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Getting Started in Palworld

By ScotUpdated

Tactical Quick Answer

Your first hours in Palworld come down to punching trees for Wood, collecting Stone and Paldium Fragments, and crafting a Primitive Workbench for a Wooden Club, Stone Pickaxe, and Stone Axe. Catch Lamball, Cattiva, and Chikipi early, since the first five of any species grant a large scaling experience bonus and those Pals supply Wool and Eggs. Then place a Palbox on flat open ground and build Straw Pal Beds, a Campfire, and a Shoddy Bed so you and your workers survive the cold nights.

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.

Trees pay out twice now. v1.0.3 doubled the Fiber you get from them, which shortens the early grind for anything gated behind it.

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 five of any species grants a massive scaling experience bonus. Focus on capturing Lamball, Cattiva, and Chikipi early on. They provide essential base materials like Wool and Eggs.

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Always craft more Pal Spheres than you think you need. Running out of spheres during a rare Pal encounter is a common mistake.

Unlocking Accessory Slots​

You start with two accessory slots, and slots 3 and 4 appear locked. Both are unlocked with Dog Coins, bought from the Medal Shop or a Wandering Merchant in a ruined church:

  • Mysterious Accessory Box, 50 Dog Coins, for slot 3.
  • Mystic Accessory Box, 300 Dog Coins, for slot 4.

Prices roughly halved at some point, so if you have budgeted 100 and 1,000 Dog Coins from an older guide, you need far less than you think.

Dog Coins are also not Mimog-only. Mimog is a real chest-mimic Pal that flees the moment you engage it, and it does drop them, scaling from 14 to 21 at low level up to 170 to 250 at Level 80. But Ancient Ruin treasure boxes give 20 to 50 each, and Incidents, expeditions, oil rigs, salvage and fishing all pay out too. One warning if you go hunting Mimog specifically: you cannot get Dog Coins by butchering it.

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 Shoddy Bed for yourself to sleep through the cold nights. Nighttime brings freezing temperatures, and crafting a Cloth Outfit protects you from the cold so you can explore after dark.

Daedream is nocturnal, but it is not something to fear: it is a Rarity 1 Pal with 70 health whose attacks cannot reduce you below 1 HP. It is worth catching instead of avoiding, since its partner skill has it fight alongside you automatically.

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.

Rebinding Your Controls​

v1.0.2 added key rebinding for two commands you could not reassign before, "Attack that enemy!" and Inventory. Both now sit in the Controls settings with everything else.

Two related fixes shipped in the same patch. The Inventory Shortcut option was missing from Controls and now displays. And assigning a player action to the middle mouse button was wrongly treated as a conflict, which stopped the setting from applying, so middle mouse bindings work now.

If you carried settings over from a version earlier than v0.7, changes unrelated to Controls could still be treated as control setting conflicts. v1.0.2 fixed that.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What should you do first in Palworld?

Punch trees for Wood, pick up loose rocks for Stone, and grab every Paldium Fragment you see, since those blue rocks make Pal Spheres. Craft a Primitive Workbench on flat ground, then make a Wooden Club, a Stone Pickaxe, and a Stone Axe.

How do you catch Pals more reliably in Palworld?

Strike the Pal with your Wooden Club first, because a lower health bar raises your capture chance. Throw the sphere once its health is almost depleted, and always craft more spheres than you think you need so a rare encounter does not slip away.

Which Pals should you catch first in Palworld?

Focus on Lamball, Cattiva, and Chikipi near the starting area. They supply base materials like Wool and Eggs, and catching the first five of any species grants a massive scaling experience bonus.

How do you unlock accessory slots 3 and 4 in Palworld?

Buy the Mysterious Accessory Box for 50 Dog Coins and the Mystic Accessory Box for 300, from the Medal Shop or a Wandering Merchant. Dog Coins come from Mimog, but also from Ancient Ruin treasure boxes, Incidents, expeditions, oil rigs, salvage and fishing. Note you cannot get them by butchering a Mimog.

Can you rebind keys in Palworld?

Yes, and v1.0.2 widened what you can rebind. It added key rebinding for "Attack that enemy!" and Inventory, made the missing Inventory Shortcut option display in Controls, and fixed middle mouse button assignments being wrongly rejected as conflicts.

How do you survive the night in Palworld?

Build a Shoddy Bed to sleep through the freezing hours and craft a Cloth Outfit for cold protection. Do not worry about Daedream: it is nocturnal but only Rarity 1 with 70 health, and its attacks cannot take you below 1 HP. Catch it instead, since it fights alongside you automatically.