Game Mechanics Explained
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!
List of Contents
Battle and Exploration Game Mechanics Explained
- Capturing Pals
- Combat Gameplay
- Element Type Matchups
- Skills
- Raids
- Dungeons
- Alpha Bosses
- Tower Bosses
- Pal Breeding and Improvement
Capturing Pals
| All Pal Spheres | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Pal Sphere
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 Mega Sphere
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 Giga Sphere
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 Hyper Sphere
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 Legendary Sphere
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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.
Combat Gameplay
3rd Person Action
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
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.
Increase Damage with STAB
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.
Skills
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Alpha Bosses
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).
Tower Bosses
| All Tower Bosses | |
|---|---|
 Zoe and Grizzbolt(Lvl. 10) |
 Lily and Lyleen(Lvl. 25) |
 Axel and Orserk(Lvl. 40) |
 Marcus and Faleris(Lvl. 45) |
 Victor 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.
Pal Breeding and Improvement
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:
- Pairing desirable Pals for breeding, especially those with strong Passive Skills like Lucky and Legend.
- Hatching Eggs and figuring out the possible Pals that can come from them.
- Using the Pal Essence Condenser to rank up and boost a Pal's stats as well as their Partner Skill.
- Improving Pals' stats with Pal Souls through the Statue of Power.
Palworld Breeding Combos Calculator
Crafting and Base Building Game Mechanics Explained
Crafting
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
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
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
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.
Work 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
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
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.
Survival Game Mechanics Explained
- Stats
- Hunger
- Stamina
- Temperature and Weather
- Day and Night Cycle
- Treasure Chests and Loot
- Pal Sicknesses and Injuries
- Weight
Stats
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
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.
Stamina
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.
Temperature and Weather
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
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.
Treasure Chests and Loot
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 | ||
|---|---|---|
 Copper Key
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 Silver Key
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 Gold Key
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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.
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
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.
Guilds Explained
Allows Cooperation Between Players
Guilds allow players to cooperate, share bases, and accomplish tasks together by being in the same group.
Palworld Related Guides
News and Events
Complete Paldeck
Breeding
Tips and Tricks
Technology
Materials
Skills
Game Mechanics
Work Suitabilities
Tier Lists
Schematics
Tower Bosses
Pal Teams and Builds
Multiplayer Board
Breeding Calculator
Pal IV Stat Calculator
