How to Play: Guide for Palworld
This page will serve as a basic how to play guide for Palworld. While there is very little information available at this time, we urge you to check back often, as new information is being added all the time! Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.
Game Setup
When starting Palworld up for the first time, click "Start Game" and then "Create New World" to start a new game. After entering a name for the world, a player has several options; World Name, Multiplayer, and Difficulty.
- World Name - click this to change the world name.
- Multiplayer - turn this on if you intend to play with friends.
- Difficulty - There are four difficulty settings. These can be changed when logging into your world.
- Casual - Easiest setting. Pals and resources are easier to catch and obtain, battles are easier, and no penalty for dying.
- Normal - Standard balance. Inventory is dropped on death.
- Hard - Hardest difficulty. Pals and resources are harder to catch and obtain. Everything hits harder. On death, both your inventory and your pals are dropped.
- Custom Settings - These are more specific settings that can be changed to fine tune specific aspects of difficulty.
Once you are happy with your settings, hit "ok".
This takes you to the Character Creation Screen, to begin with the creation of the player character. Enter your name. Then either choose from one of the presets that cover a variety of different body types, or use the Body, Face, Hair, and Voice tabs to cycle through customization options.
Once you are happy, hit "start game". When done, they can jump into the game world and learn the tricks of survival with the in-game Tutorial.
Welcome to the Palpagos Islands!
Basic gameplay
After a cut scene plays, you will be spawned into a ruins in Windswept Hills. Straight ahead is a Great Eagle Statue. These are fast travel points that are scattered throughout the world. There is also an expedition survivor who gives you 10 Wood.
A player's first priorities are finding Food, capturing their first Pal, and finding a location for a base.
- Food is fairly easy as there are an abundance of Red Berries located near spawn.
- Generally, a Cattiva and a Lamball make for good first pals for their utilities that help building your first base. First you will want a Wooden Club to use to weaken the pal. You'll first need to build a Primitive Workbench where the Club is crafted. Second, you need Pal Spheres. Initially, these are simply picked up off the ground, but later on you will be able to craft these.
- There's no right or wrong location for bases because you can fast travel to Great Eagle Statues from your palbox. To build your base, first place down and build a Palbox. Once it is complete, you will have successfully started your first base and can start adding other things such as Chests, a Primitive Workbench, Beds and other structures to help you and your pals become productive.
Controls
The Steam version of Palworld can be played using both Keyboard and Mouse or with a Controller. Below are the controls available on each.
| Keyboard and Mouse Controls | ||
|---|---|---|
| Action | Shortcut | Uses |
| Forward |  |
Walk Forward |
| Backwards |  |
Walk Backwards |
| Left |  |
Left |
| Right |  |
Right |
| Jump | Spacebar | Jump |
| Sprint | Shift | Sprints |
| Roll | CTRL | Rolls |
| Crouch/Slide | "C" | Crouches or Slides |
| Attack or Use | Left Click | Attacks with or Uses equipped weapon or tool |
| Aim | Right Click | Aims with equipped weapon or tool |
| Reload Weapon | "R" | Reloads weapon |
| Change Weapon | Scroll wheel | Toggles through Weapons |
| Throw Pal Sphere | "Q" | Throws selected Pal Sphere |
| Change Spheres | 2 | Toggles through Spheres |
| Cancel throw | Right Click | Cancels Pal Sphere Throw |
| Summon Pal | "E" | Summons selected pal |
| Change Pal | 1 & 3 | Rotates through Pals in Party |
| Partner Skill | "F" | Uses Partner's special skill |
| Pal Skill 1 | Left Click | Uses the first rideable pal skill |
| Pal Skill 2 | "E" | Uses the second rideable pal skill |
| Pal Skill 3 | "C" | Uses the third rideable pal skill |
| Pal Commands | 4 | Hold down then select to command pals |
| Controller Controls | ||
|---|---|---|
| Action | Shortcut | Uses |
| Forward | Left thumbstick | Walk Forward |
| Backwards | Left thumbstick | Walk Backwards |
| Left | Left thumbstick | Left |
| Right | Left thumbstick | Right |
| Jump | A | Jump |
| Sprint | Click left thumbstick | Sprints |
| Roll | B | Rolls |
| Crouch/Slide | B | Crouches or Slides |
| Attack or Use | Right Trigger | Attacks with or Uses equipped weapon or tool |
| Aim | Left Trigger | Aims with equipped weapon or tool |
| Reload Weapon | X | Reloads weapon |
| Change Weapon | Y | Toggles through Weapons |
| Throw Pal Sphere | Right Bumper | Throws selected Pal Sphere |
| Change Spheres | D-pad down | Toggles through Spheres |
| Cancel throw | Left Trigger | Cancels Pal Sphere Throw |
| Summon Pal | Left Bumper | Summons selected pal |
| Change Pal | D-pad left & right | Rotates through Pals in Party |
| Partner Skill | X | Uses Partner's special skill |
| Pal Skill 1 | Right Trigger | Uses the first rideable pal skill |
| Pal Skill 2 | Left Bumper | Uses the second rideable pal skill |
| Pal Skill 3 | B | Uses the third rideable pal skill |
| Pal Commands | Click right thumbstick | Hold down then select to command pals |
Tips and tricks
- There is an in-game tutorial that walks most players through the first few days in the game.
- While holding "Q" to throw a Sphere, you can right click to cancel the throw.
- Try to prioritise capturing many different Pals over multiples of the same one. Each Pal has unique abilities and labour skills to help you in your Base.
- Build your base near different kind of resources. Your Pals will gather them for you.
- Upgrade your base by doing the missions located in your Palbox.
- Craft a stone pickaxe so you can make Pal Spheres (instead of relying on picking random ones off the ground) and capture more Pals.
- Forage for food and build a berry plantation as soon as you are able. Eat regularly and keep your Pals fed to heal up.
- If any of your Pals die, put them into a Palbox. They will recover their health over time.
- Build a campfire and craft clothes and a torch to avoid being cold and gradually losing your health during the night.