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Going into Palworld, I wasn’t expecting anything more than another silly Pokemon clone. However, by exploring Palworld‘s vast open world, I realized I was diving into a genre that I wasn’t familiar with. I haven’t played any of the Ark Survival games, and the survival genre is generally something I don’t usually dip my toes into. But, like many others, Palworld won me over with some cool monster designs and systems that were easy for a beginner like me to get into. Still, there are many things that I wish I had known before starting the game, and here are the tips that would have saved me some heartache.
Try To Set Up a Base on Flat Land
Playing on a dedicated server, my group’s first foray into base building was on a lovely cliffside overviewing the ocean. We spawned near the Plateau of Beginnings and headed to the Grassy Behemoth Hills. While the aesthetics were there, it wasn’t exactly a place suited for a homely base. Hilly terrain made it tough to place down buildings, and our base going over the cliff cut our effective building space by nearly a quarter. While you can make these locations work with some creativity, it wasn’t a great place to start a base for us beginners.
Put All Your Stats Into Stamina or Weight
Palworld‘s open world is massive, and there are tons of resources you’ll need when building your base. Most of your damage from fighting monsters will come from your Pals, so you shouldn’t put any of your stats into Attack or Defense. Instead, to optimize your base building, it’s highly recommended to put your stats into Stamina and Weight. Stamina will allow you to traverse the open world more efficiently, while Weight will allow you to carry more items and resources at once. You can make an argument for putting excess stats into Max HP or Work Speed, but so far, I haven’t felt the need to do either.
This Game Takes Advantage of STAB
When planning out the moves of your Pals for combat, you should note that the game uses the “STAB” system present from Pokemon. STAB stands for “Same Type Attack Bonus,” meaning your Pals’ attacks will deal more damage if the attack matches its type. In other words, Water-type Pals will deal more damage when using Water-type moves. Know that Palworld does borrow plenty of mechanics from Pokemon, and STAB is one of them.
You Can Teach Your Pals New Moves Using Skill Fruits
Missing TMs to teach your Pals some moves they can’t normally learn while leveling up? Palworld has its version of that as well. Skill Fruits can be found while exploring the overworld on some trees or treasure chests. These fruits can be fed to your Pals to teach them moves they might not normally learn on their own. Speaking of which…
Take Advantage And Mark Important Locations
If you find a cool dungeon that contains great drops or a Skill Fruit tree, it’s extremely important to mark these locations. When opening up the world map, you can press the “E” key to set a marker and indicate that the marked location is important. While starting the game, I never actually took advantage of this, and it took me a while to find certain Skill Fruit trees and dungeons again.
Weapons Are Fun, But Your Pals Do Most of the Battling
I remember opening up the game and trying my hardest to speedrun my levels. I’m sorry, but the morbid desire to bring an assault rifle on a terrifyingly large Pal was strong. But what I discovered as I battled Pals at a much higher level than me is that my attacks would not do much at all. My Pals did most of the damage, and spending resources on constantly refilling gun ammo and building new weapons wasn’t exactly a stellar return on investment. Granted, I did not put much stats into Attack. But even when my Pals were under-leveled, they were still able to output tons of damage and take down higher-level enemies. I certainly wouldn’t put so much emphasis on crafting new weapons in my second playthrough.
Buildings Will Naturally Decay Outside of Your Base
Imagine my excitement of creating a beautiful city with the game’s admittedly clunky building system. I transported hundreds of wood, stone, and ingot to build the most fabulous homes, a place where my guild could return at night and get a good sleep after killing and enslaving Pals all day. Unfortunately, there were plenty of times when I discovered that my buildings would simply crumble to dust if I wasn’t constantly repairing them. At first, I thought something was burning them down or Pals were attacking them when I wasn’t looking.
The answer is much simpler: if you build anything outside of your actual base (as indicated by a blue circle), your buildings will naturally decay. My aspirations for a fantastic neighborhood went unfounded, but there is a way to disable this setting in your own Palworld run. I just wish I knew to do that before building the apartment building of my dreams. Oh well.
Caaaake. We need cake!
I’m in love with cake, but my own personal affection for the delicious dessert goes unmatched compared to the Pals. Yes, the Pals in Palworld love cake so much that it’s actually an aphrodisiac for them to get down and dirty. When creating Breeding Farms, your two Pals will create their offspring, but only if you make plenty of cakes and allow them to indulge in the sweet treat. Personally, I would have gone for something like chocolate, but I suppose cake is as romantic a food as any. Anyway, I would make as much cake as you can when you have the chance. (You can learn how to bake plenty of cakes here.)
Are Your Pals Sick or Down in the Dumps? It’s Not a Big Deal
At the risk of sounding completely anti-labor (I am pro-union, believe me), if your Pals are exhibiting signs of depression or some extreme sickness, it’s… not that big a deal. This is, perhaps, one area in which the game might look to improve, but these ailments are all easily cured if you just build a Medicine Production table and craft the proper medicines. Plus, there’s no permadeath or anything, so it’s not like they’ll stop working. This isn’t an excuse to completely neglect your Pals, but you shouldn’t freak out if your Pals are falling victim to various degrees of malaise.
Your Favorite Pal Will Always be Viable
In Pokemon, you might find it a bit of a struggle to bring your cutest Scorbunny and keep him as a sweet baby until Level 100. In Palworld, this is all part of the game. If you want to use a Tanzee and let him go wild with his assault rifle while fighting legendaries, do it. Just be prepared to do a lot of grinding. With breeding, you can pass down massive stat boosts to improve any Pal. Additionally, you can catch extra copies of any Pal and condense them into a single Pal, increasing their stats. There’s also the chance to offer Pal Souls to Anubis Statues and increase your Pal stats that way, as well.
In other words, your favorite Pal can easily be your strongest. You’ll just have to put in the work to create the ultimate Tanzee if that Pal is your favorite.
