Base Building and Automation
Your base is the core of your progression. An efficient base automates resource gathering, crafting, and food production. Poor base design leads to stuck Pals, low production rates, and constant frustration.
Choosing a Base Location
The Palbox establishes your base limits. Place it in a wide, flat area. Uneven terrain, cliffs, and water features cause pathing errors for your Pals. A flat plain allows Pals to walk freely between workstations without getting stuck on geometry.
Look for locations with natural resources within the blue ring radius. Ore nodes are incredibly valuable. Finding a flat area with several Ore nodes allows your Pals to mine continuously while you explore.
Work Suitability
Every Pal species has specific Work Suitability traits indicated by icons in their stats menu. Matching Pals to the right tasks is essential for automation.
| Work Type | Ideal For | Common Early Pal |
|---|---|---|
| Kindling | Cooking food, smelting ore | Foxparks |
| Watering | Growing crops, powering mills | Pengullet |
| Planting | Sowing seeds in plantations | Lifmunk |
| Mining | Gathering stone (Lv. 1) or ore (Lv. 2+) | Cattiva (stone only) |
| Handiwork | Crafting items at workbenches | Lamball |
Assign a mix of Pals to cover all necessary jobs. A base focused on farming needs Pals with Planting, Watering, and Gathering skills. A mining outpost needs Pals with high Mining levels. Check the numbers next to the icons. A Pal with level 2 Mining extracts ore much faster than a Pal with level 1 Mining.
Avoid cluttering your base with massive structures early on. Keep workstations spaced apart. Crowded areas trap larger Pals and stop them from working.
Managing Pal Sanity (SAN)
Pals lose Sanity (SAN) as they work. If SAN drops too low, they become stressed, refuse to work, or develop negative conditions like ulcers. Keep your workers happy to maintain production.
Build enough Straw Pal Beds for every worker. Upgrade to Fluffy Pal Beds when you unlock the technology. Place a Feed Box in the center of your base and keep it stocked with high quality meals. Raw berries accelerate SAN drain. Salads and Pizza are the best options for industrial bases because they offset the default decay rate far more effectively than basic cooked food.
Construct a Hot Spring. Pals automatically use the Hot Spring when their SAN drops, rapidly recovering their mood. A well fed Pal with a good bed and access to a Hot Spring works continuously without issue.
Automating Production Lines
Set up continuous production tasks. Assign recipes at the cooking pot or workbench and leave the required materials. Pals with Handiwork or Kindling suitability will automatically complete the tasks while you are away.
Use chests near production areas. Place a wooden chest right next to your logging site. Pals will gather the wood and instantly deposit it, reducing travel time and increasing overall efficiency.
Fixing Pal Pathing Issues
Large Pals frequently clip into structures and get permanently stuck, causing SAN to plummet. Follow these architectural rules to prevent pathing breaks:
| Structure | Guideline | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Doorways | Minimum 3 wall heights of clearance | Prevents Alpha Pals and bosses from getting stuck inside buildings. |
| Stairs | At least 2 units wide | Narrow stairs cause AI traffic jams when multiple Pals try to cross. |
| Foundations | Use the same material type as attached stairs | Mixing wooden stairs with stone foundations breaks pathing nodes entirely. |
Solving Ranch Transport Bottlenecks
Transport Pals sometimes ignore items produced inside Ranch structures (Milk, Eggs, Wool). The Ranch creates a conflicting pathing zone that standard transporters cannot enter. Use Transport Level 4 Pals like Wumpo or Wumpo Botan to fix this. High tier transporters teleport items directly from the ground into nearby chests, bypassing the need to physically walk into the Ranch area.
See Getting Started if you need help with the initial setup.