Getting Started in Palworld
Surviving your first few days requires quick action and smart resource management. You wake up on the Windswept Hills with nothing. Your immediate priorities are crafting basic tools, capturing your first Pals, and establishing a primitive camp.
Gathering First Materials
Punch trees to gather Wood and pick up loose rocks to collect Stone. Pick up any Paldium Fragments you see scattered on the ground. These blue rocks are required for crafting Pal Spheres later. Collect branches and berries as you explore the starting beach. Berries keep your character fed and prevent starvation.
Craft a Primitive Workbench as soon as you have enough Wood. Place it on a flat surface. Use the workbench to craft a Wooden Club for self defense and a Stone Pickaxe to mine rocks faster. Equip your new tools from your inventory. A Stone Axe helps you chop trees more efficiently.
Catching Your First Pals
Craft Pal Spheres at your workbench using Wood, Stone, and Paldium Fragments. Find low level Pals like Cattiva or Chikipi near the starting area. Strike them with your Wooden Club to lower their health. Throw a Pal Sphere when their health is almost depleted. A lower health bar increases your capture chance.
Keep catching Pals to gain experience points quickly. Catching the first twelve of any species grants scaling experience bonuses, with the largest bonus on the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth catches. Focus on capturing Lamball, Cattiva, and Chikipi early on. They provide essential base materials like Wool and Eggs.
Always craft more Pal Spheres than you think you need. Running out of spheres during a rare Pal encounter is a common mistake.
Setting Up Your First Base
Open your Technology tree and unlock the Palbox using Technology Points. Build the Palbox in an open, flat area with plenty of space. The Palbox defines your base radius and allows you to assign Pals to work. Avoid placing it near cliffs or rough terrain, as Pals often get stuck on uneven geometry.
Assign your captured Pals to the base. Cattiva handles Handiwork, Gathering, Transport, and Mining Lv. 1 (stone only, not ore). Chikipi handles Gathering Lv. 1 and Farming Lv. 1, producing Eggs when assigned to a Ranch. Build a Campfire to cook your berries. Cooked berries provide more nutrition than raw ones. Construct Straw Pal Beds for each working Pal. A Pal without a bed loses Sanity (SAN) quickly and refuses to work.
Build a Shabby Bed for yourself to sleep through the cold nights. Nighttime brings freezing temperatures and dangerous nocturnal Pals like Daedream. Crafting a Cloth Outfit protects you from the cold and lets you explore safely after dark.
Follow the tutorial missions displayed on your screen. They guide you through the initial progression steps and reward you with valuable experience. Once you establish a stable food supply and a basic workforce, you are ready to explore further inland and challenge stronger enemies. See Pals and Catching Mechanics for more details on improving your capture rates.