of the same type as the Pal, they gain a same-type attack bonus (STAB), which lets them deal more damage compared to using moves of similar power but different types.

STAB Explained

Skills

Active Skills

Palworld - Active Skills

At any time, you can have one of your Pals in your active party deployed alongside you. Throw out a sphere near an enemy to get them to fight.

How a Pal engages in combat is through their available Active Skills which can be customized in their Pal menu. Only three (3) can be set at any given time.

There are exceptions to the number of Pals that can be deployed out of their spheres with you in combat. Pal Gear necklaces, like Daedream's Necklace, are an example of such cases.

List of Active Skills

Pal Partner Skills

Pal Partner Skills

Pal Partner Skills give your Pals unique effects and actions that you can utilize in battle, exploration, or in your base. Pal Partner Skills may be passive in nature, or they can be activated through your command.

Some Partner Skills will require Pal Gear to enable them. For example, Foxpark's Harness will allow you to use Foxpark's Pal Partner Skill that turns the Pal into a controllabe flamethrower.

For example, flying mount Pals can give you more options to traverse the world via flying, or having a gliding Pal like for long-distance gliding, and other Partner Skill that increase your crafting or harvesting productivity.

All Partner Skill Effects

Passive Skills

Palworld - Four Slots of Passive Skills

Passive Skills are buffs or debuffs inherent to your Pal. They can either increase or decrease your Pal's damage, productivity, and other stats, so be aware of a Pal's available Passive Skills. Pals can have a maximum of four (4) Passive Skills.

Passive skills also have 3 tiers, the the 3rd being the highest and buffs or debuffs the most, depending on the type of passive.

While Passive Skills are inherent, you will be able to pass them down through Pal breeding. Methods of breeding such as chain breeding will also allow you to control what traits get passed down until you get the perfect Pal.

Best Passive Skills and How to Get

Raids

Palworld - Raids

Every now and then, your base can get raided by a group of hostile Pals or humans. Due to this, you would want to set up defenses against raiders to keep your structures intact and avoid your Pals from dying.

While a raid is ongoing, you can also decide to switch out your working base Pals via the Pal Box and bring out combat Pals. Raiders drop valuable items ranging from Gold Coins to Pal Souls, so make sure to bring out your strongest to take them down.

Raid Guide

Dungeons

Palworld - Dungeons

There are Dungeons you can find as you explore the world. These dungeons are timed, meaning that they will randomly available to access on a timer.

Dungeons typically contain valuable resources such as chunks of Paldium Fragments, new enemies (also some Dungeon-exclusive Pals), Alpha Bosses, and chests. These opportunities make dungeons worth exploring with time and good preparation.

All Dungeon Locations

Alpha Bosses

Alpha Boss - Palworld

Alpha Bosses are larger Pals that you can encounter as you explore the world. They can be found out in the wild or within dungeons.

These Pals are bigger than usual and will have higher stats as well. You can capture them to add them to your party or defeat them to gain valuable Ancient Civilization Parts and loot.

Even better, they can respawn, so if you want to defeat and catch multiple copies, or farm Ancient Civilization Parts, you can check their locations from time to time (can be identified as Pal icons in the map).

List of Alpha Bosses

Tower Bosses

Palworld - Tower Bosses

All Tower Bosses
Palworld - Zoe and GrizzboltZoe and Grizzbolt
(Lvl. 10)
Palworld - Lily and LyleenLily and Lyleen
(Lvl. 25)
Palworld - Axel and OrserkAxel and Orserk
(Lvl. 40)
Palworld - Marcus and FalerisMarcus and Faleris
(Lvl. 45)
Palworld - Victor and ShadowbeakVictor and Shadowbeak
(Lvl. 50)

Tower Bosses are strong oppontents you will have to face as you progress in Pal world. They reside in easy-to-spot towers and there currently 5 of them in the game. These bosses will mount a strong Pal which gives them access to dangerous attacks.

You will also be given only 10 minutes to defeat the leader, so make sure to have the right level, good gear, and a strong party with you before challenging them.

All Palworld Tower Bosses

Pal Breeding and Improvement

Palworld - Breeding Result Jetragon

Composing a strong team of Pals means looking for Pals with desirable traits and having them breed strong offspring. Natural selection is the name of the game in Palworld.

There are a variety of options to boost Pals to their prime, with breeding being one of those that require a huge time investment:

Palworld Breeding Combos Calculator

Crafting and Base Building Game Mechanics Explained

Crafting

Crafting - Palworld

Harvest Materials

You will need to harvest different types of materials to craft items. You can do this by gathering Wood, Stone, Paldium Fragments, and other natural materials around the world with your tools or with your Pals.

There are also some materials (such as Wool and Pal organs like Flame Organ) that can only be obtained by defeating Pals. Other materials may also be found in chests or by crafting (such as Cloth).

Craft with Workbenches

Palworld - Crafting

You can craft various items in the game, like tools, using workbenches. There are different types of workbenches, and each one specializes in crafting a specific category of items, such as food or weapons.

Crafting Guide and Best Crafting Pals

Unlock Recipes with Technology Points

Palworld - Technology Tree

There also crafting recipes you need to unlock to craft better items.

You can do this by investing your Technology Points to the recipe you want to unlock. These recipes are locked behind a level tier, and so you will have to level up to gain access to higher tier recipes.

Some rarer technologies found to the far right of tree, the Ancient Technology branch, provide valuable utility to exploration as well as other activities like breeding (like the Egg Incubator). These require Ancient Technology Points, which usually come from defeating Alpha Pals for the first time or defeating Tower Bosses.

Best Technology to Unlock First

Base Building

Palworld - Base Building

In Palworld, you start out with only one (1) base, but you can build can build more as you level up your Base Level. This is done by accomplishing objectives prescribed in a base via the Pal Box.

Bases act as a home or resting area for you and your Pals, and is your all-in-one stop for storing items, crafting, and also fast travel.

As you develop your bases, it can eventually become self-sufficient to have everything you need by assigning your Pals to do the work for you.

Base Building Guide

Work Suitability

Palworld - Suitability

Pals will have different types of Work Suitability which lets them specialize in a type of work in your base. For example, a Pal with Level 4 Lumbering can harvest wood for you efficiently.

It is recommended to have different kinds of Pals with various Work Suitabilities to delegate different work tasks.

Best Pal for Every Work Suitability

Production Structures

Palworld - Use Production Assembly Lines to Craft Items

The beauty of a home base is that it is also a source of restocking items and crafting. Construct production facilities such as Workbenches (and at a higher levels, assembly lines) so that you can assign your base Pals to create items.

Having these structures in place will help you produce items more efficiently. Each facility will require a work suitability and having assigned Pals matching that work suitability will allow them to use those structures.

However, you need to avoid overworking your Pals because they can become aggressive towards you if you do.

All Workbenches and Production Technology

Work Speed

Palworld - Work Speed

Work Speed refers to how fast you or your Pals are able to perform a tasks like cutting trees, mining rocks, and crafting items. The higher the Work Speed, the faster a task is finished.

Work Speed Explained

Survival Game Mechanics Explained

Stats

Stats Palworld

The game has different stats you can increase by using your Stat Points that you gain as you level up. These stats can improve various things, like your health, stamina, hunger, and carry weight.

Pals will also have their stats increased as they level up, but they can also be boosted artificially through Pal Souls at a Statue of Power.

Best Character Stat Points to Upgrade

Hunger

Eating Palworld

Hunger is a game mechanic shared by you and your Pals. Not eating Food will cause hunger and, at worse, starvation. When a Pal or a character starves, its HP will slowly drop until 1.

Manage you and your Pals' hunger by consuming food from time to time. Cooked Food will have a larger hunger replenishment in addition to having a long expiration timer. Food can either be acquired from hunting Pals, looting, or cooking them at your base.

How to Eat Food

Stamina

Palworld - Stamina Bar

Actions such as sprinting, climbing, dodging, atacking, or using a mount requires stamina. The stamina bar of both your character and your Pal mount, however, are separate. Stamina can be improved through your stats, equipment, or consumables.

Using these actions frequently will drain your stamina, and once drained, will prevent you from using any stamina-consumptive actions until the bar is fully restored.

Movement is hindered while your stamina is fully depleted, but you can try to bypass this hindrance by riding on a Pal or using movement-based technology such as the Grappling Gun.

Stamina Explained

Temperature and Weather

Cold Hot Weather Palworld

Temperature has an effect on a wide variety of things ranging from your character health to egg hatching. Different areas can have cold, hot, or neutral climates, with either dealing with extreme heat or cold will cause your HP to drop. Make sure to wear the appropriate clothing to keep your temperature balanced.

You can also build certain items like a Campfire, Heater, or Cooler for you base depending on the weather. This will help in the incubation of certain Pal such as Scorching Eggs benefitting from heat.

Day and Night Cycle

Day Night Cycle Palworld

Time will naturally progress in-game through a Day and Night cycle as you play. Like other mechanics, time speed can be set through the World Settings.

The time of the day is also connected to temperature with the addition that it determines what Pals are active during the night. For example, some Pals like Daydream can only be found at night while other Pals encountered during the day can be found sleeping.

In some areas like the Desert, you will want to be wearing heat-resistant equipment during the day to protect yourself from the scorching heat while having a cold-resistant one at night.

Day and Night Cycle

Treasure Chests and Loot

Dungeon Chest

As you explore in Palworld, you will come across chests that reward different kinds of loot ranging from Gold Coins to legendary Schematics.

You will also find loot on the ground as shiny objects you can pick up as you explore. Make sure to pay close attention to the environment since you will never know you may have some valuable items!

All Chest Locations and Best Farming Routes

Unlock Chests with Keys

Chest Keys
Palworld - Copper Key Material Copper Key Palworld - Silver Key Material Silver Key Palworld - Gold Key Material Gold Key

Most common chests (shown with a yellowish or purplish glow) can be opened without effort while those with a reddish glow will require keys to open.

You can find out what key the locked chest needs by approaching it and checking the unlock prompt.

How to Get Keys

Pal Sicknesses and Injuries

When Pals are damaged, overworked, or neglected, they may get one of the following injuries:

  • Hungry
  • Starving
  • Sick (Cold)
  • Sprain
  • Overfull
  • Ulcer
  • Fracture
  • Weakened
  • Depressed
  • Incapacitated
  • Minor Injury
  • Major Injury

These statuses can cause negative effects such as reduced working speed or inability to work, so it's important to maintain high Sanity for Pals. Ensure that the Pals are kept happy and sane by providing for their needs.

List of Sicknesses and Injuries

Carry Weight

Palworld - Carry Weight

Your Weight stat determines how many items you can carry before being overencumbered. Upgrading your Weight stat or using Pals with Partner Skills that boost carrying capacity can help you store more items in your inventory.

Weight Explained

Guilds Explained

Allows Cooperation Between Players

Guilds allow players to cooperate, share bases, and accomplish tasks together by being in the same group.

Guilds Explained

Palworld Related Guides

Palworld Front

Palworld Wiki TOP

Palworld - News and Events Partial BannerNews and Events Palworld - Paldeck BannerComplete Paldeck
Palworld Breeding Combos Calculator Breeding Palworld - Tips and Tricks Partial BannerTips and Tricks
Palworld - TechnologyTechnology Palworld - Materials BannerMaterials
Palworld - Skills BannerSkills Palworld - Game Mechanics BannerGame Mechanics
Palworld - Work Suitabilities Partial BannerWork Suitabilities Palworld - Tier Lists BannerTier Lists
Palworld - Schematics Partial Banner.pngSchematics Palworld - Bosses Tower Bosses
Palworld - Pal Builds BannerPal Teams and Builds Palworld - Message BoardMultiplayer Board
Palworld - Breeding Calculator Partial BannerBreeding Calculator Palworld - IV Stat Calculator Partial Banner.pngPal IV Stat Calculator
Loading...