Palworld: 8 things I wish I knew before starting Pokémon-like RPG
Palworld is already taking the world by storm. With 200K people playing it concurrently on Steam and the same again watching content creators play the game on Twitch, there’s a high chance you’ll find yourself wanting to play.
As well as Steam, the game released on Xbox Game Pass giving subscribers the chance to play this survival, creature-collecting RPG for free. There’s a lot to do in Palworld, so you’ll be forgiven if you feel a little overwhelmed by the options. Let’s get you started, shall we?
Tutorial
Follow the tutorial all the way through, but beware of the final step. The tutorial will guide you through collecting materials, building a rudimentary house, crafting your first spheres, and catching some Pals. Through these steps you’ll end up with a basic base and several Pals, however, the last step is to take on one of the game’s bosses which can be quite a challenge if you’re playing on your own. You’ll need to get your Pals levelled up a fair way before taking on the boss or you’ll get squashed.
Craft lots of spheres
Advert
Palworld is a creature collector at it’s core and you will be catching a lot of these little critters. Make sure whenever you go out exploring you take at least 30 spheres with you. Your character will get hungry after a while, but with some food in your pocket you can catch Pals constantly. As the game progresses you will use Pals to fight, to aid you with crafting in your base, as well as using them to produce materials. When you catch ten of one Pal, you’ll get a tasty EXP bonus, too.
Monitor your hunger and food
The more active you are, the hungrier you’ll get. Food is kept in your inventory and can be used whenever you see fit. You’ll notice, however, that each food item has a countdown timer. Once this runs out you’ll lose one item from the stack, representing the food going bad. You don’t want to be caught without food because your Pals will need to eat too. The more they fight or use abilities, they will need to stop and snack.
Harvest everything
Doesn’t matter what it is, pick it up or harvest it. Wood, stone, Paldium, ore; just pick it up. You can craft chests from quite early on and you can store enormous stacks. Where games like Minecraft only allow a stack of 64, Palworld seemingly has no limit. Or at least several hundred, so don’t be scared of losing space. You will use pretty much every material at some point, but those basic resources are used constantly throughout the technology tree.
Use your Palboard
To have Pals work at your base, you need to assign them to the base within the Palboard interface. Only when they’re assigned will they become autonomous, and even then they have to have the right abilities. If you highlight a Pal in the Paldeck you’ll see several icons - fire, water, plants and more - this tells you what the Pal can work on. For example, if it has a water symbol lit, it can water your crops; fire will help cook food or smelt ore. Make note of these when you want to add Pals to your workforce.
The bow is your friend
While you can melee Pals to weaken them before catching them, the bow is a much better option. Attacking from range is safer, plus the arrows do more damage to Pals than the bat or spear. A combo of bow attacks and your Pal attacking will swiftly knock out any wild Pals. Arrows also take very little time to craft and they use only wood and stone. This is a perfect option until later levels when you unlock guns.
Statue of Power
The Statue of Power is an early piece of technology that upgrades a very important stat for your character. As you explore you will find small green holograms that can be collected. These act as a currency for the statue and can upgrade your Pals. However, you’re better off upgrading your character instead as it boosts the capture rate of catching Pals, and a later piece of tech will be far better for giving your Pals a boost.
Dungeons
As you explore you will discover dungeons - they appear as cave entrances - and by entering you’ll find exclusive Pals, as well as increased treasure drops and a big nasty boss. Each dungeon lasts for 50 minutes before it closes and is gone forever. Dungeons are separated into several rooms and you’ll have to remember your way out or kill the boss to access an exit portal. These are well worth exploring once you hit level 10 - they can be a bit tricky until then. Make sure to go fully equipped and ensure your armour and weapons are fully repaired.
Topics: PC, Steam, Xbox, Xbox Game Pass